Living with Christians

Today is Reformation Day, and it is an important day because Christianity is a faith. And it’s a faith because it’s about what Christ does, not about what Christians do. So we simply trust in who Christ is and what He did for us.

But that source of inward peace is also the root of outward strife. Because the gospel is grace through faith in Christ, that faith must have the right content to be effective for salvation. Who is Christ? What has He done for us? How do you appropriate His benefits? For this reason, the history of Christianity is a record of dissent with withdrawal or debate or persecution, especially since the Reformation.

The Presbyterians, my own tradition, are among the theologically more serious Protestant Christians, and we are known for our inward-looking doctrinal strife and splitting. How tightly confessional is faithfully confessional? How may or should we worship? How is Christ related to civil government? And ordinary, spiritually serious Presbyterians are like scrupulous Christians of any sort. Their intransigent views on what the faith requires, whether properly informed or not, can make life with them difficult.

Someone’s child may not participate in the school play, perhaps The Wizard of Oz or Macbeth, because it involves witchcraft. Or they protest the Christian school even staging the play. I too can be difficult: flags in the sanctuary, calling the worship hall a “sanctuary,” Sabbath issues, and shunting the kids off to children’s church, which is not covenantal!

But a broad de-emphasis on theology and scorn for doctrinal precision cannot be the prescription for peace, if only because of the nature of God’s faith-based gospel of grace. The 20th century ecumenical movement marched under the banner “doctrine divides, service unites.” It abandoned heaven for a transformed earth and in the end got neither. Twentieth century evangelicalism was theological, but only up to a point. David Wells lamented a generation ago how theologically thin and unreflective it was in his day. Evangelicalism today has become increasingly oriented toward either political activism or sentimental experience.

So how do we dwell with one another in peace and yet remain serious about the purity of our faith and life? First, we remember the Christ of our Christianity. He is risen and reigning, victorious and conquering. So we do not have to fear for the faith or for the faithful. Like our God “who sits in the heavens” over the raging nations and conspiring rulers, we can even laugh (Psalm 2). But toward one another, we can laugh with brotherly affection. Knowing that God is sovereign, gracious, and patient, Christians can be truth-driven and yet gracious with each other—respectful, discussive, charitable—where the gospel itself is not at stake.

Christ saved us by grace, so we can be gracious with fellow Christians. There is nothing you can do for Christ that you cannot do with love and grace and patience and mercy.