Doctrine of Salvation

Transcription

1 Doctrine of Salvation ST505 LESSON 12 of 24 Roger R. Nicole, Ph.D. Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary Corresponding Editor, Christianity Today Let us pray. We marvel, O Lord, our God, at the marvelous plan of salvation which you have established. We pray that we may not only be enlightened but also invigorated to serve you, and we pray that we may follow according to that plan and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, Jesus Christ, so that our lives may reflect something of the glorious purpose that you have in us and for us. We ask it in Christ, our Lord, in His name, Amen. In the last record, we were discussing the impact of a slight deviation in the beginning of the doctrine of justification as we see it exemplified particularly in the Roman Catholic Church, for there in addition to that justification which comes from all past sins through the work of Jesus Christ when one first is brought into the family of God, there is also the action of the Holy Spirit that moves us to become conformed to the image of God, which is assimilated to the doctrine of justification. This represents really a confusion between justification and sanctification. This is a time to state that they are always conjoined. That is, no one is justified who is not also regenerated, and no one is regenerated who is not also justified, but the fact that they are present together in every case of true discipleship does not justify the principle of taking one word for the other and confusing the nature of the work that is done by the grace of God. In the same way, many times Protestants have attempted to remove or at any rate attenuate the forensic nature of justification by emphasizing that in addition to the clearing of our records before God, there is also the renewal that the Holy Spirit accomplishes within us. Even the great theologian, Richard Baxter, had a notion of justification in which this was sometimes brought to the fore. On that account, Baxter and some who followed him were called neonomians, that is, people who had a new understanding of the law as the rule of Christian life. They were, indeed, opposing antinomians, who seem to suggest that inasmuch as justification was just the gift of God without 1 of 9

2 any regards to our own performance, it simply did not matter whether or not we obeyed the laws of God. That, of course, is a grievous error, for those who are justified will, of course, desire in gratitude for this inestimable blessing to do whatever they can do to please God. They will not simply allow themselves to slip into an unmitigated life of rebellion, but they will seek in every possible way to do that which is pleasing to God, and, of course, His law indicates precisely what is pleasing to Him. Therefore, the law has a great significance for the Christian, although it is not to establish a record before God that would determine the level of acceptance that we have with Him in salvation. We need, therefore, to be very careful to maintain the forensic character of justification without committing in any way a record of performance to enter into this picture and to modify the meaning of justification and especially to modify the basis of justification which is entirely and exclusively the perfect obedience of Christ and His perfect bearing on the cross of Calvary of the penal consequences of our sins. Now we move to another blessing which affects our standing before God, and that is the blessing of adoption. is that blessing of the saving grace of God whereby we who are estranged sinners, having forfeited any title to the fatherhood of God, are now by virtue of the work of Jesus Christ received as members of His family and incorporated into the very household of God. is, therefore, a blessing which goes beyond justification. By justification we are viewed as subjects to the kingship of God, subjects who are not in opposition to God but who are brought into harmony with the law of God. By adoption, we are more than subjects, we are made friends, in fact members of the family of God, and the relationship of sons to fathers is surely one of the most wonderful relationships that exists in humanity. The term sons, of course, is not exclusive, and so we relate here to sons and daughters, and the adoption blessing is given to us, for instance, in the many times when Jesus speaks of God as our Father. And again, in the epistle to the Romans, we are told that, chapter 8, we are calling God our Father, Abba, by the spirit of adoption, and the same truth is contained in the epistle to the Galatians. The blessing of adoption ties in with the Roman law according to which a child who was disrespectful or rebellious could be disfellowshipped and the rights to inheritance be canceled, but when there is adoption, there was no possibility of a cancelation of this act when it was once done. And here, again, we 2 of 9

