I tend to gravitate towards legalism, because “follow the rules and God will accept you, but otherwise you’re toast” just seems so right (which, I guess, is why every other religion seems to go with that idea), but I have never had legalism really prompt me to be a better person. It usually just makes me notice my faults and make the gap between me and God seem even more impassible. On the other hand, God’s grace, when it gets through my thick skull, increases my desire to please God, and makes overcoming my shortcomings seem more possible; because instead of worrying that my connection to God has been severed, I’m able to turn to God for help, when I need it the most. So, I can definitely support anyone teaching grace. I also enjoyed your comment that God seems to enjoy “tweaking our noses when obedience, not grace, starts to become the focus.” I’ve often thought that God seems to like doing things differently than we’d expect; as if He’s really just trying to get us to understand that, unlike what the devil told Adam and Eve, we can’t be like God, because He is so far beyond us and that’s what makes Him God.

The way I understand things, God wants us to be righteous, not just to do righteous things. The people who support legalism seem to miss the distinction that I see there. They’d say that if you had a vault full of money and gave two friends a key, if neither one stole anything, one on the basis of friendship and the other because he knew he’d be punished, that the one concerned about punishment is as righteous as the other; if not more righteous, some would argue. I don’t see it that way, so much; I’d suspect that they weren’t as much my friend as the one who didn’t steal from me because they loved me.

Also, when legalists ask: If we’re saved by grace alone, without our actions coming into play, then what’s to keep us from living in sin? I think they have a great question, but they should be asking themselves that question instead. Why shouldn’t they keep sinning? To me, what they are implying is that there is absolutely no good reason to stop sinning, other than the possibility of going to hell. “If given a key to a vault full of cash, NOBODY would pass up the chance to steal some if they knew they wouldn’t get caught! God just wants to spoil our fun, so we’ll stop doing the things we really WANT to do and settle for what God wants us to do instead, so that we can go to heaven.” Is there no good reason to stop sinning? Is virtue not its own reward? Is sin not something that takes away from our lives and hurts others as well? Does God’s love not make them want to please Him by sharing it with others? (Okay, so I can use it to guilt people too)

Of course, I’m not suggesting that I’m more righteous than they are; because I’m certainly not, I’m sure, not by a long shot. And I’m also not suggesting that these people are bad people either; in fact, I’m counting on their love for God. I’d ask them these questions not because I think they’d answer in the negative, but because I’d expect most to agree that there are plenty of good reasons not to sin. In which case, why do we need to promote works instead of grace?

Let me ask similar questions:

1) If I don’t have a Roman view of the church as an institution (franchise) founded by Jesus to do business, then I believe the church exists as a community and movement “around” Jesus, the Gospel and the sacraments.

So I don’t believe the “keys” is a kind of organizational paperwork that says “the church forgives.”

The church provides witness to forgiveness in its own life, community, water, table and discipline. But God’s forgiveness is a Kingdom work, and therefore is not limited to the church, but occurs routinely outsie of it. The church witnesses to it and points to it and affirms it. It does not dispense it accept when that witness is baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

I don’t believe in a localized Jesus or a franchised Church.

In other words Capon is not loose at all with Law or Grace, but PURE. It’s so pure the legal mind NEVER catches it or is so over taken by it – it must jettison it immediately (because the death of the “doer” must die, especially the religious doer, old Adam), so if it did comprehend it – it would be terrorized to death! Because the level, that sin or level or degree or magnitude of a sin or sins that everyone of us reaches and say to ourselves, “Whoaaa, IF that’s grace, if THAT gets into heaven, I’ll have no part of it” (the older brother). There is some level in all of us that say, “If that gets into heaven, if there’s no improvement…if that’s grace, I’m not taking part of it”. And THAT scares the hell out of me about myself MORE by infinite leaps and bounds than any of the typical “gross or negative sins” that we typically list out. Because there’s the man who locks the gates of hell from the inside (as Lewis says) on himself and actually refuses free grace! That’s the man within me that is the GREATEST sinner, not the “negative one’s” we typically list out or even the omissions of sin. Capon, here, brings forth a 200 proof law that the legal mind simply blows over. And many miss that, for example, those who interpret the Rich Young Ruler as a “Gospel call” are really exercising antinomianism (legalism and antinomianism are actually the same thing).

Great article Michael, great one!

Yours truly,

Larry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Farrar_Capon

Sure sounds good to me, but then I never subscribed to the tULIP.

I think I agree with Capon’s analysis of the problem. I don’t think I agree with his “cure.” Interestlying enough, I do agree with your practical application of his theory. But I think there is a better way to get there. At least that’s what I think now.

Rod

P.S. Some of the bullies who have been savaging Wright have apparently tagged my blog as spam.

Reading your blog is like being strapped to The Rack and getting stretched!

Please sir may I have some more!