Hitmen and Midwives

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Hi Folks,

I started blogging over a decade ago on my friend Tony Jones’s advice. The discipline kept me from crazy when I was in the worst of stage-serious cancer, but after I returned from a year of medical leave, other I didn’t again take up the practice.

Writing, though, helps me work through the thoughts the Spirit gifts me as I struggle to discern what I must say in a sermon or in a Bible study. Just as importantly, the comments and questions it elicits from readers are an integral part of this process. Without any of you knowing it, for example, I have recently written sermons aimed at you.

I resumed the habit this winter here on Substack, and I’ve been bowled over by the thoughtful engagement and generous encouragement you all have provided and, in doing so, the community you’ve created.

So, thank you.

And if you have an idea for something you’d like to see explored here or something you’d like to see more of, let me know. Drop it in the comments or my inbox.

Okay, now to the post at hand.

— J

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From Augustine’s tussle with Pelagius (the patron saint of Methodism) to Luther’s rumble with Erasmus to Paul’s anger at the false teachers in Galatia, heresy is nearly always a matter of pastoral concern rather than doctrinal minutiae. Quite simply, if the one who gospels believes his or her hearers are basically capable of keeping the commandments and living as Jesus lived, who need not Christ’s shed blood for our sins and Jesus’s own permanent perfect record as our only righteousness, then the preacher will proclaim not promise but glawspel.

Glawspel = A muddle of the gospel with the law.

And remember— the law kills.

Even when it is but a little leaven in a message that otherwise sounds gospel, the law kills. As Paul writes to the Galatians, any do attached to the message of done for you annuls the gospel. Such preaching, Paul tells the Corinthians, is a ministry of death.

How the preacher perceives his or her listeners thus determines the message.

Are they essentially little Christ’s in waiting, in need of exhortation, advice, inspiration, and instruction so that they can keep the commandments and build the kingdom?

Or are they sinners, doing what they want not to do and not doing what they want to do, in need of a promise of present mercy and future hope?

This is the decision at the heart of Thesis #5 on Preaching:

Preachers who assume a free will on the part of their hearers will always confuse law for gospel and will instead deliver advice, wisdom, or exhortation while also making the cross a mere adjunct to personal improvement or an exemplar of purposeful living.

If you want to check on the previous installments of this series on preaching, here are the previous theses, just click the link:

Thesis 4

Thesis 3

Thesis 2

Thesis 1

And here’s a session with Father Paul Nesta.

Finally, if you’re interested in the Heidelberg Disputation that Dr. Jones references in our conversation, my colleagues at Mockingbird have them collected HERE.

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