This post from Scot McKnight strikes at a theological nerve. It is the latest and most clear in an grouping of posts.
First the caveats. McKnight is a big-tent evangelical. He has a new book to sell. My sympathies lie with McKnight’s general bent. Last caveat – Luther said a lot of things, most of them polemical, but if you want to get a real sense of the core of his faith, you read his sermons and hymns.
I don’t think I’m stretching something to say that “That old time religion” just doesn’t seem to be working. And I think we can say that regardless of what side of any of the various schisms you are on. (For conversation’s sake I’m really talking about the American church and not the global south.) With that fact, a believer is confronted with a few unappealing choices: God has chosen to pass over this time and place (verse of horror Amos 8:11), this time and place has rejected the word (verse of horror Heb 6:4-5), we have bent the Word in the easiest way to our own liking (Matt 5:19, 2 Tim 4:3).
I would in general skip that first choice because of Pentecost and the parable of the Sower. In this age the Word of God is thrown extravagantly, the Spirit has been poured out. I don’t think that second one can be ruled out. But if we take that seriously, we need to redouble our efforts. If we think that is the case, it might not be too late yet. Maybe the Lord will relent (think the story of Hezekiah, Isa 37:15-38:7). The letter to the church in Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22) is key. The third one is what Scot McKnight is getting at. And he is pointing at all the various schisms.
To the religious group mainly represented by the old mainline protestant and the “cafeteria” catholics the gospel has become about the word justice. It is a gospel of social justice.
This is tougher for me because it isn’t my native tribe, but they have “proof texts” and the spirit of the OT prophets. To the religious group represented by the various bands of evangelical bible churches and the denominations of a more theological bent (LCMS, PCA) the gospel is all about justification. (Hence McKnight’s quotation about Luther, a Luther quote that proudly lives around these parts). Both groups have bent the gospel. It is still possible to hear the word from both, but not at a full throat-ed roar.
The effects of that bending are: the frozen chosen and the unholy saints. (And a bunch of people who just don’t seem to have ears.) Just a little challenge here. How many calls for help or action or the church doing something in a congregation focused on personal salvation go unheeded? If a preacher walked into a church and said you need to tithe (at a minimum) so that this church can fund {a soup kitchen, a free preschool, a missionary, fill in the blank good of the kingdom} what kind of reaction would he get? Similarly if a preacher walked into a mainline church and started preaching chastity (Matt 5:27-30) and the evil of divorce (Matt 5:31-32) how fast would he or she be removed?
Now look for a second at “A Mighty Fortress”. We sang that this past week – Reformation Sunday. Why was the reformation so strong?
No strength of ours can match his might, We would be lost rejected
But now a champion comes to fight, whom God himself elected
You ask who this may be? The Lord of Hosts is he.
Christ Jesus, Mighty Lord, God’s only son adored
He holds the field victorious.
Luther’s preaching and hymns were all about Jesus. Jesus defeating sin, death and the power of the devil. Jesus the Lord. The same way that there are two natures in one Christ. The gospel is not just about justification. It is not just about social justice. The gospel is about Jesus. A Jesus who would say – “be holy” (Matt 5:48) and “my yoke is easy” (Matt 11:30) or “come all who are heavy laden” (Matt 11:28) or John 3:16.
Scot McKnight likes 1 Cor 15. For a statement of how we live that Jesus gospel I like Paul in Phil 3:10-16. “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection…not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on…if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”
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