Jesus, Scripture, Ecclesiology May 20th Endnote Version

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Jesus and the Word: an evangelical perspective on Christ, Scripture and the church

One of the reasons we are having this hui is that during Anglican controversy since2003 evangelical Anglicans, along with other conservative Anglicans have refused tobe quiet.

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We have spoken up because we believe that some decisions endorsed withinmember churches of our Communion contradict Holy Scripture.

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The possibility that a decision of a church contradicts Scripture raises at least twoquestions. One is the question whether we understand Scripture correctly. The other isthe question what kind of authority Scripture has over the church. Both questions leadto consideration of Scripture itself, historical Anglican theology, and canon law.

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What is our

understanding

of Scripture on a given matter? Necessarily severalquestions flow from this question: is this a

common

understanding?

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If not, is there a

majority

and a

minority

understanding,

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or a

plurality

of understandings

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for which

space to „agree to disagree‟

can be found in our life together? If not, is there a

shared confusion

?

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If this is so, do we see a future day when confusion will give way tounderstanding?These questions involve hermeneutics, which is the science and the art of interpretingScripture.My aim today is to speak from an evangelical perspective with these matters in mind.I do so not seeking your agreement so much as to ensure that in our hui we hearvoices we do not agree with and thus are provoked to think and to talk through ourdifficulties and disagreements rather than to avoid issues of controversy. Our generalaim, as I understand it, is that through

meeting to read Scripture together we might discover common understanding of the meaning of Scripture.

There will be nocommon understanding if issues of controversy are avoided!Our particular task at this hui is to read Scripture together to discover commonunderstanding of the church according to Scripture. In doing so we build on our firsthui in 2007 in which we engaged with some basic steps in the hermeneutical task:learning, for example, to read the text with the worlds in view which lie behind thetext, within the text, and in front of the text.Today, under the heading of

Jesus and the Word: an evangelical perspective onChrist, Scripture and the church

I want to speak to these four sub-headings:

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Jesus Christ at the centre of Scripture Jesus Christ the hinge on which the meaning of Scripture turns Jesus Christ and continuity of scripture in ScriptureThe Christ of Scripture and the body of Christ

I will then conclude with a reflection on the role of theology and Scripture in the lifeof the church. My overall argument is this: theological reflection on Jesus, Scriptureand the church supports the wisdom of the English Reformers that Scripture is theWord of God written. This conclusion, if accepted, decisively shapes any Anglicanchurch project to understand Scripture and undergirds the claim that Scripture hasauthority over our church.

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Jesus Christ at the centre of Scripture

When Christians read the Bible we are reading „Holy Scripture‟

, the unique book of the church. It is this unique book because it is centred on Jesus Christ, the head of thechurch. But Jesus is not only its chief subject but also the centre of Scrip

ture‟s

authority over the life of the church. He endorses the Old Testament as Scripture (forexample, Matthew 4:1-10) and authorises the New Testament in this way.

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Theapostles, including Paul, are commissioned by Jesus to continue his mission in wordan

d deed. Jesus promises that when the „Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you intoall the truth‟ (John 16:13): the outcome of this is the New Testament.

Jesus Christ isthe centre of Scripture, the sacred writing which he has authorised as truthfulrevelation of the God whose human face he is (John 1:1-18; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6;Hebrews 1:1-3; 1 John 1:1-4; Revelation 1:1-3). What the elder John says of his first

letter is true of all Scripture: „our theme is the Word which gives life‟ (1 John 1:1

REB).

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Sc

ripture is „Holy Scripture‟ because it is both the first book of the church

and the chief book of the church. Even in the Anglican church where we live withScripture in one hand and our prayer book in the other, the latter utilises the languageof the former, not the other way around.To speak in this way, of Jesus Christ at the centre of Scripture, it is not possible to

avoid reflection on the relationship between Jesus Christ as „The

Logos

or Word‟ and

Holy Scripture. If Jesus Christ authorises Scripture, if Jesus Christ is the

Logos

of God, is it reasonable (i.e.

logi-

cal) to speak, as Article 20 does, of Scripture as „God‟sWord written‟?