3 have in the formulation of Scripture some assurance that those who have been adopted by God will stay in that relationship of sonship to the very end of their lives and, in fact, through eternity. The blessing of adoption in the first place emphasizes the closeness of God to us. The relationship of fatherhood in humanity is often unfortunately soiled by the failings of the fathers to take their proper responsibilities. On this account, at times, when the doctrine of adoption is presented in our day, it does not make a very attractive picture for people who have been abused or abandoned by their human father. There is, therefore, a need to emphasize the nature of the fatherhood of God as being a constant, persevering, gracious, tender, loving, sustaining kind of relationship which is exemplified only in part, even in the best of parenthood on this earth. There are those who have wondered whether adoption is really a single blessing or whether it is simply an affirmation of something that we have by nature. A considerable controversy was developed in the nineteenth century between R. S. Candlish and T. J. Crawford. Candlish affirmed that we did not have sonship by nature, while Crawford asserted that by virtue of our creation in the image of God, humanity possessed sonship but forfeited it in committing sin. In any case, both of these men agreed with each other in that the sinner could not claim the privileges of sonship because even if it were granted at the start, it had been forfeited by virtue of the sin of Adam and Eve. And adoption is the blessing by virtue of which God in His mercy has provided for us in a renewed manner a relationship of fatherhood and sonship, which excels even that which was found in Paradise, whether it because sonship or anything else. It is this closeness to God and this belonging to His family which represents the climax of the blessing of salvation in terms of our relationship to God. The story of Mephibosheth in the second book of Samuel may be seen in some way as representative of this great blessing. The story is found in 2 Samuel 9, and there we are told that after having been established in his kingship and having won victory over many of his enemies, David sat down to bring into order various things for the kingdom of Judah within the nation. One of the questions that was raised was, Are there any descendants of Saul? When this question was raised, people expected, no doubt, that David would want to eliminate any person who being related to Saul might have a claim to the succession of Saul on the throne of the kingdom. This was usual in oriental nations so that when a 3 of 9

4 new dynasty started an effort was made to eliminate anyone who belonged to the royal family of the previous dynasty. When Mephibosheth was brought before David, it was therefore in great fear, and undoubtedly he thought that this was going to mark the end of his life. But there was a sudden change in the countenance of David. Instead of rejecting him and submitting him to execution, David descended from his throne to take Mephibosheth by the hand and tell him that by virtue of the friendship which David had to Mephibosheth s father, Jonathan, he was now going to be entitled to the blessing that was granted to the very children of David himself. He would be eating at the table of the king at all times and the properties which Saul possessed were passed over to Mephibosheth. What a stunning representation of the situation of the sinner who would deserve nothing but reprobation and death at the hand of God Almighty who has been so grievously offended by our sinfulness, but instead of that by virtue of the interposition of Jesus Christ, we are received into the family of God and we are nurtured at His table, a thing which the Lord s Supper so beautifully and graphically represents. This is the blessing of adoption which puts us into a favored and blessed relationship with God. By virtue of our adoption, we have the succor and help of God in our weaknesses. This is also stated in Romans 8, where we are told that the Holy Spirit comes to our help in our weakness and in the prayer life by which we are asking things which are in keeping with the will of God. We receive help also in the time of temptation in that we are strengthened to resist the power of Satan and to walk in integrity of life before God. And adoption emphasizes also that Christ who has come to be a member of our race is now our elder brother, and in Hebrews particularly this truth is made apparent when the Lord is represented in chapter 2 as saying, Here I am with those whom you have given me. Also in Romans 8 we are told that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ so that He is in a very real sense our elder brother who can understand us in a particularly profound manner and who can help us and bless us all the days of our lives. This doctrine of adoption is a very precious encouragement for the Christian, and the privilege to be called sons and daughters of the Most High is one that we should appreciate at the highest degree. Similarly, when approach God, we are permitted to do it in the terms that Jesus Himself has taught us, Our Father, who are in heaven. We can thus relate ourselves in a very clear manner 4 of 9

