This one’s been percolating in the brain for a bit now; it’s controversial, so please hang on. I don’t think the defense of ‘justification by faith alone’ (as traditionally understood) is the most pressing issue of the day in the church. Rather, it is the relation between the finished work of Christ, the sacraments, (I am referring to Baptism and the Eucharist) the individual, and our ecclesiology. In no sense do I mean to deny Luther’s important contribution, but rather to ask, “What are the means of experiencing that justification?” If the blessedness of justification by faith alone is that, on my own, I wage a battle to convince myself that my sins are erased by the work of Christ on the Cross, if the (chief) work of the Church is to help individuals contemplate the gloriousness of their individual reconciliations with God in Christ, then, frankly, I want no part of it. It makes very little sense. I’ve now been a Christian 10 years, (6+ baptized) and for the first 7 or so, this is exactly how I thought. But I began to realize that it was beyond me, to hold in my mind the reality of God’s declaration of my innocence before him by the work of Christ. And the reason is not simply because of the greatness of it, though that is true as well. The truth is, the individual ‘Jason Kettinger’ is dead. The reason I found it so hard to contemplate how this individual could be forgiven by God is because he wasn’t. God had that guy killed, started over, and revived the body. I only know this because I’m still here, but things are different. I’m not so much important now, and the beauty is, I get blessings galore, even as someone else is getting the glory. Do we not sing, “My life is hid with Christ on high/With Christ my Savior and my God”? My point is this: ‘Salvation’ and ‘forgiveness’ and ‘reconciliation’ etc. cannot be understood (and barely contemplated!) individually. It was never intended to be that way. Read the Old Testament as I’m doing now; you’ll notice (if you read it plainly, not turning it into your own allegorical pop-up book, or ‘Where’s Waldo?—Jesus Edition’) that the story isn’t about you or me, or even about the people that are actually in its pages. God is up to something, and he isn’t laying the whole plan out at once, and even his chosen ones are on a ‘need-to-know’ basis as it unfolds. If you start your reading the Bible always with the question, ‘What does this mean for me?’ you’re guaranteed to foul it up. You might as well read a how-to book on whatever problem it is you’re concerned about. Sorry. The Bible has something to say, and it may or may not bear directly on your situation. To presume always that it does, well, is very arrogant. OK, that’s enough.
But I digress (petulantly, it seems). I’m wondering: What is the true meaning of the Reformation? Is it individualism vs. collectivism? Clerical vs. anti-clerical? Intellectual freedom vs. stability and orthodoxy? It may have been all these things, but what if…the most legitimate concern of the Reformers was the de-coupling of sacramental awareness and observance from the all-sufficient work of Christ? And church authority had insisted that it existed apart from Christ’s work. (and still does, to an extent) That is a more foolhardy notion than every excess ever conceived in the mind of a Protestant, that the Church could exist outside of Christ! (I hesitate, by the way, to say ‘finished work of Christ’ because we as individuals are unfinished--not yet conformed to his image—and the mission of the Church continues. And does He not promise his presence until the end?) But, though we’re right to view ourselves as innocent before God if we are in Christ, we cannot apprehend it, much less claim to possess it, except by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Body, of which we are a member. Should I try to think of my innocence by myself, contemplating the legal declaration wrought for me, I’ll be chasing a ghost for the rest of my days. Still, I surely know Him at his Table, as we share it. I know God by his Scripture, read to us, and through us, every Sunday. (Save two Sundays ago, when a dear friend and I worshipped the Lord over pancakes later that evening, because we are morning challenged!) I know God by our love for one another, and our songs.
If this is too Federal Vision-y/Catholic for my Reformed Presbyterian overlords, er, brethren, well, like Angelina Jolie, I can only say what I witnessed. As Jeff Smith would say, then, I bid you peace.
But I digress (petulantly, it seems). I’m wondering: What is the true meaning of the Reformation? Is it individualism vs. collectivism? Clerical vs. anti-clerical? Intellectual freedom vs. stability and orthodoxy? It may have been all these things, but what if…the most legitimate concern of the Reformers was the de-coupling of sacramental awareness and observance from the all-sufficient work of Christ? And church authority had insisted that it existed apart from Christ’s work. (and still does, to an extent) That is a more foolhardy notion than every excess ever conceived in the mind of a Protestant, that the Church could exist outside of Christ! (I hesitate, by the way, to say ‘finished work of Christ’ because we as individuals are unfinished--not yet conformed to his image—and the mission of the Church continues. And does He not promise his presence until the end?) But, though we’re right to view ourselves as innocent before God if we are in Christ, we cannot apprehend it, much less claim to possess it, except by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Body, of which we are a member. Should I try to think of my innocence by myself, contemplating the legal declaration wrought for me, I’ll be chasing a ghost for the rest of my days. Still, I surely know Him at his Table, as we share it. I know God by his Scripture, read to us, and through us, every Sunday. (Save two Sundays ago, when a dear friend and I worshipped the Lord over pancakes later that evening, because we are morning challenged!) I know God by our love for one another, and our songs.
If this is too Federal Vision-y/Catholic for my Reformed Presbyterian overlords, er, brethren, well, like Angelina Jolie, I can only say what I witnessed. As Jeff Smith would say, then, I bid you peace.
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