Sunday, June 26, 2005
Law and Truth
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This family planning topic, which really is about 'natural' birth control, just seems to be scratching the surface. Ultimately I see it tied to major theological and hermeneutical issues. My entire theological paradigm is being challenged and refined as I consider this complex issue. To warn you, I am about to begin reviewing Nancy Campbell's Be Fruitful and Multiply. I have no idea how many posts it will take me and I apologize if you get bored of this topic! But I must write what is heavy on my heart until peace is found. It may not be the peace of total knowledge and rational conclusion, but the peace of faith and Truth that is Christ our Lord.
By the way, if you are thinking that rational conclusion ought to equal truth instead of being contrasted against it, you are ripe for the theological and philosophical challenges that this topic has ignited for me! This morning at church, the minister read John 1:17-18 which says "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Those words fell upon my ears as if I had never heard them before and I was dumbstruck. The "law" is juxtaposed against "Truth"! Not that the law is somehow false or a lie, but it is not equivalent with truth! Through Moses, through the OT, God did not reveal "Truth" but law. He reserved "Truth" for the coming of the one who is Truth. The law was good, as Paul clarifies in Romans, but it was a tutor, it was given for a time, for a specific purpose but was purposefully insufficient to bring us into the life we were created for. Truth is not flat and mechanical but possesses fullness and life. Truth is not black and white alone, but contains the rainbow brilliance of color reflected in the light of the sun. Truth is not an idea I can nail down upon a slip of paper or a stone tablet, but a Person who has been revealed.
The passage goes on to say, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, Who is at the Father's side, has made Him known." Though Moses saw the burning bush, went into the presence of the Lord in a cloud, and experienced enough of God's presence to make his face unbearably bright, still he had not ever truly seen the Lord. The fullness of YHWH, of the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, is revealed finally for mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. As we consider what is true, concerning birth control as well as what is true in every area of our lives, we begin, not with the Old Testament, but with Christ. He is our hermeneutical key and standard, by which we understand all scripture. The Pharisees made the error of insisting that their understanding of the law and prophets interpret Christ; they called them a blasphemer and crucified him. Jesus told them, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of me." (John 6:39) When we seek to understand the scripture and how to interpret it, we must begin with Christ, He who was incarnate and entered history, died on the cross and rose again.
Defining any birth control, including abstinence with the intent of avoiding pregnancy, as sin is the institution of a law. Concerning the law, Paul writes, "Therefore, my brethren you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead . . . But now we have been released from the Law having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:4,6) Through Christ we have been freed, separated, from the law, from having regulations on what we must do or not do master our lives. We have been born into the newness of the Spirit. Throughout Paul's letters he writes first of what not to do, what are the actions of a corrupt spirit, but then prescribes fruit of the spirit in return. Law is not reinstated but descriptions of what joy, peace, love, hope, kindness, patience, etc. . . would look like in the communities of the church he was writing to.
Paul then asks, what is the law bad? Is it sin? Is it unholy? May it never be! What ever God gives is good, but that does not mean it was set up to have never ending authority. That whatever God does is good does not mean that God does not act in history for seasons, for specific purposes, much as I have tight regulations for my 3 year old which are good, but I will remove them as she grows. It does not mean that the boundaries I set up were either bad or relative, nor intended to last forever. In 7:13, Paul explains that the temporary purpose of the law was to, through the constraint of the commandments, make sin utterly sinful. Without the commandment telling me "no" I would not know the fullness of my sin. That was its purpose and still is for those who do not yet know Christ. Once we are reborn through baptism in hid death and resurrection by faith, we are separated from the law, its purpose having been fulfilled, and joined to Christ Himself.
If we are going to acknowledge or create a law, or IOW a black and white regulation, it must at least have some foundation in the teachings of Christ. L'Engle was once asked if she thought there were any absolutes. She replied, "The Ten Commandments." These provide an example of moral absolutes, which Jesus and the apostles repeated in their teaching, and which have to relative context. It is never lawful or an expression of the Spirit to lie or murder or commit adultery. Dare we add avoid pregnancy to this list when scripture does not directly address it? The FQ theologians I have read argue for a law against bc based upon Genesis 1:28 as well as examples and precedents in the OT. If we add laws to those clearly maintained by Christ based on precedents or examples, ought we to have multiple wives? What about creating regulations for ourselves based on the laws of Moses? Ought we stone and kill a disrespectful child as mandated by the law? Adulterers? Perhaps we women ought to be isolating ourselves during menstruation and after childbirth.
You cannot return to part of the law without taking all of it. That is why we must step with extreme trepidation when establishing black and white regulations for ourselves and especially for one another. Paul writes in Galatians 4:9-10 "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe the days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." For further consideration on the relationship of the law to believers, read Galatians 3 and 4, or better yet, all of Galatians!
Concerning birth control again, I assert that it is not an issue of law but an issue of faith. Each couple before God, each month, each child, must prayerfully seek God's leading concerning their 'multiplication'. If God can choose to give a couple few children instead of many via infertility, permanent or temporary, can He not lead a couple similarly through their faith and decisions? Can He not lead them to abstain because He has other plans for them? Can He not guide our decisions? Is He limited to guiding the consequences? Is that not the meaning of the incarnation, rebirth and body of Christ? He now works through us and in us and within our choices?
