Augustine on Psalm 2:9
"Serve the Lord with fear;" lest what is said, "Ye kings and judges of the earth," turn into pride: "And rejoice with trembling" (ver. 11). Very excellently is "rejoice" added, lest "serve the Lord with fear" should seem to tend to misery. But again, lest this same rejoicing should run on to unrestrained inconsiderateness, there is added "with trembling," that it might avail for a warning, and for the careful guarding of holiness. It can also be taken thus, "And now ye kings understand;" that is, And now that I am set as King, be ye not sad, kings of the earth, as if your excellency were taken from you, but rather "understand and be instructed." For it is expedient for you, that ye should be under Him, by whom understanding and instruction are given you. And this is expedient for you, that ye lord it not with rashness, but that ye "serve the Lord" of all "with fear," and "rejoice" in bliss most sure and most pure, with all caution and carefulness, lest ye fall therefrom into pride.I'd like to make a point to Augustine's comments that piggy-back off of what my girl said recently. But first a distinction: there is a distinction often utilized by Christians to describe the Christian life. 1. The fact that Christians are currently (once and for all) justified by Christ's grace, i.e., the indicative. And therefore, 2. Christians are commanded to live a life out of gratitude, making every attempt to sin no more, i.e., the imperative (it is imperative that we obey God). So we have this indicative reality of being at once forensically perfect (we have Christ's righteousness covering us), and yet we are also simultaneously sinful (by nature) and therefore it is imperative that we MUST make valiant efforts to sin no more. This imperative/indicative distinction seems to me to be a fine way to distinguish sanctification from justification.
In Kate's post she mentions Wilson's book on marriage. Wilson also uses the imperative, idicative distinction-- he uses this distinction to explain, in a most profound way, a husband's headship. He say's that the husband IS the head of the household (just as Christ is head of the church), not that the husband ought to be the head of the household (as if he could decide whether or not to be such). Seen in this light, the husband is inescapably the head of the household, as a result all of his actions can, and must be, seen as related to this inidicative. The husband's imperative then is to love his wife: he ought to love his wife. We see here that a husband's headship is such that any particular husband is either a rebel-head or a faithful-head; he has no other options, and we know from the distinction that one way in which he can be a faithful-head is to follow through on the imperative placed upon him, i.e., to love his wife (when he fails in this area, he fails to be a faithful-head: he succeeds in being a rebel-head).
I'd now like to use the distinction with application to Augustine's words above. He admonishes us in accordance with Psalm 2, to "serve the Lord with fear" but that we must also rejoice because this is a blessing. And why is it a blessing? Well, it seems to me that it is an indicative that God is master of all (God cannot be otherwise, just as it is fact that Christians are justified, and husbands are the heads of their families), therefore nothing we do can change the fact that God is our ruler and King and Lord. But we can and often to fail to take into consideration the necessary consequence of this indicative, i.e., that we then have an imperative placed upon us: we ought (in the strongest sense of the word) to behave in accordance with God's authority. Again, Since God is never going to be anything other than God, it is up to us to either be rebel-servants or faithful-servants. There is NO other option. God's authority is inescapable, and we must realize this fact, knowing that our actions fall under the most holy imperatives of all: "Be ye Perfect, as the Lord thy God is perfect." So, just as we are graciously saved by the justifying work of Christ (and this justification is a grace we cannot get "rid" of), and just as husbands cannot get "rid" of their headship, so too, we as God's creation (mankind) cannot get away from God's sovereignty, and therefore we must decide, day after day, hour after hour, will we be faithful-servants or rebel-servants?
Go and sin no more.
Posted by jeremy stock at February 26, 2001 10:52 AM