Apostolic Lenses
There are a lot of lingering questions out there regarding the Law. I think most Christians are not at all clear regarding what our relationship to the Law ought to be. We know we don’t want to sacrifice bulls and goats anymore. And we are pretty sure we’re not required to eat Kosher and just because God says in the Old Testament that certain things were an abomination to Him (like women wearing men’s clothing [read: pants]) that doesn’t necessarily mean it is still an abomination to Him … does it?
We all know we’re not supposed to lust after our neighbor’s wife, but what about the fourth commandment: Sabbath-keeping. I mean, Sunday is not the Sabbath. It’s Saturday. Who said you could switch days? Maybe our Adventist friends have it right.
As one alert reader put it: What’s the deal with the Law? Rationalists need to know.
Well, my answer - and I know this answer would have gotten me excommunicated at various points in history, and I know that Christian-moron-hate-bloggers would like to see me drawn and quartered and have the pieces boiled in oil, if they only knew me, which they don’t, happily - my answer has to do with what I call “Apostolic Lenses.”
I think we are supposed to view all scripture through these “Apostolic Lenses.” I will try to explain.
I think there is a priority to the parts of scripture. Some parts explain other parts. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus changed the way we are to look at all of scripture.
When the Christian message first began (see Acts 2) the message was quite primitive. It was raw, undeveloped. “We thought He was the Messiah, and you killed Him but God raised Him from the dead.” That was it. That was the message.
We are told that the early disciples gave themselves over to “the Apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” At this point the full meaning, the whole interpretation of what the Jesus event meant, was not clear. Twenty-some years later, however, just listen to Paul, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … for God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things … (Colossians 1)” and so on. And that’s just the abridged version.
After twenty years of living in the Spirit and being taught by the Lord through the Spirit the Apostles were actually led into “all truth, ” or at least more truth than you or I are going to be led into in our lifetimes. The Apostle’s doctrine is the Gold Standard for us. They explain what the Jesus event means. In other words, we look at Jesus through the lens of the Apostle’s teaching – and that’s a good thing. John, Paul, Peter, James et al tell us what it means! Likewise we look at the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus. John 5, “…it is they (Torah) that testify of me.”
All of scripture is about the gospel. All of scripture is about Jesus. All of scripture is about the Apostolic interpretation of what it all means.
Okay, baseball metaphor. Let’s say there is a game between two professional baseball teams – the Owls and the Pussycats. The Old Testament is the league office that scheduled the game-to-be back in January of the year. Jesus is the game that gets played on July 4th at the home of the Owls. And Ray Ratto and Lowell Cohn are the super-smart pundits that tell us what the game means to the pennant race, who needs to get traded, and why the manager has to be fired. And they tell us these things the day after the game was played after they had put some thought into it, we hope.
But confusion abounds regarding Torah nonetheless. Many current theologians dissect the Law, Torah, into three parts: civil, ceremonial and moral. They reason that since we are not Israel, a nation, the civil law part does not directly apply to us. Likewise, they conclude that the ceremonial part of Torah (the sacrifices and so forth) was fulfilled in Christ so it no longer applies. But then they come to the moral part (read: the ten commandments) and say that this is neither outdated nor is it fulfill-able therefore it remains binding on the believer.
And this makes a lot of sense to the rational mind. It’s just that the Apostles never, ever made that distinction, that breakdown. For them, Torah remains a whole. It remains the covenant between God and Israel, the covenant whose time had run out.
Finally, I point to Luke 24. On the famous Road to Emmaus Jesus sets us all straight by co-opting the Torah. He owns it. It’s about Him. Its value is that it foreshadows Him and His work. The Torah is a model of the gospel; at least it would be if we were not fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
The Gospel Crank
There are a lot of lingering questions out there regarding the Law. I think most Christians are not at all clear regarding what our relationship to the Law ought to be. We know we don’t want to sacrifice bulls and goats anymore. And we are pretty sure we’re not required to eat Kosher and just because God says in the Old Testament that certain things were an abomination to Him (like women wearing men’s clothing [read: pants]) that doesn’t necessarily mean it is still an abomination to Him … does it?
We all know we’re not supposed to lust after our neighbor’s wife, but what about the fourth commandment: Sabbath-keeping. I mean, Sunday is not the Sabbath. It’s Saturday. Who said you could switch days? Maybe our Adventist friends have it right.
As one alert reader put it: What’s the deal with the Law? Rationalists need to know.
Well, my answer - and I know this answer would have gotten me excommunicated at various points in history, and I know that Christian-moron-hate-bloggers would like to see me drawn and quartered and have the pieces boiled in oil, if they only knew me, which they don’t, happily - my answer has to do with what I call “Apostolic Lenses.”
I think we are supposed to view all scripture through these “Apostolic Lenses.” I will try to explain.
I think there is a priority to the parts of scripture. Some parts explain other parts. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus changed the way we are to look at all of scripture.
When the Christian message first began (see Acts 2) the message was quite primitive. It was raw, undeveloped. “We thought He was the Messiah, and you killed Him but God raised Him from the dead.” That was it. That was the message.
We are told that the early disciples gave themselves over to “the Apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” At this point the full meaning, the whole interpretation of what the Jesus event meant, was not clear. Twenty-some years later, however, just listen to Paul, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … for God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things … (Colossians 1)” and so on. And that’s just the abridged version.
After twenty years of living in the Spirit and being taught by the Lord through the Spirit the Apostles were actually led into “all truth, ” or at least more truth than you or I are going to be led into in our lifetimes. The Apostle’s doctrine is the Gold Standard for us. They explain what the Jesus event means. In other words, we look at Jesus through the lens of the Apostle’s teaching – and that’s a good thing. John, Paul, Peter, James et al tell us what it means! Likewise we look at the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus. John 5, “…it is they (Torah) that testify of me.”
All of scripture is about the gospel. All of scripture is about Jesus. All of scripture is about the Apostolic interpretation of what it all means.
Okay, baseball metaphor. Let’s say there is a game between two professional baseball teams – the Owls and the Pussycats. The Old Testament is the league office that scheduled the game-to-be back in January of the year. Jesus is the game that gets played on July 4th at the home of the Owls. And Ray Ratto and Lowell Cohn are the super-smart pundits that tell us what the game means to the pennant race, who needs to get traded, and why the manager has to be fired. And they tell us these things the day after the game was played after they had put some thought into it, we hope.
But confusion abounds regarding Torah nonetheless. Many current theologians dissect the Law, Torah, into three parts: civil, ceremonial and moral. They reason that since we are not Israel, a nation, the civil law part does not directly apply to us. Likewise, they conclude that the ceremonial part of Torah (the sacrifices and so forth) was fulfilled in Christ so it no longer applies. But then they come to the moral part (read: the ten commandments) and say that this is neither outdated nor is it fulfill-able therefore it remains binding on the believer.
And this makes a lot of sense to the rational mind. It’s just that the Apostles never, ever made that distinction, that breakdown. For them, Torah remains a whole. It remains the covenant between God and Israel, the covenant whose time had run out.
Finally, I point to Luke 24. On the famous Road to Emmaus Jesus sets us all straight by co-opting the Torah. He owns it. It’s about Him. Its value is that it foreshadows Him and His work. The Torah is a model of the gospel; at least it would be if we were not fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
The Gospel Crank
