Justification & Sanctification

"Our only hope of progress in gradual sanctification (growing in likeness to Jesus) is that we already have a right standing with God by faith alone. By this justification we are accepted into God's favor and enjoy a reconciled position. This right standing establishes the very relationship in which we find the help and power to make progress in love" (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 49).

Means of Grace: Working with the Grain of the Created-Order

God works with the grain of the created-order: "Our God is a God who works by means [e.g., "Bible-reading, private prayer, regular attendance on public worship, regular hearing of God's Word, and regular reception of the Lord's Supper"], and He will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual that he can get on without them" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 21).

George Herbert, Again

The following excerpt from George Herbert's The Temple - The Church-Porch, Perirrhanterium (the 64th stanza):

Man is God's image; but a poor man is

Christ's stamp to boot: both images regard.

God reckons for him, counts the favour his:

Write, So much giv'n to God; thou shalt be heard.

     Let thy alms go before, and keep heav'n gate

     Open for thee; or both may come too late. 

 

 

 

 

Covenant

God is the Master and Creator of the Universe. He is the Divine Head, the Lord of creation, and as Lord he self-discloses himself to man “by way [mode] of covenant” (Westminster Confession of Faith, VII.I).

God is distinct from and sovereign over all of creation. This means that there is a permanent-and-ontological difference at back the relationship between God and the creation. Thus, we can say that there are two ontological realities in this world:

     1) the eternal and infinite Triune-God.

     2) the temporal and finite creation.

What are the implications?

For starters, this means that creation is ontologically and metaphysically dependent upon God. In John 1:3, God revealed that through the Word, Jesus Christ, all things were created: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Therefore, Jesus Christ is the “source of all activity and life” (Marcus Dods, The Gospel of John, vol. 1, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint 1983), 684).

Since man is temporal and finite and distinct from the eternal and infinite Triune-Creator, there must be some way that God relates-to and relationships-with Creation. According to Scripture, God freely chose to reveal and relate to creation by way of covenant, that is, covenantally (Genesis 2:17, 6:18, 9:11; Exodus 6:4, Deuteronomy 5:3, Psalm 25:14, 89:3; Luke 1:72; Romans 10:5-20, 11:27; Hebrews 12:24, 13:20). The milieu of God’s covenant with man is God’s law. “The law of God expresses God’s holy nature to man (Greg Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, (Nacogdoches: Covenant Media Press, 3rd ed.), 141). Therefore, God's law is the axiomatic system of the covenant.

God expresses his holy nature to all of creation; God relates covenantally with all of creation, but since man was specifically created in God’s image, and as such is a representative of God to the rest of creation, this implies that man has a moral and an ethical obligation to obey the stipulations of God’s law. Since man has this ethical obligation to keep the law of God, there are conditions and promises tied to God’s covenant with man. The covenantal conditions and promises are sanctioned by God’s authoritative declaration: on the one hand, blessings and life will be rewarded for covenantal faithfulness and obedience, while on the other hand, curses and punishment unto death will be rewarded for covenantal unfaithfulness and disobedience (see Deuteronomy 27-30).

We see in Scripture that God has made two covenants with man: the first was a “covenant of works” made with Adam, the first federal head of humanity; the second was a “covenant of grace” made with Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the federal head of restored humanity.

Adam failed to keep the ethical obligations of the “covenant of works” that God made with him, and as the federal head of humanity sanctioned curses and judgment unto death for himself as well as all of his descendants. Thus, ever since Adam’s fall mankind has attempted to make himself the measure of all things: sinful man’s aim is to be absolute, sinful man’s aim is to be autonomous. By this vain attempt, sinful man attempts to usurp God the glory for which He alone is due. Because of sin, the relationship (covenant) is broken that exits between man and the Divine. Secondarily, it is also important to note that man’s relationship with the entire created-universe is broken.

