4 highlights from Andy Stanley, JD Greear dialogue over Christians and the Old Testament
‘Jesus wasn’t enough?’
In his first response to the Greear review, Stanley took issue with the review’s assessment that Christians “can’t obey Jesus’ new commandment to ‘love each other’ or his Great Commandment to ‘love God and others as we love ourselves’ apart from the law, because apart from the law we will have a skewed view of love.”
“Jesus wasn’t enough?” Stanley asked critically. “The life of Jesus doesn’t leave us with a complete picture of what love looks like? Then why did Paul say: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).”
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“Why did he say: ‘Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Eph. 5:25).”
Greear replied that he did believe that Jesus “was enough,” but added that “we don’t have enough live examples in the Gospels to know how he felt about everything.”
“Like questions about abortion or euthanasia or bestiality. Jesus didn’t think his own examples, that would later be recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would be enough, so he presents himself and his teaching in Matthew 5–7 as the fulfillment of OT law,” responded Greear.
“To say it plainly, apart from the Law and the Prophets, we have an insufficient view of Jesus to have a mature and complete faith, which is what I fear your book encourages people toward.”
Stanley pointed to the many “one anothers” in the New Testament (“Submit to one another,” “Forgive one another”) and noted that they were anchored to Jesus rather than “the Law and the Prophets.”
