John's was the baptism of repentance...
So pay attention to the sequence of stages here:
Rom 8:29-30
1: For whom He did foreknow,
2: He also did fore-ordain to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
2: Moreover whom He did fore-ordain,
3: them He also called:
3: and whom He called,
4: them He also justified:
4: and whom He justified,
5: them He also glorified.
In Protestant tradition we call this the Golden chain of Salvation (Romans 8:29). In other words God Promise, God's Oath saying, "I Will Do"; " I Will Be Your God, and You Will Be My People".
Baptism: Christian baptism, which has the form of a ceremonial washing (like John's pre-Christian baptism), is a sign from God that signifies inward cleansing and remission of sins (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:25-27), Spirit-wrought regeneration and new life (Titus 3:5), and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as God's seal testifying and guaranteeing that one will be kept safe in Christ forever (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13-14). Baptism carries these meanings because first and fundamentally it signifies union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-7; Col. 2:11-12); and this union with Christ is the source of every element in our salvation (1 John 5:11-12). Receiving the sign in faith assures the persons baptized that God's gift of new life in Christ is freely given to them. At the same time, it commits them to live henceforth in a new way as committed disciples of Jesus. Baptism signifies a watershed point in a human life because it signifies a new-creational engrafting into Christ's risen life.
J.I. Packer
Now 1: and 2: we cannot know...
And 3: I never hear about, but should
4: is proclaimed as Christ's "work" on the Cross
And 5: is ignored and assigned to heaven...
If I may inquire a bit more. Can you expound on point 4 a bit more?
First God CALLS you...
The appropriate response to this CALL is repentance.
John came calling in the wildereness:
REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
I agree that God calls us to believe and repent. Because a person that believes God, will repent. Because this repentance is fruit of the Holy Spirit in us that unites us to Christ. The living vine that gives us life to bear fruit.
Repentance:
Unbelievers need to repent of their immorality; religious people need to repent of their morality; both need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Monergism
Evangelical repentance is ... a gracious principle and habit implanted in the soul by the Spirit of Christ, in the exercise of which a regenerate and believing sinner, deeply sensible of the exceeding sinfulness and just demerit of his innumerable sins is truly humbled and grieved before the Lord, on account of the sinfulness and hurtfulness of them. He feels bitter remorse, unfeigned sorrow, and deep self-abhorrence for the aggravated transgressions of his life, and the deep depravity of his nature; chiefly, because by all his innumerable provocations he has dishonoured an infinitely holy and gracious God, transgressed a law which is "holy, and just, and good," and defiled, deformed, and even destroyed his own precious soul. This godly sorrow for sin and this holy abhorrence of it arise from a spiritual discovery of pardoning mercy with God in Christ, and from the exercise of trusting in His mercy. And these feelings and exercises are always accompanied by an unfeigned love of universal holiness, and by fixed resolutions and endeavours to turn from all iniquity to God and to walk before him in newness of life. Such, in general is the nature of that evangelical repentance, to the habit and exercise of which the Lord Jesus calls sinners who hear the Gospel."
- John Colquhoun
1. Repentance is taking full responsibility for the sin
2. Repentance is turning from the idol we serve to the true God
What do we mean by idols? How does that tie into sin? Sin is not just a transgression of a law of God. It involves a turning from God in unbelief and turning to something else as a "god". When I sin I am saying to God, "I do not trust you. I do not believe your way is good and best. I do not believe you are wise." In place of the true God I worship pleasure, a lover, a lie, my money, a career advancement, my reputation etc. We cannot worship God and sin. we cannot sin without worshiping idols. Deep in the heart of man there is a powerful pull of idolatry. We want to worship this other god because of the pleasure it brings us. That love for sin and out false lover can actually keep us from repentance.
- Mark Lauterbach - The Transforming Community 142-144
Subsequent to this repentance in response to God's CALL,
we are justified by Baptism into Christ...
Because Christ is the Justifier
He is in right relationship with the Father...
And IN Him, so are we...
And everyone who has been baptized INTO Christ
Has put on Christ [you know the text]
See my dear friend, in the Protestant Faith, we teach that Faith comes by hearing God's Gospel of Christ. We sinners repent because we believe in who Jesus is, and what he has done for us; which is proclaimed in the Gospel for the ungodly.
John proclaimed the Good News:
1: The Kingdom of Heaven, long awaited by the Jews, is AT HAND, is here and now...
2: There is something you can DO about that fact - eg
3: Be ye repenting!
As I stated before that repentance is the result of our justification in Christ receive through Faith Alone! Then once we are made right with God through Christ and His Perfect obedience to God. We then can live to God; which is a life of repentance. But prior to repentance we need Christ first. If we place repentance before Christ; meaning we have to measure up a certain amount of repentance before we can have Christ; then Christ is earn by it, and not freely given to us; the ungodly through a promise, and Christ died in vain.
Justified by Faith
Galatians 2
15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
18For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
This Arsenios is the good news for the ungodly. And once we are justified in Christ through Faith apart from the works. We can repent and live to God in Christ Alone!
Because from the time of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereeth violence
And the violent are taking it by force...
And the fact is that repentance is unto Baptism, after which we can repent even more, because now we are IN the Kingdom of Heaven, and you will recall that the Giants were not encountered until AFTER the Jews entered the Promised Land, crossing Jordan, the waters in which John Baptized Jesus...
It is Christ who saves us, and His Salvation is a Gift... It cannot be earned... But He gives it according to our obedience to His Commands...
Christ is given to those who believe and trust God who justifies the ungodly. Christ is received with empty hands. Like a beggar who receives money or food. They did not earn it, or repent to receive it. They passively received it. So yes we receive Christ through Faith Alone; and we cannot offer anything for it; because everything we have is like dung, as Paul says.
And once we are in Union with Christ and made alive by God. We can live to God and repent, because we are now New Creations in Christ. We will not repent until our hearts of stone are made flesh (Alive by the Spirit).
Romans 10:
8“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
So its by the preaching of the Gospel that people hear and believe. This is the command, to believe and repent, in Christ who saves the ungodly.
So that it is in our repentance after Baptism that we find God Glorifying us according to His Mercy and purposes... The degree of our repentance is voluntarily up to us, you see - We CAN repent far more than we DO repent, but it is not forced on us, or taken over from us... The fallen state of man always has room for repentance according to our condition of soul...
tw de Mh ergazomenw
But to him not working
pisteuonti de epi ton dikaiounta ton asebh
but believing upon him justifying the unGodly
logizetai h pistiv autou eiv dikaiosunhn
is accounted the Faith of him unto righteousness
Not doing works but believing in God leads to righteousness
The works he is referring to are the works of the Levitical Law of Moses...
He is NOT speaking of the works of repentance...
I beg to differ. Christ is our Glorification. He is the One who "Finished it at the Cross", and was glorified. And we are Glorified in Christ, because we are in Union with Christ. And because we have Christ, and have all of His heavenly blessings as well.
Just curious, is the believer to obey and keep the Levitical Law? And what's the difference between keeping the Law & Repentance?
We are born dead - No if... Let the dead bury their dead - Christ's very words...
We are not, obviously, totally dead, but fallen from Life... We have in this life the power of choice between Good and evil, because Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of BOTH Good and evil, and God had told Adam that in the very day in which he ate of that fruit, he would die, and he did die that very day, and lived over 900+ years, and died... So this power to turn from and toward Good and evil is part of our fallen from Life human condition...
I will only quote scripture here, and ask you to explain it.
Romans 3:
No One Is Righteous
9What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16in their paths are ruin and misery,
17and the way of peace they have not known.”
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
BTW, you exclude that we are condemned as well as dead in the first Adam (Romans 5).
That is not true - We have to repent from evil thoughts, words and deeds, which is a good work that does not produce Good - For One is Good, yes? - eg it is merely a work that turns one's self away from evil insofar as one is able... The "walking in Good works" which is our purpose on earth is doing what God gives us to do when mature in the Faith... We are here, instead, looking to the works only of repentance, and not those of bestowing God's Grace... The latter, you see, in the sequence I showed you from Paul above, only comes with God's Glorification of those mature - perfected - in Christ...
I hope this is proving useful... Glorification is theosis... The Marriage of the Lamb on earth with His Holy ones...
Arsenios
Thank you Arsenios for your comments. I hope I did not come off offensive? If I did, forgive me.
Union Christ we possess everything.
