Two Questions That Shape the Future

This morning I started N.T. Wright’s, Surprised by Hope and ended up being surprised by Wright. In his introduction he writes, “This book addresses two questions that have often been dealt with entirely separately but that, I passionately believe, belong tightly together. First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present?

What resonated with me…what came to my mind…what words I wrote in the margin, was “Ephesians 2:8-10.” For it is in 8-9 that we realize the “ultimate Christian hope”–where we spend eternity. But it is in Ephesians 2:10 that the possibilities for change and transformation exist–“For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared beforehand for us to do.” In these three verses are the hope of the world–not just hope for eternity but hope for a better world as those who are being transformed give themselves to transform the world.

James Choung in True Story, where he describes a different way of sharing the good news, says that (well he actually draws a circle with words on top of it that says) “Sent Together to Heal.” By this he means to holistically heal and help those who are in the world along with the systems that create the hurts of the world. Bob Roberts writes of the extended impact of a kingdom gospel when he writes (REV! Sept / Oct, 2008 p. 38), “I once believed that if I could just get a person “saved” and coming to church, that would change the world. I was wrong. The gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of salvation bot get conversions. The difference is that the gospel of salvation is finished at conversion. The gospel of the kingdom begins at conversion and engages comprehensively and holistically the entire person and community. It takes Matthew 25 seriously. You aren’t fighting culture; you’re creating a new culture by letting the gospel engage vey domain of humanity: health, education, economics, communications, art, agriculture, and so on.”

It is only when we embrace the promise and tension of Ephesians 2:8-10 that we can look forward to being with Jesus for eternity yet do what we can to make our current world more like the kingdom.