David Westerfield

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Is Faith a Gift of God Flowing from the Cross? – Part 1

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On February 3, 2008

In Apologetics, Theology

Most believers (at least it seems to me) have never even considered this. Yet it is very Scriptural. I praise God He has shown it to me and am joyful to impart it to you if possible. We all want to give God the credit for our salvation and yet will inconsistently hold that we produced our faith out of our unregenerated human nature that is in bondage to sin. The air we breathe in this country is “my will to do whatever I want,” and it pervades our understanding of God’s work in salvation. It is said, God did the work through Christ on the cross for everyone, but we get ourselves in “because we are free to choose.” Are we though? How are we free? So our will is free from sin? Has sin not affected even this? And if this is so, how in the world can we make a right choice if even our wills (choosing what we desire most) are in bondage to sin? Our hearts are enslaved, our desires corrupted to the core, to the point that all things coming from our hearts naturally are vile and poisonous. Romans 3:9-18 makes this abundantly clear, as Paul’s argument of summing up the human condition. In ourselves, apart from any work exerted by God to cleanse us, we desire and seek nothing of Jesus unless a change happens first in us to cleanse our will and change our very desires, cure our blindness and heal our deafness, so that we see and hear beauty we’ve never experienced: that is, Jesus and His infinite suffering for sinners on the cross. Shining a light in a blind man’s eyes will not make him see. He must first be cured of his blindness and then he can see the light.

So, faith. What is it? “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And where does it come from?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

You have been saved by grace through faith. We have that down. Then Paul says, “And this is not your own doing.” And I have understood this to mean the totality of the statement, “by grace through faith,” is not your own doing. But including our faith even? Was this the doing of God? According to this Scripture, yes. And it was purchased in the cross for us, being that unbelief was one of the sins for which Christ had to die. If you have believed in Christ, it means before the foundation of the world, it was granted to you by God to believe (Ephesians 1:4, 5, 11).

In salvation, God brings all the glory to Himself and this is indicated in this passage when Paul says, “It (meaning salvation “by grace through faith,” the whole thing) is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We alone believe. But God is the One who grants that faith. Just as God spoke the world into existence from nothing, so also, He goes into dead hearts and speaks into existence that which is not there, namely faith in Christ alone which saves us. Apart from this work, as Jesus said, you cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3). May we consider that even our faith has been given to us by God and that even in this, we cannot boast, but rather thank God for the work of Christ, that He would grant us eyes to see and ears to hear the Gospel and respond positively to it.

Here are some other examples of how God is the only One who gives causal priority to our faith (or in simpler terms, that God is the One who imparts faith to the spiritually dead, hardened sinner):

“One of those listening (to the Gospel being preached) was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (Acts 16:14)

Notice, Lydia is the one who believed, she responded. Listen to me here: I’m affirming that she was solely responsible for her belief or unbelief in the message. She is not a robot, but a living, responsible moral agent. God did not believe or respond for her. But what is the reason she believed and responded positively? “The Lord opened her heart,” which caused her to respond positively to Paul’s message. God performed a work in her that produced an effect. That is the only explanation for her and every believers faith: God alone and His work to make dead sinners alive. He gets all the glory. This is called regeneration, or the new birth, or (as it has been so abused as a political label for evangelicals) being born again. It is not something we do at all, it is something done to us by God alone. Just as we have nothing to do with our physical birth and have no choice in the matter, so also, we have nothing to do with our second birth, but it is something done to us. And yet are fully responsible to believe the message of the Gospel. But the new birth, this is God’s operation to perform. And the new birth creates in the sinner a faith (assured hope, deep conviction of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1) that was not there. Faith is the result of this new birth, not the cause. God, and more specifically, the cross, is the cause of our faith in Him. This is our hope in evangelism! We speak the message of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit does His work. It doesn’t rest on our convincing people into the kingdom but the work of God to save sinners.

Continuing, Jesus says Himself,

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

No one comes to, or believes in, or trusts in, or rests in, or loves Jesus unless that person is first drawn by the Father. And the Greek word for drawn is literally dragged, as the same Greek word appears in Acts in speaking of Paul being dragged out of the city. This is our condition spiritually before God: we must be dragged and have life supernaturally breathed into us. The implication here is undeniable: no one believes unless God does a work in them. How does this square with Jesus’ statement in John 3:16 that, “whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”? Well that’s absolutely true! Whosoever believes will be saved.

