Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: Sanctification

  • Psalm 119:156 – Great Mercy

    Psalm 119:156 – Great Mercy

    Your mercy is great, LORD!
    Grant me life according to your judgments.

    “Mercy is great” could be translated “mercies are many.” I think it comes down to much the same thing.

    Notice the parallel here between God’s mercy and God’s judgments. The Hebrew word order places the words “mercies” and “judgments” at the start of their respective lines.

    How do these two elements interact?

    That is much of what this whole Psalm is about. The Psalmist is clearly thankful for God’s law. He’s not just thankful that it’s out there somewhere, telling him what God is like, or that it’s putting a standard before us that we can’t meet. He’s thankful for it in action, in our day to day lives, and in our relationship to God.

    Now I believe that God’s law presents to us a standard that we cannot meet. But God’s law also presents to us a God who can and will take us to that standard. The goal is not simply the accomplishment of some list of duties, or the avoidance of some list of sins. Rather, the goal is to be the person, “a little lower than God” (Psalm 8:6).

    God, being merciful, saves us from ourselves, and grants us life according to his judgments, namely something beyond what we can imagine. Sin is destructive. Mercy is not an emotional condoning of sin, but rather, a rescue from it, and a path to a better way.

    All of this comes up as an act of God.

    Now let me wander from the text. In Psalm 119 we have both the individual working and God working and giving. I want to again depart from my usual pattern and quote from John Wesley on this:

    XLVIII. If, then, you say, ” We ascribe to God alone , the whole glory of our salvation, ” I answer, So do we too. If you add, ” Nay, but we affirm, that God alone does the whole work, without man’s working at all; ” in one sense, we allow this also. We allow it is the work of God alone, to justify, to sanctify, and to glorify, which three comprehend the whole of salvation. Yet we cannot allow, that man can only resist, and not in any wise work together with God: or, that God is so the whole worker of our salvation, as to exclude man’s working at all. This I dare not say; for I cannot prove it by Scripture: nay , it is flatly contrary thereto: for the Scripture is express, that (having received power from God) we are to “work out our own salvation:” and that (after the work of God is begun in our souls) we are “workers together with him.”

    The Works of John Wesley, vol. 14, p. 347, “Predestination Calmly Considered”

    To go back a bit and cover one point here, we might ask if we are coworkers with God do we not get some of the glory. Wesley commented on this a bit before this quote:

    If so, your assertion is, “If man do at all work together with God, in working out his own salvation, then God does not do the whole work, without man’s working together with him.” Most true; most sure: but cannot you see how God nevertheless may have all the glory? Why the very power to “work together with him,” was from God. Therefore, to him is all the glory.

    Ibid, 346-347

    Mercy is often, if not always shown by bringing the rebel into line with God’s will, God’s judgment. And thus, in many ways, mercy can be judgment and judgment mercy.

    In what ways will you experience God’s mercy today?

  • Psalm 119:124 – Grace

    Psalm 119:124 – Grace

    Deal graciously with your servant
    and teach me your statutes.

    I’m going to use the words of this verse, written long before there was such a thing as a Christian, to discuss a peculiarly Christian issue: Sanctification.

    Sanctification is a long word for becoming or being made holy, and “holy” is a word that we’re often not that sure about, though we act like we are. We can have a high concept of our own holiness, which usually manifests itself as self-righteousness. “Look how holy I am! I’m closer to God than you are!”

    We quote or paraphrase Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace that you are saved and not of works, lest anyone should boast.” But at the same time we have a picture of what a good Christian should be, and we’re quick to judge other people who don’t fit into our vision of Christian behavior.

    The result is that we’re often judging our salvation and that of others based on our perception of their holiness, or on what they have done. This is the unfortunate result of us being afraid to talk about works lest people think we’re basing our salvation on our works.

    But look at this verse. The word I’ve translated “graciously” is more literally (and commonly) translated “lovingkindness,” which is God’s love given to us. I think “graciously” gets the point. So when God deals graciously with us, what does God do?

    God teaches us statutes, rules to live by.

