GODLINESS IS CHRIST OUR LIFE
21/01/23 08:57
If for us Godliness is thought of as moralism, we limit God, distort Christ’s Gospel and limit ourselves. Yet moralism is what many Believers think of as Christianity. Real holiness/wholeness is ours as we live the union with God that has been won for us by Jesus Christ. Oneness with Jesus is Godliness.
A son/daughter of God is a higher order of being than a ‘worker’. Jesus distinguishes the two not only because sons have a better relationship to God than laborers but because sons are the bearers of God’s spirit and life. Perceptive folks may have noticed that spirit and life is what legalists do not have.
WRONG ASSUMPTION
Quite intelligent and well informed theologians have viewed the law as the cure for the chaos of sin and lawlessness that is much of what we call life. As a result their concept of grace is a limited grace that is bound to law-keeping with a christ that is an enabler of law-keeping. This makes for a false christ and a false you. Those who have been blessed by alcoholics anonymous will tell you that it was not self-effort or rule following that liberated them. It was the ‘higher power’ who is none other than the Spirit of Liberty.
‘Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ 2 Cor 3.17 NIV.
PERVERSE RENDERING
Legalism is a perversion of Christ’s Gospel. Alexandra Radcliff writes, “A legalistic perspective is a misunderstanding of Christ’s obedience. For the Torrances Jesus was not obedient to the law in order to earn righteousness; he was obedient to the law in joyful response to the grace of God. His obedience should be understood in personal and filial terms rather than legal and conditional terms.
“Furthermore .. Christ’s righteousness is not gained through external transaction; his obedience does not merit righteousness. His vicarious perfect obedience transforms the humanity which he assumes, turning it back to a right relationship with God: “through his obedient Sonship he converted our disobedient human being back into true filial relation to the heavenly Father.” (1)
Paul calls Jesus ‘Christ our righteousness because He is. But not as someone to be copied but He who lives in us to become our life.
(1) Radcliff, Alexandra S.. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222) (p. 66). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
