- Jun 28, 2018
- 15,549
- 5,876
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
Once, in the 1950s I and some other boys tried to figure out how we came to be. We were beyond the cabbage leaf stage and knew our parents had something to do with it. One gave his ideas of what might have caused us. Another hit close to what happens. While another boy, Jimmy shrieked yuck! “No way!”… “My dad would not do something like that to my mom”. And we went our separate ways, as clueless as ever.
And this reminds me of many Christians I run into when I try to share the doctrines of salvation. They cannot imagine God saving people the way he does. Against their will, supernaturally through the New Birth, making them willing.
I believe the resistance comes from our legalistic conditioning by the world. Law depends on free will. And free will makes us responsible for our actions. This is necessary for civilization.
So unless taught by our Reformed confessions, we always begin assessing the bible, and our experience in Christ by free will. The bible says “whoever believes has eternal life”. So in our legalistic mind-set we read “whoever chooses to believe has eternal life”. Because that is how the world works.
So we legalize scripture reading free will into it. But an even greater hindrance to understanding salvation comes from the bible itself. The Old Testament Law depended on free will but could never save. And God physically rewarded or punished Israel as a result. But the big mistake comes from assuming the New Covenant works on the same principles.
And this is where Paul begins teaching us that salvation is through grace (no law involved) and not by works (law keeping). We know he forbids us from trying to earn salvation through keeping the Ten Commandments. Instead by measuring our sin by them. And then trusting in Jesus who paid for our sins on the cross.
But we turn this message into a new law we must keep when we import free will into it. Instead of trusting in Jesus alone, we trust in our free will response to a false gospel we turned into law. Instead of God supernaturally saving us, we save ourselves through obedience to a false gospel based on works.
But as we study, we begin to learn we were free only to sin. And unless saved by grace in the New Birth, we only acted like Christians in an attempt to save ourselves. Instead we act like Christians because of the new birth God gave us. Just as a cat acts like a cat by nature, we act saved because of our saved nature.
I don’t know if Jimmy ever got it right. But his obituary omitted having a family of his own....
And this reminds me of many Christians I run into when I try to share the doctrines of salvation. They cannot imagine God saving people the way he does. Against their will, supernaturally through the New Birth, making them willing.
I believe the resistance comes from our legalistic conditioning by the world. Law depends on free will. And free will makes us responsible for our actions. This is necessary for civilization.
So unless taught by our Reformed confessions, we always begin assessing the bible, and our experience in Christ by free will. The bible says “whoever believes has eternal life”. So in our legalistic mind-set we read “whoever chooses to believe has eternal life”. Because that is how the world works.
So we legalize scripture reading free will into it. But an even greater hindrance to understanding salvation comes from the bible itself. The Old Testament Law depended on free will but could never save. And God physically rewarded or punished Israel as a result. But the big mistake comes from assuming the New Covenant works on the same principles.
And this is where Paul begins teaching us that salvation is through grace (no law involved) and not by works (law keeping). We know he forbids us from trying to earn salvation through keeping the Ten Commandments. Instead by measuring our sin by them. And then trusting in Jesus who paid for our sins on the cross.
But we turn this message into a new law we must keep when we import free will into it. Instead of trusting in Jesus alone, we trust in our free will response to a false gospel we turned into law. Instead of God supernaturally saving us, we save ourselves through obedience to a false gospel based on works.
But as we study, we begin to learn we were free only to sin. And unless saved by grace in the New Birth, we only acted like Christians in an attempt to save ourselves. Instead we act like Christians because of the new birth God gave us. Just as a cat acts like a cat by nature, we act saved because of our saved nature.
I don’t know if Jimmy ever got it right. But his obituary omitted having a family of his own....