    You see, salvation is not just a gift of getting out of whatever nasty results we can expect in the next lives based on our behavior. It’s not a “get out of hell free card.” Well, actually it is, but it’s so very much more. And you can see the same divine approach with Israel. Israel is called to be God’s people. They become God’s people not because of something they’ve done. Passages from Genesis 12 when Abraham is called through Deuteronomy emphasize this.

    The rules come afterward. What is their purpose? Their purpose is to produce a holy people. That’s the plan. So I guess we ought to get busy and get this sanctification thing done, right?

    Not even close. Becoming a holy people is also God’s gift, which starts with the gracious gift of God’s law, carefully packaged to fit the circumstances of those who receive it. “Be holy for I am holy,” is repeated over and over in Leviticus. It’s a call, but the call is to receive the gift. When King David is called to be a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), it is not because he as done everything perfectly, or because he will lead a perfect life, but rather because he will be open to God and allow God to work in and through him.

    “Teach me your statutes” is a call to the one who empowers everything in the universe to empower one’s own life.

    What can God do in you today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:101 – Evil Paths

    Psalm 119:101 – Evil Paths

    I have kept my feet away from every evil path
    so that I might keep your word.

    Too often we think of keeping from doing things that are wrong as a point-by-point effort. Make a list of things we shouldn’t do, and avoid those things.

    This can be a dangerous trap if undertaken independently of other reforms. It leads to an a sort of “goodness accounting” in which we count deeds done correctly, and use this a sign posts on our road to being better people. One of the more humorous, and yet destructive things this can lead to is keeping count of sins not committed, and considering these great accomplishments.

    This happens in dieting, a process with which I’m somewhat acquainting. It’s easy to tell yourself that you didn’t eat that dessert after lunch, and thus you can be excused for having an extra slice of cake at dinner. This kind of accounting results in forgetting the totals, and providing oneself an excuse for whatever one wishes to eat. Trust me, you’re not going to keep an accurate account. You don’t really want to.

    If you want to get to a destination, you need to get on a path that goes there. About three years ago various lab tests informed me that I needed to make a serious change in lifestyle, eat less, eat better, and get more exercise. One possibility is to try to count the things I was doing better, and do those until better numbers resulted in my lab test. The alternative was to change paths, to choose a new lifestyle that involved healthier eating and more activity. Once you get on that path, details become easier, because you realize that everything has to be different and it needs to stay that way. There is no day coming when cakes, pies, and ice cream from a substantial part of the diet, and there is no time coming when you can afford to go back to couch potato ways.

    Turning back to myself, I had to decide to change paths. I knew that, because I know myself well enough to know that any haphazard approach involving singular acts of self-sacrifice would end up with as many acts of self indulgence and no actual gain in health.

    (Please here this in the context of God’s sanctifying grace and reliance on divine power. I’ve discussed that before while meditating on this psalm and that hasn’t changed.)

    To look at another issue, and one on which I have had much less success, consider a balance in work and rest. Again, picking out this or that to change, drop,, or add to the schedule is likely to drive one crazy and increase tension. What is needed (I tell myself) is a change of approach overall. You see, I can’t say with the psalmist that I have kept away from every evil path.

    And here we need to consider “evil.” Some may be thinking, “A little bit of overworking, or even lots of overworking isn’t evil.” You see, we want to think of overwork as diligence. Then we try to keep things manageable by dropping this or that task, or taking a moment here or there instead of looking for a balanced way to approach life and work.

    Killing yourself by overeating or overworking is not really morally better than killing yourself more intentionally. It just looks better, feels better, and comes with a false sense of pride and self-justification.

    But in the end that balance, and simply following the ideal path that God lays out is the one path that leads anywhere helpful.

    What path are you on?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:64

    Psalm 119:64

    LORD, Your lovingkindness fills the earth.
    Teach me your statutes.

    “Lovingkindness” could also be translated “grace” or “favor.” It covers a lot of ground. It also refers to obligations fulfilled under a covenant. When we think of it that way, we should remember that God has voluntarily created a covenant with us. Any obligations God takes on are a gift!

