merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.
-C.S. Lewis (from the Screwtape Letters)
Salvation is an important and difficult theme to discuss in a systematic way, because at its core it is so amazingly simple, for God has freely saved us, sinners though we are, by his grace through the death of his son Jesus Christ, not by any work or merit of our own. This must always stand at the center of any talk of salvation, and must always be held to be a complete non-negotiable. The gospel message is the test against which all theology must stand. Even as it is simple, though, God's activity of salvation is also one of the richest doctrines, of which we can never plumb its depths fully. For there is mystery which we cannot penetrate. As Paul writes in First Corinthians 13, now we see only in part, as through a glass darkly. With this in mind, let us look at what a kenotic understanding of salvation entails.
In discussing the salvation of humanity through the person of Jesus Christ, it is important to center the theology around Jesus Christ. In light of this, it is especially fitting that kenosis as it relates to God�s relationship to the world in Jesus Christ also applies to God�s relationship to humanity in salvation. The kenotic paradigm of understanding God�s interaction with the world as one of divine emptying applies to soteriology, in that God is the giver of unmerited grace, the actor in salvation, so that no one can boast, and yet, God also gives freedom to his fallen creatures, in no way to earn salvation, but to receive his grace, but always fully in accord with God's will.
Kierkegaard�s theology of paradox is important in understanding the kenotic nature of God�s grace in salvation. Kierkegaard focuses much attention on the importance of paradox in understanding theology. Paradox applies to the incarnation, in that Christ possessed a complete human nature, and yet possessed a complete divine nature simultaneously. This paradoxical understanding of kenosis in the incarnation can also be applied to God�s relationship to His creation, and especially to God�s relationship to human beings, in that God has the power and authority to control all, and yet still allows true freedom to exist. This freedom applies to humans, and the human will as well. But this freedom does not simply entail choosing which road to take or what clothes to wear. God�s ultimate gift of freedom relates to salvation. In salvation, God allows humans the ability to accept or decline His gift of grace.
Understanding God as the bringer of salvation, the giver of grace, and understanding the human as being totally undeserving of that gift, the conclusion could be reached that God, without any participation of the human, imparts grace. This conclusion has been come to by many, including Martin Luther. Luther talks of God who �ordains by his own counsel which�persons he wills to be recipients and partakers of his preached and offered mercy.� God brings salvation to whom He desires. This view has God as the giver of salvation, but God also predestines all who go to heaven. The ultimate responsibility has shifted from the sinner to God, and thus, it is God who condemns. Another view, one which Luther strongly opposed, is that humans are able to earn salvation, or in some way merit it. In this view, associated specifically with the Pelagians among others, humans participate with God, having faith and earning salvation through the human�s own power.
Neither of these contradictory views sufficiently explains God�s work of salvation, or the human role in it. Scripture talks of God as forgiver and justifier. But scripture also asserts that humans must believe, and must have faith. Kierkegaard brings out the paradox of this view, as he talks of humanity as �absolutely dependent� on yet �equally accountable� to God. Out of this paradox, comes the kenotic understanding of free will, that God saves, yet humans believe.
The kenotic model of soteriology and the human will places the action and power in God�s hands, and yet, leaves the human accountable. This starts with the understanding that humans cannot come to God on their own. Humanity does not have the power or the strength to come to God. As Paul writes, there is �no one who seeks God.� Westerholm, writing about the theology of the apostle Paul, states that �Adamic human beings �cannot become God�s people, or even respond to God�s goodness in faith, unless God, acting on his own initiative, creates those possibilities.� The unmerited quality of God�s love can be seen in Paul�s letter to the Romans, where Paul writes, �While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.�
It is important to assert that humans cannot earn their salvation in any way. There is no action that can be taken to merit God�s forgiveness. God�s action is not the whole of the equation, though. God draws humans to Himself. This is fundamentally necessary. But humans play a role as well. This is where kenosis is seen in God�s relationship to the human will. God, although He could dictate all of salvation, chooses to empty Himself, allowing freedom for human beings.
