Simply a Christian
07/17/08 01:56 PM
Wow, talking about getting the point, staying on the point, and nailing it. . . Ray Ortlund recently posted:
The Judaizers in Galatia did not see their distinctive – the rite of circumcision – as problematic. They could claim biblical authority for it in Genesis 17 and the Abrahamic covenant. But their distinctive functioned as an addition to the all-sufficiency of Jesus himself. Today the flash point is not circumcision. It can be Reformed theology. But no matter how well argued our position is biblically, if it functions in our hearts as an addition to Jesus, it ends up as a form of legalistic divisiveness.My goodness, that’s good! And the point has a much broader application than just the question of whether or not you happen to be theologically Reformed. I have absolutely no problem with having theological convictions or distinctions (I have PLENTY), but the minute that I begin to look down my nose at another believer because he or she does not agree with me – Ortlund could not have said it better – I have relocated myself outside the gospel and inside Galatianism. Amen, amen, and amen!
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
(Galatians 5:6 emphasis mine)
- I believe in the sovereignty of God, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Solas of the Reformation, I believe that grace precedes faith in regeneration. Theologically, I am Reformed. Sociologically, I am simply a Christian – or at least I want to be. The tricky thing about our hearts is that they can turn even a good thing into an engine of oppression. It happens when our theological distinctives make us aloof from other Christians. That’s when, functionally, we relocate ourselves outside the gospel and inside Galatianism.
The Judaizers in Galatia did not see their distinctive – the rite of circumcision – as problematic. They could claim biblical authority for it in Genesis 17 and the Abrahamic covenant. But their distinctive functioned as an addition to the all-sufficiency of Jesus himself. Today the flash point is not circumcision. It can be Reformed theology. But no matter how well argued our position is biblically, if it functions in our hearts as an addition to Jesus, it ends up as a form of legalistic divisiveness.My goodness, that’s good! And the point has a much broader application than just the question of whether or not you happen to be theologically Reformed. I have absolutely no problem with having theological convictions or distinctions (I have PLENTY), but the minute that I begin to look down my nose at another believer because he or she does not agree with me – Ortlund could not have said it better – I have relocated myself outside the gospel and inside Galatianism. Amen, amen, and amen!
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
(Galatians 5:6 emphasis mine)