    It’s easy to miss the power of a verse like this. In very simple form it expresses an important theme of scripture. I’ve referred to it earlier in this series. Grace comes before law.

    We frequently preach and teach this in the opposite order. We preach about getting cleaned up so that we can be acceptable to God. We have to be good enough. Then we can come to God and find favor.

    Or we may preach salvation, becoming a child of God as something that is by grace, and then follow it with a rat race to be good enough. This isn’t an exclusively New Testament theme as some Christians think. We often don’t have the patience to read and understand the Bible Jesus knew, so we miss what’s going on.

    7 “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NRSVue)

    It is clear that God’s choice comes first, but especially if you read further in the context, it is God’s purpose to make the chosen people a holy people. But again, this comes through God’s action.

    If we are preachers, teachers, or leaders in the church we need to make sure to keep this order in mind. If we look at the biblical standards, making ourselves meet those standards is a daunting task. Impossible, in fact. If we push those standards as a matter of making ourselves acceptable to God we’re going to create a raft of problems. What we won’t make is holy people.

    Self-sanctification is a common belief, and it is the root of all kinds of evil. On the one hand, those who can’t imagine their actual problems decide that they are, in fact, holy. We use the term self-righteousness, and that’s precisely what it is. It’s a meeting of self-made standards. Ungratefulness, judgment, relentless criticism, discouragement, and even despair follow all this.

    But God’s grace fills the earth, even the universe. Teaching us how to live is a blessing that comes because God loves us not so that God can love us. In that context, the laws, which are the very order of our universe, are a gift of God. Those laws make it possible for us to exist. They hold off total chaos. In fact, we can come to see those laws as a reflection of the character of the God we serve and a joy.

    We should also note that a God who provides us with such grace is unlikely to mandate or to bless ungracious behavior. A God who is love is asking us to love one another.

    “Teach us your statutes” becomes the story of a life of faith, blessed by God, with glory to come.

    As you live your blessed life today, consider the statutes of God that define it and make it possible.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • The Importance of Teaching Sanctification

    The Importance of Teaching Sanctification

    Teachers and pastors frequently avoid talking about sanctification. Some of the reasons include:

    1. The very word “sanctification” sounds difficult and over-theological
    2. There is a fear of perfectionism
    3. There is a fear of the judgmental spirit that goes with perfectionism
    4. Sanctification doesn’t really sound all that graceful
    5. We might have people believing that their works earn salvation

    A Detour on Christian Perfection

    When I first joined a United Methodist congregation, I had the idea that Methodists would know a great deal about John Wesley. One Sunday night I discovered how wrong I was.

    I had been invited to teach on the doctrine of Christian perfection as taught by John Wesley. In preparation, I researched the forms of this doctrine expressed in Methodist doctrinal statements. I found that in the United Methodist Discipline there were actually two statements, one derived from the Methodist Episcopal Church and the other from the United Church of the Brethren. With a typical Methodist willingness to leave wiggle room in doctrinal beliefs, both were included.

    As I began to teach that Sunday night, I started with this question: “Did you know that we have not one, but two doctrines of Christian perfection in the Discipline?”

    I was greeted by complete silence. Finally, someone raised their hand and asked, “We have a doctrine of Christian perfection?”

    This surprised me, as it was a doctrine with which I did not agree, at least in some forms, yet I had thought it would be thoroughly know in Methodism.

    In his book A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (also available online as a PDF) John Wesley collects his various statements on the topic. It’s worth reading. He notes the point on which I disagree most completely, the idea of knowing one has attained this state and testifying to it. I might also mention a nice, short introduction from Energion Publications, Holiness of Heart and Life by Allan R. Bevere. It will give you a good introduction.

    When the word “perfection” is added to “sanctification,” people are sure to get nervous. I bring it up here because since John Wesley, it will inevitably come up. For the record, while I agree that God can create in the believer whatever holiness God desires, I believe such holiness is impossible to measure or to know.

    Back to Sanctification

    Shouldn’t we avoid talking too much about sanctification in order to steer clear of perfection and perfectionism?

