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law claims to possess in itself ultimate reality and
to be like God, it becomes ungodliness and unright-
eousness (i:18), and attracts to itself the wrath of God.
(Barth’s commentary on Romans, p. 135)
The Christians in Rome had attached a God-like quality to the law. They reasoned that God’s
commands were from God, thus God’s law was God. Yet the very commands to which these
Christians cling teaches that the Lord our God is God and there shall be no other.
We see a contemporary version of this belief – that law serves as entitlement – in our church
today. Presbyterians have been using the laws of our church as a sieve to say who’s in and who’s out.
We cling to The Book of Order, the Constitution of our church, as if it were God.
We say, “Here
is the law. All who are obedient will inherit the promises of the church. Those who do not obey will
bear the full consequences of the law.”
Clifton Kirkpatrick, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) has stated that we cannot afford to continue to function this way. (Speaking at Columbia
Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia,) Kirkpatrick has said:
...the church should treat its constitution as a “basic
covenant for church life” – not as a “manual of operations”
or a list of specific rules governing what he called “matters
that can and should be decided by a session or presbytery.”
(“Kirkpatrick calls for ‘leaner’ constitution,” by John
Filiatreau, The News, 5/10/2002, p. 16)
The Book of Order never was intended to be a passport or visa for entry into the domain of
God’s church. The Book of Order was intended to bring order to our lives in Christian community, that
we might be freed to enjoy and probe the mysteries of our faith.
Let not the polity of our church or the laws of the state muddy the waters of salvation. Let us
be clear, by faith we are saved.
“For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his
descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”
Amen.
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