Redemption

From Neoredemptive

God's redemptive agenda is the simple core of the gospel - His redemption of us individually, of a people called together for His name's sake, and, through their prayerful action and influence, of cultures, peoples, nations, and the earth.

Our need for redemption is through-running, from our spirituality to our emotions and will to our relationships and self-concept to our intellect and thought life to our very bodies, we are racked and twisted by the pains of Adam's fall and of our own defiance of our maker (i.e., sin).

Redemption is the antithesis of a band-aid fix; it is invasive and pervasive surgery, where our heart, soul, mind, will, motives, emotions, and selves are lain bare so that Christ may completely transform us from the inside out.

We do not simply call unrepentant, unregenerant people blessed and hope that they will improve. Christ's redeeming work in us is one in which we choose daily to die to our wants, needs, impulses, opinions, and lusts, daily clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Christ, daily discipline our thoughts and renew our minds after the pattern of the mind of Christ, daily fill the powerless vessel of self with the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not ashamed to call people to this; it is the gospel, it is life to them and to us.

It is God who brings all of the value to the work of redemption. It would be pure vanity to believe that Christ is redeeming a worthwhile me to gain an even better me. What value we do have of ourselves was never really "of ourselves" to begin with - it comes from our status as image-bearers of God, and each of us has irreparably marred that image (irreparably with respect to ourselves, that is; nothing is impossible with God).

The classical Christian understanding of Redemption is a declaration of war against the vision and values this world would have us conform to.

Redemption and Creation

The ultimate point and goal of redemption is not something fundamentally new, but rather something ancient--God's original intention in and for His creation. This is why we take the cultural mandate seriously--it is not merely an idyllic pastoral landscape, but rather a blueprint for a world where God is honored as God, where we find our purpose and fulfilment, where redemption has restored that which our sin has devastated.

Quotes

Our goal is not to avoid drinking, singing, working, playing, eating, love-making, and the like. Instead, our goal must be to redeem those things through the power of the gospel so that they are used rightly according to Scripture, bringing God glory and his people a satisfied joy. (Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, p.152)