From In My Place He Stood: Celebrating the Glory
of Atonement, by J.I. Packer
"Grace proves irresistible just because it destroys the disposition to resist.
Where the Arminian, therefore, will be content to say, 'I decided for Christ,'
'I made up my mind to be a Christian,' the Calvinist (Reformed) will wish to
speak of his conversion in more theological fashion, to make plain whose work
it really was:
'Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off: my heart was free:
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.'
Charles Wesley
Footnote by Packer:
'Granted it was Charles Wesley who wrote this,
but it is one of the many passages in his hymns
which make one ask ... 'Where's your Armininanism
now, friend?'
Clearly, these two notions of internal grace are sharply opposed to each other.
***********
Now, the Calvinist contends that the Arminian idea of election, redemption,
and calling as acts of God which do not save cuts at the very heart of their biblical
meaning; that to say in the Arminian sense that God elects believers, and Christ died for
all men, and the Spirit quickens those who receive the Word, is really to say that in
the biblical sense God elects nobody, and Christ died for nobody, and the Spirit
quickens nobody.
The matter at issue in this controversy, therefore, is the meaning to be given to
those terms, and to some others that are soteriologically significant, such as the love
of God, the covenant of grace, and the verb save itself, with its synonyms.
Arminians gloss them all in terms of the principle that salvation does not
directly depend on any decree or act of God, but on man's independent activity in
believing.
Calvinists maintain that this principle is itself is unscriptural and irreligious,
that such glossing demonstrably perverts the sense of Scripture and undermines
the gospel at every point it is practiced.
This, and nothing less than this, is what the Arminian controversy is about."
****************
Calvinist/Reformed theology maintains that the Bible teaches:
1. God, the Father, unconditionally elects those whom He chooses.
2. Jesus, the Son died for and redeemed His people.
3. The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies His people.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
What Must I Do to be Born Again?
Americans, for the most part, are a "can do" people. If something needs to be done,
we like to be able to do it ourselves, if possible. Finishing a task or project gives us
a feeling of accomplishment.
Maybe that's why sometimes we want to help God perform spiritual deeds that only
He can do; for instance, the new birth.
"DO SOMETHING"
An article in a Christian publication stated correctly, that we must be born again to
see the kingdom of heaven; but then the writer wrote, "you can be born again and
experience new life in Christ. Here's how: 1. Admit you're a sinner (Rom 3:23).
2. Repent of your sins (Acts 3:19)."
Unfortunately, while explaining what repentance means, there was a typographical
error and the article ended in mid sentence, but the clear implication was that if a person
does A, B, and C etc. , then he can be born again. In other words he should DO SOMETHING
to receive the new birth (also known as being born again, born of God, born from above,
and regeneration).
REGENERATION - A WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Billy Graham wrote a book years ago entitled "How to be Born Again," suggesting that
there is something that a person does to receive the new birth.
However, the Bible plainly tells us that the new birth is totally a work of God,
not something we do ourselves. Jesus explained in John 3:7-8, that the new birth is a
mystery accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
(Jesus said),
"Flesh gives birth to flesh,
but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying,
'You must be born again.'
The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell
where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
"The Holy Spirit is sovereign. He works as he pleases in his renewal of the
human heart."
NIV Commentary
THE NEW BIRTH PRODUCES AND PRECEDES FAITH
From The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips:
"There is supernatural mystery to it (the new birth) not reducible to a
tidy formula.
Though I realize this knocks heads with a lot of evangelicals' notions
(including the view I myself cherished for many years), I do not know any other
honest way of handling John 1:12-13:
'But to all who receive him, who believed in
his name, he gave the right to become children
of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'
"There we have the certain fact that all who are born again believe in
Jesus Christ, but their new birth is expressly traced -- not to anything they had in-
herited from their parents, nor to any exercise of their own will or any decision they
made, nor to any decision any other mortal had made, but to the kingly grace and work
of God. They believed savingly in Jesus because God had given them new birth before
their embrace of Christ. They received Christ because God had regenerated them.
