Language and Metaphor, Part 3 (Salvation and Repentance)

PART 3 – Salvation and Repentance

In Steve Chalkes’s book The Lost Message of Jesus, he tells of the autobiography of the Jewish historian, aristocrat and young roman officer Flavius Josephus.  He was on a mission to quell a revolt of Judean revolutionaries.  He tells of his meeting with the head of this band of rebels and he uses the expression “repent and believe in me.” (If you want to read more about this – do an online search for 'Josephus repent and believe in me').

In my NIV 1st Century study Bible notes (Kent Dobson) there is a fascinating note in the story of Paul bringing his jailor to faith in Acts 16.  The Roman Emperors promised “salvation” by which they meant the pax romana (the Roman peace and rule).

When Paul talks of the Armour of Faith in Ephesians 6, it is believed he was writing from prison in Rome.  Paul will have been staring at roman soldiers in full armour on a daily basis.

While many read Ephesians 6 as a call to spiritual warfare, which on one level it is, I think Paul is systematically UNDRESSING the roman soldier.  We are replacing the warlike pieces of armour with spiritual aspects – truth, righteousness, spiritual readiness, knowledge of God’s peace.  Likewise, when Paul and Jesus talk of salvation, they are borrowing concepts from the (Roman empire) culture around to show a different way.

What do these points mean to me?  The life of a Christian is being contrasted to culturally relevant concepts of the day (just as the Old Testament uses culturally relevant concepts of those days).  The metaphor and analogy, rich in meaning and application, can be completely lost when we turn them into limited literal concepts (like someone misunderstanding the metaphor: butter wouldn’t melt, which is a statement about perceived innocence, and nothing to do with dairy products). 

In today’s 21st Century, at least in our secular Western world, we don’t usually talk about salvation by living under a political regime.  We don’t tell criminals to repent and follow another way.   Only in religious circles do we really talk about “sinners” (in fact, sinful is now used as a positive word for fun in many contemporary circles).  Those are known as religious concepts.

And yet, our theology has engraved these words in what feels like tablets of stone.  Repent, bow the knee to Christ, receive salvation... from hell (not from a life on a rubbish dump outside of a community of safety and love).  I can fully comprehend why atheism is on the rise when they read concepts of God’s wrath, a need to repent to achieve salvation and the threat of an eternity in hell.  These concepts might have meant a world of difference to their original audiences, but today they speak a foreign language and alienate listeners.

Perhaps our role is that of Paul in the temple of Athens, in Acts 17 when he sees the altar to An Unknown God.  Paul made that God known to the people around, but in terms that made sense to them.   He used their own poets to connect their stories to his.  Perhaps we need to rediscover the skill of Paul and the art of Jesus, of making God’s love known in this world, with its language, its metaphor and its needs?  I would argue that some concepts of sin, repentance, salvation and hell do little to help this love be known.   Rather than reintroduce Roman Empire concepts, might our challenge be to find new metaphors for the gospel?  As John says (John 3:17) Jesus did not come to condemn this world but to save it through him.

How to we share this amazing message that God loves all creation and has defeated death, and that nothing can separate us from his love, in the 21st Century?

You can read Part 1 (Fear of God) here: https://musingmonk.blogspot.com/2020/05/language-and-metaphor-part-1-fear-of-god.html

You can read Part 2 (Hell and Gates of Hell) here: https://musingmonk.blogspot.com/2020/05/language-and-metaphor-part-2-hell-and.html