The Law, Grace, and Preaching...

I spent the last three days up in Plano at a Biblical Preaching Conference by Vital Church Ministries. The conference turned out to be a really great experience, that is after a series of truly strange keynote addresses by Paul Zahl, dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. I have never heard such garbage in my life. Zahl argued that there is no difference (even ontologically) between Christian and un-Christian, and in a series of expositions upon Romans, chapters 3, 6 and 7, he argued that the preaching of "law" in sermons did nothing but "increase the trespass." He at one point said that he did not believe there to be any place for exhortation in preaching, only the preaching of grace. His short comment on the Parable of the Good Samaritan yielded a simple "depart from me, for I am a sinful man," rather than any moral teaching. In short, the preacher should not preach morality. He said time and time again - "I am not antinomian," choosing rather the term "Cranmerian." Yesterday, he denied any concept of free will at all. I got the impression that Zahl's view of human nature is so terrible, that it includes sinfulness at an ontological level. So condescending was he that anyone who disagreed with him had "a low view of the Holy Spirit" and was party to "Roman Catholicism." Many of us got the impression that this was a maniacal man, one who felt so out of control that what he was saying made sense to him.

Friends, this is a major problem. To hear the dean of the only other "orthodox" seminary in the Episcopal Church, other than Nashotah House, spouting off later Lutheran antinomianism is about as weird as it gets. He attacked the New Perspective of Paul, mainly because it disagrees with his sharp delineation between law and grace. He went so far as to quote an old song by The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again" with the line "here's the new boss, same as the old boss." Even the New Law of Christ is still an oppressive taskmaster. For Zahl, law is a bad word. But, I have a few verses I'd like him to read:

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:37-40

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15

Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Romans 13:11-13

"For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God." 1 Corinthians 7:19

"And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments." 1 John 2:3

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them." Matthew 5:17

"For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified." Romans 2:13

How about all of Psalm 119? Zahl simply misunderstands what Paul means by the Law and speaks of a Christianity which has no ability to take a moral stance. Sad, sad, indeed.