Entering the Kingdom of Heaven: A Study on the Structure of Matthew's View of Salvation

Entering the Kingdom of Heaven: A Study on the Structure of Matthews View of Salvation. By Petri Luomanen. WUNT II/101. TUbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998, 343 pp., n.p.

What is the "kingdom of heaven"? This question has plagued scholars for the past two hundred years and has received a variety of answers from such notables as Schweitzer, Dodd, and Ladd. The present work, however, deals with what may be a more fundamental issue: "How is it that one (according to Matthew) gets into-and stays in-the kingdom of heaven?" That is the question that this revised version of the author's doctoral dissertation seeks to answer. The central point of contention is stated by Luomanen (p. 3): "Is God's grace the starting point which is followed by requirements directed to those who are already believers? Or should the priority be given to the final judgement, when grace would have only a subsidiary role?"

The work begins, after an introduction to the question, with a survey of previous research. This section is well done and would be a good place to start for anyone working on this area in Matthean studies. He divides the previous research into two areas: scholars who see "Good News and Good Works" as the basis for salvation (with sub-categories of grace and works, grace alone, etc.), and scholars who see the covenant as the basis of salvation. While one might quibble here or there with some nuance in the description of a particular scholar, overall this is a very helpful section.

Next, Luomanen sets forth his methodological considerations. He rightly points out that the "danger of getting involved with circular arguments is biggest when it comes to the task of forming an overall view of a religious movement or community" (p. 32). He goes on to assert that the "aspects of soteriology that are valued in our religious environment also tend to be found as the key concepts of Matthew's theology" (p. 33). In an attempt to avoid this problem, Luomanen sets forth his method clearly, arguing that to accurately understand Matthew's view of entering the kingdom, one must examine three different types of texts: texts describing the final judgment, texts describing the relationship between Jesus and his disciples, and texts describing how one stays in the Christian community (primarily from Matthew 18). Luomanen includes a very strong section on distinguishing true redaction from possible or probable redaction. Here he is at his best and his careful work on the text of Matthew shows.

The majority of the work is given over to analyzing texts for the purpose of finding Matthew's view of achieving and/or maintaining salvation. He divides the texts into the three categories set forth in the methodological section. Given the space constraints of this review I will comment only briefly on one area, Luomanen's third category (an analysis of Matthew 18; pp. 231-257).

He begins by asserting that the "life setting for the rules concerning the expulsion from the congregation is not to be found in the history of Jesus" (p. 231). While some, perhaps even the majority, may see this to be the case, it is certainly not as axiomatic as Luomanen would make it. There are indications that Jesus did have a community around him, and while it was not as structured as the community was in later years, there still may have been need for rules of expulsion. There are such rules in the Qumran materials. While it legitimately could be argued that the Qumran group was more close-knit, and more rule-oriented, there is no inherent reason to deny the basic historicity of this discourse, particularly given Luomanen's belief that this section is not a creation of Matthew (p. 243).

In this section, Luomanen argues that Matthew's group certainly was striving "towards a pure community" (p. 259). Here Luomanen contends most forcefully against the mixed nature of Matthew's "church." These members, he argues, are "seeking to expel members whose behavior is not in accordance with its norms" (p. 260). They are not waiting for the last judgment to get rid of the unfaithful ones.

In the conclusion, Luomanen argues that the "indicative forms the basis of Matthew's understanding of salvation. The starting point is God's election, which calls for human response" (p. 285). Luomanen goes on to argue in favor of a "covenantal nomist" view of salvation on the part of Matthew. He compares many of the basic assumptions of covenantal nomism (as set forth by Sanders) with Matthew's thinking and finds many similarities. Luomanen does, however, find some significant differences as well (p. 282). In the end, though, he finds that Matthew "has more in common with covenantal nomism than with many other Christian writers" (p. 283).

While I would disagree with Luomanen on many issues-e.g. whether or not one "maintains" one's salvation through obedience (p. 285), or whether or not covenantal nomism is an accurate description of Matthew's understanding of the kingdom, I certainly found the work helpful in setting forth some very important issues as to Matthew's view of salvation and in forcing me to think through my own view of the Gospel. This book is highly recommended to anyone who is working on the nature of salvation in the Gospel of Matthew.