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I go to a church in which the Bible is referred to as “the Word of God” and it’s inerrancy is upheld as the basis (or foundation) of our belief. Here, Christians are basically people who decided to trust the Bible and arguments on Doctrine or Practice can be solved by consulting and quoting of Scripture.
Many of my brothers and sisters know the Bible very well and can quote chapter and verse (of which I am envious) but I have several issues with this “high” view of Scripture which have brought me into some conflict in the past with some of the pillars that be. Read the rest of this entry »
The following question has been crystallising in my mind of late: is righteousness a status God bestows or a property he acknowledges? This, it seems to me, is the issue which divides protestant / catholic belief. Protestants, particularly Reformed Evangelicals hold: not our righteousness is counted but Christ’s (see John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ) because God justifies the ungodly as we read in Romans 4:
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Rom 4:5
I would seem that if God calls a sinner a saint, then that is so. The reformed answer to the Euthyphro Dilemma is: Good is what God says is Good. We Christians may be bad people, but we’re good in God’s sight because of faith and that’s what counts. Thus, the flip side of our sins not being counted (forgiveness) is that Jesus life get’s booked to our account.
This conclusion is confirmed each time I read or hear an evangelical teaching. I listened to a preaching today by a good pastor from the south of England regarding Romans 4. His key exegetical points were that Paul is showing:
- You can’t earn entrance into heaven
- If you think you’re good, you’re not
- It is by grace through faith all the way (Eph 2:8)
He illustrated the second point from Luke 18:9-14 where a tax collector beats his breast in repentance after a Pharisee boasts his righteous deeds before God. Jesus says that the tax collector “went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
This really sums up evangelical thinking: Only God is truly Good and only when he justifies a person are they righteous. God declares someone righteous not because they are in fact righteous but because they have faith. Righteousness is a status bestowed and not a property discovered.
Now, it’s obvious that we all sin and need forgiveness. But is this the model for the Final Judgement? Will we stand before Christ, who will judge our deeds (Mt 24, 2 Cor 10), and, when things look bad, we fall on our knees and plea for mercy? Why can’t non-Christians do this? Or will Christians simply not be present at this horrible Judgement Day?
Many evangelicals have concluded that there is no real judgement for believers (Rom 8:1). There is an Awards Ceremony for Christians and a Terrible Judgement for the rest. Our sins are paid for and ignored because we believed and we’re only here to get awarded for good service by God. Evangelicals say Christians escape judgement and receive forgiven because of faith.
The closest thing I can find in Jesus teaching about this doesn’t quite match. In Matthew 7 Jesus says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” and in Matthew 6:14 “if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you”. Disciples are taught that they escape judgement and receive forgiven because they have forgiven and not judged.
| Forgiven | Not Judged | |
| Reformed Tradition | By Grace Through Faith on the Basis of the Cross | |
| Jesus | By Forgiving Others | By Not Judging Others |
In case it was unclear Jesus re-iterated (Mt 6:15): if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. What does that mean for any evangelicals who don’t forgive but “trust in the Blood”!?
My point is not simply the glaring gap between human tradition and Jesus teaching. Rather it’s that the evangelical teaching is a seemingly arbitrary formal deal (faith for forgiveness) whereas Jesus teaching is a logical real deal (reciprocal forgiveness). Evangelicals think God justifies and forgives on the basis of faith but Jesus teaches forgiveness on the basis of certain “works”. Secular people cannot follow our “justification by faith” doctrine but they really get “do unto others” and expect God to award good behaviour and “forgive us as we forgive others”. Are they seriously misled? I would say they’ve understood the Lord’s teaching better than us.
OK, we can debate about whether forgiveness is a “work” or not but I know that in many evangelical circles forgiveness, a virtue, will be classified as “good works”, as one of those good things we try to do to earn God’s approval. Is that really so bad? My English preacher used Galatians 5 to show that our good works are just like circumcision – they annul Christ’s work.
But Listen to Jesus:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Matthew 5:43-45
The main point of this verse is that God is benevolent towards all humans, good or bad, and so should we be. But the tacit assumptions are revealing and not generally shared by evangelicals:
- Sonship is earned by loving people
- There are just and unjust people
Again, we can debate whether or not “earned” is the right word but I expect love and prayer to be exactly the types of “good works” evangelicals keep telling us won’t get us to heaven. Prayer is typically associated with a religious duty and we know the bad Pharisees made long prayers (Mt 6). Yet here we have Jesus saying: “Do this, so that you will be sons of God”.
