Why the Route to Salvation Matters

Systematic Theology II Exam III Paper – November 25, 2013

Ineda P. Adesanya

SFTS, ST-1085, 13/FA Professor Gregory A. Love of 11

Why the Route to Salvation Matters

Introduction/Thesis

During a course discussion on the theological model of salvation through

restoration, a theology student inquires, “Why does the route matter?” This particular

discussion was centered on the theory that all of humanity had been saved by the

incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By this act of saving grace, God had

already determined the salvific end for humanity. The question remaining was what then is

our role in salvation? The professor explained that though the end had been determined,

our role was to determine the route to the end. The route could be filled with love,

compassion and justice or it could be filled with violence, pain and suffering. Using Love,

Violence, and the Cross as a primary source, I will explore the role of humanity in salvation

from various theological perspectives and offer discourse on why it matters.

Senior homiletics professor and veteran urban, inner-city pastor, Dr. J. Alfred Smith

Sr. often preaches and teaches preachers to be concerned less with the “sweet by and by”

and to focus our ministries more on the “nasty now and now.” Though many

interpretations and hermeneutical theories have evolved over time, the Bible speaks

broadly and directly to the issue of salvation, that which we hope to represent the “sweet

by and by.” The Old Testament is about God’s relationship with the world set primarily in

Ancient Israel. It is largely reflective of a people in need of hope and salvation. The

Israelites were regularly on the move seeking liberation from bondage and oppression.

There was also the removal of the people of Judah from their land and into exile. Modern

day theologians suggest that “such diverse experiences offer a template by means of which


Ineda P. Adesanya


the people of God today, also in diverse settings, can relate to the God they worship.”1 The

promise of salvation offered an assurance of hope in the “nasty now and now.” God’s

salvation in Exodus does not focus on saving Israel from sin but rather is experienced as

liberation of a people from oppression.

In the New Testament, the promise of salvation and eternal life is realized in the

death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Love offers that “Jesus does not play the role of

innocent substitute who ‘pays the price’ of punishment and death for our sins. Rather, he

acts as our representative, going before us toward new life and the new community.”2

Verses four through ten in chapter two of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians represent my

understanding:

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive

with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you

have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in

the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might

show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in

Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this

not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can

boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good

works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (NIV)

1 Birch, Bruce C., Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Frethem, and David L. Petersen. A Theological

Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999, 24. 2 Love, Gregory Anderson. Love, Violence, and the Cross: How the Nonviolent God Saves us through the

Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 116.


Ineda P. Adesanya


In either scenario, our role in the route to salvation, the nasty now and now,

matters.

Background

Salvation is mysterious. “God bringing the world to its intended wholeness, a

liberating and fulfilling act of which atonement is a part.”3 In his book, No Salvation Outside

the Poor, liberation theologian Jon Sobrino also discusses the dichotomy of salvation as a

positive state of affairs vs. salvation as a process by which that state is reached. Daniel

Migliore shares broad definition of salvation beginning with its Greek term “soteria,” which

means rescue from mortal peril, deliverance from sin and death, and the gift of fulfilled life

in communion with God. He says generally that according to biblical witness, salvation

comes from God’s mighty acts and above all from the work of Jesus Christ the Savior. With

regards to how Jesus accomplishes human salvation, Migliore offers that the doctrine of the

three-fold office of Christ and the several theories of atonement. He notes the significance

that the New Testament speaks of salvation in past, present and future tenses, and agrees

with Paul Tillich that “salvation has as many connotations as there are negatives from

which salvation is needed.”4

Two such connotations are outlined by Gregory Love. First, God saves humanity and

creation by rescuing them from forces which threaten their very existence. These forces

can be internal or external, individual or corporate and result in violence, suffering, tragedy

3 Love, Gregory Anderson. Love, Violence, and the Cross: How the Nonviolent God Saves us through the

Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 269. 4 Migliore, Daniel L. Theology, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian. Second. Grand

Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004, 423.


Ineda P. Adesanya


and death. A second connotation of salvation is that “God saves humanity and creation by

bringing them to their divinely-purposed end, the end of the new community which fulfills

their hearts’ longings.”5 For the purposes of this paper, Love’s further assertion that a

Trinitarian view of the divine action that incorporates the roles of the Holy Spirit and

humans who respond to Jesus and the Spirit is key in defining salvation.

Salvific Theories and Theologies

There are several theories of salvation. Penal Substitution, according to Love is the

atonement theory most prevalent in North American popular Christian piety. It purports

the idea that the violence Jesus suffered on the cross was in substitute for the punishment

we deserved and served as atonement for our sins. Love explains that in this theory, “God

brings about redemption through violent means, and the torture and death of Jesus is seen

straightforwardly as the will of God.”6 In contrast to this theory, Marcus Borg and other

theologians argue that God saves through the power of love. These theologians fervently

reject the idea of God as abusive, setting example for human uses of violence. In this theory,

salvation is found in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and in the resurrection, the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit and in the Church. Of primary interest in this paper is the

theology and theory offered by Gregory Love of a nonviolent God. Love presents five

constructive models that embody this theory. He maintains the idea that reconciliation

occurs in the work of Jesus Christ, but does not ignore the role that the cross plays in that

divine work. In these five models, Love presents not only the role of the cross, but also the


Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 270. 6 Ibid., x.


