Committing oneself to the historical life of Jesus incorporates not only following the teachings of Jesus but also emulating his faith in God in the circumstances in which he found himself. Jesus committed himself to God within the historical framework of his earthly existence because he trusted that God was active within that framework. The devil's temptation to Jesus was to escape the historical process through miraculous intervention, which Jesus declined to do. God was in the process, not out of it or above it. Jesus trusted in a God active in redemptive purpose within the historical sphere. Only with this kind of faith could Jesus submit himself to God at Gethsemane, wherein and upon the cross he suffered the historical consequences of his faithful life. Resurrection vindicated his faithful submission to God.

Likewise, the church's mission is to commit itself to history in faith that God is active in the historical sphere. In Paul's words, we are "co-laborers" with God. The escapist mentality that too often characterizes evangelical preaching is foreign to the faith of Jesus. And large churches with every conceivable facility and comfort providing a safe haven for Christians contradicts the teaching and faith of Jesus. We are go into the world, not escape from it. We have sent the wrong kind of message to a suffering world: rather than entering into the suffering with faith in the redemptive purpose of God we have fled from it.

We are called to look for and perceive by faith the redemptive hand of God in every human experience. This does not mean that every experience is the will and purpose of God but rather that God is redemptively active even in the worst of evil. "For this reason we do not lose hope." It is in cooperating with God redemptively amidst the slime of human history that we find the joy of our calling--"who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame."