Another amazing book. I truly enjoy reading Forde's writing and participating in his incredible thoughts. What a wonderful blessing it is to read his work!This book is different than the other two I have read recently. In this book Forde lays out his thoughts--which are thoroughly grounded in Scripture, the Reformers (Luther, primarily), and a wealth of knowledge about Systematic Theology/Christian Doctrine--about the following topics:
1. Eschatology: The Last Word First
2. Legal and Evangelical Authority
3. Atonement and Justification: Christ Unbound
4. Unecclesiaological Ecumenism
For the conclusion, Forde and his editors leave us with a handful of his sermons; if you read only these out of this book, I would consider it a great, great thing! The other two books I've read by Forde were (blessedly) short and concise and about one primary topic; while this one covers a breadth of material and that material being non-to-easy to understand in its own right.
But, and here is where I have learned to really appreciate Forde and his thoughts (and writing style, for that matter): he makes it sound easy! These books are written for those of us who don't float on Forde's level intellectually! With every key-stroke, I can sense the pastoral side of Forde coming through; he truly wants you, the reader, to understand these complicated doctrines. And, as if making it seem easy to understand were not enough, Forde always throws in spice to make the material not only swallowable but also enjoyable. You will laugh while reading this, you will gasp in shock, and you will have to sit down to take one of his thoughts in. Forde is not only a gifted thinker, but is a gifted communicator; which, in all general practicality, is essential--what a loss to be a good thinker yet poor at communication! I certainly could stand to take some serious lessons from this man!
Another reason why this book struck me as different from the other books is that I liked (or to be honest here...I understood...) certain sections over others. By far, the third section on Atonement and Justification was breathtaking. There was barely one page that did not draw me to turn it in order to get to the next one. In comparison, the first and fourth sections (Eschatology: The Last Word First and Unecclesiological Ecumenism, respectively) were more difficult for me to "get into". The Second section was really good but paled in comparison to the next section. However, with this said, I don't think one section should be removed from the book; but all of them work well together and meet different levels of interest.
In the outset of this book, Forde--in the first chapter of the first section--challenges Lutherans (and all of us for that matter) to proclaim the radical Gospel. He writes,
"A radical Lutheranism would be one that regains the courage and the nerve to preach the gospel unconditionally; simply let the bird of the spirit fly! There is too much timidity, too much worry that the gospel is going to harm someone, to much of a tendency to buffer the message to bring it under control....Faith comes by hearing....Will we understand ourselves to be continuously existing subjects called upon to exercise our evanescent modicum of free choice to carve out some sort of eternal destiny for ourselves? That depends. It depends on whether someone has the courage to announce to us, 'You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God!' 'Awake you who sleep, and arise from the dead!'....Is the law eternal? It could be and will be if Christ is not preached so as to end it for us. We tremble on the brink of freedom" (15).
A certainly radical exhortation to those of us bogged down by sluggishness and sleepiness.The "ho-hum, why bother" in me is jabbed in the gut by Forde's powerful words. Will I sit here at my key-board, protected from the the rest of the world, hemming and hawing over how to say the littlest things as not to offend anyone; or, will I become a radical? Will I proclaim the Gospel as the Gospel is? Forde isn't exhorting a New Gospel, but one that is old, that is tried, that is true. This is the Gospel Luther fought for, as well as the other reformers. This is the Gospel that God incarnate wrote with His life. How dare I keep it or water it down or spray a new scent on it to make it smell more modern and less offensive. "All we have to do is just say it; just let the bird fly!" (Forde 16).
"Just let the bird fly!" is exactly what Forde does in, on, and through every single page of this book (whether I enjoyed reading them or not). He's relentless in his pursuit and tireless in his energy for proclaiming this More Radical Gospel. His energy and passion boil over and infect the reader. I find it hard to believe that anyone could be the same nominalist after having read this book. Forde doesn't attempt to extinguish the smolder ash under your seat, but pours gasoline over it! YOUCH!
In another chapter of a different section (Atonement and Justification: Christ Unbound), Forde exams "Forensic Justification and the Christian Life". In regards to progress in Sanctification and Luther, Forde looks at the "movement" and the way of the sinner. He writes,
"...the way of the sinner in sanctificaion, if it is a 'movemnt' at all, a transitus, is a transitus from nothing to all, from that which one has and is in oneself to that which one has and is in Christ. Such transitus can never be completed fact this side of the grave. Nor is it a continuous line that admits of degrees of approximation toward a goal. Rather, each moment can only be at once beginning and end, start and finish. In this regard, the Christian can never presume to have reached a certain' stage' in sanctification, supposedly surpassed or left behind for good, which then forms the basis for the next 'stage.' The Christian who believe the divine imputatio is always at a new beginning" (122).
He continues,
"...this means that the Christian never has an endless process of 'sanctification' ahead that must be traversed to arrive. Whoever has the imputed righteousness may know that he or she has arrived. But such a one would know also, of course, that this is not a goal he or she has attained,but ever one that is granted anew for the sake of Christ. In such a view, the life of the Christian in transitus is not...a continuous or steady progress, but rather an 'oscillation' in which beginning and end are always equally near" (122).
This is good news. Later in the chapter, Forde writes,
"So, for Luther, the idea of progress must be stood on its head. The movement Luther speaks of is always a reversal of this-worldly conceptions. Sanctification comes form the whole ans is always grasped as such. It comes from the imputatio which is the breaking in of the eschaton in our time....The way does not lead from below, the totus peccator...upwards. Rather...the totality of righteousness imputed to faith descends toward the lower reality. The difference and opposition between the totus peccator and the totus iustus is not increasingly overcome from below, but rather from above, from the totality of grace. But the 'movement' does lead and strive towards fulfillment when by the power of the coming reality the totus peccator shall finally die and by the grace alone be turned complete to love the God who gave it" (128-9).
Yes, it is the right time to take that deep sigh of relief! We aren't to strive to heaven, trying to grasp heaven, to grasp those things above us, to try to cling to perfect righteousness by our own doing; we are to be aware of the in-breaking of the Kingdom. As Christ broke into this world, our world (Barth), so will His righteousness, sanctification break into our lives. It won't only break in, it will crush and eliminate the totus peccator. We will be increasingly overcome "from above, from the totality of Grace" (emphasis, mine).
With that said, I highly recommend this book to anyone thirsty for some invigorating and challenging reading. Also, I recommend this book to those of us (women, staying home with the piddos) who are curious about what to believe about the Gospel, who want to share the old Gospel with other people we know, and who have lost a chunk of zeal for sharing because of the basic tediousness of daily life or because we think in terms of Children's books and Children's language and think we have lost the adult part of our brain.
Whoever you are who will read this book, I warn you: this book won't leave you the same. You'll either hate it fiercely or love it with all that is you, but you will not be left in the same emotion with which you started reading it.
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