tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4252563233774818632024-02-20T17:10:36.834-06:00Biblical SoteriologyTried and true doctrines that Reformed theologians have always held dear. By design, there will be absolutely nothing new or novel on this blog. The dear and cherished biblical doctrines of soteriology are firmly established and settled; there is no room for innovation, but there are always battles to fight against deviations and heresies.C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-28090238279703160502010-12-04T19:59:00.004-06:002010-12-04T20:05:22.784-06:00Brian Schwertley: The Entire Weight of God's Just Judgment and Wrath Fell Upon Christ When He Suffered Punishment on the CrossGod does not overlook sin or arbitrarily pardon it, but judges it and punishes it in Christ. Jesus’ death was the demonstration of the justifying judgment of God. … Because Christ has suffered the penalty in the place of His people, they are pardoned, forgiven and forever released from punishment.<br /><br />–Brian Schwertley, <a href="http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/Active%20Obedience.htm">A Defense of the “Active Obedience” of Jesus Christ In The Justification of Sinners: A Biblical Refutation of Norman Shepherd on the Preceptive Obedience of the Savior</a>C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-19010055445145585292010-12-04T19:53:00.003-06:002010-12-04T19:56:38.965-06:00Francis Turretin: Christ Infinitely Satisfied the Punishment of Death and Merited the Reward of Life for UsThe obedience of Christ has a twofold efficacy, satisfactory and meritorious; the former by which we are freed from the punishments incurred by sin; the latter by which (through the remission of sin) a right to eternal life and salvation is acquired for us. For as sin has brought upon us two evils - the loss of life and exposure to death - so redemption must procure the two opposite benefits - deliverance from death and a right to life, escape from hell and an entrance into heaven.<br /><br />-Francis Turretin, <span style="font-style: italic;">Institutes of Elenctic Theology</span>, vol. II, p. 447C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-2297751350009329872010-11-28T18:06:00.006-06:002010-11-28T22:37:02.460-06:00Start your Christian walk with the Gospel, then move to "bigger and better things" like Law-keeping?Can a Christian progress through sanctification by striving to keep every jot and tittle of the Law? Does he only need Christ and the Gospel to <em>start</em> his walk of faith?<br /><br />I never would have said I believed quite this way. However, as I look back to what I believed and practiced before a year and a half ago when I started an extensive study of soteriology and Christ as the foundation (I Cor. 3:11), I cannot say that I had the centrality of the Gospel nailed down in my theology and orthopraxy.<br /><br />I would point to verses like I John 5:2, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments." See, there it is! We must strive after law-keeping. However, I ignored the whole context of Scripture, which places Christ at the foundation. From the heart, we must pursue Him, love Him, follow Him, take His yoke upon us, emulate His example of humble and sacrificial service in laying down His life for those who were unlovely and unloving toward Him. When we follow Christ, we will keep the law as a result. But we don't place law-keeping at the center of our focus. True, we do search the Scriptures diligently to discern God's leading; this is how He speaks to us -- through His inspired, sufficient and authoritative Word. But when we look at Scripture, we see Christ at the beginning, middle, and end -- He is the center and foundation, the end-all and be-all of the Word and of our lives.<br /><br />Philippians 1:27 says, "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." Later, Paul writes:<br /><blockquote>For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. ... But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead (Phil. 3:3, 7-11).<br /></blockquote><br />Although I would not have admitted it, I was similar to a Pharisee who trusted in myself, that I was righteous (Lk. 18:9). I went about to establish my own righteousness (Rom. 10:3), rather than repudiating everything wrought in me or performed by me, trusting in Christ's righteousness alone. I had even memorized this passage in Philippians, and I was familiar with the various Scriptures that call us to renounce everything in ourselves and take hold of the righteousness of Christ alone by faith alone. But I still did not count Christ as the precious pearl of great price for whom I should give up everything else to follow Him (Mt. 13:46, Lk. 14:26-33).<br /><br />I wasted so much time when I did not think much, speak much, and love much of Christ. I did not realize how monstrous, grievous, and enraging my sin against God is and how much I had been forgiven because God had placed my sins upon Christ, He became the curse for me, and He drank down the ferocious wrath and judgment of God that should have been poured upon me for my sin. I loved little because, I fancied in my mind, I had been forgiven little (Lk. 7:47).<br /><br />Now I desire to make much of Christ and to see Him worshipped in my life, my family, my community, and throughout the world, as He ought to be worshipped. This means living day-by-day in sacrificial service with gratitude to Him (Rom. 12:1). God alone is glorious and worthy. I think frequently about how I can prioritize this mission of proclaiming His glory and calling upon all men to comprehensively repent and trust in Christ alone. What am I doing? Not enough. What can I do? Obviously, of myself, I can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). But may God embolden me to be more faithful and diligent as an ambassador for Christ throughout life, by His strength and wisdom alone.C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-15351557815700746822010-11-05T23:16:00.006-05:002010-11-06T08:33:02.944-05:00Christ is the Center and Foundation, and Everything is Vain Apart from HimMatthew 4:4 -- "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (cf. Deu. 8:3).<br /><br />Matthew 7:24-27 -- "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."<br /><br />Matthew 12:30 -- "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."<br /><br />Matthew 28:18-20 -- "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."<br /><br />John 14:15 -- "If ye love me, keep my commandments."<br /><br />I Corinthians 3:11 -- "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."<br /><br />Philippians 1:21 -- "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."