Have to comment on this again:
In a comment thread at another site this week I read this:
"'Love your neighbor' has nothing to do with the Gospel."
I know where this person is coming from. Theologically, he and I may actually be on the same page. But this statement is false. Jesus was declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount, and "Love your neighbor" is clearly part of that good news.
The difference here is between the Gospel as good news and the Gospel as good advice. The commenter is right only in so far as he is referencing advice (stuff to do) but wrong in that the Gospel as good news is fuller and wholler than "not going to hell."
Dan Edelen talks about Two Halves of the Gospel today. I know what he is talking about ("Elect" and "Fieldworkers"), and he is right in his observance of the Church's differing fixations.
I think Dan makes a mistake, though, when he equates "doing good works" as half of the Gospel.
The truth is somewhere in the merging of Dan's interpretation of Ephesians 2:10 and the above commenter's declaration of "Love your neighbor" having nothing to do with the Gospel.
The Gospel is not about what we do. Doing good works is not the Gospel.
But receiving them is. The full Gospel is not Christ atoning for us and then us doing good works; the full Gospel is Christ atoning for us and then reconciling us with each other. Even Ephesians 2:10 places the ownership of our good works upon Christ himself. He prepared them beforehand.
This may sound like a distinction without a difference, but it really is different. It is the difference between seeing the Sermon on the Mount as merely "stuff to do" and seeing it as "stuff to be." The Sermon on the Mount is good news not so far as it is giving us a new law, but in so far as it announces that under this new law the poor in spirit are blessed, the meek will inherit the earth, those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied, etc.
This is why the Gospel is news, not advice. It is stuff done for and to us. Even when that is manifested in stuff done by us. It is still Christ's work. He gets the glory. And a full Gospel is one in which God gets the full glory.
Me loving my neighbor is not the Gospel, but my neighbor being loved by me is.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Good way of putting it. Takes all the emphasis off of what I do, and gives it all to God.
By the way, check out
http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/09/27/refuse-to-choose/
Jared,
I won't argue with you. The technical understanding you mention is quite right. I framed it the way I did to draw the parallels more obviously.
Still, what the acting out of those works does alters us. It aligns us with Christ post-justification as much as the believing part does. That's not a very popular opinion in Reformed circles, but I contend it's necessary. The doing of the works of Christ by His people transforms us as much as getting in the Word and studying it fiercely. I know that to be true because I've experienced that truth in my own life.
I suspect it follows from the idea of the talents. Act on what had been entrusted to you and more will be entrusted. That produces growth. Bury that talent in the ground, though...
Dan, I worried my post/comments would reflect a misfocused reading of your post. I agree with you on our tendency to fixate on the either or the or in an either/or. I see this either/or thing everywhere in the Church on all kinds of subjects, and I am as sick of it as I am convinced it is something we are bent toward doing.
I guess what I would quibble with is your framing of the subject in terms of "what the gospel is."
I would clarify, I guess, by saying that me doing good works isn't the gospel, but me being able to do good works is.
I just tend to think the connection between the two halves you highlight, citing the passage from Ephesians, is that the whole thing is God's work. He saved us from wrath and saved us to good works.
I wouldn't disagree that our faith is demonstrated by our works. How could I?
One last thing that tempers my previous comment:
The Fieldworker portion of the Gospel is still to us if we consider that the Gospel now provides us with a community. We go from individuals separated from God to the communion of saints. That is a profound understanding of how the Kingdom of God upends the traditional "every man for himself" thinking that predominates in the kingdom of this world. In that way it is good news not only to the receivers but the bearers. Why? Because even the bearers are receivers, not just once at justification, but forever.
We are a people separated unto the Lord. I think the Fieldworkers get this community understanding more so than the Elect do. (Meanwhile, the Elect understand--properly, I might add--that everyone is responsible to the Lord individually. Unfortunately, that idea gets overblown to the point that community is restored. I am as much a member of a greater Kingdom as I am an individual in that Kingdom. Let's not forget that!)
Have not and will not. Good stuff, Dan.
I believe the fall didn't just separate us from God, but put enmity between mankind, and so the reconciling work of Christ reconciles us to God and to each other. Or should, anyway.
I waxed on about this need for each other, the inextricable connection between discipleship and community, in my last Element message. We're in Exodus right now, and something about the image of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms for him as Joshua fought Amalek just got to me. I was actually choked up just picturing it.
I really pity Christians who try to do the Christian life alone.
Oops.
Unfortunately, that idea gets overblown to the point that community is restored
should read:
Unfortunately, that idea gets overblown to the point that community is reduced.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
Post a Comment