Evangelical Review of Theology 45, 4 (November 2021)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirty as a pdf here.

Introduction: Articles with a Long Shelf Life

Thomas Schirrmacher

Paul Was a Religious Extremist Too

Andrew Messmer

The Inspiration, Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture in the History of Christian Thought

This article traces attitudes towards the Bible amongst leading Christian thinkers from the early church to the present, showing that (with some change in how the concepts have been understood) the church has generally affirmed the Bible’s inspiration, authority and inerrancy ever since the formation of the New Testament canon. Organized into four major time periods, the article should be a valuable resource for all who wish to uphold the Bible’s credibility.

Glenn N. Davies

The Relation between Biblical Law and Christian Faith

This article masterfully, through parallel sections with ample scriptural support, depicts the continuity of God’s dealing with humanity across both Old Testament and New Testament times with regard to law, grace and obedience.

Dennis P. Petri

Christians in Cuba: Dealing with Subtle Forms of Repression

The restrictions on religious freedom imposed by the Cuban state – a direct consequence of the authoritarian nature of the regime and its atheist and anti- religious ideology – are well-known. Much less understood is the subtle nature of the vulnerability of Christians, especially after the changes that have occurred since the 1990s. This article examines their situation in depth.

Peirong Lin

Building the Kingdom of God in Europe: Reflecting Theologically on One’s Self-Understanding

In this short essay, the WEA’s Deputy Secretary General, a Singapore native now working in Europe, reflects on her experience as a foreign woman in a male- dominated, sometimes unfriendly context and develops an understanding of how she – and, by extension, all of us – can build the kingdom of God each day, wherever we are.

Ebenezer Yaw Blasu and Joshua D. Settles

The ‘Surprise’ in Mission History: Prospects for African Cross-Cultural Mission to the West

The Christian mission enterprise has grown greatly in multi-cultural understanding since the famed Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910, but in some ways, Western Christianity still strains to open itself to the empowering influences of the burgeoning church in Africa. This article reviews historical developments, through a fascinating comparison between 1910 and 2010, and offers concrete suggestions from an African perspective.

James Reiher

The Letter to Philemon: Its Background and Enduring Significance

Philemon is a short letter with a compelling – but implicit – story line. This article carefully investigates the main theories as to what lay behind the fascinating interaction of Paul, Philemon and Onesimus and identifies the contemporary applications we can make regardless of which theory is true.

D. Apostle

Locust Attacks in India and in the Book of Joel: Are They the Same?

COVID-19 and other natural threats have intensified speculation amongst various Christian groups as to whether ‘the end is near’. This article responds to one recent set of speculations, following the severe locust attacks of 2020 in India and parts of Africa, and suggests a more reasoned response to the question of whether they fulfil Joel’s prophecies.

Book Reviews

Foundations 80 (Spring 2021)

Issue 80 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available (here in its entirety as a pdf), which includes the below essays.

Here is the issue blurb:

‘Issue 80 includes a sobering and yet hopeful piece by Sharon James on how we may offer grace to those submerged in a therapeutic culture; Mark J. Lawson reflecting on the thorny issue of how the church responded to the curtailment of its freedoms during the pandemic; Stephen Lloyd critiques four books that seek to explain Covid-19 in the light of God's sovereignty; Ivor MacDonald looks at the often-neglected rural context for mission and evangelism; and Alasdair Macleod surveys the history of Scottish Presbyterianism during the twentieth century.’

Donald John MacLean
Editorial

Sharon James

“It’s All About Me!”: Ministry in a Therapeutic Culture

Mark J. Larson

The Christian and the Civil Magistrate

Stephen Lloyd

COVID-19 and Creation: Megaphones, Mystery and Lament

Ivor MacDonald

Distinctives of the Rural Context for Christian Mission

Alasdair J. Macleod

The Union of 1929 and What Came After: Developments in Mainline Scottish Presbyterianism in the 20th Century

Stephen Clark

Review Article: Systematic Theology by Robert Letham

Book Reviews

Exodus #5: The Lord who Commands

And God spoke all these words:

‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

‘You shall have no other gods before me.’

Exodus 20:1-3

It is perhaps too easy to parachute into the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 without seeing how they fit into the bigger story. That story – and the sequence in which it is told – is crucial. Imagine for a moment that Moses went to Egypt with the stone tablets tucked under his arms and said to the people: ‘If you keep all these, God will rescue you from slavery.’ How might the story of Exodus have turned out had that been the case?

