Quiz 8 THL

adoption – God’s act of making otherwise estranged human beings part of God’s spiritual family by including them as inheritors of the riches of divine glory. This adoption takes place through our receiving in faith the work of Jesus Christ the Son (Jn 3:16), being born of the Spirit (Jn 3:5-6), and receiving the Spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15-16).

atonement – translated from the Latin reconciliatio, atonement is the doctrine of the redeeming, reconciling, and liberating work of God in Christ. It explains how this reconciliation is accomplished by Jesus Christ through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

Calvin, John (1509-1564) — sixteenth-century Swiss Reformer theologian whose Institutes of the Christian Religion constituted the first full statement of Protestant theology. Calvin was most noted for his emphasis on the grace of God through his interpretation of the sovereignty of God (which resulted in his doctrine of divine election, which he interprets as predestination), for his emphasis on the total depravity of human nature (the way in which sin corrupts the entire range of human activity, including religion), and for his substitutionary theory of the atonement; salvation is also a major theme, through which he provided a Protestant interpretation of justification and sanctification.

Christus Victor – an atonement theory that interprets Jesus’ death on the cross as Christ as the victor (champion) over the powers of sin, death,  and the Devil, the powers that enslave us, by defeating them through his victory on the cross and resurrection, thereby freeing us from the power of sin and death. (Inbody, 2005, 338).

Exodus, the – is the founding myth of the Israelites. The narrative of the Exodus describes a history of Egyptian bondage of the Israelites followed by their exodus from Egypt through a passage in the Red Sea, in pursuit of the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses.

fall, the – Adam's and Eve's free decision to disobey the command of God, as a result of which they "fell" from their state of perfection or original righteousness. As a result of the fall, human nature was corrupted, making all humans now prone to sin until redeemed; the consequences of the fall include guilt, suffering, and death (Inbody, 2005, 344).

grace – refers to divine power through the divine presence in contrast to human effort or power.

Incurvatus se – Latin phrase meaning “incurved in upon oneself,” instead of bending toward God as the object of trust.

justification – the doctrine of justification concerns God’s gracious judicial verdict in advance of the day of judgment, pronouncing guilty sinners, who turn in self-despairing trust to Jesus Christ, forgiven, acquitted of all charges, and declared morally upright in God’s sight.

Luther, Martin (1483-1546) — Sixteenth-century German Reformer who criticized the medieval Catholic church for many of its beliefs and practices and finally broke with the church. He returned to the Bible as the Word of God as the grounds, content, and norm for Christian belief and practice, and especially emphasized justification by grace through faith as the meaning of salvation and the essence of the gospel.

original sin — All human beings are born in sin, inherit the guilt of original sin, and recapitulate the original sin in their actual sins.

pride – the original or foundational sin, therefore, is pride, as we freely decide to turn to ourselves instead of God as the ground and object of our confidence. We become so incurved back in upon ourselves that we will do anything we think is necessary to establish our security. We trust our own power, our knowledge, our virtue, our self-discovery to save us. This pride expresses itself in the selfishness of individual pride and the injustices of collective pride.

redemption – redemption means to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by the payment of a price. It is a covenantal legal term closely associated with ransom, atonement, substitution, and deliverance, thus salvation. Christ’s death secures freedom from slavery to the law or to death (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23)

salvation — The process by which humans are saved from the guilt and power of sin and saved for freedom and life lived in the kingdom of God.

satisfaction – an atonement theory that interprets Jesus’ death on the cross as restoring the offended honor of God by paying the penalty for the offense and thereby fulfilling divine justice and restoring the offender to God.  (Inbody, 2005, 363).

shalom – the Hebrew word for peace, shalom (שׁלום) is derived from a root denoting wholeness or completeness, and its frame of reference throughout Jewish literature is bound up with the notion of shelemut, perfection.

sin —the condition or acts in which or through which human beings are alienated, separated, or estranged from God.

soteriology – the section of theology that deals with the doctrine of salvation (Gk. soteria)

substitution – an atonement theory according to which Jesus died on the cross as our substitute as the punishment for our sins, thereby paying the debt we owe to God, who then transfers his righteousness to us.

total depravity – The doctrine that sin affects every aspect of human existence. It does not mean humans are capable only of evil and incapable of any good, but rather that everything humans do, including their practice of religion, is corrupted by sinfulness (Inbody, 2005, 336).

The human story is a drama consisting of three acts:

1. humans are created in the image of God from the dust of the earth;

2. humans are alienated from God, nature, each other, and ourselves; and

3. humans are redeemed by Christ who restores the image of God.

Why Theology Needs the Language of Sin

Theology needs the language of sin if we are to understand the depth of the problem to which the grace of redemption is the only adequate answer.

Sin as a tragic condition

Human beings are born into the reality of sin, a tragic condition of the creative process for which persons are not guilty but in which humans nevertheless participate.

Jesus death and resurrection

      ●         Apart from the resurrection, the cross means nothing but one more human tragedy.

      ●         God's boundless love negates the vicious circle of destructiveness.

      ●         God turns human violence around and uses it against itself.

Jesus Savior

      ●         Christ transformed human nature (incarnation)

      ●         Christ defeated sin (crucifixion)

      ●         Christ defeated the power of death (resurrection)

      ●         Christ broke down the barriers between humanity and God (reconciliation)

Jesus’ death and resurrection

      ●         Apart from the resurrection, the cross means nothing but one more human tragedy.

      ●         God's boundless love negates the vicious circle of destructiveness.

      ●         God turns human violence around and uses it against itself.

Liberation theology

      ●         a late 20th Century Catholic theological movement in Latin America

      ●         stressed both heightened awareness of the “sinful” socioeconomic structures that caused social inequities and active participation in changing those structures.

Scripture

Exodus 15:1-3, NRSVCath

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
    horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my might,[a]
    and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.          

Romans 5:10 - For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

1 John 1: 7-8, 10 – If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Ephesians 2:13 – But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.