Of course sonship is not technically the same as forgiven and justified. Theoretically you could be adopted as a son by God with or without forgiveness and justification. However, biblically, these things go together (John 1:12, 2 Cor 6:18, Mt 6:8) – the justified are God’s family. Evangelicals treat sonship and justification as applying to the same group of people and I concur. But this makes passages such as Mt 5:43-45 above difficult for evangelicals who believe that faith and grace are all that is required. Indeed many of Jesus sayings, particularly Mt 25:31-46 is practically unintelligible for the Sola Fide group.
Think of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). He came home in repentance, pleaing for mercy. His father basically “justified” him by calling him “son” although the man acknowledged he did not deserve it. The father gave the status of sonship at the same time as forgiveness because he repented and pled for salvation (not because of his “faith”). This is Initial Justification, God’s “Welcome Home” to the repentant sinner. This is the topic of Romans 3:21 onwards.
Imagine now the scene many years later when the father stands up to speak of his son. He speaks about the things his son really did, how he helped develop the business, assisted his family, saved that sheep and praised his faithfulness. Perhaps the father will gloss over the failings but he surely won’t praise the son for deeds he never did, imputing righteousness as evangelicals understand it.
I conclude, with N.T. Wright (see Justification) that our present status before God as a result of Initial Justification by Faith is an anticipation of the final judgement where there will be a Justification by Works and that Paul has made this perfectly clear in, the oft neglected, or twisted Romans 2.
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Romans 2:5-13
I remember, shortly after conversion, joyfully reading the opening chapters of Romans and thinking “wow, this is amazing, laws are unimportant now, just belief is what counts” – what a relief! I basically read Romans without understanding the context yet latching on to certain phrases as in Romans 3:
20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law;…blah blah bla…a righteousness from God, apart from law, …blah blah bla… 23comes through faith in Jesus…blah blah bla… 24and are justified freely by his grace…blah blah bla…On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
I concluded that Paul was saying that obedience to God’s law(s) was no longer required but just that we have faith (whatever that meant). I was reading the Bible to find out about salvation ignorant of what Paul intended to communicate and which struggle he was combating. Was Paul really fighting “legalistic spirit” in Romans, doing away with obedience and good works, and setting up faith in its place? I no longer think so and have argued elsewhere that we have often misunderstand what “works of the law” and, more especially “faith” mean to Paul. This view is also known as the New Perspective on Paul [1] and is considered by some, to be a mini-Reformation or at least an exciting re-discovery of Pauline Theology. Read the rest of this entry »
I remember how visibly shocked an atheist friend of mine was when I told him that the core message of Christianity was NOT a moral one. Perhaps you are shocked and are sure that Christianity’s chief concern is our morality. Perhaps you are well past personal moral striving (self-righteousness) and into justification by faith but still sure that the whole point is our moral dilemma before God and that Jesus is the solution for our guilt as a result of our immorality. I hope to offer a glimmer of a much bigger plan which Jesus announced and is still being unveiled.
I hear again and again that if you believe Jesus died (i.e. atoned) for your sins you are saved. Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16) and thus, putting 2 and 2 together we arrive at the formula that the Gospel is, essentially, atonement.
Although this is indeed good news for those who believe it, I’ve argued elsewhere that this is not the real Gospel but a subjective implication. The real Gospel is the royal proclamation of Jesus’ Kingship, a message about Him, true for everyone, a call to all to obedience and allegiance. Nevertheless I’m prepared to consider that I might be wrong and that Atonement is the Gospel and I would like to explore that possibility.
Read the rest of this entry »
Doctrinally speaking, the church is in a mess. This worries conservatives, for whom doctrine is all-important, as much as it does liberals for whom doctrine is divisive and dangerous. On the whole, it damages our credibility when the world sees our doctrinal divisions and thinks: Why would a God permit such confusion and division? Why do some Christians teach this and others that? Best to stay agnostic!
The more I study doctrines and the Bible, the more I see that no doctrine captures and can account for the entire message and spirit of scripture. Doctrines try to make the Bible answer questions it doesn’t and we forget that the Bible is not a work of Systematic Theology designed to be a handy reference to all questions about God.
Read the rest of this entry »
Salvation by faith alone is the characteristic doctrine of Protestant theology and yet, in this form, a subtle imprecise and misleading formulation of Justification by faith alone. I would not even bother mentioning it if I didn’t think that, for most people, the misunderstanding is serious and detrimental to a healthy understanding of the Bible and of God. I also found that investigating the difference between salvation and justification has shed light on some theological problems and inconsistencies I have come across.
