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5 - The faithfulness of Christ

from Part III - The rewritten narrative

Matthew C. Easter
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Summary

Introduction

In Part 3, we are discussing the way Jesus has rewritten the default human narrative. Through his participation in the human story, his faithfulness in the face of death, and his resurrection, Jesus has written a new story with a new assured conclusion of life rather than death. In this chapter we turn to the faithfulness of Christ, and I will argue that Jesus’ faithfulness is his obedience to the point of self-sacrifice in death. The faithfulness of Christ accomplishes two broad points. Taking our cues from Heb 12:2, the faithful Christ (1) pioneers and (2) perfects faith. What “pioneers” and “perfects” mean will become clearer as we go, but in short, the author of Hebrews depicts Jesus as the faithful one par excellence who successfully finishes the race of faith in the face of death (pioneers) and so secures the assured conclusion of eschatological life for those participating in the same story of faith (perfects).

In the introductory chapter, I offered the four dimensions of faith as (1) Christological, (2) ethical, (3) eschatological, and (4) ecclesiological. In this chapter we will discover the first three dimensions in full force. We will see that faith, as modeled perfectly in Jesus (Christological dimension), is one of endurance to the point of death (ethical dimension) that realizes postmortem life as its assured conclusion (eschatological dimension).

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Faith and the Faithfulness of Jesus in Hebrews , pp. 132 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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References

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