Wednesday, April 28, 2004 AD
The Bible and Justification
In my earlier post on study Bibles, I mentioned in passing that I thought that the failure of Christians to read the Bible was related to the current status within evangelicalism of justification, "the first and chief article".
What I meant by the "current status within evangelicalism of justification" was this: not the outright denial of justification by faith, but the failure to recognise justification by faith as the "first and chief article" of the Christian faith - and of our lives as Christians. Justification may not be denied (though sometimes it is) - but it is marginalised, taken for granted, largely ignored, and certainly not seen as the "engine-room" for the Christian life. Compared with earlier generations of Christians, we no longer feel such a pressing, urgent need for our sins to be forgiven: what matters now is not so much receiving forgiveness for our sins, but how we live as Christians.
We can see a number of symptoms of this. Here are just a few that spring to mind:
The problem with viewing the Bible in this way is that you don't actually need 1,000+ pages of narratives, songs, prophecies, letters etc to tell you how to live. As Luther points out in the Large Catechism, if we just sought to live out the Ten Commandments (which represent around 0.05% of the total content of Scripture) then that would be more than enough to keep our hands full for the rest of our lives.
However, you do need the whole Bible to show you the full, broad sweep of God's purposes, which our Lord summarised as follows:
In the next day or so, I'll be looking in more detail at what it means in practice to read the Bible as a book about Christ rather than as a set of timeless principles. But I hope this post goes some way to explaining what I meant by linking Bible reading (or the lack thereof) with the "first and chief article".
What I meant by the "current status within evangelicalism of justification" was this: not the outright denial of justification by faith, but the failure to recognise justification by faith as the "first and chief article" of the Christian faith - and of our lives as Christians. Justification may not be denied (though sometimes it is) - but it is marginalised, taken for granted, largely ignored, and certainly not seen as the "engine-room" for the Christian life. Compared with earlier generations of Christians, we no longer feel such a pressing, urgent need for our sins to be forgiven: what matters now is not so much receiving forgiveness for our sins, but how we live as Christians.
We can see a number of symptoms of this. Here are just a few that spring to mind:
- In our corporate worship, where the focus in many churches has moved away from what God does for us in proclaiming forgiveness to us through the Word of Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Sacraments, to what we do in our "praise worship & prayer!!" (to quote the sign I mentioned in my previous post).
- In an increased focus on the present work of the Holy Spirit in us, rather than the completed work of Christ for us.
- In the enduring fashion for wearing "WWJD" bracelets, rather than (say) "WHJD" ("What Has Jesus Done?") bracelets. Jesus our Example, rather than our crucified and risen Saviour.
- In the way we find it increasingly difficult to see why the doctrine of justification should divide Christians, and increasingly easy to agree on ambiguous forms of wording that allow us, with a great sigh of relief, to announce that the "problem" of justification has been "solved", and that we are now all agreed on the question.
The problem with viewing the Bible in this way is that you don't actually need 1,000+ pages of narratives, songs, prophecies, letters etc to tell you how to live. As Luther points out in the Large Catechism, if we just sought to live out the Ten Commandments (which represent around 0.05% of the total content of Scripture) then that would be more than enough to keep our hands full for the rest of our lives.
However, you do need the whole Bible to show you the full, broad sweep of God's purposes, which our Lord summarised as follows:
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:46,47)The biggest incentive for us to read the Bible is when we truly feel and recognise that what we need above all else is forgiveness for our sins; that forgiveness of sins can be found only in Jesus Christ; and that Christ can only be found as He is proclaimed in the Word of God (the Word written, the Word preached and the Word visible in the Sacraments). In other words, when we recognise justification by faith as the "first and chief article" of the Christian faith.
In the next day or so, I'll be looking in more detail at what it means in practice to read the Bible as a book about Christ rather than as a set of timeless principles. But I hope this post goes some way to explaining what I meant by linking Bible reading (or the lack thereof) with the "first and chief article".