Phillips continues:
"Read 1 John 5:1 very closely:
'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been born of God.'
Did you see it? Everyone who in the present believes, has in the past
been regenerated by God. Present faith indicates past regeneration. Faith does not
produce regeneration to John's mind. Regeneration produces faith.
Our Lord's half-brother James sounded the same note when he wrote,
'Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of firstfruits of his creatures' (James 1:18).
God gave us new life as an exercise of His will, not in response to an
exercise of our wills ... our faith [is] prompted by God's initiative. God moves first,
then we move in response.
Add Peter for a third witness:
'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be
born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.'
1 Peter 1:3
It was the Father who caused us to be born again according to His
own mercy, rather than in response to a request from us - a request that never would
nor could have come from spiritually dead lips (the reason we need the new birth,
because we are dead in our sins and unable to do God's will) and a heart that hates
God and His will (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:10).
The man does not do it to himself; he doesn't born-again himself.
He is the recipient of the life-giving action. And so Jesus later says,
'You do not believe because you are not
part of my flock.'
John 10:26
Being in His flock precedes belief, but is in inseparable from it.
AN EXAMPLE
I wonder whether the analogy of our great grampa's birth might be
helpful. When did Adam become physically alive? When he drew his first breath.
But what was that breath?
[When] 'the LORD God ... breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and the man became a living creature' (Gen. 2:7). So Adam was alive when he
drew his first breath ... but that very breath was God, breathing 'into his nostrils the
breath of life.' Adam began doing what made him alive, when God made him alive.
And so do we, in the spiritual realm. We are alive through faith.
But our very exercise of faith is a grace-gift from God, breathed into us through
regeneration."
HOW GOD GIVES US THE NEW BIRTH
So how are we born again? Phillips continues:
"By a miraculous work of grace, God the Father takes pity
on our dead, lost, God-hating selves. He breathes His life into us, bringing
sight to blind eyes, life to dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith
to hard, rebellious hearts.
He causes us to be born again, and as surely as a newborn
babe breaks out in a cry, so our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord, and His
gospel as our hope.
In Christ we receive new life (and the new birth automatically
leads to the salvation of the sinner).
And so, because of Him (and his dying for us), we are declared
perfectly righteous the moment we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant
faith, accepting Him and all He says as true, and relying on Him alone for our
salvation."
****************
I haven't been born again because I've repented and believed in Jesus,
but I've repented and believed in Jesus because I've been born again.
What must I do to be born again?
There is absolutely nothing I can do to be born again.
The new birth is totally the work of the Holy Spirit!
we like to be able to do it ourselves, if possible. Finishing a task or project gives us
a feeling of accomplishment.
Maybe that's why sometimes we want to help God perform spiritual deeds that only
He can do; for instance, the new birth.
"DO SOMETHING"
An article in a Christian publication stated correctly, that we must be born again to
see the kingdom of heaven; but then the writer wrote, "you can be born again and
experience new life in Christ. Here's how: 1. Admit you're a sinner (Rom 3:23).
2. Repent of your sins (Acts 3:19)."
Unfortunately, while explaining what repentance means, there was a typographical
error and the article ended in mid sentence, but the clear implication was that if a person
does A, B, and C etc. , then he can be born again. In other words he should DO SOMETHING
to receive the new birth (also known as being born again, born of God, born from above,
and regeneration).
REGENERATION - A WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Billy Graham wrote a book years ago entitled "How to be Born Again," suggesting that
there is something that a person does to receive the new birth.
However, the Bible plainly tells us that the new birth is totally a work of God,
not something we do ourselves. Jesus explained in John 3:7-8, that the new birth is a
mystery accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
(Jesus said),
"Flesh gives birth to flesh,
but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying,
'You must be born again.'
The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell
where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
"The Holy Spirit is sovereign. He works as he pleases in his renewal of the
human heart."
