An Incarnational Christianity

I want to delve into Chris­tian­ity and its rela­tion to the world. When we live in a world of lost peo­ple, dying in sin, strug­gling to make it through, what is our heart response? I believe that our moti­va­tions in bring­ing Christ to peo­ple need to be explored. There is I believe a gen­uine response that needs to come from our Christly per­spec­tive.¹

Redemp­tive Sorrow

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be com­forted.”² In doing so Jesus asks us to look at our heart moti­va­tions. He speaks of our Chris­t­ian response to the way things are, to the ways of the world.

When we begin this jour­ney of fol­low­ing Christ we do this: (1) Enjoy sin, but know it’s wrong, so we stay away from it (spir­i­tual imma­tu­rity). (2) Stay away from and hate sin, and live with stan­dards and con­vic­tions (iso­lated Chris­tian­ity). (3) Hate sin but con­sumed with a godly sor­row towards the effects of sin on human­ity (redemp­tive sor­row)

Redemp­tive sor­row is not pos­si­ble if: (1) If we are numb to the effects of sin in human­ity, and live with a focus on self. (2) If we gain from, enjoy, or are a part of the sin­ful­ness of the world.

Redemp­tive sor­row is illus­trated in the Chris­t­ian life as:

1. A frus­tra­tion with the way things cur­rently are that leads to godly sor­row – does the sin­ful­ness of the world, and the eter­nal des­tiny of those on their way to Hell, draw up some emo­tion within you?³
2. The redemp­tive per­spec­tive of Jesus – What was Jesus’ per­spec­tive as he lived look­ing toward the Cross? If we are to find the mind of Christ towards the world, what would it look like in our lives? Do we we really believe in a Hell? If so why are we not doing more to save peo­ple from such a place?⁴
3. A lifestyle of com­pas­sion, empa­thy, and hon­esty – when we see the pain and suf­fer­ing of peo­ple, our hearts must be moved. Hon­esty finds peo­ple where they are at. Empa­thy feels the pain of oth­ers. Com­pas­sion is where you move out in action.

Redemp­tive sor­row looks at the past that brought the present into being, and responds to it. It is a focus back­ward to the past. But in and of itself, it is merely a reac­tionary agent in the jour­ney of change. There is more that needs to be done.

Redemp­tive Imagination

An hon­est assess­ment of all of life must also lead to a promise and hope in the future of God for some­thing. Abra­ham believed that God could raise his son from the dead even if obe­di­ence meant he had to kill his own son.⁵ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed­nego believed that God could res­cue them and trusted God regard­less of what could pos­si­bly hap­pen.⁶ Redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion is what gave Peter and John the faith to bring heal­ing to the lame man on the way to the tem­ple.⁷

We have a gift that is tan­gi­ble in this rela­tion­ship with Jesus. We have some­thing of sig­nif­i­cance to offer a hurt­ing world. When we see the plight of human­ity and have a godly sor­row that pro­duces com­pas­sion, we must also know that peo­ple need more than just com­pas­sion. They need a hope and promise in the God of cre­ative and redemp­tive poten­tial. They need to know that God can do some­thing in their situation.

The growth of redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion in the life of the believer is as fol­lows: (1) There is a focus on self - we start our jour­ney of faith and every­thing is really about us and what we want. It’s a focus on self. (2) Believ­ing in and sub­mit­ting to God’s plan for your­self – this is where you accept God’s plan and pur­pose for your life and life takes on a whole new mean­ing. (3) Believ­ing in and sub­mit­ting to God’s plan for oth­ers – this is where you live out self­lessly for the good of others.

Redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion has no power in our lives: (1) If we are ful­filled in our present real­ity and do not believe in the future of God for our­selves. We can only offer that which we already have. (2) If we reject hope and remain hope­less, and we wal­low in the sor­row of our present state. If we can­not see the future of God our­selves, we become powerless.

Redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion is illus­trated as:

1. A rejec­tion of the present state of things & a trust that God is able to redeem – This has to do with a Spirit-led re-imagination of the present real­ity of some­thing. It has to do with a deep sense of God at work in the situation.
2. A sub­mit­ting to the future God has for some­thing – we must find Christ’s mind for the given sit­u­a­tion. We are meant to present a new­ness that invades the dead­ness. There is meant to be life in the place of decay and destruction.
3. Being a part of change and trans­for­ma­tion – we must bring the hope and promise of God alive in any given sit­u­a­tion. This comes through a redeem­ing of the lan­guage, emo­tion, and action of a sit­u­a­tion.⁸

When we start believ­ing God’s future for our sor­row­ful present real­ity; we then become agents of change in a world sys­tem that so desires it. The world is look­ing for hope and promise. Our mes­sage is Jesus and our imag­i­na­tion is firmly rooted in His future for some­thing. Redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion is really a promise and hope in the future God has for some­thing. It has a for­ward focus that pushes towards the future. We must live out in a way that com­mu­ni­cates and embod­ies the futur­ing of Christ for a given situation.

Redemp­tive Action

We must present an alter­na­tive real­ity to any given sit­u­a­tion. Though the king­dom of God has not yet been fully real­ized, as agents of that king­dom we are to live out with a king­dom con­science. The next step is to live out in redemp­tive action, being salt and light, liv­ing out in king­dom action, and where the fruit of the spirit is a part of who we are.

What makes us dif­fer­ent is our illus­tra­tion of Christ, the illus­tra­tion of the good­ness of God in all of our inter­ac­tions. When the world looks at us, we must present an image of Christ to them that is alto­gether lovely and more beau­ti­ful than any­thing else they have encoun­tered. This is the essence of Christianity.

Redemp­tive action is illus­trated in our lives when:

1. We are a part of the sor­row of God – we must find God’s heart for the given sit­u­a­tion, and actively take up that sor­row in our lives.
2. We are a part of the imag­i­na­tion of God – we must find God’s future for the given sit­u­a­tion and do our part to push the present real­ity toward that future.
3. We embody trans­for­ma­tion in our com­mu­ni­ties – when we live out the trans­for­ma­tion in action. We don’t pray for revival or ask for change, we rather become revival and become change. We let our actions speak louder than our words in a given situation.

Redemp­tive action finds itself in the present real­ity; it pulls some­thing out of the past and pushes it towards the future of God. If we are about the trans­form­ing king­dom of God, it will be evi­dent in our lives. We are salt and light in a taste­less, dark­ened world. Redemp­tive action is liv­ing out as the sons and daugh­ters of God upon the earth.

Jesus spoke these words:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neigh­bor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your ene­mies and pray for those who per­se­cute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax col­lec­tors do the same? And if you greet only your broth­ers, what more are you doing than oth­ers? Do not even the Gen­tiles do the same? You there­fore must be per­fect, as your heav­enly Father is per­fect.
Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

Paul wrote these words to the Church at Rome:

For I con­sider that the suf­fer­ings of this present time are not worth com­par­ing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the cre­ation waits with eager long­ing for the reveal­ing of the sons of God. For the cre­ation was sub­jected to futil­ity, not will­ingly, but because of him who sub­jected it, in hope that the cre­ation itself will be set free from its bondage to cor­rup­tion and obtain the free­dom of the glory of the chil­dren of God.
Romans 8:18-21 ESV

In our Chris­tian­ity, we must be grounded in redemp­tive sor­row and redemp­tive imag­i­na­tion, and live out in redemp­tive action. With an under­stand­ing of our past, and a hope and promise in the future of God, we must live out the image of Christ in our present reality.

Here is ser­mon record­ing in it’s entirety:

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