The answer to "Who Said This?" - from March 24

My congrats to my friend 4given who correctly identified the one from my March 24 post who said -

“I'm a 'grace' Christian, not a 'law' Christian. The Second Commandment--do unto others--is the basic tenet of my faith.”

It is/was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Of this statement Phil Ryken wrote:

"I expect Huckabee's formulation quickly to become a media reference point for politicians who identify themselves as Bible-believing Christians but want to distance themselves from the Christian Right. But I am less interested in the politics of Huckabee's statement than in its theology.
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The dichotomy Huckabee makes between law and grace is a false one. There is a distinction between law and grace, of course, but they are coordinated in the plan of God. Even under grace, the law continues to have its right uses, both privately and publically, in both the church and the state.

The dichotomy Huckabee makes between the two great commandments is also false. Jesus said that the Second Commandment is like the first; that is to say, these commandments go together.

Still, if used as a distinction rather than a dichotomy, Huckabee's statement may help to explain why Christians are less persuasive in the public square than we ought to be. People are hearing the First Commandment more than they are seeing the Second Commandment in action."

That last statement is profound, that people are hearing the First commandment more than they are seeing the Second in action.

Just a reminder of the first (or greatest) and second commandments as given by Jesus:

Matthew 22:37-40
37 And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Perhaps Mr. Huckabee was not trying to make such a distinction between the first and second commandment, but as noted above, we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves or "do unto others" without a right, healthy and high view of God - His holiness, His righteousness, His perfection and our great need for the regenerative and restorative power of God to cleanse us of our sin and enable us to rightly walk in His ways (ie. - love our neighbors as ourselves).

Huckabee's statement seems compatible with the vast majority of contemporary Christian thought - a pick and choose approach to person and precepts of God. If we believe in the sufficiency of the Word of God, then rather than "second commandment Christians" we need to be "full teachings of Christ Christians" (Matthew 28:20); or "full counsel of God Christians" (Acts 20:27). Let us not be content with pick and choose Christianity.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Pastor Ed