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Love unites. It is the union of diversity. To be united with the eternal is to be eternal. To have eternal life we must be united with an eternal life-giving God. Does God love all? Yes, God is love. Do all love God? No, many are ignorant of or even hate (the idea of a) God. Therefore not all are in a love relationship with God. So not all are united to God. Many are seperated from eternity.
But God sent Jesus to reconcile and unite ALL to God. Has Jesus failed? No, but reconcilliation requires something from both parties. Jesus achieved and expressed God’s offer, but not all have seen this expression or heard of God’s love for them. Thus they cannot love God in return and remain untouched by the power of the Gospel to unite them to God.
Will they be lost if we do not preach to them? Does an all-powerful God have no other way of reaching the lost than through an imperfect and ineffective body of believers? Does their salvation lie solely our hands? Surely not. What arrogance. What lack of peace.
Could God have a better way than simply our preaching to express love for the world? Surely God could implant the idea in their hearts and minds and convict them in an instant. God has chosen an ineffective method of communicating love.
If God truly loves all people and desires to see them saved by being united to Himself then He must have an alternative way for them to discover His love. He must do everything He can. It seems arbitrary to insist people be preached at in this life and converted. I must conclude that God can reach more of the lost, if not in this life then outside of this life.
Although most theologians would be at pains to say that God’s plan of redemption in Jesus was conceived before the world was made, many people see it as a kind of plan B necessary to save a world which failed at plan A namely obedience to God’s Law. Is the New Covenant really a breaking of God’s original plan whereby one was saved by obedience and can now be saved by “easy” beliefs? Paul’s vision in Romans is grander, both are by grace and both require obedience. Read the rest of this entry »
There is an unstated but deep-rooted assumption in most Christian theology that righteousness is exclusively a moral category. That is, a person is perfectly righteous if they are morally perfect and any degrees of righteousness in a person are in a linear and inextricable relationship to the morality of that individual. This righteousness then becomes the basis of God’s judgement of that person and within this framework it is clear that any acquittal (aka justification) requires adequate moral performance.
Interestingly Catholics and Protestants have historically agreed with this assessment – they have however disagreed on the source and scope of that righteousness in justification. Catholics have said God transfers or implants his own righteousness into believers (Infusion) whilst Protestants have held that God reckons Christ’s perfect obedience unto believers (Imputation). In either case moral righteousness or obedience is the key to justification even if it is received by faith as Catholics and Protestants (now) agree it is. The problem is this: if justification is by grace it must be unmerited and both these models clearly require and account for obedient merit. Read the rest of this entry »
Most Christians hold to the doctrine of Original Sin and, however we dress this up for Sunday, on the street, it translates to “people are born guilty because of Adam”. This is a very damaging doctrine because it gives us a picture of God before whom all, even infants, are guilty and under wrath which is difficult to reconcile with a loving God (no matter what some theologians say). Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever wondered if everyone but the Christian Church is damned to hell? The Reformation gave us back something quite valuable by reminding us that the Bible teaches no hierarchy amongst believers. While some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers all are called to love and serve each other as brothers, in the face-to-face manner of Jesus, a great man yet who walked amongst men as friends and washed their smelly feet.
While it is clear that all followers of Jesus are called to mission, it is far from clear, from Jesus’ teaching, that only his followers would be saved. Let us set aside our black-and-white conception of the world divided into saved Christians and damned non-Christians and consider Jesus’ own words which, as will be plain, contained other categories. What emerges is an inclusive picture of people entering the Kingdom based not on religion or beliefs but on a multitude of other factors. Read the rest of this entry »
The more I read the Bible and the more I read (and learn from) Reformed Theologians, the more I realise I don’t fit in into the category of a Reformed Christian…
Reformed Christian
God, you are so Infinitely Holy that you cannot tolerate sin. All are sinners and are utterly unacceptable, Totally Depraved, and displeasing to you, Objects of Wrath. The right and holy and just thing to do is to Punish Sinners and your infinite nature requires you punish infinitely, damning all people to Hell. This alone is so glorious that we can only praise you for your Severe Justice, but you top that by going even further and Unconditionally Electing people from this group of hell-fodder for salvation. These you Unilaterally Regenerate and Justify completely apart from who they are or what they’ve done, giving them by Grace a Saving Faith which they could not produce. Because your Grace is not quite free, someone had to pay, so you sent Jesus to be the Substitution of Atonementwhich placates your Wrath. This Grace is not for everytone it’s called Limited Atonement and those elected for Life cannot resist your plan – it’s Irresistible Grace. You are now able to do what was not possible before and Ignore Sin, Counting Sinners as Righteous although they are not sinless. You detest any form of self-righteousness and want people to rely on your justification instead of trying to be good. When the time comes for all to be judged, you will count them as perfect (Imputation) because you will see only Christ’s obedience and look over their own disobedience. Those not elected by you for salvation will endure Eternal Conscious Torment in Hell whilst the elect will necessarily and deterministically Perservere as Saints to enjoy Paradise for ever. What counts is Doctrines Believed, the key to Good Religion is Justification by Faith, all authority grounded in Scripture.
