"It was always a serious misinterpretation of the New Testament as well as of the Old Testament, to think of discovering its content (after the manner of all, legalism) in certain principles. It makes no difference
whether it was the principle of sonship to God, or perhaps the struggle of true religion with the church, or vice versa the principle of the Church as the place of the true transmission of salvation and adoration of God, or a definite moral principle (say that of action on conviction or that of unconditioned love) .... or the principle of this or that mystical or social theory and practice which was to be the preferred and presented as the essence of the matter ........ we would do well to realise that in the sense of the New Testament writers themselves,
literally everything they say would be but marginal and incidental and transient, if interpreted as the proclamation of a principle or idea or general truth - but that literally everything is central and fundamental
and eternal, the moment it is interpreted as the predicate in an utterance about Jesus Christ."
whether it was the principle of sonship to God, or perhaps the struggle of true religion with the church, or vice versa the principle of the Church as the place of the true transmission of salvation and adoration of God, or a definite moral principle (say that of action on conviction or that of unconditioned love) .... or the principle of this or that mystical or social theory and practice which was to be the preferred and presented as the essence of the matter ........ we would do well to realise that in the sense of the New Testament writers themselves,
literally everything they say would be but marginal and incidental and transient, if interpreted as the proclamation of a principle or idea or general truth - but that literally everything is central and fundamental
and eternal, the moment it is interpreted as the predicate in an utterance about Jesus Christ."
Church Dogmatics Vol. 1 The Doctrine of the Word of God. p.11
The current "principle" which holds us in thrall is "inclusiveness" - whenever you see an individual congregation or a denomination trying to sum up its approach, there is a very good chance that the word "inclusive" will appear somewhere. In many cases that will be code word meaning " we are very welcoming of homosexuals practicing or not". It might mean more properly, " we do not wish differences of race, age, sex, colour or social standing etc etc to prevent any one from hearing and being challenged by the gospel of Jesus Christ. " It is true that we can all come to God in Christ just as we are; but no-one is left unchallenged or unchanged by an authentic encounter with the living Christ. There are some parts of every life that God does NOT welcome.
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