<br /><br />Jesus is the foundation and center of everything. John 1:3 says, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." I Corinthians 8:6 says, "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." Colossians 1:17 says that "he is before all things, and by him all things consist"; 2:3 says that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hid in Christ. Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ upholds "all things by the word of his power."<br /><br />Apart from Christ, every thought, word, and action is utterly vain and futile. To deny His Kingship over every atom of reality is to imagine a vain thing (Ps. 2:1). To build a home without Christ at the center is a vain labor (Ps. 127:1). To approach Christ in terms of our own doctrines and commandments is to worship Him in vain (Matt. 15:9, Mark 7:7; cf. Col. 2:8). To neglect gratitude toward Christ and the glory of God in our intellectual endeavors is to become vain in our imaginations (Rom. 1:21). To teach and trust anything devoid of Christ’s resurrection is to preach and believe in vain (I Cor. 15:14, 17). When we labor for Christ, our work is not in vain (I Cor. 15:58). When we acknowledge Christ’s absolute Lordship, obey our Lord, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling through God’s work in our hearts; we may rejoice in the day of Christ that we have not run or labored in vain (Phil. 2:9-16).C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-47296031382765673062010-11-04T21:56:00.002-05:002010-11-04T21:58:40.957-05:00Walk Worthy of the Lord!Ephesians 4:1 -- “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” <br /><br />Colossians 1:10 -- “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” <br /><br />I Thessalonians 2:12 -- “That ye might walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.” <br /><br />II Thessalonians 1:5 -- “that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom.” <br /><br />II Thessalonians 1:11 -- “that our God would count you worthy of his calling.”C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-4949227991359353232010-08-08T16:06:00.004-05:002010-08-08T16:57:45.558-05:00R.J. Rushdoony: God is sovereign and determines the standards of judgment and grounds of forgiveness"Forgiveness in Scripture is juridicial: it means charges dropped because satisfaction has been rendered. It can also mean charges deferred for the time being, as in Christ's word from the cross, concerning the Romans soldiers, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). ...<br /><br />"But even as true confession is unto God, so true forgiveness is also from God and on His terms. The church can administer God's forgiveness, but it cannot forgive on its own. Humanistic confession has been replacing the Christian, even as humanistic forgiveness has increasingly supplanted God's.<br /><br />"God, as Creator and governor of all things, is the absolute lord or sovereign over all. His judgments are total and final because He alone is God, and all final reckonings are in His hands. This is the premise of Christian confession. We confess to God because He alone can grant us full absolution and forgiveness through Christ, and He alone can renew us and create a clean heart in us."<br /><br />-R.J. Rushdoony, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Cure of Souls: Recovering the Biblical Doctrine of Confession</span> (pp. 39-40)<br /><br /><br />"Cheap forgiveness means a cheap view of sin, and also of the atonement. Sin, being so costly in God's sight that it required the death of the incarnate Son of God, cannot be treated lightly by men. Moreover, because all sin is against God's law, sin cannot be dealt with in terms of how we feel about it, but must rather be dealt with in terms of what God says about it" (<span style="font-style: italic;">Ibid.</span>, p. 68).C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-21558695573889731842010-08-06T11:55:00.003-05:002010-08-06T12:10:58.701-05:00Can you forgive yourself?I have heard pastors say that we must forgive ourselves. However, I have not heard where this concept is found in Scripture.<br /><br />God forgives us on the basis of Christ's penal substitutionary satisfaction in making atonement. And why do we need forgiven? Because we have violated God's Law, which is to say that we have committed cosmic high treason against the majesty and holiness of the sovereign, eternal, immutable, and supreme Ruler of the universe.<br /><br />Sin is not a matter to be dealt with lightly, and neither is God's righteousness. God will render just judgment to everyone, and He will by no means clear the guilty. Our sins must have been imputed to Christ and He must have paid the penalty, suffering the curse through His infinite sacrifice on the cross, in order for us to secure an abatement of God's just judgment and punishment.<br /><br />We are not free to set our own law by which to judge ourselves or to come to terms with our own violations, easing the guilt of our consciences, by means of our own invention. God alone sets the standard, and all sins are ultimately against Him. He alone can make provision for the removal of our guilt through the penal substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.<br /><br />Do not look to yourself -- anything wrought within you, performed by you, or pronounced at your own tribunal. You may not forgive yourself. Unless Christ has satisfied God's justice pronounced against you -- and you receive and rest in Him alone through faith alone, repudiating every rival plan of pardon and acceptance before God -- you have no hope. Dressed in Christ's righteousness alone, you can be faultless to stand before His throne.C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-5469771362614713832010-08-03T23:14:00.003-05:002010-08-03T23:15:57.288-05:00Francis Turretin: Justification by faith alone is of the greatest importanceThis [doctrine of justification by faith alone] must be handled with the greater care and accuracy as this saving doctrine is of the greatest importance in religion. It is called by Luther “the article of a standing or a falling church.” By other Christians, it is termed the characteristic and basis of Christianity—not without reason—the principal rampart of the Christian religion. This being adulterated or subverted, it is impossible to retain purity of doctrine in other places. Hence Satan in every way has endeavored to corrupt this doctrine in all ages, as has been done especially in the papacy.<br /><br />-Francis Turretin, "Institutes of Elenctic Theology," 2:633. (Quoted by Morecraft in "Authentic Christianity," vol. 2, p. 954.)