NILS VON KALM finds NT Wright’s latest a masterful exploration of the ramifications of Christ’s death and resurrection…
NT Wright,
The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion
HarperOne, 2016
ISBN 13: 978-0062334381
“This book is destined to go down as Wright’s most influential work since Surprised by Hope busted a whole lot of myths about what the Christian hope really is. For Wright, Jesus’ death was the day everything changed, and His resurrection was the first demonstration of that.”
If there is one thing I have learned from reading much of NT Wright over the years, it is that the Gospel is much bigger than most of us have been taught. His latest book, The Day the Revolution Began, reminds us why.
This book is destined to go down as Wright’s most influential work since Surprised by Hope busted a whole lot of myths about what the Christian hope really is. For Wright, Jesus’ death was the day everything changed, and His resurrection was the first demonstration of that.
There are two main points that come out of this book for me. The first is that the Gospels talk about Jesus dying for our sins, “according to the Bible”. Never is it suggested anywhere in the Bible that the Jews were waiting for a Messiah to come so we could go to heaven when we die. They were waiting for a Messiah to set things right again. That was the great hope they were waiting for and that is in fact the ultimate Christian hope.
The second main point Wright makes is that it would not just be in the context of suffering that Jesus set things right, but through His very suffering itself. I believe this is a major truth that the Western church needs to hear.
In making these two points, this book also debunks many popular myths about Jesus’ death, and does so with typical articulate precision. An example is that of the age-old debate about whether Jesus’ death was a case of ‘Christus Victor’ or if it was really a substitutionary atonement. Wright makes clear that in fact the Bible has elements of both, although with the latter, it is not the type of penal substitution that many readers will be familiar with. Jesus’ death was not because God was angry with us and had to send his Son to die in our place so he could appease God’s wrath. It was not a case of what is referred to as ‘cosmic child abuse’.
In the second half of this very large work, Wright goes meticulously through each New Testament book to show what they both do and do not say about Jesus’ death. For Wright, the message they bring forth is that the death of Jesus is ultimately an act of supreme love.
The last part of this book puts it all together succinctly and with finesse. The strongest point Wright makes in this section, and which I love, is what Jesus’ crucifixion means for mission. He concludes that it simply has everything to do with it.
The cross is central to why and how we do mission for God’s kingdom. It is not a liberal agenda where it’s all about social justice. If it was, it wouldn’t be complete and wouldn’t work because the human heart also needs changing. And it isn’t a conservative agenda where it’s all about evangelism and personal morality. That wouldn’t work either because it would deny things that are central to Jesus’ idea of the kingdom. No, it is both/and, not either/or.
This massive volume makes crystal clear that Christian mission is about the total transformation of everything in existence. And it all started with the death of Jesus on that first Good Friday. That is the day the revolution began. NT Wright’s thorough explanation of it is what makes this work another one of his masterpieces.
