Are not the rich the ones who "passively woo" you into court?

ὲλκύω or ὲλκω

The Greek dictionary of the 1990 edition of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible defines this word as "to draw", stating that it is "probably akin to αίρέοαι", which means "to take for oneself, i.e. to prefer: - choose."

I recently read through the epistle of James this last weekend, and found that it is the word that is used for "drag" in James 2:6-

But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?


What's my point in taking the time to mention this? The point is that it is the exact same word used for "draw" in John 6:44, spoken by Jesus himself:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

If this is the same word used for the rich oppressors who "drag" their defendants into court... then the action that God uses to "draw" His own unto Christ is no mere passive wooing, my friends! It is surely a powerful action, one that God uses effectively to bring men to salvation... and no one can come to Christ... unless God the Father first draws them.

Recognition of a need for a Savior

I was converted by seeing a man executed; for, thought I, if a man be thus punished with death for breaking one of the laws of men; what do I then deserve, who have broken all the laws of God?

-Anonymous, telling the story of his conversion, in A Lifting up for the Downcast, by William Bridge

Luther on repentance

Still going to finish my posts on "Why I'm not a not a Catholic"... I promise!

But here's a little something to tide over while my busy semester wraps up. It's a quote from Martin Luther on what true repentance is, why we are not forgiven on the basis of our wanting to "do better", and how we find assurance in this:

A Christian remains firmly attached to Christ and says, "If I'm not good, Peter wasn't either, but Christ is good." Such are the elect. Others say, "God is gracious to me because I hope to amend my ways," but this is only a gallows repentance; the heart isn't in it. Although the wicked sometimes have compunctions (so they call them) - that is, promise themselves that they will be good - they soon depart from the straight path and seek to merit a reward. But a Christian says, "I wish to do as much as I can, but Christ is the bishop of souls. To him will I cling, even if I sin." It is thus that one has assurance.

Luther's Free Beer: on hold

Looks like Brother Martin is going to have to wait a bit for that cold one... the semester hit a busy spell, so I'll be out of blogging commission until things slow back down a bit!

Stay tuned.

Luther's Free Beer, Part 3: "Righteousness is obtained through faith" (part 2)

There are many who would disagree with me on these points, though, and would oppose the idea of the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us. Many believe that our own righteousness is to be obtained as a result of our own works, or rather by some combination of Christ's work and our own. We have already looked at some of the verses that one might use to oppose imputed righteousness, so I won't go back over them, but I would like to look here at one more passage:

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."
-Matthew 7:21-23

Surely this is good evidence that God doesn't justify us through our faith alone, but also through works! Jesus Himself is saying that those who say "Lord, Lord," won't necessarily be saved, but that they must also follow God's will in order to be saved, right? I don't think so... again, I see this approach as a reversal of what God has actually revealed in these passages. Just like with the passages that we looked at in James, I think that this is a question not of works as the basis of justification, but as the evidence of true faith. To make this more clear, let's look at the six verses leading up to what Jesus will say in verses 21-23:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
-Matthew 7:15-20

It seems more clear in this context that Jesus is not claiming that one must follow God's will in order to be saved, but that those who are saved will inevitably follow God's will! Just because somebody does a good deed does not mean that they have the Spirit of God working in them to glorify Him through these actions. Salvation is not ultimately about works, even works done in the name of God. However, again, as Jesus says here, justification will necessarily lead to sanctification... but sanctification can never lead to justification! There may be some who would ask me, "What's the big deal, Chris? This is just a small difference in meaning. There's no need to cause a fuss over this!"

Ahh... but I would disagree greatly with that disagreement! :o) There is great need, indeed!

Firstly, an interpretation of these passages of Scripture which allows us to believe that we are ultimately saved by the things that we do (i.e. our sanctification leads to our own justification) builds a doorway for legalism to enter in with great ease. This is not in the spirit of Christianity, for in the words of John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Secondly, and more importantly, the very glory of God is at stake here! When we begin to get our eyes off of ourselves and our own works, we turn them to Christ, and see the wonderful nature of His holy majesty and perfect righteousness! God must get the glory in our salvation, not us. However, this opens up many questions that are debated among Christians, which I will not get into here here and now, but I will say this about my personal experience here: when I started to understand more of how the Bible declares that I was saved from my sin, my eyes were opened to see the beauty of salvation, and what an amazing thing it is to even be called a child of God! Here are just two of the many verses which show why it is that I feel unending gratitude to God for being His son:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
-John 6:44

But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
-John 10:26-27

Or take also the words of Christ that we have already seen from Matthew. What is Jesus' reaction to those who claim to follow Him, and even do good works in His name, yet will not see salvation? "And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Jesus didn't know them? But Jesus is God, right? So shouldn't He know everything?! It's clear that Jesus is using a different definition for the word "know" here when referring to these people. It's the same "know" that is used in Amos 3:2 when God says of Israel, "you only have I known of all the families of the earth." God certainly knew about all of the families on earth... but there were only certain people on whom He chose to set His divine love. Or, when the Bible records that Adam "knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain", we can be sure that Adam did a lot more than have intellectual recognition of his wife in order for her to become pregnant!

The point I'm trying to make here is not only that the people who come to God saying, "Lord, Lord," yet are rejected by Him, are not justified by their works, but that these people do not follow Christ because they are not of His chosen adopted children, not of His flock. It is this adoption which gives the Spirit, it is this Spirit which gives true sanctifying power, and it is this sanctification which is the fruit of true faith, not the basis of justification. The sheep of Christ's flock make themselves known by the transforming power that is in them, and by their love (John 13:35), but it is not these signs which allow them to be in the flock in the first place. Christ's sheep are not His flock because they do what He says... they do what He says because they are in His flock!