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-89058118107795131252010-08-02T22:54:00.004-05:002010-08-02T23:00:41.129-05:00Joe Morecraft: Christ by His blood satisfies, atones, propitiates, reconciles, and redeemsThe only source of satisfaction, atonement, propitiation, reconciliation and redemption with reference to God is through the shedding of sacrificial blood. The word, “sacrifice,” is directed to the need created by the guilt of our sin. “Propitiation” refers to the need that arises from the wrath of God against sin. “Reconciliation” refers to the need arising from our alienation from God because of sin. And “redemption” or “ransom” is directed to the slavery to which our sin has consigned us.<br /><br />-Joe Morecraft, "Authentic Christianity," vol. 2, pp. 73-74C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-47276705940498058422010-07-31T20:53:00.003-05:002010-07-31T20:56:08.960-05:00Packer and Beeke: Faith is not the ground of justification, but rather the instrument of receiving and resting in the person and work of Christ alone“When Paul paraphrases this verse [Gen. 15:6] as teaching that Abraham’s faith was reckoned for righteousness (Rom. 4:5, 9, 22), all he intends us to understand is that faith—decisive, whole-hearted reliance on God’s gracious promise (vss. 18ff)—was the occasion and means of righteousness being imputed to him. There is no suggestion here that faith is the ground of justification.”<br />-J.I. Packer (quoted by Dr. Joel R. Beeke in “Justification by Faith Alone,” pp. 56-57)<br /><br />“… Habakkuk 2:4 … quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38, is ultimately fulfilled in the righteousness that comes by faith in the gospel of Christ, for which the law itself teaches us to look (Romans 3:21-22; 10:4). Paul’s explanation of Habakkuk has inspired not only Martin Luther but countless other believers to place their faith in a righteousness not their own, but that of Jesus Christ who is called ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ (Jeremiah 23:6).”<br />-Dr. Joel R. Beeke, “The Relation of Faith to Justification” (in the book, “Justification by Faith Alone,” pp. 57-58)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-32508220245069784992010-07-31T20:47:00.003-05:002010-07-31T20:53:29.443-05:00Theodore Beza: Christ's righteousness and perfection is imputed to us freely when we rest in Him and receive Him by faithTruly, all that is in Jesus Christ, that is to say, all the righteousness and perfection (in Him there was no sin and moreover He has fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law), is placed to our account and gifted to us as if it were our own, provided that we embrace Him by faith.<br /><br />-Theodore Beza, <a href="http://www.apuritansmind.com/Justification/TheodoreBeza%20FaithAndJustification.htm">“Faith and Justification”</a>C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-71820799583375054442010-07-29T00:19:00.004-05:002010-07-29T00:40:52.499-05:00Scripture represents all of God's believing people as a Kingdom of PriestsExodus 19:5-6, "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a <span style="font-weight: bold;">kingdom of priests</span>, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."<br /><br />Isa 61:6, "But ye shall be named the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Priests of the LORD</span>: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves."<br /><br />Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye <span style="font-weight: bold;">present your bodies a living sacrifice</span>, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."<br /><br />Hebrews 13:15-16, "By him therefore let us <span style="font-weight: bold;">offer the sacrifice of praise</span> to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such <span style="font-weight: bold;">sacrifices</span> God is well pleased."<br /><br />I Peter 2:5, 9, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an <span style="font-weight: bold;">holy priesthood</span>, to <span style="font-weight: bold;">offer up spiritual sacrifices</span>, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. ... But ye are a chosen generation, a <span style="font-weight: bold;">royal priesthood</span>, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." <br /><br />Revelation 1:5-6, "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath <span style="font-weight: bold;">made us kings and priests unto God and his Father</span>; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."<br /><br />Revelation 5:9-10, "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast <span style="font-weight: bold;">made us unto our God kings and priests</span>: and we shall reign on the earth."<br /><br />Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but <span style="font-weight: bold;">they shall be priests of God and of Christ</span>, and shall reign with him a thousand years."C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-46648523880258895912010-07-15T21:28:00.002-05:002010-07-15T21:33:33.095-05:00John Robbins: The doctrine of Christ's perfect, extrinsic, objective, imputed righteousness--forensic justification--ended 1,000 years of stagnation<a href="http://www.trinityfoundation.org/PDF/CivilizationandtheProtestantReformation.pdf">For a thousand years, because of the church's doctrine</a> of justification as an internal grace rather than the objective, external, legal declaration of a sinner's innocence by God, men had looked inside themselves for the grace that merited salvation. The more devout retreated to monasteries and convents to find their salvation in their interior lives. Some sat on poles, some beat their bodies bloody, and some made pilgrimages to "holy" places. The church had lost the message of the Gospel, that men are saved by a righteousness wholly outside of themselves—the righteousness of Christ. By his perfect life, innocent and substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection, Christ had fulfilled the demands of God's law on behalf of all who believed in him. It is to Christ that one must look for salvation, said Luther, not inside oneself. Once the religious subjectivism of the medieval church was eliminated in Protestant countries, the energy consumed by desperately seeking and earning salvation was turned outward, and a thousand years of intellectual, political, social, economic, and religious stagnation ended.C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-90422013777880717862010-07-12T20:47:00.004-05:002010-07-12T21:11:40.659-05:00God is inflexibly just, and His law makes inexorable demands that Christ satisfiedIn my studies of justification and atonement over the past few months, I have come to the following summarizing conclusion: We must take the highest and most exalted view of God's glorious, holy character, and His perfect, eternal, immutable Law. Our understanding of every area of life--economics and history, no less than soteriology and ecclesiology--must begin with the assumption that God is absolutely sovereign over every square inch of reality, and His Word is sufficient for all areas of life and thought.