Part 1 - My Story
Part 2 - A Biblical Theology of Offending Your Brother
Part 3 – How to Offend a Legalist and Not Sin
I wish I’d been familiar with D. A. Carson during the time I described in my previous post. Carson is a top-notch Evangelical scholar who has often brought clarity to my thought over the years. A passage from his chapter in the book The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World could have revolutionized my thinking at the time:
Paul refuses to circumcise Titus, even when it was demanded by many in the Jerusalem crowd, not because it didn’t matter to them, but because it mattered so much that if he acquiesced, he would have been giving the impression that faith in Jesus is not enough for salvation: one has to become a Jew first, before one can become a Christian. That would jeopardize the exclusive sufficiency of Jesus.
To create a contemporary analogy: If I’m called to preach the gospel among a lot of people who are cultural teetotallers, I’ll give up alcohol for the sake of the gospel. But if they start saying, “You cannot be a Christian and drink alcohol,” I’ll reply, “Pass the port” or “I’ll think I’ll have a glass of Beaujolais with my meal.” Paul is flexible and therefore prepared to circumcise Timothy when the exclusive sufficiency of Christ is not at stake and when a little cultural accommodation will advance the gospel; he is rigidly inflexible and therefore refuses to circumcise Titus when people are saying that Gentiles must be circumcised and become Jews to accept the Jewish Messiah.
Is Carson implying that we might sometimes be completely free and justified in causing purposeful offense to another believer? I think he is. Of course the application tends to be tricky, but Carson has laid some pretty good tracks here with alcohol analogy.
Part 3 – How to Offend a Legalist and Not Sin
More From The Ascent to Truth
- A Detailed History of the Future 1 – McLuhan, Postman, and Source Material – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- One of the marks of a certain type of bad man… – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- The Subversiveness of Love – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
