THE TWO EXTREMES
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:19 NIV)
This is my second episode in my theological bits about the huge tension between obedience and being saved by Grace through Faith alone. (Read episode 1 here). I know there is still too much confusion about this matter and I do not pledge to solve it given the levels of our sinful propensities.
One of the interesting things about this debate, however, is that both those who believe in the Law and those who neglect it agree on one thing: WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH. The problem comes in at the point of Faith (another animal I will handle in the future). Those who believe in the importance of the law in salvation business, make arguments like FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD (James 2).
Sometimes, to hide from the accusation of legalism, they say: OUR FAITH IS NOT OF WORKS but we are saved by Grace through FAITH THAT WORKS. This is where they come in with the concept of progressive sanctification. Their understanding of salvation then becomes a procedural one and not a technically finished and sealed business. For they look at the work of Jesus Christ on the cross as one that accomplished our Justification.
Allow me to use the Courts of Law example to ensure you understand the ideology and theology of the Nomianism (those who believe in the significance and absoluteness of the Law) world. To them, Justification is a conditional and provisional but not a permanent solution or actually a justice declaration of the culprit that they are not guilty.
In other words, at the cross, Jesus gave the criminal (Sinners like you and myself) a Court Bail. After the cross, we are on probation and our survival depends on how we behave within the community (other people= As for the last Six laws of Exodus 20) and towards the Judge (God= As for the first four Laws of Exodus 20).
Trust, me I have engaged many professors and laymen from this school of thought and the narrative is the same. A few details might change in presentation mode but the conclusion is essentially that: JESUS AT THE CROSS NEVER SAVED US BUT BAILED US OUT. Therefore, we have to, day by day, obey the law and as we obey, we are sanctified day by day and by the time of the second coming, some under this school of thought believe they would have attained perfection and therefore they will be glorified. So to them, salvation is a three-stage procedure:
- Justification (Cross),
- Sanctification that includes regeneration (Law)
- Glorification (Heaven).
People from this school of thought are aggressive and can kill to secure their obedience.
On the other hand is another antagonistic school of thought that argues that the Law has essentially nothing to do with the salvation business. These are the ones Martin Luther called the: Antinomianists. These emphasize salvation by Grace through faith alone, just like the Nomianism group does, however, when it comes to the question of the Law and obedience to the Law, they (the antinomianism school of thought) castigate the law and dismiss it as far as the Christian life is concerned. They are opposed and against the LAW, just as the name ANTI-NOMIANISM suggests.
As you may or may not know, the term ANTINOMIANISM was coined by Martin Luther and he combined two Greek words: ANTI (against) and Nomos (Law). So, in essence, this school of thought suggests directly or indirectly a lawlessness belief system. They, however, when it comes to this, they are quick to defend themselves by saying: No, No, No, we are not lawless and neither are we amoral, you just need to understand us and what Antinomianism is about.
Antinomianism, they say, may be viewed as the polar opposite of legalism, it is the notion that obedience to a code of religious law as a necessity for salvation is what we are opposed to. They argue that their salvation was sealed at the cross and whoever believes, has eternal life and that eternal life cannot be affected by their behavior.
People from this School of thought have a turbulent paranoia about obedience and usually develop ‘an attitude’ to whoever asks them to obey. They suffer from what I call: NOMOSPHOBIC (an irrational fear of the Law).
In this sense, both Antinomianism (Free of Law) and NOMIANISM (Constrained by the Law) are considered errant extremes in what I call Coherent and Corresponding Theology. Coherent and Corresponding theology is about doing theology in perspective. It is studying the word of God in context and not proof-texting. It is tracing the theological motif of both the Old and New Testament.
And if we do, we will discover that; the motif of both the Old Testament Theology and the New Testament Pauline Theology is OBEDIENCE. Not obedience to the law that came after the fall, but obedience that submits every power and every authority to the Lordship of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:11).
This is why I chose Romans 5:19 that emphasizes that actually the Grace by which we are saved by could only access us through OBEDIENCE. In the next episode, I will attempt a definition of what obedience is but I thought that it is important we keep in perspective this crucial information about the two schools of thought from which all these divergent views and battles actually stem.
