By Christian / Tom Wright
This series takes up the main ideas from the book by Bible scholar N. T. Wright Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (German Von Hoffnung überrascht – Was die Bibel zu Auferstehung und ewigem Leben sagt).
I read the book in the German translation. So the quotes are from the German translation and retranslated into English. The quotes will therefore differ from the English original.
Jesus, the Judge to come
Another aspect of hope – which may also surprise some – is this: „The image of Jesus as the coming judge is the central feature of another absolutely crucial and non-negotiable Christian belief: that there will indeed be a judgement in which the Creator God will set the world right once and for all.“ (p. 167) Here, too, we must be careful not to associate the term „judgement“ with what we call and associate with judgement today. The biblical context of the term „judgement“ is decisive and this is not condemnation, but a consistently good thing, as we also find in the Psalms: Everything rejoices because God brings things to good.
After Jesus‘ resurrection, the first disciples of Jesus were convinced that he was the Messiah. „Their belief in Jesus‘ messiahship could have been a decisive factor in the emergence of the belief in his ultimate coming as judge. This belief was already well established at the time of Paul’s appearance.“
This reveals another widespread but false assumption about Paul’s teachings: „Because Paul taught justification by faith, not by works, there is no room for a future judgement „according to works“. But this only shows how much many people misunderstood him.
The future judgement according to works, a judgement that Jesus will hold on his „judgement seat“, is clearly taught, for example, in Romans 14:9-10; 2 Corinthians 5:10 and answerswo. …. This image of future judgement according to works is indeed the basis of Paul’s theology of justification by faith.
Justification by faith is what happens in the present time, awaiting the judgement of the future day when God will judge the world. It is God’s anticipated declaration that the person who believes the gospel is already a member of his family now, no matter what their parents were, that their sins are forgiven because of the death of Jesus and that on that future day, as Paul says, „there is no condemnation“ (Romans 8:1).
N. T. Wright, Von Hoffnung überrascht, S. 169, 170
That should have been enough interesting thoughts to think about for now. Perhaps you too are now „surprised by hope“. And that will probably be no less the case in the next paragraph and next episode, when it will be about the redemption of our bodies, purgatory, paradise and hell.
The redemption of our body
What happens after death? The views of people – even Christians – differ widely. But the hope in the New Testament is crystal clear, if perhaps surprising:
Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:23 BSB
What is supposed to be surprising about that? Please read the text again carefully. What idea did you have? This one: „we are waiting for the redemption of our body„. Or this one: „we are waiting for the redemption from our body„? But that’s not what the text says! In this text, Paul does not say that we will be redeemed from our bodies, but that our bodies will be redeemed. Surprise!
N. T. Wright looks at many passages from the New Testament in chapter 10. I will only mention a few here. If you want to know more, I recommend that you read the book at your leisure.
„The clearest and strongest passage, which is often ignored, is Romans 8:9-11“ (p. 178):
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:9-11 NIV
But how then is Jesus‘ statement according to John 14:2 to be understood?
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 NIV
This is often understood to mean that one goes to heaven after death, where Jesus has already provided a place. However, we must not read the texts with our understanding of the English words. „The word for „place“ in this passage, monai, is not usually used in Greek for a final resting place, but for a short stop on the journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run.“ (S. 179)
„This fits in well with Jesus‘ words to the dying criminal in the Gospel of Luke: „Today you will be with me in paradise.“ Despite a long tradition of misunderstanding, paradise here, as in some other Jewish scriptures, is not a final destination but the blissful garden, the parkland of peace and tranquillity where the dead are refreshed as they await the dawn of the new day. The main point of the sentence lies in the apparent contrast between the criminal’s request and Jesus‘ reply: „Remember me“, he says, „when you come into your kingdom„, implying (whether ironically or not is irrelevant now) that this will be in the distant future. Jesus brings this future hope into the present, implying of course that the kingdom will indeed come with his death, even if it doesn’t look like what had been imagined. „This very day you will be with me in paradise.“ There will, of course, still be a future fulfilment that includes the ultimate resurrection; Luke’s overall theological understanding leaves no doubt about this. After all, Jesus was not raised „today“, i.e. on Good Friday. Luke must have understood Jesus to be referring to a state of being-in-paradise that would come true for him and the dying man next to him immediately, on the same day – in other words, before the resurrection. With Jesus, the hope of the future has moved into the present. For those who die in faith, before that ultimate resurrection, the central promise is to be „with Jesus“ immediately. „My desire is to die,“ Paul wrote, „and to be with Christ, which is far better.““ (S. 179,180)
Referring to 1 Peter, N. T. Wright emphasises what we must imagine by the term „soul“: „The word psyche here, like the Hebrew nephesh, seems to refer not to an incorporeal inner part of man, but to what we might call the person or even the personality.“ (S. 181)
For the translations have often caused confusion here, as in 1 Corinthians 15:44
It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:44 NRSV
„Several common translations, especially the Revised Standard Version and its offshoots, translate Paul’s key terms as „a physical body“ and „a spiritual body“. In view of the Greek words Paul uses, this cannot be correct. The technical arguments are overwhelming and clear. The contrast is between the present body, which is perishable, corruptible and doomed to die, and the future body, which is imperishable, incorruptible and will never die. The key adjectives that are quoted endlessly in discussions of this topic do not refer to a physical body and a non-physical body. Yet this is exactly how people in our culture will hear the words physical and spiritual.
The first word, psychikos, in no way means anything like „physical“ in our sense. For Greek speakers at the time of Paul, the word psych, from which the word comes, referred to the soul, not the body.
But the deeper, subliminal point is that adjectives of this kind, Greek adjectives ending in ikos, do not describe the material from which things are made, but the force or energy that animates these things. It’s about the difference between the question: „Is this a wooden or an iron ship?“ (the material it is made of) and the question: „Is this a steamship or a sailing ship?“ (Paul is talking about the present body, animated by the normal human psyche (the life force we all possess here and now, which gets us through the present life, but which is ultimately powerless against sickness, injury, decay and death), and he is talking about the future body, animated by God’s pneuma, God’s breath of new life, the driving force of God’s new creation“. (S. 184, 185)
In this sense, „flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God“. „‚Flesh and blood‘ is a technical term for that which is transitory, passing and approaching death.“ (S. 185)
I think it is becoming increasingly clear why the title of the book is: Surprised by Hope.
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