    I believe that the effect in the church is quite the opposite. By avoiding talking about sanctification, and how it occurs, we open the door to all varieties of perfectionism and performance-driven living. These are destructive of people’s lives, both through the pride and spiritual superiority generated by a feeling of good performance and Divine favor and from the discouragement and apathy that results from a failure to attain whatever level one expects.

    A Note from Paul

    I recall my class in Exegesis of Ephesians in graduate school. We made it to the end of Ephesians 3. We missed this: “I implore you then–I, a prisoner for the Lord’s sake: as God has called you, live up to your calling” (Ephesians 4:1 [REB]).

    Thunder from the Pulpit

    Like Paul, pastors are going to preach to their congregations about doing things. They will talk about stewardship, informing congregations that their money should be surrendered to God. They’ll talk about the work that needs to be done around the church. They’ll admonish parishioners to do things in their community and perhaps the world.

    Much of this will be good. Many (not all) of these things need to be done. My resources do belong to God and I should use them as God calls me to.

    So when people enter the church, they are often presented with a litany of stuff they are supposed to do.

    The result? People who tend to do things charge off to do things. People who tend to sit in pews, sit in pews. Both sets of people very often feel some sense of guilt for the things not done, and superiority or inferiority to the others.

    Yes, the feeling of superiority works on both sides. I’m a doer, and I have heard pointed remarks about my doing from those who think I should be less of a doer. I have heard similar remarks regarding others. There are those who can condemn you for doing too much while asking you to do more. The doers, like me, have a strong tendency to consider ourselves superior to the pew sitters.

    The Answer in Sanctifying Grace

    As Paul goes on in Ephesians, he talks about many things we need to do. Note the number of times the word “gift” appears in the text. Finally, in chapter 6, we get to the word finally: “Finally, find your strength in the Lord, in his mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10 [REB]).

    Paul can do it this way because he has made sure to emphasize God’s prevenient and justifying grace, the gift of being part of the family apart from anything you do. Elsewhere, he expresses this in a more compact fashion: “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do God’s good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

    Sanctification, like everything else, is a gift. It is not a possession or a call to personal pride. It is not something we have to or are able to measure. We need to talk about this gift. God is working in each and every person. There is no comparing the journey of one person to that of another. There is no more pride, boasting, or shame in sanctification than there is in justification.

    I’ve been studying 1 Corinthians 12-15 with my Sunday School class. We just finished that section. Now the whole of 1 Corinthians can be considered Paul addressing this very issue. He sees spiritual pride causing division. The “I am better” factions start with boasting about the person who preached to them or who baptized them. There are some super-pride people who boast that they are connected only to Christ. They are the real Christians unlike all those other people, who look to some pastor or evangelist.

    This sense of spiritual superiority led off in many directions, as it always does. There is nothing so dangerous as a person with a sense of their own spiritual superiority. We like that feeling of being better than. Some of the Corinthians thought they were better because of their spiritual gifts. Paul stomped all over that in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

    Paul is teaching practical sanctification in the entire book of 1 Corinthians. He’s also talking about how it can be derailed.

    One way it can be derailed is by ignoring it. If we don’t teach people to do anything, well, they won’t be proud of their doing. It doesn’t work that way. Without an understanding of the gift and gratitude for that gift, we head down performance-drive, or performance diminished paths.

    Conclusion

    Only if we teach that sanctification is a work of God, graciously given by God, measured by God, and judged by God can we talk about things to do and have any hope of not generating spiritual pride, criticism, judgment, and finally factions and schism.

    Featured photo credit 117597185 © Antonio Guillem | Dreamstime.com

  • Link: On the Participles of Hebrews 6:4-6

    Link: On the Participles of Hebrews 6:4-6

    Via Dave Black, I found this post, which outlines the participles of this passage well. I have expressed my view on this passage previously, and it takes the participles into account and aligns with one of the positions suggested.

