Needed: Balance in Theology

When I was learning to drive, I loved to take my Volkswagen down old dirt roads and fishtail it just for fun. If I were not careful, there were times when I found it difficult to get the fishtailing car to straighten out.

I would end up oversteering—repeatedly throwing the tail of the car back and forth in a furious attempt to get it straight.

This tendency is common not just among immature drivers but also among immature churches. The former can wind up in a physical ditch, the latter in a theological one.

As Adventists, are we heading to ward a theological ditch? I'm thinking, in particular, of what is being called "Evangelical Adventism," with its emphasis on justification by faith to the point of neglecting holiness and the fruits of the indwelling Spirit. I'm thinking of a "Christianity" that is rightfully accused of being powerless, fraudulent in its claims to change lives and transform characters. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it "cheap grace": "the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession and reformation. Cheap grace is grace with out discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."¹

I am always appalled by the immaturity of the polar positions, which appear in different packages. Though, no doubt, our acceptance before Godi s based solely on the merit of Christ crucified and not on the quality of our lives, the New Testament clearly shows that solid ethics and holiness are expected of mature and maturing believers (1 Thess. 4:1-12; James 4:1-12; 1 Pet. 4:1-11; 1 John 1:5-7). Every apostolic writer calls for holy living as the normative progression of the Christian faith. As one evangelical theologian puts it: "There are many pastors today who, for fear of being branded as 'legalists,' give their congregation no ethical teaching. How far we have strayed from the apostles! 'Legalism' is the misguided attempt to earn our salvation by obedience to the law. 'Pharisaism' is a meticulous preoccupation with the externals and the minutiae of religious duty. To teach the standards of moral conduct which adorn the gospel is neither legalism nor pharisaism but plain apostolic Christianity."²

A penetrating question must challenge some of the well-meaning theological teaching that many of the best of us have espoused during the last few years: After all the preaching on justification by faith alone, how many people in the church are living holier, more obedient, and Christlike lives now than ten years ago? To be honest, I don't see much improvement (myself included) . What should we make of the fact that many after decades in the church display no hint of peace, kindness, patience, longsuffering, etc.? How should we deal with the reality that so many of our so-called mature believers, are still elitist, arrogant, slanderous, and meanspirited? These things cause other believers to soundly argue that our religion and all the talk about faith and the Bible hasn't done much for many of us. If this is so, and it appears to be, something is wrong.

Balance in the true gospel

As we enter a new era, we must endeavor to teach the balance, that is found in full expressions of the gospel of Christ.

This gospel includes justification by grace through faith alone and includes overwhelming security (John 10:28,29). We must always teach security even during times of rebellion against God so that no one is tempted to revert to the teachings of the those known as the Judaizers (Gal. 3). Nevertheless, this gospel includes and requires maturity or sanctification. This aspect of the truth is not optional. Jesus Himself taught us that obedience to His commandments is the expected proof or evidence of our love for Him. We should never shy away from teaching that disregarding Christ's commandments indicates a lack of love for him. To do this is simply to be genuinely biblical.

We must be careful, however, not to equate love for Jesus with salvation, since we are neither saved nor kept saved just because we love Christ. We must, as ministers of Christ's gospel, stop swinging back and forth in our teaching; over-cor recting in one decade the over-corrections of the previous decade. It's time to straighten this car out. We must teach the gospel in its fullness. Not just pieces of it. And just as we must mature beyond fishtailing in our driving, it is time for us as a church to do the same in our under standing, teaching, and living of the good news of the whole gospel.