Thanks. . .very good.
So, you're saying they confuse sanctification (holiness) with justification (forgiveness of sin), and believe that justification (forgiveness of sin) depends on sanctification (holiness)?
Would MacArthur agree with that assessment of their relationship of sanctification to justification? From what I can tell, he's a smart guy. Would he be given to making that kind of mistake?
Remember justification (declared "not guilty," condemnation removed, given right-standing before God) is not sanctification (holiness).
God redeemed us to be holy (set apart from sin, and to God). . .
"Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14)
There is a serious work of separation from sin (holiness) that must take place.
Jesus said that our sin must be radically dealt with (Mk 9:43-48), right?
And our sin was radically dealt with--by the cross. But as far as our sanctification goes, yes, we are not to give sin any quarter. But we are simul iustus et peccator,, both saint and sinner. Sanctification is not about climbing up a ladder of moral progress, but the working of God in our lives. What may be a struggle for me may not be a struggle for you, the exact form that the cross of discipleship that I must carry may not be identical to yours.
God's promise is that the work which He began He will continue to do, right up until the day of the Lord's return. And so each and every Christian is the workmanship of God. But each and every one of us, though we should not, also very often works against that--the old man constantly trying to assert itself, which is why we must daily drown the old man in repentance.
Our Lord gave His apostles the authority to forgive sins in His name, and so Absolution has been granted to the Church, so that we might freely confess our sins, and freely have our sins proclaimed forgiven. So we can freely avail ourselves to God's grace which is present here in Word and Sacrament.
The Christian life is not a life of upward spiritual or moral progress, but a life lived in repentance and humility in light of grace. To freely, and indeed boldly, confess that we are sinners; and that according to God's just command we are condemned in our sin. Yet! Glory be to God who saves us in Christ. Therefore while the Law reckons me a sinner, and the harder I try to obey the Law the more insidious and hideous my sin is--so that by no means am I ever righteous or holy by my own striving of obedience to the command of God. That is the harshness of the Law, and it is ever the reminder of my own sinfulness. For the command that says I should love my neighbor as myself is the command that shows me to fail to love my neighbor, time and again, I fail. So that as the Apostle says, the command that was meant to bring life brings instead death.
Therefore, wretched man that I am, who can save me from this body of death? For sin remains even in my very members. Christ does, for the Gospel is the sweet and soothing word of God that my sins are forgiven, though I may rage against God being found His enemy, God has reconciled me to Himself through Christ who suffered and died and rose again. I therefore have life with God apart from the Law, by His grace, through faith, in Christ alone.
The Law which commands me how I ought to live, is the Law that condemns me in my failure to live as I ought. So that should I strive a thousand years trying to be righteous, I never will be. But God, with one marvelous and scandalous act, has done for me what I could never do--make me just.
And therefore I, wretched sinner that I am, am nevertheless righteous on Christ's account.
Yes, faith produces good works.
But no, the good works which come from faith do not improve me before God.
The problem isn't in saying that Christ is Lord, and if He is Lord, therefore I am to reckon myself a slave and servant--because of course that is true. The Apostle has clearly taught that in light of the grace we received in Holy Baptism we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, and as slaves to God. And not only as slaves to God, but as slaves to our fellow man for whom we are called to live and show our good works. As it is written, we have been created for good works.
The problem is in tying that to our status before God, by presenting the call to die and to walk in good works as a measurement of who we are before God. As though, by any measure of a man, he could be regarded as anything other than a wretch and sinner when standing before God's righteous and holy commandment.
There can be left no room for confusion on this. The insidiousness of the Opinio Legis--the Opinion of the Law--and the absolute necessity of making the distinction between Law and Gospel means that we simply cannot present the arena of our discipleship to our righteous standing before God. We are righteous because of grace alone, for we have received Christ's righteousness as pure gift. Our discipleship is the working of grace in our lives, and we have to entrust ourselves to Him who loves us, and not attempt to measure ourselves according to our moral ability (or, more truthfully, our inability).
Mortal sin drives out faith, but the one who (to quote St. Paul) "makes shipwreck of their faith" isn't merely a person whose sin is strong but who sorrowfully grieves over his sin and desperately prays for mercy in repentance. Such a person is one who makes shipwreck of their faith because they have turned away from repentance, whose hearts have grown callous, and thus they depart from faith.
-CryptoLutheran
