Opus 2026-001: Three D Vision

There are three realities, at least, that are totally beyond my control, and yet are waiting to transform my life.  Actually, I think they have already transformed my life, but they still remain beyond my control or ability to influence.

The first, of course would be grace.  I define grace as God’s love in action.  It is not something that we can control in any way shape or form.  It is the act of God.  That is the glory of,

(Eph 2:8 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Grace is the beginning of our hope.  It is believing that God is willing to extend His omnipotent power toward our salvation and eternal destiny.  I cannot pressure Him.  I cannot force Him.  He extends it, purely by His choice.

The second reality goes by a different names, but let’s just say the blood.  You can reference the substitutional atonement.  I’m sure there are many other names for it.  The point is that our salvation, even allowing for grace, is based upon the fact that Jesus died on the cross as the perfect Lamb of God making the perfect sacrifice to wipe out the blot of sin on our lives.  Because of the character of God and the fact that He is a just God, He can’t just wave His celestial wand and say, “It’s good.  Go in peace.”  Sin requires death.  We can’t pay that debt by our death.  Therefore God sent His son to pay the price.  Again, there are many ways of defining it and explaining it, but the reality is still there.

The third reality that totally transforms even that assurance is the resurrection of Jesus.  I’m talking here about a physical resurrection, not just some kind of spiritual fantasy.  Jesus rose from the dead.  He conquered death.  That conquest is a promise to us that we have any internal hope.  Paul explains how vital this is,

(1Co 15:17 KJV)  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

People in different theological persuasions may interpret these a bit differently, I think they would put them together in a different way, they might even insist on adding some other elements.  Good for them as long as they accept these three is being essential.

As far as I’m concerned, the first two have already been applied to my life and I live in expectation of the third.

What a way to enter a new year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-524: Discernment Watch: Beware of Experts

I just received a lengthy tome from my friend who has definite theological opinions.  By lengthy, I mean seven pages of 12 point font.  I think that qualifies as lengthy.  What makes it drudgery is that he just is repeating everything he said before.  I’m going to go over it again, looking for anything original and hope to find something.  If nothing else he makes me think and adds to my arsenal of scripture knowledge.

Disagreement has value because it forces us to look at our suppositions.  It makes us examine the foundation stones of our thinking.  That is always good.  Sometimes one of those stones needs to be changed or chipped away a little bit.

My concern though from this is, I’m thinking about definitions of words.  The one that keeps coming to my mind that people use, at least in church circles, is the word “grace”.  Christians love to talk about how they are saved by grace.  That is certainly true.  The Bible is very clear about that.

(Eph 2:8-9 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The problem comes when we define what grace means.  The popular definition that I’ve been hearing all my life is that grace is “unmerited favor”.  If you are a student of theology and have definite opinions, you can parse that so that it might be understandable.  You might even get it to a place where I could accept it along with a big pillow of salt.  My point here is that if I need someone to define a word and all they can do is give me other words that need to be defined even further, then their definition is pretty worthless.  What do we mean by “unmerited”?  What do we mean by “favor”?  The problem with such definitions is they fly in the face of most scripture.

I prefer a definition which is much simpler.  To me grace is “God’s love in action”.  Are there any words there that need to be defined?  Is there anything about that statement that is not clear?  It is a much better definition.  It is simple.  It is direct.  And it does not cause any conflict in the world of theology and understanding of the Bible.

Take this another step.  I am now working my way through Revelation, and I find that almost every word has to be to defined.  Starting in chapter 4 I find that there is nothing that is a simple statement.  You may have heard the term “apocalyptic literature”.  It’s a form of writing, which is nothing but images and literary devices trying to get across some hidden meaning.  That is the book of Revelation.

As I have said other places, I accept the book of Revelation as part of the Bible.  As such it is scripture.  As such it is inspired.  That does not mean that we understand it or can understand it.  Anything in the Bible that needs a commentary or a scholar to explain to me using other words that I don’t understand is something that should be put on a back shelf and gotten to later.

