Bourtie Birthplace

In the August issue of Life and Work, the town of Bourtie in Aberdeenshire is mentioned in the cover feature ‘Scotland’s Hidden Treasures’.

Bourtie was also the birthplace of Charles Grant, who was awarded the Victoria Cross, the India General Service Medal (two clasps), 1914-1915 star, 1914-1920 medal and the Allied Victory Medal.

Campbell Burns, Corby, Northants

Hymn Debate

John Spence and Louis Kinsey offer several quotations in their insistence that the statement in the hymn, The Servant King, “This is our God!” is scriptural (October issue). But it is important to understand the words and images of the New Testament as they were used at the time.

The Word (logos) in John’s teaching, is the creative principle present in all reality. It is the spirit of God embodied (“made flesh”) in all that is. John perceives it above all in Jesus. In the same way, “Son of God” is used in Jewish teaching for all who reflect the nature of God. The word “image” is used in a similar way – all humanity is made in God’s “image” but Paul writes that Jesus in particular is “the image of the visible God”. None of these uses imply identity.

Secondly, we cannot read back into scripture the creeds and confessions of later times. This can lead to misinterpretation and even mistranslation. John Spence quotes Philippians 2 from the NIV: “Who being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage”. Contrast this with RSV: “Though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped” (as in the Eden story). The one assumes equality with God; the other does not. The word “form” also is not literal – no more than in the reference “taking the form of a servant”. Crucially, when Jesus’ critics charge him with grasping at equality with God, Jesus insists that he “can do nothing by himself” John 5:18f.

There is not space to deal with all the texts brought to bear by Louis Kinsey. The strongest is Colossians.2:9: “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily”. But the key word translated “fullness”is also used in Ephesians.3:19 of Jesus’ followers: “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”. This is not a matter of identity but unity in spirit and purpose. Similarly Jesus speaks of his unity with the Father, Mark 10:30, but prays that his followers may be one – “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so also may they be in us” John 17:21f. Christians are not being co-opted into the Trinity!

Cartoon: Bill McArthur

A further long-standing rule is to take scripture as a whole in all its diversity.

We can speak of God incarnate (embodied) in Jesus because he gave himself of his own free will into the hands of God. God’s spirit enabled him to speak as God speaks, to work as God works, and to love as God loves. We often say that Jesus is the heart of the faith, the one saviour – but it is God who lies at the heart of all. God is the centre and soul of all things. God himself is the Saviour.

This is what Jesus taught. The scriptures tell us “This is eternal life, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” John 17:3. Do we need more?

Graham Hellier (Rev), Marden, Hereford

Two things struck me in the September 2021 edition of Life and Work, which probably transgresses editorial etiquette. Yet they are connected, so perhaps I can get away with addressing both in the same letter?

I confess to feeling irritated as I began Dr Liam Fraser’s presentation of his book Mission in Contemporary Scotland. Had he not come across Steve Aisthorpe’s Invisible Church research or the scholarly reflections of Doug Gay? But, as I read on, I warmed to Dr Fraser’s own analysis. And his insights into Scottish society and the Church of Scotland resonated with me, to the point that I am now eagerly looking forward to the book’s publication. One phrase was particularly telling:

Due to a number of factors explored in the book, Scots do not believe the Church’s claims regarding God, Christ, and his plans to transform the world.

This took me to the letter taking issue with Graham Kendrick’s Servant King hymn and its assertion that there is a “measure of separation between Jesus and God”. This flies in the face of what Jesus said about himself (John 10.30) and the reaction of the disciples, when they discovered who he really was (John 20.28).

And if we accept the insistence of the Church Fathers that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, then can we not hold in tension his human genealogy and his heavenly paternity?

“Find(ing) common ground with other faiths” and “recognis(ing) the many ways in which humankind knows God’s revelation of himself” smacks of syncretism. I have no problem with a level playing-field, nor with the principle of respecting other faiths as we would other people. But if I didn’t believe that Jesus offers what none of them can, why would I call myself a Christian and why would I devote my life to full-time ministry and evangelism?

To have any chance of winning Scotland back for Christ we shall need a deeper, stronger faith in the uniqueness of Christ, not a vague allegiance to one among equals. There may indeed be breadth to God’s work in the world but there is only one way to God himself (John 14.16).

Rory MacLeod (Rev), Strath and Sleat

Regarding Graham Hellier’s letter (September 2021) criticising Kendrick’s hymn The Servant King and its ‘bald assertion This is our God,’ could I request the courtesy of your Letters page to point out that in the first verse of John’s Gospel Calvin states, regarding the phrase ‘and the word was God’, ‘lest any should doubt as to Christ’s divine essence, John clearly declares that he is God.’

Calvin is even more explicit in his fairly lengthy discussion of Christ as both Lord and God when he deals with Thomas’ confession in John 20:28, ‘My Lord and my God’. Graham Hellier’s concern about the mystery of the inter-relationship within the Trinity could benefit by a careful reading of the great Reformer’s examination of this important aspect of the Godhead.

I agree that the subject is a vast one and has throughout the Christian era seen scores of volumes expending oceans of ink. But the consensus of theologians must surely admit that Kendrick is quite within the bounds of biblical revelation in having us sing This is our God. Personally, I gladly join with others in awe and wonder praising Christ as our God.

David Searle, Errol

Life and Work welcomes letters from readers of not more than 350 words which can be sent by email to magazine@lifeandwork.orgduring the Coronavirus Covid-19 epidemic.

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