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Good morning, everyone. On

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behalf of the School of
Theology here at SPU,

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I want to welcome you to

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the annual Paul T Walls lecture,

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and the ministry in the
Westphalian Spirit Conference.

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We're really combining
this morning to

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events in one as
we did last year.

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That is, we are
honored to be able to

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have the Paul T Walls lecture

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which I'll speak
about it in a minute,

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and we also have a large
number of guests here,

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pastors and leaders from

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various congregations
sponsored by

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the Pacific Northwest
Conference of the

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Free Methodist Church in

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their ministry and the
Wesleyan Spirit Conference

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which they also have every year.

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We're very glad to have

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so many different
constituencies here.

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I know that there are a number
of our own SPU students,

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welcome students, and
some former students.

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They're also SPU faculty and

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staff who are here and
we're glad to have them.

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Also, there are some
guests from the community.

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As I said, there
are Free Methodists

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and also some Nazarene

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and United Methodist pastors
who are here with us today.

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We want to welcome
you to our campus.

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Glad that you could be
here and for this lecture,

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and then for a number of the
pastures are going to be

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staying on for lunch and then

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for some seminars this
afternoon as well.

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This lecture, the
Paul T Walls lecture,

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is an annual lecture ship of
the School of Theology here,

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given through the generosity
of the Walls' family,

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and especially in memory
of Paul T Walls who

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the description of his ministry

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and his work is on the program,

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and I encourage you
to read about that.

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We're very honored today to

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have members of the
Walls family with us,

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including Paul's
brother, Wesley Walls,

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who I found out and

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I hope he doesn't mind
saying he's with us here,

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he's 93 years old.

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We're very glad to have him.

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Also, that's Paul's
brother's son

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and daughter-in-law Feir and
Fourier, and they are here.

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If the Walls' folks
would please just

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stand so that we can greet

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you and welcome
you and thank you.

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I also want

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to thank a number
of other people.

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We want to express our
appreciation to the staff

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of the School of Theology who

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really helped to make
this come about,

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as well as Anna Miller who's

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staff person for the
Center for scholarship

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and faculty development,

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also the staff at

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First Free Methodist Church

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and the Pacific
Northwest Conference,

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and to Mark Habbert who is

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the host pastor at First Free
Methodist this afternoon,

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and to Matt Whitehead,

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the conference
superintendent for

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the Pacific Northwest
Conference.

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We are honored in the
School of Theology to have

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among us many scholars
of great ability,

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acumen, and interest in

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not only their own fields of

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study but also the
Wesleyan tradition.

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This is something that's
going to be explored

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today in a way that honors

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both the Walls family and

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the free Methodist
tradition from

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which this university
is derived.

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We're very thankful for
that and encouraged.

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We're also going to be
doing that specifically

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as we should in light of
the Christian scriptures.

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Dr. Wall is going
to be referring to

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a particular verse
in his talk today,

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and I thought that I would
just read that verse for us as

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we begin our work and our
thinking together today.

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This comes from second
Timothy, Chapter 3.

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The text says, "You have
known the Holy Scriptures,

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which are able to make you wise

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for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus."

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We pray that today we may grow

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wiser in our own salvation,

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and in the ways in which we

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appropriate the faith for
the work of God's reign,

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because of our study of

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the scripture and
the way in which we

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understand that in
a Wesleyan context.

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I'm going to ask
our Associate Dean

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of the School of Theology,

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Dr. Robert Drove Doll if he

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would come and
introduce our speaker.

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Let's welcome Dr. Drove Doll.

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Thank you. Dr. Wall was
raised in the Tri Cities.

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It's a shame he wasn't raised
a little further East.

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I could've introduced
him then as here's

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Walls Wall from Wallas Walla
speaking on John's John.

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Last, no such luck.

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Introducing a speaker
serves one of two purposes.

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It either connect
strangers or gives

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insight about the speaker
others might not know.

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Since Rob has been at
Seattle Pacific since

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1978 and has never,
to my knowledge,

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been described as
shy and retiring,

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I presume my sole purpose
is to share with you

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some insight about Rob
relevant to this occasion.

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Here's the insight.

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The motor in his mind
has no off switch.

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As close friends and colleagues,

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our standard School of Theology

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description of this state of

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mind is that Rob has 100
new ideas every day,

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two or three of which
are actually good ones.

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Though you laugh,

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this is a high compliment
for most of us.

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One good idea in a day and
we're ready to go home.

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His creative ideas are

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foremost seen in
his scholarly work,

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but his mind is always

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constantly spinning new
ideas for our curriculum,

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for our university
and for the church.

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I want to tell you about one of

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those really good
curricular ideas

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for which Rob deserves credit.

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Since 1997, we've offered

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two credit Community
Bible study courses

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on Wednesday evenings.

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Few remember the origin of
this curricular offering.

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For recent arrivals,
it may seem like

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these courses have always
been here forever.

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Well, they haven't.

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The origin was an idea
Rob Wall proposed,

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lo those many years ago,

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for engaging students
in a serious study of

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scripture while emulating

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the traditional Wednesday
evening church Bible study.

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Community Bible
study courses meet

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no degree requirements,
they're strictly elective.

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In the first year, we averaged

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about 12 students in
each of those classes.

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Yet enrollments have
grown steadily,

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and in recent times,

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nearly 300 students who have

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taken these courses each year,

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they're available thanks to Rob.

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Here's the relevance
for today's lecture.

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Your programs states that

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Paul T Walls had
two great passions,

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the Free Methodist Church and
Seattle Pacific University.

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The passion that drives

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Rob's creativity is
right at this nexus.

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Community Bible studies are
just one example of Dr.

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Walls creative efforts
to join church and

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academy in mutual
service to one another.

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That is why he fits so
well in the Walls chair.

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Because of the Walls family
generosity and because of Dr.

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Walls creativity, we
have the privilege of

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hearing him speak this
morning on John's John.

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Please join me in welcoming Dr.

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Walls.

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Thanks for that, Bobby.

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Let me add my welcome to you all

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to members of the Paul T
Walls' family, in particular.

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The Lord be with you.

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Also with you.

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The Reverend John Wesley's

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evangelical ministry
was shaped for

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an 18th century audience that

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included both
skeptics and saints.

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In adapting the gospel to

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the spiritual needs
of such an audience,

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Wesley came to privilege
and otherwise neglected

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New Testament book as his
canon within the canon.

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1 John, or John's
John, as I put it.

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Not only did John Wesley
find in 1 John an idiom that

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resonated with the optimism of

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England's reception
of the enlightenment,

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he found in this biblical
book a theological

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grammar well-suited to
his own Christian faith,

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and adaptable to the work of

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a revivalist whose
particular vocation

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was to call Christians to

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repent of the sin that
remained in their lives.

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In Wesley's mind, the
Protestant errors of

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Luther within the Church
of England had too

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enthusiastically endorsed
the great reformers

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organizing conception
of Christian existence,

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Simul Justus et Peccator,

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at once justified and a sinner.

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In a way that often reduced

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the doctrine of justification to

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a thin belief in God's
pardon of sins guilt,

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without also changing
how one lives.

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According to many Protestants,

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sin remains an unwavering,

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if unwanted feature of
Christian existence.

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In appropriating 1
John to respond to

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this species of
spiritual fatalism,

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Wesley's sermons envisage
a powerful revision

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of human nature in which
one's sinful believers

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are transformed by God's
grace so that they are set

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apart to love God and
one another, perfectly.

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Now, this was the thesis
of last year's lecture.

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I concluded that lecture
with a catalog of

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10 Bible practices based upon

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Wesley's use of 1 John
in his standard sermons.

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Among those Bible practices
is the ruled text.

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That is, I observed that
the various ways in

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which Wesley put 1 John to use,

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whether in public preaching
or in pastoral council,

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were all regulated by the
churches Rule of Faith,

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which he called the
Scripture Way of Salvation.

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Wesley brought the content and

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consequence of every
interpretation of Scripture

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into agreement with his
understanding and experience

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of the good news of God's
saving and sanctifying grace.

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In today's lecture, I want
to continue to explore

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this Wesleyan practice
of a ruled Bible,

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and in doing so,

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unite the pair

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so long disjoined
biblical exegesis

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and theological interpretation.

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If our careful
exegesis of Scripture

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establishes what a biblical
text plainly says,

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then on this basis,

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theological interpretation
seeks to understand what

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that sacred text teaches us
about God's way of salvation.

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If the biblical
interpreters sounds that

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sacred note in a Wesleyan key,

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the goods delivered
to the saints will

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have the effect of making

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a congregation wise for

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salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus,

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that's the 2 Timothy text.

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This morning I want
to begin the work of

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joining exegesis together with

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a Wesleyans theological
interpretation of

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a hard but crucial
passage from John's John.

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Hard because it's plain meaning
is difficult to discern,

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made harder still because of

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the extraordinary
demands it makes upon

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its faithful reader and

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yet it is this very
text from 1 John,

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so difficult and demanding
to understand and apply

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that John Wesley used to support

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his grand doctrine of
Christian perfection,

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which remains to this day,

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the most thrilling element of

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his account of Scriptures'
way of salvation.

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That precious passage
is 1 John Chapter 2,

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Verse 28 through
Chapter 3, Verse 10,

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00:14:23,770 --> 00:14:28,720
which is included in your
program, and by the way,

260
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:30,070
also in your Bibles,

261
00:14:30,070 --> 00:14:32,800
which you might want to

262
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:35,980
take out in preparation for
what we're about to do.

263
00:14:35,980 --> 00:14:43,420
We begin our work with exegesis.

264
00:14:43,420 --> 00:14:46,210
Now in a shameless
bid to get you

265
00:14:46,210 --> 00:14:48,700
back here for next
year's lecture,

266
00:14:48,700 --> 00:14:52,690
let me say that this
morning work offers,

267
00:14:52,690 --> 00:14:55,840
but a promissory note that

268
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,770
we will cash in at
next year's lecture.

269
00:14:59,770 --> 00:15:03,370
This is the second of a trilogy.

270
00:15:03,370 --> 00:15:07,030
It's orphans, very
difficult to speak a

271
00:15:07,030 --> 00:15:10,405
second in three lectures
as some of you know,

272
00:15:10,405 --> 00:15:14,890
but just to put that on the
table, come back next year.

