This I do know, that no state is governed successfully by means of laws. If the ruler is wise, he will govern better by a natural sense of justice than by laws. If he is not wise, he will foster nothing but evil through legislation, since he will not know what use to make of the laws nor how to adapt them to the case at hand. Therefore, in civil affairs more stress should be laid on putting good and wise men in office than on making laws; for such men will themselves be the very best of laws, and will judge every variety of case with a lively sense of equity. And if there is knowledge of the divine law combined with natural wisdom, then written laws will be entirely superfluous and harmful. Above all, love needs no laws whatever. (The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, LW 36:98)Luther, I think, understood better than most (certainly far better than most Christians today) the 'oil and water' nature of law and grace. For Luther they were both aspects of God's dealing with humankind, but they were not equal 'goods'. On the contrary, the law, ultimately, was the antithesis of human good, since it addressed us in our sinful state and brought only condemnation.
The gospel, by contrast, was a blessed relief from not just moral or ceremonial law, but law as a principle. And whilst Luther recognized the continuance of two 'kingdoms of God' in this world - one under the law, magistrates and the sword, and the other under the gospel, charity and the word - he was adamant that we must keep the two distinct in our thinking and our practice and that we must esteem the second more than the first.
The New Perspective approach to Paul has, I think, muddied the waters on this as on so many other things. I was struck yesterday, however, by the words of Galatians 3:19: "Why, then, the law? It was added because of transgressions ..."
This word 'transgressions' refers not simply to 'boundary markers' of the community but to the adherence to God's ways and ordinances (cf Dt 17:19-20). The law was not only there to identify 'members of the covenant community' but to identify and limit their sins and sinfulness. And this was as much a moral as a ceremonial matter.
When Paul speaks of the law which most identified his intractable sinfulness he picked on the commandment not to covet - a moral law if ever there was one. This was the law that killed him, and this was the law to which he died in Christ. And so we must see that all law is, in principle, a sign that we are not yet living under grace.
Were Christians to grasp this understanding better, and were they to apply it as radically in their approach to society as Luther did in his, we would perhaps have something more interesting to say, beginning with this: the more society departs from the grace of the gospel, the more it will live under man-made laws which, because of our lack of wisdom (Rom 1:22) will increasingly do more harm than good.
Without either the gospel or a knowledge of the laws of God, we will forge the chains of our own bondage.
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Well-assessed John. This is indeed the tragedy of our western culture today. Having given up the doctrines of grace and knowledge of the of the law of God we descend into picky pharisaism and regulation. Because we are a people of unclean lips, standards of godly living are not valued and care in hospitals takes second place a job to be done, honesty in banking is secondary to personal gain. What can be got away with becomes the criterion in personal behaviour. Respect for others and parents takes second place to self-fulfilment. The news ‘story’ is more important than integrity of reporting, and so social anarchy rules OK. We cannot survive this so the government institutes enquiries, reviews, consultations resulting in all manner of regulation and taxation, spawned to attempt to control sinful human behaviour. We enter an age of Quangos, Regulators and Controllers. The professional cannot be trusted, the politician is there only for his party, people are the problem. Thus if you tick all the boxes you will survive and protect yourself.
ReplyDeleteJesus told a story about the difference between a tick box culture and grace when a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The only answer to these vicious chains of our world as you so rightly say, John, is the gospel.
It is very interesting that China which has possibly now more active Christians than any other nation and prints more Bibles than any other publisher is beginning to set up faculties of Philosophy and Theology in its universities because it realises that personal faith of Christians has a profound effect on their relation to others to the benefit of society. The latest edition of Bible Society, The Bible in Transmission, gives an interesting overview of this. Stephen Bazlinton
Stephen. A good and interesting comment,
ReplyDeleteYes, China is so interesting in spiritual/Christian terms, and for some time rough estimates are that China has more regenerate Christians than the total population of the UK.
As for setting up theological faculties in their universities, this, together with the growing spread of the Word of God, this is in sharp contrast to UK uiversities where theological 'chairs' are often dominated by liberalism and the new gnosticism in the form of 'post-modernism'.
What an exciting propsect that China may well in the not too distant future be the leading Christian nation, whilst the West including the USA and UK in particular, languish spiritually, through widespread apostacy and submission to liberal theologies.
Perhaps the removal of the 'candlestick' (Revelation) has already taken place?
Since we are considering rules and laws...