  • Grace and the Book of Hebrews

    Grace and the Book of Hebrews

    In my experience, Hebrews has provided a wealth of texts for sermons that call for works and human effort. Pride of place, perhaps, should be held by the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection, for which one of the central texts is Hebrews 6:1. No matter how many times Wesley affirmed Christian perfection as a gift of grace, he was unable to prevent this becoming a basis for performance based salvation, judgment, and self-righteousness. (While I believe in sanctification, and will mention it below, I don’t accept the idea of perfection in this life.)

    Hebrews 6:4-6 follows, which is often treated as teaching that if we commit some particular sin or other, we will lose our salvation for doing so. I’ve written about this recently, and I disagree, but I’ve heard it preached.

    Then there’s Hebrews 10:26-31, starting with the warning against continuing in sin and ending with what a terrifying thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Or Hebrews 11, so often preached as a litany of great accomplishments and presented against the lack of accomplishments in the congregation. We must, of course, become faithful like these heroes of ancient times and hold up our end of the deal. After all, God needs us and demands our service.

    Hebrews 12 starts with the clouds of witnesses, which I’ve heard preached as the “encouragement” of having all these wonderful people watching you from heaven, so you had better not mess up. Don’t want all these holy people watching you mess up, do you?

    Of course, you aim to accomplish all of this in fear of the God who is a devouring fire (12:29).

    James may be seen as an epistle of works (not an accurate portrayal, in my view, but Hebrews may well have been the source of more sermons on performance righteousness.

    But is this approach justified by the text of the letter itself? I don’t think so.

    Let me make a couple of assertions that I’m not really going to justify. Knowing that I believe these may help you understand the rest of what I’m saying. The first is that there was never a plan for salvation presented in scripture that did not have as its goal the creation of a holy people. From the invitation to the first couple to walk in the garden with God, to the call in Leviticus to be holy as God is holy, to Jesus asking disciples to follow him, to Paul inviting everyone to put their faith in Jesus, the anointed one, all the plans are part of one plan aiming at that point. The second is that grace is one of the, of not the, most difficult things to accept, because if grace is true, we are not in control. We humans like to be in control.

    Hebrews is a book about God making a holy people, and it’s a book about how none of us are in control.

    Hebrews starts with the description of God’s gracious gift, himself, in the person of Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-4 lays out this presentation. The one who is sent is sufficient to the task. As we move through the book, we see Jesus presented as one of us, tested as we are, and sharing in our experience. I have been asked whether I see Hebrews as teaching substitutionary atonement. If this is a question of whether Jesus died for us and for our sins, then the answer is surely “yes.” But if we mean “penal substitutionary atonement,” as in Jesus taking our punishment in a judical context, I think the answer is “no.”

    In Hebrews, Jesus is presented as becoming one of us. The necessary elements of the sacrifice is that it must be perfect, i.e., fully connected to God, and also fully ours. Then the form of “dying for” is incorporation. We are in Christ who is our king, our parent, and our priest, and we are incorporated in his death. He dies and we die “in him.” It is not a judicial substitution, but rather that the one dies for the nation (John 11:50) as one of the nation, indeed, as the king. The key here is that we become incorporated into that kingdom, that community, and are thus buried in his death and raised into his life (Romans 6). I think Hebrews is closely aligned with this Pauline theological presentation. Everything we are called to accomplish in the book is accomplished in Christ. That’s why Christ is presented first in the book and his superiority is established. (Refer again back to my post on Hebrews 6:4-6 for some backup for this idea.)

    So when we are called to perfection, we are called to be carried on to perfection. This is not the perfection of a person who lives a perfect life, and certainly not something we accomplish on our own. That’s clear through the arguments on why Jesus is the perfect high priest. In order to make that argument, one must establish that we are not capable of this on our own. The perfection to which we are called and to which we are carried is not ours, but the perfection of Jesus (Hebrews 5:9). He, Christ, is the source of salvation.

    Of course it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but we can instead be in the hands of the living God through the high priest who is sympathetic to our weaknesses. Of course, there is no more sacrifice for sin. If Jesus has opened a “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:19-20), then the only options are to go through it or not. If we are offered complete access to God and incorporation into his redemption and sanctification, what other option is needed? What other option could possible work?