NIV Commentary
THE NEW BIRTH PRODUCES AND PRECEDES FAITH
From The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips:
"There is supernatural mystery to it (the new birth) not reducible to a
tidy formula.
Though I realize this knocks heads with a lot of evangelicals' notions
(including the view I myself cherished for many years), I do not know any other
honest way of handling John 1:12-13:
'But to all who receive him, who believed in
his name, he gave the right to become children
of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'
"There we have the certain fact that all who are born again believe in
Jesus Christ, but their new birth is expressly traced -- not to anything they had in-
herited from their parents, nor to any exercise of their own will or any decision they
made, nor to any decision any other mortal had made, but to the kingly grace and work
of God. They believed savingly in Jesus because God had given them new birth before
their embrace of Christ. They received Christ because God had regenerated them.
Phillips continues:
"Read 1 John 5:1 very closely:
'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been born of God.'
Did you see it? Everyone who in the present believes, has in the past
been regenerated by God. Present faith indicates past regeneration. Faith does not
produce regeneration to John's mind. Regeneration produces faith.
Our Lord's half-brother James sounded the same note when he wrote,
'Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of firstfruits of his creatures' (James 1:18).
God gave us new life as an exercise of His will, not in response to an
exercise of our wills ... our faith [is] prompted by God's initiative. God moves first,
then we move in response.
Add Peter for a third witness:
'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be
born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.'
1 Peter 1:3
It was the Father who caused us to be born again according to His
own mercy, rather than in response to a request from us - a request that never would
nor could have come from spiritually dead lips (the reason we need the new birth,
because we are dead in our sins and unable to do God's will) and a heart that hates
God and His will (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:10).
The man does not do it to himself; he doesn't born-again himself.
He is the recipient of the life-giving action. And so Jesus later says,
'You do not believe because you are not
part of my flock.'
John 10:26
Being in His flock precedes belief, but is in inseparable from it.
AN EXAMPLE
I wonder whether the analogy of our great grampa's birth might be
helpful. When did Adam become physically alive? When he drew his first breath.
But what was that breath?
[When] 'the LORD God ... breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and the man became a living creature' (Gen. 2:7). So Adam was alive when he
drew his first breath ... but that very breath was God, breathing 'into his nostrils the
breath of life.' Adam began doing what made him alive, when God made him alive.
And so do we, in the spiritual realm. We are alive through faith.
But our very exercise of faith is a grace-gift from God, breathed into us through
regeneration."
HOW GOD GIVES US THE NEW BIRTH
So how are we born again? Phillips continues:
"By a miraculous work of grace, God the Father takes pity
on our dead, lost, God-hating selves. He breathes His life into us, bringing
sight to blind eyes, life to dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith
to hard, rebellious hearts.
He causes us to be born again, and as surely as a newborn
babe breaks out in a cry, so our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord, and His
gospel as our hope.
In Christ we receive new life (and the new birth automatically
leads to the salvation of the sinner).
And so, because of Him (and his dying for us), we are declared
perfectly righteous the moment we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant
faith, accepting Him and all He says as true, and relying on Him alone for our
salvation."
****************
I haven't been born again because I've repented and believed in Jesus,
but I've repented and believed in Jesus because I've been born again.
What must I do to be born again?
There is absolutely nothing I can do to be born again.
The new birth is totally the work of the Holy Spirit!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Two Views of Election and Redemption
ARMINIANISM (FREE WILL) VS CALVINISM (SOVEREIGN GRACE)
(I believe the Calvinist/Reformed theology is biblically correct).
From In My Place Condemned He Stood:
Celebrating the Atonement, by J.I. Packer
ELECTION
Arminianism
"God's act of election was defined by the Arminians (free will)
as a resolve to receive to sonship and glory a duly qualified class of people:
believers in Christ.
This becomes a resolve to receive individual persons only in virtue
of God's forseeing the contingent fact that they will of their own accord believe.
There is nothing in the decree of election to ensure that the class of believers will
ever have any members; God does not determine to make any man believe.