But read the rest of Jesus’s comments in the Bible, particularly the book of John. It is Jesus Himself who says no one believes unless they are drawn by the Father. Their very coming to Christ is granted by the Father, or it is not. He is God, we’re not. Faith in Jesus is a part of the grace of God, not of works, so that we, in no way at all, boast before Him. He gets all glory and honor for our believing. This is the wondrous hope and beauty of election. It is cause for great joy in the believer and should in no way make us recoil in horror! If you believe, you have been “mercied” by God through the cross, brought from death to life by His power. This should bring you to tears and awe at the infinite work of God to save sinners by Christ.

Jesus also says:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

The Father has a chosen, elect people He gives to the Son. The Son purchases for those people all the benefits of salvation, from beginning to end, uniting them to Himself at every point of His life. Jesus makes an emphatic statement there by saying “they will come to me”. It is as good as done. His work to bring them from death to life is infallible, unstoppable. His work results in their coming to Him, and nothing will stop Him from bringing them to Himself. How awesome. What joy fills my heart just thinking about that. The work of the cross is definitive, effective, not passive, waiting for us to get ourselves into its benefits. Rather, He sovereignly bestows those benefits as He desires, in mercy, making sure His people come to Christ by His power alone. Oh the glory of the cross!

Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Again, the flesh is no help at all. Does this not destroy the misconception of free will? John says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) Most people will simply stop at that verse and say “Whosoever, whosoever, see? It proves free will.” Yet they will not continue on in the same sentence of the next verse. It says, “…who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Preempting verse 12, they were born by God, their very believing came by a prior work of God. It specifically says they were not born “of the will of man.” You did not will yourself into being born again. Is this not conclusive?

And finally, these verses make it abundantly clear that Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ because the Father revealed it to Him, not because he finally made himself see Jesus as the Christ (note specifically that Jesus says flesh and blood has not revealed this to him, including his own):

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'” (Matthew 16:13-17)

So yes, faith is indeed the gift of God and comes only by the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel from God’s word. We evangelize the lost because that’s how God sovereignly works, according to Romans 10:14-15. And God does His work as He pleases. How freeing! God has people He will infallibly save through preaching the Gospel! We must pay close attention to these passages in order that we may feel the deeper sense of just how helpless we really were to even believe apart from God’s work in us. That is exactly how dead in sin we really are. Praise God all the work is His and that we can only boast in the work of Christ on the cross having purchased this undeserved, unearned benefit of faith for His people! To God alone be the glory!

Jesus, the Greatest and Final King of all the Kings of Israel

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On February 2, 2008

In Theology

Recently I’ve been reading through 1 Kings, and I was considering these words Solomon spoke in chapter eight verses 25-26:

“Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father.”

If you look at the state of Israel now (not the current political nation but rather the monarchical system that no longer exists), you would think God has failed in keeping this particular promise to Israel. In addition, Christ, the Messiah has come, died, risen from the grave, and ascended into heaven, with a large majority of the Jews having rejected Christ, stumbling over the stumbling block.

There is also another big problem: God says, “You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel,” and then adds, “IF only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me …” And if you continue to read into 1 and 2 Kings, they fail miserably, because they, along with all other people’s of the world, are great sinners and are incapable in themselves of fulfilling God’s spoken decrees and statutes. So you would definitely think at this point all is lost and God has failed in keeping His promise. And if He failed in keeping His promise to His chosen people, whom He dwelt with and brought out of Egypt with great sovereign power, what are we to make of His promises to us Gentiles, the grafted in branches?

So how does God fulfill this promise to Israel? God brought this promise to pass through His Son, Christ. He alone is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the great sovereign God who reigns on high, who sits on the Throne of thrones. He is the King whose reign will never end and is established forever. Christ is the fulfillment of this promise and the final, greatest of all kings to ever have reigned.

But God fulfills this promise in a most unexpected way; so unexpected that many of the Jews stumbled over it when God brought it to pass. In Jesus’s day, the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come in and wipe out the Romans; expecting a political Savior. They in no way envisioned a Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52, 53) who would make Himself nothing, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. This was in fact the opposite of how they thought God would do things. They fundamentally did not understand they were incapable of fulfilling the law God by themselves, but rather assumed they were doing exactly that, which is the reason why they stumbled over the Messiah when He did arrive as a peasant, a servant of humble means.

Christ came though, in this way, because we all, including the Jews, are incapable of meeting the requirements of God. In the verse I quoted earlier where God promises, “You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, IF only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me …” this was fulfilled in Christ. He is the One who walked perfectly in all the ways of God, without blemish or spot, and by the eternal power within Himself, has ascended to the eternal throne of God. But He did this at much cost to Himself. He bore the wrath of God in Himself on the cross for us who believe!

