Tag Archives: Vanhoozer

Not Just In Our Neighborhood…

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Concerning OT prophets and NT apostles, Vanhoozer writes:

What unifies the two choirs of biblical voices is that each part is fully integrated into a single drama of redemption whose climax is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostles’ Creed states that “on the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures.” This creedal phrase, a milestone in the Christian tradition, is a direct quotation from Paul (1 Cor 15:3-4), who in turn alludes to the Old Testament Scriptures…

The new covenant is a solemn promise on God’s part than which nothing greater can be conceived. As the book of Hebrews makes clear, the terms of the new covenant are unsurpassable, because God’s word in Christ is unsurpassable. It is not only a matter of “I will be your God and you will be my people” but something altogether more intimate: “Christ in us and we in Christ.” God does not simply live in our neighborhood but makes the believing community itself his temple house (1 Pet. 2:5)…

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 140

We Don’t Want to ‘Stand in God’s Way’

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“If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?””

(Acts 11:17 ESV)

 

The Holy Spirit has been given to Gentiles when we get here in Acts 11. Peter is retelling the event to his Jewish brethren. I cannot think of a more ‘hands-free’ response, or bigger understatement, than what Peter says here. Who was I that I could stand in God’s way? Or how can I hinder God? Peter doesn’t want to stand in God’s way. We don’t want to stand in God’s way. 

 

If we bring that sentence into our own world and make it the a mantra of the church, what would it look like? None of us wants to stand in “God’s way.” And to be sure, that is the real issue. What is “God’s way?” What action of His are we in danger of opposing? Could we plant our ‘inhibiting feet’ right in the middle of the divine course? Different groups on the interpretative spectrum will say different things, especially those who creatively speculate and let the community have the final say.

 

“God’s way” in Acts 11:17 is a loaded phrase. Literally, it is just God. We don’t want to oppose Him and Luke assumes that his readers know something about Him. Gentiles believing in Jesus is not some event that happens in a vacuum. It is not as if God gets spontaneous here and throws a little grace out on the ‘other guys.’ God is not like that. His way is not like that. Peter says what he says in the midst of a story. Remember God’s promise to Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”…

 

We too are in the midst of this great narrative of redemption that reaches back, culminates in the covenant love of Jesus on the cross, and then points us forward. We know God’s way, not by the conjectures of our own charitable imaginations, but by looking at the story. The story, the canon, our script. There God has the final say about Himself and His way. 

 

Who are we to look anywhere else if we don’t want to stand in God’s way?

 

 

Sola Scriptura is Something You Do

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The Bible is both the authoritative version of the drama of redemption and the authoritative script for the church’s ongoing life. As a collection of authoritative stage directions for performing the Christian way of life in the truth, the script calls not only for responsive reading but for responsive action and embodiment. The script demands to be played out; the literary forms of Scripture call for forms of life. Sola scriptura is ultimately the name of a practice to be performed by the church in the power of the Spirit.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 115

Vanhoozer on Doctrine’s Directing…

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Doctrine gives direction for engaging with reality in such a way that, given its God-ordained contours, leads to human flourishing. Doctrine thus fosters a certain ethos, or sense of the overall shape that one’s life must take in order to realize the true, the good, and the beautiful. Neutrality with regard to the theo-drama is impossible. One’s life is moving in one direction or another, taking one kind of shape or another. As Pascal remarked: “Our nature consists in movement. Absolute rest is death.” To the extent that we are always following some direction or other, our very lives are “indoctrinated.” The only question is whether the doctrine that informs one’s life is governed by the Christian gospel or by some other story, some other script.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 105

Yes. Yes. Yes.