38 “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
John 5:38-39
If you think you can exegete (carefully study the scriptures in a scholarly way and explain them) while violating the principle of grace and justification, you need to think again. The loudest word God has spoken is Christ (John 1:1-14), and the most dramatic and clear part of that word is His death on the cross. If you violate the purpose of that message, if you cut out that particular piece of context, if you forget or obscure the cross, you do violence to the text no matter how many Greek words you quote.
I will continue to resist this style of “exegesis” and I will persist in saying so. Downplaying or watering down the centrality of the cross to press obligation and responsibility back on people in the name of exegesis or sanctification is demonic and evil.
Thank you, I’ll be here all week! In fact, I’ll be here all eternity, saying so. If I’m off, I’m justified by His blood, so I’m kind of in the opposite of a catch-22. Can our condemning demon exegetes say the same thing? They don’t even seem to want to!
This is after reflection on the comments on this post on Tullian Tchivijian’s blog:
I like to call it “voodoo exegesis!”……….