“Faith itself has been taken captive by legalism.” ~Gerhard Forde
Ever since Paul’s fiery denouncement of Judaistic law-keeping in Galatians and Romans, the Christian tradition has recognized, if only grudgingly, that legalism is the death-knell of faith in Christ. Even those churches most closely identified with deeply legalistic tendencies (I am thinking of Catholicism and Orthodoxy in particular), will routinely, if hypocritically, condemn legalism in its most blatant forms.
However, it may come as a shock to realize that even among evangelicals there is a subtle, but equally destructive, form of legalism that has undermined the proclamation that salvation is by faith alone, apart from works. I am referring to a legalistic understanding of the nature of faith. Gerhard Forde neatly explains the downward spiral that leads one to redefine faith in such a way that makes it just one more law that we must fulfill in order to be saved:
Even when we attempt to stick with faith alone we are usually driven to define, qualify, and hedge about the faith of which we speak so that no one will get the “wrong idea.” Of course we don’t mean just any old faith, we mean really believing; we mean a really sincere, heartfelt trust, we mean a living, active faith, a faith which comes after deep and despairing repentance—all that “adverbial” theology. Before we are through we have so qualified and modified faith as to make it even less obtainable than the justice we failed to reach by the law! No wonder most people today would rather take their chances with the law! Faith itself has been taken captive by legalism. The price is so inflated that no one can afford it any more (Forde, Justification by Faith, p. 10).
CKeith
The qualification of faith was one of the primary things that made Calvinism so unbearable for me, it just made the talk of being saved by grace through faith seem like a facade; as if the people teaching either hadn’t really thought it through or didn’t believe it themselves but had to shoehorn grace in somewhere. The second guessing of my faith and salvation, the double-talk of grace and works and their seemingly paranoid obsession with “false believers” almost killed my faith and love for God; even after several years of being away from Calvinism and listening to GES, I still haven’t fully recovered from the damage to my faith and view of God. They seem to want to put faith in their special “saving faith”, rather than in Jesus. I didn’t notice until I had left Calvinism, just how little emphasis had been placed on Jesus compared to how much had been placed on what I do and the issue of having the right kind of faith; it seemed that even the demons would be saved if they had the “right kind of faith.” Regardless of whether Jesus died for them or not. The thought that I’d be better off with the law had occurred to me, as Forde mentioned, because so many preachers seem to want to water down grace and muddle faith to the point of being meaningless, as if they can’t imagine anyone not using their freedom for sinfulness; perhaps the expectation is indicative of their own congregations, but I think they underestimate the power of God’s goodness, which I think could motivate even their people.
I know this wasn’t an article about Calvinism, but I’ve recently been considering the influence that Calvinism has had on me and Forde touched on some things that I’ve been thinking about. Thanks for the blog.
Harrison
When I am witnessing to people I remind them that God does not abort His children! Once they have belived in the Lord Jesus for there eternal distiny they can not not enter the kingdom whether they want to or not. Once they have recieved everlasting life from Him they are His forever!
Woltizm
I ‘chanced’ upon your reference to Gerhard Forde. As an admitted Fordephile, it’s nice to see people outside the Lutheran world being helped by his insight. I’m glad that others are walking in the same direction.
SC Lazar
I like what Forde has to say about justification, and the theologia crucis in general. But I fear that what Forde offers with his right hand (justification by faith alone), he takes away with his left (salvation actually depends on being baptized/elected by a preacher of the Word). I think that’s a contradiction of Lutheran thought in general, though.
Andrew
Read these words very closely:
” I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes from the law, then Christ died in vain ”
When someone adds works as a condition or ” mandatory result ” of salvation they are actually setting aside God’s grace…Trying to work for righteousness makes Christ’s suffering in vain. The horrible flogging and humiliation and crucifixion he endured!!! I’ll trust him totally and take my chances with being found not doing enough or to put it another way, it is better to rely too much on God’s grace {if thats even possible} than to say to Him it’s not enough!!