Orthodox formalism tends to lean upon its orthodoxy more than the living Lord Jesus Christ. A subtle pride in precision finds its way into the personal merit column. Intimacy with God is replaced by an academic consideration of truths and principles. In formalism, devastating contact with Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire becomes all but non- existent.
Scripture describes a kind of contact with God characterized by radical humbling, brokenness, utter dependency, waiting, periods of darkness, profound weakness and personal devastation over sin. God announces that those He meets with are characterized by deep humility, by brokenness, by trembling at His Word, by contrition and repentance (Isa 57:15; 66:1,2).
The Psalmist pleads with God to show him the creature how weak and transitory he really is (Ps 39:4-6).
Such humility is to be cultivated. In ourselves alone, we are reduced to super-dependent sinful creatures meriting only destruction. We are responders to God by His grace alone. He is in control, not us. These intense humblings and messages of abject weakness are in reality gifts from God in order that Christ may be all in all in our lives. The believer is to reckon all privilege, status, security, favor and acceptance as having their source in Christ alone. When Christ is magnified in our thoughts and affections, self is decentralized, dethroned, and set off center (Gal 2:20).
Man’s carnal lower nature craves an undisturbed self at the helm of one’s life. Religious man is no exception. Martin Luther quipped that the enemy he feared more than the pope and all his armies was the pope of self.
It is the self-examined Christian who understands that the carnal self always presses for a formalizing of religion. The formalizing of religion involves an ordering of the internal life so that the Lordship of Christ is usurped. Self at the controls of one’s religious life will always choose not to pursue the cross of Christ.
By contrast, the believer who abides in Christ adores his Lord and is devoted to Him. He reckons co-crucifixion with Christ. He is both comforted and devastated by the cross. He seeks to sit at the feet of the Savior and learn from Him. He knows that the self-life resists the application of the cross to the Adamic dominion of the old man. He knows that the self-life objects to God’s verdict that the old man is slated for demolition, not renovation through Christian principles.
The nearer one draws to Christ and His cross, the more precious and vivid the truths of union with Christ become (see Rom 6). Ongoing contrition becomes a byproduct of close communion with Christ.
The carnal self in its “respectable” tyranny is far more comfortable at a distance from Calvary. Self prefers to interface with “principle-ized” truth rather than with Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire (Rev 1:14).
Orthodox formalism tends to sever truth from Christ. Truth that is objectified and primarily academic and principle-ized gives self a buffer of breathing room. Truth joined to Christ is filled with mortification. It applies the cross, mortifying the fleshly mind so as to place the creature in the dust. It lifts up Christ as all in all.
Orthodox formalism tears a breach between Christ and doctrine. Truth becomes primarily academic. The doxological and subjective side of truth is eclipsed by the scholastic and the formal. In the process, man gains a sense of control over facts and principles.
The issue is one of control. Christ must be preeminent in the realm of truth. In orthodox formalism, the exegete and his listener slip into an interface with God that turns upon the management of facts, truths and principles without the glory of Christ being central.
Lest we forget, the most accomplished exegete is not elevated above his less educated or precise brethren, he is still a sinner whose life and destiny are suspended upon Him Who is the living Word. Whether he is fully aware of it or not, his whole life is based upon organic union with Christ.
Orthodox formalism sows to our desire for a manageable Christianity. A Christianity that lies within the scope of our energies appeals to the self. Our method of self-evaluation may turn out to be based upon false assumptions. Perhaps the precision of our orthodoxy is the personal “scorecard†we have selected. Revelation 2:1-7 is a powerful antidote to the self-deception of formalism. He who walks among the lampstands presents His criterion for true Christianity, is Christ your first love?
No wonder the divines of old were frequently devastated by views of God’s holiness and their own bottomless depravity. No wonder they cried for grace so frequently. They saw that the cross applied and pursued was inseparable from knowing Christ (Phil 3:8-14). They often faced a crushing sense of personal inadequacy. They often wept copious tears. They were careful to preach the gospel to themselves everyday because they knew the heart’s tendency to search for a robe of covering other than the righteousness of Christ.
In formalistic circles, these experiences are selectively hidden from view. This should not be surprising, formalism seeks a form of religion that turns upon an academic interface with God. The living Christ of Revelation 1 is pushed to the periphery. The mind may be engaged, but the heart is buttressed against anything that would wrench pain and tears from it. Where are the ongoing heart expressions of overflowing gratitude concerning the grace of Christ?
The humility and utter dependency necessary for spontaneous praise of Christ is absent in orthodox formalism. The reason for this is that formalism contains a smugness that measures spirituality by precision in orthodoxy and by academic prowess.
Needless to say, a rightly divided Word is the mandate for every believer. But the meeting place of the believer with his God is the Person of Christ, not orthodoxy without Christ. The Word must stay joined to Him. A mystical Christ without the Word is neo-orthodoxy. The Word without Christ preeminent tends toward orthodox formalism. Israel’s beginnings of apostasy germinated in a climate of enduring formalism. Scripture is replete with examples of professing believers who took pride in their orthodoxy while their hearts remained unconverted (Jer 7:4).
Only the Christ adoring Christian can be taken off of self. Christ’s words to the church at Ephesus are also to the church universal. The situation is not hopeless. The Lord spelled out the way of return. Repent and do the first works, sit at the feet of Christ again and learn of Him.
© Jay Wegter – Used with permission
The original article can be read here.
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