A Public Apology for Thesis XIII

A thesis is just that, a thesis. It’s a starting point of discussion and argument. It’s not the definitive statement on a matter, though it might make an important step in that direction. I’m not articulating the side of one group or another as much as I’m trying to sort through my own position. If you don’t agree with the thesis at least I hope you understand and sympathize with its spirit. We need to get into the habit of articulating a Christ centered anthropology for mankind in general and for ourselves individually. We might say that this is the burning question of our age. I think when the question is answered apart from Christ, or without enough attention given to what Christ has done for us, it leads to disastrous results.

A helpful exercise I’ve found, for myself at least, is to ask what is it that I, as a person, cannot do without. What is most fundamental and foundational for who I am? Hence the language of essence and accidents/attributes. Essence is that which makes things what they substantially are. An accident is an attribute that inheres in another and cannot subsist in itself, like my height or hair color. Though accidents are often important and certainly help to individuate one substantially from another, you’ll notice the metaphysical language is admittedly Aristotelian and Thomistic. However, it has served Christians well over the centuries. It helped and continues to help confessing Lutherans, for instance, articulate that our corruption is not who we are (SD I, 26ff).

I suspect a non-Christian will answer who we essentially are differently than a Chrisitan, and I think the differences would be significant. I also think that the Christian differences would be both profound and powerful, by virtue of finding their origination and articulation in God’s Word. God has become man in the person of Christ. His redeeming work has come to me through the Word and Baptism. What God now has to say about who I am and to whom I now belong has become exceedingly more important than how I would have answered the question apart from Christ. Not only does it change how I see myself. It changes how I see everyone else.

We’ve seen what happens when someone answers the question poorly saying that his or her sexuality is most foundational for his or her person. By sexuality, of course, they don’t mean the various gifts of the body given them by God. They mean their desires. No one would deny that their desires are not part of their person. But are they the most important part? When the desires become not merely attributes of a person but the definitive ground of a person, we see examples of bodies being brought violently into subjection to that which should be seen as far less significant than what God has wrought in the womb.

So also, I think a person can try to emphasis one or more aspects of his person to such a degree that that those attributes take on a monstrous aspect. Whiteness is certainly my color. But is white essentially who I am? Among the many things I may say about myself, my whiteness seems far less significant than many other attributes, like that my name is Brian or that I am Baptized.

What I attempted through my controversial thesis was to draw out an important truth about our humanity and our persons through seeing what was redeemed through Christ’s all sufficient sacrifice. As Luther once put it in a humorous way, Christ did not become a rabbit to save rabbit kind. He became a man to save mankind. In Christ we see all men crucified with Christ. We see the substitute for all humanity encompassing their essences and various attributes whether they be color, height, age, sex, and so on. God be praised! His atonement is such that it doesn’t discriminate between men outside of his own Davidic family tree, but was sufficient to encompass all of humanity thus, I propose, showing the diminishing value of the old cleavages that divided men and how they are all being brought into a new body, the body of Christ, the holy Chrisitan church, by faith. That the old cleavages and once all-important distinguishing marks for someone’s humanity and personhood have undergone a profound reevaluation of value. I’m not saying that they don’t exist anymore. I’m not saying they’re going to be wiped away by your sanctification and resurrection. What I’m saying is that whatever we say about them can only be fully understood and treated rightly when we consider them next to the greater gifts of grace.

St. Paul writes, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:26-27). Birth, power, wisdom are important distinguishing marks for the people of Corinth. But in Christ, God has selected those who were nothing according to those standards and set them apart for eternal blessing.

Again Saint Paul writes, “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:3-7).

All the old attributes in which he took such pride St. Paul now counts as loss! All for the sake of Christ! Having gained Christ by Baptism and faith, I think it’s fair to say that St. Paul is an example to all Christians in making them consider their ethnicities, nationalities, physical characteristics, as not just less significant, as if these things could be put on the same spectrum as faith, but as loss! From the standpoint of the world, St. Paul took advantage of his status of Roman citizenship. He took advantage of his circumcision to preach to the Jews in their synagogues. But those things are no longer the sources of pride or confidence for St. Paul. To say it another way, his ethnicity and family descent still meant something in the world, though less than it had before his Baptism, but next to Christ they now seemed as less than nothing.

Who are we fundamentally? Perhaps we should look to Jesus crucified, risen, and ascended to start gaining the answers. He speaks to us about who we have become in our Baptism putting the old cleavages that were sources of pride into very stark perspective.

St. Peter writes, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

If I am white, which I am, that counts as very little next to who I have become in Christ through Baptism. Baptism has much more to do with who I am essentially than who I am accidentally. I tell my boys without shame that they are German-American if they go far back enough, though even that gets murky since my dad was adopted. I tell them they are Americans since that relates directly to God’s commands to obey civil authorities (Rom. 13, etc.). I tell them they bear the name Flamme (an adopted name though one in which we’re not ashamed). More than anything I tell them they are Christian, redeemed by Christ, and their Baptism has separated them from death to gain eternal life. I tell them people of different nationalities and colors have great value in God’s sight since he gave his Son into death as sacrifice for them. I tell them the Christians in India and Africa who share their faith are closer brothers to them then the obstinate unbelievers of their own family. I’m glad to say they take the greatest pleasure in telling their friends and neighbors of their citizenship in heaven rather than of belonging to this or that group upon this earth. If they are educated, strong, good looking, though these attributes have limited value in this world for a short time, they pale in comparison to who they have become in Christ who has redeemed their bodies and souls from sin and death.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).

No doubt I’m an intellectual lightweight. No doubt people who consider themselves my friends are hoping I’ll shut up and stop embarrassing myself. No doubt to the champions of race and nationalism, I’m a danger to the cause and an apparent agent of the left. I certainly hope the advocates for ‘critical’ justice on the left see the sword cuts both ways. But all this counts as very little to me. I have Christ. I know who I have become in him. I know what he has given me in this world and the world to come. I know how to set all these things in order and properly evaluate them using God’s Word as the gold standard. As a pastor it is my joy to share the new identity of Christian with all who hear the Word and believe it. I’ll gladly count all as loss for this! To God alone be the glory. Amen.