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the film “courageous” I wondered if any of you have tried to introduce the covenant in Church that they use in the film
http://www.legacydad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/courageous-cert.jpg
If you have not seen it is a fantastic Christian film. Ideal for teenagers and young people.
But also brought me up sharp as a Dad. All of us who watched it are still talking about it.
The best Christian film for many years
Phil
An interesting notion Revd John, then how do you explain the fact that we live in a far more socially moral society than we did when the churches were fuller and the Bible better know? The problem today is that (as we can see just glancing across at the ‘Anglicans Obsessed with Sex’ AKA Anglicanmainstream.com) is that Christian ‘morality’ (at least in some reactionary quarters) has become focused on matters below the waist. Whereas Biblical morality is far more reaching (and personally and socially costly) – it encompasses how we care for our neighbours, family and friends, how we use the planet, how we conduct ourselves in business, our finances, how we treat foreigners, prisoners, the poor, the orphaned, widows etc. Yet it is only really within the past century or so that Britain (and Western – supposedly Christian nations) achieved any real sense of social morality, despite the fact Britain had been a Christian country for well over a thousand years. At the time of many of the great reforms of the 19th century the churches were a good deal fuller than they are today and the Bible was well known; especially among the middle and political classes – i.e. those with social and political power. Yet social reform was necessary – particularly concerning the rights of workers, children and women (not to mention slaves). A good portion of this reform was initiated not by mainstream religion (the Established Church) but by Non-Conformity – indeed it was often the latter, working with Humanists, that pushed social reform legislation through a mainly indifferent (tho’ mainly church going) parliament. There are a good many myths evident in Christian culture today that we owe our caring society (and it is a far, far more caring society than was evident pre-1918!!) to the ministrations of the church. In the main this is at best a self-glorifying economy with the truth – yes, Christians did ‘philanthropy’ but many (particularly among Clapham Sect Evangelicals) deplored the poor laws and saw poverty as test by God to better the lives of less fortunate! - see Hilton, B. (1988) The Age of Atonement: The influence of Evangelicalism on social and economic thought 1785-1865 Oxford: Oxford University Press for a fuller discussion on this – particular relating to Thomas Chalmers John Bird Sumner who sought to weld Adam Smith style market economics with Evangelical Christianity.
ReplyDeleteIf Christianity really is a force for social good, if there really is something intrinsic about Christianity that makes for a more wholesome society, then why did we need reform in the first place? Why has secular democracy enacted the social morality demanded of the Bible far more thoroughly than centuries of Christian rule?
If you teaching on wisdom literature, perhaps it would be wise to dwell on Ecclesiastes 7:10? Or at least have a thorough knowledge of the social and legal history of Britain, before coming out with simplistic ideas that we’d live in a more moral society if Christianity had greater social and political power. There is little evidence to suggest this would be the case! As our own past demonstrates and can be seen in the Bible Belt of the USA – high church attendance (getting on for well over 54% See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Church_or_synagogue_attendance_by_state_GFDL.svg), Christian thinking and discourse in political and social life, and yet if we look at maps of the US for rates of teen pregnancy, divorce, violent crime, lone parent families, they too tend to be higher in the Bible Belt states. Hence I would be wary of claiming that if everyone one went to church and Christianity had a greater role in civil and political life that we would life in a more moral society. There is little evidence to suggest this – indeed there is substantial evidence to suggest the reverse!
Peter
ReplyDelete"We live in more moral society than when Churches were fuller."
Where's your statistics for this Peter?
I have said before but you did not answer. Take any town where we have despair in the UK. Free it from EU and UK law and introduce laws based on the bible that are properly enforced.
Value the family, remove income tax and encourage hard work.
You would not have to wait 20 years within 10 years the rest of the UK would have followed suit or you would either need to build a wall around the town to keep the rest of Britain from moving there.
You can keep your government enforced "social morals" Peter. Men and women are God's children and want to be free.
Phil
Peter, when you start engaging more with what I have written, I will begin to engage more with your replies.
ReplyDeletefamily first opposes the introduction of any emissions trading scheme or so-called 'carbon tax' and believes it would be grossly irresponsible to proceed with such a policy that will involve major changes to the Australian economy without first having a proper, independent enquiry eg a Royal Commission, which was prepared to listen to the many distinguished scientists who disagree with the current 'climate change doctine'.
ReplyDelete