The Government Shall Be Upon His Shoulders

Some good words by NT Wright from his Christmas Eve sermon:

"‘Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders.’ Unless you sigh with relief at those words, you haven’t really been listening...

The election of Barack Obama has been hailed with wild delight around the world. Desmond Tutu sounded crazy with joy talking about him on the radio – even while being realistic about the fact that the black revolution he helped to inspire has failed to confront Robert Mugabe. Oprah Winfrey said on election night that there had ‘never been a night like this on the planet earth’, which may have been over-egging the Christmas cake just a little. The whole world was hungry for hope, and now Obama, who is indeed brilliant, charming, shrewd and very capable, is being told that the government of the world is upon hisshoulders, and we expect him to solve its problems. Poor man: no ordinary mortal can bear that burden. Nor should we ask it of him. The irrational joy and hope at his election only shows the extent to which other hopes have failed, making us snatch too eagerly at sudden fresh signs. And that can only be because we have forgotten the Christmas message, or have neutered it, have rendered it toothless, as though the shoulder of the child born this night was simply a shoulder for individuals to lean on rather than the shoulder to take the weight of the world’s government...

Only through deep devotion to the child who is born to us, the son who is given to us, can we make sure that the government really is upon his shoulders, and so prevent our good intentions being misdirected to serve our own ends, real or imagined. ‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing’: we come here tonight, aware that the kingdom Jesus came to bring needs to be worked out in the real and tough challenges that lie ahead of us globally, nationally and locally but aware, too, that if it is Jesus’ kingdom we are working out we cannot get enough of Jesus himself, cannot worship him enough, cannot ponder him enough, cannot invoke him enough, cannot love and adore him enough, cannot taste him enough."

Heaven and Earth Will Be United

NT Wright:

"As Christopher Rowland has insisted, the end of Revelation offers an ultimate rejection of a detached, other-worldly spirituality in favour of an integrated vision of new creation in which 'heaven' and 'earth', the twin halves of created reality, are at last united. Always intended for one another, they are by this means to be remade, and to become the place where the living god will dwell among his people forever."

(p. 470, The Resurrection of the Son of God)

Gospel Effects

"Those who were weak are now strong; those who were unaware of God’s love are now grasped by it; those who were sinners are now accounted such no longer; those who were unrighteous are now righteous; those facing wrath are now rescued from it; those who were enemies are now reconciled and, once more, rescued." NT Wright

(Source: "Redemption from the New Perspective")

Jesus Has Risen from the Dead and established New Creation

NT Wright states:

"The very shape of the poem [Col. 1.15-20] insists that Jesus' resurrection, as a one-off event, is an act not of the abolition of the original creation but of its fulfillment: the same Messiah and lord is the one through whom all things were made in the first place, the one in whom all things cohere, the one in and through whom all things are now brought into a new relationship with creator God and with one another...with the resurrection itself a shock wave has gone through the entire cosmos: the new creation has been born, and must now be implemented...the resurrection of Jesus himself is the historical event through which the creator's plan to rescue the world from sin and death has been decisively inaugurated, following the death whereby sin was itself dealt with." (p. 239, 240)

Source.

Redemption

NT Wright states:

"...Paul keeps Genesis 1 and 2 in the back of his mind at all times, and regularly...sees the final act of redemption not as a rescue from creation but as the renewal of creation." (p. 224)

Source.

John Piper's New Book--Free!

...but it is online.

For those of you who are interested John Piper's response to NT Wright's version of the New Perspective on Paul can be read online for free (HT: DG Blog).

Or you can buy it at Westminster Books (HT: JT)

Here is a quote from the book regarding John Piper's view of NT Wright and Wright's views:

"My conviction concerning N. T. Wright is not that he is under the curse of Galatians 1:8–9, but that his portrayal of the gospel—and of the doctrine of justification in particular—is so disfigured that it becomes difficult to recognize as biblically faithful. It may be that in his own mind and heart Wright has a clear and firm grasp on the gospel of Christ and the biblical meaning of justification. But in my judgment, what he has written will lead to a kind of preaching that will not announce clearly what makes the lordship of Christ good news for guilty sinners or show those who are overwhelmed with sin how they may stand righteous in the presence of God." (p. 15)