THE UN-WITHERING EFFECT OF CHRIST OUR LIFE
22/05/24 07:22
Our topic here is the contract as a form of self-salvation. Legalism reduces our wholeness to skeletal proportions, sours our relationship to self and can permeate the self with a smugness born of entitlement and ignorance. Nice Christians can ‘live smug’ in their little formulae of distinctives and icons. Growing in Christ means rising above inherited ideas formed in ignorance and denial of sound doctrine. Some doctrine is just a case of misunderstanding. The more embedded error comes from the teaching of people who claimed to have a line from God. Misunderstanding comes from poor teaching. ‘Line from God’ doctrine is known as a cult.
UNDOES THE SELF
The common reductionist view of self-validation as a contract stifles real holiness and denies the development of the whole person. It promotes temple money-changing on a personal and community level. A whole person approach based on the law should be seen for what it is - a mirage.
SELF SALVATION
Douglas Campbell observes that, “The result of inserting this legal/contractual arrangement of complex human society into the relationship between God [and the self] .. restricts God's love to the inside of a contractual arrangement.
META-WORKS GOSPEL
[We think] "God will love us only if we fulfil the conditions that he stipulates for us to enter into a relationship of this nature with him, and outside of this relationship, his love does not apply! Many Protestants who think in this way claim that we can activate this contract by believing - which is rather harder than they realise.
"But assuming for the sake of argument that this is how
we get into a proper relationship with God, then and only then will God love
us. God loves only believers [it is assumed]. Everyone else relates to God in terms of justice, and things are probably not going to work out well for them, even in terms of justice, because everyone is supposed to embrace the gospel contract. So nonbelievers are almost certainly going to fall under the harsh side of God's justice, and retribution and punishment await.” (1)
This explains why experiences of Christianity are so superficial in some quarters and why there can be such a disconnect between what politician’s tout as their Christianity and their public policies. Not to mention the addiction of many evangelicals to blind guides as their political messiahs.
The worst aspect of contractual Christianity is the effect on the self. What could have been the joy of participating in God in the adventure of daily life becomes a regime of works and sometimes triviality. We can be against abortion and same sex marriage and remain pathetic as a human being - as withered workers instead of sons of God.
UNDOES THE SELF
The common reductionist view of self-validation as a contract stifles real holiness and denies the development of the whole person. It promotes temple money-changing on a personal and community level. A whole person approach based on the law should be seen for what it is - a mirage.
SELF SALVATION
Douglas Campbell observes that, “The result of inserting this legal/contractual arrangement of complex human society into the relationship between God [and the self] .. restricts God's love to the inside of a contractual arrangement.
META-WORKS GOSPEL
[We think] "God will love us only if we fulfil the conditions that he stipulates for us to enter into a relationship of this nature with him, and outside of this relationship, his love does not apply! Many Protestants who think in this way claim that we can activate this contract by believing - which is rather harder than they realise.
"But assuming for the sake of argument that this is how
we get into a proper relationship with God, then and only then will God love
us. God loves only believers [it is assumed]. Everyone else relates to God in terms of justice, and things are probably not going to work out well for them, even in terms of justice, because everyone is supposed to embrace the gospel contract. So nonbelievers are almost certainly going to fall under the harsh side of God's justice, and retribution and punishment await.” (1)
This explains why experiences of Christianity are so superficial in some quarters and why there can be such a disconnect between what politician’s tout as their Christianity and their public policies. Not to mention the addiction of many evangelicals to blind guides as their political messiahs.
The worst aspect of contractual Christianity is the effect on the self. What could have been the joy of participating in God in the adventure of daily life becomes a regime of works and sometimes triviality. We can be against abortion and same sex marriage and remain pathetic as a human being - as withered workers instead of sons of God.