Because of the great infinite chasm between us and God, it had to be done this way: Christ fulfilling the law for us in His perfect life, bearing in Himself the wrath of God for us on the cross, dying in our place, and rising from the grave, in order to bring us to life in Himself. The greatest King of all time set aside His heavenly dwelling, His place of eternal honor, and made Himself nothing so that those who believe and trust in Him could be heirs with Him of the throne He so greatly deserves, and we so greatly undeserve. What a Savior and King!

This is the King we have, not one who idly stood by and waited for us to save ourselves, or who even did “most” of the work and left us to get ourselves into His eternal blessings, but rather, One that by His eternal power, made us alive together with Himself when we desired nothing of Him, uniting Himself to His people whom He foreloved from eternity; uniting them to Himself at every point in His life, death and resurrection. This Jesus, who man mocks, is the One whose throne will never end, and He has brought great meaning to the passage above, being the final and greatest King of kings Israel has ever seen: “God with us,” Emmanuel.

May we sit and ponder just the vastness of His Kingship and Lordship over our lives and the entire universe, creating, upholding and sustaining everything by His powerful word. Submit to the One true sovereign God and King who lovingly became nothing for us so that we could be made right again in the presence of God and have final, divine, eternal peace and acceptance with God forever. Lord Jesus, You reign on high!

Question Sent to Me on the Difference Between Supra/Infralapsarianism

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On January 31, 2008

In Personal, Theology

David,

Thanks for your site and your work here. I just have one question: on your page stating your doctrinal views you stated that you were a “supralapsarian”. From what I have studied, “supralapsarianism” as opposed to “infralapsarianism” says that God even predestined the “Fall”(not “just allowed” it), and is the ultimate cause of “All” events(sin included). Would you agree with this? Thanks for your response, I’m not trying to start any arguments, I promise! Love ya Brother.
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Thanks for the question!

The main difference between supra/infralapsarianism has to do with the point at which God predestined the elect, was it “before the foundation of the world” (as in Ephesians 1:4), or was it after the fall? Supra/infralapsarianism doesn’t really have anything to do so much with whether God did or didn’t predestine the fall, but more with the point in time of which he predestined the elect in particular. So supra says God chose us before the foundation of the world. Infra says God chose us after the fall occurred. So I’m supra, having not been convinced of the infra position.

As far as the fall goes, it is my personal belief from the Scriptures that God has indeed providentially ordained whatsoever comes to pass (including evil), and yet is in no way the author of sin and evil. God cannot and will never be charged with being the one responsible for evil, because it contradicts His very nature. Therefore, mystery abounds on this subject. All we know is God has the reigns on everything, and yet is not the creator of evil, but only good. All we know is that as in Job’s situation, for example, God hates evil and wickedness, but yet at the same time ordains it (in allowing Satan a certain level of damage in Job’s life) to bring about His glory and good, holy, righteous purposes, as it is clearly shown at the end of the book. I hope that answers your question my friend! Thanks for asking …

In Christ Alone,

David

The Justification of God by John Piper – A Review

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On January 31, 2008

In Reviews, Theology

In a day when men in the pulpit and in the study would take the verses of Romans nine totally out of context, infer unwarranted and unscriptural presuppositions (foreknown faith as the basis for election), thus pressing ideologies onto the text that are just not there, John Piper’s scholarly work on what Romans nine is all about is a great defense of Biblical election (unconditional election) that shines a light in the darkness of so much poor analysis and exegesis of this chapter. Romans nine is about the very definition of who God is: the sovereign Lord over ALL things whose name will be proclaimed in all the Earth, being that His glory is the highest good and that His promises never fail.

Two of the main ways this text is gutted of its intended meaning is first, by the majority of interpretors proposing that Romans nine is not about individual, eternal election to salvation, but rather, corporate temporal election to historical roles, such as Israel being elected as God’s chosen people (as opposed to say David being individually elected to salvation). Secondly, there are those who do believe in individual election, but who will say God chose them because they first chose Him (conditional election, if they choose me I’ll choose them). Piper goes to pain-staking lengths to show how great of an error these propositions are by starting in Romans 9:1 and working his way forward in both the Greek and Hebrews texts. He goes into extensive arguments about how these will not stand in the face of the Berean test of Scripture. In addition, he shows the larger context of the previous chapter, Romans eight, displaying how sure the promises of God are to His people, that He will never fail in carrying them out, because, namely, they are rooted in His unconditional electing love.

However, if that’s true, that God’s promise will not fail, what do we make of these promises if the large majority of the Jews, at the official levels, rejected Christ? I mean, having rejected the Gospel, they remain under the wrath of God! Has God’s promises to Israel failed? And if His promises failed to His chosen people, what are we to make of His promises to us, the grafted in branches? Paul’s answer? “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” (Romans 9:6) And thus Paul begins his argument as to why the promises of God did not fail Israel, just as they will never fail us who trust in Christ. Why haven’t God’s promises failed? It comes down to election. God’s promises are rooted precisely in His plan that was set into effect before the foundation of the world. And Piper shows that to be the case very forcefully.

