Putting the Truth to Work (by Dan Doriani)

I’ve been greatly enjoying my re-read this week of Dr. Dan Doriani’s wonderful book, Putting the Truth to Work: The Theory and Practice of Biblical Application.

If you’ve ever wondered about how to interpret and apply certain “difficult” passages of Scripture, I commend this scholarly-level, yet imminently readable book to you. It is fantastic (and I continue to be a Dr. Doriani junkie! totally makes me wish I could go to seminary one day …).

I could quote the entire work to you, but let me tempt you with just two excerpts from Chapter 12 (“Christ-Centered Application”) and Chapter 11 (“Issues in Application of Ethical Texts” — this chapter is actually the reason I picked up this book for a re-read this week; I wanted to review the chapter because of an ethical case study I read over the weekend):

(From Chapter 12 …)

“I cannot forget the Sunday night when, at twenty-one, I spoke in the church pastored by my future father-in-law. In a quest to reform my own speech, I had found dozens of verses on the topic of speech, strung them together, and slung them at the congregation for thirty minutes. I sat down, flush with excitement over all the good commands I had presented. But when my father-in-law stood up before closing the service, he said more than a little about Jesus’ mercy for those who misuse words. I began to protest silently, thinking, “All this talk of Jesus’ mercy is undercutting my message. He’s making it sound as if we don’t really need to keep the law.”

I was thinking as (what I now call) a “class-four-legalist.”

Class-one legalists are autosoterists; they declare what one must do in order to obtain God’s favor or salvation. The rich young ruler was a class-one legalist.

Class-two legalists declare what good deeds or spiritual disciplines one must perform to retain God’s favor and salvation.

Class-three legalists love the law so much they create new laws, laws not found in Scripture, and require submission to them. The Pharisees, who built fences around the law, were class-three legalists.

Class-four legalists avoid these gross errors, but they so accentuate obedience to the law of God that other ideas shrivel up. They reason, “God has redeemed us at the cost of his Son’s life. Now he demands our service in return. He has given us his Spirit and a new nature and has stated his will. He has given us his Spirit and a new nature and has stated his will. With these resources, we obey his law in gratitude for our redemption. This is our duty to God.”

In an important way this is true, but class-four legalists dwell on the law of God until they forget the love of God. Worshiping, delighting in, communing with, and conforming to God are forgotten.

Class-four legalists can preach sermons in which every sentence is true, while the whole is oppressive. It is oppressive to proclaim Christ as the Lawgiver to whom we owe a vast debt, as if we must somehow repay him—repay God!—for his gifts to us. I count myself a member of the legion of recovering class-four legalists. We slide into a “Just Do It” mentality occasionally, dispensing commands just because they are right …”

(From Chapter 11 …)

“This chapter develops an earlier claim (chap. 6) that Christians can present duties and give concrete guidance without descending into legalism. Whereas narrative reaches the imagination and doctrine shapes the mind, law addresses the will, with principles that govern the sweep of life and with rules that govern many of its specifics. In telling us how to live, the law inescapably presents our sin, which we can describe as the gap between our aspirations and our capacity or as the chasm between God’s holiness and our unrighteousness.

In itself, the law is good. It provides guidance. Further, the law never simply says, “Do as God says” or “Be as God is.” Before God gave the law, he redeemed Israel. Before Jesus gave commands, he called disciples to himself. Thus God’s desire for a filial relationship with us causes him to reveal his will to us. The law spells out the way of love between God and humanity and between one person and another. The law describes God’s nature. By obeying it, we conform ourselves to him, achieve our identity, and find his blessing.”