But as I conclude this second episode, I would like to briefly point to you that: When you read the words in Romans 5:19 which is the key text throughout these issues am doing, you will realize that the two schools are wrong in two ways:
- First, those who are on the legal extreme are wrong in attaching the concept of obedience to the Law and turning salvation into a legal procedure. Whereby salvation is about satisfying the laws in Exodus 20.
- Secondly, those that are on the extreme Grace alone side are wrong to define Grace to be independent of responsibility and to foster a salvation without an accountability which essentially makes the forgiveness of God meaningless.
I will expound on this in my next presentation. But for now, I would wish that you understand that in the Old Testament, Judaism through its Torah doctrine invented legalism to replace the will of God. They restricted the will of God in the ten laws as edited (Exodus 20) from the civilization of the thousands of the Hammurabi code laws.
Judaism’s relations with God was reduced to an obligatory legal code-system where man had to obey both the oral and written law by Moses. In the process what initially was a teaching aid to help them with the lesson of the WILL of God became the lesson itself and a religion was founded on the Torah.
In the Old Testament, according to Judaism, everything (individual and corporate) stands or falls depending on how the Law has been handled (Deuteronomy 28). People suffered a disease because of disobedience and they prospered because of their obedience to the laws and in other words, people get what they deserve (Job 34:7, 37; 35:16; John 9:22-24).
This was the theological base of Judaism and it is what causes the tension between Jesus and the Jewish cults like the Pharisees, Sadduccess, Qumran, Essenes, etc. and after Jesus, the same tension remained between Pauline theology and the Judaizers throughout the book of Acts.
Good works in such an immoral and amoral world are a good thing to advocate for and so it is to campaign for grace in a world of guilty culprits like us. In fact, these two positions are by literally-reading of the Bible defended in the scriptures through James and Paul (James 2:14; 21, 24=faith plus works and Romans 3:20, 28; 4:3, 5; 5:1; Ephesians 2:8-9=Faith alone).
The problem is when those at the law-extreme assume it has something to do with their salvation. Those of grace and faith alone extreme are also theologically wrong to assume that grace and faith have nothing to do with how we live in this chaotic world and that our choices in this life have no impact on our eternal destinies. They are also wrong to assume that if God forgives you adultery that cleans your blood of the STDs. They forget that God forgives sins but the consequences of those sins remain to affect both our physical and spiritual lives.
The legalists also are theologically wrong to assume that the law has something to do with; first the Obedience of faith (Hupakoen Pistis= Romans 1:5), and secondly, that our legal obedience contributes an iota to our relationship with God, and thirdly, it has something to do with our eternal destinies. This is what makes both the law and faith extremes and this is how we have ended up stereotyping grace and paranoid about the concept of obedience.
Like I emphasized in the first presentation, our fall was not by legal standards and therefore, we cannot be restored based on the law, we did not fail to recognize the law but rather to recognize God as our Lord, and we can only be given a second chance to denounce other authorities and recognize him again. And that is only possible through FAITH not by WORKS.
Recently, I was robbed at home, and my neighbor told me she knew someone who could use bees to hunt these thieves down. And then I told her: if I do that, I will be giving to the thieves what they DESERVE. So I went down with my theology and started teaching them the difference between GOD and SATAN. Satan tempts thieves to steal and the very Satan, through witchcraft, uses Mother Nature (bees/snakes) to hurt the very people he turned into thieves.
I told them as we speak now am the only victim physically hurt by Satan, the thieves wherever they are, are safe. If I send the bees to them, we will have two victims of Satan (me and them), so I said, if these guys had found me inside I would have fought in defense, but now that they are gone, I don’t think they should get what they DESERVE, for even me in my life with God I do not get what I DESERVE.
I have sinned before God and he has not tormented me through nature and neither has he exposed me. The difference between God and Satan is the difference between the LAW and GRACE. The law gives us what we DESERVE but the Grace of God gives us what we NEED. The law gives us what we DESERVE and that is SHAME and DEATH, God gives us GRACE and CHANCES to fix our lives and become better people. God’s Grace and man’s trust (faith) therefore, is the equilibrium of the true Gospel. I will explain this as we continue.
God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, REASON, and FAITH
Pr. I.T.M. WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 