Beyond the Gates of Splendor

Last evening Deb and I watched Beyond the Gates of Splendor. Named after Elisabeth Elliot's book, Through Gates of Splendor, wife of Jim Elliot, one of the missionaries who risked his life that others in Jesus might find true life.

In 1956, five American missionaries to Ecuador were brutally speared to death by a savage Stone Age tribe of Indians known as the Aucas. Two years later, the wife and sister of two of the murdered missionaries walked into the jungle to live with the same people who had murdered the men they loved. Today, the Aucas (now known as the Waodani) are a changed people. This is their story.

from the website of the movie

This is a wonderful film, largely a documentary talking to the actual people with shots of scenes of that time, including those from the camera which was discovered when the five bodies of the men were found. It is indeed a most powerful testimony of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform individuals, societies and systems of evil.

It is I think wisely rated "PG-13 for some violent content and thematic elements."

I remember one of the killers of the missionaries coming to RBC Ministries for a very special chapel with Steve Saint, son of one of those who perished, Nate Saint. What a wonderful chapel. The grandchildren of the fallen missionaries call him Grandpa; there is a bond of genuine love that shows clearly the power of the gospel of Christ to save sinners and bring true reconciliation to humans in their/our relationship to God and to each other.

Have you seen the film, or read the book?

the cross

Here is a good example of Paul’s ministry to the intellectual elite of his day. And note these words of Paul:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written:

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

It’s the cross, which of course is shorthand for Jesus’ death and resurrection- God's work in Christ, to which we Christians go and from which we live, and on which is our hope for the world. Nothing more and nothing less.

salvation's focus

Tom Wright in his latest book now coming to me in the mail points out how our theological thinking, even among the Reformed* who profess a God-centered theology, is man-centered, orbiting around man. As important as humanity is, and humanity is at the pinnacle of God's creation, God is at the center, and we along with all else, revolve around God.

That in itself is not the radical point Wright is trying to make in what little I've read of that book so far. Rather, when it's all about our/my justification, our/my salvation, our/my sanctification, our/my home someday in "heaven", then we've lost our way. Such a view is a misreading and often truncated view of Scripture, might be the thought here. God's salvation in Christ is much bigger, and our lives and sense of mission should reflect that.

God's salvation in Christ is for the entire creation in the new creation which begins now through God's saving of people and through those people to others and to God's world. Not to lose sight of our salvation because that's important and essential. But not to make that the end all, because through it God sets us in motion by the Spirit in his new creation work, both in sharing the gospel and in fulfilling his creation mandate for humanity.

This for me makes my tuning in to keep up on something of the news important. While never letting go of the primacy of the gospel, but also realizing its scope is bigger than we think. That it's not only about me and God, (or even us and God). To think it is, suggests Wright, is to hear the serpent's whisper, and not God's voice.**

What do you think on this? What thought would you like to share?

*To be fair, the Reformed do emphasize God's glory, but in their exegesis and telling of Scripture, it's all too often about how that relates to man's salvation, so that the glory given to God is in reference to that and then fails to see the bigger picture that Scripture itself presents, I believe.

**To be fair to Tom Wright, I think his reference to the serpent's whisper is the thinking that God's salvation is all about me, so that it's what I can get out of it, the serpent's pitch in the garden in its lie to Eve.

need is needed

We need a sense of need. Jesus came, not as the means by which we save ourselves, but as our Savior. But we need to have the sense and conviction that we need salvation, that for some reason we need to be saved.

We see faith in Jesus come alive at the point of need in a man who had leprosy. And Jesus pointed out that he did not come to save those who were righteous, but sinners. The self-righteous have no sense that they need salvation, but those who know they are sinners and condemned, as well as not able to change themselves, are in a position to see Jesus as the one who can save them.

Not only we ourselves, but this world is in need of a savior. Jesus and the kingdom of God coming in him, is the answer, which begins now through us, his people. We need to help others see their need of Jesus, and we need to understand that Jesus as Savior extends to the needs of all the world, in every system and domain. So that what we do now, in his name, matters. And someday will be taken up into the completion of the new creation, in Jesus.

I'm glad for a sense of need in my own life, and more glad that Jesus meets that need. Every day, as salvation in Scripture is not only glorious past tense, but present. As well as future. We have much to look forward to, in Jesus, which can help us move forward in anticipation of that great, final salvation in him!

What would you like to add to this?

quote for the week: John R. W. Stott on the centrality of the cross

There is then, it is safe to say, no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus.

John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 68 from Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement, 61

God's judgment

Our culture does not readily receive or appreciate God's judgment as given to us in Scripture. In other places on earth where the wicked are running rampant, the message of judgment is welcomed, and rightfully so. Just finished the last book of the Bible, Revelation. It resounds with final judgments on the earth, before the consummation when in Jesus heaven and earth become one in the new creation.

There is no need to see God's coming judgment as threatening. It is meant to be not only destructive of evil, but constructive by grace in all places God's grace in Jesus are touching. So when Jesus returns we can welcome that, knowing that in our case the judgment will be constructive and for our good. This is the question for us all, "Are we living in the grace of God available to us in Jesus?"

What is your first response when you hear or see the words, "God's judgment"? What does it conjure up in your mind? Is it unsettling, settling, or maybe some of both? For me it's some of both. Though Jesus took my judgment by his death on the cross, so that I need not fear eternal condemnation for my sins, yet I still will be judged by a loving yet devastatingly piercing, God of light. The fear of the Lord doesn't just begin at salvation, but continues on throughout all of life. Along with a growing love of God, should be a growing awe and reverence and yes, even fear. A fear not in the sense of doubting God's love for us in Jesus. But a fear born of appreciation in beginning to understand who this God is, that God is holy, as well as love. God essentially is love, but it's a holy love, a love to be understood in terms of God's holiness.

Why does our culture have such a hard time with God's judgment? I think there are a number of factors involved in this. How can we as God's people hinder or help others in regard to this?

What would you like to share in reference to God's judgment?