<br /><br />We exalt Christ, the cross, and the Gospel, when we affirm that God's Law-Word makes demands on every speck of our existence--physical and material, as well as spiritual and intellectual. God is sovereign over all individuals and entire nations, no less than over churches and families. Furthermore, we are utterly incapable of rendering satisfaction to His requirements of perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience in every word, thought, deed, and motive. We must utterly renounce all confidence in ourselves and place all faith alone in the person and work of Christ alone, the very God of very God and very man of very man: His work of active obedience secures a perfect righteousness that is imputed to us, the spotless garment in which we must be clothed, as the ground of our acceptance with God; through His passive obedience, our sins are reckoned to Christ at God's sovereign tribunal, and Christ has paid the penalty for every violation.<br /><br />"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:" (Philippians 3:8-9).<br /><br />"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10).<br /><br />Christ has removed our guilt, or liability to punishment that accrues to our violations of God's Law; He has appeased God's wrath through the provision of the Father's great love in sending His Son to drink down every drop of divine justice; He has reconciled us to God by bearing our sins in His own body; and He has redeemed us out of bondage to sin, condemnation, Satan, the world, and death. Christ alone satisfies God's righteous standards through His penal substitutionary atonement, as the Father did not spare Him so that He could spare us.<br /><br />"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)<br /><br />Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is now seated at God's right hand, ruling as the Prince of the kings of the earth, and making intercession day-by-day as the Advocate for His people. Having performed His priestly function of offering Himself to God as a perfect, spotless sacrifice of infinite value when He shed His own blood and died for us, Christ rose again to ascend into glory and reign as the exalted Victor over history and throughout all eternity.<br /><br />"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).<br /><br />"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5-6).C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-83209341148338138682010-07-03T13:49:00.002-05:002010-07-03T13:51:26.992-05:00R.J. Rushdoony: Self-atonement is impossible, and man is totally passive in salvation -- God alone is sovereignSelf-atonement is an impossibility. … Man is God’s creature, totally God’s creation, and man can exist only in God’s world. He is totally morally liable to God, and man’s every attempt to assert a claim to autonomy is not only a violation of his moral duty but a metaphysical impossibility and a mental monstrosity. Man cannot make atonement to God for his sin because he is neither capable of truly self-righteous atonement, since he is nothing in and of himself, nor can he add anything to God. As Paul asked the Corinthians, “and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (I Cor. 4:7). Since man is totally God’s act, man’s justification and atonement are also of necessity totally God’s acts. …<br /><br />The declaration of all Scripture is that atonement and justification are the sovereign acts of God through the work of Jesus Christ. Atonement therefore is essentially not a subjective experience but an objective fact. The primary point of reference in atonement is not the sinner’s experience but God’s order, God’s self-propitiation. Christ pays the price to God as the representative sinner, so that the reconciliation and atonement are divinely initiated. Christ, by His incarnation as very man of very man, acts as man’s representative in the transaction. The atonement of the elect is thus vicarious, in that it is not their work but God’s work. Because man is totally a creature, he is totally passive in relationship to God; because he has been created lord over the earth, man can assume a secondary activity towards the earth. …<br /><br />The only possible source of political liberty is on the premise of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. (R.J. Rushdoony, <span style="font-style: italic;">Politics of Guilt and Pity</span>, pp. 7-8, 10)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-91271952696751837732010-06-26T09:53:00.001-05:002010-06-26T09:55:28.820-05:00Gary North: The Levitical sacrifices had to be unblemished to symbolize Christ's perfect, infinite sacrifice“Leviticus begins with the law governing the burnt offering. ‘A male without blemish’ was required, which was also the requirement for the Passover lamb: ‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats’ (Ex. 12:5). The phrase, ‘without blemish,’ is repeated throughout Leviticus [1:10; 3:1,6; 4:23,28,32; 5:11,18; 6:6; 9:2-3; 14:10; 22:19; 23:12,18]. The blemish-free sacrificial animal symbolized God’s legal requirement of a final sacrifice that alone serves as a legal ransom payment (atonement) to God for man’s sin. This pointed to the substitutionary death of a perfect man, Jesus Christ (I Pet. 1:18-21).” (Gary North, <span style="font-style:italic;">Leviticus: An Economic Commentary</span>, p. 50)<br /><br /><br />“Why was there a Levitical requirement of blemish-free sacrifices? Because man is made in the image of God, and his acts are supposed to reflect God’s acts. This raises the question of God’s acts. God has offered a sacrifice to Himself: a high-value, blemish-free sacrifice. To meet His own judicial standards, God forfeited in history the most valuable Lamb of His flock, His own Son. It is not what fallen may pays to God that repays God for sin (a trespass or boundary violation); it is what God pays to Himself. The blemish-free animal in the Mosaic sacrificial system symbolized (i.e., judicially represented) this perfectionist aspect of lawful atonement. Even closer symbolically than slain animals was God’s announcement to Abraham that he would have to sacrifice Isaac, a payment for which God later mandated a substitute: the ram (Gen. 22:13).” (Gary North, <span style="font-style:italic;">Leviticus: An Economic Commentary</span>, pp. 53-54)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-40816924680741068092010-06-17T22:38:00.001-05:002010-06-19T11:48:08.173-05:00Lyrics: The perfect, spotless, infinite, sufficient atonement of Christ our SaviorAlas! and did my Savior bleed<br />And did my Sovereign die?<br />Would He devote that sacred head<br />For such a worm as I?<br /><br />But drops of grief can ne’er repay<br />The debt of love I owe:<br />Here, Lord, I give my self away<br />’Tis all that I can do.<br /><br />At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,<br />And the burden of my heart rolled away,<br />It was there by faith I received my sight,<br />And now I am happy all the day!<br /><br />-Isaac Watts<br /><br /><br />There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;<br />And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.<br />Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;<br />And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.<br /><br />-William Cowper<br /><br /><br />Shall we still dread God’s displeasure,<br />Who, to save, freely gave His most cherished Treasure?<br />To redeem us, He hath given<br />His own Son from the throne of His might in Heaven.<br /><br />He becomes the Lamb that taketh<br />Sin away and for aye full atonement maketh.<br />For our life His own He tenders<br />And our race, by His grace, meet for glory renders.<br /><br />-Paul Gerhardt<br /><br /><br />Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;<br />The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:<br />Before the throne my surety stands,<br />Before the throne my surety stands,<br />My name is written on His hands.<br /><br />He ever lives above, for me to intercede;<br />His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:<br />His blood atoned for all our race,<br />His blood atoned for all our race,<br />And sprinkles now the throne of grace.<br /><br />Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;<br />They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:<br />“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,<br />“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,<br />“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”<br /><br />The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;<br />He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;<br />His Spirit answers to the blood,<br />His Spirit answers to the blood,<br />And tells me I am born of God.<br /><br />My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;<br />He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:<br />With confidence I now draw nigh,<br />With confidence I now draw nigh,<br />And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.<br /><br />-Charles Wesley<br /><br />[Note: we ascribe to the words "all our race" the meaning that Christ died for the entire "race" of God's elect; He redeemed them and secured for them eternally glorified life]<br /><br /><br />Jesus, our great high priest,<br />Hath full atonement made,<br />Ye weary spirits, rest;<br />Ye mournful souls, be glad:<br /><br />Extol the Lamb of God,<br />The sin atoning Lamb;<br />Redemption by His blood<br />Throughout the lands proclaim:<br /><br />The year of jubilee is come!<br />The year of jubilee is come!<br />Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.<br /><br />-Charles Wesley<br /><br /><br />Fountain of never ceasing grace,<br />Thy saints’ exhaustless theme,<br />Great object of immortal praise,<br />Essentially supreme;<br />We bless Thee for the glorious fruits<br />Thine incarnation gives;<br />The righteousness which grace imputes,<br />And faith alone receives.<br /><br />Whom heaven’s angelic host adores,<br />Was slaughtered for our sin;<br />The guilt, O Lord was wholly ours,<br />The punishment was Thine:<br />Our God in the flesh, to set us free,<br />Was manifested here;<br />And meekly bare our sins, that we<br />His righteousness might wear.<br /><br />Imputatively guilty then<br />Our substitute was made,<br />That we the blessings might obtain<br />For which His blood was shed:<br />Himself He offered on the cross,<br />Our sorrows to remove;<br />And all He suffered was for us,<br />And all He did was love.<br /><br />In Him we have a righteousness,<br />By God Himself approved;<br />Our rock, our sure foundation this,<br />Which never can be moved.<br />Our ransom by His death He paid,<br />For all His people giv’n,<br />The law He perfectly obeyed,<br />That they might enter Heav’n.<br /><br />As all, when Adam sinned alone,<br />In his transgression died,<br />So by the righteousness of One,<br />Are sinners justified,<br />We to Thy merit, gracious Lord,<br />With humblest joy submit,<br />Again to Paradise restored,<br />In Thee alone complete.<br /><br />Our souls His watchful love retrieves,<br />Nor lets them go astray,<br />His righteousness to us He gives,<br />And takes our sins away:<br />We claim salvation in His right,<br />Adopted and forgiv’n,<br />His merit is our robe of light,<br />His death the gate of Heav’n.<br /><br />-Augustus Toplady<br /><br /><br />Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness<br />My beauty are, my glorious dress;<br />’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,<br />With joy shall I lift up my head.<br /><br />Bold shall I stand in Thy great day;<br />For who aught to my charge shall lay?<br />Fully absolved through these I am<br />From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.<br /><br />The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,<br />Who from the Father’s bosom came,<br />Who died for me, e’en me to atone,<br />Now for my Lord and God I own.<br /><br />Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,<br />Which, at the mercy seat of God,<br />Forever doth for sinners plead,<br />For me, e’en for my soul, was shed.<br /><br />Lord, I believe were sinners more<br />Than sands upon the ocean shore,<br />Thou hast for all a ransom paid,<br />For all a full atonement made.<br /><br />When from the dust of death I rise<br />To claim my mansion in the skies,<br />Ev’n then this shall be all my plea,<br />Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.<br /><br />This spotless robe the same appears,<br />When ruined nature sinks in years;<br />No age can change its glorious hue,<br />The robe of Christ is ever new.<br /><br />Jesus, the endless praise to Thee,<br />Whose boundless mercy hath for me—<br />For me a full atonement made,<br />An everlasting ransom paid.<br /><br />O let the dead now hear Thy voice;<br />Now bid Thy banished ones rejoice;<br />Their beauty this, their glorious dress,<br />Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness.<br /><br />-Nikolaus L. von Zinzendorf<br /><br /><br />Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,<br />With His blood, He purchased me.<br />On the cross, He sealed my pardon,<br />Paid the debt, and made me free.<br /><br />-Philip Bliss<br /><br /><br />Rock of Ages, cleft for me,<br />Let me hide myself in Thee;<br />Let the water and the blood,<br />From Thy wounded side which flowed,<br />Be of sin the double cure;<br />Save from wrath and make me pure.