To this point, I have identified how each of Kenneth Burke’s children may function separately in the Gospel story, but it is important to note that they don’t have to play in separate rooms. In fact, the distinguishing contours of any story are developed according to the interplay, or ratios, of the children in the pentad.

PENTAD RATIOS

The primary message of preaching that stimulates such loving obedience is the cross. Contemporary theologians sometimes wince at such statements because they seem to slight other acts of redemption: the Resurrection, Second Coming, and other key redemptive events. We certainly have no right to minimize or ignore these acts. Thus, we move to another concept of Kenneth Burke: stories are not simply individual components of the pentad, but rather take their particular shape from the varying ratios of the pentad in the narrative.

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So, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he certainly spoke of the Resurrection, Second Coming and other redemptive events, but he also said that he resolved to preach nothing among them but Christ crucified. In so saying, Paul not only indicated a greater ratio being given to the work of the cross in the large story contextualizing his writings, he also reflected a profound understanding of humanity (1 Cor. 2:2). Focus on the Gospel story’s primary agents reaches for the human will with profound poignancy. The Father’s gift of his Son stirs the heart at its deepest level to make it tender toward God, receptive of His Word and zealous for His will.

The old preaching imperative, “make much of the blood,” reflects great wisdom about human motivation. The cross stimulates love for God, the Resurrection zeal for his purposes, and the Second Coming perseverance in his cause. All are necessary, but God’s mercy toward the undeserving — as it unfolds through Scripture and culminates in the Cross — is still the agency that best programs the heart to receive and employ all the other truths of the Gospel.

Christ’s victory on the cross acts as the redemptive agency to provide freedom from both the guilt and power of sin. The apostle Paul reminds us that because Jesus resides in us, we possess the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:19-23; Gal. 2:20). John adds, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). This is more than a promise that Jesus will add to our strength or aid our resolve. Because we are in union with Christ, all of the merits of His righteousness have become ours and His Spirit now enables us to resist the sin that He reveals to us.

In the classic terms of systematic theology, once we were not able not to sin (non posse non peccare) but now we are able not to sin (posse non peccare). Christ, the agent of our redemption, has by his actions on the cross, provided the agency of our power. Enough of our sin nature persists (because there is a proper ratio between our present power and our heavenly status) that we will not be perfect until we are with Jesus in eternal glory (non posse peccare), but even now we are freed from Satan’s lie that we cannot change. Sin has no more dominion over us. We can make progress against the besetting sins of our lives because we are alive in Christ.