ONE FOUNDATION
10/01/23 09:09
In Douglas Campbell’s Pauline Dogmatics his focus is the “Challenge to foundationalism, by which .. he means theology built on anything other than the revelation of God through Jesus.. The fundamental premise is that by starting with another foundation than Jesus, we end up building in a dangerous way. If we read Paul’s letters, “in terms of a fundamentally legalistic and retributive God, and in terms of a punitive atonement and contractual salvific terms,” then we end up with “a deep misreading of Paul’s gospel...and the destructive ramifications of false accounts of the gospel are far- reaching.”
UNDOING BENT CHRISTIANITY
Campbell’s contrasting of this with an understanding that, “the revealed truth about the nature of God in Jesus is a gift from God to us, and this particular gift is one over which we have absolutely no jurisdiction,” is .. applied throughout his book to various subjects to challenge assumptions. He unveils the subsequent dangerous dogmatics that many have embraced, and helps us to see, and undo, much misunderstanding in much of Western interpretation of Paul.” Legalism aborts the foundation of our union with God that he has accomplished in Christ for us. Legalism of any kind makes us responsible for undoing the separation of Adam – which is why it is anti-christ.
GOSPELS ABD GOSPELS
Some Gospels are more fulsome than others because they are more accurate – which is to say that they are the Gospel of Jesus and the apostles rather than some dilution, distortion or simply the rendition in legalistic terms by some who have never understood its simplicity and comprehensiveness because Christ come in our flesh does not fit the interpretive categories in which they think. This is to say that their foundation is Adam rather than Christ.
STARTS WITH US
We may work on reinventing the church as much as we like, but as long as our gospel is weak and ineffectual the people who are the church will not be living as the sons/daughters of God that they are. The newly emerging church is more than people meeting in homes cafes and doing ‘zooms’. It’s ordinary folks living as a manifestation of Jesus. This is life in the Spirit. It is Christ come in our flesh. It is real heaven invading earth. It’s ‘Christ our life’ as an incarnation rather than as a religion.
Jesus said, ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. This is the foundation of the kingdom of God. This is what Paul means by Christ our life and why Paul emphasised that ‘No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ’ 1 Cor 3.11 NIV.
NO HUMBUG FOUNDATIONS
And again, ‘No one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work’ 1 Cor 3.13. NIV. This is the un-doing of subversive foundationalism.
INCLUDED IN CHRIST
“Salvation has both a retrospective and prospective aspect because humanity was included not only in Christ’s death, but also in his resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost. This means that salvation involves not only a retrospective forgiveness of sins but also a prospective sharing by the Spirit in Jesus’s relationship with the Father. We are a new creation as sons and daughters of God.” We are the expression of Christ.
ADOPTED INTO RELATIONSHIP
“We have been adopted into Christ’s filial relationship to the Father. God created us not for external, legal relations but for intimate communion with him. [Torrance] asserts, “It is not atonement that constitutes the goal and end of that integrated movement of reconciliation but union with God in and through Jesus Christ in whom our human nature is not only saved, healed and renewed but lifted up to participate in the very light, life and love of the Holy Trinity.” (1)
THE REAL YOU CAN STAND UP
Real life is Christ our life and it’s His life as ours that make us one with God every day of our lives. Nevertheless many find life in the Spirit difficult to understand and many more reject it altogether in favour of adherence to externalities, aka earning acceptance with God.
THE NARROW WAY
Gregory Boyd is correct in when he asserts that much Christianity is a Christian version of the knowledge of good and evil. This is the foundationalist counter to our graced life in the Spirit. Foundationalism is the use of a frame by which all other things are defined. The counter-hermeneutic of the anti-christ spirit is the knowledge of good and evil as a concept and a system. This frame is deeply embedded in Christian culture. It subverts grace and prevents masses of Christians living in the incarnation as normal Kingdom life. The result is that such life is not the Kingdom Jesus began. But it is a paddock of tares.
(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) (pp. 62-63). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
UNDOING BENT CHRISTIANITY
Campbell’s contrasting of this with an understanding that, “the revealed truth about the nature of God in Jesus is a gift from God to us, and this particular gift is one over which we have absolutely no jurisdiction,” is .. applied throughout his book to various subjects to challenge assumptions. He unveils the subsequent dangerous dogmatics that many have embraced, and helps us to see, and undo, much misunderstanding in much of Western interpretation of Paul.” Legalism aborts the foundation of our union with God that he has accomplished in Christ for us. Legalism of any kind makes us responsible for undoing the separation of Adam – which is why it is anti-christ.
GOSPELS ABD GOSPELS
Some Gospels are more fulsome than others because they are more accurate – which is to say that they are the Gospel of Jesus and the apostles rather than some dilution, distortion or simply the rendition in legalistic terms by some who have never understood its simplicity and comprehensiveness because Christ come in our flesh does not fit the interpretive categories in which they think. This is to say that their foundation is Adam rather than Christ.
STARTS WITH US
We may work on reinventing the church as much as we like, but as long as our gospel is weak and ineffectual the people who are the church will not be living as the sons/daughters of God that they are. The newly emerging church is more than people meeting in homes cafes and doing ‘zooms’. It’s ordinary folks living as a manifestation of Jesus. This is life in the Spirit. It is Christ come in our flesh. It is real heaven invading earth. It’s ‘Christ our life’ as an incarnation rather than as a religion.
Jesus said, ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. This is the foundation of the kingdom of God. This is what Paul means by Christ our life and why Paul emphasised that ‘No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ’ 1 Cor 3.11 NIV.
NO HUMBUG FOUNDATIONS
And again, ‘No one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work’ 1 Cor 3.13. NIV. This is the un-doing of subversive foundationalism.
INCLUDED IN CHRIST
“Salvation has both a retrospective and prospective aspect because humanity was included not only in Christ’s death, but also in his resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost. This means that salvation involves not only a retrospective forgiveness of sins but also a prospective sharing by the Spirit in Jesus’s relationship with the Father. We are a new creation as sons and daughters of God.” We are the expression of Christ.
ADOPTED INTO RELATIONSHIP
“We have been adopted into Christ’s filial relationship to the Father. God created us not for external, legal relations but for intimate communion with him. [Torrance] asserts, “It is not atonement that constitutes the goal and end of that integrated movement of reconciliation but union with God in and through Jesus Christ in whom our human nature is not only saved, healed and renewed but lifted up to participate in the very light, life and love of the Holy Trinity.” (1)
THE REAL YOU CAN STAND UP
Real life is Christ our life and it’s His life as ours that make us one with God every day of our lives. Nevertheless many find life in the Spirit difficult to understand and many more reject it altogether in favour of adherence to externalities, aka earning acceptance with God.
THE NARROW WAY
Gregory Boyd is correct in when he asserts that much Christianity is a Christian version of the knowledge of good and evil. This is the foundationalist counter to our graced life in the Spirit. Foundationalism is the use of a frame by which all other things are defined. The counter-hermeneutic of the anti-christ spirit is the knowledge of good and evil as a concept and a system. This frame is deeply embedded in Christian culture. It subverts grace and prevents masses of Christians living in the incarnation as normal Kingdom life. The result is that such life is not the Kingdom Jesus began. But it is a paddock of tares.
(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) (pp. 62-63). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
