HAS THE GOSPEL BEEN UNPLUGGED?

                                            HAS THE GOSPEL BEEN UNPLUGGED?

A friend of mine got me thinking about the Gospel (which can’t be a bad thing!). He had said, “Fact is, antinomianism is the enemy of the Gospel. The unbiblical dichotomy between grace and law seems to necessarily lead to a distortion of the Gospel and might even carry in itself the seeds of Two Kingdom theology.” D, Rudi Schwartz.

Now, Two Kingdom Theology seems to be the latest bout of internecine battles among Christians. It seems to me that this dispute is very similar to the volleys that were fired (with no quarter!) at the Theonomists/Christian Reconstructionists. These boldly and intelligently defended their position by producing a series of great books and articles showing how their covenantal view of applying Scripture to all of life (seven days a week) was indeed what God teaches in His Word, i.e., the sixty-six books of the Bible. Legalists! The Christian Taliban! Stoning infants for disobeying their parents! Every blow of these over-the-top straw-men false accusations was fended off effectively – but not without collateral damage to Christendom. We may be cancelled by some Christians by being “guilty by association” (as my friend Rudi reminded me).  

The following verse of Scripture is usually quoted to show that healthy debate among Christians in Biblical, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). Essentially the issue is all about God’s Law, what is it? to whom and how does it apply? and what is the Gospel? So, the great Christian debate is about Law and Gospel.

The New Dictionary of Theology gives us the following reminder,

“Historically both Lutheran and Reformed have had trouble maintaining proper balance between law and gospel. Imbalance produces either antinomianism on the one hand or legalism and moralism on the other.”

It seems that some Christians have yet to find a cure for their middle ear infection and are still suffering from loss of balance. Antinomianism is an infection that causes some Christians to walk in circles. It was during the late 90s and early 2000s that I watched the battlements of the Theonomists’ camp get a real pounding. Then the anti-God’s Law for all of life guns seemed to grow quiet. However, I think they were just reloading, as I can hear the same old guns bombarding anyone who believes that Christ’s Kingdom operates anywhere other than inside the four walls of a church (and it’s questionable even there!). That antinomian army has now regrouped but has donned a new and slightly different uniform. However, it’s the same old same old: Law and Gospel.    

Driving to church one Sunday morning I thought, “the gospel is the power of God to salvation” (Rom. 1:16). But the “unbiblical dichotomy between grace and law” is the gospel unplugged. Without the Law the Gospel loses its power! The gospel unplugged might sound nice, ear-tickling, yet the people up the back of the hall cannot hear it. Which may even be a good thing! For how confusing to the ear is a trumpet call when many of its notes are missing?  Yes, when the gospel is unplugged, people certainly will not feel its bass notes vibrating their sternums. Nor will it penetrate them to the depth of heart and soul, convicting and convincing, and cause them sway in sync with its rhythm.

Christ’s Kingdom songs fall on deaf ears when the arena is divided into two kingdoms. That “middle wall of partition” can only be broken down by plugging the Gospel back into the Law. Grace and Law are the harmonious duet that sweetly sing the song of victory, Christ’s victory.

And so, like love and marriage and the proverbial horse and carriage, Law and Gospel, you can’t have one without the other. God’s Gospel without God’s Law is antinomianism and God’s Law without God’s Gospel is legalism and moralism. God’s Law shows us that we are sinners and God’s Gospel shows us that God saves sinners through Christ’s perfect Law-keeping and His atoning death. What does any of this have to do with Two Kingdom Theology? By separating Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom on earth from secular kingdoms, Two Kingdom Theology is providing “safe spaces” and supplying people underground bunkers, i.e., areas on earth that are God’s Law free-zones. Thereby it is quenching the Holy Spirit from using God’s Law to convict non-Christians of their inherent and inherited sinfulness and subsequently their dire need of the Saviour revealed in God’s Gospel.

Because of its denial of the application of God’s Law to civil government, Two Kingdom Theology also opposes Christian Nationalism. But why would any Christian wish to hamper and hinder the discipling of the nations as obedience to the Great Commission? (Matt. 28:16-20). It boggles the mind! The cure for this Marcionistic imbalance is to liberally apply the antibiotics of both Old and New Testaments into both ears! You can’t have one without the other. Joseph Boot reports on some of the serious damage done,

“[T]he antinomian error has cost the church dearly in our day, as biblically illiterate and lawless Christians are left floundering without a guide or anchor in the relativistic and pluralistic confusion of contemporary Western culture. Without a concept of Christian law, and the clear teaching of God’s law in the churches, young people find themselves adopting pagan and humanistic ethical theories and legal frameworks that are not only inferior to, but hostile toward biblical law.” The Mission of God – A Manifesto of Hope for Society, Wilberforce Publications, London, 2016, p. 258.

            The bottom line is that the Gospel without the Law is a Gospel unplugged. How are we to disciple and teach the nations everything Jesus has commanded if the nations are not to be taught Christ’s commands? My old college professor used to have a car bumper sticker which read, “God’s Law or Chaos!” “Christ or Chaos!” means exactly the same thing. If we are to bring order to the chaos of our own day, if we are to heal the nations, yeah, baptize and Christianize them, we will need to plug the Gospel back into the Law. Nigel Lee says,

“New Testament Christians maintained their nationality and taught that others should do the same, while yet working for improved national and international relationships as part of and as a result of their obedience to Christ’s mandate to evangelize all the nations, until all nations have become Christianized and, even after the final judgment, maintain their nationality and live in perfect harmony with the other nations in the new Jerusalem forever with all nations under the Triune God!

So the Christian doctrine of nationality is diametrically opposed to that of Marxism. Nations are a necessary product of man’s creation, not his alienation; Christ’s atonement principally heals the nations; and eschatologically the nations will preserve their nationality unto all eternity, and not lose it in a colorless communist utopia." Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, Communist Eschatology — pgs. 773 – 774.

            The Good News (i.e. the Gospel) is that we win down here. There is only One King and there us only one Kingdom, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).