Scripture and the People of God

Essays in Honor of Wayne Grudem

John DelHousaye, Jeff T. Purswell, John J. Hughes, John DelHousaye, Jeff T. Purswell, John J. Hughes

• Publisher: Crossway
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781433558603
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Théologie chrétienne

Scripture is the foundation for all of Christian life and ministry, but in our current age it is being challenged, doubted, and, in many cases, simply ignored.

Wayne Grudem, one of evangelicalism's best-known theologians and authors, has worked tirelessly throughout his life to demonstrate the necessity, sufficiency, and centrality of Scripture.

In his honor, Grudem's friends and colleagues, including John Piper, Thomas R. Schreiner, Sam Storms, Vern S. Poythress, John M. Frame, Gregg R. Allison, Erik Thoennes, and John DelHousaye, have compiled a series of essays on various topics central to Grudem's life and teaching. Exploring topics such as the nature of Scripture, the relationship between Scripture and doctrine, and the role of Scripture in life and ministry, this volume stands as a testimony to the enduring worth of God's Word.

Part 1

Systematic Theology

1

The Word of God and the People of God

The Mutual Relationship between Scripture and the Church

Gregg R. Allison

I love Wayne Grudem. As an incoming seminary student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I took “suicide” Greek under his instruction in the summer of 1982. (Remember: Wayne began his teaching career in New Testament, the discipline in which he earned his doctorate from Cambridge.) Each day at noon, after four hours of class, Wayne would lead us in jogging for exercise while he quizzed us about our Greek paradigms, conjugations, and vocabulary. He rewarded Gummy Bears to students who did well—with Greek, not running. I took Wayne for several other classes during my three years of study, including Advanced Greek Exegesis, which featured seven weeks out of a total of ten on 1 Peter 1:3–9 as he familiarized us with grammar and syntax, the Greek of the early church fathers, the use of classical resources, and more.

After graduating with the MDiv and spending nearly four years working with Cru in Switzerland, I returned to TEDS with Wayne’s encouragement and pursued a PhD in systematic theology. He supervised my dissertation on the perspicuity of Scripture, a doctrine and posture that I learned from and perceived in him. After completion of my doctorate, I joined the faculty of Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Shortly into my tenure there, I received a call from Wayne asking me if I saw a need for a book that would cover everything that his Systematic Theology volume does not—the historical development of those doctrines. The enthusiasm I expressed for the idea was met by this response: “Great, because you are going to write it!” Thirteen years later my Historical Theology was released as a complementary volume to Wayne’s Systematic Theology. I am indebted to him for that opportunity.

From that first class until today, and for many years in the future if God so wills, I am thankful for Wayne’s friendship. I am pleased to honor him by offering this chapter in the Festschrift dedicated to him.

Particularly because of Wayne’s devotion to the Word of God and his involvement in several evangelical churches, I will look at the mutual relationship between the doctrine of Scripture and the doctrine of the church. My thesis is this: the triune God, through his mighty speech act of Scripture, the Word of God, reveals himself and his ways to the people whom he chooses, saves, and gathers into his church. Accordingly, there exists the strongest possible relationship between God, his Word, and his people.

Regarding my approach, I treat first the doctrine of Scripture. Specifically, I acquaint readers with (or review) speech act theory and demonstrate how viewing Scripture as divine speech act helps to emphasize the intimate relationship between God and his Word. Indeed, Scripture is Trinitarian communicative agency for the purpose of saving the people of God. Framing Scripture as Trinitarian communicative agency expressed as divine speech act has important implications for the doctrine of Scripture, which I treat briefly in regard to inerrancy, authority, sufficiency, and transformative power.

Second, I address the doctrine of the church. After defining the concept, I present Scripture as God’s Word to his church in terms of inaugurating and standing at the center of the church. I then explore four implications of this point in regard to four identity markers of the church: as formed by the Word of God, the church is doxological, logocentric, confessional, and missional.

The Doctrine of Scripture

In his Systematic Theology, Wayne presents the doctrine of God-breathed, canonical Scripture under the attributes of authority, inerrancy, clarity, necessity, and sufficiency.1 With this framework as background, I will consider the doctrine of Scripture from the perspective of speech act theory and Trinitarian communicative agency.

Scripture as Divine Speech Act

Let me first offer a brief introduction to (or review of) speech act theory: Every human utterance or communicative expression in social contexts consists of three aspects:2 (1) A locution, or what is communicated (the content of the communication). For example, “Jesus Christ is coming again” addresses the return of the Lord. (2) An illocution, or the force with which the utterance is communicated (the type of communication). Speech act theory acknowledges some version of the following six illocutions: assertion, command, promise, declaration, exclamation, and warning. For example, “Jesus Christ is coming again” can be a promise or a warning. (3) A perlocution, or the intended or expected response on the part of the hearer (the anticipated or desired effect of the communication). With respect to the six illocutions, the perlocutionary effects are: for an assertion, acknowledgment or belief; for a command, obedience; for a promise, trust; for a declaration, a new state of affairs (e.g., “I now pronounce you husband and wife” joins a man and a woman in marriage); for an exclamation, joy or fear; and for a warning, action or avoidance. For example, “Jesus Christ is coming again” as a promise is intended to evoke hopeful trust in the Lord’s return (e.g., John 14:1–3), but as a warning its goal is to stimulate attentiveness (e.g., Matt. 24:36–44).3

For several decades, theologians have sought to wed the doctrine of Scripture with speech act theory.4 A key benefit of this approach is to underscore the fact that as human beings do things with words (beyond asserting, people promise, command, and so on), similarly God does things with his Word (beyond asserting, God promises, commands, and so on). Accordingly, speech act theory emphasizes the divine agency assoc...