Reformation Celebration by Gordon L. Isaac

Author:Gordon L. Isaac
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: reformation;reformation definition;protestant reformation;christian reformed church;what is reformed theology;reformation study bible;dutch reformed;reformed church beliefs;church history;church history book;history of the christian church;christian history;Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
ISBN: 9781683072515
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2019-01-22T16:43:05+00:00

Conclusion

Given that the Reformation had no unified response to the dilemma of sola gratia and social ethics, how are we to proceed today in a complex, pluralistic, secular world? I would suggest that even with strong biblically and theologically informed positions, Christians may not always land in the same place in resolving this dilemma. Our societal contexts will play a significant role in our expectations for the social order and how we position ourselves relative to it. For example, Christians and churches in Islamic societies or in China will face very different options than those in Western democracies or in many countries of Africa. Thus we need a contextualized approach in our strategies that are theologically rooted, but with great wisdom in how to apply the Christian ethic in a given societal context.

It is a biblical given that the church should always be distinct from the culture around it. No fallen culture begins to approximate the full designs of God. The very fact that the church is called to be salt, light, and leaven within the world assumes that the world is frequently at odds with the patterns of Christ and his church. Because of this reality, we are called to live within the world and seek, at a minimum, to embody the Christian ethic in our personal lives and in the Christian community. Escapism from society is not an option for the Christian. But neither is a Constantinian theocracy with its expectations that a society can be Christian with the church at its center of power. Such expectations are contrary to the nature of human fallenness and the call of the church to be salt, light, and leaven. After all, these metaphors do not connote domination but influence from within.

Exactly how we seek to carry out the role of being salt, light, and leaven will likely change from context to context. The temptation to a politicized approach in which we equate Christianity with a particular political ideology or party is a dangerous one. It erodes the unique nature of the Christian ethic, the church, and the gospel. Moreover, we must recognize a difference between our ethical norms and the strategies with which we seek to implement those norms or bear witness to them within the institutions of society. We live in a time in which we have relativized the norms and absolutized the strategies, especially political ones. It ought to be the other way around: our norms from God’s word, made possible by divine grace, are absolute. It should be our strategies for implementing those norms within the world that are relative.

All of this stems from the Protestant Reformation’s affirmation of sola gratia. Salvation is only by grace through faith in Christ. And so is our Christian ethic, even when we sometimes find common ground through common grace with the fallen world around us.

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