    Then there’s Hebrews 11, which I think provides the key to the view of the message of Hebrews I’m presenting here. Contrary to those who preach Hebrews 11 as a triumph of the saints, it is, in fact, a triumph of grace in action. We err if we read this without adequate consideration of the stories from the Hebrew scriptures of these great heroes. Moses doesn’t fear the wrath of the king in Hebrews 11, but he flees in terror in Exodus. Sarah is rewarded for faith, but in Genesis she laughs. These people were not those who tried to obtain perfection, but those who were carried on to perfection. In 11:40 we are told that God’s plan was that they should attain perfection “with us.”

    That perfection, I believe is found in Jesus, and only in Jesus.

    These are the witnesses of Hebrews 12. We are being watched as we are carried on by those who have been carried before us. The question is truly simply whether we will truly be carried on. We can miss this both by thinking that we are going to do it ourselves, or by missing that it needs to be done at all. I’ve used the metaphor of a train for the theme of Hebrews. Get on the right train and stay on it until it reaches its destination. You can equally fail by sitting at the train station by never getting on the train, or if you set out to run alongside the train on your own power. Neither one will work. But if you get on the train you’ll move forward. (As with all metaphors, this one has its weaknesses!)

    In this view of grace, it is not put against faith. It is not faith vs. works, as though there were two approaches and one was better. It’s not a balance between faith and works. No amount of running, even combined with train-riding attempts, is adequate. But sitting in the station is also not a real option.

    What I think Hebrews makes clear is that the grace is available. Jesus opens the way to God. This is grace in action. But rather than being the enemy of true works, works of faith, grace is what opens the door and makes any works, any holiness, and any approach to God possible. Sanctification occurs only on the train, i.e., only when we are being carried on toward perfection in Jesus, our brother, our sacrifice, our high priest, and our king.

    That’s why I see grace as the critical key to the entire book of Hebrews, but I also see the book as providing a critical view of grace, a grace that is active, even more, that is God’s action taken in our lives.

    In this post I have not provided nearly enough scripture and logic to back this up fully. This is just an introduction. My recommendation is that you consider these ideas while reading the entire book to see what you find.

    (Feature image credit: Openclipart.org.)

  • A Question of Ecumenism, Theology, or Exegesis

    Over the last few days Adrian Warnock has been posting excerpts from John Piper’s new book on justification, The Future of Justification. His latest seems to represent an escalation, with its title John Piper: Is N. T. Wright Preaching Another Gospel?. Adrian has maintained throughout that Piper is being gracious to Wright and is accurately representing Wright’s views.

    Other than to note the escalation, however, the grace (or lack thereof) of Piper’s book (which I have not read) is not my topic. I don’t have a dog in this hunt, so to speak, because I am not nearly as concerned that one gets justification precisely right. This topic is, in my view, very susceptible to “doctrinal correctness”–a tenseness about precise terms that makes it difficult to explore. Reformed theologians in particular seem to want to make one’s precise understanding of justification they anchor point of their theology. They equate it with the gospel. I couldn’t possibly disagree more. The gospel is not a precise understanding of esoteric points of theology.

    Which leads me to the actual purpose of this post. What is driving the discussion? Piper is criticizing Wright’s view on justification, and I’m not going to criticize him directly, but there is a clear tendency in Adrian’s quotes from Piper, and that is simply define what reformed theology has been up until now, demonstrate that Wright disagrees, and leave the obvious impression that Wright must be wrong.

    Elsewhere, there are some who claim that Wright’s theology is driven by ecumenical goals–bringing Catholic and protestant views together. I’m not sure how well that is going, if it is true. Certainly the hardliners in the reformed camp aren’t feeling the ecumenical spirit in all of this.

    But when I read Wright himself, I get a different impression entirely of his driving force. Now I need to place a caveat here. I am only a small part of the way through my own preliminary studies of this New Perspectives on Paul, and I probably won’t try to express my own opinion on some of the key issues for months. Right now I can simply say that the work of Wright answers some questions about Paul for me and raises others. I’m tempted to simply fall back to the notion that Paul was a complex character, and does not willingly fit into our theological boxes.