Even the commandments themselves don’t begin with a command, but with a claim. They don’t begin with a demand, they begin with a declaration. They don’t begin with law, they begin with love. They don’t begin with rules, they begin with relationship.

They begin with God speaking – ‘And God spoke all these words’ – showing that the commandments are not a set of abstract principles or a body of laws put together by a faceless committee. They are the words of God himself to his people.

They begin with God identifying himself as their covenant Lord – ‘I am the LORD your God’ – the name by which he would be known to them, showcasing his special relationship with them. Obedience is not to the law for its own sake, but is deeply relational – obedience to this God.

And they begin with this covenantal God describing how he had acted on behalf of his people – ‘who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’ – a reminder from the start that the commandments are not the way of redemption but the walk of the redeemed.

To be sure, there are commands – and they are to be obeyed – but they are a gift to the people, an expression of God’s good will for them. They restore to them the dignity and freedom that slavery in Egypt had destroyed. They embrace every aspect of life. They nurture an alternative community and lifestyle which would enable them to be a light to the nations, a responsibility which falls on our grace-filled shoulders as the new covenant people of God.

The one God to be worshipped as the true God has met us in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he still calls us to obey him, as those who have been saved by him – not just for our sakes, but for the sakes of the people among whom he calls us to live.

Guy Brandon on Learning to Love Leviticus

The Jubilee Centre has published a piece from Guy Brandon, the first in a series on the laws in Leviticus, this one looking at the ban on mixed-fibre clothing. The article is available here, and from here as a pdf in the Jubilee Centre’s Engage magazine.

Ethics in Brief Volume 22, No. 2 (2017)

The latest issue of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, is now available online:

Mark Glanville, ‘Ancient Laws for New Challenges: The Ten Commandments as a Critique of Inequality’, Ethics in Brief 22, 2 (2017).

Here is the summary:

‘This article argues that the Ten Commandments summoned ancient Israel to live as a community of mutual care where every person could flourish, especially the most vulnerable. Interpreting the Ten Commandments in their narrative context of oppression in Egypt and the exodus event and also in its relation to the law corpora of the Pentateuch clarifies that this text functions as a critique of Egypt’s oppressive economic regime and thereby of any economic practice that privileges wealth and consolidated power. Giving allegiance to Yahweh must include living in the ethical trajectory of exodus, through which Yahweh has birthed the community.’

Speak Up

The Speak Up resource, produced jointly by the Evangelical Alliance and the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, ‘seeks to help Christians understand the broad freedoms that we currently have under the law to share our faith in different contexts’.

A short and long version of the resource are available to download here, via The Great Commission, a new project from the Evangelical Alliance.

The short 16-page booklet (available as a pdf here) ‘outlines the key aspects of the full report, setting out the freedoms we have in different parts of our lives, from talking about Jesus in our homes, to street evangelism, to sharing our faith at work or online’.

The full report is available as a pdf here.

Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies 1.1 (2016)

The Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies (JBTS) is an academic journal ‘focused on the fields of Bible and Theology from an inter-denominational point of view’, which is ‘concerned with presenting high-level original scholarship in an approachable way’.

Several of the essays from the first issue deal with issues related to Paul, the law, and the New Perspective, along with some interactions with Charles Lee Irons’ important work on ‘righteousness’ language in Paul.

Individual essays are available from here, or the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Aaron O’Kelley

Paul’s Doctrine of Justification: Ecclesiology or Soteriology?

The new perspective on Paul places the doctrine of justification primarily in the category of ecclesiology, as a declaration of covenant membership that is common to Jews and Gentiles alike. However, Paul’s use of key terms in the realm of “righteousness” terminology, as well as the phrase “works of the law” indicates that Paul’s doctrine of justification belongs in the category of soteriology, referring primarily to the standing of individuals before God. Nevertheless, this traditional Protestant understanding of justification has significant implications for the doctrine of the church, which the new perspective has rightly pointed out.

David Burnette

The Cruciform Shape of Paul’s Kingdom Theology

Unlike Jesus, Paul is not often associated with the theme of the kingdom of God. While some scholars have claimed that the kingdom is insignificant for Paul, most have simply failed to examine it closely. This article highlights the significance of the kingdom by demonstrating that it is a foundational component of Paul’s proclamation of the cross. This thesis is based primarily on a close examination of 1 Corinthians 4:20, a verse in which Paul contrasts the talk of certain leaders in Corinth with the power of the kingdom. Based on the way Paul uses the term power (δύναμις, dynamis) in 1 Corinthians 1-4, this article contends that the power of the kingdom mentioned in 4:20 is a reference to the power effected through the word of the cross. Other Pauline kingdom references are cited to support this kingdom-cross connection, including Colossians 1:13 and Galatians 5:21. As with the Gospels and Scripture as a whole, Paul’s theology of the kingdom is bound up with a message that cuts against the grain of the world’s wisdom – the message of Christ crucified.