I propose to use Paul’s writings as a basis for better understanding how justification and salvation are related because Paul’s letters are the closest thing to a systematic theology I can find in the Bible, certainly regarding salvation. I see Paul’s task as looking back on Gospel events and expounding the theological and practical implications for the early church. I see our task as doing the same thing and working out a theology and practice for today’s church. We must become acquainted then, not only with what Paul said and meant, but the meanings it would have had to the audience at the time. This is no easy task but we run the risk of reading the Bible with post-enlightenment spectacles and misunderstanding much if we don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
There is no shortage of good advice today. Self-help books line our shelves but we find ourselves nodding vigorously and yet unable to apply what we learn.
My good friend Ashton has written some deep thoughts on the important topic of how we understand some things with our minds and how, when they really sink in, we understand with our hearts. Indeed, Christians are entreated (commanded) with utmost importance to love God with our whole being: heart, mind, soul, strength. Yet, for the Greeks, the “heart” was more than just the emotions – it was the very core of a person – the center of their primary concerns. Thus if God’s truths are not changing us then either:
- We already knew them and fully understood and practiced the implications (ha!)
OR - They did not resonate with our heart’s true concern and so become real
As Christians, exposed to so much wisdom in one book or in a single preaching, we battle to get the ideas down to our hearts and into practice. The question is: why is this so, and how can we accelerate the process and grow spiritually?
I have noticed that as soon as some new knowledge hits my real concerns (my ultimate values) or gives me a hint that it (the idea) will help me achieve them I will be chasing it like a dog after a stick. If I’m not chasing it, that’s because it doesn’t help me get where I think I need to be. It misses my concerns.
So when I battle to implement forgiveness or patience I have to ask myself:
- Are my concerns already aligned with God’s will?
OR - Does my heart, my chief concern, need adjusting?
The obvious question is how heart adjustment happens and Ashton has touched on it: We can’t by sheer force of will, get new concerns. It would be like willing to will something else. What we will is not something which can be removed without something to replace it. Thomas Chalmers’ Sermon The Expulsive Power of a New Affection must be the standard work on how our hearts will always desire something (unless they are dead and we become indifferent) and we can only hope to expel vain concerns (idols) by newer, truer ones.
I can’t help but love a God who says he’ll take care of this! In Ezekiel 36:25-27 it is God, not us or our religious acts and prayers, who cleans us, gives us a new heart and pours out his Spirit so that we are able to walk in His ways. Ashton mentions 2 Corinthians 5:18 and we all know: while we were still sinners, God died for us. We didn’t clean up our act to come to God but came to Him so that he would clean us up. God takes the lead. This takes all the heat off doesn’t it?
* Of course these promises are made to His people and so we need to be sure we’ve entered into that covenant by accepting Jesus as Lord. Got Gospel yet?
Still, although God is the initiator, He works in ways which do not leave us as passive observers. When God says he’s going to change me, he involves me as opposed to snapping his fingers and having my body, mind and spirit working, in an instant, as a well-oiled machine. God is not a magician! He is a teacher and a worker of change. I have to listen, believe and act!
Ashton has described how we can emmerse ourselves in Scripture and let Truth soak into our being. This I must try sometime. What I have found helps a great deal is looking for God in and behind everything good be it Nature, people or any kind of beauty or “rightness” out there even if it is another religion(!). In general when you look for God: a) you find Him (woohoo!) and b) it does not leave you unchanged (shock!).
Getting back to the heart. I know people who tend to downplay what they call “feelings”: What is important is what the Bible says and not how I feel about it. This may be true from an impersonal point of view but cannot be applied to issues of which I am a key component i.e. the recipient. The Gospel IS true but how I react to it is of vital importance. Forgiveness is on offer but my response is key. Likewise I have to say that a person’s feelings or intuition about something, say salvation or the presence of God, cannot be neglected. It is often a more accurate indicator of reality than what they think (or try to force themselves to believe). What we believe is important and I don’t think we choose it – instead reality impresses upon us and then we believe.
In conclusion, for heart-moving change which stops us living life on the surface:
- We need important truths to be near our hearts as well as in our minds
- God is going to initialise and do it
- We get to work in this process
- It starts when we ask, seek, knock
- It takes time, be patient and enjoy the ride
Religion and Morality
Morality is a great thing and it really helps society when people play by the rules – Good Rules, that is. However, the Gospel is not about morality (surprised?) it’s about marriage (perplexed?).
