The Church’s Law-Grace Throwdown: 300 Years and Going Strong

“Nobody in the discussion was saying, ‘A person is justified by works of the law.’ Nor was anyone saying, ‘Christians have no moral obligations.’ So what was the disagreement really about? And how should we think about it today?”

Discussion

I think the author of the review doesn’t understand what was at stake 300 years ago or what’s at stake now either. Hopefully the author of the book does.

It may be true that no one was saying “a person is justified by the works of the law” or “Christians have no moral obligations” but if you assert that that all red round objects are apples and that item A is a red round object, it doesn’t count for much if you stop short of stating the inescapable concusion that “item A is an apple.”

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

….it strikes me that the book’s actually close to 400 years old, and was published during the 30 years’ war, when the forces of the Pope were busily killing about a quarter of the population of Germany to try and impose faith + works, and not that long after the Armada had threatened to bring England back into subjection to Rome. So I would agree with Aaron that the reviewer needs to understand more of the historical context. It was, and remains, a big deal.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.