Joshua M. Greever

The Righteousness of God as “The Gate to Paradise”: A Review Article of the Righteousness of God by Charles Lee Irons

John Frederick

A Critical Review of Charles Lee Irons’ The Righteousness of God 

Charles Lee Irons

Response to Two Reviews of The Righteousness of God 

Book Reviews

Ethics in Brief Volume 20, Nos. 5 & 6 (2015)

Two issues from Volume 20 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Stephen Williams, ‘Reason, Law and Religious Freedom’, Ethics in Brief 20, 5 (2015)

Judgement on the proper place of religious freedom in relation to law is affected by the perception of how religion stands in relation to rationality. Seven consequences of the supposition that religious belief is irrational are briefly set out, and their bearing noted on the question of conscience.

Amy Ross, Creation Care in Africa: Theology, Practice and Intercultural Dialogue, Ethics in Brief 20, 6 (2015)

This article reports on a recent ‘Creation Care’- themed conference for evangelical church leaders and environmental practitioners in East and Central Africa. It offers some reflections regarding ecotheology and Western Christian responses to the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. The importance of international, faith-based dialogue about these issues is becoming increasingly recognised, and Christians have a crucial role to play both in the dialogue and the practical response that must result from it.

Theos Report on Justice

The latest report from Theos has just been published.

Andrew Caplen and David McIlroy, “Speaking Up” – Defending and Delivering Access to Justice Today (London: Theos, 2015).

Here’s the blurb:

‘The rule of law is absolutely foundational to any fair society. But the rule of law is not enough if that law is only accessible to those with sufficient funds. For justice to be done, people need to have access to justice. This essay argues that recent government changes to legal aid are putting access to justice at risk.

‘Written from an openly Christian perspective, it argues that there is a deep tradition within Christian scriptures not only on law – that much is clear from even a cursory reading of the Bible – but also equality before the law, universality of access, the need for legal advocacy, and the impartial administration of justice. Without these, no society can be a good society.

‘This being so, the authors argue that Christians ought to be concerned with recent changes to legal aid, the effect of which is likely to be on the most disadvantaged in our society. In the longer term it threatens social cohesion, accountability of public bodies and powerful private individuals, and the rule of law.

‘Christians have long seen healing, teaching, comforting and supporting others as key areas of their mission. Speaking Up argues that justice is no less important than any of these, and that Christians should seek to provide access to justice and to protect it where they can.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Ethics in Brief Volume 19, Nos. 5 & 6 (2014)

Two issues from Volume 19 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Julian Rivers, ‘Good News for Law’, Ethics in Brief 19, 5 (2014).

This article seeks to direct our attention away from more familiar instances of current Christian engagement with law to consider broader underlying trends. Modern law is characterised by the breakdown of older distinctions between democracy and rights, government and civil society, the sovereign nation-state and other levels of legal authority, and law and ethics. There is a characteristic Christian theology of law which should lead us to be concerned about the postmodernism, legalism, statism and imperialism implicit in these developments. Christian engagement with law has never been more necessary, for the gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed good news for law as well.

Ian Clausen, ‘Love or Nothing? Locating the Question of Modern Belief’, Ethics in Brief 19, 6 (2014).

What is the essence of modern belief? Two scholars offer different answers to the question of modern belief that challenge some basic assumptions about our current secular age. While Simon May develops the claim that moderns believe in love, David Bentley Hart defends the view that moderns believe in nothing. Which of these judgements on modern belief is correct, and why does it matter? After exploring how the two judgements may not stand in complete tension, this article follows May's advice in rethinking our notion of love to rediscover the central questions that religion aims to provoke.

Ethics in Brief Volume 18, Nos. 3, 4, 5 & 6 (2013)

Further issues from Volume 18 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Roger Abbott and Robert (Bob) White, ‘Haiti – An Unnatural Disaster’, Ethics in Brief 18, 3 (2013)

This article brings geophysical and theological perspectives to bear on the historic influence of social, economic, and political factors that turned Haiti’s 2010 earthquake into an unnatural disaster. These factors have disabled the native endurance of the majority of Haitian people, and the necessary adaptive requirements of the state, in developing disaster mitigation strategies.

