Chris Wright
Today our church leaders of various Cape churches gathered together for a day of training and fellowship. We were privileged to have Dr. Chris Wright of the Langham Partnershiphas come down to South Africa as a part of a number of Easter events CESA are putting together. He did an exposition of Nehemiah 8 on the dynamic of God’s Word in the life of believers as well as a session on the place of the Law within historical redemption and the life of NT believers. I really appreciated his approach to to whole subject, as one who is sensitive to many of the arguments involved, he brought in a helpful balance that sees the Law as both fulfilled in Christ and yet applicable to the life of a Christian as part of his/her discipleship. It was a stimulating day with a lot of food for thought…
As much as I enjoyed the second session I thought the one thing that he failed to do was really locate the law ‘within historical redemption’ – or at least he was weak on that. I thought his stength was in delineating principilism from the law as an approach to future application for the NT believer. But he still didn’t fully deal with the difference that the cross and Jesus and Paul’s comments make to the whole issue. Maybe I missed something but I was still wondering at the end of the session why I don’t stone disobedient children.
Point taken, and i think that was Hilmar’s (one of those in attendance) comment about why he did not make the explicit point about Jesus being the delineator for the NT believer. I think he would have included what you are talking about when he made the argument for the Law anticipating failure, and judgment (on the part of Israel/us) and our subsequent need of grace and redemption. From there he made the point that we ought to preach the Law in order to BRING people back to the Gospel. Having said that i would have also appreciated his view on how Jesus tackled the issue if of the Law in first Century Judaism. What was the difference between Jesus’ understanding and that of the scribes, lawyers, and Pharisees? Wright made the point that the Law is founded on grace; redemption precedes command because obedience is the right response to salvation. However, what happened after the exile? How was second temple Judaism approaching the law? Did they see it as a means by which they gain salvation (out of exile)? i think some answers to these questions would have been helpful especially within the New Perspectives arguments.