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The Fully-Fleshed-Out Gospel
By John R. Gavazzoni
Scripture, and scripture alone, explains the one and only accomplishment of the passion of Christ: Inclusive of us; for us; on behalf of us, He took us all...all humanity...by means of His incarnation, fully unfolded in the entirety of His human experience, all the Way to glorification through death and resurrection. By that means, God reconciled the world to Himself by crucifying our old enmity-ridden, alienated humanity, then raising that same humanity in resurrection, utterly transformed, from enmity-ridden alienation to loving devotion.
His incarnation began as the Seed in, but unknown by, the first man/first Adam, but fully unveiled in and to the Second Man/Last (final) Adam, who fully heard and believed His Father's assurance, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." The two, first man/first Adam, and second Man/Last (final) Adam are one, sacred Humanity. He has, from mankind's beginning, been Emmanuel, God with us.
The above-explained at-one-ment/reconciliation of mankind has been falsely misrepresented as an instead-of accomplishment, utterly in contradiction to the clear message of scripture. Our at-one-ment, our reconciliation to God is wholly a matter of "in and with Christ," and not at all about Him instead of us. The notion of substitution and/or penal satisfaction is utterly foreign to the message of the gospel, as is forensically-imputed righteousness. God is not answerable to the law, to that which was only by Him an interjection, an interposition within His plan of redemption. He did not save us by meeting the demands of the law. He saved us from the curse of the law.
Christ died for us, on our behalf, over us, inclusive of us. Christ rose from the dead for us, on our behalf, over us, inclusive of us. He had us, and has us, fully covered. No payment to God was involved. In a word, God paid the ransom price to us. The ransom/redeeming payment was made in response to our collective insistence that God suffer for being to blame for the horrific human condition. Christ suffered from mankind's mark-missing, collective-enmity against Him, and reconciled us by not reacting in kind. Rather, in the face of that sin of all sins, the infamy of crucifying His Son, God's love remained consistently non-condemning/non accusatory, understanding our ignorance-driven enmity.
In Christ, the fullness of Deity and entirety of humanity met in the crisis of the passion of Christ. He bore the full collective alienating sinful ignorance of man as it reached its full expression: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" From descending into that hades of man's sense of abandonment by God, He was saved "from so great a death" finally coming out of that darkness to committing His Spirit into the hands of the Father by faith. At some point, between "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me," and "into Thy hands I commit my Spirit" the light of the Father's never-abandoning love shone through the darkness, and with that assurance, saving faith was born existentially in Christ. He knew and believed the love God had for Him, and therefore, in Him we "know and believe the love God has for us."
That's what believing in Christ means: In Him, we believe in God, our Father. His believing is our believing. He believed, and continuously believes, inclusive of us. Jesus' faith is saving faith: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live I live by the faith OF the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me." It is fundamentally unscriptural to speak of OUR putting OUR faith in Christ. Saving faith is about God putting Christ's faith in us as integral to giving Him to be our life. His life includes His faith. When Jesus comes in, He comes in faith-battery included.
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