5 to the God who is not only the Creator of the universe but who is willing to enter into that intimate and personal relationship which the term Father and children or sons and daughters connotes. We need to pass now into the study of the re-creative blessings that God has provided in salvation, and here we may distinguish between a beginning, a development, and culmination. The beginning of the blessing is called regeneration or the new birth. The doctrine of the new birth is taught very effectually in Scripture; particularly in the gospel of John we find that Jesus said to Nicodemus, You must be born again or from above, and then again, Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and then again, Do not be surprised that I said to you, you must be born again. The new birth is a radical change of orientation which only the power of God s Spirit working in the inner personality could accomplish. It is compared with a birth because it is an entirely new beginning. It is compared with a resurrection in a number of cases; particularly in Ephesians were we are told that we were dead in trespasses and sins, but God has made us alive with Christ, even when we are dead in transgressions (Ephesians 2:2, 4 5). There have been misunderstandings as to the precise nature of the change, and there are those who have thought that by regeneration, people became something else than what Adam and Eve were in creation. Here it is important to recognize that regeneration does not make us anything else than human beings, but it does restore in a powerful and supernatural way the proper orientation of our lives which has been fundamentally disturbed by the presence of sin. Again, there are those who have thought that by regeneration an additional element was brought into the scope of a human life so that regenerate people were functioning with a feature which was not present in those who are unregenerate. I m thinking particularly in this respect of the position of J. B. Heard, who in his volume The Tripartite Nature of Man [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1882] expressed the thought that in those who were under sin, the spirit was dead, while in those who were regenerated, the spirit in humanity had been made alive. According to that view, unregenerate people functioned with body and soul and regenerate people were added a third dimension, the dimension of the human spirit. One could compare this with an automobile which might function with two or three cylinders. If you have two, you would have just the unregenerate nature; if you have three this would be a regenerate personality. 5 of 9

6 This is not really what the Scripture teaches, for even unregenerate people have a spirit. The spirit is not dead or dormant. In fact, in our discussion on the doctrine of humanity, we learned to recognize that spirit and soul are used largely interchangeably in Scripture and do not relate to an entirely different essence in humanity. The work of regeneration does not consist in adding to our nature something which was not present there by virtue of our sin, but it consists in making a drastic redirection of our total lives. It is a work by which the governing disposition of the soul is affected and made holy by the sovereign action of the Holy Spirit. This is something that we could never issue by ourselves, for it is true that we may have some influence into our direction and that there are some occasions where we make decisions in view of motives, which affect the direction that our lives take, but those who are sinners and corrupt by nature tend to move in the direction of sin and away from God. This is the basic situation and orientation of humanity outside of the grace of God. What regeneration accomplishes is that the power of the Holy Spirit reorients drastically the life of a human person. There is, therefore, a rejection of sin expressed by the term repentance and a strong orientation toward God with reliance upon Him and commitment to Him which is expressed by the term faith. In regeneration, we do not have a determining activity since there is no basis in ourselves which would actually produce this revolutionary change of direction. It must be, therefore, by the power of the Holy Spirit that this takes place. The analogy of birth in this respect is fairly explicit since at birth the newborn has very little to do or to say about whether it does or does not issue from the mother s womb. At birth, we are not active or our activity is very small as compared with that of mother and attendants who may help in the delivery. Even more drastic is the representation in which resurrection is compared with regeneration, and there you have a situation where a corpse certainly cannot do anything by itself. It needs to be awakened and brought back to life by a sovereign activity of God Himself or else it will remain in the tomb. We see this well in the case of the resurrection of Lazarus, who needed to have the special call of Jesus Christ who said to him, Lazarus, come forth! The same way is true in connection with the blessing of regeneration. It is a rising from the dead which the Spirit of God performs so as to renew the life of those who are regenerate. 6 of 9

