Stumbling Over Inclusion and Exclusion

As Jesus wraps up his speech to the Twelve in preparation for their first short-term mission trip, he summarizes in a paradoxical way the tenor of their engagement with the world. The gospel which they preach will simultaneously cause the exclusion of those who believe it and itself exclude those who reject it. And yet, the gospel will also (ultimately) include everyone who accepts its exclusive claims about the coming of the kingdom and the identity of the Messiah. The resolution of this paradox is not to find a third way or a happy medium between exclusion and inclusion. Rather, it is to hold tightly onto both as they relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus rightly claims exclusive authority to be the way, the truth, and the life, and he also rightly invites anyone who is weary and burdened to find rest in him. If we lose the exclusive side, we have nothing different to offer the world than what it already contains. If we lose the inclusive side, we ironically condemn ourselves, for all fall short of God’s glory, all are excluded except for the grace that is received by faith.

Reflecting on this from a slightly different angle, Christopher Watkin discusses how the scandal of particularity, i.e. that salvation is found in no other name than Jesus, does not reject universality. Rather, in Christ, universality and particularity are reconciled. He writes,

If it is a scandal that the incarnation happened at a particular historical moment, then it is equally scandalous that the Christ of the incarnation is a particular person: a first-century provincial Aramaic-speaking male carpenter’s son. Christ was not incarnate as an abstract form of humanity or as an ‘everyman,’ but as one man, and one man only. But of course the wonder of the incarnation is that in this very particularity Christ also remains universal: the God of creation, the Alpha and the Omega, the one before whom every knee will bow. ‘What makes the form of Christ attractive,’ writes William Cavanaugh, ‘is the perfect harmony between finite form and infinite fullness, the particular and the universal.’

As we reflect on who Jesus is, we cannot set aside either universality or particularity without losing Christ himself. Moreover, because of who Jesus is, we should not be surprised that his gospel simultaneously exhibits characteristics of exclusion and inclusion. In fact, we should expect this because the gospel itself is not an abstract idea but the announcement of a particular person, Jesus. So, Watkin continues, “Note that Christ is not merely the one in or through whom revelation takes place, as if he were the mouthpiece for or window onto an abstract reality beyond his own person. Christ, insists Calvin, is ‘not good and just, but goodness and justice,’ and Herman Bavinck notes that Christ is most unlike other religious leaders because he ‘is not the founder of Christianity, nor the first confessor of it, nor the first Christian.’ Rather, ‘he is Christianity itself, in its preparation, fulfilment, and consummation.’”

These truths help us to appreciate why discipleship is so essential to salvation. If we do not follow Christ, then we will not find reconciliation with God, for Christ is our propitiation. If we do not die to ourselves so that we might live for Christ, then we will remain lost, for only in Christ is there newness of life. Of practical consequence is the fact that ideas do not save us (even if ideas have consequences, sometimes severely detrimental ones). We cannot live in a world purely consisting of ideas, for that would keep us out of reach of any substantial solution to real-world problems. That the gospel forces one to wrestle with concrete matters is part of its narrative of exclusion, in the sense that so long as one can leave sin, death, and the devil in the abstract one may live in a false peace. It seems to me that this is part of the reason why Jesus says that he came to bring a sword to the earth. While the degree to which each and every one of us experiences the piercing quality of the living and active word of God may vary, invariably the word of God becomes concrete for us, forcing us to face the raw realities of sin and death. Where the gospel includes, however, is that inclusive promise of salvation in Christ for all those who will concretely follow Christ where he leads.