In Search of Kingdom Living

(notes based on Prof. Gordon T. Smith’s lecture 2) 

Establishing a biblical framework and theology for an understanding of conversion and religious experience

Intro: defining conversion and religious experience; locating the whole of this experience within a theology of salvation. The priority of faith in a biblical perspective on religious experience. Consider Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (ref below)

Asking 2 questions: what on earth is God doing? What must I do to participate in God’s doing. First is the salvation question, the second is the conversion question – human response to divine initiative. We must long to recover biblical vision of a God who acts, affirm priority of God/grace, and affirm human response/agency. Don’t need to polarize God’s will/action and ours – in the end, Christian spirituality is a spirituality of response. A problem of revivalism is that it assumes God is inactive before you say the sinner’s prayer. Almost like God is responding to us.

1. The Depth of the Human Predicament: We’ve got a Problem (2:1-3; 12; 4:17-19)

• Most theological systems are weak on 2 points: theology of sin, theology of Jesus. Our need for conversion directly corresponds to theology of sin.
   ○ Death (Eph 2:1, echo language of Gen 3)
         § Every time we sin, it’s because we don’t believe sin is a matter of life/death
         § Do we believe that sin is death, violates our lives at its fundamental core
   ○ Oppression (Eph 2:2)
         § Links human predicament to the forces of darkness, spirit of disobedience
         § This is made evident by your preaching – most preaching is about good advice. Thus you need to preach the gospel which is transforming
   ○ Alienation (4:18)
         § We are now alienated from God and from others and from myself because of sin
         § Salvation restores community
   ○ Futile thinking (4:18)
         § Paul references intellect, futility of human minds apart of God
         § Darkened understanding leads to moral fragmentation
         § 4:22, our thinking is distorted
         § So both thinking and action are distorted
   ○ Moral fragmentation
         § We’re enslaved to the disorder of society
         § Outcome of misguided thinking – darkened understanding
   ○ Wrath/judgment/condemnation (2:3)
         § You are children of wrath, under judgment, we are guilty
         § Depravity as a desperate situation (Calvinist)
         § It is a great sickness ( Arminianism)
   ○ Part of the calling of the church is to make the world understand this diagnosis by Paul
• The response: faith
   ○ Only hope is found in Christ, your own efforts are futile in face of this disease
   ○ Conversion is absolutely necessary and must also be radical (root, core of our beings)and comprehensive (pervasive)
• Implications for a theology of conversion
   1) Need for conversion
   2) Conversion is necessarily radical and comprehensive
   Additional note: mind and religious experience (4:17-24)
   

2. God’s gracious response in Christ (1:3-14; 2:3-10)

• God acts in and through Jesus Christ: the Christocentric character of Christian faith. Every Sunday preach Christ, not a theology/idea of Christ, but a real encounter of Christ - Ie. the Lord’s supper as a table of empowerment because Christ is there
• God acts in mercy, the response: faith… in Jesus Christ, faith as intellect and affect
   ○ In response to death there is life
   ○ Against oppression there is reconciliation
   ○ Against alienation there is Peace
   ○ Against futile thinking there is Renewed minds
   ○ Against wrath/judgment there is forgiveness
   ○ To have faith in Christ is to believe in him and to trust in him, dependence on Jesus, encounter of Jesus Christ
   ○ Our theology of conversion is faith based, but sanctification is practice based, need faith to permeate all of it
  - Implications for a theology of conversion and Christian experience
   1) Divine initiative and human response
   2) Its christocentric character
   3) Conversion as an act of faith… and faith as the fountain head of the spiritual life
   4) Conversion and the spiritual life is gift… never meritorious: all of mercy
   

3. The Purposes of God: To form for himself a People (2:11 – 3:6)

• The question of two people
   ○ Paul highlights Jews and non-Jews, and points out that God clearly establishes covenant with Jews, but now notion that some are in or out don’t make sense in the new covenant
• Images of the church in the NT – the body of Christ, household of God (2:19). The church as the means of God’s mission in the world.
• The response: faith… but a faith that is never purely ‘individual’
• Big question: what does it mean to be the church?
• Implications for a theology of conversion and the theology of the Christian life
   1) Its corporate and communal character
   2) Christian identity and participation in the common life of the people of God
   3) God’s work through the church
• One of most vital expression of the church is baptism. It re-presents our faith in Christ but also our common identity. Essential mark of our identity as people of God
   

4. The Purpose of God: A People who are mature in Christ (3:14-4:16)

• The church today lacks a biblical theology of sainthood – where you should go as a maturing Christian. Maturity as the goal of our common identity, our identity in Christ. Goal is 4:13, maturity in Christ. Love saturates the whole definition of sainthood.
• The focus and character of this maturity… Christ. Maturity in Christ comes as we grow in love: our experience of love and our love for others. Personal/individual growth is inter-dependent with that of the community of faith
• The response: faith, yes, but (2:8-10) faith is not as the result of works of faith that leads to good works. Transformation is the fruit of true faith.
• Implications for a theology of conversion and Christian experience
   1) The goal of conversion: transformation
   2) The unity of God’s salvation: justification and sanctification; justification/sanctification
   3) Conversion as a good beginning
   4) Conversion as incorporation into a maturing community
• Revivalist gave us language that conversion is oriented towards afterlife
   ○ Urgent need to re-orient conversion to life in this world and let afterlife flow out of this world
   ○ In the end you are judged NOT on what you accomplished, but on how you embodied the holiness of God
• A keyword for theology of sainthood would be: wisdom
• Gives us appreciation of human predicament, encounter Lord Jesus Christ – then abides in Christ as he abides in us (John 15), then conversion would have corporate character (even as it is just as personal), so must see conversion as a good beginning

Conclusion:

Question: how wide and how comprehensive is the renewing work of the Spirit of Christ? How far does it reach; what does it include… and how extensive is this transformation?

Considerations: the scope of Christ’s authority and reign (note: Eph 1:19b – 23)
   The scope of God’s purpose in Christ (Eph 1:8 – 10_
   
Conversion as 1) an encounter with the risen, ascended Christ, and 2) a participation in the community that is the living embodiment of what it means to live under the reign of Christ; and 3) an entering in to a partnership (with others) in the work of witnessing to the reign of Christ