7 There are those who have thought that regeneration occurs particularly in connection with the institution of baptism. According to that view, baptism would be the sacraments by which God, the Holy Spirit, performs this drastic renewal that we are speaking of, and the implication of that view is that unless there is a baptism, there is no true regeneration and people cannot be envisioned as being saved. This was the position of Augustine, who emphasized that baptism does represent an indispensable part of the process of salvation and that unless infants are baptized, if they perish before reaching the age of accountability, they would be lost and confined to a limbo of infants. This is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. But not only does the Roman Catholic Church hold to this, but a similar position obtains in the Eastern Church, the Orthodox people, and you find it in the high church Anglican confession. You find it to some extent in Lutheranism, where baptism is seen as an effective means of producing spiritual life, and you find it, although in a somewhat different way, among the denomination called variously Disciples of Christ or Christians. These latter do not say that baptism operates regeneration, but they say that it is part and parcel of the process of salvation and that people who have not been baptized cannot be considered as truly saved. On that account, they do make it a practice to have a baptistery ready at all times so that if someone turns unto the Lord, the blessing of salvation may be conferred in its completeness to such people by an immediate baptism. Others, however, notably Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists and undoubtedly other groups as well, emphasize that baptism is not a performance by which salvation is conferred or regeneration is accomplished, but it is a representation in a dramatic manner of the renewal that has taken place or will take place in the person who is truly committed to Jesus Christ. The passages on which those who hold to baptismal regeneration ground their opinion are as follows. They point to John 3:5, where Jesus says to Nicodemus, Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. To be born of water would refer to the practice of baptism; be born of the Spirit would refer to the activity of the Spirit that accompanies a proper baptism, and therefore it is a conjoining of these two elements that brings about that renewal, that new birth of which Jesus is speaking in John 3. Another passage is Titus 3:5, where the apostle Paul says that he has saved us through the washing 7 of 9

8 of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior. And here we have the same elements that are mentioned, the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The interpretation is that the washing or bath of rebirth would be, in fact, baptism, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit would point to the latter part of what Jesus says, born of water and of the Spirit. Then again in 1 Peter..., we read about the water that symbolizes baptisms that now save you also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21). Here we touch a passage that is extremely complex, and it is somewhat difficult to be confident that one portion of it can be advanced properly as establishing a doctrine, but those who do believe in baptismal regeneration feel that this passage, indeed, brings support to their approach. Similarly, there are passages which seem to imply that it is by virtue of baptism that salvation enters into a life, and here a passage that is often quoted is Mark 16:16, where we read that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. The salvation seems to be contingent upon believing and being baptized. Then again in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verse 38, where people have asked what they shall do to be saved, Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. The passage is interpreted to mean that apart from baptism there is not that forgiveness of sins that is indispensable for regeneration. And then again in Acts 22:16, we read the following statement of Ananias addressed to the apostle Paul. He said, Go up, arise, and be baptized and wash your sins away calling on his name. The action of washing one s sins away seems to be here equated with the blessing of baptism. In Ephesians 5:25 27, we have this statement relating to the activity of Christ on behalf of the Church where we read that Christ gave himself for the church to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, and cleansing her by the washing with water would seem to refer to the ordinance of baptism. Similarly Colossians 2:12 states the following, Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. And a somewhat 8 of 9

9 similar message issues from Romans 6:3. These are the passages which in the main are quoted in support of this particular view, and they do not lack strength; indeed the ordinance of baptism is intended to represent in a moving manner and to seal the very basic experience of regeneration. Thus those who do not accept the position of baptismal regeneration do, however, acknowledge that there is a connection between baptism and regeneration. However, the connection is not that baptism performs the regeneration, but rather that baptism reflects regeneration. It symbolizes it. It makes a moving representation of that which has taken place in the soul that is regenerate. One part of it is, of course, the use of water which symbolizes the cleansing of something that has been soiled, and in baptism, there is the use of water as symbolic of the forgiveness of sin. Another element in baptism is the rising of a person to a newness of life by the work of the Holy Spirit who vitalizes, who revives, who gives life to someone who was spiritually dead. Here the analogy between the death and the resurrection of Christ is made apparent as contained in Romans 6, where we are buried with Christ in baptism and raised in newness of life. Therefore, these various passages are not meant to give us an understanding of a mechanism by which new life is implanted and suggesting that baptism is the agency by which this is done, but they rather show the unity between the blessing of regeneration and the divinely ordained representation of it which is conferred upon the believers by the ordinance of baptism or upon the children of believers by the same ordinance. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 9 of 9