Since we’ve seen a number of visitors from the Campbellite camp here, I thought it bore mentioning what the fallen human race must perpetually be reminded of, from day to day and from era to era. If you ever come to terms with the fact that you as a sinner are just that--a sinner--and have real contrition or grief about your offenses against God, then good. Moreover, if you repent of your wrongdoings, then this too is good, because you owe this to God.
Things are even better if you throw yourself at the mercy of the Divine Court, believing the Judge to be merciful upon those who believe what He has said and believe in Him. Things are better, because this is the equivalent of one’s believing in God and the one whom he sent, and it is written that those who believe in Jesus Christ are justified from those things from which one cannot be justified by the law: faith is the occasion of justification and those who believe are people whom God is pleased to forgive.
If you throw yourself at the mercy of the court because you know that your own deeds and efforts at doing good just aren’t cutting it (in terms of satisfying the righteous requirements of God’s law or at establishing your own righteousness), then why would you ever backpedal on this idea? If you think that a laundry list of acts of continual obedience is necessary to remain righteous or forgiven, then you’re already moving in the direction of the Judaizers of the days of the apostle Paul.
It is to be granted that obedience to God’s commandments itself can make one to be righteous, though this is slightly beside the point since (hopefully) all Christians know that no one is capable of establishing his own righteousness any more than the Hebrews of old were capable of such. It is also to be granted that vis-à-vis the likes of 1 Corinthians 6.9-10 and 1 John 3.4-6 there is a correspondence between acts of human obedience and divine salvation, regardless of whether one causes the other as opposed to merely correlating with it. However, if you conclude from such passages that one must obey, and obey again, and continue to obey God or else the promise of John 3.16 now has to be amended or supplied with an explanatory calque at the margin of the pages of one’s Bible, then you’ve given up far too early.
You should already know that you’ve given up too early, because the aforementioned conclusion is one thing that the Judaizers of Paul’s day believed and were condemned for: effectively that one must obey to remain righteous. Yet there are other indications that you fall too easily into the trap of taking your eyes off the prize and remaining distracted by various inner workings in the complexity of God’s choosing, saving, and preserving his people....
For the sake of argument, let it be that divine commandments C1, C2...Cn must be obeyed or else a Christian will somehow cease to be an object of divine mercy and will instead perish. Fine. But who makes sure that Christians obey these particular commandments? Now, notice that I haven’t asked who on this earth tries to encourage his fellow man to obey God and do right, but rather I asked who is it who actually ensures that Christians obey these particular commandments? Or do you not know that salvation--from start to finish--is not something accomplished merely by man’s efforts, but rather through the power and workings of Almighty God?
Or if you believe that one stands by faith and that without faith a person will be punished by God on the coming Day of punishment, then good. But is there not someone in heaven who is interested in preserving his people and making sure that they persevere until the end? Or do you instead trust yourself to make sure that you never stop believing in God and believing his word lest you perish?
The course of evolution among the Campbellite camp from its inception has been one of anti-intellectualism and hyper-simplicity to a reconstituted intellectualism which nearly parallels legalism. But now I urge those within (and without) the camp: do not merely pay lip service to the importance of faith, and do not place a misdirected emphasis on the very real importance of obdience to God’s commandments. The error of baptismal regeneration and baptismal justification is grevious enough and has done enough damage in the world already. Members of the “Churches of Christ” community and other groups need not compound their errors by means of semi-legalism.
Things are even better if you throw yourself at the mercy of the Divine Court, believing the Judge to be merciful upon those who believe what He has said and believe in Him. Things are better, because this is the equivalent of one’s believing in God and the one whom he sent, and it is written that those who believe in Jesus Christ are justified from those things from which one cannot be justified by the law: faith is the occasion of justification and those who believe are people whom God is pleased to forgive.
If you throw yourself at the mercy of the court because you know that your own deeds and efforts at doing good just aren’t cutting it (in terms of satisfying the righteous requirements of God’s law or at establishing your own righteousness), then why would you ever backpedal on this idea? If you think that a laundry list of acts of continual obedience is necessary to remain righteous or forgiven, then you’re already moving in the direction of the Judaizers of the days of the apostle Paul.
