Stop the presses!!!

I know that this may come as a shock to anyone who has read my posts before, so you may want to sit down before you read this next part.

Are you sitting down? Okay... here goes...

I may disagree with John Piper on something.

Now... get the smelling salts, clear your head, and continue on reading, if you can muster the energy.

Now that classes are over, I'm trying to get back to reading Piper's "The Pleasures of God", and I just finished chapter 5, titled "The Pleasure of God in Election". Toward the end of the chapter (pp. 150-151), Piper discusses that our assurance of salvation is ultimately rooted in our election. I agree with this. However, I don't think I agree with why Piper says that this is the case. According to Piper, our assurance is rooted in our election because:

"Divine election is the guarantee that God will undertake to complete by sanctifying grace what his electing grace has begun... Election is the final ground of assurance because, since it is God's commitment to save, it is also God's commitment to enable all that is necessary for salvation." (P. 150, emphases mine)

I most certainly agree that God will surely sanctify those which He has justified, and that this will be done unto perfection for each one of God's children, continued until the day when he or she enters the presence of God, and perfected there. This is the biblically sound teaching of a perseverance of faith, which I have posted about before, and will write about more extensively in the last of my series of posts on "Why I am not Catholic".

So, it is true that I believe that God will slowly, but surely, mold me into the image of His Son. With all the sin that is still in me, I love God, and strive to follow His will, more today than a year ago, and pray in faith that I will do this more a year from now than I do today.

However, I do not believe that my continued sanctification is what "is necessary for salvation." I believe that I am no more justified, or even assured, today than I was a year ago, nor do I believe that I will be any more justified or assured a year from now than I am today. If I were to drop everything I am doing right now to become a lifelong missionary in some foreign land, I do not believe that this work for God's kingdom would make me any more justified in His sight than if I continue to work in research as a phonetician. If God were ever to call me to become a missionary my response would be, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). But if that were to be the case, my salvation would be no more secure than that of the thief on the cross.

Rather, as I have written about many times, I believe that the assurance of my salvation is rooted in my election because it is in my election that God has chosen to open my eyes and ears to receive the truth of the Gospel, has given me the ability to repent of my sin, and has given me the desire to turn to Him by my own free will. And it is through all of this that my justification comes, because, by the power of God, I have turned to Christ to receive His righteousness, which clothes me in a spotless garment, and I know that my salvation is assured, not because I see the daily evidence of sanctification in my life (although it's true that this is a very real evidence of my justification), but because the wrath of God toward my sin has already been poured out on Christ, and it is His righteousness, and His holy obedience to the law, not my own imperfect sanctification, that assures that I will one day see Him in glory.

Edit 5/20/08: Well, now I'm just confused. Piper definitely believes in the doctrine of imputation (i.e. Christ's righteousness imputed, through faith, to God's elect), so I'm not quite sure what he was talking about here...

"Why I am not Catholic" (or "Why I am going to buy brother Martin a beer when I get to heaven")

If you’ve ever read any of my blog posts before, it is most likely completely obvious to you that I am a Protestant Christian - even an Evangelical Christian if you will… but that I am certainly not of the Catholic persuasion.

If pressed to answer the question, “Why are you Protestant?” I might respond with a simple, “Because I’m not Catholic.” And to a prodding, “Why, then, are you not Catholic?” I would probably retort with a resounding, “Uhh…”

Needless to say, this is not exactly in the Berean spirit. When Paul and Silas brought to the Bereans the good news of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of those who would believe in him through faith, the book of Acts tells us that the Bereans “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Ah, so that’s what that big Book is for!

So, when a friend recently asked me why I am of the Protestant faith, and determinedly not of the Catholic faith, I decided to become a Berean on this matter. And let me tell you… it has been a very eye-opening experience for me, to say the least! Not only has my belief in the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to my eternal being been strengthened, but I had no clue how much our God has revealed to us in His Scriptures concerning this matter!

What will follow in the next couple of weeks is a six-part blogging session on “Why I am not a Catholic” (alternative title: "Why I am going to buy brother Martin a beer when I get to heaven"). I will attempt to look at many Scripture references, but these are only the ones that I was able to find in a single night of searching. After compiling six whole pages of texts, I finally decided to give up, figuring that what I have found might be sufficient to “give a defense for the hope that is within me” (1 Peter 3:15). But trust me: there is much more to be found!

