What dictates the script of your life? The world or God's word? This is the question that Dr. Horton asks as he begins chapter two. Are we merely following the script that we have devised and designed for ourselves or are we being swept up in and carried along by the divine overarching plot of Scripture? This is a challenging inquiry. I know that I, like most, are often enticed and deceived into plodding along in the limelight of individualism along with its "I did it my way" mentality. But this is not God's design for his children. When we succumb to that, "God himself is 'appropriated,' drawn into our script, ending in futility". (p. 34) But, his design is different. Horton insists that "unlike most plays, which simply entertain or evoke various responses, the divine drama actually incorporates the audience in the overarching plot." (p. 34)

To support his thesis, he appeals to Romans 10 and says there are two ways of salvation: our way and God's way. Our way leads to death and God's way leads to everlasting life. Each way has its own method of redemption: works or grace. And not only this, but each way has its own means of attaining or receiving that redemption. To be sure, grace has its own method. It is not climbing up to God and bringing Christ down. This is idolatry - a sin that is still alive and well today. God's method is to deliver his grace to his people by grace alone. And how does God deliver his grace: through the preaching of the Word and the sacraments. These are his means of grace.

Horton continues with his knockout punch: "Too often preaching is primarily conceived as an event in which God is the topic but not the actor." (p. 38) Ouch. In other words, what he is saying is that grace's delivery cannot be separated from its content. Preaching must not be merely dull and lifeless discourses about this or that theological topic nor must it be solely about personal subjectivity and experience. Preaching is a retelling of God's great dramatic script and how believers are to live and move and have their being in accordance with that script. This includes both information about God and application of his ways and laws to the believers' lives.

There is much out there to compete with preaching. We live in a visual world and people are beginning to demand more than just the preached word. But this is God's means. The power of God is in the preaching of Christ and Paul calls even this medium itself "foolish" and "weak". Nevertheless, Horton states that, "more than good acting, good sound, good staging and lighting, what we need most is a good script. We have that in God's Word - and the extent to which we are confident in the power of that weakness, we will be faithful as preachers and hearers of God's good news." (p. 44)

Take some time to reread Romans 10 and consider how it fits with today's new and emerging methods in the church. What lies behind these methods? Are they merely methods of climbing up to God and bringing Christ down? Or are they a method of standing in the light of grace and receiving God's grace by his gracious means alone? (That's a lot of grace!) Horton says it well: "Methods are not neutral; they are always indicative of a particular set of beliefs. One may hold tenaciously to the view that God alone saves and that he saves by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and yet attempt to climb up into God's presence or bring him down through the techniques and programs that promise a divine encounter. Paul's logic [in Romans 10] should warn us against separating the message from the methods. " (p. 45)