Community and Embrace: Redemptive Forgiveness and Paul's Use of Charizomai

Community and Embrace: Redemptive Forgiveness and Paul's Use of Charizomai

Zachary Wager explores the cultural dynamic, rooted in resentment of abuses of power, to refuse to forgive, an attitude that is more and more celebrated in our day and is symbolized by the “cancel culture” prevalent in our society. In order to engage this attitude, Wagner pushes against truncated views of forgiveness that have too often marked the church, and that have been utilized as covers for abuse. Exploring Paul’s use of chorizomai, Wagner offers a more full-orbed vision of forgiveness as “re-humanization,” the dynamic act of forgiveness by which we affirm the humanity of those who have sinned against us, an act of obedience that follows Christ’s own re-humanization through the cross of those who sinned against His Father.

Atonement and Union with Christ

Atonement and Union with Christ

Jeremy Treat offers a helpful overview of the doctrine of the atonement, with emphasis on the theme of the believer’s union with Christ, a theme that is not commonly emphasized in the evangelical church. By connecting atonement with union, Treat is able to explore the fullness of God’s forgiveness, and the dynamics of how we experience that forgiveness through the Spirit.

Strange Medicine: Retrieving Martin Bucer's Understanding of Penance

Strange Medicine: Retrieving Martin Bucer's Understanding of Penance

Joseph Sherrard explores Martin Bucer’s theology of penance and its connection to forgiveness. Demonstrating that most recent studies of forgiveness focus on the forgiver, Sherrard focuses on the heart of the one being forgiven, and calls pastor theologians to a commitment to the formation of the trespasser. Mining the wisdom of Bucer’s The True Care of Souls, Sherrard opens up Bucer’s pastoral care for those who have sinned against others, and provides a needed model for forming those who have offended against others and need to seek forgiveness.

Confessing Christ with the Aqedah

Confessing Christ with the Aqedah

Michael LeFebvre offers a close study of Abraham’s binding of Isaac as a foreshadowing of the cross, demonstrating how the ritualistic aspects of Abraham’s obedience to the command of God draws out the parallel between the stories more clearly. Through this, LeFebvre demonstrates the “foundational pattern of sacrifice,” i.e, the liturgy, that will recur throughout Israel’s history and culminate in the sacrifice of Christ at Golgotha. LeFebvre’s careful atten- tion to the pattern invites us to see more clearly the heart of God revealed through the forgiveness of sin provided for us by the Lamb who was slain.

Forgiven unto Life: A Sermon on Judicial Forgiveness from 1 Kings 8:33–40 and Colossians 2:13–14

Forgiven unto Life: A Sermon on Judicial Forgiveness from 1 Kings 8:33–40 and Colossians 2:13–14

Gerald Hiestand offers the manuscript of a sermon from I Kings 8, entitled “Forgiven Unto Life.” In this sermon, Hiestand takes us into a sermonic reflection on Solomon’s dedicatory prayer for the Temple, a prayer whose main theme is forgiveness. Building on this observation, Hiestand offers something of a biblical theology of forgiveness, encouraging us to see that forgiveness is not solely about God’s change of attitude toward us, but about our being released from the judicial punishment for sin that we stood under before our salvation through Christ. This claim enables Hiestand to demonstrate the depth of forgiveness for believer and non-believer alike, and the grace of God that brings healing to the nations.

Forgiveness and Reconciliation for the Sake of the Kingdom: An Eschatological Imagining of Joseph's Story

Forgiveness and Reconciliation for the Sake of the Kingdom: An Eschatological Imagining of Joseph's Story

Placing the story of Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers in the context of God’s promise of the land to Israel, Chang encourages us to reflect on the relationship between the eschatological promise of eternity with God and our neighbor and the call of the church to forgive one another. Through this, Chang calls us to read Joseph’s story as pedagogy in communal forgiveness for Israel, and so through an Eastern, communal lens, and encourages us to reflect more deeply on the function of forgiveness in the building up of the Body of Christ.

