Gospel, Church and Marriage: Preserving Apostolic Faith and Life
from CEEC, published in Church of England Newspaper.
Gospel, Church and Marriage: Preserving Apostolic Faith and Life is a short (6 page) reflection issued in January 2018 by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), a “network of networks, bringing evangelicals in the Church of England together for the sake of the gospel”. It was drafted by a group of evangelical theologians and subsequently revised in the light of feedback from a wide range of leaders across evangelical Anglicanism.
What is it trying to do?
At its heart is a desire to articulate a vision of what it means to be an apostolic church faithful to the apostolic gospel of grace and to describe the implications of this for our debates over marriage. It
- seeks to set disagreements about marriage and sexuality “within a wider and deeper theological vision… of human flourishing which is faithful to Scripture” and in particular to re-centre us on the gospel of God’s grace at the heart of the church’s faith, life and mission.
- hopesto “provide clarity in a time of confusion, encourage and bring togetherthose who share its vision, and enable those with a different vision to understand the nature anddepth of our concerns and disagreement”.
- aims to help those who agree with it and those who disagree with it “to consider together the implications of our differences for our life together”.
[…] What does it say about marriage?
The central concern here is to summarise the teaching of the Bible as the revelation of grace in relation tothe doctrine of creation (“God made humanity in his image and likeness—embodied as male and female”) and, through a strong Christocentric focus, “the gifts of marriage and singleness”.The Church of England’s teaching on marriage,authorised by Jesus himself, is summarised.Jesus’ lived example of singleness is highlighted alongside the apostolic vision of this gift.Sex is also “a gracious gift ordained by our Creator”, one “tied to his gift of marriage” and so “the apostles taught that any sex outside marriage has the character of sin”.The ethical implications of this apostolic teaching for various areas of contention in the churchare not directly addressed while its possiblepastoral outworkings are signalled by noting that Jesus’ “reputation as a ‘friend of sinners’ was never won at the cost of watering down such ethical teachings or advocating ‘cheap grace’” and that he “held together grace and truth (John 1:14) in His teaching and pastoral practice — a model which the Church should always aim to follow”.
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