<br /><br />Not the labor of my hands<br />Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;<br />Could my zeal no respite know,<br />Could my tears forever flow,<br />All for sin could not atone;<br />Thou must save, and Thou alone.<br /><br />Nothing in my hand I bring,<br />Simply to the cross I cling;<br />Naked, come to Thee for dress;<br />Helpless look to Thee for grace;<br />Foul, I to the fountain fly;<br />Wash me, Savior, or I die.<br /><br />While I draw this fleeting breath,<br />When mine eyes shall close in death,<br />When I soar to worlds unknown,<br />See Thee on Thy judgment throne,<br />Rock of Ages, cleft for me,<br />Let me hide myself in Thee.<br /><br />-Augustus Toplady<br /><br /><br />For nothing good have I<br />Whereby Thy grace to claim,<br />I’ll wash my garments white<br />In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.<br /><br />And now complete in Him<br />My robe His righteousness,<br />Close sheltered ’neath His side,<br />I am divinely blest.<br /><br />Jesus paid it all,<br />All to Him I owe;<br />Sin had left a crimson stain,<br />He washed it white as snow.<br /><br />-Elvina M. Hall<br /><br /><br />Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,<br />Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!<br />Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,<br />There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.<br /><br />Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.<br />What can avail to wash it away?<br />Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,<br />Brighter than snow you may be today.<br /><br />Grace, grace, God’s grace,<br />Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;<br />Grace, grace, God’s grace,<br />Grace that is greater than all our sin.<br /><br />-Julia H. Johnston<br /><br /><br />I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,<br />And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.<br />I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;<br />If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.<br /><br />-William R. FeatherstonC.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-12413742171448027752010-06-17T22:33:00.002-05:002010-06-17T22:36:58.625-05:00J. Gresham Machen: A high view of the Law is neccesary for a proper understanding of the GospelA new and more powerful proclamation of law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law.<br /><br />As it is, they are turning aside from the Christian pathway; they are turning to the village of Morality, and to the house of Mr. Legality, who is reported to be very skillful in relieving men of their burdens…<br /><br />‘Making Christ Master’ in the life, putting into practice ‘the principles of Christ’ by one’s own efforts-these are merely new ways of earning salvation by one’s obedience to God’s commands…<br /><br />So it always is; a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace. Pray God that the high view may again prevail. (J. Gresham Machen, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0851515940?ie=UTF8&tag=cshasbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0851515940"><span style="font-style: italic;">What is Faith?</span></a>, pp. 141-142)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-63104382317573800842010-06-16T23:23:00.004-05:002010-06-17T08:16:12.789-05:00John Murray: Eternity will not exhuast the wonder and glory of Christ's atoning sacrificeThe lost will eternally suffer in the satisfaction of justice. But they will never satisfy it. Christ <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">satisfied</span> justice. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). He was made sin and he was made a curse. He bore our iniquities. He bore the unrelieved and unmitigated damnation of sin, and he finished it. That is the spectacle that confronts us in Gethsemane and on Calvary. … Here we are spectators of a wonder the praise and glory of which eternity will not exhaust. It is the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, the God-man, drinking the cup given him by the eternal Father, the cup of woe and of indescribable agony. We almost hesitate to say so. But it must be said. It is God in our nature forsaken of God. The cry from the accursed tree evinces nothing less than the abandonment endured vicariously because he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. There is no analogy. He himself bore our sins and of the people there was none with him. There is no reproduction or parallel in the experience of archangels or of the greatest saints. The faintest parallel would crush the holiest of men and the mightiest of the angelic host (John Murray, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Redemption Accomplished and Applied</span>, pp. 77-78. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1955).<br />_______________________<br /><br />Thought and expression stagger in the presence of the spectacle that confronts us in the vicarious sin-bearing of the Lord of glory. Here we must realize that we are dealing with the mystery of godliness, and eternity will not reach the bottom of it nor exhaust its praise. Yet it is ours to proclaim it and continue the attempt to expound and defend its truth (p. 5).C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-83171337318630004022010-06-15T22:58:00.005-05:002010-06-15T23:16:31.461-05:00John Murray: When we understand the nature of the atonement, we see that it was limited in intent and extent but not in efficacy, perfection, or powerThe question is: on whose behalf did Christ offer himself a sacrifice? On whose behalf did he propitiate the wrath of God? Whom did he reconcile to God in the body of his flesh through death? Whom did he redeem from the curse of the law, from the guilt and power of sin, from the enthralling power and bondage of Satan? In whose stead and on whose behalf was he obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? These are precisely the questions that have to be asked and frankly faced if the matter of the extent of the atonement is to be placed in proper focus. ... The question is precisely the reference of the death of Christ when this death is viewed as vicarious death, that is to say, as vicarious obedience, as substitutionary sacrifice, and expiation, as effective propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption. In a word, it is the strict and proper connotation of the expression "died for" that must be kept in mind (John Murray, <span style="font-style: italic;">Redemption Accomplished and Applied</span>, p. 62. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1955).