So we are halfway through Wright’s book, and are on the threshhold of his exegetical section. Given the way these posts have gone, and the give and take of the conversation following them, I thought it would be good to give a quick summary of my take thus far.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:15-16).
When God first created the world, the Spirit brooded over the face of the waters. When God determined to recreate the world, He decided to do so by giving Himself. He first did this by sending His Son to die, bearing in His body the penalty that was due to the rebellious house of Israel, but also to do the same thing for all the nations of men. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, God then poured out His Spirit upon the world, bringing His great salvation.
The first flood was an inchoate, unshaped deep. The second flood was a fierce judgment upon sin. The third flood was a flood of grace — the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, not in order to brood on the face of the deep, but rather to be the deep. And the Holy Spirit who does this is no impersonal force, no holy spirit of vague pious influence. Rather, He is the Spirit of God, the personal Spirit of Christ Himself, and Himself an infinite Person.
He is therefore the maker, shaper, and necessary context of the entire new creation. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision gets you anywhere. Following Paul’s argument and spirit both, neither baptism nor the lack of it, neither singing in the choir nor failure to do so, neither mastering big fat books of theology nor inexplicable neglect of them, neither Baptist nor Presbyterian, neither new perspective nor old, but rather walking in accordance with the rule of the new creation.
This new creation is not a narrow-gauge affair, but rather is the on-going innundation of the world. Our evangelistic efforts to help the flood along should not therefore consist of getting little bottles of gospel and spritzing people in the face. Rather, evangelism is more like going around in coast guard boats with long poles, knocking people out of trees.
Now Wright is very good on the big picture. He sees magnitude of the flood. I believe he is shortsighted on the devices that men will seek out in order to stay dry and comfy in their sins. Piper is outstanding when it comes to identifying what it looks like when an individual gets really wet. He’s a Baptist, and Baptists are good at getting people wet. Used to do it myself.
That’s all I have time for at the moment. In the posts to come, I will be interacting much more closely with the text, following Wright.