Andrew Goddard, ‘Reframing The Same-Sex Marriage Debate’, Ethics in Brief 18, 4 (2013)

In addition to opposing the government’s flawed proposals to allow same-sex couples to marry, Christians need to see these derive from more fundamental differences in understandings of marriage. We therefore have to consider the place of such different views in British society and the respective roles of religion, the state, wider society and marriage law in this new situation.

Mark Campbell, ‘Strasbourg, Conscience and Religious Belief’, Ethics in Brief 18, 5 (2013)

This issue of Ethics in Brief assesses the meaning and possible impact of the recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights in four well-publicised freedom of religion cases arising in the UK. While the decision demonstrates the limitations of the European Convention on Human Rights in protecting religious freedom, it does contain grounds for cautious encouragement. The article also addresses some of the general issues raised by the decision.

Jonathan Chaplin, ‘Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice in Love – A Review and Response’, Ethics in Brief 18, 5 (2013)

Nicholas Wolterstorff’s book Justice in Love (2011) is an important new exploration of the relationship between these two vital and often misunderstood ethical concepts. This article surveys the book and assesses some of the issues it raises.

Three Theos Reports

Theos, Religion and Law (London: Theos, 2012).

Nick Spencer & Holly Weldin, Post-Religious Britain? The Faith of the Faithless (London: Theos, 2012).

Hats off to the ever-prodigious folk at Theos who are releasing three new reports before the year is out. The above two are already available, and the arrival of the third is imminent.

Religion and Law is ‘a collection of essays written by sixteen leading legal experts exploring the complex and often controversial relationship between religion and the law in Britain today’. According to the blurb, ‘it explores the often contested relationship between religious commitment and British law, seeking to challenge the ultimately oppressive reduction of religion to the private realm, and questioning, among other contentious matters, whether human rights and religious commitment are fully compatible’.

Post-Religious Britain? The Faith of the Faithless ‘examines the shape of unbelief in Britain today’. The report ‘llustrates the mistakes of the secularisation thesis, rejecting the common understanding that as we become less institutionally religious, we necessarily become more secular or atheist. It paints a different picture of modern society – one in which the lines between the religious and non-religious are becoming increasingly blurred’.

The third report, From Goodness to God: Why Religion Makes Sense of our Moral Commitments, to be published later this week, ‘argues that religious belief provides a better foundation for moral reasoning than atheism’.

Ethics in Brief Volume 17, Nos. 5 and 6 (2012)

The next two issues from Volume 17 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Will Kynes, ‘God, Justice, and Society: An Overview’, Ethics in Brief 17, 5 (2012)

This non-evaluative overview of God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible summarizes Jonathan Burnside’s introduction to biblical law and his demonstration of its value as a resource for modern legal issues.

David Williams, ‘Animals and God’s Plan for the World’, Ethics in Brief 17, 6 (2012)

This article offers a veterinary practitioner’s view of contested issues around proper care of animals. It considers the significance of the Genesis mandate to rule and subdue the earth and addresses further biblical themes in conversation with non-Christian voices both ancient and modern. The author suggests that, in both word and deed, Christianity has more to contribute to the question of animal welfare than is often assumed.

Jonathan Burnside on the Spirit of Biblical Law

Jonathan Burnside, ‘The Spirit of Biblical Law’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (2012).

Jonathan Burnside, author of a large volume on law in the Bible published last year, has a forthcoming article on the law in the Bible in the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. It’s currently freely available here as an ‘advanced access’ piece.

Here is the abstract:

‘The Bible – paradoxically – has been deeply influential on Western civilization, including law, yet our assumptions are deeply hostile to its having any influence in the modern world at all. This article subverts the view that there is nothing we can learn from biblical law. Instead, it suggests that it is possible to speak of ‘the spirit of biblical law’. This means seeing biblical law as more than just an object of textual critique. Biblical law can be caricatured in a number of ways; however, this is an inadequate way of reading the subject. We need to recover the spirit of biblical law by looking at a number of its substantive areas, including: property and money; economic organization; race relations and immigration; the role, nature and accountability of Government; family structure; our relationship with the environment and the pursuit of justice. As we do so, we discover that the spirit of biblical law has an ethos which is worth exploring as an imaginative and moral resource.’

