#8 Blood Bought World

"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

And what is our response? We write songs called This World is Not My Home and dream about eternal life in heaven as some sort of floaty blue thing. Will we recognize our relatives' floaty blue form in heaven? We sit on our hands and say that we're just strangers and pilgrims, aliens and exiles. We call this world "a strange land" and long for home--wherever that may be.

But what if none of that is true? What if this world is our home? What impact would this have upon our daily lives? How would we deal with our idols and the those of the broader culture? That is, as I see it, the topic of Toby Sumpter's book, Blood-Bought World. It continues the work of Peter Leithart's Against Christianity by putting the positive side in addition to the negative. It's the Orthodoxy to Leithart's Heretics--and I don't think either of these men would mind the comparison. Leithart's book was a treatise against castrated Christianity--a private religion that has no impact outside of one's personal devotions. Pastor Sumpter's book gives the church a vision of--to borrow a phrase--a faith for all of life. It's a forceful manifesto with no pauses to shilly-shally. I won't give a full review here, but I will post some of my favorite quotes. Enjoy!

"...[T]oo often, 'contextualization' is just a buzzword for the sellouts, the insecure Christians who feel the need to pretty-up the gospel. And depending on whom you're whoring after, the gospel gets done up in all kinds of different styles...But Jesus isn't making any deals. Jesus doesn't want a place at the table of coolness. Jesus isn't trying to get His voice to be heard. His voice is what holds the whole universe up. His Word is what commanded this world into existence. It's only His mercy that keeps our atoms from flying apart." (xiv)

"...But be that as it may, the Bible does teach that God gave wine to make our hearts glad. Jesus turned water into wine, not Welch's grape juice. And at the Last Supper, Jesus commanded His disciples to celebrate a particular meal until the end of the world--and that meal includes sharing real, dangerous wine. Wine is a mocker. Wine may deceive. The drunkard and the glutton and the sluggard are three friends with a similar sad fate. But the fact remains that Jesus gave us wine because wine is a fiery drink--a spirit that reminds us of the Holy Spirit, dangerous and powerful. In other words, God gives His people dangerous things like wine, and the Word of God, which is the sword of the spirit." (5-6)

After quoting Matthew 3:5-6:

"We need to learn how to get in trouble like Jesus." (12)

"If we don't understand in our bones the difference between Christ-like troublemaking and fleshly pride and blunder, then we will only be left with cowards and fools." (15)

On the authority Christ gave His disciples:

"But we have lost this authority. Somehow we have even grown accustomed to it, and somehow it is not much of a threat to anyone, especially here in the West. When we tell stories, our stories make no authoritative claims. At best we repeat eternal truths that do not touch down in this world, that do not confront, that do not challenge. And at worst, we tell stories that primarily submit themselves to the narrative of the world. We let the political and cultural gods of our age dictate the key terms and legislate morality. Rather than subverting these claims, we dutifully submit to this alien authority. If the world says that there's an overpopulation problem, we bow our heads and nod obediently. If they say you have to recycle or else you hate creation and your grandchildren, we cower and rush to separate our trash. If they say organic is holy, we cross ourselves twice and check all the labels three times." (23-24)

"To claim this authority, to dare as a mere human to interpret the world, history, current events is to look and seem like a megalomaniac, like an arrogant power-tripper. Who do you think you are? Who died and left you king? Well, as it turns out, Jesus did." (25)

"Often, we have the geez-guys-stop-your-culture-warmongering on the one hand, and on the other hand, mister-firebrand-who-always-has-an-opinion-that-he-just-thought-up-five-seconds-ago-and-is-really-mad-that-nobody-else-understands-just-how-right-he-is. But there is another way." (42)

On Acts 5:

"In fact, Peter explains that the reason they won't be obeying the Jewish council on this matter is because God has exalted Jesus to his right hand and made him Prince and Savior for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31). It is the lordship of Jesus that authorizes the apostles to disobey human authorities, and it is the forgiveness of Jesus that has inspired their loyalty." (116)

"People who have been conquered by the grace of Jesus have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The world belongs to their King, and they cannot rest until they see it conquered. Conquered people are a conquering people." (158)

"Humility obeys, and the humble give thanks for obedience." (168)

"Justification is the doctrine of play. It means all is right with you, and God, and the world. It means you live your life in the backyard of the universe, and you have all afternoon. In Christ, all things are yours, all things are free, and all things are given. You have nothing to prove, nothing to lose, no one to fear." (185-186)

"Usually you can tell the lost souls by the way they worry all the time about what other people might be misunderstanding." (186)

"The Bible's straightforward answer is that a man's glory and power is the sacrifice of his strength to love, lead, and protect those around him. A woman's glory and power is the use of her beauty to conceive, nourish, and glorify life all around her." (204)

"Beginning with the original creation, we insist that being created male means being called to die first." (204)