Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Grace that leads to Virtue

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We must be careful not to confuse the righteousness of faith with the righteousness of a Christian life. The former is a gift of grace through the imputed righteousness of Christ making us right before God, the latter is the fruit or results of one who has been born-again, justified and adopted as God’s child.  Paul writes to Titus, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” (Titus 2:11-12). While we must avoid the error of legalism, a system of belief that says one is justified (made right with God) by faith plus the merit of our own works which is an obedience-based acceptance, it is equally important that we avoid the error of antinomianism, a system of belief that says one doesn’t need to give any proof of a life of repentance and virtue as evidence of being justified, an obedience-free acceptance. The grace of God does not exclude the Christian from obedience to God’s moral commands. Instead, in the gospel, our new motive is to eagerly desire to live righteously so that obedience becomes the natural expression of our grateful hearts, an acceptance-based obedience. Only in the gospel can we actually give complete loyalty and obedience to Christ and live a life of faith expressing itself through love.

I have recently discovered a theologian who beautifully communicates this careful balance in his classic work, True Christianity. He was often referred to as “the second Luther” by his contemporaries and yet another well-known theologian called him, “the prophet of interior protestantism.” Johann Arndt (1555-1621) was the first Luther scholar to see that “justification by faith alone” does not preclude doing good works but actually unleashes good works in the Christian. He has said,

“Many think that theology is a mere science, or rhetoric, whereas it is a living experience and practice. Everyone now endeavors to be eminent and distinguished in the world, but no one is willing to learn to be devoted. Everyone now seeks out men of great learning, from whom one may learn the arts, languages, and wisdom, but no one is willing to learn, from our only teacher, Jesus Christ, meekness and sincere humility, although his holy, living example is the proper rule and directive for our life…Everyone wishes very much to be a servant of Christ, but no one wishes to be his follower… He who loves Christ will also love the example of his holy life, his humility, meekness, patience, suffering, shame, and contempt, even if the flesh suffers pain…True Christianity consists, not in words or in external show, but in living faith, from which arise righteous fruits, and all manner of Christian virtues, as from Christ himself.”

Arndt is regularly careful to avoid the errors of legalism and antinomianism. Here is an example:

“You must take care that you do not connect your works and the virtues that you have begun, or the gifts of the new life, with your justification before God, for none of man’s works, merit, gifts, or virtue, however lovely these may be, count for anything. Our justification depends on the exalted, perfect merit of Jesus Christ, received by faith…Take great care, therefore, not to confound the righteousness of faith with the righteousness of a Christian life, but make a clear distinction (between them), for here is the whole foundation of our Christian religion.”

The Other Ditch

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The Road from Wressle to Foggathorpe, south ea...

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The Gospel says that you are deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted and significant in God‘s eyes through the merit of Jesus Christ.  Nothing you ever do will cause Him to love you any more or any less.  He loves you strictly by His grace given to you through Jesus. Encountering God‘s free and sovereign grace is supposed to lead us to  an overwhelming sense of gratitude and a complete willingness to give everything to God who has given us everything in His Son.

Of course, free love and grace have led some to licentiousness (license to sin) assuming unearned acceptance gives a new freedom to do anything they want. Paul anticipated this question after explaining that we are justified (made right with God) not by our works but by grace through faith:

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2).” He taught Titus, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (Titus 2:11-12).” After 11 chapters of explaining the gratuitous nature of salvation and mercy He explains to the Romans, “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God– this is your spiritual act of worship.” Similarly after 3 chapters of describing the work of Christ to call us into God’s family, Paul exhorts the Ephesians, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Ephesians 4:1).”

Recently I have been attempting to teach my daughter how to drive a car. I’ve found that one of the more important principles of driving is actually avoiding the ditches and staying on the road. But sometimes, because of our backgrounds, when we encounter the gospel and feel its freedom from rule-keeping, we can ride down the gospel road as if there is only one ditch. The ditch that we are most often aware of is the Legalism Ditch.

Legalism is a system of belief that says one is justified (made right with God) by faith plus the merit of our own works. Legalism is a works-based, conditional acceptance by God which, if fulfilled,  places God in the position as the debtor, the one who owes. Legalism is mechanical because it will only do the absolute minimum of what is absolutely required. This leads to a joylessness in life where we perform burdensome duties as a down payment for heaven. But legalism will never get anyone into heaven because it is impossible to be good enough. It is Obedience-based Acceptance.

The other ditch of which we are often not aware is the Antinomianism Ditch.