The six parts will be “Man has no righteousness of his own”, “Righteousness is not obtained through works”, “Righteousness is obtained through faith”, “Faith is a gift”, “Christ’s righteousness justifies, not man’s”, and “Perseverance of faith”.

I invite anyone who might be reading this (do I hear crickets?) to dialog with me as I present what I believe to be God's plan for salvation, as it is revealed in the Scriptures to be the righteousness of Christ's active obedience to the law, imputed to us by grace, through faith.

I’ll leave you with the following verse to chew on before tackling these topics in the coming weeks:

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
-Colossians 2:8

The Gospel is for believers!

Now, here's the point that feels most important to me this morning:

I want you to see that the Gospel is the power of God... for all of that! Not just for conversion, not just for justification; for salvation, for the whole thing!

And so we need to hear the Gospel again, and again, and again, because it is not only the power of God that converts us. It is the power of God that sanctifies us! It is the power of God that sustains us! It is the power of God that keeps us persevering in the faith!

Faith comes from hearing the message, and that doesn't just meant justifying faith. Sanctifying faith comes from hearing the message! Persevering faith comes from hearing the message! And that's why Paul said in verse 15 that he is so eager to preach the Gospel to believers! The Gospel is for believers!

-Mike Shea, on Romans 1:16

More happy... but not more secure!

I love, love, love, love, love...

...love hymns!!

There's nothing like the solid meaty truths threaded into the lyrics of a good hymn to get the blood pumping! Whew!

During this morning's service, we sung the hymn "A Debtor to Mercy Alone", by Augustus Toplady, author of the famous "Rock of Ages". My favorite line from this hymn comes at the end of the last verse:

Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

Why is this my favorite line? Assurance, baby!! Those who are already in heaven may be more happy than we on earth, for they now exist in the eternal glory of God, but the fact that they are already there does not make their eternal security any more sure than our own! Some may disagree with the idea of the "perseverance of the saints", but I believe that it is well supported in Scripture, and is a source of great joy for us who are redeemed sons and daughters of the LORD!

The apostle Paul wrote about this security in the eighth chapter of his epistle to the Roman believers, verses 28-30:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Notice something very important in the "golden chain" of glorification here: Paul wrote about it in the past tense! Sure, there have been, and continue to be, various debates surrounding the different translations of the Bible, but however you slice it... the past is the past, and it is finished! Paul wrote about the future glorification of those "who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Romans 1:7) as if it had already happened!

At the risk of being deemed a Scripture-meddling heretic, I would like to try something with this golden chain; I would like to put it into the perfected past tense, and add the word already to highlight this perfected action, just to put emphasis on this chain having already been completed:

And those whom he has already predestined he has also already called, and those whom he has already called he has also already justified, and those whom he has already justified he has also already glorified.

Wow. What? Really?! It's as good as done?!?! You've got to be kidding me!!

Nope. Not kidding. God's calling is surely effectual, and He will perfect His own:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
-Philipians 1:6

Wow. Wow. Wow. Assurance of salvation? How is this possible?! Because God is just, that's how:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-1 John 1:9

How is glorification of the redeemed a necessary reaction of a just God? Because our LORD is not a God of double jeopardy: we can't be tried twice for the same crime in the courts of the Almighty Judge! The wages of sin is surely death (Romans 6:23), and God demands payment for offense to His holiness. But I don't believe that Jesus paid for the mere possibility of forgiveness at the cross... I believe that He actually satisfied the payment for the specific sins of specific people at the cross! If my debt has already been paid by Another, how can God, who is just, ever demand that I pay for that debt a second time by my own blood? He can't: for Him to do so would make Him unjust, which He is not. And furthermore, once a judgment of righteous status has been truly rendered by the LORD, how can it possibly be revoked?

But this doesn't mean that we get to continue sinning like we did before our spiritual rebirth! This objection to absolute justification and effectual perseverance was foreseen by Paul, and was therefore addressed in the sixth chapter of Romans, verses 1-11:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We would do well to consider ourselves already glorified even in our present state, for our justification has already been purchased for us by Christ, and "we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." However, because of this holy transaction - this imputation of Christ's justification and righteousness - we should first consider ourselves dead to sin... to live in it no longer... and to then rejoice with the glorified spirits in heaven that we also, being dead to sin, are already alive in Christ! Truly, truly: a new creation!!

Sweet mercy.