If you've been tracking with me for a while here or if you're a friend or student, you know that last August and September on campus were particularly disastrous for me.
What I thought was going to be a great start to a great year turned out to be a six-week stretch of things falling apart and people abandoning the sinking InterVarsity ship as quickly as they could.
So by mid-September last fall, I was already looking forward to this coming August. I wanted another shot. We had done some things wrong, some stuff was out of our control, some of it was a mystery, some of it was my own sin (I didn't deal with until later). But just four weeks into the year I knew that what I wanted was another crack, a re-start, a chance at redemption.
I was talking about this with my nun about a month ago. He spoke some wise, cautious words. And it's made me think.
My desire to have another chance is how our culture views "redemption." Last year, UNC was a Obama's (and lots of others) pick for the NCAA tournament. Then we got shellacked by Kansas. The word "redemption" was on lots of non-religious lips all over Chapel Hill this past March as we steamrolled through the bracket and won the championship.
But if redemption is just about another chance at something, then it's still just about us and our performance. This isn't the primary way that the New Testament talks about redemption.
In the New Testament, our redemption is not about our own stories done better, with the wrinkles ironed out or the knots un-tied or the regretted decisions or situations re-enacted with a different ending. That would be too small a thing.
Because the truth of the matter is that the regrets or the wrinkles can't be un-done. Our experience of time only moves one direction. UNC still got shellacked by Kansas last year, even if they did win the championship this year. Last August and September of 2008 were tough, no matter what happens in August and September 2009.
So Jesus' redemption runs deeper than just a second-chance at better performance. His redemption of those regrets or pains or "after-you've-blown it" times is the promise that one day all of it must bless you, serve you, will be a part of your glory and joy. He reaches back into time as only he can and domesticates and transforms your wounds and follies into beauty.
And in the mean time, he is good to give us second chances. The "second chance" is not antithetical to Christianity. It's just not redemption. It's a second chance, granted by God's grace, because he's a good Father.
But the second chance shouldn't be confused with God's activity of redeeming things after we've screwed them up. That's already been accomplished for us, apart from anything that we've done.
Peter, for example, gets second chances in the New Testament. He denies Jesus at his death but later in Acts gets the opportunity again and again to stand firm. Traditionally it has been said that he stands firm to the death, even death on a cross, even death upside down on a cross.
There's beauty in the grace of God giving us second chances. It's an awesome thing that God in his mercy and love invites us to do right where we have previously failed. It's part of his perfect Fathering of us that he invites us to again do good work where we have previously made bad decisions or experienced brokenness or pain.
But God's work of redemption is a much greater, fuller, more glorious thing that is in operation quite apart from what we do or don't do. That's real redemption. That's real grace. That's good news.
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