The Evangelical Universalist Forum

On the recent discussions of Law vs. Grace

I found this blog post helpful to my understanding of the issues, and offer it in hope that it will do the same for all who have participated in those discussions:

experimentaltheology.blogspot.co … w-and.html

Liked it! Thanks for posting, Melchi! :smiley:

Mel,
I don’t have an issue with the writer’s view. But he does not attempt to really delve into how he defines “all” of the Torah. Does food regard love to him? Is resting on Saturday’s a matter of love? How about mensturating cleanliness laws? Are women “unclean” during this time?

I also hold reservations in that his distinctions does not call to attention the question of whether one can break the law and do what is right - “Blaspheme the day and remain blameless”?

But even if I was right that it is possible to break the law and do what is right, (understand there’s a semantic at play) I would agree, the law is to point us to righteoussness - so when one does what is right, he’s actually upholding the law - hence I find doing [good] work on the sabbath to be totally valid. What I am fully convinced of is we cannot do evil [bad] work on the sabbath (but that is true of every day). Or we could lie to Nazis to hide Jews and though Satan is the fathe of lies, we’re not doing evil but doing what the law points us to EVEN THOUGH IT PROMOTES NOT TO PRACTICE DECEIT.

In Kelly’s last post, I appreciate her patience and acknowledgement that I do honor God’s law, though I interpret it differently from her. I see some laws do regard love, while some are typological/symbolic.

I too acknowledge she does not believe in salvation by works nor has she been legalistic.

We’re really dealing with how we define law and what that means to us.

Beck’s statement that “Torah-obedience” is accomplished when we keep the law of love, as well as that the obstacle to THIS points to our need for God’s Spirit to be able to love this way, appears to summarize my own interpretation of the N.T.'s approach to Torah. Or is Beck more ambiguous than that?

I don’t know that he gets very specific with it. It seems that some of his posts are more general observation type things, and don’t really get into the detail involved in the matter. I think this is one such post. Auggy’s observations are right here, Beck obviously doesn’t get into a ton of detail on this one.

I think the main observation was the one that Auggy points out, that keeping the law of love fulfills the law. If we are acting in love, then we could technically break the letter of the law and still uphold the spirit of it. Beck doesn’t spell this out, but I believe that is what is being pointed to.

I just liked what he did say.