High Agency Christianity
• 3 min read
I.
The image of a Christian is generally passive. Christians "turn the other cheek."
Interestingly, Walter Wink notes that Jesus specifies the right cheek in the Book of Matthew. The physical positioning argues that the right cheek implies a degrading backhand slap from a right-handed person. To turn that cheek actually requires the attacker to strike you with the open hand, as an equal instead of as an inferior.
This reading is an assertion of identity. "Not a slave, but free." The Christian refuses manmade status and transcends it to his true identity in Christ.
So who are you?
II.
Ordinary ambition generally goes like this: if you achieve enough, if you gain enough status, win enough, have a black enough AmEx card, you could perhaps finally become somebody. The initial lack in identity spurs achievement which creates a new identity.
God, however, bestows identity before achievement. In fact, any achievement, all achievements cannot win you this identity. It is wholly apart from your achievement. It is granted by grace and grace alone.
It is through this identity--as a son of God, a king, a priest, a city on a hill, an heir, a beloved, a steward--that we flex new muscles as image-bearers of God. An image bearer, says Michael Heiser, is made for representation, cultivation, work, and dominion under God (Genesis 1:26–28; 2:15).
It is through this role as a steward of Earth that we must act.
III.
Inputs over outputs.
As a Christian, you are supposed to be radically ambitious from a position of radical non-necessity.
Does an heir to an inheritance fear a layoff for bad performance? Failure does not revoke your identity; likewise, success cannot confer it. The mystery of grace stands behind it.
The eternal security we have gives us superpowers. We can risk, strive, build, and endure past the point where a striver would quit, because the striver's self is riding on the outcome and ours is not. A good steward does not rot on a couch; he works, and channels his ambition toward the will of the principal.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes that "[he] planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." We are responsible for the inputs. Persistence, discipline, discernment, and bravery are within our grasp.
God, however, is sovereign over outputs. We do the best we can. He takes care of everything else. We must plan whilst acknowledging the Lord's sovereignty over our plans.
Submission, then, does not look passive. It looks like movement. You do not know whether your plan will succeed. You know that His will. Because of what He did, you know who you are. Because you know who you are, you can do more, stretch further, hit harder, as a steward of a vast and glorious creation.
Radical ambition. Radical non-necessity of outcomes. Go forth.
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