Transformed Disciple
God you are so Infinitely Loving that you cannot allow sin to continue it’s damaging hold on your Human Creatures whom you made in your Image to Reflect your Glory into Creation. You sent your only Son as a fateful messenger who Fully Reveals God, the embodiment of who you are. You allowed him to be crucified as a Transformative Symbol of how you Condemn Sin and will destroy all evil and as an echo through history of how Man Rejected God. More than that, his blood was the Pledge a Promise to Forgive Our Sins. You want us to make Disciples of All Men so that all can know the Forgiveness Accessible to Any and All who would turn (Repent) and ask for it. You are not a respecter of status but deal with each Valuable Person according to how they live and treat others, not looking to their past failings but eagerly anticipating their future under your Reign. You graciously Pour out Your Spirit so that we can begin to be Conformed to the Image of Jesus and be freed from the power of sin. You then Proclaim our Right Standing in your sight, proof of our Adoption as Sons and Daughters, and of your Covenantal Faithfulnessto Israel. You promised to bless the world through Abraham’s Seed and your Church is not only the recipient of blessing but the Instrument of Blessing, as Christ’s body, by which your Justice, Peace and Love are multiplied and fulfilled in the World Today. You begin a Good Work in us as we Participate in your Plan which you will complete so that, at the final judgement, you will be able to truly say of us “well done, good and true servant, you worked well, fought the good fight and will inherit the Kingdom”. As Loving Creatoryour plan is not to destory the physical world but to Bury, Resurrect and Renew it so that your promises to Bless all Nations and Restore Creation will come to fulfillment and your appointed Lord, the Messiah, will bring your Rule On Earth as it is in Heaven. What counts is Faithful Allegiance, the key to Good Religion is Active Love for You and Your Creatures, all authority belongs to Jesus.
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
Faith is so central to Christianity that it deserves a revisiting occasionally to make sure we really understand what Jesus and the authors of the Bible mean that our justification is “by faith” or that we “live by faith”. This is part 2 in an brief investigation into the term “by faith”. In part 1 I looked at the uses and categories of “by faith” and “through faith” particularly in Paul and in Hebrews. Here follow further thoughts on the various meanings of faith as well as a quick look at Jesus’ use and Calvin’s interpretation.
The Four Faiths
We tend to use the word faith as a synonym for “belief”, yet I think we can discern at least 4 different types of faith:
- Faith is often conceived and preached as something you need to do in order to get some benefit (salvation, healing etc). In this sense it is a kind of willed belief.
- We have “faith” which is simply an impression of reality which we did not choose to believe – i.e. basic assumptions or convictions we hold which cannot be empirically verified which we nevertheless find confirmed in life and consistent with living.
- We then have trusting faith which is a decision to trust someone or something. This is different from believing propositions because it involves courage and a choice in trusting a person’s guidance and providence.
- Finally we have faithfulness which, I think unfortunately, is a different word from “faith”. Faithfulness is essentially active loyalty. In respect to authority, faithfulness is essentially obedience.
Which of these faiths is required of us, or present in us, which brings blessing, salvation and all the good stuff promised those “of the faith”? Types 1 and 2 are propositional, types 3 and 4 are inter-personal.
Jesus and Faith
Although the term “by faith” does not occur in the Gospels, Jesus has much to say on the matter of faith. He often expressed his exasperation (“Oh you of little faith…”) at the kind of faith he saw in his people, Israel. The episodes with the Centurion’s servant, the possesed son, or the Mustard Seed and Mountain seem to indicate that a persons ability to believe in something could make it happen and that Jesus was looking for this kind of faith. A faith which was convinced that God could and would do something amazing. Today we would call this “thinking positive“, perhaps embodied in the Gospel in Jesus’ words.