Cornelius Van Til noted, when God created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden, Adam was supposed to be “a prophet, priest, and king under God in this created world” (Christian Apologetics, ed. William Edgar (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2nd edition, 2003), 41). God intended for Adam to “interpret,” “dedicate,” and “rule” the world, not for the sake of himself, but for God. That is, for God’s glory! Sinful man, however, does not execute the offices of prophet, priest, and king for God’s glory, rather he twists that ingrained-innate-calling as he attempts to be absolute and autonomous.

Thus, sinful man is always trying to do prophetic, priestly, and kingly things in this world, but he does them while in a broken relationship (covenant) with God. So, what proceeds is this: false interpretation, perverted dedication, and corrupted rule and judgment – these things are not of God but are of man, thus, the prophetic, priestly, and kingly things that fallen men accomplishes are after the “tradition of men” and “not after Christ.” (cf. Colossians 2:8: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Paul is saying you need to fashion knowledge and belief after (the knowledge and belief in) Christ, that is, after the Creator, not after knowledge and belief of the traditions purported by sinful men and a fallen created-universe.)

However, God freely chose to make a “covenant of grace” with Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the obedient prophet, priest, and king. Jesus Christ was obedient, he had covenantal faithfulness and entirely fulfilled the ethical obligations of God’s law as prophet, priest, and king. Jesus Christ, therefore, faithfully interprets, dedicates, and rules the world for the glory of God!

So, what we know about God by way of the covenant is that God is not only the Lord who created the universe, but that he is also the Lord who mercifully restores sinful men and renews creation. God does that by adopting sinners through propitiation, that is, through the obedient and atoning prophetic, priestly, and kingly work of Jesus Christ, with whom God made a “covenant of grace” – wherein God “offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved” (Westminster Confession of Faith, VII.III).

Necessity of Preaching

"Preaching is necessary not because it's a magic but because God has ordained it for the justification and sanctification of sinners" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 39).

Prayer

Good insight on prayer by Pastor Mark Driscoll from Ephesians sermon series.



"God is your Father. If you understand that God is your Father, prayer makes a lot of sense and prayer becomes very easy. If you don’t understand that God is your Father, prayer becomes complicated and difficult."

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

I recently read James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, a satirical jab at antinomian Calvinism, originally published anonymous in 1824. It was a disturbing read but beneficial.

The Confessions discloses a morbid story in three parts: an "Editor's Narrative" bookends the protagonists' "Memoirs" -- together they provide objective and subjective accounts of the corruption unto evil-and-the-demonic of young Robert Wringhim, a boy born and raised as a strict-Calvinist in eighteenth-century Scotland. The Confessions is part gothic-novel and although it may be somewhat anachronistic to say so, it is replete with dark humor/black comedy. Here's a zinger:

The dame [the mother of the protagonist] thanked him [Rev. Mr. Wringhim] most cordially, lauding his friendly zeal and powerful eloquence; and then the two again set keenly to the splitting of hairs, and making distinctions in religion where none existed (16).

The Confessions is insightful because of, not in spite of, its jab at Calvinism, performing the excellent service of illustrating the horrors of antinomian Calvinism, as well as providing a window into the psychology of the demonic -- similar to C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.

Biblically speaking, the only sure marks of Divine Election are those provided by the inner-testimony of the Holy Spirit and the good works of Sanctification, which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  In contrast, the protagonist of the Confessions is a gloomy character who hangs his eternal assurance of Divine Election upon the mystical-illumination decreed by his adoptive father, the Rev. Mr. Wringhim, who is a crack-pot Calvinistic preacher. (You know the variety: the mildew-Calvinist, the "high-as-a-kite-and-jacked-up-on-presumption"-Calvinist.) Rather than cling to the Biblical marks of Divine Election, Young Wringhim clings to the "oracles" of his quasi-father (the book insinuates that Robert may be the illegitimate son of Rev. Wringhim), which only greases the rails for absolutely horrific acts executed by the protagonist, e.g., assault, evil plotting, usurpation, murder(s).

This book truly is a horror novel, portraying both the power and acts of evil. The book is as sobering as it is terrifying, and that is what makes it a good read.

