Justification and inclusion

Another angle that it’s worth using to think about inclusion is the angle of the classic Reformation doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone.

Put simply, it says that we don’t get right with God because of anything we have done; we can’t earn salvation. We get right with God because he loves us, and sent Jesus to live, die and be raised from the dead for us. Jesus has done everything we need (it is by grace alone); all we have to do is to trust him in order to receive the benefits which he has won for us (through faith alone).

Once you know to look for it, it’s all over the Bible, but is probably clearest in passages like Ephesians 2 and Romans 5.

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved… For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-10

Why does this matter for neurodiversity and inclusion?

Because this is a key doctrine in the New Testament and in Protestant theology, but all too often we miss that the main practical application that the New Testament makes from this doctrine is about the necessity of inclusion.

Far too often we communicate that it’s only people who share our tastes or styles who are welcome in church.

For example, if we only ever have traditional music in church, we’re saying that we’re only for people who like traditional music, aren’t we? Ditto if we only ever have modern music. Ditto if we insist that children all have to sit in silence or if it’s only ever white people at the front or if we say there are certain standards of social class and behaviour that we need in order to be able to fit in at church.

But if we are justified by grace through faith, then no-one gets into God’s kingdom because of their neurotype or status, and so people are welcome in God’s kingdom whatever their status and neurotype. It’s not about how well we fit in or where we come from or what we’ve done. Everyone is welcome, and being welcoming to others is far more important than getting things our own way.

We aren’t saved by what we do, or by who are ancestors are, or by the colour of our skin, or by how clever we are, or because we have the right accent, or the right neurotype, or any of those things. We are saved because of God’s great love for us.

And so are those who are different from us in every way, except for our shared trust in Jesus.

If we believe in justification by God’s grace alone, received through faith alone in Jesus alone, then a key way we show that is by the church including all those whom God includes.

Perhaps that’s why the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone is clearest in the New Testament epistles that are most concerned with inclusion of people across boundaries – Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.

In the case of Jews and Gentiles, the division between the two was very visibly expressed in the “dividing wall” in the Temple, which created separate walls for Jews and Gentiles. Archaeologists have found signs which hung on those walls, which say:

No foreigner is to enter the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. He who is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.

Interestingly, the wall was not part of God’s plan for the Temple or the Tabernacle, both of which are given in detail in the Old Testament; it was a feature added to the Second Temple some time after it was built at the time of Haggai and Zechariah, and before Jesus arrived there.

God’s original plans for the Tabernacle and Temple had an area for the priests, and then a court for all worshippers, whether male or female, Jew or Gentile. The boundaries and divisions were created later, by people rather than by God.

To show that the main application of this doctrine should be about inclusion, straight after his famous statement about us being saved by grace through faith in Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul goes on to write about how God has brought the Gentiles near to himself through Jesus, and then comments on the dividing wall in the temple.

For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Ephesians 2:14-18

Jesus destroys the dividing wall by his death, and so accomplishes genuine inclusion.

In fact, v14b-15 is more literally translated

and the middle wall of the enclosure he did break down, the enmity in his flesh, the law of the commands in ordinances having done away, that the two he might create in himself into one new man, making peace
(Young’s Literal Translation)

In other words, Jewish Christians are in Christ, and Gentile Christians are also in Christ; he is the new and perfect Temple where they both come to God. If there is a dividing wall between them, then it is a dividing wall within Jesus himself, which Jesus destroys in his death.

So how can we create, or to try to maintain, barriers which Jesus has already destroyed? If we understand justification rightly, then inclusion is an imperative.