I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mk 11:24)
Paul goes in this direction near the end of Romans 4 where he seems to commend Abraham for believing God can do it as God is the God who calls things which are not as though they were. Now I don’t doubt the psychological effectiveness of positive thought, I just question whether this is the correct basis for justification.
My understanding of Jesus words is that faith is something God plants in you and that this seed develops into real healing, deliverance and rescue. It’s not so much an issue of will power but of bestowed Grace resulting in an impression of reality (Type 2). Perhaps Jesus recognises “their faith” as God’s hand in bringing about healing and is not primarily praising them for willing belief (Type 1).
Josephus and Faith
A good illustration of how faith was understood in the first century comes from the works of Josephus who describes his experiences as a young officer in the army. Wright tells in The Challenge of Jesus p44 of how he came across a passage where Josephus meets a rebel leader in Palestine and calls him to turn from his rebellious ways and trust Josephus for his agenda (Life p22).
The actual Greek phrase used is the same as Jesus’ call to “repent and believe”. This is stunning evidence that Jesus wasn’t simply calling people to “feel remorse and get religious” but to turn their life around and rally around Jesus and his agenda. It’s like a call to get onboard the Jesus Project more than to have a conversion experience. We’ve softened Jesus own words which amounted to treason and were more political than we’ve wanted to hear. Maybe “repent and believe” is better translated “turn and trust and obey me” (Types 3 and 4).
Reformation and Faith
Many Protestants have read Type 1 faith into Paul and come up with the idea that “if you believe (doctrine) you are saved, you will be”. Today I listened to an evangelist and author talk about the “saving knowledge of Christ”. For many, salvation is about epistemology, a hair’s breadth from Gnosticism.
This is particularly clear in our popular translations of Romans:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom 3:25)
- OR -
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Rom 10:9-10)
It seems, if we believe in His blood, or in the Atonement our sins are atoned for. Again, if we believe in the Ressurection we will be saved. I have critiqued this view in another post, it seems rather arbitrary and leads to the widespread idea that we need to think certain thoughts to be saved. Indeed I have often heard in Reformation circles that it is passive faith as opposed to active faith which saves. This seems to be Calvin’s perspective:
Now we shall have a proper definition of faith if we say it is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence toward us, which being founded upon the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ is both revealed to our minds and sealed in or hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Calvin, Institutes III.2.vii).
So, according to Calvin, faith is knowledge, it is not an active response, it’s not faithfulness. Whatever flows from this steady knowledge of God’s Grace is therefore a product, something else but not that saving faith by which we are justified.
Faith is the Basis of Salvation
I understand “Justification by Faith” to mean that we are initially justified by or on the basis offaith and that not “alone” but as part of our repentance. This faith is however not simple belief but the proper response to the call of Jesus to “repent and believe”. We thus have repentance + trust in Messiah = justification and the anticipation of salvation. Thus, Type 3 faith (personal trust) leads to initial justification and this is then evidenced by Type 2 faith. This is then worked out in Type 4 faithfulness which is the basis for final justification.
Many Protestants would argue however that it’s Type 1 faith which leads to justification which is then evidenced by works (Type 4). Calvinists specifically would argue it’s Type 2 faith (a gift of God, Eph 2:8) which leads to justification which then leads to works. Both groups would agree that I am wrong and that there is no difference between initial and final justification and that both are based on faith and Christ’s works.
Conclusion
Faith seems to be more complex than I initially imagined. I do so wish Churches would be teaching more discipleship along the lines of Type 4 (faithfulness) for I believe that this would increase the power of our witness to the world (Mt 5:16) and avoid the Gnostic error of salvation by knowledge. Nevertheless books have been written by protestants railing against this view and it’s a popular topic in American radio to take apart the latest sermon no in-line with certain theology. Indeed any preaching which talks about what we need to do and does not exclusively preach what Christ did is condemned as anti-Gospel, anti-Christo-centric and a “false Gospel”. How is Christ going to find any faithful servants when he returns if we fear to live as he did and rest on what he has done for us?
