So history starts with the first Adam, and Jesus is called the last Adam in places like 1 Corinthians 15:45 and Romans 5:12–21. The first Adam sinned and this last Adam atoned for sin. Through the first Adam, the human race fell; through the last Adam, members of that race can be saved. Through the first Adam, there was condemnation; through the last Adam, there can salvation. Through the first Adam, we inherit a sin nature; through the last Adam, we receive a new nature. Through the first Adam, we’re born sinners; through the last Adam, we’re born again, saints. The first Adam turned from God in a garden; and the last Adam turned to God in a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane. The first Adam was a sinner; and the last Adam is a Savior of sinners. The first Adam yielded to Satan; and the last Adam defeated Satan. The first Adam sinned at a tree; and the last Adam atoned for sin on a tree. The first Adam brought thorns; the last Adam wore a crown of thorns. The first Adam was naked and unashamed; the last Adam was stripped naked and bore our shame. Everybody is born in Adam. My hope is that you would be born again in the last Adam, Jesus Christ. See, Jesus is the better, greater Adam.
Mark Driscoll – How Jesus Taught the Bible
“…there are features of every culture which are not incompatible with the lordship of Christ, and which therefore need not be threatened or discarded but rather preserved and transformed. Messenger of the gospel need to develop deep understanding of the local culture, and a genuine appreciation of it. Only then will they be able to perceive whether the resistance is to some unavoidable challenge of Jesus Christ or to some threat to the culture which, whether imaginary or real, is not necessary.” – The Lausanne Committe, The Willowbank Report
If you read my blog regularly, or talk to me about missions work and the apologetic behind it, you know that I often talk about it’s relationship with cultures. Specifically, I think it’s amazingly important to recognize two facts (that are hinted in the previous quote) regarding the Gospel’s interaction with any culture. The Gospel (not necessarily the people bringing the message, but the Gospel itself) will do two things:
- Affirm some things in that culture.
- Oppose and condemn other things in that culture.
The Gospel is a respecter of cultures, but not blindly. The Gospel may affirm our American ideal of charity, openness and honesty, but it opposes our desire for comfort, utter safety and self-sufficiency. Much ink has been spilled and electrons inconvenienced on the topic of missionaries historic insensitivity, utter disdain for and destruction of cultures – particularly those of peoples who were lower on whatever socio-political structure the current empire was enforcing; but they were overwhelmingly wrong and destroyed and distorted cultures that many would say echoed the creativity of their mutual Creator.
There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him”Are you the son of Bramah?” he would have said, “My son, you are still in the value of illusion.” If you had gone to Socrates and asked, “Are you Zeus?” he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, “Are you Allah?” he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, “Are you Heaven?”, I think he would have probably replied, “Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.” The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man.
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
Also good: “Creed by Steve Turner“