Ineda P. Adesanya


individual roles of God the Creator, God the Son (Jesus Christ), God the Holy Spirit, and our

role in the nonviolent, saving act of God through the cross of Christ. This paper seeks to

answer or at least address why our role, the role of humanity, matters in this theory of

salvation.

Humanity’s Role in Salvation

Love’s five models of salvation effected by a nonviolent God include the attributes of

emancipation, hospitality, divine justice, reorientation and restoration. “Each of the

theories about salvation attempts to convey a portion of the problem and of the

mysterious, comprehensively saving act, which is why multiple models are needed to

portray it fully.”7 This section is not intended to compare and contrast the five models or to

select one as best or better. Rather, this section is intended to highlight the thesis that

notwithstanding any particular theory or theological perspective, we have a role to play

along the route to salvation and it matters. Following is a summary of Love’s five models.

Through emancipation, Jesus represents the power of life over death. In this model

salvation can be gained without spiritual or behavioral transformation. It comes to guilty,

broken, lost sinners via the triune God as a gift of grace. Still, there is a clear human role in

salvation to participate in spreading the scope of the new creation actualized in Christ deep

within our own hearts and out into the social structures of the world.8 The role of humanity

rests in the choices we make. The choices we make either assist or resist Christ’s victory in

the world. It is our faith or lack thereof that drives our choices. Love explains that, “while


Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 269. 8 Ibid., 161.


Ineda P. Adesanya


the salvation of the world does not depend upon our actions, the route upon which

salvation spreads, and the easing or deepening of sufferings upon humans, fellow creatures

and even upon God, may well depend upon the choices we make.”9 Our role is to allow

presence of God, the Holy Spirit, to act through us to accomplish good over evil.

Love describes two sets of Christian symbols that convey this relation between

divine and human power over evil. The first is ascension and Pentecost that represent the

means for humanity’s access to divine power, as mediated by the triune persons. The

second set involves baptism and Eucharist, each representing a necessary newness. In

baptism we choose good over evil and rise to new life through God’s indwelling Spirit to

activate our capacities and guide our freedom. “In the Eucharistic meal and fellowship, we

gain the generative power found in the new creation, a community of equality, reciprocity,

and mutual empowerment.”10 In this model, our role in salvation is to denounce evil and

unjust order by allowing God to move and work through us.

In the hospitality model, Jesus is the hospitable One. “Jesus saves us by being

hospitable, continuously open to God, his neighbors, and God’s inbreaking reign of peace

and justice.”11 In this model, victims of evil not only gain reconciliation with their enemies

but gain knowledge of God’s love and advocacy for them. Their lives are restored, opening

for them a future different from the painful past.12 Love explains that the triune God sent

the Son into the world to transform it and that this act, though a vicarious sacrifice, is not a

substitute for our own. Through his sacrifice, Jesus acts as our representative, providing


Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 161. 10

Ibid., 162. 11

Ibid., 169. 12

Ibid., 173.


Ineda P. Adesanya


“the basis and ground upon which we then can and must act.”13 In this model, there is a

necessary twofold sacrifice on our part of truth-telling and movement toward an

alternative way of relating with others.

With the help of Jesus and the Spirit dwelling within us, we are called to offer

ourselves in self-giving. Love offers the following examples of how this plays out in our

lives: we repair the relations of trust we have broken; we tell God the truth and take

concrete steps to live out Christ’s new way of hospitality; we participate in Christ’s twofold

sacrifice to God; we put aside our false selves, lies, self-justifications and the blaming of

others; we commit ourselves to living with integrity; and we risk entering the space of

betrayal we have imposed upon others to confess, lament and concretely commit to a new

and different relationship.

In divine justice, Jesus is the Just One. In this model, Love states that salvation is the

restoration of order, and thus of beauty and fecundity. “It is the establishment of shalom, of

peace that entails moral righteousness and justice in human relations and the humane

treatment of the other creatures.”14 Love argues that the significance of Jesus’ role in

salvation within this model should be shifted from the value of a death given freely to the

gift of his fidelity throughout his lifetime and even in his death. Our role in this model is to

be like Christ by accepting baptism. By accepting baptism, we choose to die to old ways of

injustice, violence, hate and greed that lead to eternal doom, and to be re-born into a new

life of justice, freedom and love. In baptism, we also accept the power of God through the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In Love’s words, “baptism initiates our presence in the sphere

13

Love, Gregory Anderson. Love, Violence, and the Cross: How the Nonviolent God Saves us through the Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 191.