Preaching: God's Talk

"Preaching is not merely the minister's talk about God but God's talk -- and not just any talk. It's the kind of talk that produces new people" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 38).

George Herbert, Again

The following excerpt from George Herbert's The Temple - The Church-Porch, Perirrhanterium (the 15th stanza):

Art thou a magistrate? then be severe:

If studious; copy fair, what time hath blurred;

Redeem truth from his jaws: if soldier,

Chase brave employments with a naked sword

     Throughout the world. Fool not: for all may have,

     If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.

 

Mysticism

"Mysticism is esoteric atheism. But atheism still carries the banners and laurels of the work of liberation which is their common purpose" (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, vol. I.2, 322).

Christ's Righteousness: Type of Righteousness Needed by Sinners

"Now, what righteousness is equal to the justification of sinners? The only righteousness conceivable that will meet the requirements of our situation as sinners and meet the requirements of a full and irrevocable justification is the righteousness of Christ. This implies his obedience and therefore his incarnation, death, and resurrection. In a word, the necessity of the atonement is inherent and essential to justification. A salvation from sin divorced from justification is an impossibility and justification of sinners without the God-righteousness of the Redeemer is unthinkable" (John Murray, Redemption--Accomplished and Applied, 16-17).

High-View of Scripture in a Nutshell

An illustration from one of C. H. Spurgeon's sermons: a high-view of Scripture in a nutshell.

"I believe in the Bible," said one. 

"How can you do that?" sneered another. 

"Because I know the Author," was the fit reply.

Christ: Unto Us Righteousness and Sanctification

"He who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived and died and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins for His people, has yet much to learn. Whether he knows it or not, he is dishonouring our blessed Lord, and making Him only a half Saviour. The Lord Jesus has undertaken everything that His people's souls require; not only to deliver them from the guilt of their sins by His atoning death, but from the dominion of their sins, by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit; not only to justify them, but also to sanctify them. He is, thus, not only their "righteousness," but their "sanctification" (1 Cor. 1:30)" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 16).

Faith and Sanctification

"The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. The faith which is not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils. It is a "dead faith, because it is alone." It is not the gift of God. It is not the faith of God's elect. In short, where there is no sanctification of life, there is no real faith in Christ" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 17).

Enjoying Doctrine

Spurgeon describing how "wise men deal with the great doctrines of the gospel" -- "they will not make them the themes of angry controversy, but of profitable use. To fight over a doctrine is sorry waste of time, but to live in the quiet enjoyment of it is the truest wisdom" (Ed. David Otis Fuller, Spurgeon's Sermon Illustrations, 32).

Unchurched America

The book cited below was originally published in 2001. I don't know whether or not the statistics have remained the same. I have read that 9-11 temporarily bumped-up these type of statistics. My hunch is that in the past handful of years that throttling has subsided. However, either way, the statistics cited below are disconcerting.

Only 41 percent of Americans attend church services on a typical weekend [Barna Research Online, 1999]. Each new generation becomes increasingly unchurched. . . . Our recent research on the younger generation, the bridgers (born 1977 to 1994), indicates that only 4 percent of the teenagers understand the gospel and have accepted Christ, even if they attend church. Of the entire bridger generation, less than 30 percent attend church. America is clearly becoming less Christian, less evangelized, and less churched. Yet too many of those in our churches seem oblivious to this reality. . . . The percentage of adults attending church on a given weekend in 1999 was the same level it was in 1986.

Despite a plethora of resources on reaching those who do not attend church, the population of the unchurched in America continues to increase. Noted one Christian researcher, "At the same time that in America a multitude of new churches are being launched, and the mass media continues to report on the impact of megachurches, the number of unchurched adults is also on the rise." . . . And as noted earlier, only one person is reached for Christ for every 85 church members in America" (Thom S. Rainer, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them, 33-35).