I highly commend this book to all of you who want to delve into a really good study of these controversial passages in Romans. Piper is an excellent scholar and it is very hard to get around these arguments when confronted with them. Many esteem predestination as an unloving doctrine, that it paints God as a mean, old grandfather who randomly chooses some and not others for salvation. That is called Greek determinism, not Biblical election. However, as we see from the Scriptures, God is the most loving precisely in predestination to salvation through the work of Christ on our behalf (and in every instance where election is mentioned in Scripture, that is exactly how it is presented, the love of God electing us to eternal life through Christ). To see that truth opens up the doors of experiencing God’s grace in deeper ways, because you see just how rebellious from the heart you really are, and just how deep into your soul God had to go to first regenerate you and bring you to life from spiritual death, granting you the eyes to see and ears to hear the call of Christ to salvation, and thus moving in you to respond positively to the Gospel message, just as the Lord did to the Gentiles at Antioch in Acts 13:48 and in Lydia in Acts 16:14.

To hear some excellent messages on much of the same material in this book by John Piper himself on Romans 9 (without being too heady), go here:
http://www.westerfunk.net/theology/piper/romans/9/

To order this book now, go here:
http://www.monergismbooks.com/The-Justi … 16367.html

The Most Important Point to be Attended To – George Mueller

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On January 30, 2008

In Theology

“According to my judgment the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”

“Now in brotherly love and affection I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful in order that happiness in the Lord may continue, that the Scriptures be regularly read. These are God’s appointed means for the nourishment of the inner man. . . .Consider it, and ponder over it. . . . Especially we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more.”

The Peter Syndrome of Catholic Apologists – James White

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On January 28, 2008

In Apologetics, Theology

http://vintage.aomin.org/SBNDDHrep.html

James White refutes the claims of scholarly Catholic apologists who state the historic church throughout the ages has always believed in 1) the Pope (citing Peter constantly as an argument that cannot stand against severe scrutiny) and 2) the infallibility of the Pope.

“Many centuries after the Council of Nicea, long after the rise of the Papacy into prominence (and just before its fall into the Pornocracy), supporters of this institution (the Papacy) began the process of changing history through the use of forgeries. Documents like the famous Donation of Constantine began to circulate. The very fact that men had to create such documents tells us something very important: the belief they wished to substantiate in history could not be substantiated any other way. That is, if people had always believed in the Papacy as it was developing in later centuries, there would be no need to create forgeries to make it look otherwise. One of the forgeries that can be traced to this period involves an expansion in the canons that were passed at the Council of Nicea. Originally the council passed twenty canons, including the famous 6th canon. Yet, centuries later, other collections began to appear. There is no question that these other canons are forgeries-fakes. Yet, amazingly enough, Scott Butler and his co-authors (RCC Apologists) cite from these forgeries in an attempt to substantiate their position! They are not alone here, and in fact, as the quotation below shows, they at least admitted that these canons are not part of the ‘generally accepted’ list. I have heard other apologists, such as Tim Staples, quote Canon 39 of the Arabic canons as if it were a part of the original Council of Nicea, a tremendously dishonest thing to do. On page 308 of Jesus, Peter & the Keys, we find the following:

(From the Arabic Canons of the Council of Nicaea):

‘[CANON XXXIX] Of the care and power which a Patriarch has over the bishops and archbishops of his patriarchate; and of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome over all.

‘Let the patriarch consider what things are done by the archbishops and bishops in their provinces; and if he shall find anything done by them otherwise than it should be, let him change it, and order it, as seemeth him fit; for he is the father of all, and they are his sons. And although the archbishop be among the bishop as an elder brother, who hath the care of his brethren, and to whom they owe obedience because he is over them; yet the patriarch is to all those who are under this power, just as he who holds the seat of Rome, is the head and prince of all patriarchs; inasmuch as he is first, as was Peter, to whom power is given over all Christian princes, and over all their peoples, as he who is the Vicar of Christ our Lord over all peoples and over the whole Christian Church, and whoever shall contradict this, is excommunicated by the Synod. [While not a part of the generally accepted canons of the Council of Nicea, these canons promulgated from the Eastern Church give a mind’s eye view of the thinking of Eastern Christianity.]’ Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers–The Seven Ecumenical Councils, vol.14, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 48.'”