    When N. T. Wright goes about doing his own writing he appears to me to be driven not to find or produce a particular theological result, but rather by exegetical concerns. He seems to be more careful to follow the text where it leads than the majority of writers. I’ve read. For an example of his exegetical writing, see On Becoming the Righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). For a more theological view, with Wright expressing his own view of justification, see Justification: The Biblical Basis and its Relevance for Contemporary Evangelicalism.

    In response to this, we need more than theology. I have no doubt that there are reformed theologians making theological arguments, yet there are also many who are simply happy to point out that Wright fails to meet their standards of “orthodox evangelical theology” and thus can be dismissed out of hand.

    But wasn’t one of the features of the reformation going directly back to scripture? At this point it looks to me like the Bishop of Durham is behaving like a reformation theologian–digging through the texts and trying to come to the best understanding possible, while the purported defenders of the reformation are left to point out just how orthodox their teaching is–by their standards.

    If I’m given the choice between defending theological turf and wrestling with exegesis and trying to understand Paul in his world and mission I’ll choose the latter every time.

  • Quotes on Imputed Righteousness

    The translator’s difficulty with this passage arises from the lack of a single English verb to express both “do right” and “be right with God”; of a noun that means both “righteousness” and “acceptance with God as righteous”; and of an adjective to describe the man who is both “righteous” and “accepted as righteous,” or to use the Latin, both “just” and “justified.” The resulting obscurities and inconsistencies give aid and comfort to human nature–Paul would say “the flesh”–in its habit of divorcing faith from faithfulness and justification from righteousness. The interpreter has to guard against basing “justification by faith” upon a fictive or imputed righteousness rather than presenting it as an actuality inseparable from the Christian’s present life in Christ. When Paul says that the righteous man who is both just and justified is to live on the basis of faith, he is describing a way of life that is present as well as future. His faith is the determinant of action which makes righteousness actual even now.
    — The Interpreter’s Bible on Galatians 3:11

    But to him that worketh not – It being impossible he should without faith. But believeth, his faith is imputed to him for righteousness – Therefore God’s affirming of Abraham, that faith was imputed to him for righteousness, plainly shows that he worked not; or, in other words, that he was not justified by works, but by faith only. Hence we see plainly how groundless that opinion is, that holiness or sanctification is previous to our justification. For the sinner, being first convinced of his sin and danger by the Spirit of God, stands trembling before the awful tribunal of divine justice ; and has nothing to plead, but his own guilt, and the merits of a Mediator. Christ here interposes; justice is satisfied; the sin is remitted, and pardon is applied to the soul, by a divine faith wrought by the Holy Ghost, who then begins the great work of inward sanctification. Thus God justifies the ungodly, and yet remains just, and true to all his attributes! But let none hence presume to “continue in sin;” for to the impenitent, God “is a consuming fire.” On him that justifieth the ungodly – If a man could possibly be made holy before he was justified, it would entirely set his justification aside; seeing he could not, in the very nature of the thing, be justified if he were not, at that very time, ungodly. — John Wesley on Romans 4:5

    Note that I’m not quoting these as authority for the position, but rather as expressions of this view of imputed and imparted righteousness to spark thought. I do consider both of these statements very good expressions of my own view on the matter.

    I would place these expressions alongside what Adrian Warnock quoted from Wayne Grudem.

    If I could add my own note, God counted (not “thought of”) Jesus as one of us (sinners), to bring an end to that reality. He counts us as righteous upon our justification, in order to begin bringing an end to the reality of sin in our lives. This is one of the problems I see with making PSA the central metaphor of the atonement. One almost has to see God in error. He sees Jesus as sinful, even though he is not, and he sees us as righteous, even though we are not. I would say that God intentional mixes the categories–counting Jesus as one of us, and then us with Jesus–to bring about the reality. He always knows what he is doing, and I think it’s better to express it in that way.