“In order to become a disciple of Jesus …one must believe in him. In order to develop as his disciple one must progressively come to believe what he knew to be so. To enter his kingdom, we believe in him. To be at home in his kingdom, learning to reign with him there, we must share his beliefs.“As his apprentices, we pass through a course of training, from having faith in Christ to having the faith of Christ (Gal 2:16-20). As a proclaimer and teacher of the gospel of his kingdom, I do not cease to announce a gospel about Jesus. That remains forever foundational. But I also recognize the need and opportunity to announce the gospel of Jesus (Mark 1:1) – the gospel of the present availability to every human being of a life in The Kingdom Among Us. Without that, the gospel about Jesus remains destructively incomplete.” Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, p. 319-320
If you dropped in expecting to encounter the question listed in this week’s bulletin at Grace, this isn’t that question. Shortly after I sent out the bulletin blurb, I heard that Dallas Willard died after losing a battle with cancer. Willard wrote about spiritual formation and the kingdom of God. A few years ago, after deciding to spend some time studying the Sermon on the Mount, I came across Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy almost by accident (or divine intervention). That book led me to view the Sermon on the Mount not as a collection of laws and sayings but as a teaching on what it’s like to live in the Kingdom of God now.
Not only did that encounter become the inspiration for an adult education discussion class on the Sermon on the Mount and a later foundation for our youth group’s exploration on the sermon, it continues to nudge me into finding more ways to better orient my life toward participating in God’s work now.
According to Willard, the good news is about more than being good and sinning no more. It’s a growing process in which our whole lives – not just some “spiritual segment” we set aside from our day-to-day lives – are transformed through the Holy Spirit. Being good and sinning no more are not obligations for being Christian or even measuring sticks to see how Christian we are. We move away from sin when we align our will to God’s and participate in God’s kingdom now. They are not the quality of our lives but point to a quality in our lives that comes from God.
The call to repent “is a call for us to reconsider how we have been approaching our life, in light of the fact that we now, in the person of Jesus, have the option of living within the surrounding movements of God’s eternal purposes, of taking our life into his life.” (p. 16)
Jesus’ call is about far more than future salvation from hell. It is about joining in God’s kingdom now, participating with God now, acting now, following God’s lead now. And, in so doing, we move farther away from a hell that comes from the absence of God… a hell that is also going on now. And, hopefully, with God’s help, we can bring others along with us into God’s kingdom now and in the future.
“We get a totally different picture of salvation, faith, and forgiveness if we regard life from the kingdom of the heavens now – the eternal kind of life – as the target. The words and acts of Jesus naturally suggest that this is indeed salvation, with discipleship, forgiveness, and heaven to come as natural parts. And in this he only continues the teachings of the Old Testament. The entire biblical tradition from beginning to end is one of the intimate involvement of God in human life – or else alienation from it.” (p. 47)
“It is left unexplained how it is possible that one can rely on Christ for the next life without doing so for this one, trust him for one’s eternal destiny without trusting him for ‘the things that relate to Christian life’.” (p. 49)
Instead of an “arrangement that can get us into heaven,”
“'the gospel' is the good news of the presence and availability of life in the kingdom, now and forever, through reliance on Jesus the Anointed.” (p. 49)
“The eternal life of which Jesus speaks is not knowledge about God but an intimately interactive relationship with him.” (p. 50)
Willard wrote that if we view Jesus’ teachings – his illustrations of what it means to live in the kingdom of God – as laws to follow, then we fall into the trap of being like the Pharisees. If our focus is on keeping the laws, we soon struggle with the challenge of that task. We either take the attitude that we can do it alone (and can be righteous based on our deeds) or we find ways to bend or redefine the rules.
“The key… is to aim at the heart and its transformation… We do not aim just to control behavior, but to change the inner castle of the soul, that God may be worshiped ‘in spirit and in truth’ and right behavior cease to be a performance. We want to become the kind of person who is not dominated by anger and who truly loves and respects others… This means, of course, that the teaching cannot be captured by rules…Anger and contempt toward others is only removed by the vision and experience of God being over all, ensuring that all is well with me and that others are his treasures.”(p. 364-5)
In Jesus’ teaching, it is love that transforms us – God’s love and the love we reflect to others. We respond to others with love because God loves us.
I could go on (and probably have gone on longer than usual). Instead of asking specific questions, I ask you to reflect on these snippets from Willard. You may say “Amen!” or you may debate them. Either way is good if it moves you to wrestle with what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If you haven’t read The Divine Conspiracy, please consider doing so. It won’t be a quick read – not because it’s filled with dense theological jargon (it isn't) but because it will inspire you to think and contemplate and pray over it – but it will be worth it.
If you have read any of Willard’s books, or heard him speak, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
I have to concur with Willard; the best definition of atheism I’ve found is a willful separation from God. I guess that the opposite of that is trying to live into God’s kingdom on earth. Sounds like he’s on to something. I started to listen to a series of what added up to about 20 hours of him talking about his book on YouTube, but lost interest after about 20 minutes. I’ll bet that the book is much better, though.
ReplyDeleteHere's something from Brian McLaren's blog (http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/i-hope-youre-well-i.html). He posted an email from his UK book editor. She said:
ReplyDelete"The Divine Conspiracy was an absolute game-changer for me. When I picked it up I didn’t know if I was a Christian, or even wanted to be; by the time I put it down I was overwhelmed by the beautiful vision of the kingdom he’d given me – and more than that, he shared the tools to put being a disciple into practice."