A Timely Quote for our Day

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On January 27, 2008

In Christian Culture, Culture, Philosophy of Ministry, Theology

“We must have the full message. . . ‘deliver the whole counsel of God’. . . . It starts with the Law. The Law of God … the demands of a righteous God, the wrath of God. That is the way to bring men and women to conviction; not by modifying the Truth…. We must confront them with the fact that they are men and that they are fallible men, that they are dying men, that they are sinful men, and that they will all have to stand before God at the Bar of Eternal Judgment….And then we must present to them the full-orbed doctrine of the Grace of God in Salvation in Jesus Christ. We must show that no man is saved ‘by the deeds of the Law’, by his own goodness or righteousness, or church membership or anything else, but solely, utterly, entirely by the free gift of God in Jesus Christ His Son. . . . We must preach the full-orbed doctrine leaving nothing out-conviction of sin, the reality of Judgment and Hell, free grace, justification, sanctification, glorification. We must also show that there is a world view in the Bible … that here alone you can understand history-past history, present history, future history. Let us show this great world view, and God’s Eternal purpose…. Let us at the same time be very careful that we are giving it to the whole man … the gospel is not only for a man’s heart, that you start with his head and present Truth to it … Let us show that it is a great message given by God which we in turn pass on to the mind, to the heart, to the will. There is ever this danger of leaving out some part or other of man’s personality… Let us be certain that we address the whole man-his mind, his emotions and his will.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones The Weapons of our Warfare, 1964, pg. 21-22

Unconditional Election – A Friendly Chat

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On January 27, 2008

In Apologetics, Personal, Theology

Recently, I sent an email to a good pastor friend of mine who was denying unconditional election in some statements he was making on his online radio show. I was in no way angry about it, but rather saddened by his denial, because so much hope, joy, and love are seen in this particular point and it shows us that the roots of our salvation begin with God, not with us, in order that He gets all the glory for our salvation, not just 99%, but 100%. The email is an attempt to try to convince him of unconditional election. I post it here with the hopes of someone else who doesn’t believe this doctrine would now be convinced of it. If we really look at our own personal experience in conversion deeply, we see that the decisive reason and cause for our salvation was not our initial good will toward God (because Scripturally we had no good intentions toward God), but rather God’s decisive work in us to will that which is pleasing to Him, namely, faith in His Son.
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Hey ___!

Before going into this whole thing, I want you to know I admire you so much, appreciate your ministry and see amazing amounts of fruit in it. I just love seeing your desire for the lost to be saved that I also share with you. I praise God for when I see how He’s worked in you and your ministry to will and to work for His good pleasure in helping people come to Jesus. I just want you to be assured that I have nothing at stake in this where I’m trying to “prove a point” or “win” an argument. That is nonsense to me and childish. I love you as a brother in Christ and desire to show that to you. So many “Reformed” types have done a terrible disservice by portraying unconditional election as a fatalistic, mean, harsh doctrine, that God forces people into hell “against their will”, that men have no will of their own, and that secondary causes are of no effect in bringing people to faith. I rather want to present unconditional election in a positive, loving, Biblical light, by God’s grace. I’m a fellow brother of yours in Christ who has been so radically changed and moved in my love for Jesus by this great truth, seeing that the very roots of His salvation mercifully granted to His people go into eternity, into the very counsels of God Himself with His good and perfect plans for the entire world, though we do not fully understand what all He’s doing. I seek for others who love Christ to see the depth of what this doctrine does to radically change the perspective and life of the believer. When I consider God mercifully saving me back in 1997 when I was pursuing rebellion against God as hard as I could, I ask, “Why did you save me, Lord?” and the response from the Scriptures is, “Because I loved you from eternity.” That is unconditional election, in a very short statement. Unconditional electing love. He loved me because He loved me, that’s all I can say and rest in. All the times unconditional election is mentioned in Scripture it is always for the edification of the readers and never presented to bring up dissension in the church. The people who bring dissension into the church with this doctrine nowadays (and in times past) have totally misconstrued and warped the Biblical understanding into a deterministic, pagan Greek idea (aka fatalism) that is far from the way the Scriptures present it. I want to present unconditional election in relation to the love of Christ for His people, from the Bible; that is at least my desire in this and I ask the Lord to help me do just that.

