The Tensions of Grace
Part 1, Balancing Creation Theology and Soteriology
There are tensions one has to balance in our theology of grace.
One of the most common tensions concerns creation theology and soteriology.
In many conceptions of soteriology, because of the fall creation is a ruin. Nothing "good" remains in the world, or in us. Consequently, grace comes to us soteriologically, in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
However, many struggle with this view of the situation, especially when it is framed in the terms of penal substitutionary atonement. There is a desire to see goodness in creation and in ourselves. Consequently, creation theologies have proliferated which see creation and ourselves as primordially blessed and graced, in a way that the fall does not wholly eclipse.
There is much to applaud in these creation theologies. And yet, it needs to be noted that the more grace your creation theology carries the less grace will be carried by your soteriology. To take an extreme example, but a very common one, if everything and everyone in the world is already "graced" and "blessed," already "saved" as it were, then you end up struggling to articulate why Jesus died on the cross. If your creation theology declares that nothing was ever lost, you don't need to describe why anything needs being saved.
Basically, when grace gets front-loaded in your creation theology, Jesus' death on the cross becomes superfluous and irrelevant. Creation theology carries the weight of grace rather than soteriology. To be created is to be already "saved."
In noting all this I am not offering a judgment. I am simply making an observation to alert you to an oft unnoticed tension. I think there are a lot of good things about front-loading grace in your creation theology. It creates a positive and optimistic view of the world. And there's a lot to love about that posture. But you need to be aware of the downstream impact of how this front-loading of grace affects your view of the atonement. Maybe you don't need Jesus in your Christianity, but a lot of us do. Consequently, some of us will attend to these tensions, desirous to hold optimistic views of a blessed and very good creation, but also keen to confess that the world was saved by the work of Christ on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
It seems in our theology we want everything to be all or nothing, but in reality, there are degrees of separation from God. The majority of life is lived in that gray area, not totally profane and yet, not fully holy either. We can see the original beauty of creation (including us), however, it is marred and tarnished. Sometimes the corruption runs deep, but it for the most part, it does not fully overtake everything in the world. That is what makes it difficult and confusing. It would be easy to say, well everything is rotten, but we know that even in the worst situations, you can find something beautiful and true, courage and bravery and holy people still out doing the work of God under fierce opposition and/or persecution, even if there are only remnants.
Richard, did you read father jonh behr presentation of the idea that creation happens in the Cross and ressurection? With the "it's finnished' line being about the work of creation. I think it helps a little with the dillema.