Well, if we are not saved through our own works, but through our faith in Christ, how can it be that one can receive this faith? That question will be tackled in the next part, "Faith is a gift", but I would ask you to ponder over these verses until then:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
-Ephesians 2:8-10

Luther's Free Beer, Part 3: "Righteousness is obtained through faith" (part 1)

If the Bible teaches that our righteousness is not obtained through works of the law, then how is it possible for one to be justified and declared as righteous in the sight of a perfectly holy God?! Thankfully, it seems that Scripture is a bit more clear on this point. There are many passages in the Bible which attest to justification by faith alone, but let's start with just a couple which, by themselves, could be considered the veritable battle cries of the Reformation:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
-Romans 3:28

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
-Romans 10:10

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
-John 6:47

It may need to be reiterated at this point that justification by faith alone is true not only because it is how justification is presented in the Bible, but also because salvation by faith alone is absolutely necessary for God, who is just, to be able to declare us to be righteous. "Righteous", by definition, means "without guilt or sin". We are humans who are sinful by our very nature, and therefore, we have never had, we do not presently have, and we will never have any righteousness of our own. Because of this, if we are to ever be labeled as "righteous", this title needs to be obtained by another on our behalf, and given to us. This process - a transaction, if you will - is called imputation:

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."
-Romans 4:5-8

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
-Romans 4:3

The only righteous being to ever walk this earth was our very God Himself who came in fully human form as Jesus Christ. It was His righteousness, not our own, that not only appeases His own holy wrath against sin through obedience to the law, but also fulfills the demand for worship that is required of a perfectly glorious and awesome creator being (i.e. Jesus not only never committed any sin of commission, He also never committed any sin of omission). This fulfillment of the requirements of righteousness is then given to us through faith, and makes a propitiation for God's wrath against our sin:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 5:1

This transaction, this imputed righteousness, was at the very heart of the Gospel for the reformers. Martin Luther was once tormented by Paul's letter to the Roman church, particularly by one key passage:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed...
-Romans 1:16- (first half of) 17

Luther simply couldn't understand how God's own righteousness being revealed to us could ever possibly be "good news" to us who have no righteousness of our own! And his torment was very understandable, because during Luther's era, verses like these were interpreted by the Church in this way, as God's own actively righteous state being displayed to us, and his anger being set against us, compelling us to do good works to appease His wrath. This also made Luther angry against God, because in this verse Luther viewed God as crushing us with the impossible requirements of the law and threatening us with punishment through the Gospel!

But then Luther continued to contemplate the rest of this verse:

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17

It was upon reflexion of the full meaning of this verse that Luther realized that God's "righteousness" named here did not refer to His active righteousness by which He sets His anger against all sin, but rather His passive righteousness that He reveals to sinners by giving it to them, ascribing His own righteousness to those who were once completely unrighteous:

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

Furthermore, he saw that this imputed righteousness is the way by which the spiritually dead are made alive and given salvation:

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

And what are the means by which God chooses to give His righteousness to us sinners?

"The righteous shall live by faith"!

Luther's Free Beer, Part 2: "Righteousness is not obtained through works" (part 2)

In closing, however, I would like to quickly address the fact that there are some texts in the Bible that have been used to support the idea that justification is obtained through both faith and works. I believe, however, that this reading of the passages is a case of misinterpretation, or rather, misapplication of the text. Let's just look at one section of the Bible, which contains some of the most famous passages of this sort, James, chapter 2. The main prooftexts for perfected justification by works are verses 14, 17, 20, 22, and 24:

14: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

17: So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

20: Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

22: You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works

24: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

However, I don't believe that what James is referring to here is the basis of justification, but rather the fruit of justification. He has already noted, along with Paul, that we are all sinners and have transgressed the law of God, and, therefore, should justly be under His wrath: "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." (verse 10) Therefore, James did not believe that we humans can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, because we have all transgressed it. Moreover, James was speaking this truth about Christians, because it was to "the twelve tribes" that he wrote this epistle. He recognized that even those who had the Spirit in them could not keep the law perfectly.

In verse 14, it seems that James is referring to a question not of works as the basis of justification, but as the evidence of true faith. "If someone says he has faith", James writes, and continues, "can that faith save him?" What kind of faith is it that this person says he has? Is it merely a knowledge of the facts of the Gospel? "I believe in God," one might say. Can this belief alone save them? No, for even the demons believe this (verse 17), and they are certainly not of God's children. What if someone says, "I believe in Jesus"? Are they saved by this kind of faith? No; for, again, Satan and his own know who Jesus is better than we do (Mark 1:24). What, then, if someone says, "I not only believe in Jesus, but I also believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came to earth to be an atoning sacrifice for those who have faith in that sacrifice. I also believe that He was raised to life by God and now sits in heaven at His right hand." Surely, this person, with this kind of faith must be saved! Right? Still, I say no, not necessarily, because these are all facts of our world that Satan himself is fully aware of. However, saving faith is the kind of faith which allows a person to say, "I believe that all of these things are true... and that they apply to me! Not only do I believe that Jesus came to die, but that He came to die in my place!"

And it is this kind of faith, the kind of faith which can only be obtained through the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Corithians 12:3), that will save a person. Furthermore, because this kind of faith comes by the power of the Spirit, it is a transforming faith, a faith that will necessarily produce the fruit of the Spirit. I believe that this is the important framework of knowledge to have while reading these passages. For surely, faith, without the fruit of the Spirit, without the ability and desire to obey the commands of God, is not a saving faith, but a dead faith. This faith is not the kind of faith which saves, it is not the kind of faith which is living, and it is not the kind of faith that produces works... because is not the kind of faith which is given to the children of God by the Holy Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel!