A.Joseph
Puritan Board Senior
A few helpful sentiments via article and podcast:
Natural law is important for unbelievers because it lays necessary foundation for proclaiming the gospel. This corresponds to the so-called first use of the law. The previously quoted verses from Romans 1–2, of course, are part of Paul’s own foundational teaching in preparation for his explanation of justification and other saving benefits, beginning in Romans 3:21. In short, without the law there is no gospel. Without conviction of sin there can be no faith and repentance. Calling attention to the testimony of natural law, therefore, promotes the effective preaching of salvation in Christ.
...Natural law explains and reinforces for us, as New Testament saints, why we continue to honor and participate in the natural institutions of this world (such as family and state), though we are already citizens of a heavenly kingdom that does not have such institutions. Christ did not establish any institution except the church, and he did not create any brand new obligations toward the family or state. With regard to such institutions the New Testament echoes and reinforces obligations that are already there under the natural law (though we are now to pursue them “in Christ”). Commands about marital fidelity, raising children, pursuing justice, and honoring magistrates are not arbitrary, but are appropriate for the kind of people God made us by nature. https://opc.org/os.html?article_id=301
They have drunk of the intoxicating belief in the “imperial sovereign self,”[1]which creates the spiritual theory behind “identity politics.” Such a spiritual faith in the self is no longer tempered by the Christian notion that humanity is fallen or that the Creator is the ultimate source of meaning. As one expert in modern Gnosticism (philosopher Eric Voegelin) put it, today’s temptation is to “immanentize the eschaton”—that is, to bring the end-time into the present and create a final utopia in the now. This is, perhaps, the real meaning of “progressivism,” which can be understood as a sort of political Gnosticism. https://truthxchange.com/2020/08/the-spirituality-of-politics/
The runaway cultural train is gaining speed, and revolutionary changes that used to take decades to develop seem to be happening at a breakneck pace—especially, where matters of sexual identity are concerned. From Augustine to Rousseau and Marx, and from Descartes to Bruce Jenner, Carl Trueman traces the thoughts underlying the modern view of the self...helping us understand the present, and preparing us to navigate the days ahead. https://www.reformation21.org/blog/trueman-on-the-modern-psychological-self
The church, especially broad evangelicalism, for all its interest in social justice, stands on the slippery slope that descends into the political abyss of the social gospel. We need to fix our eyes again on Christ, the gospel, and a biblically Reformed doctrine of the church and its mission. Nothing demonstrates the justice and mercy of God like the cross of Jesus Christ. https://opc.org/nh.html?article_id=1040
Natural law is important for unbelievers because it lays necessary foundation for proclaiming the gospel. This corresponds to the so-called first use of the law. The previously quoted verses from Romans 1–2, of course, are part of Paul’s own foundational teaching in preparation for his explanation of justification and other saving benefits, beginning in Romans 3:21. In short, without the law there is no gospel. Without conviction of sin there can be no faith and repentance. Calling attention to the testimony of natural law, therefore, promotes the effective preaching of salvation in Christ.
...Natural law explains and reinforces for us, as New Testament saints, why we continue to honor and participate in the natural institutions of this world (such as family and state), though we are already citizens of a heavenly kingdom that does not have such institutions. Christ did not establish any institution except the church, and he did not create any brand new obligations toward the family or state. With regard to such institutions the New Testament echoes and reinforces obligations that are already there under the natural law (though we are now to pursue them “in Christ”). Commands about marital fidelity, raising children, pursuing justice, and honoring magistrates are not arbitrary, but are appropriate for the kind of people God made us by nature. https://opc.org/os.html?article_id=301
They have drunk of the intoxicating belief in the “imperial sovereign self,”[1]which creates the spiritual theory behind “identity politics.” Such a spiritual faith in the self is no longer tempered by the Christian notion that humanity is fallen or that the Creator is the ultimate source of meaning. As one expert in modern Gnosticism (philosopher Eric Voegelin) put it, today’s temptation is to “immanentize the eschaton”—that is, to bring the end-time into the present and create a final utopia in the now. This is, perhaps, the real meaning of “progressivism,” which can be understood as a sort of political Gnosticism. https://truthxchange.com/2020/08/the-spirituality-of-politics/
The runaway cultural train is gaining speed, and revolutionary changes that used to take decades to develop seem to be happening at a breakneck pace—especially, where matters of sexual identity are concerned. From Augustine to Rousseau and Marx, and from Descartes to Bruce Jenner, Carl Trueman traces the thoughts underlying the modern view of the self...helping us understand the present, and preparing us to navigate the days ahead. https://www.reformation21.org/blog/trueman-on-the-modern-psychological-self
The church, especially broad evangelicalism, for all its interest in social justice, stands on the slippery slope that descends into the political abyss of the social gospel. We need to fix our eyes again on Christ, the gospel, and a biblically Reformed doctrine of the church and its mission. Nothing demonstrates the justice and mercy of God like the cross of Jesus Christ. https://opc.org/nh.html?article_id=1040
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