Calvinism
Calvinists define election as a choice of particular undeserving
persons to be saved from sin and brought to glory, and to that end to be redeemed
by the death of Christ and given faith by the Spirit's effectual calling.
Conclusion
Where the Arminian says: 'I owe my election to my faith,'
the Calvinist says: 'I owe my faith to my election.' Clearly, these two concepts
of election are very far apart."
REDEMPTION
Arminianism
"Christ's work of redemption was defined by the Arminians as the
removing of an obstacle (the unsatisfied claims of justice) that stood in the way
of God's offering pardon to sinners, as he desired to do, on condition that they
believe.
Redemption, according to Arminianism, secured for God a right to
make this offer but did not of itself ensure that anyone would ever accept it;
for faith, being a work of man's own, is not a gift that comes to him from Calvary.
Christ's death created an opportunity for the exercise of saving faith,
but that is all it did.
Calvinism
Calvinists, however, define redemption as Christ's actual substitutionary
endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners, through which
God was reconciled to them, their liability to punishment was for ever destroyed,
and a title to eternal life was secured for them.
In consequence of this, they now have in God's sight a right to the gift
of faith, as the means of entry into the enjoyment of their inheritance.
Calvary, in other words, not merely made possible the salvation of those
for whom Christ died; it ensured that they would be brought to faith and their salvation
made actual. The cross saves.
Conclusion
Where the Arminian will say only: 'I could not have gained my
salvation without Calvary,' the Calvinist will say: 'Christ gained my salvation
for me at Calvary.'
The former makes the cross the sine qua non (something indispensable
or essential) of salvation; the latter sees it as the actual procuring cause of salvation,
and traces the source of every spiritual blessing, faith included, back to the great
transaction between God and his Son carried through on Calvary's hill.
Clearly, these two concepts of redemption are quite at variance."
***************
(The main point is that Arminianism insists that salvation is a joint, cooperative
effort between God and man, while Calvinism believes that salvation is a miracle
wrought by God's grace that requires no cooperation on man's part.
In fact, man is unable to respond positively to God without being born again first).
Thursday, October 17, 2013
God Saves Sinners
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves
full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners -- of whom I am
the worst."
1 Timothy 1:15
****************
From In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of Atonement,
by J.I. Packer
"For to Calvinism (Reformed Theology) there is really only one point
to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.
GOD: the triune Jehovah-Father, Son, and Spirit; three Persons
working together in sovereign wisdom, power, and love to achieve the salvation
of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father's will by
redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing
(1 Peter 1:1-2).
SAVES: does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing
man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves, and communicates
redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies (Ephesians 1:3-14).
SINNERS: men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless,
blind, unable to lift a finger to do God's will or better their spiritual lot (Romans 8:5-8).
GOD SAVES SINNERS - and the force of this confession may not be
weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or dividing the
achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man's
own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner's inability so as to allow him to share the praise
of his salvation with his Savior.
This is the one point of Calvinistic (Reformed) soteriology that the 'five points'
are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that
sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last,
whole and entire, past, present, and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever,
amen!"
full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners -- of whom I am
the worst."
1 Timothy 1:15
****************
From In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of Atonement,
by J.I. Packer
"For to Calvinism (Reformed Theology) there is really only one point
to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.
GOD: the triune Jehovah-Father, Son, and Spirit; three Persons
working together in sovereign wisdom, power, and love to achieve the salvation
of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father's will by
redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing
(1 Peter 1:1-2).
SAVES: does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing
man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves, and communicates
redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies (Ephesians 1:3-14).
SINNERS: men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless,
blind, unable to lift a finger to do God's will or better their spiritual lot (Romans 8:5-8).
GOD SAVES SINNERS - and the force of this confession may not be
weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or dividing the
achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man's
own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner's inability so as to allow him to share the praise
of his salvation with his Savior.
This is the one point of Calvinistic (Reformed) soteriology that the 'five points'
are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that
sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last,
whole and entire, past, present, and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever,
amen!"
