Skip to main content

Berkouwer on Living the Life of Faith

In speaking of the connection between Christian faith and Christian living, Berkouwer emphasizes the importance of a proper understanding of divine grace. He stresses that, through divine revelation and reconciliation, we become aware that we are dependent on divine grace without being destroyed by divine power. In adopting this approach, Berkouwer seeks to construct a theology which does full justice to the true objectivity of the Christian faith and the necessity for that faith to be a subjectively-experienced faith. Emphasizing that God and man are not to be viewed as competitors, he rejects both the idea that God should compel us to obey Him and the notion that man can ever find true fulfilment apart from willing and glad submission to the God of salvation.
As we affirm our faith in God, we must also emphasize the importance of a life-transforming experience of His grace. God is not merely the object of study for the academic discipline we call theology. He is the One who changes our life. To believe in Him is to be changed by Him. If we believe the Christian faith, we must also live the Christian life. We must reject a man-centred subjectivism which makes human experience the ultimate criterion by which truth is judged. If, however, theological reflection is to avoid becoming barren intellectualism, we dare not forget that the faith of the Church 'comes out of the experience of God's people struggling to hear his Word in the context of life' (M. Eugene Osterhaven, The Faith of the Church: A Reformed Perspective on its Historical Development, p.7).
These two important points - the normativity of divine revelation for our uinderstanding of human experience and the significance of Christian experience in the development of our understanding of Christian truth - lie at the heart of Berkouwer's theology.
He emphasizes that the normativity of the Gospel excludes the idea that human experience should ever be given 'constitutive importance in the determination of the central focus of Holy Scripture' (Holy Scripture, p.124). He stresses that we only make a true affirmation of the authority of Scripture when we commit ourselves to living the life of a true believer - being a believer in deed.
Making the connection between what we believe and how we live, Berkouwer writes, 'When the 'acceptance' of Holy Scripture as the Word of God is separated from a living faith in Christ, it is meaningless and confusing to call this acceptance belief in Scripture or an 'element' of the Christian faith'. In making this point, he emphasizes that '(t)his does not imply an underestimation of Scripture or of belief in it, but rather a great respect for Scripture, which addresses itself to our faith'. Insisting that '(b)elieving Scripture does not mean staring at a holy and mysterious book, but hearing the witness concerning Christ', Berkouwer refuses to separate the acceptance of the Bible's authority from the experience of 'being gripped by the message to which its words testify' (Holy Scripture, pp. 54, 166-167).
Drawing attention to the practical challenge of the Gospel, Berkouwer emphasizes that salvation is 'not presented as a deed which as a matter of course comes to all, but as a calling of God ... an invitation, a call to conversion' (Divine Election, pp.235-236).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Berkouwer’s “Holy Scripture” and E J Young’s “Thy Word is Truth”

E J Young argues that one’s doctrine of Scripture is derived from either experience or Scripture, either natural man or supernatural God. Young does speak of the human character of Scripture. It does, however, seem that the supernatural-natural dichotomy underlies his doctrine of Scripture. He turns to the Bible “to discover what it has to say of itself” (p. 40). It is questionable, however, whether his view is not grounded in a notion which tends to set divine and human activity over against each other. Young rejects a mechanical theory (p. 65). It does, however, appear that his own view is really no more than a modification of this view. His interpretation of the working of the Spirit in the inspiration of Scripture is not directly identifiable with mechanical dictation (pp. 79-80). It does seem, however, that there is a tendency to move in that direction.  * Here are some statements from Young.  - “Without Him (God) there could have been no Bible. Without man th...

Psalm 72

Read the words - ‘His Name’ shall ‘endure for ever’(Psalm 72:17) - and think of Christ. His Name is ‘the Name above all other names’. He is ‘the King of kings and Lord of lords’(Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 19:16). Read the words - ‘all nations call Him blessed’(Psalm 72:17) - , and think of Christ. ‘From every tribe and language and people and nation’, God’s people have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (Revelation 5:9). Read the words -‘May His glory fill the whole earth!’(Psalm 72:19) - and think of Christ. In the ‘new heaven and new earth’, ‘the holy city’ will shine with ‘the glory of God’. ‘Its radiance’, ‘like a very precious jewel’, will be shining from this ‘lamp’: Jesus Christ, ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’(Revelation 21:1-2,10-11,23; John 1:29).

Berkouwer on Barth’s Distinction Between Universal Election And Universal Salvation

Some people are impressed by Barth’s distinction between universal election and universal salvation. They defend his position. Some have been influenced by Barth and have become universalists. Berkouwer’s view was that our critique of Barth must begin with looking closely at his teaching concerning universal election. * By speaking of the idea of the depth-aspect of salvation, Berkouwer distances himself from double predestination. * In his critique of Barth, Berkouwer distances himself from universal salvation. * With such a strong emphasis on both grace and faith, Berkouwer guards against any suggestion that, by our faith, we contribute anything to our salvation. It is always God’s free gift, and all the glory belongs to Him. I think that the distinctive feature of Berkouwer’s teaching is that he emphasizes that everything we say about God’s salvation is said from within the experience of having been saved by grace through faith. We have heard the Good News - “Christ Jesus came...