Thread by @timkellernyc

I haven't seen a lot of negative criticism with the last article that came out a few weeks ago. Here's a thought: when someone uses biblical justice to critique the ideologies of both the political Right and Left, they are often assumed to be centrist or a moderate who is 1/6

...looking for a “middle way” that is neutral or just “above it all.”

But Christopher Watkin argues that Christianity “diagonalizes” its alternatives. “To diagonalize a choice…is to refuse the two (or more) alternatives it offers and elaborate a position that is neither 2/6

...reducible nor utterly unrelated to them.” (Thinking Through Creation, P&R, 2017, 28) To “diagonalize” is not to find a mid-point on the spectrum. It is a position off the spectrum, yet one that addresses the concerns of those on the spectrum.

In Romans, Paul pointed to... 3/6

...both legalists who sought to save themselves by their righteousness (Rom 9:31) and antinomians who lived ‘freely’ as they saw fit (Rom 1:18.) Is the gospel a middle way between the two alternatives? Not at all—it “diagonalizes” them. The gospel radically critiques both 4/6

...positions and at the same time fulfills the concerns of each position—for both freedom and yet obedience to the law--better than the positions can themselves.

When biblical justice critiques both the individualism of the Right and the collectivism of the Left, or both... 5/6

...the relativism of Liberals and the rigid moralism of the Progressives, it is not offering a Middle Way, but something altogether different.

For more see Footnotes 64-68 from “Justice in the Bible” at quarterly.gospelinlife.com/justice-in-the… 6/6

*rigid moralism of Conservatives