Considering the Doctrine of the Christian Life- Part 1

I am approximately 50% of the way through John Frame’s mammoth The Doctrine of the Christian Life as part of his Theology of Lordship series. I thought I ought to handle this book in light the larger sections John Frame creates in the book.

Thus far this is an excellent, challenging book. It is challenging intellectually, and it is challenging spiritually. It is a book I would heartily recommend because there is so much to wrestle with here beyond just “do this” and “don’t do that.”

“The Christian life is not only a matter of following rules of morality, but a dynamic experience: living in the fallen world, in fellowship with the living God.”

The first part, Introductory Considerations, is a mere 3 chapters and 40 pages. This section is mostly orienting people to how he does theology just in case they have arrived to the series mid-stream.

He begins with the question of why we should study ethics. He admits that he has been put off by many non-Christian approaches to ethics. But since the Bible deals with ethics from beginning to end, as a Christian we should think about ethics. But we have to think about them biblically.  We have to walk between the (anti-gospel) extremes of legalism and license.

“The liberal tendency to find loopholes in the moral law, to justify apparent sin, has given casuistry a bad name. The conservative tendency toward harshness and austerity has given moralism a bad name.”

Frame then moves ahead to provide an ethical glossary. He defines the major terms that will be used throughout the book. Unlike many authors today who want to use words in idiosyncratic fashion without defining how they use the terms, Frame wants you to know what he means when he uses the terms. This is a great thing. So he defines: knowledge of God, doctrine, theology, ethics, andmetaethics, morality. He also defines value terms: moral, ethical, moralistic, immoral, amoral, nonmoral, fact, norm, virtue, good, right, obligation, duty, permission and justice. That last one is tossed around often today, but is used in a wide number of ways.

He gets to the theme which will play out through the rest of the book: Ethics and Divine Lordship. This is John Frame after all, so he summarizes the lordship attributes that he often explores (and should). He talks about authority, control and presence. This triad will appear frequently.

From there he moves into the 3 theological virtues: faith, hope and love. Then he talks about the necessity of good works. He briefly examines the “necessary and sufficient criteria of good works.” He leans on the Confessions. The three criteria are: “right motive, right standard and right goal.” This leads us into the biblical reasons to do good works, or the right motives. We do not obey to gain God’s favor, but in response to the favor we have received: faith, love and gratitude. Hope comes into play when we see the promises of future blessing that also motivate us. We also trust in the authority of God, and rejoice in the presence of the Spirit to empower us to obey.

Frame also introduces the reader to his triad of perspectives: normative, situational and existential. These help us to sort through the decision making process. We examine what God has said about this issue (normative), our current circumstances (situational) and who we are or should be (existential). This is something I have found helpful for a number of years. I teach this to my officers. We do not make decisions based on only one perspective. Each takes the other into consideration. For instance: what does God say about my circumstances and who I am? Who am I in my circumstances and what does God say about both of these?

“A true understanding of the situation will not contradict a true understanding of the Word or the self. And a true understanding of each will include true understanding of the others. … God knows all truth simultaneously, from every possible perspective.”

He includes this important point:

“Multiperspectivism is not relativism. I am not saying that any viewpoint is a legitimate perspective. There is in ethics and in other disciplines an absolute right and wrong.”

Frame then lays his own theological cards on the table. He happily dwells within the heritage of Reformed Theology. That does matter.

While this is not the heart of the book, it is the key to the book. He orients the reader to how he’s going to do this thing. He lays the foundation stones that will carry the rest of the books.