I’m a sinner saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And as such, I have nothing to boast in concerning this, no knowledge, no wisdom, no insight, as if it came from myself. Everything I have is a gift from God, everything. So if I believe to have insight into a point, God has blessed me with that and I give Him all credit for it. When I speak, I in no way intend to insult your intelligence of the Scriptures or any other way. I simply desire to display what I believe to be the Biblical understanding of this point for your personal edification and relationship with Christ; that is my prayer. All of what I believe concerning election comes from the Scriptures, as I’ll show later on in our conversation. In my conversion experience, unconditional election illustrates itself so clearly, as I’m convinced it does with every believer, if they’ll take a step back and consider the possibility of these things. All I boast of is Jesus and His cross on my behalf to raise me from spiritual death; that work alone is what brought me to faith, applied by the working of the Holy Spirit directly and through secondary means (like people and Scripture). It is my hope in this you will see that the main issue concerning unconditional election is rightly giving God the praise for every step of salvation, from alpha to omega, and that He is the Author, Creator, and Granter of our faith itself. Anyway, with that said …

To get the conversation going, I thought it would be good to start with a few questions that hit at our own personal experience: our conversion. All believers want to give God the credit for their salvation at every step, from beginning to end. I haven’t met a believer who didn’t want to give God all glory for their conversion. Salvation is the work of God through Jesus’s death and resurrection, where He was given on our behalf because we were helpless to save ourselves in any capacity at all. As believers, we all agree on that 🙂 In addition, I want to start with a good definition of unconditional election from Wayne Grudem’s systematic theology: “Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, NOT on account of any foreseen merit (or anything else at all) in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.” This has historically, since the Reformation, been known as grace alone, that is, grace alone is the only explanation for why I am saved and another is not. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, article 3, paragraph 5, also has an excellent definition that I would commend: “Those of mankind who are predestinated to life, God chose before the foundation of the world was laid, in accordance with His eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will (that we cannot know). God chose them in Christ (that is through the work of the cross) for everlasting glory, solely out of His free grace and love, without anything in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him to choose.” This is unconditional election (what I believe), as opposed to conditional election, where God chooses sinners based upon something he sees in them or something they do.

But what about our faith, through which we were saved? Where did that come from? Hoe does that fit in with Grace Alone? If we were spiritually dead and blind to the message of the Gospel in ourselves naturally (Romans 3:9-18, 8:7-8) (e.g. to Jews the cross is a rock of stumbling, to Gentiles foolishness), how is it we, as foolish Gentiles, came to be “assured of things hoped for … convicted of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) if we “were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1)? The answer is in the latter part of Ephesians 2:4-5. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” The key there is that God alone, not myself in any capacity, made me alive together with Christ, bringing me from spiritual death, giving me eyes to see and ears to hear, which then infallibly gave rise to my faith because I could now see Christ for who He was. Paul even goes further in this passage to show that faith itself is the grace of God, that is, an undeserved gift graciously bestowed on wrath-deserving sinners. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this [“by grace … through faith”] IS NOT your own doing; it is the Gift of God, not a result of works, SO THAT no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) God is the One who grants faith by grace alone (not grace plus my good intentions toward God, because I have none prior to regeneration) … so that no one may boast, but rather give God the glory for bringing them to faith. No one is owed salvation or this granting of faith through which we are saved, nor can we earn it in any capacity. We are owed wrath instead, and it is only God’s grace that we are delivered. The point of unconditional election is so that we don’t boast in anything, anything at all, including our faith. This is why election is so difficult to wrestle through, because it strips us totally down where we have nothing to rely on in ourselves, and all that is left is Christ and His power breathing life into our dead souls and sustaining us until the very end.

So I ask again, where did our faith come from? Did our faith arise from our spiritually dead soul, or did we produce it out of our unregenerated human nature? Now I want to affirm something many so-called “Reformed” people who misunderstand this doctrine and distort it do not either believe or convey: historic Reformed theology strongly affirms that we are the one’s who will to believe in Christ or not. “Freewillians” and historic “Predestinarians” both agree on that in fact. God doesn’t will for us or believe for us. We either believe, or we don’t, ourselves. We do make a genuine choice pertaining to Christ. But the question is why do we make the choice we do, namely the choice in favor of Christ as Lord and Savior? Most who disagree with predestination will throw the Scriptures up against it that say “Whosoever will” as an attempt to discredit the validity of this doctrine (though the words “predestined” “elect” “election” “chosen” “called” are all in the New Testament itself and must be dealt with if we are to be faithful to the Scriptures). But my response to those who would raise those verses as a counter-point to unconditional election is, of course whosoever believes will be saved. That doesn’t answer the issue we are dealing with though in unconditional election. I have no problem preaching those verses because they are Biblical. “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” (Romans 10:13) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Indeed, God has loved the world by sending Christ into it, that if anyone throws themselves at the feet of Christ for salvation, they will be saved. I believe that with all my heart and will teach it, just as C.H. Spurgeon did, who also believed this great truth of unconditional election.

