Really New

I needed to share with you an image from this past weekend. We had Dr. Jerry Sittser with us. Jerry is Professor of Theology at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. On Friday night he spoke to our congregation from II Corinthians 5:17 "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!" During his talk, he observed that the text says that if we are in Christ, we ARE new, not merely BECOMING new. Often this kind of talk is used to shame us, or motivate us to work harder, or guilt us into acting better. But Jerry's take was that God sees us as we are before him.

He used the analogy of a series of sculptures done by Michelangelo that can be found in Florence, Italy. In a hallway next to the magnificent statue of David, there is a series of sculptures simply called "Slaves" or as I have read recently "Emerging Slaves". They are sculptures of perfectly formed people, emerging from a piece of marble, but not all of the marble is chipped away. Actually, it's difficult to tell if they are emerging from or merging into the marble. Some of the themes suggest that the figures are being absorbed. But others show the strength and vibrancy of something being born right out of the rock. Michelangelo writes the following about his work.

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”

Jerry suggested that the way we view II Corinthians 5:17ff is that God sees us as the perfect sculpture he intends. What life is doing, is chipping away the bits of rock that don't belong. We really are made new. God really does see us as complete, even though we see ourselves as still partially trapped in the rock.

Check out the statue below.

Comments

[Mark]

What a great thought for my life. The statue is already in the material. Only thing required is to remove all the excess the keeps me from being His work of art.

[dan mcgowan]

Craig, thanks for this wonderful blog entry that I found via "transforming sermons."

After reading your entry here, and giving this some thought, I continued the disucssion over at my blog (www.commonsaints.blogspot.com). This is SUCH an important concept for we believers to discuss because, as you know, so many of us simply do not believe (not really) that we are already NEW in Christ - and our lives PROVE it!

Thanks for opening this can of worms... now it's time to go fishing!

[Mark Daniels]

I love Jerry Sittser! His book, 'The Will of God as a Way of Life' is one of the most powerful, helpful I have ever read. It well explains--and convincingly, for me--that the will of God has far less to do with some specific path marked out for our future, than with loving God and loving neighbor today.

The first time I heard the Michaelangelo imagery, I too found it powerful.

You continue to present wonderful stuff on your blog, Craig. God bless!

Mark