by Kim Thoday

Being a mature Christian, that is, a conscious follower of Jesus Christ is in a sense to live in a twilight zone. It is to live with the constant tension between what is and what can be. Discipleship is therefore a process of becoming. The true prophets of God have always known this and have lived in a dialectic between finitude and infinitude; in eschatological terms – between the already and not yet; in ecclesiological terms – between the visible Church and the invisible Church; in moral theology – between the legalistic and the dualistic; in psychological terms – between acceptance and hope; in theological terms – between sin and faith, perhaps most quintessentially expressed – between Cross and Resurrection.

My experience of Christian discipleship is that this tension is sometimes tortuous. Having glimpsed something of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s mountain vision how does one come back to ‘business as usual.’ After having experienced a moment of divine providence how does one make sense of the Rwandan genocide (it is ten years since the Rwandan Annihilation). However, I must keep myself sufficiently humble even with these thoughts. I am reminded of an earlier Martin Luther. He said of this twilight zone that it is also the forecourt of paradise. He described this zonal tension as ‘Simul justus et peccator.’ Simultaneously able to be altruistic and pragmatic, idealistic and realistic, dis-interested and self-interested. Simultaneously deathly and life-giving. Simultaneously immoral and moral. It seems that ‘Simul justus et peccator’ is the ground of human being. But if Luther is right then human being is of the highest order; it has about it the potential of a forecourt to paradise; it is an integral part of the divine plan, the order of things yet to be fully realized. The writer of 1 John puts it this way: ‘Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is’ (I John 3). Though as Christians we are God’s children, we are not yet complete. More is yet to be revealed in the fullness of time. We still participate in the finite order of things, in this both sinful and godly world. While as Christians we participate in the ethical character of Christ, we still remain sinners, for we are not yet complete. Yet in Christ we are no-longer captive to sin. We live in tension. We are not perfected people. Perfection is to come when Christ returns: ‘ . when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.’

‘Simul justus et peccator’ means that human being not only the reserve of pagans. They don’t have a monopoly on human being. It suggests that Christians and pagans are all sinners. There is a lot of popular ‘new-Age’ ‘Christianity’ around these days that suggests that true Christians are no-longer sinners and never get sick or have bad things happen to them. Certainly when a person becomes a Christian he or she has the power of Christ to deal with sin and to be cleansed of it. Yet often the cleansing, the liberation from sin, is a process and in some cases Christians constantly live in a state of tension. On the other hand, sometimes we experience a complete healing or a liberating moment. There is mystery in this twilight zone, yet we are promised that all will be eventually revealed. One thing however, I am quite sure about. The teaching that once people are really Christians they are no longer sinners is theologically bankrupt, biblically skewed and pastorally destructive. Such a teaching is false and certainly makes a mockery of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught his disciples ‘And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ The Christian Church down through the ages has correctly recognized that the Lord’s Prayer is essentially for believers. It is the Lord’s Prayer for his disciples. And the Church calls us to continue to pray it as individuals and as communities of faith. The historic Church of Jesus Christ has always recognized the reality of the twilight zone, that whilst we remain sinners, through Christ we also have the power for our humanity to become the forecourt of paradise.

Grace and Peace

KIM THODAY, Hewett Community Church of Christ

http://www.hewett.org.au