273
00:15:14,890 --> 00:15:18,760
Let's move into a bare
bones exegesis of 1 John.

274
00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:26,470
John Webster calls the
exegesis of a sacred text,

275
00:15:26,470 --> 00:15:31,850
"Building the walls
of the city of God."

276
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,800
The aim of careful exegesis is

277
00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,050
the clear headed
understanding of

278
00:15:38,050 --> 00:15:40,659
what the biblical text plainly

279
00:15:40,659 --> 00:15:45,565
says that enables
our reverend hearing

280
00:15:45,565 --> 00:15:49,030
of God's word to obey it.

281
00:15:49,030 --> 00:15:53,065
Easier said than done
when that text is 1 John,

282
00:15:53,065 --> 00:15:55,360
for this letter's argument is

283
00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,330
notoriously difficult to follow.

284
00:15:58,330 --> 00:16:02,230
Not only is it's freewheeling
discourse difficult to

285
00:16:02,230 --> 00:16:07,120
recognize among the genre of
ancient literary letters,

286
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:11,905
1 John is also
persistently anonymous,

287
00:16:11,905 --> 00:16:16,690
which makes it difficult to
locate in space and time.

288
00:16:16,690 --> 00:16:19,420
We know nothing of the author,

289
00:16:19,420 --> 00:16:22,465
his audience, their opponents,

290
00:16:22,465 --> 00:16:25,120
whose leaders are depicted only

291
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,960
by a metaphor, antichrists.

292
00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,410
Evidently, they are
former members of

293
00:16:32,410 --> 00:16:35,335
this faith community
who have gone

294
00:16:35,335 --> 00:16:38,335
out from them to plant

295
00:16:38,335 --> 00:16:42,520
a rival Christianity somewhere
down the interstate,

296
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,715
but the letter
provides no details

297
00:16:45,715 --> 00:16:49,060
of their secession or creed.

298
00:16:49,060 --> 00:16:54,145
We know only that they deny
the son's incarnation,

299
00:16:54,145 --> 00:16:58,045
which when understood within
the bounds of this letter,

300
00:16:58,045 --> 00:17:01,419
suggests only that
this rival group

301
00:17:01,419 --> 00:17:04,855
repudiated the
apostolic message,

302
00:17:04,855 --> 00:17:08,890
which is based upon what
the apostles had heard,

303
00:17:08,890 --> 00:17:14,780
seen, and touched of the
incarnate word of light.

304
00:17:14,850 --> 00:17:16,990
On the other hand,

305
00:17:16,990 --> 00:17:18,130
the letter's purpose

306
00:17:18,130 --> 00:17:21,535
repeatedly mentioned
is crystal-clear.

307
00:17:21,535 --> 00:17:25,615
The presence of this
rival Christian group

308
00:17:25,615 --> 00:17:29,480
has provoked an
epistemic crisis,

309
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,240
especially among
the congregations

310
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,075
immature children who now

311
00:17:35,075 --> 00:17:37,985
must decide between two gospels,

312
00:17:37,985 --> 00:17:41,790
one apostolic, and
the other not.

313
00:17:41,790 --> 00:17:44,719
It is in response to this crisis

314
00:17:44,719 --> 00:17:47,330
that 1 John is written to help

315
00:17:47,330 --> 00:17:52,760
uncertain believers affirm
the two core beliefs

316
00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:55,320
of the apostolic message.

317
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,135
Rather than correct
the theological air

318
00:17:59,135 --> 00:18:02,810
of those so-called antichrists,

319
00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:08,870
1 John sets out the apostolic
criterion that establishes

320
00:18:08,870 --> 00:18:10,355
the route by which

321
00:18:10,355 --> 00:18:13,160
a Christian congregation may

322
00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:16,070
enter into intimate fellowship,

323
00:18:16,070 --> 00:18:21,870
Koinonia, with God
and with God's son.

324
00:18:21,950 --> 00:18:26,600
Understood then as
a pastor's response

325
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,290
to theological
uncertainty within his

326
00:18:30,290 --> 00:18:34,610
own congregation,1 John consists

327
00:18:34,610 --> 00:18:37,865
of two interpenetrating essays,

328
00:18:37,865 --> 00:18:40,115
roughly equal in length.

329
00:18:40,115 --> 00:18:42,860
Each essay develops one of

330
00:18:42,860 --> 00:18:46,815
two non-negotiable
beliefs about God,

331
00:18:46,815 --> 00:18:49,585
witnessed in the incarnate word,

332
00:18:49,585 --> 00:18:53,995
and now articulated
by his apostles,

333
00:18:53,995 --> 00:18:59,835
God is light and God is love.

334
00:18:59,835 --> 00:19:03,800
Each belief comes
with a way of life

335
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:08,525
apropos to what is confessed
as the gospel truth.

336
00:19:08,525 --> 00:19:12,050
If on the basis of the
apostolic witness to

337
00:19:12,050 --> 00:19:17,315
the incarnation we rightly
believe that God is light,

338
00:19:17,315 --> 00:19:19,980
then we should not sin.

339
00:19:20,710 --> 00:19:26,150
If we rightly believe
that God is love,

340
00:19:26,150 --> 00:19:29,220
then we should love one another.

341
00:19:30,420 --> 00:19:33,490
Now, with this brief
introduction in hand,

342
00:19:33,490 --> 00:19:36,040
let's make our way
into the text,

343
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:37,780
and here's where if
you have a bible,

344
00:19:37,780 --> 00:19:41,390
please open it with
me to one John.

345
00:19:42,210 --> 00:19:44,770
The first core belief of

346
00:19:44,770 --> 00:19:48,220
the apostolic message is
set out in Chapter 1,

347
00:19:48,220 --> 00:19:50,725
verse 4 or verse 5,

348
00:19:50,725 --> 00:19:53,950
which claims that
God is light and in

349
00:19:53,950 --> 00:19:57,925
God there is no
darkness whatsoever.

350
00:19:57,925 --> 00:20:00,820
What then follows in Chapter 1,

351
00:20:00,820 --> 00:20:04,615
verse 6 through
Chapter 3, verse 10,

352
00:20:04,615 --> 00:20:08,650
is an extraordinary essay on

353
00:20:08,650 --> 00:20:10,870
the practical implication of

354
00:20:10,870 --> 00:20:14,875
this belief that
if God is light,

355
00:20:14,875 --> 00:20:17,380
then to walk with God

356
00:20:17,380 --> 00:20:21,010
requires the community
to rid itself of

357
00:20:21,010 --> 00:20:27,145
sin and falsehood that may
threaten its cononia with God,

358
00:20:27,145 --> 00:20:31,630
in whom no darkness dwells.

359
00:20:31,630 --> 00:20:35,800
Initially, the author
poses a series of

360
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,400
three conditional statements
that help the reader

361
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,505
recognize common
mistakes Christians

362
00:20:42,505 --> 00:20:45,115
often make about sin.

363
00:20:45,115 --> 00:20:49,705
These mistakes are voiced
by an interlocutor,

364
00:20:49,705 --> 00:20:53,440
an imaginary
conversation partner who

365
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:58,360
makes three alarming
boasts about sin,

366
00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:04,510
each of which is sharply
dismissed as a lie, verse 6,

367
00:21:04,510 --> 00:21:06,895
a deception verse 8,

368
00:21:06,895 --> 00:21:11,180
and blasphemy against
God, verse 10.

369
00:21:11,310 --> 00:21:15,715
The interlocutor's
big fat lie is not

370
00:21:15,715 --> 00:21:20,800
his contention that a
believer's sinning has ceased,

371
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:25,435
as has often been asserted
by the letter's interpreter.

372
00:21:25,435 --> 00:21:28,780
In fact, according to
Chapter 2 verse 1,

373
00:21:28,780 --> 00:21:31,900
the very prospect
of sin's demise

374
00:21:31,900 --> 00:21:33,400
is what occasions the

375
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,265
writing of this letter
in the first place.

376
00:21:36,265 --> 00:21:40,435
Rather the interlocutor's
big fat lie

377
00:21:40,435 --> 00:21:43,720
is that Christians
need do nothing about

378
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,170
their sins presumably
because they're

379
00:21:47,170 --> 00:21:49,509
sinning does not threaten

380
00:21:49,509 --> 00:21:52,900
their relationship
with the Lord.

381
00:21:52,900 --> 00:21:57,895
The boast that we do not
have sin found in verse 8,

382
00:21:57,895 --> 00:22:00,910
may voice the libertarians
confession that

383
00:22:00,910 --> 00:22:04,285
the true believer has
no guilt to forgive,

384
00:22:04,285 --> 00:22:07,240
or perhaps one john
anticipates the position

385
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,700
of the Calvinist who admits to

386
00:22:09,700 --> 00:22:12,160
the reality of sin but

387
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:15,100
denies that it is a
serious problem for

388
00:22:15,100 --> 00:22:17,890
a sovereign God who
has pre-destined

389
00:22:17,890 --> 00:22:21,325
the believers' salvation
by prior election,

390
00:22:21,325 --> 00:22:25,990
justification by election alone.

391
00:22:25,990 --> 00:22:29,170
More probably,
however, Wesley is

392
00:22:29,170 --> 00:22:31,660
right in recognizing this is

393
00:22:31,660 --> 00:22:33,880
the idle boast of

394
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,840
the latitude narrator
or religious liberal,

395
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:41,260
who finds talk about
personal guilt

396
00:22:41,260 --> 00:22:45,970
unseemly, even unnecessary,

397
00:22:45,970 --> 00:22:48,775
since the Gospel's vibe

398
00:22:48,775 --> 00:22:53,020
regards God's universal
acceptance of all people,

399
00:22:53,020 --> 00:22:57,655
believer or not,
saint or sinner.

400
00:22:57,655 --> 00:23:02,350
Indeed, the problem
facing today's Church is

401
00:23:02,350 --> 00:23:06,880
not its edgy intolerance
of all that is wrong,

402
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:13,270
but rather its indifference
to personal sin to easily

403
00:23:13,270 --> 00:23:20,140
dismissed by facile appeal
to God's universal goodness.

404
00:23:20,140 --> 00:23:24,715
What stands as important
to one John is this.

405
00:23:24,715 --> 00:23:27,460
If the apostles
teach that God is

406
00:23:27,460 --> 00:23:32,650
light and nothing evil
can co-exist with God,

407
00:23:32,650 --> 00:23:36,910
then fellowship with God
requires the congregation to

408
00:23:36,910 --> 00:23:42,505
confess the guilt of
prior sins so that God,

409
00:23:42,505 --> 00:23:46,195
who is faithful and
just will cleanse away

410
00:23:46,195 --> 00:23:51,880
all guilt to restore fellowship
with forgiven believers.

411
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:56,350
Hardly defeated by the
author's rejoinder,

412
00:23:56,350 --> 00:23:58,210
the interlocutor
promptly takes up

413
00:23:58,210 --> 00:24:01,645
a second boast in
verse 10, saying,

414
00:24:01,645 --> 00:24:04,370
we have not sinned,

415
00:24:04,470 --> 00:24:09,790
this is where things
get very interesting.

416
00:24:09,790 --> 00:24:13,795
While sounding very much
like the previous lie,

417
00:24:13,795 --> 00:24:16,135
its tense is perfect,

418
00:24:16,135 --> 00:24:20,740
and sin is an action
verb, not a noun.

419
00:24:20,740 --> 00:24:24,415
Here, then the interlocutor's
boast imagines

420
00:24:24,415 --> 00:24:28,780
a different and more
demanding fiction about sin.

421
00:24:28,780 --> 00:24:33,025
That the believer can continue
to sin without it having

422
00:24:33,025 --> 00:24:37,780
a corrosive effect on one's
relationship with God,

423
00:24:37,780 --> 00:24:43,840
this boast envisages
the Protestant problem.

424
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:48,670
Yes, God pardons the
guilt of past sins,

425
00:24:48,670 --> 00:24:52,465
but since our sin
nature remains,

426
00:24:52,465 --> 00:24:55,900
we cannot help but
keep right on sinning,

427
00:24:55,900 --> 00:25:01,540
we continue to sin so that
God's grace may abound,

428
00:25:01,540 --> 00:25:08,350
similar justice at pick
a tour, but lacks.

429
00:25:08,350 --> 00:25:12,280
One John calls this belief

430
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:16,810
blasphemous because it forms

431
00:25:16,810 --> 00:25:20,320
the motive of a
functional atheism,

432
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,770
which pledges allegiance to God,

433
00:25:23,770 --> 00:25:29,300
but lives as though
God does not exist.

434
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,190
The letter's strategic shift to

435
00:25:33,190 --> 00:25:37,060
pastoral address in
Chapter 2, verse 1,

436
00:25:37,060 --> 00:25:39,820
reflects the seriousness of

437
00:25:39,820 --> 00:25:44,080
the interlocutor's fraudulent
claim in verse 10.

438
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,540
Indeed, how believers deal with

439
00:25:46,540 --> 00:25:51,190
their present
spiritual failure lies

440
00:25:51,190 --> 00:25:52,810
at the very heart of

441
00:25:52,810 --> 00:25:58,540
this letter's radical revision
of Christian existence.

442
00:25:58,540 --> 00:26:04,000
This is the vision that
drew Wesley to one John,

443
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,595
and we should join them there.

444
00:26:06,595 --> 00:26:09,220
One John deals with

445
00:26:09,220 --> 00:26:13,780
the most pressing
pastoral question of all,

446
00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:18,820
and it is one that
Paul largely ignores.

447
00:26:18,820 --> 00:26:25,460
How should the saint respond
to spiritual failure?

448
00:26:26,580 --> 00:26:29,890
One John initially responds to

449
00:26:29,890 --> 00:26:31,690
this implied question in

450
00:26:31,690 --> 00:26:34,330
the opening two
verses of Chapter 2,

451
00:26:34,330 --> 00:26:35,470
by rehearsing

452
00:26:35,470 --> 00:26:38,875
the community's core
beliefs about Jesus Christ,

453
00:26:38,875 --> 00:26:43,450
who is a Paraclete,
the righteous one,

454
00:26:43,450 --> 00:26:45,880
and an atoning sacrifice

455
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,550
not only for the sins
of the whole world.

456
00:26:48,550 --> 00:26:49,945
Notice that in verse 2,

457
00:26:49,945 --> 00:26:52,855
not only for the sins
of the whole world,

458
00:26:52,855 --> 00:26:56,890
but for our sins too.

459
00:26:56,890 --> 00:26:59,965
But now in the last mass,

460
00:26:59,965 --> 00:27:02,890
which I translate
atoning sacrifice,

461
00:27:02,890 --> 00:27:07,720
is used to reassure
believers who sin that

462
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,210
Christ's death purposes to

463
00:27:10,210 --> 00:27:14,320
bring their present
sinning to an end.

464
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,010
Perhaps the reader of one
John is reminded that it

465
00:27:18,010 --> 00:27:21,100
is only in John's Gospel that we

466
00:27:21,100 --> 00:27:24,655
find the Lord's
shocking exhortation

467
00:27:24,655 --> 00:27:29,290
repeated twice to
confirmed sinners,

468
00:27:29,290 --> 00:27:33,920
go and sin no more.

469
00:27:34,530 --> 00:27:39,145
Yes, Christ atones
for the world's sin,

470
00:27:39,145 --> 00:27:41,770
but the emphasis here is not

471
00:27:41,770 --> 00:27:46,135
the global reach of
Jesus's expiatory death,

472
00:27:46,135 --> 00:27:49,210
but rather its
salutary effect on

473
00:27:49,210 --> 00:27:53,635
repairing the damage done
by sin in the believer.

474
00:27:53,635 --> 00:27:56,725
As Judith Lu puts it,

475
00:27:56,725 --> 00:28:01,540
God offers the means for
overcoming the mismatch between

476
00:28:01,540 --> 00:28:03,820
humanity and God who makes

477
00:28:03,820 --> 00:28:06,985
fellowship between
them possible.

478
00:28:06,985 --> 00:28:11,350
This is where Jesus belongs,

479
00:28:11,350 --> 00:28:13,795
not in the past,

480
00:28:13,795 --> 00:28:16,690
but as the continuing means of

481
00:28:16,690 --> 00:28:21,710
restoring and maintaining
our fellowship with God.

482
00:28:23,010 --> 00:28:25,810
What follows in Chapter 2,

483
00:28:25,810 --> 00:28:29,170
versus 3-11 is self-examination

484
00:28:29,170 --> 00:28:33,920
focused by a second triad
of conditional statements,

485
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,920
which tests whether the
sinful believer's response

486
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,305
to Jesus is genuine,

487
00:28:40,305 --> 00:28:45,545
and this exam really consists
of a single question,

488
00:28:45,545 --> 00:28:48,550
ready, true or false?

489
00:28:48,550 --> 00:28:52,810
If someone claims
to reside in God,

490
00:28:52,810 --> 00:28:55,644
she should walk in the light

491
00:28:55,644 --> 00:28:59,305
just as Jesus walked
in the light,

492
00:28:59,305 --> 00:29:03,955
true or false? True.

493
00:29:03,955 --> 00:29:07,360
Verse 6. Aware of

494
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:08,440
the different levels of

495
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,450
spiritual maturity
within the congregation,

496
00:29:11,450 --> 00:29:14,430
the author's purposes
again clarified in

497
00:29:14,430 --> 00:29:17,430
an address to different
groups identified by

498
00:29:17,430 --> 00:29:20,850
three tropes of different stages

499
00:29:20,850 --> 00:29:24,000
in a Christian's
spiritual formation.

500
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:29,215
Parent, young people,
and children.

501
00:29:29,215 --> 00:29:33,820
What seems plane is the
connection made between trusting

502
00:29:33,820 --> 00:29:36,520
the apostolic message about God

503
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:40,450
and resisting all the sin
that is in the world.

504
00:29:40,450 --> 00:29:43,480
But the author
recognizes there are

505
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,790
different success rates within

506
00:29:45,790 --> 00:29:50,080
the congregation when measured
by spiritual maturity.

507
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,375
Therefore, leaves

508
00:29:52,375 --> 00:29:57,985
his most expansive pastoral
exhortation for the children.

509
00:29:57,985 --> 00:30:01,630
Presumably the newest converts,

510
00:30:01,630 --> 00:30:04,240
and the most vulnerable to

511
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:08,150
the false teaching
of the anti-Christ.

512
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,300
Now this leads us
at long last two,

513
00:30:12,300 --> 00:30:14,130
the letters key passage,

514
00:30:14,130 --> 00:30:18,970
Chapter 2 verse 28 through
Chapter 3 verse 10.

515
00:30:20,430 --> 00:30:25,239
What surprises us
is not the shift

516
00:30:25,239 --> 00:30:30,190
in tone back to
pastoral excitation.

517
00:30:30,190 --> 00:30:33,130
What surprises us I think is

518
00:30:33,130 --> 00:30:39,025
the abrupt introduction of
salvation's future horizon,

519
00:30:39,025 --> 00:30:42,535
where what remains of evil,

520
00:30:42,535 --> 00:30:46,090
of darkness will be no more.

521
00:30:46,090 --> 00:30:50,320
The images of God's
coming victory are found

522
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:54,910
spread across Chapter 2:
28 and Chapter 3 verse 2,

523
00:30:54,910 --> 00:30:57,430
which elaborates
that the confidence

524
00:30:57,430 --> 00:31:00,880
God's children will
express before the son at

525
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,850
his second coming is based upon

526
00:31:03,850 --> 00:31:07,525
special revelation
that when he appears,

527
00:31:07,525 --> 00:31:10,690
we will be like him because we

528
00:31:10,690 --> 00:31:14,950
will see him just as he is.

529
00:31:14,950 --> 00:31:18,925
An image of profound intimacy.

530
00:31:18,925 --> 00:31:22,720
When our sight lines
to Jesus are no

531
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,260
longer obscured by an
evil world system.

532
00:31:28,350 --> 00:31:32,890
But note carefully
that enclosed within

533
00:31:32,890 --> 00:31:36,490
this announcement of
future conformity with

534
00:31:36,490 --> 00:31:42,535
the son is one John's
stunning assertion

535
00:31:42,535 --> 00:31:45,160
about new birth,

536
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,100
in Chapter 2 verse 29.

537
00:31:48,100 --> 00:31:53,230
Regeneration transforms the
believer into a child of

538
00:31:53,230 --> 00:31:55,930
God fathered by God to

539
00:31:55,930 --> 00:31:59,860
live according to
the likeness of God.

540
00:31:59,860 --> 00:32:03,580
While this supernatural
act of new birth

541
00:32:03,580 --> 00:32:07,359
makes the believer
unrecognizable to the world.

542
00:32:07,359 --> 00:32:12,400
The experience of being
transformed into a child of

543
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:17,980
God makes realistic hope
of a future with God,

544
00:32:17,980 --> 00:32:22,930
characterized by
intimate union with him.

545
00:32:22,930 --> 00:32:27,430
I will take that verse 3
of Chapter 3 as pivotal,

546
00:32:27,430 --> 00:32:31,870
in one John's discourse
on the future of sin.

547
00:32:31,870 --> 00:32:36,460
Because it moves the
reader from what God

548
00:32:36,460 --> 00:32:38,545
has already done within

549
00:32:38,545 --> 00:32:41,545
believers regenerated
our nature,

550
00:32:41,545 --> 00:32:47,740
and from what God will do
with believers in the future,

551
00:32:47,740 --> 00:32:50,605
conformity with Christ,

552
00:32:50,605 --> 00:32:56,395
to what children of
God must do right now,

553
00:32:56,395 --> 00:33:03,580
in blood response, they
must purify themselves.

554
00:33:03,580 --> 00:33:08,455
Not God pure, we must
purify ourselves.

555
00:33:08,455 --> 00:33:13,765
The insertion of this
reflexive pronoun purify

556
00:33:13,765 --> 00:33:18,415
themselves insinuates
a future hope

557
00:33:18,415 --> 00:33:21,625
upon our present lives.

558
00:33:21,625 --> 00:33:26,995
If we are confident for
our future with the Lord,

559
00:33:26,995 --> 00:33:31,990
then we will purify
ourselves to become like

560
00:33:31,990 --> 00:33:37,690
Christ in preparation for
an eternity with him.

561
00:33:37,690 --> 00:33:41,560
Yes, the prospect of
God's final victory over

562
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,680
sin supplies the
motive, and yes,

563
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,070
God's regeneration of
our nature supplies

564
00:33:48,070 --> 00:33:53,350
the inward capacity to become
Christ-like in our purity.

565
00:33:53,350 --> 00:33:57,970
But it is finally our
responsibility to become

566
00:33:57,970 --> 00:34:03,575
like the one with whom we'll
be conformed as his come.

567
00:34:03,575 --> 00:34:06,105
This begs the question,

568
00:34:06,105 --> 00:34:09,635
what does this purity look like?

569
00:34:09,635 --> 00:34:12,400
Well, according to Chapter 3,

570
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:13,750
verses 4 through 6,

571
00:34:13,750 --> 00:34:17,330
purity looks an awful
lot like not sinning.

572
00:34:19,470 --> 00:34:22,240
This most demanding of

573
00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:26,200
sacred texts does not

574
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,590
advance the idea of
seamless perfection.

575
00:34:29,590 --> 00:34:33,430
Since in the opening prologue
within interlocutor,

576
00:34:33,430 --> 00:34:38,199
the author indicates that sin
remains a constant threat.

577
00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:41,770
To deny that threat
is blasphemous,

578
00:34:41,770 --> 00:34:44,380
since it denies the efficacy of

579
00:34:44,380 --> 00:34:48,670
Christ's atoning
sacrifice for believers.

580
00:34:48,670 --> 00:34:52,150
Yet nowhere does 1 John define

581
00:34:52,150 --> 00:34:57,040
what particular species
of sin we no longer do.

582
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,890
Now, Wesley is going to
help us here next to you.

583
00:35:01,050 --> 00:35:05,305
But a suggestion to hold
us over until then.

584
00:35:05,305 --> 00:35:09,385
If this purity practice imitates

585
00:35:09,385 --> 00:35:14,530
Christ's purity as
verse 3 indicates,

586
00:35:14,530 --> 00:35:18,790
perhaps the author would have

587
00:35:18,790 --> 00:35:23,125
us recall verse 16 of Chapter 2,

588
00:35:23,125 --> 00:35:27,250
where sin is defined by allusion

589
00:35:27,250 --> 00:35:31,795
to the gospel story of the
three temptations of Jesus.

590
00:35:31,795 --> 00:35:34,720
That is, the child
of God does not do

591
00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:37,570
those very sins that
Jesus resisted;

592
00:35:37,570 --> 00:35:39,445
the desire of the flesh,

593
00:35:39,445 --> 00:35:41,380
the desire of the eyes,

594
00:35:41,380 --> 00:35:44,150
and the pride of life.

595
00:35:46,230 --> 00:35:49,630
The solution to the
gospel story of

596
00:35:49,630 --> 00:35:52,300
the Lord's three temptations

597
00:35:52,300 --> 00:35:56,080
to help define the
sin we do not do.

598
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,260
Makes good sense of
the authors commentary

599
00:35:59,260 --> 00:36:02,335
on the Jewish tradition
of the two ways,

600
00:36:02,335 --> 00:36:04,660
which follows in Chapter 3,

601
00:36:04,660 --> 00:36:06,610
verses 7 and 8.

602
00:36:06,610 --> 00:36:11,410
Knowing that Jesus's sonship
is tested by the devil,

603
00:36:11,410 --> 00:36:14,019
and knowing that Jesus proved

604
00:36:14,019 --> 00:36:17,425
himself faithful to
God by resisting

605
00:36:17,425 --> 00:36:20,500
the devil's advances long

606
00:36:20,500 --> 00:36:24,625
before the cross seals the deal,

607
00:36:24,625 --> 00:36:26,740
leads us to

608
00:36:26,740 --> 00:36:30,744
the clear headed conclusion
that God's children,

609
00:36:30,744 --> 00:36:35,935
who also find ourselves
tested in the wilderness,

610
00:36:35,935 --> 00:36:40,930
prove their spiritual
medal by a resisting

611
00:36:40,930 --> 00:36:43,120
the devil's temptations to

612
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:48,380
sin and to do rather
what is righteous.

613
00:36:48,690 --> 00:36:53,470
When John's exposition on
the purity practice of not

614
00:36:53,470 --> 00:36:58,450
sinning is brought to
sharp climax in Chapter 3,

615
00:36:58,450 --> 00:37:04,060
verse 9, by the addition
of two new elements that

616
00:37:04,060 --> 00:37:09,715
are emboldened by the
rhetorical use of chiasmus.

617
00:37:09,715 --> 00:37:14,455
I've tried to show you this
in the program insert.

618
00:37:14,455 --> 00:37:17,300
Look at verse 9.

619
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:24,200
In chiasmus repeated
claims, bracket.

620
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:29,730
Sandwich, something that is
found where x marks the spot.

621
00:37:29,730 --> 00:37:33,210
The gravitas is where x marks

622
00:37:33,210 --> 00:37:37,380
the spot in the
center of a chiasmus.

623
00:37:37,380 --> 00:37:44,550
The repeated claims of the
believer's new birth center

624
00:37:44,550 --> 00:37:46,920
our attention on one of

625
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:52,740
scriptures' most graphic
metaphors of new birth;

626
00:37:52,740 --> 00:37:58,065
God's seed, literally
God's sperm,

627
00:37:58,065 --> 00:38:03,165
resides in the one
fathered by God.

628
00:38:03,165 --> 00:38:05,310
Although the meaning of

629
00:38:05,310 --> 00:38:08,895
this conception metaphor
remains obscure,

630
00:38:08,895 --> 00:38:12,240
most commentators agreed that

631
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:18,510
God's seed refers to the
transformation of human nature.

632
00:38:18,510 --> 00:38:23,535
The logic of 1 John's
argument is unequivocal.

633
00:38:23,535 --> 00:38:26,925
If our genetic inheritance is

634
00:38:26,925 --> 00:38:31,035
from God in whom
there is no darkness,

635
00:38:31,035 --> 00:38:37,120
then sinning is antithetical
to Christian existence.

636
00:38:37,850 --> 00:38:40,680
The full implication of

637
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:45,300
God's regenerative
grace is envisaged by

638
00:38:45,300 --> 00:38:48,210
the two verbs used in

639
00:38:48,210 --> 00:38:50,580
those two parallel lines that

640
00:38:50,580 --> 00:38:55,680
enclose this stunning
metaphor of divine sperm.

641
00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:58,530
The first line of verse nine

642
00:38:58,530 --> 00:39:01,050
repeats what has
already been asserted,

643
00:39:01,050 --> 00:39:03,660
although negatively so earlier,

644
00:39:03,660 --> 00:39:09,340
that everyone fathered
by God does not sin.

645
00:39:09,410 --> 00:39:14,235
But then in the parallel line,

646
00:39:14,235 --> 00:39:17,055
the author goes on to make

647
00:39:17,055 --> 00:39:20,685
the absolutely spectacular claim

648
00:39:20,685 --> 00:39:24,285
that everyone who
is fathered by God

649
00:39:24,285 --> 00:39:28,450
is incapable of sinning.

650
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:34,590
What are we to make
of this shift from

651
00:39:34,590 --> 00:39:39,735
a disciplined Christian
practice of not sinning

652
00:39:39,735 --> 00:39:43,425
to the upgraded
orthological claim

653
00:39:43,425 --> 00:39:45,345
that Christian existence

654
00:39:45,345 --> 00:39:51,610
is characterized by
the inability to sin?

655
00:39:52,610 --> 00:39:56,370
I take it that this
climactic shift

656
00:39:56,370 --> 00:39:59,985
of verbs in verse nine tracks

657
00:39:59,985 --> 00:40:04,920
the final effect of
our new birth when

658
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:10,770
observed against the horizon
of God's coming victory.

659
00:40:10,770 --> 00:40:12,915
Read this way.

660
00:40:12,915 --> 00:40:18,855
The reborn believer's practice
of not sinning heroes,

661
00:40:18,855 --> 00:40:24,990
anticipates our future
with God when death and

662
00:40:24,990 --> 00:40:28,229
devil are utterly destroyed

663
00:40:28,229 --> 00:40:32,550
and replaced by
conformity with the Lord.

664
00:40:32,550 --> 00:40:35,820
When God's children
will no longer be

665
00:40:35,820 --> 00:40:39,915
saddled with mortal bodies
or a broken creation,

666
00:40:39,915 --> 00:40:42,375
and when we will
become like God,

667
00:40:42,375 --> 00:40:46,935
heirs of a new creation
without capacity for

668
00:40:46,935 --> 00:40:52,900
evil and infinitely
free to do good.

669
00:40:52,940 --> 00:40:57,045
I riff on St. Augustine,

670
00:40:57,045 --> 00:40:59,530
I hope with his permission.

671
00:41:00,410 --> 00:41:04,860
The realization of this
promise is envisioned by

672
00:41:04,860 --> 00:41:08,490
that magnificent line from
the concluding words of

673
00:41:08,490 --> 00:41:12,630
John's Revelation when
on that future day,

674
00:41:12,630 --> 00:41:15,765
God's servants will worship God.

675
00:41:15,765 --> 00:41:18,630
They will see God's face and

676
00:41:18,630 --> 00:41:21,540
God's name will be
on their foreheads.

677
00:41:21,540 --> 00:41:24,165
Night will be no more.

678
00:41:24,165 --> 00:41:26,940
They will not need light or

679
00:41:26,940 --> 00:41:29,415
a lamp or the light of the sun,

680
00:41:29,415 --> 00:41:31,890
because the Lord
God will shine upon

681
00:41:31,890 --> 00:41:34,260
them and they will reign

682
00:41:34,260 --> 00:41:40,270
forever and ever,
Revelation 22:45.

683
00:41:43,430 --> 00:41:47,340
Now to the second
movement of 1 John,

684
00:41:47,340 --> 00:41:51,029
which unfolds across
Chapter 5 verse 11,

685
00:41:51,029 --> 00:41:53,280
and Chapter 5 verse 12.

686
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:56,850
Introduced in verse
11 of Chapter 3 by

687
00:41:56,850 --> 00:41:58,350
the moral imperative of

688
00:41:58,350 --> 00:42:03,160
the apostolic message that
we are to love one another.

689
00:42:03,170 --> 00:42:06,000
This movement climaxes in

690
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,100
a second core belief that God is

691
00:42:08,100 --> 00:42:10,320
love in verse six of Chapter 4,

692
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,910
repeated in verse 16.

693
00:42:13,100 --> 00:42:16,980
Even though central for
a Wesleyan conception of

694
00:42:16,980 --> 00:42:20,445
Christian existence
for time's sake.

695
00:42:20,445 --> 00:42:23,970
Let me say only that
the capstone of

696
00:42:23,970 --> 00:42:25,950
this second movement is found

697
00:42:25,950 --> 00:42:28,635
in the letters
most famous verse.

698
00:42:28,635 --> 00:42:32,700
We love because ATI,

699
00:42:32,700 --> 00:42:38,729
we love because God
first loved us.

700
00:42:38,729 --> 00:42:42,180
Wesley called this verse
the sum of all religion.

701
00:42:42,180 --> 00:42:44,715
The genuine model
of Christianity.

702
00:42:44,715 --> 00:42:49,270
It is the heartbeat of
our Wesleyan community.

703
00:42:50,150 --> 00:42:54,300
The community's
capacity to love and

704
00:42:54,300 --> 00:42:56,340
the self-sacrificial pattern of

705
00:42:56,340 --> 00:42:58,245
our love for one another has

706
00:42:58,245 --> 00:43:02,370
its source in God who loved

707
00:43:02,370 --> 00:43:04,860
us and sent the Son to be

708
00:43:04,860 --> 00:43:08,265
the atoning sacrifice
for our sins.

709
00:43:08,265 --> 00:43:11,730
The children fathered
by such a God will

710
00:43:11,730 --> 00:43:16,065
naturally love one another
as self-sacrificial.

711
00:43:16,065 --> 00:43:21,900
It is because we experience
being loved by one

712
00:43:21,900 --> 00:43:26,865
another that the community's
fearless embrace

713
00:43:26,865 --> 00:43:29,250
of God is cultivated.

714
00:43:29,250 --> 00:43:31,200
That we come now into

715
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:33,870
the presence of God
with our petitions,

716
00:43:33,870 --> 00:43:36,270
confident of being heard.

717
00:43:36,270 --> 00:43:39,180
In the future, we will
come into the presence of

718
00:43:39,180 --> 00:43:42,630
God this time
eyeball to eyeball,

719
00:43:42,630 --> 00:43:46,750
with firm assurance
of eternal life.

720
00:43:47,510 --> 00:43:51,240
In summary, then 1
John consists of

721
00:43:51,240 --> 00:43:55,800
two grand movements of
theological exposition.

722
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:59,730
But they are not two
separate expositions.

723
00:43:59,730 --> 00:44:01,815
Never the twain should meet.

724
00:44:01,815 --> 00:44:03,540
The core beliefs of

725
00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:06,720
the apostolic tradition;
God is light,

726
00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:13,980
God is love, form an
interpenetrating whole gospel.

727
00:44:13,980 --> 00:44:18,370
One belief, glossing the other.

728
00:44:18,410 --> 00:44:21,885
Likewise, our Christian
discipleship,

729
00:44:21,885 --> 00:44:24,930
its definition and its cost

730
00:44:24,930 --> 00:44:29,085
is marked out by both
the absence of sin

731
00:44:29,085 --> 00:44:33,360
and the perfection of our love
for God and one another by

732
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:38,100
what we don't do
and by what we do.

733
00:44:38,100 --> 00:44:41,400
This is the walk
that Jesus wants.

734
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:46,905
We seek to follow after
him by God's grace.

735
00:44:46,905 --> 00:44:52,260
Yet today's congregations
seem forever embroiled in

736
00:44:52,260 --> 00:44:55,470
intramural contests
between those who

737
00:44:55,470 --> 00:45:00,540
calibrate their faithfulness
by the sin they forsake,

738
00:45:00,540 --> 00:45:03,300
while others defend
their faithfulness

739
00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:06,435
by pointing to those they love.

740
00:45:06,435 --> 00:45:10,200
The challenge of 1 John is that

741
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:14,115
both are put into play
in equal measure.

742
00:45:14,115 --> 00:45:16,665
In our Christian discipleship,

743
00:45:16,665 --> 00:45:20,370
its definition and its cost

744
00:45:20,370 --> 00:45:24,000
is exacted from the absence of

745
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,070
the sins we forfeit

746
00:45:27,230 --> 00:45:33,340
and the costly love in
which we are engaged.

747
00:45:34,070 --> 00:45:38,145
For most of us, myself included,

748
00:45:38,145 --> 00:45:41,760
either one of those two demands

749
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:45,700
represents our growing age.

750
00:45:47,590 --> 00:45:52,200
Now a trailer for next year.

751
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:54,725
When I will propose

752
00:45:54,725 --> 00:45:58,340
a Wesleyan theological
interpretation

753
00:45:58,340 --> 00:46:01,980
of 1 John 2, 28 through three.

754
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:10,175
If exit Jesus builds the
walls of the city of God,

755
00:46:10,175 --> 00:46:15,900
then theological interpretation
builds it's foundation.

756
00:46:16,870 --> 00:46:21,350
Next year we will return
to 1 John 3 a final

757
00:46:21,350 --> 00:46:26,390
time to examine how a
Wesleyan theology of

758
00:46:26,390 --> 00:46:30,170
salvation will help us elaborate

759
00:46:30,170 --> 00:46:36,050
the meaning of the sacred
text for today's church.

760
00:46:36,050 --> 00:46:40,310
We Methodists speak
with glad hearts of

761
00:46:40,310 --> 00:46:45,335
Wesley's via saluting
his way of salvation.

762
00:46:45,335 --> 00:46:49,580
This is our rule of
faith which both

763
00:46:49,580 --> 00:46:54,830
regulates and animates our
interpretation of Scripture.

764
00:46:54,830 --> 00:46:57,740
No other part of

765
00:46:57,740 --> 00:47:00,080
this redemptive pattern is more

766
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,990
strategic to Wesley
than new birth.

767
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,640
The believer's regeneration is

768
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,640
the lynch pin that

769
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:15,900
holds justification and
sanctification together.

770
00:47:16,420 --> 00:47:20,075
In his sermon, great privilege.

771
00:47:20,075 --> 00:47:23,825
Wesley explains that
while our justification

772
00:47:23,825 --> 00:47:25,760
occurs when we trust God to

773
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:29,240
pardon us from the
guilt of past sin.

774
00:47:29,240 --> 00:47:34,640
Our regeneration occurs when
we are released from sins

775
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:36,905
captive power to begin

776
00:47:36,905 --> 00:47:41,720
a new life under the
direction of the Holy Spirit.

777
00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:48,905
New birth involves a supernatural
change in human nature.

778
00:47:48,905 --> 00:47:51,720
Sheer grace.

779
00:47:51,970 --> 00:47:55,700
If God's justifying
grace puts to

780
00:47:55,700 --> 00:47:59,675
write a sinners personal
relationship with God.

781
00:47:59,675 --> 00:48:03,470
God's regenerating
grace transforms

782
00:48:03,470 --> 00:48:06,335
the senses of her inmost soul.

783
00:48:06,335 --> 00:48:08,990
She becomes a child of God,

784
00:48:08,990 --> 00:48:11,105
reborn with God's image,

785
00:48:11,105 --> 00:48:13,040
with new capacities for

786
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:17,045
a participatory
relationship partnership

787
00:48:17,045 --> 00:48:21,170
with God as Wesley put it.

788
00:48:21,170 --> 00:48:28,020
New birth occasion is
a fast inward change.

789
00:48:28,410 --> 00:48:31,660
All the resources necessary to

790
00:48:31,660 --> 00:48:34,600
live a holy life are given by

791
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:41,400
God at our new birth in the
twinkling of God's eye.

792
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:44,720
It is disbelief of
what happens when we

793
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:48,380
become a child of God that will

794
00:48:48,380 --> 00:48:52,310
empower our
theological reading of

795
00:48:52,310 --> 00:48:58,370
this hard but precious
text from one jump.

796
00:48:58,370 --> 00:49:02,255
Until next year then,
many God's love,

797
00:49:02,255 --> 00:49:05,810
keep you ever faithful
in God's Word.

798
00:49:05,810 --> 00:49:20,060
Amen.

799
00:49:20,060 --> 00:49:21,920
Thank you very much
for the challenge

800
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:25,040
of that message for us today.

801
00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:29,120
We are concluding the lecture
at this point, however,

802
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:30,950
we're going to
take a short break

803
00:49:30,950 --> 00:49:33,560
and after about five minutes,

804
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:38,435
some may wish to get some
more refreshment in the back.

805
00:49:38,435 --> 00:49:41,570
We're going to Dr. Wallace

806
00:49:41,570 --> 00:49:43,520
very willing and interested

807
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:44,660
in taking questions.

808
00:49:44,660 --> 00:49:45,170
Sincerely able.

809
00:49:45,170 --> 00:49:48,900
Bad able.

810
00:49:49,900 --> 00:49:54,020
If folks wish to
depart at this point,

811
00:49:54,020 --> 00:49:55,280
this would be a
good time to do so,

812
00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:58,115
but we'd encourage you
to remain and if so,

813
00:49:58,115 --> 00:50:00,620
just move forward as much as

814
00:50:00,620 --> 00:50:04,175
possible for the time of
questions which will follow.

815
00:50:04,175 --> 00:50:06,380
Thank you very much. Let's
thank Dr. Wall again.

816
00:50:06,380 --> 00:50:23,150
Rob, is certainly willing to
answer questions or if you

817
00:50:23,150 --> 00:50:25,220
have questions of
clarification as

818
00:50:25,220 --> 00:50:27,695
well as comments
you'd like to make,

819
00:50:27,695 --> 00:50:28,940
please direct them to him.

820
00:50:28,940 --> 00:50:32,820
Rob, I think you'll want
to use the microphone.

821
00:50:33,850 --> 00:50:42,035
We'll start up
here. I should say.

822
00:50:42,035 --> 00:50:45,650
Just to warm us up a little bit,

823
00:50:45,650 --> 00:50:51,815
that the Wesley study Bible

824
00:50:51,815 --> 00:50:55,700
explores some of these
themes that were

825
00:50:55,700 --> 00:51:00,380
raised across the
Biblical canon.

826
00:51:00,380 --> 00:51:03,470
You should know that this is
in the Wesley Study Bible.

827
00:51:03,470 --> 00:51:05,750
I just got a word yesterday,

828
00:51:05,750 --> 00:51:10,219
I guess it's in it's
third printing already.

829
00:51:10,219 --> 00:51:16,415
It is a runaway bestseller
to the complete shock.

830
00:51:16,415 --> 00:51:18,020
I don't even think
it's surprise to

831
00:51:18,020 --> 00:51:20,420
the shock of Abingdon press.

832
00:51:20,420 --> 00:51:24,170
They had no idea that there was

833
00:51:24,170 --> 00:51:30,005
this desire out there
in the reading public.

834
00:51:30,005 --> 00:51:32,610
We're excited about.

835
00:51:36,490 --> 00:51:39,110
I'm interested in what you
think about how long we will

836
00:51:39,110 --> 00:51:41,150
take to read the instruction in

837
00:51:41,150 --> 00:51:46,620
a really helping people to
represent God's teaching.

838
00:51:49,420 --> 00:51:53,430
Well, I think it's huge.

839
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:56,975
There are a couple of
things that I would say

840
00:51:56,975 --> 00:52:00,080
about using the rule of faith.

841
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,050
One it's the rule in

842
00:52:03,050 --> 00:52:04,520
operation when you approach

843
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:06,755
a texts that you
believe is sacred,

844
00:52:06,755 --> 00:52:09,260
that has been selected
and sanctified by

845
00:52:09,260 --> 00:52:11,840
the Holy Spirit for
sacred purposes.

846
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:14,675
There are other rules
that we have to use too,

847
00:52:14,675 --> 00:52:17,660
rules of grammar and of history.

848
00:52:17,660 --> 00:52:20,210
Ways of approaching this text

849
00:52:20,210 --> 00:52:21,875
as a human production as well,

850
00:52:21,875 --> 00:52:24,125
but as a sacred,

851
00:52:24,125 --> 00:52:26,315
as the production
of the Holy Spirit,

852
00:52:26,315 --> 00:52:29,555
then it seems to me that
our approach to the text,

853
00:52:29,555 --> 00:52:31,160
understanding that
the text being

854
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,695
interpreted as a sacred text,

855
00:52:33,695 --> 00:52:37,010
set apart for a
theological formation

856
00:52:37,010 --> 00:52:39,965
has theological constraints.

857
00:52:39,965 --> 00:52:44,585
That is to say, people are
formed into Christ likeness by

858
00:52:44,585 --> 00:52:48,380
the teaching of those truths

859
00:52:48,380 --> 00:52:51,260
that are consistent with
the apostolic witness.

860
00:52:51,260 --> 00:52:56,030
I think the rule of
faith that set of

861
00:52:56,030 --> 00:52:59,150
core theological beliefs
put together in a

862
00:52:59,150 --> 00:53:02,330
logical way is a
way of doing that.

863
00:53:02,330 --> 00:53:04,970
We're keeping what we

864
00:53:04,970 --> 00:53:08,660
retrieve from the scripture
and delivered to the saints.

865
00:53:08,660 --> 00:53:15,455
Coherence to what the
apostles observed incarnate.

866
00:53:15,455 --> 00:53:19,280
Now I would say this
in addition to that,

867
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,340
that I think our
understanding of

868
00:53:22,340 --> 00:53:26,315
this theological grammar and
our use in appropriation of

869
00:53:26,315 --> 00:53:29,990
communicating the Gospel
through the saints get shaped

870
00:53:29,990 --> 00:53:34,560
in particular religious
locations in particular ways.

871
00:53:35,050 --> 00:53:38,360
While there are
ecumenical rules of

872
00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:41,615
faith, we can go back.

873
00:53:41,615 --> 00:53:46,355
Beginning with Irenaeus,
track those down,

874
00:53:46,355 --> 00:53:48,965
ecumenical, more general,

875
00:53:48,965 --> 00:53:52,490
written up in the creeds
and so forth and so on.

876
00:53:52,490 --> 00:53:56,750
I think there are particular
versions of that rule of

877
00:53:56,750 --> 00:54:01,220
faith that are used in
different religious locations.

878
00:54:01,220 --> 00:54:03,020
Now, one of the things
that we're trying to

879
00:54:03,020 --> 00:54:04,970
do here that I'm going to

880
00:54:04,970 --> 00:54:09,710
try and do next year is to take

881
00:54:09,710 --> 00:54:15,065
a particularly Wesleyan
Theological grant

882
00:54:15,065 --> 00:54:19,745
to a biblical text to read
it as the word of God.

883
00:54:19,745 --> 00:54:22,010
It's not that bad.

884
00:54:22,010 --> 00:54:23,510
This will be normative of

885
00:54:23,510 --> 00:54:26,600
all Christians so that the
way Wesley understand is

886
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:28,100
regeneration and we bring

887
00:54:28,100 --> 00:54:31,490
that understanding
then to 1 John 2,

888
00:54:31,490 --> 00:54:33,710
29 is the flame on
the last word and

889
00:54:33,710 --> 00:54:35,270
elaborates the meaning of

890
00:54:35,270 --> 00:54:37,940
the text in a
Wesleyan direction.

891
00:54:37,940 --> 00:54:40,710
A Calvinist will do
a different one.

892
00:54:40,710 --> 00:54:43,490
Read Jonathan Edwards, who was

893
00:54:43,490 --> 00:54:45,935
the greatest theologian
America ever produced,

894
00:54:45,935 --> 00:54:48,110
read his blank Bible.
He's a Calvinist.

895
00:54:48,110 --> 00:54:50,930
He reads the stuff differently
than those Wesleyan.

896
00:54:50,930 --> 00:54:54,300
I think within the
church, Catholic.

897
00:54:54,300 --> 00:54:58,180
It seems to me that
that is what we are

898
00:54:58,180 --> 00:55:02,710
apt to find and that's
okay. That's fine.

899
00:55:02,710 --> 00:55:06,710
Not all of us will

900
00:55:06,710 --> 00:55:10,114
be found by God's grace in
the same religious location.

901
00:55:10,114 --> 00:55:12,500
God finds God's people
in a variety of

902
00:55:12,500 --> 00:55:16,270
places and shapes them
in a variety of ways.

903
00:55:16,270 --> 00:55:18,235
But I think the
essential grammar,

904
00:55:18,235 --> 00:55:20,260
whether it's Wesleyan
or Calvinistic

905
00:55:20,260 --> 00:55:22,810
or Episcopalian or
Roman Catholic,

906
00:55:22,810 --> 00:55:23,845
East or the West,

907
00:55:23,845 --> 00:55:26,750
the essential grammar
will be the same.

908
00:55:29,470 --> 00:55:35,390
Over years ago I was talking
with a student who had

909
00:55:35,390 --> 00:55:43,500
been sexually abused as
a child by a relative.

910
00:55:43,540 --> 00:55:46,940
She told me in one breath I lost

911
00:55:46,940 --> 00:55:50,790
my innocence and
I lost my purity.

912
00:55:51,190 --> 00:55:54,020
As we were talking about
purity this morning,

913
00:55:54,020 --> 00:55:57,965
I thought back to that
conversation and I'm wondering,

914
00:55:57,965 --> 00:56:01,790
it's easily if you lose
your innocence it's

915
00:56:01,790 --> 00:56:06,490
gone for good or if
you lose your purity,

916
00:56:06,490 --> 00:56:07,555
you can't get it back.

917
00:56:07,555 --> 00:56:12,115
In other words in your
understanding of one John our

918
00:56:12,115 --> 00:56:14,740
innocence impurity and I

919
00:56:14,740 --> 00:56:18,585
know it is explained
as sin less.

920
00:56:18,585 --> 00:56:23,945
Is purity so you can regain
after you've lost it,

921
00:56:23,945 --> 00:56:28,625
is the power of God
such that while you

922
00:56:28,625 --> 00:56:31,460
can and since go back to

923
00:56:31,460 --> 00:56:35,315
what she for a
tragedy has happened.

924
00:56:35,315 --> 00:56:40,730
Can you restore that
sense of purity or not?

925
00:56:40,730 --> 00:56:42,980
Restore that sense of
purity to those who

926
00:56:42,980 --> 00:56:46,355
have lost either
mightily because

927
00:56:46,355 --> 00:56:50,840
of misconduct for which they
are morally responsible or

928
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:53,180
because of a sudden
catastrophe such as

929
00:56:53,180 --> 00:56:56,580
music for which they are not.

930
00:57:00,670 --> 00:57:04,670
Purity language doesn't have

931
00:57:04,670 --> 00:57:06,560
wide resonance in one John

932
00:57:06,560 --> 00:57:08,000
as used in that
particular place,

933
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:12,515
but it seems to me that
the spiritual repair

934
00:57:12,515 --> 00:57:15,890
of a broken saint is

935
00:57:15,890 --> 00:57:19,880
very much in play right
from the very beginning.

936
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:23,180
It is a fiction to think of

937
00:57:23,180 --> 00:57:29,240
sin as something among the
ways in which I spoke of it,

938
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,010
to think of it as irreparable.

939
00:57:32,860 --> 00:57:36,200
This is why I think
the opening verse of

940
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,990
Chapter 2 is so crucial where

941
00:57:38,990 --> 00:57:42,440
the pastor states
for the first time

942
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:43,880
the reason for writing

943
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:46,205
this letter so that
you might not sin.

944
00:57:46,205 --> 00:57:50,540
Now that trades on what has
already been said about

945
00:57:50,540 --> 00:57:54,665
God's forgiveness
that cleanses away

946
00:57:54,665 --> 00:57:59,210
all sins, all wrong doing.

947
00:57:59,210 --> 00:58:02,240
It's not just one or

948
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:05,120
another sin or one or
another wrong doing.

949
00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:11,370
The cleansing is thorough
all sins and all wrongdoing.

950
00:58:11,740 --> 00:58:15,900
It seems to me that
without doubt,

951
00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:19,610
whether we use the
language of purity or

952
00:58:19,610 --> 00:58:23,675
the language of
covenant relationship,

953
00:58:23,675 --> 00:58:26,720
it seems to me that one
John makes the point very

954
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:34,580
clearly that sins
committed by believers,

955
00:58:34,580 --> 00:58:39,740
relationships broken by
that sin can be repaired

956
00:58:39,740 --> 00:58:45,050
as an effect of the expiatory
sacrifice of Christ.

957
00:58:45,050 --> 00:58:47,240
One of the things that happens,

958
00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:51,230
I think when we
work too much with

959
00:58:51,230 --> 00:58:56,435
Paul whose Gospel is a
missionary gospel and

960
00:58:56,435 --> 00:58:57,770
interested in getting

961
00:58:57,770 --> 00:59:02,765
sinners saved and
non-believers believers

962
00:59:02,765 --> 00:59:09,020
is that we come to think of
Jesus's death as for them,

963
00:59:09,020 --> 00:59:12,140
for the outsiders,
for those who are

964
00:59:12,140 --> 00:59:16,790
outside of the community
that resides in Christ.

965
00:59:16,790 --> 00:59:19,670
In one John is
insistent right from

966
00:59:19,670 --> 00:59:25,160
the very beginning that Christ's
atoning sacrifice is not

967
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:26,885
only for the whole
world and it's for

968
00:59:26,885 --> 00:59:29,210
us as well and the effect

969
00:59:29,210 --> 00:59:34,475
then is to re-establish
and to be fortifying.

970
00:59:34,475 --> 00:59:37,565
It's also the case, it
seems to me in one John

971
00:59:37,565 --> 00:59:41,570
that these operations
of grace and of

972
00:59:41,570 --> 00:59:43,760
human responsibility
and response to

973
00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:49,890
it are firmly set within
the congregation.

974
00:59:51,010 --> 00:59:54,710
It is the experience
of being loved in

975
00:59:54,710 --> 01:00:01,130
that community that cultivates

976
01:00:01,130 --> 01:00:05,000
the confidence that I think is

977
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:15,570
necessary not to let
sin failure defeat us.

978
01:00:15,670 --> 01:00:18,080
We are reminded of

979
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:23,540
God's victory by those
others with whom we worship.

980
01:00:23,540 --> 01:00:25,760
I think those are a couple

981
01:00:25,760 --> 01:00:29,555
of ways that I
would get at that.

982
01:00:29,555 --> 01:00:33,320
But it's certainly the
case that we are to purify

983
01:00:33,320 --> 01:00:37,580
ourselves as well as

984
01:00:37,580 --> 01:00:39,785
depend upon God's
purifying grace

985
01:00:39,785 --> 01:00:42,650
in us so that it's
collaborative.

986
01:00:42,650 --> 01:00:46,760
God's grace is not
coercive it's not used.

987
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:49,160
It's not the operations
of grace are

988
01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:54,270
not without our permission

989
01:00:57,850 --> 01:01:00,440
that help at all or
does that get at

990
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:22,030
which things come in.

991
01:01:22,030 --> 01:01:22,965
Would you comment on ways in which Wesley
used First John or didn't use First John.

992
01:01:22,965 --> 01:01:22,966
To come up with this very specialized
understanding of what sin is.

993
01:01:22,966 --> 01:01:23,900
Sin as a violation of the known
law, a very biblical violation.

994
01:01:23,900 --> 01:01:26,300
All of us, our theology is

995
01:01:26,300 --> 01:01:29,045
the construction
of many sources.

996
01:01:29,045 --> 01:01:30,740
I think that's
certainly true for

997
01:01:30,740 --> 01:01:33,200
Wesley who's reading of Locke,

998
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:37,985
helps him with that point.

999
01:01:37,985 --> 01:01:39,590
It is the case though,

1000
01:01:39,590 --> 01:01:42,890
that I think his
normative definition of

1001
01:01:42,890 --> 01:01:47,810
sin really does depend
upon 1John 2:16,

1002
01:01:47,810 --> 01:01:52,310
and this is his, you see it
repeated over and over again.

1003
01:01:52,310 --> 01:01:55,625
Now, he casts

1004
01:01:55,625 --> 01:01:58,250
that allusion to the
three temptations

1005
01:01:58,250 --> 01:02:00,510
in a variety of ways.

1006
01:02:04,990 --> 01:02:07,430
But there are sources to this,

1007
01:02:07,430 --> 01:02:09,950
we're going to touch a little
bit on this next year.

1008
01:02:09,950 --> 01:02:11,060
But there are sources.

1009
01:02:11,060 --> 01:02:12,890
It seems to me that Wesley

1010
01:02:12,890 --> 01:02:14,870
works with not only biblical,

1011
01:02:14,870 --> 01:02:18,770
not only some of
the stuff he brings

1012
01:02:18,770 --> 01:02:24,570
to the task from his Anglican
and Puritan backgrounds.

1013
01:02:25,540 --> 01:02:29,870
It's not only biblical that

1014
01:02:29,870 --> 01:02:34,320
his theology of cinch,
it's also experientially.

1015
01:02:34,600 --> 01:02:38,060
Much of his instinct of

1016
01:02:38,060 --> 01:02:40,910
what is important in
a text and how he

1017
01:02:40,910 --> 01:02:45,410
anticipates a precisely
and theological payoff

1018
01:02:45,410 --> 01:02:50,465
when he reads texts is a
shaped by his own experience,

1019
01:02:50,465 --> 01:02:53,510
not only personal experience
but as experience of

1020
01:02:53,510 --> 01:02:56,330
others that he bumps
into in ministry.

1021
01:02:56,330 --> 01:03:21,217
It has been my observation that evil particularly follow this
movement, a grade or two to get out from under the sinning by.

1022
01:03:21,217 --> 01:03:33,660
defining the sinning in a very careful
way, as a conscious violation.

1023
01:03:33,660 --> 01:03:46,595
of the known law, which
. Well now, I'd agree.

1024
01:03:46,595 --> 01:03:50,540
Enter into some fairly
serious rationalization

1025
01:03:50,540 --> 01:03:56,910
Honesty and spiritual failure
as part of a coping strategy,

1026
01:03:58,390 --> 01:04:01,670
which is another
reason I think we do

1027
01:04:01,670 --> 01:04:04,670
this work within the bounds
of the congregation.

1028
01:04:04,670 --> 01:04:08,750
Congregation characterized
by a substantial welfare

1029
01:04:08,750 --> 01:04:11,660
for one another and
care for one another.

1030
01:04:11,660 --> 01:04:13,175
It is for, I think,

1031
01:04:13,175 --> 01:04:16,685
both the pastor of one who

1032
01:04:16,685 --> 01:04:20,310
writes one John and
I think is part of

1033
01:04:20,710 --> 01:04:23,780
the Apostolic tradition to inherit,
but also Wesley's teaching in

1034
01:04:23,780 --> 01:04:28,580
physiology that we confirm

1035
01:04:28,580 --> 01:04:30,410
these great truths that we have

1036
01:04:30,410 --> 01:04:32,330
received from the apostles based

1037
01:04:32,330 --> 01:04:37,100
upon their eye witness
of Jesus by experience.

1038
01:04:37,100 --> 01:04:39,440
By our experience of God.

1039
01:04:39,440 --> 01:04:44,420
It is being loved that
confirms that God is love,

1040
01:04:44,420 --> 01:04:47,135
and it's our experience with

1041
01:04:47,135 --> 01:04:52,715
the awful self-destructive
consequences of our sinning,

1042
01:04:52,715 --> 01:04:56,150
that confirms that
this is something that

1043
01:04:56,150 --> 01:05:00,035
God does not want
for God's children.

1044
01:05:00,035 --> 01:05:04,230
So it comes from a lot
of different names.

1045
01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:10,280
Try to walk.

1046
01:05:10,280 --> 01:05:13,400
I've been pondering the word sin

1047
01:05:13,400 --> 01:05:15,770
because I think in today's
religious context,

1048
01:05:15,770 --> 01:05:18,410
we have to be very careful

1049
01:05:18,410 --> 01:05:21,110
with that and I was
getting worried we were

1050
01:05:21,110 --> 01:05:22,520
turning it into a verb

1051
01:05:22,520 --> 01:05:29,270
[SCREAM] For me it's simple.

1052
01:05:29,270 --> 01:05:35,780
It's separateness from God
and then we do and I'm trying

1053
01:05:35,780 --> 01:05:38,900
to think how have you
been thinking about

1054
01:05:38,900 --> 01:05:43,650
the ways in which to communicate
to our postmodern world?

1055
01:05:43,930 --> 01:05:49,190
How this can make sense
and not turn people off?

1056
01:05:49,190 --> 01:05:50,870
So many people get turned off by

1057
01:05:50,870 --> 01:05:54,200
the word sin as opposed to,

1058
01:05:54,200 --> 01:05:56,840
it's the separateness
from God and that we

1059
01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:59,220
do participate in bad behaviors.

