Saving the Story
Part 3, The Curse Free Zone
In Colossians 1.13, Paul declares, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”
The Greek word translated here as “domain” has a range of meanings, among them “power,” “authority,” and “dominion.” But for this post I want to keep with the spacial meaning. We were once located in the territory of darkness and have been relocated and transferred to a new location, the kingdom of Christ.
In the last two posts I’ve been describing how Christ deals with curses. The Deuteronomic curses of Sinai concerning covenantal loyalty and infidelity. And the deeper, primordial Adamic curses of sin and death. I’ve described this work as “saving the story” of Israel. At the end of the last post I said that Christ has made Israel’s story a “curse free zone.” Free of the curses due to Adam’s fall, and free of the curses due to Israel’s failure.
I want to use this notion of a “curse free zone” to describe Biblical references to the wrath of God.
As I mentioned in the first post, one of the concerns with penal substitutionary atonement is its individualistic focus. The wrath of God is directed at me, personally. I am the object of wrath. And it’s this personalization--God is wrathful toward me--that creates the potential for psychological harm. Covenantal substitutionary atonement, I’ve pointed out, shifts away from this personalization. Jesus is substituting himself for Israel. A similar shift happens with the Adamic curses. Jesus substitutes himself for Adam, and as the new and second Adam Jesus is able to restart and recapitulate human history. This recapitulation vision of atonement isn’t common nowadays, but it was a favorite one among the church fathers.
In both instances, Jesus substituting himself for either Adam or Israel, there is a shift away from Jesus substituting himself for me on the cross. Of course, insofar as I am implicated in Adam’s sin or locked out of Israel’s story due to her failure, Jesus’ death on the cross is very much “for me.” But only in how I, along with all of humanity, are a part of a much larger, universal story. I’m most definitely a piece of this larger puzzle, but I’m no longer narcissistically playing the starring role in this cosmic drama.
That said, without Christ I do stand under the curse. And this is where I think the metaphor of space, territory, and domain comes it. The entire world stands accursed due to Adam’s sin and Israel’s failure. Anyone in this territory--the “domain of darkness”--lives under the curse. Jesus, however, carves out a “curse free zone” within the world. Those who live in this liberated territory are freed from the Adamic and Deuteronomic curses and consequences.
The point here is that God’s wrath isn’t really about you. Nor did you, uniquely, bring that ire into existence. The curses existed long before you showed up. You were simply born into the Accursed Land, and you suffer the effects--like suffering death and being locked out of the blessings made to Abraham--of living in that land. But due to the work of Christ, there is a land where the curses have been expelled and expunged. This is the Blessed Land. And here’s the good news. You can go there. Right now, you can go. You don’t have to live in the Land of Shadow. You can leave.
You can be transferred from the domain of darkness to live in the kingdom of the Beloved Son.
This is really affirming to me. I use to see life as a morality play with me playing the starring role. But really, I'm just another Bozo on the bus. And I can get off the bus anytime I want. But I'm still here, by choice. I'm here to persuade other passengers that there's a whole world outside the bus that they can be a welcome part of. Or they can stay like me and deal with the tension in order to open some eyes. But none of us have to consign ourselves to the despair that the bus is the only reality there is.
Thank you for challenging the conventional teachings and deconstructing our view of the Cross. I have believed for some time now that our view of God turning his face away or separating himself from Jesus on the Cross because of sin…my sin even, being placed on him, sets up an unhealthy picture of God. These posts have been helpful. I guess I would just add that this is what John was writing about when he calls Jesus the Light of the World.