Who says learning theology has to be boring?
In this video Shai Linne raps about the Atonement in Q & A catechetical fashion. Sound dull? Check it out…
I’ll bet you’ll be rappin’ along.
Reformed Doctrine
The Connection of the Law With the Gospel
There is a common question about how the Law of God and the Grace of God relate to one another. Some seem to wonder how they even co-exist.
Spurgeon, though, when once asked how he reconciled the Law and the Gospel, replied:
“There is no need to reconcile friends.”
Granted, there is some tension between these two great Biblical themes. But there is an answer – a wonderful, glorious answer.
Charles Bridges, a 19th Century Anglican pastor-theologian, takes up this issue and offers some profound and practical answers in an essay titled: The Connection of the Law With the Gospel.
Bridges’ language is a bit archaic, but with some effort most people should be able to grasp the richness of his insights. Having found it nowhere else on the web, I post his essay below for the benefit those willing to work through it.
But I have been thinking: Perhaps one day I will edit and translate this essay to language for our day… and post it again.
Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 4
by Douglas Wilson
We join a conservation in progress; it is between a young theological questioner who grew up in a typical Evangelical church, and an older pastor from a historical theological tradition.
*****
Pastor Spenser shifted easily in his seat while I carefully thought over my next question. “Some of my friends at my church have figured out that I have been coming to see you,” I said.
Pastor Spenser nodded, and waited.
“Naturally,” I said, “they are somewhat concerned.”
“Naturally. About what?”
“Well, they say that Christians who believe in the exhaustive sovereignty of God are setting themselves up.”
“For…?”
“For the temptation which says that because God controls everything, then the way I live doesn’t really matter.”
“I see. In other words, if I am elect, then my sins won’t damn me, and if I am not, then all the good works in the world won’t save me. Is that it?”
“Yes. That is exactly it. If the whole thing was settled before the world began, then why bother? My friends know that there are true Christians who believe this, but they think that, because of this theology, these Christians will tend to become careless about how they live.”
“Why should we take responsibility for our actions after we have embraced a theology which cuts the nerve of personal responsibility?”
“Right. If God controls everything, then what room is there for personal holiness?”
Pastor Spenser thought for a moment. “The problem is not with your friends’ concern for personal holiness. That is admirable. All Christians should set their faces against carnal living on the part of professing Christians. But it does no good to oppose carnal living with carnal reasoning.”
“What do you mean?”
“When someone is whooping it up down at the bars, or sleeping with their girlfriend, why do we say it is sin?”
“Is this a trick question?”
Pastor Spenser grinned. “You might say that. Why do we call such things sin?”
“Because the Bible does.”
“Exactly. So this carnal living we have been talking about is a lifestyle that is not in submission to the clear teaching of the Word of God.”
“Well, sure. But I still don’t see where you are going with this.”
“Now if carnal living is a lifestyle that does not submit to God’s Word, then how should we define carnal reasoning?”
“The same way, I suppose?”
“Right. It is not enough to submit what we do externally to God; we must also submit the way we think. Your friends are trying to defend God’s standards for living by abandoning His standards for thinking. It cannot be successful.”
“Is there a passage where this point is clear?”
“Yes, in Philippians. Chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.”
I turned to Philippians and read. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” I looked up.
“What does the passage say God is doing?” Pastor Spenser asked.
I looked down again. “It says that He is working in the Philippians, both in willing and doing, and that the result is His good pleasure.”
“And what would carnal reasoning do with that?”
“Well, the response would be that if God is doing the willing, and if God is doing the doing, and the result is whatever He wants, then there is no reason for me to put myself out. It is going to happen anyway.”
“Right. The reasoning says that if God is going to do the work, then why should I have to?”
I nodded, and Pastor Spenser went on.
“But what application of this truth does Paul command the Philippians to obey?”
I looked at the passage again. “He tells them to work out their own salvation, with fear and trembling.” I glanced down further. “And in the next verse he goes on to specific ethical instruction – to avoid murmuring and disputing.”
I sat and thought for a moment. “But my friends would say that the application they are making is obvious – common sense.”
“Well, it certainly is common. But is it biblical?”
“Why do so many Christians fall for this line of reasoning then? It seems like a trap that is extremely easy to fall into.”
“Well, yes, it easy to fall into. But it is also easy to drink too much, not watch your tongue, lust after women, and so forth. And these are things which the church recognizes as sin, and warns the people against. But carnal reasoning is also easy, and almost no one warns the people.”
“Why not?”
“Sheep are hungry because shepherds don’t feed them. Shepherds don’t feed them because shepherds don’t have food.” Pastor Spenser leaned forward in his seat. “The shepherds don’t have food because they don’t study their Bibles.”
“You think it is obvious in the Word?”
“Certainly. When the apostle Paul magnified the prerogatives of the sovereign God, he fully anticipated the response of carnal reasoning.” Pastor Spenser leaned back, closed his eyes, and quoted, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’” A modern pastor, in the unlikely event that someone asked him this, would say that it was a good question, and that he wrestles with it often himself. Paul tells the questioner to shut up and sit down. ‘But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?’”
