A Critical Glance at a Few of Leon Morris’s Sources

LEON MORRIS—WORTHY QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER SCHOLARS

The following quotations are cited from Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans/London: The Tyndale Press, 1960.

The outcome of the judgment is a veritable liberation for the one who has been the object of a declaration of innocence, since He is not only reinstated in His right, but by the operation of the power of which He has been the beneficiary His LIFE-POTENTIAL IS IN SOME WAY AUGMENTED; the mishpat of the judge “establishes the one in the reality of His right, the other on the contrary in the reality of his wrong’. (E. Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament [London, 1958], p. 97; the last words are cited from A. Neher. Quoted in Morris, p. 17, note 2, all emphases added.) [9/13/07]

God maintains mishpat, and where any relation within the covenant is disturbed, He is concerned to recreate and restore it….Men are endued with the Spirit in order that they may establish order and harmonious relations within the covenanted community. (F. W. Dillistone, The Holy Spirit in the Life of Today [London, 1946], p. 72. Quoted in Morris, p. 20, note 1, emphasis added.) [9/13/07]

All salvation is to be related to God alone, not to man. Therefore judgment is also salvation, for judgment is restoration of the honour and holiness (heiligkeit) of God. These are injured and diminished by the sin of man. The end judgment has in view is the full restoration of these two things, so that really the whole earth is full of His glory, Isa. 6.3, and the name of the Great King is terrible among the Gentiles, Mal. 1.14. (L. Köhler, Old Testament Theology [London, 1957], p. 218. Quoted in Morris, p. 21, note 1. Except for the first sentence in italics, emphasis added.) [9/14/07]

LEON MORRIS—UNWORTHY QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER SCHOLARS

Baptism is “a willing acceptance of the verdict on sin, in union with Christ, whose perfect obedience to the sentence [sic!] has been vindicated and crowned by the resurrection” Baptism “is essentially pleading guilty, accepting the verdict.” [sic!] “Emphatically, therefore, the Eucharist is an occasion of judgment—either of voluntary self-judgment, in acceptance of God’s verdict on fallen man, or else of unwilling liability to God’s judgment.” C. F. D. Moule, “The Judgment Theme in the Sacraments,” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed., W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge University Press, 1956, 464-81), 466, 467, 472. Quoted in Morris, pp. 56-7; all emphases added—R.L.R. These are remarkable words (and troubling) in view of Moule’s otherwise excellent article contesting prevalent evangelical opinions concerning God’s punitive judgments. [8/26/08]

A few pages later:

The full weight of God’s judgment and wrath has fallen on Christ (Rom. iii.24 ff.; 2 Cor. v.21; I Jn. iv.10).⁴

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⁴Cf. A. Richardson, An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, London, 1955, p.77:

“The cross of Christ is the visible, historical manifestation of the οργη του θεου [wrath of God]: it is the supreme revelation of the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” [Morris, p. 71, emphasis added.]

Morris continues,

It is precisely in the context of judgment that the atonement is to be understood. And if Christ bore such a heavy judgment ‘How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?’ (Heb. ii.3). [Morris, p. 71, all emphases added.]

However, the author of Hebrews contrasts such a salvation as follows: “For if the word spoken through angels became confirmed and every transgression and disobedience obtained a fair reward, how shall we…?” Morris thus indulges in a bit of Scripture twisting. [9/15/07] For the author of the epistle to the Hebrews has only fair rewards in view, not any conjectured “heavy judgment” upon the perfectly faithful Savior, worthy only of ultra-fair compensation for all his trouble on our behalf! [12/13/15]

Karl Barth cites the Heidelberg Catechism, “‘What comfort hast thou by the coming again of Christ to judge the quick and the dead?’ Answer: ‘That in all my miseries and persecutions I look with my head erect for the very same, who before yielded himself unto the judgment of God for me and took away all malediction from me,…to come Judge from heaven…’.” (Dogmatics in Outline, London, 1949, p. 134). [Morris, p 72, note 1, emphases added—R.L.R..]

However, baptism and communion are “emphatically” not, as C. F. D. Moule asserts, “willing acceptance of the verdict on sin, in union with” Christ’s “perfect obedience to the sentence,” nor “essentially pleading guilty, accepting the verdict,” nor “an occasion of judgment…in acceptance of God’s verdict on fallen man….” (“The Judgment Theme in the Sacraments” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, pp. 461, 466, 472. Quoted in Morris, pp. 56-57.) Much rather, they signify our identification with and participation in the heinously unjust human condemnation of the sinless Lamb of God and in the supremely just divine vindication of his innocent blood via his glorious resurrection. [9/15/07]

Resurrectionary Superabundance Is Definitive of the New-Covenant Economy

The early church did not recognize the tithe as a valid instrument to measure giving, under the New Covenant economy.  They did not even regard it as helpful to “prime the pump,” so to speak…not our pumps anyway!  For the Spirit, the very Motivator of wholesomeness, has been poured out super-abundantly — a roaring river of Living Water!—as a result of Messiah’s obediently laying down his sinless soul over us.  He did the work that entitled him to the superabundant present of the Father’s promise to him in the primal Covenant:  the Wholesome Spirit without measure.  And this Present he, in turn, has gratuitously given to us at immersion, when we publicaly avow our repentance and trust, to cleanse away all previous sins whatever, and also at his Supper when we worthily — that is, by trust — participate in the very body and blood that Messiah surrendered for sacrifice over us.  It is a sign and seal of the New Covenant that he alone, without human help (except to sinfully consent in his crucifixion!) inaugurated by that subordination and obedience to the Father to the very death, even the death of a cross.  For God over-reversed that unjust human judgment in resurrectionary victory!  The tokens that Messiah ordained for us to partake of — bread and juice — are just that, tokens, and not currency!  They do not — can not — “earn” us God’s “unspeakable Present” (2 Cor. 9:15), for not even Jesus “earned” it in any proper economic sense.  He simply displayed and demonstrated resolute obedience to his Father’s desire, enduring to the bitter end.  God far overcompensated him for that achievement of achievements.  This, therefore, cannot be mere “payment” in the usual sense at all.  The language of mundane economics folds under the weight of this super-ordinary reality of our great salvation.

It is this Message, disseminated, proclaimed, and believed, that primes our pump of generous, self-sacrificial giving, and not some obsolete tithe — a most unworthy token (even an atavism) under this New Covenant economy.  [4/3/99]

Think of John 11 as the chapter of the 11th hour.  Here, before the noontide of his own death by relentless crucifixion, Jesus personally acts out the penultimate demonstration of that same resurrectionary reversal that the Father was to perform on him, in order that we might believe and live in expectation of that same salvation of such grand proportions!  [4/6/99]