Soteriology as Empowerment in the Gospel of Luke: Implications for Ghanaian Christianity

Abstract

The gospel of Luke was written for a Gentile audience from a Gentile perspective of the life and ministry of Christ. Like any of the other gospel accounts, Luke focuses on the soteriological dimension of Christ’s ministry. From a Lukan perspective, salvation is not only a future glorious hope and eternal life, but empowerment for earthly life. Luke’s emphasis on the empowering dimension is crucial for contemporary Christians who live in a society full of sin. The purpose of this paper is to examine the empowerment that salvation in Jesus brings from a Lukan perspective and to draw lessons from it for the Ghanaian Christian community. To this end, the paper examined relevant texts in Luke’s gospel relating to the empowering dimension of soteriology. The paper warns against allowing human relations to degenerate to the point of enmity and hatred and provides an empowerment avenue to break walls of discrimination, thus promoting respect for the dignity in a multi-cultural society like contemporary Ghana.