So Great a Salvation. Группа авторов
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the next cognate, “redemption” (apolytrōsis; Rom. 3:24): redemption from what? Romans 3:24 is silent, but it does mention redemption as God’s gift. Other scriptural verses mention redemption from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9); the power of sin (Eph. 1:7, 14; Romans 5) and the power of death (Rom. 6:23); the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13); and the devil (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). It is interesting that in the Old Testament God is called the gō’ēl (Redeemer; Ps. 19:14), but never in the New Testament is God or Jesus called Redeemer (lytrōtēs). The redemption metaphor comes from the context of the slave market (such as Exod. 21:8, Egyptian slavery; Isa. 51:11; 59:20, Babylonian captivity; Rom. 6:13–14, first-century Roman society). But the point is always about the new status of freedom. Thus the Bible speaks of the redeemed people as God’s own possession (Exod. 15:16; 1 Peter 2:9), ransomed with a price (Isa. 35:10; 51:11; 62:12; 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; 1 Tim. 2:6). Elaine Goh’s chapter seems to use this category well as she examines how Ecclesiastes can be used to speak to the redemption needed for Chinese who possess the mentality of fearing death, overconfidence, and workaholic tendencies.
Another favorite biblical word for salvation is “reconciliation” (katallagē; Rom. 5:10–11; 2 Cor. 5:18–20), translated by William Tyndale as “atonement” and thus focusing on overcoming the enmity between God and humanity (at-one-ment) rather than the broken relationships among people. Paul here is probably not using the Old Testament or Hebraic idea of atonement sacrifice (Leviticus 16), but the Greco-Roman background of transforming hostility into friendship or love. Such a relational and interpersonal connotation appeals to Majority World Christians, such as Sung Wook Chung, who examines the painful tension between North Korea and South Korea.
The last two terms are controversial, depending on the interpretive frame one uses to understand the concepts. “Being set right” (dikaioumenoi; Rom. 3:24) is often used to mean “vindicating” in the context of justice where God stands with the weak or the oppressed, thus justifying them (Ps. 82:1–3). But the second meaning is also used in the Bible: reversing the lowly from shame to honor (Ps. 31:1–2);[6] thus the shameful cross in the New Testament sets right the distorted value system of glory (aesthetic) and obscenity (shame). Unfortunately, the second meaning has often been ignored, especially in legal Western societies, and is picked up by Elaine Goh, Ray Aldred, and Emily Choge Kerama in the Asian, Native North American, and African chapters, respectively, in this volume.
The most controversial cognate word for salvation is hilastērion, translated as either “propitiation” or “expiation.” “Propitiation” refers to the salvific work of Christ in placating divine justice or appeasing the wrath of God (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:5; cf. hilasmos, 1 John 2:2; 4:10).[7] My preferred translation, “expiation,” traces its theological roots to the Hebrew word kappōret, that is, “mercy seat” on the ark of covenant in the Holy of Holies,[8] thus indicating that “God loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation [hilasmos] of our sins” (1 John 4:10). Jesus Christ is “the expiation [hilasmos] not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Gerald O’Collins writes of hilastērion in this regard as “wiping away”:
The LXX never introduces this verb or related words (e.g. exilaskomai) to speak of sinners appeasing or rendering favorable an offended God [propitiation]. It is rather God who expiates, purifies, and deals with sin (e.g., Ezek. 16:13). Likewise in the NT it is God who is the agent or subject of expiator activity, lovingly providing the “hilastērion,” his only Son, who is the means and the place for wiping away the stain of sin.[9]
Soteriology is not simply about atoning sacrifice but also about offering love. Salvation is not simply “saved from,” but also “saved to”; not simply delivery from sin and death, but also restoration to fullness of life; not simply suffering servant but also reigning king; not simply death and crucifixion, but also resurrection and consummation; not simply forgiveness, but also regeneration; not simply wrong and sin overcome, but also love and life abundant.[10] In short, salvation in the biblical understanding means God’s creative deliverance of people in their situation of need from that which threatens wholeness of life, impedes the order of creation, and disrupts God’s redemption in the world.
God so loves the Majority World. God’s expansive love is expressed indigenously in global contexts through the back-roads and alleys of African villages, the new trails of Latin American valleys, and the highways of Asian cities. From the perspective of “saved from” to “saved to,” here the language of the contributors to this volume varies, reflecting the myriad soteriological expressions in the New Testament: from sin to God (Acts 3:19), from death to life (1 John 3:14), from bondage to freedom (Philemon), from brokenness to wholeness (2 Cor. 12:9), from enmity to reconciliation (Eph. 2:16), from evil to goodness (Rom. 12:21), from despair to hope (1 Thessalonians). Just as these metaphors are multiple throughout Scripture, then, so also are the interpretations of soteriology in church history and even today: from guilt to judicial justification (John Calvin), from chaos to order (Gregory of Nazianzus), and from obscenity to beauty (Hans Urs von Balthasar).
Sin and Salvation: Toward a Soteriology of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
Soteriology presupposes hamartiology (the doctrine of sin), but “sin” (or the “power of sin”) is understood as all that impedes God’s creation of superabundant life.[11] Yet salvation is not simply sin being broken, evil overcome, wrong forgiven. Salvation is also the broken image of God restored, God’s presence and love and justice fully realized, and paradise regained—encompassing the past and present to the end of time (eschaton). The problems of humanity and the world we live in are real: the morbid condition of the brokenness in human beings and in their well-being with their Creator and creation, the prevalence of sin that binds and curses life in the cosmos, and the sting of death that obliterates the shalom of earthly flourishing.
There are three hermeneutical frames of sin and salvation, which should be understood as complementing rather than competing with each other since the semantic domain of all three categories is found in the Bible. The first perspective is that of goodness and evil in a moral sense. This view holds that a moral universe of goodness is in essence the psychological health of human beings or the well-being of humanity. The perversion of the order of the moral universe means a departure from its norm; thus, sin is sickness of the soul (Ps. 32:3–5). Salvation then involves finding a cure, a therapy, often resorting to “medications” for healing. Examples are the ritual laws (Leviticus 13–15) on what is clean and what is unclean, and illnesses such as leprosy (Matt. 8:2–4) and blindness (John 9), which are regarded as sins.
The second frame assumes a truthful and legal universe, for God is the Lawgiver, and the laws are divine imperatives for human beings to maintain the principles of all things. Sin is missing the mark (hamartia), doing wrong (ḥāṭā’ or ‘āwâ), or rebelling (pāša‘) against the rules. Sin is law-breaking (1 John 3:4), the result of which is guilt (Psalm 32), and thus salvation is “forensic” justification. The Reformers especially favored this juridical understanding of sin (penal) and judicial atonement.
The third view assumes a holy and beautiful universe, one that is covered with its Creator’s presence and glory. God as the beautiful wisdom (Proverbs 8) is the true nature of creation’s web of relationship and its worthiness. Sin means one has “fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and salvation is to have God’s image restored in humanity (2 Cor. 3:18) and being clothed in glory (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27).
In sum, salvation is that which is good, true, and beautiful. As Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this age [aiōn], but be transformed [a major aspect of salvation] by the renewing of your minds [noos], so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good [virtuous/morality] and acceptable [delightful/beauty] and perfect [whole/truth]” (Rom. 12:2). The interplay of goodness, truth, and beauty can suggest an understanding of salvation as a process in which the aesthetic brings truth and good to our authentic selves and that of the cosmos. Jesus is the image of God (cf. Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3), and he offers and epitomizes the wholeness and worthiness of humanity as their salvation. Indeed, “the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all human beings” (Titus 2:11).
Soteriology