LEGALISM UNDONE
01/12/24 08:52
A major source of sound doctrine drawn on in these posts is Thomas Torrance who was one of the most astute theologians of the 20th and early 21st century. His work forms a counter to legalism and to the inherent dualism of fundamentalism, since his theology is anchored in the Trinity and not in the abstractions of the knowledge of good and evil and its varieties of ‘the letter that kills’.
DEFINED CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
His books like ‘The Mediation of Christ, ‘The Christian Doctrine of God’, ‘The Incarnation’ and ‘The trinitarian Faith’ are a helpful corrective to forms of Christianity that are disconnected pot-plants, rather than communities rooted in the Garden/tradition of the Universal Church and the doctrine of Jesus and the apostles.
TRADITION RIGHTLY USED
“Torrance is unique for his time in that as a Protestant, evangelical, and Reformed theologian he uses the church fathers as an authoritative voice speaking within the theological tradition into his own theological system. However, Torrance’s uniqueness goes even deeper inasmuch as, being a western Protestant theologian, his patristic reconstruction consists primarily of the Greek Fathers of the Christian East. He provides a fresh voice into the theological conversation of his time by means of his approach to dogmatic and historical theology as a Reformed theologian with strong catholic leanings, intentionally situating himself and his reading within the universal church.” (1) If we too are not catholic in this way and part of this Christian Tradition it is arguable that we are not actually Christian in the catholic (Not Roman Catholic) sense or fully human and fully alive.
AN OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE?
We can be content to live in the comfort of our socialised error, accommodating ourselves to an ‘opiate of the people.’ A haze of the kind that a casual attitude to misinformation as a culture lulls us into - when we have formed an identity and a shoddy faith by accommodation to ‘another gospel’ of the kind that is incapable of generating real life. The trouble is that this mode immunises us to Christ’s life and ensures that we remain people who as active as we effect to be are never sharp in our minds or alive in our being with spirit and life.
We are redeemed in Christ - not yet to be redeemed. Sure, we do grow in our understanding of the simplicity and reality of Christ’s grace and we do take on the nature of the One who lives within our being. “Until this redeemed self is acknowledged and accepted, we live out of the immature, unaffirmed self, and we cannot hear God aright. From that centre, we also “mishear” our fellows, and they become the target of the diseased “matter” that yet resides within our souls—that is, our fears of rejection, our bitterness, envy, anger, and sense of inferiority. These invariably project themselves into the minds and hearts of those we love the most, piercing them like deadly arrows. Until we accept the new self, we are dangerous to ourselves and to others; even though we are Christians, we are still enthralled by the voices of this world and obey them. We fail to abide in Christ and instead remain self-conscious.” (2)
CHRISTIAN POVERTY OUTLOOK
This is the bane of legalism and the inherent weakness of law-mindedness. Its inherent self-centredness focusses us on our wanted progress while suffocating what could have been the spirit life of Christ alive in our being. There are people, raised in scarcity who in happier times always want to know how much a purchased item cost. They seem incapable of enjoying an item for itself and the pleasure it gives. This is like the legalist who lives in his own brand of self-assessment oblivious of the pleasure and freedom that is theirs in Christ’s grace.
IT’S ABOUT LIFE
Reinhard Bonnke observed a group of partygoers in passionate/frenzied dancing at a disco in Africa. He saw in his spirit that they were seeking life. But as such they were not different to many others who seek life in self-realisation, in things like careers, business, sport and religion. Any absorption in anything outside of Christ fits this pattern of seeking life where it is not to be found.
Finding life in our life journey and being a self who is alive and true to our nature is found in Christ who is our life. Christians need to know that seeking life in a special variety of religion is a dead end that will never fill our being with spirit and life. John Powell was so right when he wrote that the point of Christ for you and all of us is to become fully human and fully alive. You are this life in incarnated with Christ. You are graced to grace others with patience and love when Christ has come in your flesh. You are spirit and life as an agent of Jesus’ Kingdom of love and life when you live the eucharist rather than view it as a disconnected rite.
(1) Radcliff, Jason Robert. Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers: A Reformed, Evangelical, and Ecumenical Reconstruction of the Patristic Tradition . Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Payne, Leanne. The Healing Presence: Curing the Soul through Union with Christ (p. 54). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.