Legal and Personal

Francis Schaeffer, in True Spirituality, wrote that there are both legal and human aspects to divine and human institutions. For example, a husband and father is legally responsible to provide for his family, but if that's all he does, if he is not personally involved with them, he is totally missing the mark.

In the Church, the legal aspects are doctrine, governance, and organization. But the world is looking for them to have a quality of love for each other and for the world, that is not found anywhere else. And it is right for them to be looking for this.

Dr. Schaeffer speaks of the necessity of demonstrating to the world (both seen and unseen) the wisdom of God. If all we demonstrate is the legal aspect, the world is going to see the Church as legalistic and oppressive, and rightly so. The world needs to see something supernatural, something that can't be explained other than by having a relationship with God.

God is obviously supernatural. Our relationship with Him should be supernatural.