It is to be granted that obedience to God’s commandments itself can make one to be righteous, though this is slightly beside the point since (hopefully) all Christians know that no one is capable of establishing his own righteousness any more than the Hebrews of old were capable of such. It is also to be granted that vis-à-vis the likes of 1 Corinthians 6.9-10 and 1 John 3.4-6 there is a correspondence between acts of human obedience and divine salvation, regardless of whether one causes the other as opposed to merely correlating with it. However, if you conclude from such passages that one must obey, and obey again, and continue to obey God or else the promise of John 3.16 now has to be amended or supplied with an explanatory calque at the margin of the pages of one’s Bible, then you’ve given up far too early.
You should already know that you’ve given up too early, because the aforementioned conclusion is one thing that the Judaizers of Paul’s day believed and were condemned for: effectively that one must obey to remain righteous. Yet there are other indications that you fall too easily into the trap of taking your eyes off the prize and remaining distracted by various inner workings in the complexity of God’s choosing, saving, and preserving his people....
For the sake of argument, let it be that divine commandments C1, C2...Cn must be obeyed or else a Christian will somehow cease to be an object of divine mercy and will instead perish. Fine. But who makes sure that Christians obey these particular commandments? Now, notice that I haven’t asked who on this earth tries to encourage his fellow man to obey God and do right, but rather I asked who is it who actually ensures that Christians obey these particular commandments? Or do you not know that salvation--from start to finish--is not something accomplished merely by man’s efforts, but rather through the power and workings of Almighty God?
Or if you believe that one stands by faith and that without faith a person will be punished by God on the coming Day of punishment, then good. But is there not someone in heaven who is interested in preserving his people and making sure that they persevere until the end? Or do you instead trust yourself to make sure that you never stop believing in God and believing his word lest you perish?
The course of evolution among the Campbellite camp from its inception has been one of anti-intellectualism and hyper-simplicity to a reconstituted intellectualism which nearly parallels legalism. But now I urge those within (and without) the camp: do not merely pay lip service to the importance of faith, and do not place a misdirected emphasis on the very real importance of obdience to God’s commandments. The error of baptismal regeneration and baptismal justification is grevious enough and has done enough damage in the world already. Members of the “Churches of Christ” community and other groups need not compound their errors by means of semi-legalism.
3 comments:
Now one of the things I struggle with this topic is admittedly human (being thankful I am not God...;-) ). And it is kind of like not knowing enough to ask a good question.
We are sinners and saints, and we are not bound by the law to get any kind of salvation. We still fail, yet we also ought to be persevering.
What kind of sinful fruit would we expect from someone who has "lost" their salvation or were "never saved" to begin with? (depending on what camp you're in, since this is a trouble spot for both, I think)
I know we've talked a little about this in the past, but it often bothers me, partly because of my legalistic leanings (apart from Christ) Haha.
Now having to retype all the stuff I just typed because of a 503 error that erased my comments, I’ll try to cut it short:
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«We are sinners and saints, and we are not bound by the law to get any kind of salvation. We still fail, yet we also ought to be persevering.»
If people are obligated to take good care of themselves--wearing seat belts and eating healthy foods and so on--I would imagine that God’s law carries the obligation that one repent and believe; otherwise, something worse than death awaits both body and soul.
«What kind of sinful fruit would we expect from someone who has "lost" their salvation or were "never saved" to begin with? (depending on what camp you're in, since this is a trouble spot for both, I think)»
Common grace exists, and how else do you account for false regenerates among the members of the body of Christ? You may not always notice a difference between believers and unbelievers at first.
«I know we've talked a little about this in the past, but it often bothers me, partly because of my legalistic leanings (apart from Christ) Haha.»
1. One must still obey God’s law.
2. An analysis of issues of Perseverance of the Saints can lead to a better understanding of the importance of God’s law.
3. Mankind does have trouble trying to walk and chew gum at once. The more he emphasizes one thing, the more he forgets other things. This can lead to pendulum shifts in popular theology and philosophy.
Thanks Kwame,
Hey I am sorry if it takes a while to get back to you on things. I am having problems getting emails from my saltnlight email-And by problems, I mean I am not getting many through my filter.
On the plus side of that, I don't have as many emails to go through. :-)
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