Usually, we don’t really need an expert telling us what it means.  If we continue reading, if we continue thinking, if we keep our mind alive as we look in other parts of scripture, we will find the answers ourselves.  The answers we find will be much simpler, much more direct, and to tell the truth, more accurate.

Trust your ability to read.  Trust the ability the Holy Spirit to interpret.  God wants you to understand the truth.  He’s not so much concerned that you find a commentary that will tell you what the truth is.  Keep in mind that most of what you read in a commentary is not definitions of terms and explanation of tenses.  It is the opinion of the author and to be honest, you opinion might be just as valid as his.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-299: Trump or Follow Suit

You should be familiar with a statement of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:33 (KJV) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This is one of the key commands of Jesus.  How does that compare or contrast with one of Paul’s key statements,

Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Is Paul trumping Jesus?  I don’t know if you play cards, but in many card games, there is either one card that will take anything or one suit which will overpower all others.  Under certain circumstances, if hearts was played first, if you don’t have hearts, you can play a spade, which if it’s trump will defeat a higher card of hearts.  Is this what Paul does?  Or is he just taking the lead of Jesus and explaining it in greater detail?

One thing that we need to understand about this is that Jesus was speaking to a Jewish audience.  He was assuming that they were a part of the nation of Israel.  And that since they did not need to enter into the covenant, they should’ve already been there.  Leave aside the individual aspect of salvation that we emphasize and just look at this command.

This is a statement of obedience and action.  It is a statement of priorities.  It is a statement made to explain the responsibilities of being a part of the kingdom of God.  Paul’s statement on the other hand was about how you were to enter the kingdom.  Neither one rules the other out.  Both are scripture.  They give the two sides of the salvation coin which would be counterfeit if it only had one.

So believe and seek.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-207: Two Words

Tradition has its place.  I think it’s almost the unforgivable sin to begin playing Christmas music before the Thanksgiving meal.  That is a tradition in our home.  It is a tradition because I declared it myself.  I declared it so because my family had already decided that was the way it would be.  Still it is a tradition.

Life is full of traditions.  Some are silly, some deeply meaningful.  We need to always keep in mind, though, that traditions are the result of past habits, not necessarily based upon divine decree.

Which brings me to my “deep thoughts”.  I am thinking of salvation, and two keywords involved in that.  Both of them are found in this passage,

Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The two words are “Grace” and “faith”.  You may be familiar with the Greek here.  Grace comes from charis and faith comes from pistis.  The problem comes when we accept blindly traditional interpretations of how these words relate to each other, and to the other word, which is  “gift”.  The problem for me is that tradition says that grace is extended in a way that has nothing to do with our desire and is totally irresistible.  That same tradition says that faith is nothing dependent upon our choice, but is given to us by God.

Both of these traditions are grounded in a commendable emphasis on the sovereignty of God.  God is God.  He will not be manipulated by us.  We cannot “earn” His love or blessings.  The problem is interpreting that to mean that He becomes a robotic force that makes random choices.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The biblical concept of God is that He is a person and that He responds to us as persons.  He wants to forgive.  He wants to save.  It is His will that everyone to be saved.  If He is sovereign, and that it is His will, you would think that everyone would be saved, but such is not the case.  Your understanding of grace and God must make allowance for the fact that He has a living being response to us as living beings.

In the same way, we cannot come to faith in the absence of divine strength.  The natural man has no interest in the things of God.  The blessing is that God has extended, through his Holy Spirit, the ability to respond to Him.  It is not an overwhelming force, such as the kind of gift of faith that makes us believe, but it is the gentle reinforcement that makes it possible for us to believe if we choose to.  This choice is key to God extending His grace towards us.

On both sides, we have real personalities.  They respond to each other, or not, if that is the choice of the human individual.  That is the essence of free will, we have been created in the image of God.  He has given us the ability to respond.  After that, it’s up to us to follow the inclination of our heart.

Don’t let the logical tradition hold you back from the offering of God.  At the same time don’t feel that you were totally powerless to respond if that is your choice.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-008: Gyroscope Grace

Caution:  Theology ahead.

In theology there is a constant tension between grace and works.  There are two teachings that seem to repel the other. 