To continue the discussion on Full Quiver, read "Be Fruitful - Introduction".
By the way, if you are thinking that rational conclusion ought to equal truth instead of being contrasted against it, you are ripe for the theological and philosophical challenges that this topic has ignited for me! This morning at church, the minister read John 1:17-18 which says "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Those words fell upon my ears as if I had never heard them before and I was dumbstruck. The "law" is juxtaposed against "Truth"! Not that the law is somehow false or a lie, but it is not equivalent with truth! Through Moses, through the OT, God did not reveal "Truth" but law. He reserved "Truth" for the coming of the one who is Truth. The law was good, as Paul clarifies in Romans, but it was a tutor, it was given for a time, for a specific purpose but was purposefully insufficient to bring us into the life we were created for. Truth is not flat and mechanical but possesses fullness and life. Truth is not black and white alone, but contains the rainbow brilliance of color reflected in the light of the sun. Truth is not an idea I can nail down upon a slip of paper or a stone tablet, but a Person who has been revealed.
The passage goes on to say, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, Who is at the Father's side, has made Him known." Though Moses saw the burning bush, went into the presence of the Lord in a cloud, and experienced enough of God's presence to make his face unbearably bright, still he had not ever truly seen the Lord. The fullness of YHWH, of the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, is revealed finally for mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. As we consider what is true, concerning birth control as well as what is true in every area of our lives, we begin, not with the Old Testament, but with Christ. He is our hermeneutical key and standard, by which we understand all scripture. The Pharisees made the error of insisting that their understanding of the law and prophets interpret Christ; they called them a blasphemer and crucified him. Jesus told them, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness of me." (John 6:39) When we seek to understand the scripture and how to interpret it, we must begin with Christ, He who was incarnate and entered history, died on the cross and rose again.
Defining any birth control, including abstinence with the intent of avoiding pregnancy, as sin is the institution of a law. Concerning the law, Paul writes, "Therefore, my brethren you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead . . . But now we have been released from the Law having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:4,6) Through Christ we have been freed, separated, from the law, from having regulations on what we must do or not do master our lives. We have been born into the newness of the Spirit. Throughout Paul's letters he writes first of what not to do, what are the actions of a corrupt spirit, but then prescribes fruit of the spirit in return. Law is not reinstated but descriptions of what joy, peace, love, hope, kindness, patience, etc. . . would look like in the communities of the church he was writing to.
Paul then asks, what is the law bad? Is it sin? Is it unholy? May it never be! What ever God gives is good, but that does not mean it was set up to have never ending authority. That whatever God does is good does not mean that God does not act in history for seasons, for specific purposes, much as I have tight regulations for my 3 year old which are good, but I will remove them as she grows. It does not mean that the boundaries I set up were either bad or relative, nor intended to last forever. In 7:13, Paul explains that the temporary purpose of the law was to, through the constraint of the commandments, make sin utterly sinful. Without the commandment telling me "no" I would not know the fullness of my sin. That was its purpose and still is for those who do not yet know Christ. Once we are reborn through baptism in hid death and resurrection by faith, we are separated from the law, its purpose having been fulfilled, and joined to Christ Himself.
If we are going to acknowledge or create a law, or IOW a black and white regulation, it must at least have some foundation in the teachings of Christ. L'Engle was once asked if she thought there were any absolutes. She replied, "The Ten Commandments." These provide an example of moral absolutes, which Jesus and the apostles repeated in their teaching, and which have to relative context. It is never lawful or an expression of the Spirit to lie or murder or commit adultery. Dare we add avoid pregnancy to this list when scripture does not directly address it? The FQ theologians I have read argue for a law against bc based upon Genesis 1:28 as well as examples and precedents in the OT. If we add laws to those clearly maintained by Christ based on precedents or examples, ought we to have multiple wives? What about creating regulations for ourselves based on the laws of Moses? Ought we stone and kill a disrespectful child as mandated by the law? Adulterers? Perhaps we women ought to be isolating ourselves during menstruation and after childbirth.
You cannot return to part of the law without taking all of it. That is why we must step with extreme trepidation when establishing black and white regulations for ourselves and especially for one another. Paul writes in Galatians 4:9-10 "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe the days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." For further consideration on the relationship of the law to believers, read Galatians 3 and 4, or better yet, all of Galatians!
Concerning birth control again, I assert that it is not an issue of law but an issue of faith. Each couple before God, each month, each child, must prayerfully seek God's leading concerning their 'multiplication'. If God can choose to give a couple few children instead of many via infertility, permanent or temporary, can He not lead a couple similarly through their faith and decisions? Can He not lead them to abstain because He has other plans for them? Can He not guide our decisions? Is He limited to guiding the consequences? Is that not the meaning of the incarnation, rebirth and body of Christ? He now works through us and in us and within our choices?
To continue the discussion on Full Quiver, read "Be Fruitful - Introduction".
1 Comments:
At 6/27/2005 8:50 PM,
Anita said…
Excellent. Well done on your research, Annie!
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