In the Screwtape Letters, Lewis writes from the perspective of a demon, Screwtape. Screwtape writes to another demon about his understandings of God, referred to as the Enemy. Through Screwtape�s voice, Lewis writes of the connection between kenosis and free will as it relates to soteriology:
�You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree �and at any moment. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. ...The creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.�
Lewis demonstrates how the kenotic relationship of God to humans in soteriology creates a type of relationship which allows humans to truly be �themselves.� Humans are not merely puppets in God�s hands, but instead are allowed genuine being, in having the opportunity to be in a genuine love relationship with God.
Kenotic soteriology asserts that God empties Himself in relationship to the human will, allowing humans genuine choice in relationship to Him. As seen in Kierkegaard and Lewis, it is the human who has a choice, to accept or to turn away. In essence, a �yes� or �no.� Kierkegaard describes it in this way: �Man�s highest achievement is to let God be able to help him.� The human plays the role of acceptance, of belief. Jackson describes Kierkegaard�s soteriology in this way: �We are fated neither to salvation nor damnation, but neither do we take an active step toward God on our own. �Grace as unmerited favor is indispensable for justification before God.�
For Kierkegaard, it is important to assert that faith, which is necessary for salvation, implies a willful faith, and that this implication leads to humans as ultimately accountable to God. Kierkegaard writes that �Faith, surely, implies an act of the will, �how can I otherwise explain the saying in the New Testament that whatsoever is not of faith is sin.� Oswald Chambers writes of the forgiveness of sins: �The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of Christ, which He has provided for us.� Chafer similarly writes of the human involvement in salvation, �Believing is the opposite of doing anything; it is trusting another instead.� It is this belief that is an essential ingredient to salvation, but as Chafer points out, this is not implying an action. Instead, it is acknowledging the inability to act, and it is this belief in Jesus Christ as �the way and the truth and the life� which is necessary for salvation. Our developing kenotic theology seeks to assert that God is the author and giver of salvation, and acknowledge this primacy while also remembering that God has given faith to his creatures as a gift, which humans are called to exercise, but always fully in accord with God's will. Behold, it is a mystery.
An important result of a kenotic theology of soteriology is that humans are the holders of the ultimate accountability, and thus, are ultimately deserving of their fate. God is not to blame for damnation, but the human is, by freely turning down God�s offer of salvation. On the other hand, though, the human is not capable of salvation, having no way to attain independently, and thus God is still deserving of all of the credit for salvation. Jackson writes of the emphasis of Kierkegaard�s soteriology on the �kenotic nature of divine grace, it�s self-emptying quality: True omnipotence and omnibenevolence generate freedom in creatures, not necessity or servile dependency.� Polkinghorne talks of this in slightly different terms: �Our reconciliation to God is both objective (Christ does something for us that we could not do for ourselves) and subjective (we have to embrace and make our own the forgiveness made available in him).� Kenotic soteriology brings together the amazing and unmerited grace of God with the freedom and responsibility of humanity.
Stephen Westerholm, in his book on Pauline theology, Preface to the Study of Paul, speaks of Paul having a similar view of soteriology to that of Kierkegaard. Westerholm asserts that Paul did not hold a purely predestinarian view of salvation, that God simply predestined all to heaven or hell. Instead, Westerholm asserts that Paul believed �divine grace can be resisted, and even that the �called� members of the Christian community may prove faithless and be lost.� Thus, in utilizing the kenotic paradigm, based in Phil. 2, kenotic soteriology is not departing from Paul�s assertions of the gospel message.
The freedom that humans have is not a freedom to come to God. Freedom must be forfeited back to God. Humans cannot depend on themselves for salvation, but must come to dependence on God. This is the content of belief. Humans do not come to a belief that they can achieve salvation, but instead come to believe in Jesus Christ as the only way. Kierkegaard writes of choice and freedom, �If you want to rescue and preserve it there is only one way: in the very same second unconditionally and in complete resignation to give it back to God, and yourself with it.� This soteriology of God�s sovereign grace yet human belief illustrates the kenotic nature of God�s interaction with the world. God chooses to empty Himself, allowing humans the freedom to love, and especially, to accept God�s love, while remaining fully sovereign.