Yet these verses, as precious as they are to Gospel preaching, just beg the question being aimed at in discussing unconditional election in particular: being dead in tresspasses and sin, naturally a slave to sin under the blindness and darkness of the wrath of God, why did I will what I willed when I trusted Christ? Why did I desire what I desired when I fell in love with Christ? Being the sinful wretch that I am, poor, blind, and naked, how did I will something pleasing to God, namely faith? How did I come under such deep conviction all of a sudden that I had so thoroughly offended God by slapping Him in the face with my glory-hating life? The Scriptures answer these questions adequately: the Holy Spirit came in, and gave me new birth, gave me spiritual eyes to see, ears to hear, and cut me to the heart with the message of the Gospel, bringing deep conviction of sin and great love and trust in Jesus. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) and “The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (Acts 16:14) He cut me (and all who believe) to the heart by His power through the work of the cross, applied by the Spirit, when I wanted nothing of Him in my rebellious sin. He did not merely give me an opportunity to be saved (though indeed that is true and I surely affirm that), but He made sure I got saved by His supernatural, incomprehensible power, “making me alive together with Christ.” Is there any way I can claim credit for my belief in Christ who I cannot see with my physical eyes, though now I know in my heart of hearts He is who He says He is, the Christ? Why am I not a Pharisee, hardened in unbelief, left to my sinfully dead will that always chooses evil in the sight of God? Where did that conviction and resolve come from that Jesus is the King of Glory? Was it not from the hand of God Himself that brought me to faith in His Son? If not, isn’t this something I could rightly boast in as having done myself apart from God’s work? But if so, was this not a choice He made to move in me and bring me to faith in His Son? And when did He make this choice to save me through the cross? “He chose us (believers) in [Christ] before the foundation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4)

Here’s a scenario I would pose as an illustration …

Two unbelieving people, best friends, go to a church and hear a preacher very clearly present the Gospel. One believes and the other rejects it as foolishness.

Why does one person believe and the other reject the message? What made the difference? Was it intelligence? Sheer willing of faith by his own spiritual strength out of a sinfully dead state? Was one was more naturally inclined to believe than the other? Was one more spiritually empowered by nature than the other? Was it anything at all within the guy as a reason for why he believed?

The Reformational nickname for election is “grace alone,” because there is no other explanation besides grace as to why one is saved and another hearer of the gospel is not. To deny unconditional election is to deny “grace alone,” which as Luther clearly stated, was the hinge upon which the Reformation turned. Denying unconditional election, as very carefully articulated in Romans 9 in particular, is essentially denying that the decisive reason for our salvation was something other than God’s grace (free will led by chance, spirituality, intelligence, etc.).

I believe that dwelling upon these questions and then going to the Scriptures (particularly Romans 8:28-30, Romans 9, Ephesians 1, John 6, several places in Acts), unconditional election is an inescapable reality in the Bible itself that brings so much joy in our faith; it is solid rock to place our feet on when everything around us crumbles. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) That is the hope of God’s unconditional electing grace, from beginning to end. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

To end, I want to quote C.H. Spurgeon where he says something profound that hits right at the center of this:

“The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, ‘I ascribe my change wholly to God.'”

Your Brother in Christ,

David

“What do you have that you did not receive?” – 1 Corinthians 4:7
“But by the grace of God, I am what I am.” – 1 Corinthians 15:10

How to Forgive from the Heart

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On January 24, 2008

In Theology

There is a default mode of thinking with every human being in the world. This thinking permeates the way we all naturally approach relationships at almost every level. And this thinking essentially says, “Someone hurt me, and now they must pay.” Even in our “forgiving” of another person, we only forgive if they ___. This thinking results in bitterness, anger, self-exaltation, conceitedness, and a general “everyone owes me because of what I’ve endured” kind of attitude toward the world, or the victim mentality as it has come to be called.

So how do we really forgive someone from the heart? First of all, before we answer that, we need to ask another question: what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is essentially taking the hurt or pain within yourself that the other person inflicted upon you, putting down your arms, and not seeking revenge. Forgiveness is not so much acting like nothing ever happened, but rather, not seeking revenge in any capacity, either subtly or overtly. This is increasingly difficult the greater the offense.

So how do you forgive someone who caused so much pain? In yourself and your abilities, it is really impossible for you to forgive someone. And even when you do “forgive” someone, there is still a feeling of “they owe me” many times that eats away at the relationship. This is where, practically speaking, the difference between religion and the Gospel becomes blatantly apparent. Within religion, you merit your eternal life and blessings from God, or you lose them. Because of this thinking, we also feel like people merit their relationship with us or they lose it, and vice versa; we feel we either merit relationships or we lose them based on what we do.

