Right now on my sabbatical I'm working on drawing out some implications of adoption for the Christian life. Specifically, I'm trying to write about how God changes us through adoption.
In 1936, the philosopher Etienne Gilson had some harsh words to say about Protestant theology:
"For the first time, with the Reformation, there appeared this conception of a grace that saves a man without changing him, of a justice that redeems corrupted nature without restoring it, of a Christ who pardons the sinner for self-inflicted wounds but does not heal them."
Ouch! Is that true? It's true that many people understand the doctrine of "justification by grace alone" to mean that since we are saved by faith and not by works, our salvation is wholly unrelated to the life we live. What I'm trying to work through in my paper is how adoption helps address these misunderstandings. Here's the working thesis:
"Because adoption is transformative as well as forensic, it provides an overarching soteriological concept in which both forensic justification and transformative sanctification are situated, united, and distinguished...
Once we draw adoption out of the long shadow of justification by acknowledging its inherent transformative aspects, we discover that adoption also helps us develop an account of the Christian life that is thoroughly Reformed, forensic, transformative, and covenantal while avoiding the problems inherent in metaphysical ontological construals of the Christian life. Having done this we have all the tools necessary to develop not only a thoroughly Reformed account of the application of redemption, but also develop the contours of a covenantal ontology with greater clarity. Thus, the doctrine of adoption offers a way through and beyond polarizing and polemical debates surrounding justification and transformation. Adoption helps the Reformation say more clearly and more thoroughly what it had wanted to say all along."
In 1936, the philosopher Etienne Gilson had some harsh words to say about Protestant theology:
"For the first time, with the Reformation, there appeared this conception of a grace that saves a man without changing him, of a justice that redeems corrupted nature without restoring it, of a Christ who pardons the sinner for self-inflicted wounds but does not heal them."
Ouch! Is that true? It's true that many people understand the doctrine of "justification by grace alone" to mean that since we are saved by faith and not by works, our salvation is wholly unrelated to the life we live. What I'm trying to work through in my paper is how adoption helps address these misunderstandings. Here's the working thesis:
"Because adoption is transformative as well as forensic, it provides an overarching soteriological concept in which both forensic justification and transformative sanctification are situated, united, and distinguished...
Once we draw adoption out of the long shadow of justification by acknowledging its inherent transformative aspects, we discover that adoption also helps us develop an account of the Christian life that is thoroughly Reformed, forensic, transformative, and covenantal while avoiding the problems inherent in metaphysical ontological construals of the Christian life. Having done this we have all the tools necessary to develop not only a thoroughly Reformed account of the application of redemption, but also develop the contours of a covenantal ontology with greater clarity. Thus, the doctrine of adoption offers a way through and beyond polarizing and polemical debates surrounding justification and transformation. Adoption helps the Reformation say more clearly and more thoroughly what it had wanted to say all along."
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