We
may draw a parallel between the position Christ has regarding God’s revelation
and the position love has regarding God’s commands. We earlier argued that love
is the only doctrine that we should hold in an “unbalanced” fashion, for no
other commands or concerns can stand next to it in first place to qualify it. This command is to be placed “above all” others (Col. 3:14;
cf. 1 Cor. 13:1–4, 13). All other commands and concerns must be interpreted and
lived out in the light of this one. We might now say something similar
about the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
The
revelation of God in Christ ought not to be qualified by other previous or
subsequent revelations, as though it shared its privileged platform with
another revelation. Christ is “above all” in just the same way that the love
commandment is “above all”—and for just the same reason. Christ is the
preeminent revelation of God’s unsurpassable love. Indeed, the revelation of
God’s unsurpassable love in Christ Jesus grounds the preeminence of the command
to love.
This
is the center and foundation of the gospel. Everything else revolves around
this and is built upon it. All growth in the Christian life is predicated on
it. Only to the extent that we resolve in our minds and hearts that God looks like Jesus—dying a God-forsaken
death on the cross in order to open up the fellowship of the perfect, loving,
triune community—can we make progress expressing God’s love in our lives. As we
fix our eyes on the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, who is
the image of God, we are transformed “into the same image from one degree of
glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18–4:6). As we focus on the One who is the perfect
expression of God’s love, we increasingly participate in this perfect love.
- Repenting of Religion, Greg Boyd
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