Dialogical Tension
Sounds academic.
Maybe too academic for you to bother with.
But, before you tune me out, or click out of this blog, you may want to think twice.
The enemy is using the absence of dialogical tension in our world today to his advantage.
He is setting a trap.
It’s nothing new.
He has used this trap for thousands of years to gain advantage over believers.
Understanding dialogical tension can save you endless frustration and huge detours in your spiritual growth…detours that only end in disillusionment and heartache. In fact, in some instances, the truth behind this high-sounding concept can be the difference between eternal life or eternal judgment.
It is that serious!
I learned about dialogical tension from one of my professors in my doctoral program years ago, and it has never left me.
Here is how it works.
Over the last two thousand years the Church has gone through seasons where certain key truths of God have fallen into the neglect. Then, in reaction, the Church has gone way in the opposite direction as a “corrective,” only to discover that the medicine was just as damaging at the disease.
Let’s use the truth about grace and obedience as one example.
In my father’s day, I grew up hearing a lot about obedience and judgment…not a lot about grace. I remember feeling like I needed to “get saved” again every Sunday night out of fear of the judgment of God I would incur for my sin (that was in the weekly “evangelistic” Sunday night service in those days). Just about any church you would attend back then emphasized obedience with the accompanying threat of judgment.
If I were to try and characterize the Church of today, I would say that you would be hard pressed to hear any message or emphasis on obedience or judgment. In fact, from what I read and hear around the American Church, I would say there is a concentrated effort to marginalize or make fun of anyone who would dare to address those subjects.
Today, the Church’s overwhelming emphasis is on grace! We are told, “Your sins; past, present and future, are forgiven!” You hear it all the time in sermons and worship songs. “You are loved! You are special! God could never be displeased with you.”
So…which is true?
- Does the law of God require obedience in the life of the born-again Christian, with judgment the consequence of unrepented sin?
OR…
- Does the grace of God forgive and cleanse us of confessed sin?
Dialogical tension is an academic concept that accepts BOTH seemingly contradicting truths at the same time and holds them in tension…so that our lives are shaped by both truths at the same time.
My professor used to illustrate dialogical tension by holding his forearms out in a horizontal position, fists touching each other. Then he would hook the cupped fingers of each hand together…pulling against each other. In our example above, the truth about grace is represented by one elbow and law the other elbow…pulling against each other in tension. And that tension is actually where the truth re: grace and law can be profitably lived.
Live only in grace and pretty soon it will turn into what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” Worthless in any Christian’s life.
Live only in law and pretty soon it will turn into legalism, judgmentalism and pride. Also worthless in any Christian’s life.
So many powerful Christian truths needs to be lived in that tension, not in one camp or the other. Some examples are:
- Mercy AND judgment
- Working out your salvation AND resting in the gift of your salvation.
- Being accepted by God just as you are AND being disciplined by God in love into who He wants you to be.
- Trusting quietly in the Lord in faith AND wrestling in prayer and intercession.
- Being still/quiet and knowing the presence of God AND crying out with loud cries in prayer and adoration.
- Living in the revealed love and acceptance of God AND repenting of and turning from sin under the convicting work of the Spirit.
- The witness of a radically transformed life AND being ready to give a verbal testimony for the faith that lives in you.
- Having a faith that doesn’t depend on emotion AND having a faith that frequently stirs your emotions at the deepest level.