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The tension in the Anglican Communion today reflects differentanswers to this question.

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Although evangelicals

tend to affirm that Scripture is God‟s Word written and others

disagree, or at least query this, there is an important theological issue at stake here.Four brief observations, just a sketch of an argument that needs filling out both indetail and in logic:(i)

If we believe (as Anglicans do) that Jesus Christ is of one being (

homoousion

)with the Father

and also that the Holy Spirit is of one being (homoousion)with the Father

,

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then when Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit speak, theirwords are the words of God (even as they are also the words of humanauthors).(ii)

Further, when the

Logos

of God becomes human flesh, the Word of God inhuman form (John 1:14) it is logical to consider that the

Logos

of Godmight also

become

the Word of God in written form.

(„Become‟ is crucial

here).(iii) In fact,

another perspective on our knowledge of Jesus Christ gives another reason to describe Scripture as the Word of God written:

our knowledgeof the

Logos

of God is derived almost exclusively from Holy Scripture:there is no one

known to us as „the Word of God‟ who is known apart from

Holy Scripture whose theme is the Word which gives life.(iv)

In connection with (iii): Jesus Christ himself promises that the Holy Spirit

„will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all t

hat I have

said to you‟ (John14:26 ESV): the New Testament

fulfils this promise, thewritten Scripture which conveys the oral teaching of the living

Logos

of

3God (and

more

revealed through the Spirit of Jesus, including apostolicproclamation of the gospel

about Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation tothe world

).

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In the providence of God the human form of the Word of God is re-presented to us inwritten words, that is, as Holy Scripture: the Old Testament providing thebackground, the Gospels the deeds and dialogue, and the Epistles the mind of Christfor the church, the body of Christ which is the continuing presence of the Word in theworld. There is difference between the living Word of God and the Word of Godwritten, but there is familial continuity between the two. We may distinguish them butwe may not divide them. We have no voice of the living Word of God which isinconsistent with Holy Scripture. The latter is properly understood as the writtendown voice of the living Word, that is, as the Word of God written.

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Thus the English Reformers responsible for the 39 Articles wrote both responsibly

and wisely when they used the phrase „the Word of God written‟ to describe

Scripture. Evangelicals today remind our church of this wisdom.Now this conclusion is much contested. But the argument towards it, which builds onthe

homoousion

as the landmark distinction between Christian orthodoxy and itsopposites in the form of Arianism and Gnosticism carries an implication for our task at this hui, to work on

interpretation

of Scripture. (Arianism denied that Jesus was of one being with the Father, affirming instead that he belonged to the created order of beings; Gnosticism emphasised the separation between the realm of God and therealm of humanity).Alan Torrance, a Scottish theologian who once taught at Otago University, havingstudied the writings of Athanasius, the famous opponent of Arianism, explains how

Athanasius laid out the grounds on which „the mind of the church‟ (

ekklesiastikon phronema)

could be discerned in accordance with the mind of God

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First, only the

Logos

who is of one being with the Father (

homoousion to patri

) yetbecomes incarnate enables true disclosure of God within the created order. Withoutthis aspect of the

homoousion

there

is no „theology‟ that is, truthful talk of God, only

human-

sourced „mythology‟ that is, speculation about the character of God.

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Secondly, the natural state of the human mind to be hostile or alienated to the realityof God (e.g. Romans 1) needs transformation through the Holy Spirit. Without thisaspect of the

homoousion

humanity is not able to understand the mind of God (e.g.Romans 8; 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 1).Torrance then draws this conclusion:

„For the Nicene fathers, the twofold

homoousion

constitutes the necessary condition

by which our contemporary understanding can participate in the “apostolic mind,”

enabling semantic continuity with the theological paradigms of the apostles. Throughthe Spirit, our

phronein

[mind] is given to share in the mind of the body of Christ(

ekklesiastikon phronema

).‟

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