Need help with Turretin

[En Kristo]

What does this phrase mean: “...we obtain dominion over the creatures and are heirs of the kingdom of Heaven.” What is the connection between Christian liberty and obtaining dominion over the creatures?

It comes at the end of 16.6.9, which reads:

From this adoption springs Christian liberty, which is not an immunity from all laws (divine and human) and a license to live according to our pleasure and to indulge the lusts of the flesh (as the Libertines profess, changing liberty into licentiousness); not an exemption from the civil obligation of subjection and from the tributes and jurisdiction of magistrates (as the various Anabaptists maintain and which the Romish clergy claim for themselves against the express teachings of Scripture); but it is a spiritual and mystical manumission obtained for us by the blood of Christ, by which from the spiritual bondage of the law, of sin, of the world and Satan (by whose chains we were before bound), we are brought into the liberty of the sons of God (as it is treated in Jn. 8:32, 36; Rom. 6:15, 22; 8:2, 3; Gal. 3:13; 4:6, 26; 5:1; Heb. 2:15 and elsewhere); through which being called into fellowship with God (as our Father) and with Christ (as our brother), we obtain dominion over the creatures and are heirs of the kingdom of Heaven.

Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 2 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–1997), 669.

 

[arapahoepark]

but it is a spiritual and mystical manumission obtained for us by the blood of Christ, by which from the spiritual bondage of the law, of sin, of the world and Satan
Doesn't this explain it? We aren't enslaved under a law and now reign with the one who gave it.

 

[En Kristo]

Thanks. That certainly explains Christian liberty. The question I had is what does Christian liberty have to do with dominion over the creatures? I don’t think that adding, "through which being called into fellowship with God (as our Father) and with Christ (as our brother), we obtain dominion over the creatures and are heirs of the kingdom of Heaven” was very helpful. I guess Turretin was tying Christian liberty to reigning with Christ. So far so good, but the bit about dominion over creatures was a stretch, if you ask me. It was an unrelated detail.

You’d think after decades of marriage I would be able to hang in there with run on sentences that tie together entirely disparate and eclectic details.

Hey, but be it far from me to criticize Turretin.

 

[paranymph]

Here is how I follow the logic of Turretin— Christian liberty is not freedom from the law in the sense of freedom from God's law (licentiousness) nor freedom from civil law. However, even though we are bound to civil law in this life, Christ has given us a freedom that leads to being over his creatures in the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, he points out a paradox, that though we are not (necessarily) kings in this life, we are kings/judges in the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor 6:3).

 

[83r17h]

Here's how I'm reading the logic. Context from 16.6 is that Turretin's goal is to characterize adoption. As you point out, it is a sub-point about adoption, asserting that liberty is a consequence of adoption. Hence: "From this adoption springs Christian liberty."

He proceeds to negatively define, then positively define, that liberty. Negatively: "not an immunity from all laws...and a license." It is "not an exemption from the civil obligation of subjection." Positively: "it is a spiritual and mystical manumission obtained for us by the blood of Christ."

But that's not hugely descriptive. "Manumission" is the act of granting freedom to a slave. So what is Christian liberty? It is a kind of being made free. Made free from what? "by which from the spiritual bondage of the law, of sin, of the word and Satan...we are brought into the liberty of the sons of God."

It is then in that liberty that additional benefits of adoption, "dominion over the creatures" and "heirs of the kingdom of Heaven" can thrive. Being enslaved to sin is an obstacle to those two benefits of adoption (having dominion while being a slave is nonsensical; being a slave and also an heir is nonsensical). Being set free from slavery removes the blocker, and so adoption (what Turretin characterizes as "being called into fellowship with God (as our Father) and with Christ (as our brother)") can have its full effects.

So it is not that there is a strict connection between liberty and dominion (in the sense of "liberty implies dominion"), but more that without liberty, dominion (as a benefit of adoption), doesn't make sense. So what Turretin is saying is that adoption not only implies dominion, but it also implies the liberty required for that dominion to be meaningful.

 

[En Kristo]

Trent, Drew, Albert, thank you brothers. This is the Puritan Board at its best, helping people dig the treasure of God’s word.

 

[Roman Prestarri]

From my reading of his words, I wonder if Turriten may have in reference the angelic host and all creation with his use of the word “creatures” here.

 

[En Kristo]

Exactly: what was he thinking?

 

[jwright82]

Thanks. That certainly explains Christian liberty. The question I had is what does Christian liberty have to do with dominion over the creatures? I don’t think that adding, "through which being called into fellowship with God (as our Father) and with Christ (as our brother), we obtain dominion over the creatures and are heirs of the kingdom of Heaven” was very helpful. I guess Turretin was tying Christian liberty to reigning with Christ. So far so good, but the bit about dominion over creatures was a stretch, if you ask me. It was an unrelated detail.

You’d think after decades of marriage I would be able to hang in there with run on sentences that tie together entirely disparate and eclectic details.

Hey, but be it far from me to criticize Turretin.

Brother "run on sentences" is how they keep us on our toes.

 

[MW]

"All things are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." Grace restores nature. We are exercising dominion spiritually by lawfully using the creatures in accord with the Christian freedom we have been given in Christ. The meek shall inherit the earth whereas the wicked shall be destroyed. This will be consummated in the new heavens and new earth.

 

[Roman Prestarri]

Exactly: what was he thinking?

Through sin we are brought into captivity to the lusts of the flesh, and the world, and Satan is god over us and rules our hearts through his instigation and spirit. Through Christ we are not only liberated from sin, but the condemnation of the law, as well as the dominion of Satan and the demonic thralldom, and even further, the very creation which groans for the adoption of sons and the manifestation of our sonship and true dominion.

Romans 8:19-21 (KJV) 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

I think Turriten is simply drawing in Pauls tie between our adoption and the liberation of creation.

 

[En Kristo]

I am enjoying these reflections on the passage in Turretin. It is helpful to see things through the eyes of others.