On one side we have the truth that we are saved by grace. 

(Ephesians 2:8 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

All Christians believe that salvation is a gift of God.  It is not something that we can earn by a certain number of good works or sacramental rituals.  God chooses to save.  He cannot be coerced or forced.  It is a gift not a paycheck.

At the other end is the demand for obedience to the commands of God.

(Matthew 16:27 KJV)  For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

You cannot live in rebellion and disobedience and expect to have eternal life.

This seems to create a tension for some people.  In my mind one does not rule out the other.

Use a bicycle to illustrate this tension.

I was hard for me to learn to ride a bicycle because I could not wrap my head around the concept of a gyroscope.  I thought that everything depended on my ability to balance.  Not so.  The thing that keeps you upright is the spinning wheels, not your sense of balance. The spinning wheel gives stability.  It is a gift that keeps on giving.

Leaning, however, is up to us.  Leaning gives direction, not turning the handles.  That was another lesson that was hard for me to learn.  A little bit of leaning can make a lot of change in direction.  While the spinning wheels kept me upright through some miracle of physics the direction I threw my hips could change the direction of the spin.

If not moving it is impossible to stay up.  If not obeying it is impossible to be saved.  The two go together.  Also once you learn it you never forget.  That offers some kind of eternal security, I guess. 

Like all analogies it only goes so far and has gaping holes.  That is okay.  I am not trying to be infallible, just grabbing at little bits of understanding.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-358: The Theology of Obesity

Why are Bible believing Christians so fat?  Okay, so they are not all overweight, but like the rest of the American population obesity is a problem.  Part of it comes from the Christian heritage that the nation used to have.  The common person on the street isn’t aware of it but their weight problems go back to a point of Protestant theology:  We live under grace not law. 

Christians believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  This payment is extended as a gift from God to those who believe His death was enough to pay for their sins.  There is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness through our efforts or work.  It is a gift freely given by God.  It is grace.

(Ephesians 2:8 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Well and good in theology but it becomes a problem when we extend that thinking to our diets.  We tend to think that because our sins can be washed away because we believe, then maybe that chocolate chip cookie will be forgiven too if we believe it to be true.  It is not unusual at a church potluck to overhear someone say “It’s Sunday.  That casserole doesn’t have any calories.”

So we indulge in food and we get fat.  Unfortunately when it comes to food we are under law, not grace.  If we are overweight, blame it on the Protestant Reformation.  It is all the fault of Martin Luther and John Calvin.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-271, Driscoll on Regeneration

As I walked recently I listened to another Mark Driscoll sermon.  Actually it wasn’t a sermon this time.  It was a presentation he made to a group at a conference.  The pod-cast was titled “The Four Points of the Movement” and dated 7/24/11.  I got half way through during my walk.  I don’t know if I will bother to finish.  I got angry enough listening to the first half to last me for a few days.

Driscoll was being his normal self.  Although I wish he would move beyond his inadequate Reformed Theology I believe he has the gift of Apostle.  He is one of those people that God is using to penetrate pagan America.  I think that the apostle Paul had some of the same traits.  Arrogant, cocky, pushy and foot in the mouth are some of the terms that come to mind.  Of course we need to understand that arrogance is usually what other people call it when you are right and you know it.  Some times you actually are right and people still call it arrogance because it relieves them of responsibility to consider the merit of what you say.

So I don’t reject Driscoll by habit.  I listen to what he says.  Sometimes I say, “Yes!”  Sometimes I scream and pound on things.  Sometimes I laugh.  But I listen, at least for the first half of his sermons. 

So what got my goat this time?  Clear statements of Reformed Theology.  He was talking along and made this statement, “Regeneration comes before faith.”  If you are Reform, you agree with this.  You may see not problem with it.  It is consistent with the Five Points of Calvinism.  But rarely is it stated so bluntly that unless you are one of the pre-chosen, you have no hope.  Unless you are part of the in-crowd of the elect the Gospel is not good news but a sign similar to the ones that used to be posted, “No Irish need apply.” 

Look at the key verse that we all accept.

