This week we turn to a very deep question, and one that has caused terrible problems in the church throughout its history: When Saul met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus what exactly happened for him?
Saul was zealous for the the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That zeal was leading him to persecute the church and he was doing this for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In his meeting with Christ he finds out that he was wrong. But what was wrong? Was he wrong to be zealous for the God of Abraham? No! In fact, this does not change. Paul remained zealous for this same God throughout the rest of his life.
So to come to the sharp edge of the issue, we could form the question this way: Was Saul “converted” on the road to Damascus? Before we answer too quickly, we should think about the connotations of the word “conversion.” In one sense, to “convert” is to change in some way, and of course Saul was changed. But what we usually hear in the word “conversion” is a change in the religions one follows or a change in the God one worship.
The truth is that Saul was not converted from the God of Abraham, but rather was drawn more deeply into his relationship with the God of Abraham when he met Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the God of Abraham.
As Kendall Soulen has succinctly put it: “Converting more fully to the God of Israel and converting more fully to the triune God revealed in Christ are one and the same.”
The subject we take up this week is the thorny and tricky subject of the relationship of Christianity and Israel.
And I think the church’s response to this question has too often been a supersessionist response. Supersessionism (or replacement theology) is the belief that the church has superseded—or replaced—Israel in God’s salvific plan. It’s a pernicious idea that has led to catastrophic results throughout history, usually at the expense of Jews (think: the Holocaust).
Most of us have inherited—explicitly or implicitly—a way of understanding the gospel that is by way of contrast. It’s deeply diseased and is at the heart of most of our problems theologically. Here are some of the usual contrasting moves most of us will have been taught:
Old Testament vs. New Testament
Law vs. Grace/Gospel
Works vs. Faith
Justice vs. Mercy
Judaism vs. Christianity
And very often at the core of this way of thinking is an unspoken assumption: the things on the left side of the ledger are associated with God the Father while the right side is associated with God the Son. This is not only wrongheaded, but heretical. Jesus’ very name—which means “YHWH saves” should keep us from this way of thinking, but unfortunately it hasn’t.
Untying this knot is not easy work, but I believe it is vitally necessary. This class was my attempt to offer a different way.
In all honesty, in teaching this I was “out over my skis” as the saying goes. I was trying to follow the arguments made by Robert Jenson. Reading him on the matter would certainly be more beneficial to you than listening to me. A good place to start would be the essay attached below, “Towards a Christian Theology of Israel.” I was clumsily fighting my way towards many of his conclusions in this essay, so I recommend reading it.