In the Gospel though, Christ merited the blessings for you out of love, through belief and trust in Him, because you were incapable of ever meeting God’s infinitely just, holy standards. Or in other words, you offended God on an infinite level by disregarding His name and glory in all you did. Therefore God was rightly and justly angry at you, on an infinite level. This anger results in just eternal punishment, because we are His creatures and He is the Creator. We owe Him, and yet we are unable to pay Him back because the payment is infinite in relation to the one offended. Therefore our due from Him is eternal wrath. We are owed wrath in fact. And no amount of moral or religious toiling can pay Him back for the infinite hurt we have caused Him. Some will object at this point and say, “But God should just take the pain within Himself, like you just said we should do, and pardon everyone.”

Funny you should say that, because, well, Jesus came to do exactly that, if we will believe in and trust Him. Jesus, being God from all eternity, became a man, like us, in order to bridge an infinite gap between us and God. He did this willingly, out of love. Jesus took both the worst man could throw at Him and the worst God had for man, and took the searing pain from both ends in Himself on the cross. Through the work of the cross, Jesus took the blow we were owed by God in Himself, that whoever believes in Him will indeed be forgiven. God has made a way for us to be reconciled. Jesus made a way that was impossible for us to accomplish by ourselves. Jesus’s work on the cross is the ultimate forgiveness.

I submit to you, all of you who harbor bitterness and angst against someone else for how they’ve wronged you, you will in no way be able to forgive them (as defined above) in yourself, your power, will, and ability, because all that comes from us naturally is corrupted. The only way to forgive someone from your heart, in a way in which you seek no revenge upon that person is to have been forgiven yourself of a debt of infinite value. Until you see that your offense against God is an infinite back-slap to God’s name, value and glory, and that it is infinitely greater than the offense inflicted upon you; and that your offense has been forgiven through the work of Christ (i.e. through faith alone, He takes your eternal hell for you on the cross, and gives you His infinitely perfect record), only then will you ever be able to fully forgive the person who hurt you. You must first feel the weight of the debt you’ve incurred by your sin. It is a grievous injury to God’s value and worth. Our due is wrath, not goodness. Sin, great and small, is all an infinite offense against God. He is no one’s debtor, we are not owed anything good, but rather only wrath.

Therefore, to experience this kind of forgiveness, the lifting of such a heavy burden by the work of Christ for how you’ve wronged God when you should have been sent to hell for eternity, is the only way to change from the inside out, in order that you can then truly forgive the person. It is the only way to really forgive someone from the heart. Ask God to help you first feel the weight of your sin and then feel the weight of mercy in the cross. You will then look at the person who injured you and say, “How can I not forgive them after having been forgiven such a greater offense myself?”

Who do you say that I am?

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On January 21, 2008

In Theology

“And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they told him, ‘John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.’ And he asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.”

Ultimately this is the question everyone needs to ask themselves about who exactly Jesus is. Answers abound in our day just as in the day of Jesus. In the day of Christ, some said he was a prophet, Elijah, or John the Baptist. In our day, people say he was a great teacher, maybe the best of all moral instructors, or that he was merely a man of mystery who changed the course of history. Yet these responses all miss the mark of the only two responses we can have: he was either a lunatic liar or He was exactly who He made Himself out to be, the Christ. Many in our day seem to only read the sermon on the mount when making a conclusion about who Jesus is. Deepak Chopra is one example. He “[carries] the Sermon on the Mount with [him] wherever [he goes] and [tries] to live by it.” Jesus is just a moral example to him. They fail to read all the other instances in which Jesus says things that are extremely hard to hear (concerning election, His judgment of the unbelieving, His exclusive claims of authority over all things), making Himself equal with God even, the supreme authority of the universe. When concluding who Jesus is, you cannot ignore the controversial statements he made.

“Who do you say that I am?” This question is very important for believers and unbelievers. For unbelievers, who you say Jesus is determines your eternal fate. If he is just a moral example, as with Chopra, then he is no different than any other person in the world and has no power to deliver you. He’s just an ideal, not one who bore the wrath you deserve on your behalf, not one who redeemed you from certain eternal death. Yet He is the Christ, the supreme commander of the universe, and on that day of final judgment, Jesus will say to you who reject Him, “I never knew you.” That is a frightening prospect if He is the great commander of the universe. For believers, who you say Jesus is today has everything to do with personal holiness and conformity to Him. For example, though you may confess Christ as your Lord and Savior and indeed be saved, does He have any bearing on decisions you make throughout the day, from small to large ones? If not, then in your heart, you are not regarding Christ as the King of the universe. But if He is the center of your world, then He reigns supreme and directs you in the way you should go, to His glory.

Just consider this question: who do you say Jesus is? And then turn to the Scriptures, ask God to reveal Christ to your heart through what you read, and seek God to grant you greater love for Christ.

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