(Ephesians 2:8 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The disagreement comes over what is “not of yourselves.”  Since the Five Points of Calvinism include Irresistible Grace and Undeserved Election you, your mind, your will and your agreement are removed by the equation.  Thus, the faith you have it the gift, not just the grace.  In order to have the faith, according to this segment of the church, you are first regenerated by the Holy Spirit. 

Is there something I am missing here?  According to this system God capriciously decides who will get the nod.  He regenerates them, puts in the chip marked faith, pulls out a plum and says, “Oh what a good boy am I.”  We are forced into salvation but of course that doesn’t matter because part of the package is that we are made to feel like this is a good deal.  The other side of the coin is that the large majority that don’t get this “get out of jail free” card are doomed to an eternity in Hell.  This doom is not because you deserve it any more than those who are saved.  They don’t deserve it either.  You are doomed for the sins you had no way to avoid and had no solution for.  This does not make sense to me.

Could God do it this way?  Of course He could.  He is God.  He can do anything He wants.  But if He does it that way then our “love” is nothing but a programing package that makes one person run on Windows and another on Lennox.  It is like playing a computer game where you have all the cheat codes.  You win but the win doesn’t mean much if you have a healthy personality. 

I assume God has a healthy personality.  In His grace I assume that He allows the Holy Spirit to compensate for my sinful nature and allow me to hear the gospel.  I assume His grace makes it possible for me to respond to His love.  I assume His grace allows me to decide to believe, not forces me to believe.  I assume that His grace then continues to work in my life as I take the undeserved gift of salvation and move on into obedience, growth and holy living.

I could be wrong, but understand, according to Reformed Theology I am wrong because God wired me that way. 

I chose to believe that the Gospel is Good News.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-185, Basic Beliefs: Saved by Grace

(Ephesians 2:8 KJV)  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

There are certain basic beliefs that everyone will agree on but when you press the issue you find that the understanding and applications are different.  One of the central ideas of Christianity is that we are saved by the grace of God, not by our own efforts.  In other words, salvation is a gift.  Salvation is not something that we can earn.

On one side of this is the tremendous price that sin demands.  The only acceptable payment for sin is death. 

(Hebrews 9:22 NASB)  And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

This presents a problem.  We have all sinned.  The only way to cleans the sin it by paying with our lives.  Sin is that important.  But if we die to pay the price, we die in our sins because our death is still not enough to pay the price.

This is where Jesus becomes our hope.  He is the perfect lamb of God.  He is our sacrifice.

(2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Only the perfect lamb was worthy to pay for our sins.

Because of this we talk about our forgiveness in terms of grace, a free gift bestowed by God.  So far we are all in agreement.

The question that divides us is how God decides to bestow that grace.  Who will be saved?  How will God make the choice?

At one extreme we have the Pelagian position.  This was a heresy that taught man could earn his salvation.  He was solely responsible and could work hard enough to deserve a place in heaven.  This has been rejected by all Christians.

At the other extreme we have the Five Point Calvinists.  The five points are summarized in the acronym TULIP.  The middle three letters concern us here.  “U” stands for “unconditional election.”  This means that being saved is totally unrelated to how you live or whether you continue in sin.  God does not use standards we can measure.  The “L” stands for “limited atonement.”  This means that Jesus did not die for everyone, just the ones who are chosen by God.  The “I” stands for “irresistible grace.”  This means that God chose you at the moment of creation and you really have nothing to say about it.  He made the decision for you. 

The third position, and the best since I agree with it, is that we are saved by grace and part of that grace is the action of the Holy Spirit making it possible for us to respond freely to the call of God.  This is the Arminian position.  We either respond “yes” or “no,” but the choice is ours.  We are not saved by our efforts but the grace of God is extended to those of us who choose to believe.  Thus, as the verse above says, we are saved by grace, through faith.

It is interesting that each step calls the ones below them anathema.  All of us disown the Pelagians.  Calvinists disown the Arminians.  As an Arminian I expect heaven to be full of Calvinists but they will be surprised that I made it. 

Isn’t love wonderful? 

homo unius libri