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Neo-Calvinism 6: Creation, Fall, REDEMPTION

by Derek Melleby

Redemption
"I don't listen to Christian radio. I'm not sure there is such a thing as 'Christian music,'" was my response to the question, "What is your favorite Christian band?"

You would have thought that I denied the virgin birth! This did not sit well with my audience of about 30 teenagers and a few parents. Not sure what to do next, I pointed to an empty chair. I asked, "Is this a Christian chair? What would make it a Christian chair?" The students were perplexed, the parents were confused, and I glanced at the clock. Time was up. Sunday school was over. We'll pretend this never happened!

I'm not sure if my example of the chair was a good one. I'm not the best at thinking on my feet. But one thing is clear: when you begin to talk about redemption from a Neo-Calvinist perspective, the line between "sacred" and "secular" is blurred. No, better, the supposed line is removed. Cornelius Plantinga Jr. explains in his book Engaging God's World :

[T]here is something characteristic about the pattern of emphases within a Reformed outlook on life and learning — including, for example, an emphasis on the immensity of creation, fall, and redemption. All has been created good, including the full range of human cultures that emerge when humans act according to God's design. But all has been corrupted by evil, including not only culture but also the natural world. So all — the whole cosmos — must be redeemed by Jesus Christ the Lord. What follows is that all of life is sacred: the whole of it stands under the blessing, judgment, and redeeming purposes of God.

In Creation Regained, Al Wolters expands on this:

No invisible dividing line within creation limits the applicability of such basic biblical concepts as reconciliation, redemption, salvation, sanctification, renewal, the kingdom of God, and so on. In the name of Christ, distortion must be opposed everywhere — in the kitchen and the bedroom, in city councils and corporate boardrooms, on the stage and on the air, in the classroom and in the workshop. Everywhere creation calls for the honoring of God's standards. Everywhere humanity's sinfulness disrupts and deforms. Everywhere Christ's victory is pregnant with the defeat of sin and recovery of creation.

Christmas is two days away. Many of us will be attending church services, hearing Christmas music, and, perhaps, reading the Christmas story. We may run the risk of thinking that believing in the Christmas story is only a private matter, not a public truth. For some, Jesus has become a personal savior, concerned only with one's "spiritual life." But who is this "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world "?

The scope of redemption is as great as that of the fall; it embraces creation as a whole. The root cause of all evil on earth — namely, the sin of the human race — is atoned for and overcome in Christ's death and resurrection, and therefore in principle his redemption also removes all of sin's effects. Wherever there is disruption of the good creation — and that disruption…is unrestricted in its scope — there Christ provides the possibility of restoration (Wolters, Creation Regained, 59).

And what does it mean that Jesus is the savior of the world?

Theologians have sometimes spoken of salvation as "re-creation" — not to imply that God scraps his earlier creation and in Jesus makes a new one, but rather to suggest that he hangs on to his fallen original creation and salvages it. He refuses to abandon the work of his hands — in fact he sacrifices his own Son to save his original project. Humankind, which has botched its original mandate and the whole creation along with it, is given another chance in Christ; we are reinstated as God's managers on earth. The original good creation is to be restored (Wolters, Creation Regained, 58).

And all of this comes through the one baby in Bethlehem?

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right. (The Apostle Paul, Romans 5:18-19, The Message )

And what about Santa, the reindeer, and the elves?

Stop asking questions! (Derek Melleby, the author)

© Coalition for Christian Outreach 2005

Part 1: What is in a Name?

Part 2: Introductory Reading

Part 3: The Holy Bible

Part 4: CREATION, Fall, Redemption

Part 5: Creation, FALL, Redemption

Part 6: Creation, Fall, REDEMPTION

Part 7: Structure and Direction

Part 8: Sphere Sovereignty

Part 9: Final Remarks and Seerveld's Summary

Ministry Transformation- The Emerging Church  Personal Transformation- Spiritual Formation  World Transformation- Social Action

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