And here are the main points about the ‘spirit of biblical law’ explored as the article unfolds:

• Personal and family rootedness – to build strong communities

• The use of money and the structure of financial institutions – to foster healthy commercial and social relations

• A shared culture – to encourage inclusion and cohesion

• The wide distribution of political power – to promote accountability and community development

• Family networks – for the love, support and welfare of the individual

• Our relationship with the environment – to limit our take

• Justice and reconciliation – as the basis for achieving peace and social harmony

Julian Rivers on Equality Law

Julian Rivers, ‘Uniformity or Mutuality? The New Equality Law in Christian Perspective’, Cambridge Papers 20, 3 (September 2011).

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one devoted to a Christian perspective on equality law.

Here is the summary:

‘The Equality Act 2010 was the last major piece of legislation to be passed under the British ‘New Labour’ Government. This paper explains briefly what equality law does as well as two groups of related problem cases. It sets out a biblical foundation for equality as well as a distinctive conception characterised more by mutuality than uniformity. Against this background, the paper argues that we need to combat an equality culture which trivialises religious and ethical disagreement, to reform the law to protect the pluralism of civil society and accommodate individuals, and to rediscover the real issue of equality, which is material, relational and spiritual poverty.’

Michael Horton on the Old Testament Law

When references in Leviticus are appealed to in discussions about same-sex sexual relationships, the argument is often trotted out along the lines of, ‘Well, what about all the other (silly/odd/outmoded) laws we no longer obey...?’ as if that becomes a clincher, barring the witness of Leviticus from having a voice in the ongoing debate.

I confess I’ve always groaned inwardly when I’ve heard or read this argument... as if no-one has ever thought before about the difficulties involved in – and thus the necessity of a hermeneutic for – moving from the ‘there and then’ of the Old Testament law to the ‘here and now’ of the Christian church.

Michael Horton offers some brief reflections here in response to that line of questioning, encouraging us to understand the law in the light of the history of redemption.

Brian Rosner on Paul and the Law

The Annual Moore College Lectures for 2011 were delivered by Brian Rosner on ‘Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God’.

Audio files of the lectures, along with pdfs of notes to go with them, are available here.

Here is the blurb for the series:

‘The problem with understanding Paul and the law is that Paul’s letters present both negative critique and positive approval of the law. These lectures propose a hermeneutical solution to this puzzle. Rather than asking ‘which bits’ of the law Paul endorses, it is more accurate to consider Paul’s negative response to ‘the law as commandments,’ as well as his positive response to ‘the law as prophecy’ and ‘the law as wisdom’. This construal finds support not only in what Paul says about the law, but also in what he doesn’t say and in what he does with the law. And it highlights the value of the law for preaching the gospel and for Christian ethics.’

And here are the titles of the individual lectures:

Public Lecture (overview)

• Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God

Five Lecture Series

• ‘Circumcision is nothing’: The Puzzle of Paul and the Law

• ‘Not under the law’: Paul’s Repudiation of the Law as Legal Code

• ‘Under the law of Christ’: Paul’s Replacement of the Law

• ‘Witness to the gospel’: Paul’s Re-appropriation of the Law as Prophecy

• ‘Written for our instruction’: Paul’s Re-appropriation of the Law as Wisdom

Resolved #3: To Fulfil the Law of Christ

[I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by London Institute for Contemporary Christianity; it’s the third of a projected five in a short series drawing on some exhortations from Galatians 5-6 attempting to reframe new year’s resolutions.]

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:1-2

Popular wisdom suggests that fresh resolves – at new year or any other time – often fall prey to the fatal flaw of ‘going it alone’. They focus on individual self-improvement to the neglect of relationships through which support might be given and accountability expressed.

Likewise, it’s possible to mistake the fruitful Christian life for private Christian experience. For sure, we walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25), but we do not cultivate his fruit alone. We need each other in order to exercise patience, kindness and gentleness. The change we aspire to is a communal process – at the heart of which is love.

Paul has already made this clear. Those who have been freed from the law now become ‘slaves’ of one another through love (5:13). Those who walk in step with the Spirit are empowered by the Spirit to live a life of love (5:22). Such love – far from doing away with the law – actually sums up the law (5:14). In fact, the law attains its primary reason for existence in churches of Christ when its members become loving servants of one another.

Paul’s concrete example is love expressed in restoration. Even those who have been set free and who seek to walk in the Spirit are still caught out by sin in unanticipated ways. Here, however, is an opportunity for people of the Spirit to display the fruit of the Spirit in gentleness, enabling correction without arrogance or anger – where the goal is restoration. And we do so, Paul reminds us, fully realising our own proneness to stumbling, and our own dependence on others. I who help to restore you one week may need your gentleness the following week.

