The salvation that Christ brings can be understood as the gift of life that frees men and women from all forms of bondage and restores them to their lost personhood. Emancipated by Christ, we are freed from the alienation of our own lives, the yoke of self-interest, the idolatries of our social and political order, the oppressive rule of the principalities and powers, the claims of imperial states, the follies of religion. Salvation is the acceptance of that gift of life, made possible by God's grace and made actual by our faith, in the midst of a world dominated by death. It embraces the call to discipleship, the call to show forth the reality of that new life and freedom by following in obedience to Jesus Christ. Affirming the orthodoxy of Christ and the reality of the salvation he offers includes the command to serve the world in demonstrating the power of his gospel and bring his message of life and liberation into confrontation with the forces of death and oppression of the present world-system.
The greatest heresy of the contemporary church is its lack of concern for the demands of discipleship. Obedience to Christ has been seriously compromised for what Bonhoeffer once called "cheap grace."
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.... Such grace is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap.
Salvation is no mere legal exercise, but involves the power to create a new person (Romans 5,6). It is no mere declaration of God to make us just, but is the dynamic power to make us just, to transform our lives. The Apostle James well describes the difference between living faith and empty faith. According to James, faith must issue in concrete obedience to Jesus Christ. The criteria to judge faith is the quality of a person's life, not the mere assent to doctrines and creeds. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus rebukes those who call him Lord and fail to demonstrate obedience: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I tell you" (Luke 6:46). Throughout scripture, faith is seen as a walk more than an event. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus again warns those who call upon him as Savior without accepting him as Lord over their lives.
Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'
The Sermon on the Mount is a sort of manifesto of the kingdom of God and describes what it means to follow in obedience to Jesus Christ. Verbal and intellectual assent to the life and teachings of Christ is not enough; a clear demonstration is demanded. A disciple is one who has based his or her life upon the priorities of the kingdom. Our discipleship is tested throughout our lives as we find our securities either in the things of the world, or by "abiding in Christ" (Luke 12:22-26, 21:34-36). Jesus says that his disciples must count the cost before making the choice to follow him (Luke 14:26-35). The kingdom is presented in the New Testament as the reign of Jesus Christ, and the gospel calls for a decision for the kingdom. The ethics of the kingdom are the basis on which Christ will judge those who name his name.
... 'for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they will also answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:42-46).
The call to discipleship is a call to break with the prevailing norms and values, with the established assumptions of the present order. All the authorities, institutions, political powers, historical forces, and social "givens" that demand an absolute kind of allegiance and value have become idolatrous for intruding between God and God's people and between people themselves. If we are Christ's disciples, we have been freed from the rule of these rebellious principalities and powers. This means that we are enabled--indeed, are commanded--to exercise and demonstrate our freedom in relation to them. That demonstration in the world, by his disciples, is nothing less than a declaration of the victory of Christ. Those that suffer under the rule of these powers must be able to hear and see that their dominion and absolute control has been broken.
However, this declaration of the victory of Christ cannot be demonstrated merely by the claim of being free inwardly or "spiritually." It is essential that the meaning of Christ's victory be shown in concrete and visible ways. The world must see some signs and indications, some manifestations of what has occurred in the life of the believer. The disciple is to be a sign in history of what God has accomplished through Jesus Christ. That is the nature of our call. This is why we cannot be content with mere theoretical understandings or an attitude of inner freedom in relationship to the rule of the defeated powers. The call to discipleship means to come out, in practice, from service and submission to the powers, to visibly break free of our former attachments. Karl Barth brings this point to us with great clarity:
In relation to the world he (the disciple of Christ) cannot, then, restrict himself to an attempted "inner emigration" in which he will not be offensive, or at least suspicious, or at the very least conspicuous, to those who still worship their gods .... But they will not take notice, nor will they be disturbed or annoyed by his existence, if he does not come out into the open as the one he is, doing what they do not do, and not doing what they do; if in his attitude to the given factors and orders and historical forces which they regard as absolute there is no difference between him and them, but only uniformity and conformity. This may have for him the advantage that he will not be disturbed or assailed by them, but can live by his faith, and find joy and even secret pride in what may perhaps be a very radical opposition in inward attitude. The only trouble is that he will be quite useless as a witness to the kingdom of God.
In other words, one cannot avoid giving offense without evading the requirements of obedience and witness to the kingdom. Our obedience necessarily consists in a public and visible non-conformity that embraces specific forms and acts and attitudes that demonstrate opposition to the powers of the world and thereby demonstrate the victory of Christ over them. The true disciple seeks ways to translate his or her conversion into actual forms of living.
Scripture presents a sharp contrast between "this world" dominated by the principalities and powers, and the inbreaking of the kingdom of God into human history, which breaks the uncontested rule and dominion of the powers. The kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ, is both a coming reality, eagerly anticipated, and a reality already present and in the making here and now. Jesus ushered in this new order by conquering death and bringing new life. The presence of this new order among us and the promise of its coming consummation provide the basis of hope and value for the Christian. Although not yet complete, the kingdom is a present reality, and the Christian is to be that "new creation" living in the light of the new reality that he or she has experienced. Christians, then, are people of a new order and are not to walk in darkness but rather to expose it and walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:11). They are not to be conformed to the old order but are to be a transformed people--a people living by different values and standards (Romans 12:2).
The most visible point of contact between the Christian faith and the world is the lifestyle demonstrated by those of the Christian community. Our problem is that there is no longer any distinctively Christian style of life among those who profess belief in the gospel. Christians who have proclaimed their faithfulness to revelation and to sound doctrine have failed to make that faithfulness a living reality in daily life by creating a new style of life that is consistent with what is believed. Bridging the gap between doctrinal profession and ethical performance must become a central priority of the Christian community. We can only demonstrate the power of our theology by the style of life it creates in us.
It is certainly wrong to say that Christians have no style of life. They do. However, the style of life most prevalent in the Christian churches is that which has been imposed by and accepted from the majority culture. In other words, their style of life is most determined by their social and cultural conditions; their class, their race, their nation, their environment. It is not usually their spiritual condition that is most determinative of their lifestyle but rather the political and economic facts of their lives. Their lives become an evidence for the view, held by many, that the gospel does not transform lives but merely is "tacked on" to provide religious justification and a protected sense of self-righteousness. The question of style of life is the point where the truth and transforming power of the gospel will be most severely tested in the world.
This means that everything about our lives, down to the smallest detail, must be placed in the light of faith. The gospel gives the Christian a different agenda than that of the majority culture. It provides a different set of priorities than those that govern the political economy. It requires a reversal of accepted definitions and offers an alternative mode of power. It makes possible a fundamental break with the prevailing idolatries and enables a process of redirection to begin.
The Christian community must recognize its compromise with a fallen order and come to understand that no one can truly know Christ unless they follow him in their daily lives.
Barth, again, concludes our discussion.
We will always know that it is His voice which calls us from the fact that in what is demanded of us we shall always have to do with a break with the great self-evident factors of our environment, and therefore of the world as a whole, which will have to be made in fact, both outwardly and inwardly, along the lines indicated in the New Testament, corresponding to, and attesting, the irruption of the kingdom of God. (Romans 12:1, 2) .... There can certainly be no question of a deviation from these main lines.... And there will always be reason for distrust against ourselves if we think that what may be required of us along these lines will be something less, or easier, or more comfortable than what was require of them. Grace ... cannot have become more cheap today; it may well have become even more costly.
Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.
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