“Christianity is not the move from vice to virtue, but rather the move from virtue to grace.”
– Gerhard Forde
“My thesis,” Forde wrote, “is that Lutherans to be true to their identity…should become even more radical proponents of the tradition that gave them birth and has brought them thus far…Let us be radicals…radical preachers and practitioners of the gospel by justification by faith without the deeds of the law. We should pursue it to the radical depths already plumbed by St. Paul, especially in Romans and Galatians, when he saw that justification by faith without the deeds of the law really involves and announces the death of the old being and the calling forth of the new in hope. We stand at a crossroads. Either we must become more radical about the gospel, or we would be better off to forget it altogether.”
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‘But I really enjoy my spiritual, ladder climbing, getting closer to God, becoming more like Jesus project.’
Really?
That’s too bad, because it’s not moving you closer to God…but further away! Much further away.
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Filed under: Gerhard Forde |
The Old Adam Lives! 
Great quote. Thanks!
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Excellent!
Thanks for the quote. I have been looking for the source since I heard Rod R. say it on White Hourse Inn. I didn’t catch the name.
Thanks again!
Thanks, all!
If you like Forde, take some time and listen to those bible studies and sermons by my pastor. He was taught by Forde and is a Forde-ian. You will get a lot of Forde through Anderson.
He’s the one who sent me those quotes.
I was introduced to Forde last year at seminary. We used one of his books in our Theologies of the Cross class. Good stuff.
‘We would be better off to forget it altogether’ is a pretty radical thing to say! I like it.
[…] Old Adam Lives and calls for More Forde. I can see why. Can […]
I think that some in the Lutheran circles have taken this call for radical gospel and have descended into gospel reductionism, or rather, should I say, law reductionism. They say the gospel trumps everything in Christian freedom there is no longer any condemnation from the law, it holds no sway over us. Thus, they no longer hold law and gospel in tension and rightly divide them. They descend into antinomianism.
Here we go again…
It never fails…
“They say the gospel trumps everything in Christian freedom there is no longer any condemnation from the law, it holds no sway over us.”
Isn’t this Paul’s point in Galatians 3 and Romans 8? Paul preached a radical…no I think he actually called it a foolish Gospel…but it is the power of salvation to those who believe.
Darrin,
You sound like a man who has been set free by Christ.
Thanks be to God!
Late to the party. . .
I once heard Dr. Forde say this in a class, either a class in readings of Martin Luther, or a theology class:
“You can’t be anti-nomian”.
Yup.