 The implications are disturbing for said statistics. The "unchurched adults" of the "bridger generation" are a growing, rising, and flourishing segment of contemporary entrepreneurs, lawyers, politicians, medical physicians, day laborers, musicians, and artists, and when they marry or cohabit they form second generation unchurched-families.

Faith and God's Word

In a section examining Martin Luther's Lectures on Hebrews (April 1517), Thomas J. Davis discusses how Luther began to mature theologically by working "extensively through the concepts of personal faith and the word of testament (the promise) and how the two are related in such a way as to portend his mature beliefs." To that point, Davis observes:

Faith is a clinging to the Word of God for Luther. It is the only work of the Gospel, and it is internal. In a telling passage, Luther declared, "Without faith it is impossible for God to be with us." Why is this so? Because God "does everything through the word." For that Word to bear fruit for the believer, there must be faith. One can ties this arrangement to the incarnation. If Christ is God incarnate, as Luther certainly affirmed, the way one possesses that incarnate Word is through faith. The union of believers with the incarnate Word, a union so real that Luther speaks of Christ as the Christian's substance, is achieved only through faith. If the Sacrament is a visible word, as Augustine of hippo taught and Luther accepted, then the Word itself is an audible body, Christ's substance, possessed through the hearing and believing of it--through faith" (Thomas J. Davis, This is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought, 33).

Doctrine of Scripture: God Himself is a Sufficient Witness to Himself

"Only God himself is a sufficient witness to himself. The Word of God finds no acceptance until it is sealed by the inward witness of the Spirit, and the heart finds its rest in Scripture only through this inward teaching. Scripture is not subject to human argumentation and proof, and Scripture's own assuring power is higher and stronger than all human judgment. No matter how large a role the church may play in the genetic process [Footnote: "Obviously, this genetic aspect, this coming to certainty, cannot be separated from the question regarding the foundation of faith, but the differentiation does not therefore lose its significance.] of ascertaining, ultimately no one can accept Scripture because the church testifies that it is God's Word. The moving of the church as praedicatrix evangelii [The "herald" or "preaching of the Gospel," Berkouwer is quoting Kuyper.] is not the ultimate explanation of faith in Scripture. This conviction is also expressed in other Reformed confessions, which always speak of the convincing power of the Holy Spirit in connection with belief in Scripture" (G. C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics: Holy Scripture, 41-42).

Praising and Trusting the Word of God

"When Abraham Kuyper came to grips with the criticism of Scripture in his day, he sharply formulated this existential character of the problem. He attacked the criticism of his day "in its questionable effect upon the church of the living God." It is obvious that Kuyper had in mind all forms of radical criticism, for he used terms like "critical vandalism," "Scripture anatomists," "recklessness and vivisection." These radical critics of Scripture create distrust and doubt by denying what formerly applied as the standard of faith: "When Scripture has spoken, all contradiction ceases; when it has testified, the last remnant of doubt vanishes." But even though Kuyper is referring particularly to radical criticism, it is clear that the contrast between criticism and authority occupies his mind. The logic of criticism is contrasted with a non-critical, receptive listening to the voice of God, like Samuel's "Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears" (I Sam. 3:10). Behind his considerations is a recollection of the relationship between God's Word and the indubitable certainty and place us for time and eternity on an immovable foundation. Much strife and opposition in the church must be viewed in this light, as must the emphasis on the judging but unjudgeable Word of God. The Word must be praised and trusted (see Ps. 56:10-11), as Scripture informs us with its unique divinity and self-authentication" (G. C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics: Holy Scripture, 14-15).

The Ordinary Means of Grace

"This chapter launches the thesis that will run throughout the rest of the book. That thesis is this: God has promised to save and keep his people through the means he has appointed and through no others; the ordinary means of grace are limited to the preached Word and the administered sacraments; God's rationale for these means is made explicit in Scripture [emphasis original]. There are many other things that are essential for Christian growth: prayer, Bible study, service to others. However, these are not, properly speaking, means of grace but means of discipleship" (Michael Horton, A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 29).