Antinomianism is system of belief that says one does not need to give any proof of a life of repentance and virtue as evidence of being justified (made right with God). Antinomianism is a perversion of Paul’s teaching on grace and actually mocks the holiness of God and the spiritual law that He gives us as a guide to holy living.  Antinomianism teaches that grace means that I am freed from morality and freed from adhering to any moral law leading many back into bondage to sin. Antinomianism rejects the very notion or expectation of obedience as legalistic.  It is Obedience-free Acceptance.

But the Gospel Road teaches something different than Legalism and something other than Antinomianism. The Gospel is an Acceptance-based Obedience. This means that if I know that I’m loved apart from how I perform, I will give my all. Now because we are justified by Christ, we are free to fulfill the Law by Loving God, and Loving Others, though we won’t do this perfectly. In the gospel, our new motive is to want eagerly to live righteously so that obedience becomes a natural expression of our grateful hearts.

Martin Luther clarified the gospel road in this way,

“Whoever he be that is assuredly persuaded that Christ is his righteousness, doesn’t only cheerfully and gladly work well in his vocation…but submits to all manner of burdens and dangers in his present life, because he knows that this is the will of God, and that this obedience pleases him… No one should think we reject the importance of good works or of obeying the law. When we receive the Christian righteousness, we consequently can live a good life, naturally, out of gratitude.”

The Bible is Indisputably Trustworthy!

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It became a worldwide bestseller that has sold over 80 million copies and been translated into 44 languages and its not the Bible nor is it one of the Harry Potter books. As of 2010, The Da Vinci Code was the best selling English language novel of the 21st century. It is described by its author Dan Brown in this way,  “A renowned Harvard symbologist is summoned to the Louvre Museum to examine a series of cryptic symbols relating to Leonardo Da Vinci’s artwork. In decrypting the code, he uncovers the key to one of the greatest mysteries of all time…and he becomes a hunted man.”

Though it has been assailed by historians for its innumerable historical inaccuracies, The Da Vinci Code, found in the fiction section of your local bookstore, contains a thrilling and engaging story but as the reader wades into the middle of the book he finds a Christian deconstructionist and atheistic agenda with such statements as:

  • “The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.”
  • “The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine”
  • “The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven…The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.”

My family and I lived in Sweden during the popular rise of the book in Europe and most people we spoke to had read the book, and were quick to give their assessment of it as true! When asked if they had ever read the Bible, most said “NO.” Why were they so quick to believe Dan Brown’s fiction and equally quick to dismiss the Bible? Well, atheists have two basic principles, as Doug Wilson says: 1) There is no god. 2) We hate him.  Skeptics and critics over the years have sought to destroy confidence in the authority, accuracy, compilation and preservation of the Old and New Testaments even though there is strong, sufficient and adequate rationale to have confidence.

Christian Apologist Bernard Ramm says of the Old Testament Biblical manuscripts: “Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved…they kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph.  They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity- scribes, lawyers, masoretes.”

Distinguished research professor of Philosophy and Christian Thought, John Warwick Montgomery says of the New Testament, “to be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.”

The Bible, God’s revealed Word, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, were given to us by God as the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him are indisputably trustworthy! The all-powerful, able-to-do-anything God has revealed Himself in The Scriptures because His heart is filled with the love for His people. Martin Luther said, “When God speaks to humanity, God always speaks in baby talk.” Luther goes on to explain that God speaks to us in this way out of a deep desire for us to know Him and understand Him. This is the essence of the Word of God:  God making himself known and God’s sheep recognizing his voice. While we know that historically, the Church has divided over the interpretation of Scripture, the Church has never divided over the canon of Scripture itself, which book was to be included in the Old or New Testaments. Each accepted Book of the bible:

  • Claimed Divine Authority
  • Gained Universal Acceptance
  • Had Authenticity of Authorship from a Prophet or Apostle of God
  • Possessed a Life-Transforming Dynamic
  • Had consistency of the Christocentric message

The Bible is God’s self-witness as it is God’s intention to rule His Church by a Book and it should be understood that if God would desire to lead His Church by a Revealed Word, a constitution of sorts, this all-powerful, eternal God would be able to make these books easy to identify, as they were.

The main presupposition of the Christian is that the Scriptures are true! As John Frame has stated in his book, Apologetics to the Glory of God, “The Ultimate proof, the ultimate evidence, is the Word of God. Eyewitnesses are important, but they die, and memories of them fade. Only if their testimony is preserved in God’s written word will that testimony have continuing value down through the history of the world.” For the Scriptures do not need external confirmation, they are God’s self-revelation.