<br /><br />... Did Christ come to make the salvation of all men possible, to remove obstacles that stood in the way of salvation, and merely to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to save his people? Did he come to put all men in a salvable state? Or did he come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal life? Did he come to make men redeemable? Or did he come effectually and infallibly to redeem? (p. 63)<br /><br />... The saving efficacy of expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption is too deeply embedded in these concepts, and we dare not eliminate this efficacy. ... Whether the expression "limited atonement" is good or not we must reckon with the fact that unless we believe in the final restoration of all men we cannot have an unlimited atonement. If we universalize the extent we limit the efficacy (p. 64).<br /><br />... It is necessary for us to discover what redemption or atonement really means. And when we examine the Scripture we find that the glory of the cross of Christ is bound up with the effectiveness of its accomplishment. Christ redeemed us to God by his blood, he gave himself a ransom that he might deliver us from all iniquity. The atonement is efficacious substitution (p. 75).<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://biblicalsoteriology.blogspot.com/2010/02/john-murrays-analysis-of-nature-of.html">Read about Murray's analysis of the nature of the atonement to more fully understand why Christ's work of obedience, expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption; are inescapably limited to believers.</a>C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-31492993275354020682010-06-14T19:09:00.006-05:002010-06-14T19:52:51.257-05:00R.J. Rushdoony: God's sovereignty and predestination vs. sacramentalism and baptismal regenerationThe conflict between God and man over the issue of sovereignty comes about in various ways. An important instance of the clash can be found in the rise of English Arminianism between c. 1590 and 1640. The basic problem was one of predestination versus sacramentalism, or, more specifically, predestination versus baptismal regeneration. If God saves man by His sovereign predestinating grace, then baptism is an outward witness to an inner grace, and to God's covenant promise. It witnesses to the fact that God has a covenant of grace with His people. It is, according to chapter 27 of the Westminster Confession, "a sign and seal of the covenant of grace." It witnesses to what God has promised and to what God has done; it is not itself the ingrafting into Christ, or regeneration, or remission of sins, but a witness to what God in His sovereign grace does. The salvation is from God, not from the rite nor the church. The Larger Catechism, A. 165 says of baptism,<br /><blockquote>Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein Christ has ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, of remission of sins by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit; of adoption, and resurrection unto everlasting life; and whereby the parties baptized are solemnly admitted into the visible church, and enter into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's.</blockquote>Behind a man's baptism there stands God's sovereign decree, and Christ's atonement in satisfaction of God's justice. To affirm baptismal regeneration means to transfer the saving power from the Lord who ordains baptism to the rite itself, and to the church which performs the rite. (R.J. Rushdoony, <span style="font-style: italic;">Sovereignty</span>, p. 72)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-8319648155158250842010-06-13T18:18:00.005-05:002010-06-13T21:54:42.277-05:00R.J. Rushdoony: We tend to move from gratitude for grace into autonomous expectations of entitlementLouis XIV, after the fearful defeat of his army at Ramillies, said, "God seems to have forgotten all I have done for him." Men are ready to affirm salvation by grace, and then to believe that they have now merited various blessings. Men and women marry, feeling at first privileged to have one another, and then their lives become one of expectations and demands; they expect to be loved rather than loving. Men feel elated at getting a prized position but are then resentful that they are not showered with advantages for doing their work. The economy of our lives shifts easily from grace to expectations. Since man's original sin is to believe that he can be his own god, and his own source of law and order (Gen. 3:5), all men readily forget grace and live in terms of <span style="font-style: italic;">their</span> expectations of God and man. The peace offering, and the many psalms which echo it, requires us to live in gratitude towards God and in community with one another. (Rushdoony, <span style="font-style: italic;">Commentary on Leviticus</span>, p. 66).C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-17304635338817879932010-05-16T15:33:00.004-05:002010-05-16T15:38:55.694-05:00Lyrics: The spotless robe of Christ's righteousness“AND CAN IT BE”<br />(CHARLES WESLEY)<br />No condemnation now I dread;<br />Jesus, and all in him, is mine!<br />Alive in him, my living head,<br />And clothed in righteousness divine,<br />Bold I approach the eternal throne,<br />And claim the crown through Christ my own.<br /><br />“THE SOLID ROCK”<br />(EDWARD MOTE)<br />When he shall come with trumpet sound,<br />O may I then in him be found,<br />Dressed in his righteousness alone,<br />Faultless to stand before the throne.<br /><br />“WE TRUST IN YOU, OUR SHIELD”<br />(EDITH CHERRY)<br />We trust in you, O Captain of salvation—<br />In your dear name, all other names above:<br />Jesus our righteousness, our sure foundation,<br />Our prince of glory and our king of love.<br /><br />“O MYSTERY OF LOVE DIVINE”<br />(THOMAS GILL)<br />Our load of sin and misery<br />Didst thou, the Sinless, bear?<br />Thy spotless robe of purity<br />Do we the sinners wear?<br /><br />“THY WORKS, NOT MINE, O CHRIST”<br />(ISAAC WATTS)<br />Thy righteousness, O Christ,<br />Alone can cover me:<br />No righteousness avails<br />Save that which is of thee.<br /><br />“BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD”<br />(CHARITIE LEES SMITH BANCROFT)<br />Behold Him there, the Risen Lamb<br />My perfect spotless righteousness,<br />The great unchangeable I am . . .<br /><br />“I WILL GLORY IN MY REDEEMER”<br />(STEVE AND VIKKI COOK)<br />I will glory in my Redeemer<br />Who crushed the power of sin and death;<br />My only Savior before the holy Judge,<br />The Lamb Who is my righteousness.<br /><br />“KNOWING YOU”<br />(GRAHAM KENDRICK)<br />Knowing you, Jesus,<br />Knowing you, there is no greater thing.<br />You’re my all, you’re the best,<br />You’re my joy, my righteousness<br />And I love you, Lord.