So it is that we carry each other’s burdens. Beyond suffering the consequences of a specific failing, burdens might be physical, emotional, practical, financial... What, then, might we be able to do for someone this week – a visit, a conversation, a meal, a cheque, a hand with the children, a cup of cold water? Whatever the case, shouldering a load with someone requires distributing the weight between us, lightening the load of the other in the process, demonstrating love in action.

Thus it is that we follow the example of Christ, the supreme burden-bearer. Thus it is that we fulfil the law of Christ.

Jonathan Burnside on God, Justice, and Society

Jonathan Burnside, God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), xl + 542pp., ISBN 9780199779413.

I have received from the Jubilee Centre a special paperback edition (available only via the Jubilee Centre) of this massive book from Jonathan Burnside, Reader in Biblical Law at the School of Law, University of Bristol, England.

The blurb on the Jubilee Centre website says that the book:

• Explores the subject of biblical law, which is foundational for understanding Western civilisation and the history of Western law

• Discusses how biblical law works in relation to different areas including the environment, property, social welfare, homicide, theft, and marriage

• Challenges popular misunderstandings about the story of Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments, as well as the interpretation of specific verses such as ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’

I was wondering how the book would engage with Chris Wright’s work on Old Testament ethics, but (curiously) I can see no mention of him in the index or the (very full) bibliography. Even so, I’ll be interested to see how someone with academic expertise in law and criminology approaches the legal material in the Old Testament.

The book is huge, but (from a quick glance) looks highly readable. I will probably work my way through it slowly during the course of the year.

A supporting website (Seek Justice) contains a downloadable study guide, podcasts and lots of other free resources.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (32/50) – His Radical Demands: Love

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the thirty-second of the fifty emails.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Matthew 5:17

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matthew 22:35-40

Matthew 5-7 – the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ – sets out the way of life of those who belong to the kingdom. And from beginning to end, it assumes a world we know – where people hurt others through anger, where women are demeaned through lust, where marriages collapse, where Christians are persecuted, where people tread on our toes, where we worry about what to eat and wear even while others are forced to beg. Sound familiar?

We live in this world, but we do so as Jesus’ disciples, disciples of the one who, according to his own claim, fulfils the Law and the Prophets. Faithfulness to Jesus entails faithfulness to all that has gone before in God’s dealings with his people through lawgiver and prophet – but only as Jesus fulfils it. Which means that the Sermon on the Mount is not just about getting to the ‘true meaning’ of the Law, but knowing and following the one to whom the Law points. Far from setting aside the Law and the Prophets, Jesus carries them into a new era of fulfilment in which his authoritative voice will govern the disciples’ obedience.

Matthew 7:12 reinforces what is apparent throughout the Sermon – that our discipleship happens in relationship not just with God but with others. Jesus declares that our doing to others what we would have them to do to us is the Law and the Prophets (echoing 5:17), the true direction in which the Old Testament points.

He makes the same point to the lawyer in Matthew 22:34-40, where the whole Law and the Prophets are said to ‘hang on’ love for God and neighbour. The Old Testament continues in full force for disciples of Christ, but – mediated through Jesus who fulfils it – its regulations are understood and embodied as expressions of love of God and of one’s neighbour being worked out in every aspect of life.

All of which shows that Jesus’ teaching is not concerned with constructing a system of disembodied rules, but with re-orientating the whole of life around a new reality – God’s inbreaking reign. Jesus’ exhortations are not faceless demands, but presuppose certain things about him and about the kingdom he brings, which means that the Law and Prophets are no longer the centre of gravity – Jesus is. We are not just called to live a particular lifestyle but to follow a peerless Lord.

For further reflection and action:

1. The principle to emerge from Matthew 5:17-20 appears to be that all the Old Testament law applies to Christians, but none of it applies apart from its fulfilment in Christ; its validity continues only with reference to him. Look at the examples in Matthew 5:21-48 to see how this works out in practice.

2. Why might it be important not to abstract Jesus’ demands from the story told in the gospel as a whole, which reaches its culmination in the death and resurrection?

3. For Paul too, love is the fulfilment of the law (Romans 13:8-10; cf. Galatians 5:13-15). Think and pray about your week ahead – at work and at home – and the opportunities you will have to express love for God and love for others.