Yes Yes YES! Now you see it! This is the problem with so much of the mainline - even, sadly, us Lutherans. We stay in the Law and never make our way to the Gospel, to the absolution. And if that’s the case, then when is it done? “It is finished” is not the end of justice, but the beginning. In fact, I can only go forward in good works for my neighbor BECAUSE I have been forgiven of my sins, such that my eyes can be on my neighbor’s needs instead of my own failures. Huzzah!
I would suggest that critical theory provides a framework for understanding the Law and its application. I was taught that there are three uses of the Law. As a guide to define righteous living. As a curb to restrain sin and evil. As a mirror to convict a person of their sinfulness. Critical theory provides a strategy for understanding how the Law guides, curbs, and reflects. Dr. Craig Nessan offers insights into what he calls God’s two strategies to bring about the kingdom of God in his 2022 book “Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics “ and addresses liberation theology in the 2011 book he edited “Liberating Lutheran Theology: Freedom for Justice and Solidarity in a Global Context”
I recommend a highly readable (for literature of the 19th Century) The Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel by CFW Walther. Published by Concordia Publishing House. He does a nice job through nightly lectures with theology students. It may also be available through Logos. Blessings!
Yes Yes YES! Now you see it! This is the problem with so much of the mainline - even, sadly, us Lutherans. We stay in the Law and never make our way to the Gospel, to the absolution. And if that’s the case, then when is it done? “It is finished” is not the end of justice, but the beginning. In fact, I can only go forward in good works for my neighbor BECAUSE I have been forgiven of my sins, such that my eyes can be on my neighbor’s needs instead of my own failures. Huzzah!
I would suggest that critical theory provides a framework for understanding the Law and its application. I was taught that there are three uses of the Law. As a guide to define righteous living. As a curb to restrain sin and evil. As a mirror to convict a person of their sinfulness. Critical theory provides a strategy for understanding how the Law guides, curbs, and reflects. Dr. Craig Nessan offers insights into what he calls God’s two strategies to bring about the kingdom of God in his 2022 book “Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics “ and addresses liberation theology in the 2011 book he edited “Liberating Lutheran Theology: Freedom for Justice and Solidarity in a Global Context”
I recommend a highly readable (for literature of the 19th Century) The Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel by CFW Walther. Published by Concordia Publishing House. He does a nice job through nightly lectures with theology students. It may also be available through Logos. Blessings!