“Paul doesn’t answer the question then?”
Pastor Spenser opened his eyes. “Oh, he does. It just isn’t the answer carnal reason wants.”
“So what is the answer?”
“The answer is God – the same answer that is given at the end of the book of Job. Carnal reason doesn’t see a real answer there either. But believe me, it is a real answer. The answer is the ground of reality; the answer is God.”
“What happens at the end of the book of Job?”
“The questions raised in the book are conducive to carnal reason; indeed, even non-Christians are attracted to the first part of the book of Job. As they would put it, ‘It addresses the human condition.’ But then, at the end of the book, God comes in, with glory and thunder. And do you know what? He doesn’t answer any of the impertinent questions; rather, He poses some sobering questions of His own. ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’”
I nodded. “And He asks where Job was when the universe was created.”
“The question is not irrelevant. It is the heart of the matter. Discussions of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility very rarely display any understanding at all of Who the Creator is.”
“But my friends would say that you are making God responsible for evil, and that they are concerned to protect God’s honor and glory.”
Pastor Spenser looked at me intently. “It is true that the affirmation of God’s total control over all things causes some to blaspheme. But your friends need not be concerned for God’s glory; man’s slanders and blasphemies do not touch Him. Such slanderers are pelting the sun with wadded-up balls of tissue paper.”
“They are stumbling over something though.”
“They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.”
“Now, see? Why do you have to put these things so strongly? Doesn’t that cause people to react to what you are teaching? They were appointed to stumble?”
“That wasn’t my choice of words. I was quoting 1 Peter 2:8.”
“Oh. Oops.”
“Your friends are concerned that God be seen as good. But seen as good by whom? Those who believe the Word of God will know that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Of course He is good – by definition. And those who do not believe the Word of God will persist in thinking that there is a tribunal or court somewhere in which God will one day be arraigned. On the day of judgment, their folly will be apparent to all – even to them.”
“So how do we bring this back to the original point?”
“The original point was the concern that the doctrine of God’s sovereignty would be made into a cushion for sin. My answer to this is that we must, in all things, recognize God as God. We must do so in how we live holy lives, but we must also do so in why we live holy lives. We are to live in a holy way because God has commanded it.”
“But you would also say that what God has commanded the believer He has also given the believer.”
“Well, certainly.”
“I honestly see why carnal reason has a problem with this.”
“And I honestly see why carnal men want to lust after beautiful women. But what does the Bible say?”
“What do you mean?”
“What is the greatest commandment?”
“That we love God.”
“And what is the first fruit of the Spirit?”
“Love.” I said. “I see.”
“What do you see?” Pastor Spenser asked.
“This takes us back to Philippians. We are commanded to work out what God works in.”
“Right.” he said. “Nothing less.”
***
This is Part 4 in a series of 6 posts titled Easy Chairs & Hard Words.
Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 3
by Douglas Wilson
“At last,” I thought. “Now we should be able to talk about what brought me here in the first place.” Pastor Spenser and I were both settling in chairs with the conversation already well under way.
“I know what your position is,” I said. “But I am afraid that I still don’t know why.”
“And what is my position?” he said, smiling.
“Well, I assume that you believe that it is not possible for a Christian to lose his salvation…that’s correct, isn’t it.”
“Sort of.”
I grinned. “Way to come down clearly on the issue.”
Pastor Spenser laughed. “There would be a lot more peace in the church if Christians learned to frame their questions more biblically.”
“How do you mean?”
“The question is posed as to whether a Christian can lose his salvation, the pros and cons line up, and debate the question as it was posed. But salvation is not a personal possession of ours, like car keys, which can be misplaced by us.”
“So what is the real question?”
“The way the question is usually asked, we wonder if a Christian can lose his salvation, which is the same as asking whether a Christian can lose Christ. Some say yes, and others no.”
“And you would say…?”
“I would ask whether Christ can lose a Christian.”
“I don’t get you.”
“Christians are those who are redeemed or purchased for God through the blood of Christ. We have been bought with a price. Now if someone, so purchased, winds up in Hell, then who has lost that person’s salvation?”
“I’m sorry, I must be thick. I still don’t get what you are driving at.”
“Christians cannot lose their salvation, for the simple reason that their salvation does not belong to them. It belongs to Christ. If anyone is to lose it, it must be He. And He has promised not to.”
“Where does the Bible teach that we are His possession?”
“There are many passages which cover this…too many to cover tonight. Why don’t we just look at several? I’ll give you a list of others.”
“Fair enough.”
“In Revelation 5:9-10, the new song in honor of the Lamb states that He has redeemed us to God by His blood – from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.”
“And…”
“In 1 Corinthians 6:20, it says, `For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
“It seems pretty clear.”