The Assurance of Forgiveness in John Wesley's Experience and Preaching: Death Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being

The Assurance of Forgiveness in John Wesley's Experience and Preaching: Death Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being

Matt O’Reilly offers a vision of forgiveness rooted in John Wesley’s life and ministry. Directing our attention to the relation between the fear of death, anxiety, and forgiveness, O’Reilly calls pastors to proclaim the Gospel of assurance—the Gospel that proclaims we are forgiven, that death is defeated, and that we as individuals and congregations can live in forgiving relationships with one another, and so be transformed by the Spirit of Christ.

Paradox of the Pastorate in the Age of Depression and Anxiety

Paradox of the Pastorate in the Age of Depression and Anxiety

Dave Morlan takes us into the challenges of depression and anxiety that pastors face. For many pastors, admitting the emotional and mental-health challenges we face is itself anxiety producing. Morlan invites us into Paul’s own challenges with anxiety, the rise of depression in our society, and the reality that depression is to be expected in the pastoral calling. He then provides us with a practical way to determine if we are experiencing depression and anxiety and encouraging us as pastors to take steps to deal with the emotional challenges we face in the pastorate.

The Forgiveness-Based Virtue of the New Creation: The New "Sociological" Location of the Believer

The Forgiveness-Based Virtue of the New Creation: The New "Sociological" Location of the Believer

Scott Hafemann explores the relation between the new and the old in 2 Corinthians 5, arguing that it is the eschatological social location of the new creation that calls us to live the cross-shaped life, a way of life that has forgiveness at its very core. Hafemann explores the pastoral guidance that Paul gives the Corinthian believers in his call to love one another, a love which is lived out in forgiving relationships among the new community.

Giving Up the Anger You Have a Right To: Forgiveness in Christ's First Antithesis

Giving Up the Anger You Have a Right To: Forgiveness in Christ's First Antithesis

Ed Gerber offers an exposition of Matthew 5:21-26. His exegetical study helps us to see that anger is part of the human experience, and that we are justified in being angry with those who do us harm. However, the Gospel calls us beyond our right to anger, into a divinely empowered act of forgiveness that enables us to move past the natural life into the supernatural life of God. As such, we witness to, and embody, the love and grace of God.

A Theological Foundation for Christian Reconciliation: Paul's Letter to the Colossians as the Theological Substructure for His Letter to Philemon

A Theological Foundation for Christian Reconciliation: Paul's Letter to the Colossians as the Theological Substructure for His Letter to Philemon

Adam Copenhaver demonstrates the relationship between Paul’s letter to the Colossians and his letter to Philemon, making the case that the theology of Colossians is the theological background to Paul’s call for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and accept him back, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. In making these connections, Copenhaver takes us into the deep logic of Gospel forgiveness, allowing us to see how the theology of forgiveness is not merely an abstract theological construct, but is the driver behind forgiving acts within the Body of Christ.

Taking Women Off the Cross: Reflections on Power, Male Violence, and Women's Ordination

Taking Women Off the Cross: Reflections on Power, Male Violence, and Women's Ordination

Herein the essay offers a reflection on the cruciform nature of pastoral ministry and its life- giving implications for the oppressed. In particular, the essay invites us to consider the question of women’s ordination in light of the legitimate feminist quest to “break the tradition of male destructive domination of [the woman’s] body and soul.” The first section utilizes the liberationist paradigm of El Salvadorian theologian Fr. John Sobrino for assessing the historical ways in which oppressive male power has all too often “put women on the cross.” The second part examines the self-denying example of the crucified Jesus, and how his cruciform use of power has helped to liberate women. The third section considers St. Paul’s pastoral ministry as a continuation of Jesus’s cruciform “cross-releasing” mission. The final section concludes with some reflections on how all of the above, combined with the work of the German theologian Susanne Hiene, informs our understanding of Jesus’s maleness, the feminist telos of male power, and the logic of women’s ordination.