A review of Albert M. Wolters’ Creation Regained:
“On the one hand, the law is fulfilled in that the shadow is replaced by the substance, and Jewish law is no longer binding for the people of God. On the other hand, the law is fulfilled in that Christ reaffirms its deepest meaning (see Matt 5:17). In other words, insofar as the Mosaic Law is addressed to a particular phase of the history of God’s people it has lost its validity, but insofar as it points to the enduring normativity of God’s creation order it retains its validity.” (Wolters – 40)
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It is a common misconception that in the Bible there are actually two distinct Gods, therefore two distinct Laws. Not only is this idea Humanistic, but it is becoming more and more pervasive in the modern church. God and Law of the Old Testament seems to dramatically contradict the “new” God and Law of the New Testament. Yahweh of the Old Testament is a God of war, bloodshed, and condemnation. Jesus of the New Testament preaches “love your neighbor,” “turn the other cheek,” and “your sins are forgiven.”
How can these two versions of the “one true God” be reconciled? In Albert M. Wolters’ Creation Regained the answer can be found within a Biblical worldview based on God’s creational law. By “law” Wolters is referring to the “totality of God’s ordaining acts toward the cosmos,” not the Mosaic Law nor the New Testament. This law goes beyond the Old or New Testament and instead encompasses both; this law is the “revealed will of God” and “encompasses the whole range of created reality.” (Wolters – 16)
By approaching scripture in this way, through this reformational worldview, clear connections begin to form between the Old and New Testaments and the consistency of a gracious God is quickly apparent. By the same token, yes, Christ with his grace came to fulfill the law of the Old Testament, but the essence of the law is not invalidated. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill them,” said Christ, quoted in Matthew 5:17. Continuing in 18-19, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
It is clear within scripture, Wolters is stating, that we are still bound to the Law, the Law of Christ. Yet this idea is often resisted. Is it not often preached that Christ frees from sin? Christians are now free from the bondages of sin and Mosaic Law! Yes and no, Wolters claims for “in Christ we are journeyman builders—still bound to the architect’s explicit directions, but with considerable freedom of implementation as new situations arise.” (Wolters – 41) Bound to the law yet free in the law. It sounds like the biggest oxymoron out there. Yet the truth Wolters writes of becomes clear with his emphasis on the consistent order of the law, its beautifully creative design, and the redemption of the law that comes through Christ.
Yet, what does that mean for me? What does that mean for you, the reader? Where do we fit in this equation? So what if this creational law of God is beautifully designed? If I am bound by it why do I sin? Why is this world wracked with the sins of man if God’s order is so divine and perfect?
The fall of man from God’s law is the key to the question of “why?” The Fall has rendered what God first created as good to dust and ash. “The fall of man was the ruin of the whole earthly realm,” Wolters states. Yet, “the atonement of another man, Jesus, salvages the whole world.” (Wolters – 72)
It is this key distinction on the redeeming work of Christ that transforms a burdensome law into a freedom-inducing life. While man first destroyed his bond with God, it is Christ who has salvaged this creational covenant. Because Christ has restored his creational law I am restored, for I am included in this creation.
Wolters thoughtfully emphasizes at once Christ’s redemptive grace and the beauty that was before the Fall. It cannot be said enough that before the Fall what God created was good. It wasn’t the rough draft or a “better luck next time” creation. It was the final draft and yet, man turned from this beautiful tome.
If only one concept is to be brought away from Creation Regained it ought to be that Christ has not forsaken his creational law, or his creation. This story of redemption encompasses all of creation, from beginning to end. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
How much greater is the magnitude of God when one considers all of creation is redeemed…and I am included in that creation? Everything, and Wolters does stress everything, comes under God’s Law. From Genesis to his return, all of history will come under the scrutiny of this perfect law. Knowing this is the cornerstone to Wolters definition of a Biblical worldview. “A recovery of this dual emphasis in Scripture—in a word, cosmic re-creation in Christ—as the foundation of our Christian analysis and reflection can help us look with fresh eyes at a world we would have been conditioned to interpret in humanistic categories.” (Wolters – 115)
With this worldview firmly in place, we are enabled by God’s grace and mercy to face this fallen world head-on. Wolters’ charge is to not deny the relevance of Scripture in the face of modern humanism and readily points to Christ’s redemption as enabling both Scripture and ourselves for this task.
With the words of Isaiah fresh in my mind, I can confidently attest that by grace, “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:5-7)
There is no shame in creational law through the lens of Biblical worldview. There is only freedom, enabled by grace, stemming from Christ, who hung on that tree so that his creation may live.
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