Monday, October 14, 2013
Jesus Saves Everyone He Purchased
"And they sang a new song:
'You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals, because you
were slain, and with your blood
you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and
people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom
and priests to serve our God, and they
will reign on the earth.' "
Revelation 5:9-10
Who did Jesus purchase with His blood?
Jesus purchased with His blood, people who were in bondage to sin, from every tribe and
language and people and nation. People from all over the world.
He paid their ransom, freeing them to escape Satan's control (Ephesians 2:2).
Did Jesus purchase EVERYONE in the world, or only some?
Only some. He bought those the Father had given Him, paying for them with the
sacrifice of His life. Every one of them will come to Him to be saved, and He will never
lose any of them.
"Everyone that that Father gives me
will come to me, and everyone who
comes to me I will never drive away."
" ... I shall lose none of those He has given me,
but raise them up at the last day."
John 6:37,39
Jesus perfectly saves everyone He purchased through His death on the cross.
After His resurrection He sat down at right hand of God, signifying that His mission
to save His people was accomplished, and He was taking His rightful place in heaven.
" Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God."
Hebrews 12:2
'You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals, because you
were slain, and with your blood
you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and
people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom
and priests to serve our God, and they
will reign on the earth.' "
Revelation 5:9-10
Who did Jesus purchase with His blood?
Jesus purchased with His blood, people who were in bondage to sin, from every tribe and
language and people and nation. People from all over the world.
He paid their ransom, freeing them to escape Satan's control (Ephesians 2:2).
Did Jesus purchase EVERYONE in the world, or only some?
Only some. He bought those the Father had given Him, paying for them with the
sacrifice of His life. Every one of them will come to Him to be saved, and He will never
lose any of them.
"Everyone that that Father gives me
will come to me, and everyone who
comes to me I will never drive away."
" ... I shall lose none of those He has given me,
but raise them up at the last day."
John 6:37,39
Jesus perfectly saves everyone He purchased through His death on the cross.
After His resurrection He sat down at right hand of God, signifying that His mission
to save His people was accomplished, and He was taking His rightful place in heaven.
" Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God."
Hebrews 12:2
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
God Changes Hearts
"Unless God stoops in His grace to change
our hearts, we will not love Him."
R.C. Sproul
*************
Before conversion, Christians are enemies of God, who are reconciled
with Him through the death of His Son, and saved through His life.
"For if when we were God's enemies,
we were reconciled to Him through
the death of His Son, how much more
having been reconciled, shall we be saved
through His life!"
Romans 5:10
We were dead in our sins and therefore objects of God's wrath.
Our sins nature prevented us from having a right relationship with God.
"... you were dead in your transgressions
and sins. Like the rest, we were by nature
objects of wrath."
Ephesians 2:1,3
We were unable to love Him or do anything else to please Him.
"... the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's law,
nor can it do so. Those controlled
by the sinful nature cannot please God."
Romans 8:7-8
Our hearts are deceitful, and can be changed only by God's power.
He changes our hardened hearts, which can respond only in rebellion against God,
so that we will follow and obey Him. We receive the Holy Spirit and become His people,
and He becomes our God, solely through His power and grace.
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and beyond cure."
Jeremiah 17:9
"I will give them an undivided heart
and put a new spirit in them;
I will remove from them their heart
of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Then they will follow my decrees and
be careful to keep my laws. They will
be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 11:19-20
Because of His great love for His people, God, who is merciful and gracious,
regenerates spiritually dead, rebel sinners, and saves them through His Son, Jesus Christ.
"But because of His great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions -- it is by grace
you have been saved."
Ephesians 2:4-5
Jesus was the Substitute for everyone who will ever believe in Him.
We, in turn, now love Him and others, because He first loved us.
"This is how God showed love among us:
He sent His one and only Son into the world
that we might live through Him.
This is love; not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice
for our sins.
We love because He first loved us."
1 John 4:9-10,19
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