“Right. In salvation, Christ does not become our property; we become His. So in discussing this, we must remember that all the saving is done by Him. Those who want to maintain that salvation can be lost are really saying that He is one who loses it.”
“This throws the whole debate into a completely different light.”
“It does. And frankly, it is the difference between grace and works.”
“How so?”
“To assert that a man can lose his salvation through what he does or does not do is to assert, in the final analysis, salvation by works.”
“But the church in which I grew up taught that you can lose your salvation, but they also preached salvation by grace.”
“Not quite. They preached a conversion experience by grace. But how is that experience to be maintained and protected? And by whom? They begin with the Spirit, but seek to finish through human effort.” I must have looked confused, so he continued.
“Were you ever taught that you could, by committing certain sins, place yourself outside of Christ?”
“Yes, and it terrified me.”
“Now, let’s say that you committed such a sin, and then were killed in a car wreck? Where would you go?”
“To Hell.”
“And why?”
“Because I had sinned, and a holy God cannot look on sin.”
“And your salvation, or lack of it, was up to whom?”
“You are arguing that it was up to me. I can tell you that it certainly felt that way. The more I wanted to serve God, the more condemned I felt.”
“Don’t you see that your insecurity was the result of your salvation riding on a roulette wheel…every day?”
“How so?”
“If you died on Monday, you go to be with the Lord. If you died on Thursday, off to Hell. On Sunday night, you are heaven-bound again.”
“You are saying that this is salvation by works?”
“What else can we call it? And it produces two kinds of people. One group is confident in their own righteousness, but they have watered down the righteous standards of God in order to delude themselves this way. The other group is comprised of sincere people, who, because they are honest, realize that they are under condemnation.”
“It seems a little strong to say that they are professing salvation by works, though.”
“Paul rebuked Peter to his face at Antioch, and why? Because Peter did something as “trivial” as withdrawing table fellowship from Gentiles temporarily. But Paul knew that the gospel was threatened by this. How much more is it threatened through teaching that a Christian can do a “work” which will blow his salvation away? This teaching makes salvation depend upon the works of men.”
“You contrasted this with grace.”
“Correct. Salvation by grace is a gift from God. “Salvation” by works is man’s attempt to earn his way into the presence of God, or in this case, his attempt to earn his right to stay there.”
“But what is to prevent someone from saying they are “saved by grace,” and then going to sin up a storm?”
Pastor Spenser laughed. “Nothing at all. Sinners can say and do what they please. Until the judgment.”
“But how would you answer the objection?”
“There are two things worth noting about it. One is that having to answer it places me in good company. The apostle Paul had to answer the same objection in Romans 6, against those who objected to his message of grace. Secondly, the answer is the one Paul gives. Recipients of grace do not get to decide to receive forgiveness grace, while passing on death to sin grace. How can we who died to sin, still live in it?”
“But aren’t there some who teach that salvation can be lost simply to keep this type of person from presumption?”
“There are some who insist on teaching that Christians can lose their salvation out of a concern they have for ‘holiness’. They say that if this is not done, then people will abuse grace. But if you hold the biblical perspective, you do not consider grace a possession of ours, to be abused or not. Rather, grace belongs to God, and He never abuses it.”
“This means what?”
“In Ephesians 2:8-9, we learn that we are saved by grace through faith. In the next verse, we learn that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works prepared beforehand by God. God’s grace is never truly abused because it belongs to God. Those outside abuse the name grace, but they cannot touch the thing itself.”
“You sound like you have very little respect for those on the other side of this issue.”
“That is not quite true. Some of them are teaching another gospel, and the condemnation of the apostle is sufficient for them. But there are others who are true Christians, and who hold this position because of their reading of certain texts…Hebrews 10:26, for example.”
“You respect them?”
“Yes. I believe them to be wrong, but their error proceeds from a desire to be honest with the text. With the purveyors of a false gospel, the error comes from an almost complete confusion of grace and works.”
“What about Hebrews 10:26?”
“We are almost out of time. Why don’t I read that passage, adding some comments of my own based on the context of Hebrews. Then you can go back through the book with that context in mind. It should be helpful in chapter 6 as well.”
“Fine.”
“For if we sin willfully by going back to the sacrifices of bulls and goats after we have received the knowledge of the truth that Christ was the once for all sacrifice for sin, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins because temple sacrifice of bulls and goats is a system that is fading away, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries because they are sacrificing their bulls and goats in a temple that will be destroyed in just a few years.”
I laughed. “Is all that in the Greek?”
Pastor Spenser grinned. “No, but it is in the context. Read through the book of Hebrews with the impending destruction of Jerusalem in mind, and consider the problem caused by professing Christians who were being tempted to return to Jerusalem in order to sacrifice there. The fire that was going to consume the enemies of God in this passage is not hellfire.”
“So what is the basic issue here?”
“It is grace; grace and works. Works is a barren mother; she will never have any children, much less gracious children. Grace is fruitful; her children are many, and they all work hard.”
****
This is Part 3 in a series of 6.
GRACE & PEACE 