Part XI

Today I will return to examining John Coblentz’s thoughts in his pamphlet “Are Written Standards for the Church”? I will share a little of John’s thoughts on the “no written regulations” position that some would take.

Coblentz says this, “But the assumptions that those who have written standards do not trust the Word and the Spirit, worse that they make additions to the Word, and that standards stifle spiritual life—these assumptions are unbiblical. As we noted in the Acts 15 example, the effect of the written regulations was joy among the believers and growth of the church”.

Here are Coblentz’s main points on the danger of no regulation.

1. “By a position of no regulations, the church places the burden of discerning practical applications primarily on the individual members, and thus ignores the entity of the collective body.”
2. “By a position of no regulations there is confusion in such Biblical expressions as ‘freedom in Christ’ and ‘walking by the Spirit’.”
3. “By a position of no regulations, individual believers are opened to the deceptiveness or hearing and following impressions and revelations which at best are self-delusions and at worst are seducing spirits”
4. “The position of no regulations confuses Holy Spirit restraints with legalism.”

A few days ago I saw this quote on social media, “I always say that legalism is taking your conviction and putting it on someone else. But legalism robs our joy. There is freedom when we walk away from legalism.”

Legalism is a real threat to the Christian. It will rob joy. How should we understand legalism? What does the quote imply? Does it fairly describe legalism?

I believe we see a tension in the New Testament. One on hand we see the Apostle Paul writing strong warnings to the churches that wanted to return to the Law. He wrote to the Galatian church about “…false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:”. (Gal. 2:4)

:Again, in Galatians 3:1-3 Paul asks some pointed questions. I will quote the NET Bible—“You foolish Galatians! Who cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” We can safely conclude that Christans have a liberty in Christ that those under the law did not have.

I think that Christians in all times and in all cultures need to recognize that there is a danger of trying to finish the race “by human effort”. I believe Coblentz would say that this is a truth, but not the only truth. It may become less than true if we do not hear the fullness of the Word.

Paul wrote these words to Titus, again quoting from the NET Bible, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, and wait for the fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:11-13)

Paul is talking about the effect of God’s grace in the believers life. He says this grace trains us, or teaches us, as the KJV states. Most certainly we must believe that this work of grace is personal in the life of the believer. Every believer needs to respond to “godless ways and worldly desires” as they intersect with his personal life.

The question then is how much responsibility and opportunity does the body of Christ have to be a part of this work of the grace of God in the life of the individual believer. What about the self-delusions and seducing spirits that Coblentz references? Don’t we all need a perspective beyond ourselves? Is it really just “me and God”?

So, we have a liberty in Christ that must be preserved and a responsibility to hear the wisdom of the body of Christ that comes from the Holy Spirit.

I believe that the Anabaptist community as a whole has viewed the Christian life in the context of a brotherhood, possibly much more so than other branches of Christianity. That has been a blessing. But, it also has inherent dangers. In the New Testament we see the struggles that happened over personal convictions. The Jewish Christians tended to focus on a different set of personal convictions than the pagans who had become Christians. Their past experiences colored their present faith. So the issue of holy days and meats offered to idols became hot-button issues in the early church. One of the issues that needs to be examined carefully is the matter of personal convictions. It is easy to see how the demand of a believer to have other believers live by his personal convictions can cause havoc in the church. Part of the discussion on church standards will have to consider the freedom for personal convictions.

So back to the tension I see in the Scripture. I believe that a healthy believer seeks holiness and seeks the aid of the Holy Spirit to direct his life. But, is it not also healthy to have a community of believers around us to speak truth into our lives? Obviously, this speaking truth into another believer’s life can be one-on-one. But, is there not also a place for the church, as a body, to address cultural issues. Isn’t this what the church was doing in Acts 15?

The preaching and teaching ministry within a congregation will be the primary way that moral, ethical and cultural issues will be addressed. This ministry must be much more than simply referencing the applications of principles a group may have established. This is precisely why over regulation can ultimately be deadly to a group of believers. When the focus shifts to highlighting applications instead of understanding the call of God to walk in holiness from the heart, borne out of a living relationship with Christ, a spiritual deadness will begin to grip the group.

The problem is we can lose a sound perspective in this tension. We can drift to the edges of either truth. We can move so far towards personal liberty that the church ceases to be a voice in holy living. As an example, I am astounded by how many people I know in my community who live with people to whom they are not married, yet they are regular church attenders and they openly express their faith. The church apparently has lost it’s voice to address issues of holy living with these folks.

We also need to recognize that there are real dangers in resting alone on regulations to address the issues of holiness. They do have a place. But regulations alone do not produce holiness. As Coblentz has stated, “the presence of Jesus is neither generated nor preserved through written regulations”.

Again, quoting Coblentz, “The healthy church has written regulations by the direction of the Spirit, not to bring life to members, not to bring Jesus in, nor even make Him more real, but because He is there.”

We may need to spend a long time pondering this statement!

DSJ