So I have admitted
defeat on this one – I find Tom Wright's prose is too much for me.
He provides an argument that is so rich that it is hard to keep the
ideas all in play at the same time in order to follow it.
I skipped to the end
and the final 2 paragraphs provide a summary:
“The cross itself,
in short, stands at the center of the Christian message, the
Christian story, and the Christian life and mission. It has lost none
of its revolutionary and transformative power down through the
centuries. The cross is where the great story of God and creation,
focused on the strange story of God and Israel and then focused still
more sharply on the personal story of God and Jesus, came into
terrible but life-giving clarity. The crucifixion of Jesus of
Nazareth was a one-off event, the one on behalf of the many, the one
moment in history on behalf
of all others through which sins would be forgiven, the powers robbed
of their power, and humans redeemed to take their place as
worshippers and stewards, celebrating the powerful victory of God in
his Messiah and so gaining the Spirit's power to make his kingdom
effective in the world.
The
message for us, then, is plain. Forget the “works contract,” with
its angry, legalistic divinity. Forget the false either/or that plays
different “theories of atonement” against one another. Embrace
the “covenant of vocation” or, rather, be embraced by it as the
Creator calls you to a genuine humanness at last, calls and equips
you to bear and reflect his image. Celebrate the revolution that
happened once for all when the power of love overcame the love of
power. And, in the power of that same love, join in the revolution
here and now.”
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