Most people think that religions, however they came about, are ways of getting people to live good lives – and, to a certain extent they’re right. However, the Gospel is not religion, if it were, it would be Bad News and not Good News. The world did not need another or a better moral system and Jesus (himself anti-Religion and anti-Establishment) did not come to establish a new religion but his teaching was to highlight, through extreme examples, what should have been plain to all people: Give people a better moral standard and they’ll just fail all the more miserably. Lower the standard (as we moderns do) and they’ll be happier for a while but society decays as values erod. Humans simply cannot be good enough to establish just societies and install peace on earth for very long as history shows.
Still, we foolishly hope that this New Technology or that Social Policy will change things. We say “We’re learning” and “To be human is to err” – but these are unfortunately not harmless errors and our failed ideologies and methods are the cause of our worlds dismal state. Are we really learning and progressing?
“Gospel” Means Good News
The Gospel really is Good News because it says that the peace and justice and love and beauty and morality we all crave – indeed everything Really Good, comes from a perfect, eternal being (God) who is the source of all of these things, and freely gives them without any payment or merit (that is, by Grace) to any and all who want them and would ask (that is, by Faith).
God freely offers lasting peace, eternal justification, final justice, unending and unconditional love, eternal beauty and freedom from sin to everyone, for free, paid in full by his own son.
That’s the Gospel you don’t hear so often but it’s the only one the Bible teaches. This perhaps explains why most church-goers look so unhappy – they’ve never heard or understood the Good News and are being preached moralism and religiosity. The ironic truth is that you don’t need to clean up your act to come to God (classical religion) but that you need to come to God to clean up your act.
The Futility of Self-Salvation
As anyone who has tried to clean up their act will confirm, you only get only so far on effort – perhaps far enough to ease your conscience, feel good or be more socially acceptable but never, on your own steam will you live up to God’s standard of perfection (Mat 5:48 – Sermon on the Mount) and the glory for which he made you, which was in his own image. All fall short (Rom 3:23) and God does not grade on a curve or accept 50% or higher (or even 90% or higher) as a pass rate. Sound unfair? Well, only if you think of Final Judgment as a kind of entrance exam into a leisure lounge of fluffy white clouds and free cocktails amid harp music. That’s NOT what the God of the Bible is offering for eternity. God doesn’t want a roommate, he wants a wife.
The Intimacy God Desires
The Old and New Testaments are filled with images of how God sees Man and the image is consistently that of a Husband and his (unfaithful) wife. The whole Bible is a love story of a Husband (God) trying to woo his lover (humanity) back to Him in faithfulness – not just back to him. The book of Hosea makes it particularly clear when God makes the prophet marry a whore in order to show him what He (God) feels like at Israel’s rebellion and unfaithfulness in idolatry. God promises to win his people back to himself in the Old Testament which documents his faithfulness and commitment and mankind’s rebellion and shocking ingratitude. Continuing into the New Testament, the body of believers (a.k.a. the Church) is portrayed as the fulfilment of this promise, it is described as a spotless bride presented to God for a happy-ever-after together. The ultimate dowry for this eternal bliss (Heaven) is paid when God Himself, in the person of Jesus, dies in order to win his lover’s heart back. God would die to be with us forever in love and did just that.
The Perfection God Demands
If it were the case that God was proposing sharing his home (as room mates) with us we might expect that he’d accept us warts and all – we could move in with some of our dirty laundry – but marriage, in God’s eyes, is different. Marriage, in God’s eyes is a union of the most intimate nature in which man and wife become one body (Gen 2, Mat 5). Sex is the ultimate physical expression of this unity and intimacy and the Bible even uses this imagery in driving home the point.
But God is holy and perfect and will not marry – that is, commit Himself to a union – with a sinful, rebellious wife, darting her eyes in every direction for another man (or idol). God, perfect and holy, cannot share his bed with a whore. Nevertheless, he is courting us which is what this life is all about. We were made by and for God and yet we are loving other things, making stuff into gods, replacing our true Love with cheap lovers.
The Choice We Will Make
God’s bride has to be won over, He will not force her into marriage and, as with any proposal, she has 2 options: accept or reject. A “maybe” is, eventually, the same as a “no”. Thus Jesus is right in saying there is only one way, through Him we become cleansed and righteous and worthy (not by our works, but by His!) of His presence and glory and inheritance. Jesus offers an eternal return to God, a reversal of the Fall, which we can accept or reject – there is no compromise and no way out. God is so good that an eternity with Him is, by definition, Heaven and without him, Hell.
