The Way of Christ is Progress

Recently, as people on social media are wont to do, a long time friend of mine posted a really reductionistic meme about the "unchanging" nature of the Way of Christ. It said: 

"Christianity does not 'progress' with the times. If it did, it would be a false religion. Do not be deceived into thinking there is a progressive form of Christianity. It doesn't exist because the truth never changes. Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever. Amen"

I used to fear change and progress, and I was also committed to a really simplistic and reductive understanding of the Church as "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (cf. 1Timothy 3.15). Thus I was committed to "contend for the [unchanging] faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 1.3). And in doing this, I took traditional 20th century Anglo-Saxon social norms to be the social norms of the Bible, and American politics and economics to be the default assumptions of the Biblical writers. And it sounds patently absurd when it is put in those terms. But that was the lens I read Scripture and Christianity through. Therefore upholding the "unchanging" faith of the Bible meant defending and upholding the very culture that I was comfortable with.

But anyone who is even remotely familiar with the History and cultural background of the Bible will immediately spot these assumptions as false. Our world does not look anything like the world of the Bible. And none of our Churches look anything like the illegal subversive underground early Church of the first century. And as culture has changed, the Church has changed too. We have gone from the Roman Imperial System, to Feudalism, to living as an outsider Religion in Islamic culture, to European Nation States, to Colonial Mercantilism, to Global Consumerism. We have gone from slave owning societies to anti-slavery. We have gone from subjugation of women to attempts at gender equality. And much of this progress and many of these changes have been motivated by the values implicit in the trajectory that Scripture leads us on. 

So, if Scripture has been the engine for much social change and progress and adaptation, does that mean the Truth that is witnessed to in Scripture changes? No.

The Truth does not change. What changes is our capacity to understand it, and ability to enact it. Just like the laws of physics do not change, and neither do the principles of mathematics, but our science and study does change. Now we are able to fly planes, cook in microwaves, and call on cell phones. All of which people 2000 years ago could not do. Likewise, laws of gravity and momentum do not change, but the athlete is able to progressively grow in their mastery of those forces from Pee Wee sports to High School sports to college Sports to professional Sports.

Truth does not progress. But we do. The teachings and laws of Scripture are cultural applications of unchanging Divine Values. Values such as unconditional love for all humans, the infinite worth of every person, the commitment to care for and provide the needs of people, the just and fair treatment of individuals, and the need for compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. These values do not change, but how they are applied in different cultures and situations does. This is especially true in individuals and societies that have not fully grasped how universal and unchanging these values are, and that these values apply equally to our friends as well as enemies, to those who are the same as us as much as they do to those who are different. 

Scripture has always been pointing in a certain direction: The direction of unlimited Love (cf. 1Corithinians 13), compassion and justice for all (cf. Matthew 5-7), the deconstruction of social categories that diminish or demean God's children (cf. Galatians 3), inclusion of radically diverse members into the Body of Christ (cf. 1Corithinians 12), and universal healing and redemption in Christ (cf. 1Corithinians 15). But despite the fact that Scripture is often incredibly clear on many things, due to the limitations of our culture and mindset, we have not fully been able to heed the call of where Scripture is leading us. Therefore, we must grow into that calling and progress in our capacity to live into the values witnessed in Scripture. 

It is for this reason that Scripture repeatedly reminds us that we are to ever be progressive in sanctification and understanding and growth into Christlikeness. For instance, Jesus says: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." [John 16.12–13]. Likewise, Paul says: "For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." [1 Corinthians 13.9–12]

So I would actually say that the quote that was originally posted is not only tilted, but even dangerously deceptive. It lulls us into security that we have Jesus and his Way all figured out and we don't have to change anything or repent. It denies the call of Christ's Spirit to constantly progress. Or as Paul puts it: 

"Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you." [Philippians 3.12-15]

Let us not subtly deny Christ's call to progress and growth in service to any political or cultural ideology made up by humans to preserve their position and privilege. Let us instead follow Paul who said "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ..." [Philippians 3.7-8]

It is for all of these reasons that the Way of Christ is essentially progressive from beginning to end. Christlike progress begins with the way we view the unfolding and evolving Creation of the world, it continues with the process of how we are all always growing deeper in Christ, and it ends with a vision of how all Creation will be healed by Christ in the end. Only this view can best account for our endless progress and growth into Christlikeness. This is the worldview witnessed to by Dr. Martin Luther King, when he echoed the voice of many others in proclaiming "The Moral Arc of History is long, but it bends toward justice".

If you are interested in a Way to follow that Moral Arc, and interpret Scripture (and its laws) as an invitation to grow in Christ, rather than as a rule book of how to stay stuck in place forever, then I would commend this chart and essay to you. May the Lord Jesus Christ help us all grow and progress in his Spirit always. Amen.