<br /><br />-Cited by John Piper, <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/1592_Counted_Righteous_in_Christ/">“Counted Righteous in Christ”</a> (p. 36-37)C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-21202408004515361552010-05-15T20:53:00.002-05:002010-05-15T20:55:56.222-05:00Jonathan Edwards on Sola FideA person is to be <span style="font-style: italic;">justified</span>, when he is approved of God as free from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment, and as having that righteousness belonging to him that entitles to the reward of life. That we should take the word in such a sense, and understand it as the judge’s accepting a person as having both a negative and positive righteousness belonging to him, and looking on him therefore as not only free from any obligation to punishment, but also as just and righteous and so entitled to a positive reward, is not only most agreeable to the etymology and natural import of the word, which signifies to pass one for righteous in judgment, but also manifestly agreeable to the force of the word as used in Scripture. … But certainly, in order to a person’s being looked on as standing right with respect to the rule in general, or in a state corresponding with the law of God, more is needful than not having the guilt of sin. For whatever that law is, whether a new or an old one, doubtless something positive is needed in order to its being answered. We are no more justified by the voice of the law, or of him that judges according to it, by a mere pardon of sin, than Adam, our first surety, was justified by the law, at the first point of his existence, before he had fulfilled the obedience of the law, or had so much as any trial whether he would fulfill it or no. If Adam had finished his course of perfect obedience, he would have been justified, and certainly his justification would have implied something more than what is merely negative. He would have been approved of, as having fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and accordingly would have been adjudged to the reward of it. So Christ, our second surety (in whose justification all whose surety he is, are virtually justified), was not justified till he had done the work the Father had appointed him, and kept the Father’s commandments through all trials, and then in his resurrection he was justified. When he had been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, 1 Pet. 3:18, then he that was manifest in the flesh was justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. 3:16. –Jonathan Edwards, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.apuritansmind.com/Justification/EdwardsJonathanJustification.htm">Justification by Faith Alone</a>C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-425256323377481863.post-32750654821144145292010-05-15T20:48:00.001-05:002010-05-15T20:51:40.796-05:00J. Gresham Machen on active obedience"If Christ had merely paid the penalty of sin for us and had done nothing more we should be at best back in the situation in which Adam found himself where God placed him under the covenant of works. In other words, if Christ only paid the penalty for our sins through his passive sufferings, then we are merely transported back to the Garden of Eden.<br /><br />“That covenant of works was a probation. If Adam kept the law of God for a certain period, he was to have eternal life. If he disobeyed he was to have death. Well, he disobeyed and the penalty of death was inflicted on him and his posterity. Then Christ by His death on the cross paid that penalty for those whom God had chosen.<br /><br />“Well and good. But if that were all that Christ did for us, do you not see that we should be back in just the situation in which Adam was before he sinned? The penalty of his sinning would have been removed from us because it had all been paid by Christ. But for the future the attainment of eternal life would have been dependent upon our perfect obedience to the law of God. We should simply have been back in the probation again.<br /><br />“Here we begin to understand why Jesus' passive obedience is not enough - if divorced from his active obedience. The passive sufferings of Christ discharged the enormous debt we owe, due to our sins and the sin of Adam. In effect, Jesus' passive obedience alone would bring our account from hopelessly overdrawn back to a zero balance - our debt would be retired. But having our debt retired and our sins forgiven does not get us into heaven; it simply returns us to the starting point. More must be done if we are to gain heaven. Righteousness must be completely fulfilled, either by us or by a representative acting on our behalf.<br /><br />"Moreover, we should have been back in that probation in a very much less hopeful way than that in which Adam was originally placed in it. Everything was in Adam's favour when he was placed in the probation. He had been created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. He had been created positively good. Yet despite all that, he fell. How much more likely would we be to fall - nay, how certain to fall - if all that Christ had done for us were merely to remove from us the guilt of past sin, leaving it then to our own efforts to win the reward which God has pronounced upon perfect obedience.<br /><br />"That is the reason why those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ are in a far more blessed condition than was Adam before he fell. Adam before he fell was righteous in the sight of God, but he was still under the possibility of becoming unrighteous. Those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ not only are righteous in the sight of God but they are beyond the possibility of becoming unrighteous. In their case, the probation is over. It is not over because they have stood it successfully. It is not over because they have themselves earned the reward of assured blessedness which God promised on condition of perfect obedience. But it is over because Christ has stood it for them; it is over because Christ has merited for them the reward by His perfect obedience to God's law.<br /><br />“Do you see? Christ has passed the test. He has earned the reward. Heaven has been secured by his perfect obedience to God's law. And he did not do all this for himself as if he needed to earn heaven for himself. He did all this for his people - even for you, O believer! On your behalf, he actively obeyed, thereby saving you and placing you beyond the possibility of ever becoming unrighteous again. Your status is secured eternally - what a great hope!"<br /><br />–<a href="http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?1179">Dr. J. Gresham Machen </a>C.S. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08769518405890210074noreply@blogger.com0