Being in Christ

A Biblical and Systematic Investigation in a Reformed Perspective

Hans Burger

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781498252072
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274227
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

'Being in Christ' is a central theme in the message of the gospel. It is central for understanding the relation of Christian believers and the church with Jesus Christ, their Lord. It determines the identity of a Christian. It is helpful for understanding the presence of Christ and his salvation in the present. It can be developed as an element of a theological ontology. Finally, it is a theme with a great integrating power. In this book, the theme 'being in Christ' is analyzed in different perspectives. The attention is focused on the reality of 'being in Christ': its ontological implications. First, two representatives of the Reformed tradition are investigated: the English Puritan John Owen and the Dutch Neo-Calvinist Herman Bavinck. Second, a reconstruction of the Pauline and Johannine perspectives on 'being in Christ' is provided. Third, the theme is examined in the work of the English ethicist Oliver O'Donovan and the German-Swiss theologian Ingolf U. Dalferth. In the final chapter, the author gives his own systematic-theological proposal of a concept of 'being in Christ.'

1

Introduction

1.1 Necessity of Renewed Reflection on ‘Being in Christ’

1.1.1 Theological climate

To be or not to be—in Christ—that is the question. To quote Christof Gestrich: ‘Christian faith and ‘being in Christ’ are one.’1 However, whereas one would expect ‘being in Christ’ to be a central theme in the message of the church and in theology, often this is not the case. Instead, according to Gestrich the weakness of Christianity is the absence of Christ in the faith of Christians; many Christians believe in God yet bypass Christ.2 More empirical research would be necessary to determine the extent to which Gestrich is right. Nevertheless, a tendency to neglect Christ is one that I recognise.

This neglect of Christ has its place in the post-Barthian context. The disappearance of the dominance of Karl Barth’s christocentric theology created space for new theological ideas and orientations. Different themes like immanence, pneumatology (or pneumatheology), reality, liberation, spirituality, mysticism, narrative, and biography received an important place on the theological agenda.3 In reaction to Karl Barth, this new theological agenda often implied a move away from Christology. This move is reinforced by the problem of religious pluralism. As a result, theological concepts can lose Christological weight, and a neglect of Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, easily arises. In this way, Jesus Christ becomes an inspiring ‘shape’ of love and emancipation,4 a symbol of God’s mercy,5 a human being inhabited by the healing Spirit of God and giving voice to the call of God’s love,6 or ‘a thin place’ transparent for the Holy to be followed in his own Spirit.7 Salvation in Christ is presented in a pluralistic theory of religious ends as salvation among salvations.8 If interest in religion is growing, the place of Jesus Christ has become an open question for many.9 At the same time, the language of ‘being in Christ’ has only rarely been made the central subject of discussion and conceptualisation, although it is central to Pauline soteriology.10 Consequently, the significance of Jesus Christ is in danger of being reduced to a moral or spiritual example. In him we see how we should live with God and with each other. But Jesus Christ does not himself determine the relationship between God and the believer.

However, this neglect of Christ can take a different, more conservative form. Accordingly, Jesus Christ is reduced to the one who died for our sins but who, in the present, does not really play any role. He made it possible to live with God again by his satisfaction for our guilt. But he determines only the past of the relationship between God and believer, and not the present. Within the smaller orthodox-Reformed churches in the Netherlands, I notice an inclination towards this second form, at least within my own church.11 In a reaction to liberal theology, the doctrine of satisfaction by penal substitution has been stressed. The danger looms that the significance of Jesus Christ is reduced to the doctrine of satisfaction by penal substitution. Jesus Christ himself remains someone of the past. Where the law is preached as a rule for the Christian life, it is done too often in isolation from the new life given in Christ, resulting in a legalistic way of life. These reductions make it increasingly difficult to live a Christian life today.12 Again, modernity’s question to Christology rears its head: how can a historical person who lived 2000 years ago be relevant for my salvation? Is it true as Kuitert writes, ‘Jesus remains where he was, in the past’?13

Within this climate of a neglect of Christ, it is important to reflect anew on the question of what it is to be in Christ. Reflection on this theme may show that it is a theme with a great integrating power. If it can be shown that ‘being in Christ’ embraces Christology, pneumatology, spirituality, biography, and ethics, a concept of ‘being in Christ’ can be used to do justice to a post-Barthian agenda without losing Christology.14 Further it might be used to bridge the gap between the past and the present. In the light of the conservative form of the neglect of Christ, it is significant that ‘being in Christ,’ communion with Christ or ‘unio mystica cum Christo’ used to be a central theme within the tradition of the Reformation.15 It is a central theme in the theology of e.g. John Calvin,16 and one of the treasures of the Reformed tradition that needs to be rediscovered. At the same time, the critical question must be asked: is the Reformed tradition itself to be blamed for this present neglect of Christ?

Another problem concerns the question of the presence of salvation in the present. Within the Dutch Reformed context, two poles to this discussion can be discerned. On the one hand A. van de Beek reacts to the idealism of the ’60s and ’70s. He claims in his theology of the cross that the Son of God came to share our problems, not to solve them or to improve us in this world. Salvation will bring another world, but does not result in progress in the present reality.17 On the other hand, under the influence of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement notions such as victory, liberation from demonic possession and healing are emphasised. Reflection on ‘being in Christ’ will not settle these questions, but can be helpful to create a conceptual context in which it will be easier to deal with them.

To conclude, the present-day theological climate can be understood as an invitation for renewed theological reflection on the theme of ‘being in Christ.’18

1.1.2 Cultural-philosophical context

Apart from the theological climate, grounds for the choice of this theme can be given in relation to the cultural-philosophical context. Our time has been characterized as ‘time of uneasiness.’19 It is a time of cultural crisis, in which Islam becomes more important while at the same time a new ‘post-enlightenment modernity’ emerges in Western Europe.20 It may be debatable whethe...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: John Owen
• Chapter 3: Herman Bavinck
• Chapter 4: Critical Evaluation of the Reformed Tradition
• Chapter 5: Paul
• Chapter 6: John
• Chapter 7: Canonical Synthesis
• Chapter 8: Ingolf U. Dalferth
• Chapter 9: Oliver O’Donovan
• Chapter 10: A Systematic-Theological Concept of ‘Being in Christ’
• Summary in Dutch
• Bibliography