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The Marrow Controversy
In this episode, Sinclair Ferguson discusses the relevance of church history and divisive theological positions as we dig into a largely forgotten 18th-century Scottish debate about God’s grace and our works, explaining the roots of legalism and antinomianism, and why all of this matters for modern-day believers.
The Whole Christ
Helping Christians walk the line between legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other, this book looks to a 300-year-old controversy to shed valuable light on the law, the gospel, sanctification, and more.
01:02 - The Impact of the Marrow Controversy
Matt Tully Sinclair, thank you so much for joining me today on The Crossway Podcast.
12:37 - The Seeds of Legalism and Antinomianism
Matt Tully I was going to ask about that. It seems like this struggle that Christians have with walking the line between—or maybe that’s the wrong metaphor—but avoiding legalism on one hand and Antinomianism on the other hand, it feels like something that continues to come back up in the life of the church.
21:05 - Am I Preaching the Whole Christ?
Matt Tully Can you think of any examples from our modern lives today where you have seen legalism or Antinomianism infect the purity of our understanding of the gospel, perhaps in subtle ways that we would never say it like that, but it’s still maybe there?
32:35 - Are Theological Disagreements a Waste of Time?
Matt Tully Another issue that I found interesting in the book was as I was reading through the details of this Marrow Controversy itself, as we’ve already talked about, there are lots of terms being used—similar and same terms.
39:30 - Practical Advice
Matt Tully That’s such a helpful and humbling reminder that our psychology inevitably—always, and without intentionally doing it—is going to impact how we do theology and how we think about those things. That should keep us humble.