1060
01:05:59,220 --> 01:06:02,605
I think we do get
focused on the list,

1061
01:06:02,605 --> 01:06:07,840
the acts instead of what
does it mean to be in

1062
01:06:07,840 --> 01:06:13,930
unity and then listening
to how we read first John.

1063
01:06:13,930 --> 01:06:14,515
Yeah.

1064
01:06:14,515 --> 01:06:16,990
How to make that make sense.

1065
01:06:16,990 --> 01:06:24,400
Yeah. The vocabulary of

1066
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:27,825
sin is quite impressive
actually in scripture.

1067
01:06:27,825 --> 01:06:31,235
Includes both nouns
and verbs and

1068
01:06:31,235 --> 01:06:36,620
codes of things that
we should avoid.

1069
01:06:36,620 --> 01:06:45,560
I actually think

1070
01:06:45,560 --> 01:06:49,970
these kinds of
codes are helpful.

1071
01:06:49,970 --> 01:06:53,675
If only to go straight
to bad behavior,

1072
01:06:53,675 --> 01:07:00,020
I think they become
a problem when they

1073
01:07:00,020 --> 01:07:07,880
somehow become litmus
tests or normative,

1074
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:10,580
in some sense, of
Christian existence

1075
01:07:10,580 --> 01:07:14,520
or sub-Christian existence
as the case may be.

1076
01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:23,720
I don't know where to go with
that question and I haven't

1077
01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:25,280
really thought a
lot about how to

1078
01:07:25,280 --> 01:07:27,500
communicate to a
post-modern audience.

1079
01:07:27,500 --> 01:07:36,110
I'm still back amongst
the followers.

1080
01:07:36,110 --> 01:07:44,690
But no, I actually
think there should be

1081
01:07:44,690 --> 01:07:49,670
a fairly careful discussion of

1082
01:07:49,670 --> 01:07:55,520
what sin looks like
with examples of it.

1083
01:07:55,520 --> 01:07:58,490
What I would argue is that

1084
01:07:58,490 --> 01:08:03,770
misbehavior is often times

1085
01:08:03,770 --> 01:08:07,640
detected by the consequence
of the behavior.

1086
01:08:07,640 --> 01:08:10,340
Unknown sordid events.

1087
01:08:10,340 --> 01:08:15,485
So there is a
consequentialist stream

1088
01:08:15,485 --> 01:08:17,960
thinking about
misbehavior in scripture.

1089
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:24,470
There was also more logical

1090
01:08:24,470 --> 01:08:28,160
cast where there is
a codification of

1091
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:32,435
actions to avoid because they
bring God's displeasure.

1092
01:08:32,435 --> 01:08:35,570
But even those actions
typically are rooted in

1093
01:08:35,570 --> 01:08:39,770
stories of what happens when
people behave in this way?

1094
01:08:39,770 --> 01:08:43,100
What happens in their
relations with one another?

1095
01:08:43,100 --> 01:08:46,380
What happens in the
relationship with God?

1096
01:08:46,630 --> 01:08:50,360
But I think sin is not
anything that we should skirt.

1097
01:08:50,360 --> 01:08:53,930
It's not anything that we
should make as bland as

1098
01:08:53,930 --> 01:08:55,790
possible so that it's easy for

1099
01:08:55,790 --> 01:08:58,490
us to forget about her sidestep.

1100
01:08:58,490 --> 01:09:01,175
I think that's one of the
things that we have to

1101
01:09:01,175 --> 01:09:05,645
deal with in fairly
graphic ways.

1102
01:09:05,645 --> 01:09:08,750
But then always in the
company of Christ.

1103
01:09:08,750 --> 01:09:11,420
Always in the company
of Christ's death.

1104
01:09:11,420 --> 01:09:13,745
Always in the company
of the Holy Spirit,

1105
01:09:13,745 --> 01:09:16,025
always in the company
of the sinners.

1106
01:09:16,025 --> 01:09:18,875
Always in the company of

1107
01:09:18,875 --> 01:09:21,410
those practices that shape

1108
01:09:21,410 --> 01:09:23,750
our way of thinking
and our way of living.

1109
01:09:23,750 --> 01:09:29,060
That is responsive to the
Spirit's convicting presence.

1110
01:09:29,060 --> 01:09:32,150
Responsive to the glad

1111
01:09:32,150 --> 01:09:40,580
heartened revealing to you..

1112
01:09:40,580 --> 01:09:42,020
Let's have one last question.

1113
01:09:42,020 --> 01:09:48,440
Yeah, I know. In your theology
you'll find the interpretations

1114
01:09:48,440 --> 01:09:52,370
as the foundations that

1115
01:09:52,370 --> 01:09:55,250
we build a little
faith much longer.

1116
01:09:55,250 --> 01:09:57,950
It appears that before

1117
01:09:57,950 --> 01:10:00,575
it's easy to find that
they build walls.

1118
01:10:00,575 --> 01:10:00,830
Yeah.

1119
01:10:00,830 --> 01:10:03,185
It seems that they serve
two different functions.

1120
01:10:03,185 --> 01:10:05,540
Walls are brought out to defend

1121
01:10:05,540 --> 01:10:08,690
and the foundations
are built internally.

1122
01:10:08,690 --> 01:10:10,670
How do you bridge

1123
01:10:10,670 --> 01:10:13,385
that gap when you're
communicating to a non-christian?

1124
01:10:13,385 --> 01:10:15,290
That's an excellent question.

1125
01:10:15,290 --> 01:10:20,400
It's actually what I've
been working on right now.

1126
01:10:24,550 --> 01:10:28,385
Let me just speak
in a general way.

1127
01:10:28,385 --> 01:10:30,080
I put in the task of reading

1128
01:10:30,080 --> 01:10:31,865
the works of Jesus
and by that, I mean,

1129
01:10:31,865 --> 01:10:34,490
bring all the tools available to

1130
01:10:34,490 --> 01:10:39,334
us in reading the texts
as a literary production.

1131
01:10:39,334 --> 01:10:43,020
As a production
shaped by history.

1132
01:10:43,720 --> 01:10:47,330
I think that is the work that

1133
01:10:47,330 --> 01:10:51,750
begins our task as interpreters.

1134
01:10:51,850 --> 01:10:55,865
But the goal is not to
determine normative meaning.

1135
01:10:55,865 --> 01:10:58,190
What it means.

1136
01:10:58,190 --> 01:11:03,365
It rather is to determine
what the text actually says.

1137
01:11:03,365 --> 01:11:06,799
It is to make us intimately

1138
01:11:06,799 --> 01:11:10,715
familiar with the
content of the text.

1139
01:11:10,715 --> 01:11:13,010
But if you believe

1140
01:11:13,010 --> 01:11:16,085
that the nature of
this text is sacred,

1141
01:11:16,085 --> 01:11:18,065
that this is a text

1142
01:11:18,065 --> 01:11:21,575
that finds its way in
the biblical canon

1143
01:11:21,575 --> 01:11:24,920
because it has been
selected and sanctified

1144
01:11:24,920 --> 01:11:28,835
for holy purposes
by the Holy Spirit.

1145
01:11:28,835 --> 01:11:32,165
Then it seems to me
that you treat and work

1146
01:11:32,165 --> 01:11:35,330
with that text differently than

1147
01:11:35,330 --> 01:11:40,295
if it is just an ordinary
human production occasioned by

1148
01:11:40,295 --> 01:11:44,045
some author's response to

1149
01:11:44,045 --> 01:11:47,495
the spiritual or
theological questioning

1150
01:11:47,495 --> 01:11:50,900
or crisis of some audience
in the first century.

1151
01:11:50,900 --> 01:11:55,220
If this is a text that has
been selected and sanctified

1152
01:11:55,220 --> 01:11:59,540
for sacred purposes within

1153
01:11:59,540 --> 01:12:03,470
the one holy catholic
and apostolic church,

1154
01:12:03,470 --> 01:12:04,925
the ongoing church,

1155
01:12:04,925 --> 01:12:06,470
then it seems to me we are

1156
01:12:06,470 --> 01:12:08,780
obliged as interpreters to read

1157
01:12:08,780 --> 01:12:13,370
it as a sacred text.

1158
01:12:13,370 --> 01:12:14,915
Not only reverently,

1159
01:12:14,915 --> 01:12:19,190
not only our
dispositions but to read

1160
01:12:19,190 --> 01:12:23,540
it in order that we might hear
the word of the Lord God,

1161
01:12:23,540 --> 01:12:27,170
the Almighty more so
that we can obey it.

1162
01:12:27,170 --> 01:12:29,090
Now it seems to me
that that requires

1163
01:12:29,090 --> 01:12:31,835
just a different set of tools.

1164
01:12:31,835 --> 01:12:36,710
A different set
of sensibilities.

1165
01:12:36,710 --> 01:12:38,690
Not that these do

1166
01:12:38,690 --> 01:12:41,690
away with the results
of acts of Jesus,

1167
01:12:41,690 --> 01:12:44,270
we have to deal with
what the text actually

1168
01:12:44,270 --> 01:12:49,950
says in order that we might
hear the word of the Lord.

1169
01:12:51,210 --> 01:12:56,560
How those are put together is

1170
01:12:56,560 --> 01:12:59,940
still something of a mystery

1171
01:12:59,940 --> 01:13:02,525
and it's what I'm
working on right now.

1172
01:13:02,525 --> 01:13:06,634
But I do think as a
preliminary move,

1173
01:13:06,634 --> 01:13:12,090
I would distinguish
the exegetical task.

1174
01:13:12,090 --> 01:13:14,780
That is, the working
with the text as

1175
01:13:14,780 --> 01:13:18,365
a human production from

1176
01:13:18,365 --> 01:13:21,335
the task of theological
interpretation,

1177
01:13:21,335 --> 01:13:25,190
which takes the raw
materials that are

1178
01:13:25,190 --> 01:13:28,730
delivered from
exegesis to render

1179
01:13:28,730 --> 01:13:32,030
them as the word of the
Lord for the people of

1180
01:13:32,030 --> 01:13:38,450
God and that's what I'm
trying to do it next year.

1181
01:13:38,450 --> 01:13:50,030
Hey, thanks everybody.