14 Ibid., 201.


Ineda P. Adesanya


of power by which the divine Spirit spreads the new community based upon justice, the law

of mercy, and knowledge of God. On the basis of the forgiveness of sins and the

establishment of God’s reign of righteousness, we live out of this new type of community in

which everyone shares an identity rooted in Jesus, the rejected by just one. The Lord is

known by his justice (Psalm 9:16a). Justice amends, corrects, compensates. Justice asserts

legitimacy, equity, honesty, rightfulness and reparation. In this model, our role in salvation

is to effectuate these assertions, with the help of the Holy Spirit, in the nasty now and now.

Through the reorientation model of salvation, Jesus is the power of reorienting

grace. This model holds that grace has the power to transform persons and communities

who are caught in a state of delusion, living with a rule of life, lifestyle or belief that is

actually false. This state of delusion thrives in a world of ungrace. There is, however, a

world of grace that is superior to the world of ungrace. Love explains that our salvation

here depends on our yielding to an invitation to the world of grace and accepting the

corresponding transformation of our lives. Similar to our role in the model of divine justice,

we must first willingly receive grace by being baptized. I agree with Love that this is our

most difficult act, as again, we are in the process allowing ourselves (that part that thrives

in a world of ungrace) to die and be made new. We are made new in the second role, which

is “to allow Christ and the Holy Spirit, who both indwell us, to teach us how to live in the

new world of grace, to resist the forces of ungrace and instead reshape the world according

to grace.”15 We must admit to God, ourselves and others that we are wrong. The

significance in this model is our recognition of the ungrace within which we have been

15



Ineda P. Adesanya


participating and our willingness to be nonviolently, often unexpectedly yet lucidly turned

around in a new direction.

In the restoration model, Jesus is the securer of meaning. The problem for humanity

in this model is the perception of meaning, and doubts about whether life as a whole has

any meaning. “Salvation comes as the restoration of meaning, and its placement upon a

foundation that will last.”16 Salvation is manifest in the hope of a meaningful life gained by

restoration of a personal and social worldview that fits within the larger framework of

God’s purposes for human life. Love explains this as “the human participation in the free

movement of grace and gratitude that flows between God and humanity, humans with one

another, and human beings with other creatures.”17 We must be willing to be used by God

to bring in salvation, God’s reign of justice and peace. Though our efforts may seem risky,

uncertain and seemingly hopeless we must persist because as Frank Artress, pediatric

doctor to Tanzanian school children says, “even the littlest bits are better than no bits at

all.”18

Conclusion

The route to salvation could be filled with love, compassion and justice or it could be

filled with violence, pain and suffering. In the Old Testament, there were consequences for

those who served the purposes of evil and chaos in opposition to God’s sovereignty.

Liberation of oppressed Israel and restoration of disrupted creation is not achieved

16


17 Ibid., 245f.

18 Ibid., 252.


Ineda P. Adesanya


without human cost to Pharaoh and to his people.19 Dr. Gregory Love poignantly affirms

that “the world’s purposes are fulfilled by God, and if the specific texture and route of

fulfillment is not done through him in one way, then it will be done through some other

way.”20 In each of the five models summarized above, the Church is enabled to speak

directly to the meaning of the cross, and we are able to relate that meaning to our specific

situations of distress, accept the redemption God has accomplished in Christ, and give

thanks for it.21

Even in its state of mystery and from whichever angle we choose to approach

salvation, it holds a role for humanity. Whether we believe that salvation is ever evolving as

the Kingdom of God here on earth or that our salvation will manifest when Jesus comes and

carries us up through the clouds to heaven, the choices we make in the nasty now and now

matter. Even in the restoration model, where God has already accomplished redemption of

humanity in Christ, we maintain the free will to determine how we get there. Love argues

that in this model, our actions still matter because “they expand the portions of earthly life

that conform to God’s reign, bringing healing to the world and resistance to kyriarchal

forces,”22 those inequitable, oppressive and inherently deceptive forces of the nasty now

and now. One thing, that can surely be agreed upon is that salvation brings/represents life

eternal. We must do our part then to block evil, corruption and death.

19

Birch, Bruce C., Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Frethem, and David L. Petersen. A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999, 116.


Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010, 253. 21

Love, 255. This statement is based on a similar finding by Love in which the five models enable the Church t speak about atonement and the cross, and relate them to particular situations of human distress.

22 Ibid., 130.


Ineda P. Adesanya


Bibliography Birch, Bruce C., Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Frethem, and David L. Petersen. A Theological

Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.

Love, Gregory Anderson. Love, Violence, and the Cross: How the Nonviolent God Saves us through the Cross of Christ. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010.

Migliore, Daniel L. Theology, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian. Second. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.

Sobrino, Jon. No Salvation Outside the Poor: Prophetic-Utopian Essays. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2008.

Why the Route to Salvation Matters

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