I really had trouble knowing what to write about today.
I listened to a John MacArthur sermon on Romans 3 (there were FAR too many to choose from!), but I had a lot of trouble concentrating for some reason. Or maybe it was just too complicated to absorb while washing, peeling, chopping, and blanching carrots!
He did make one point that I found interesting given all the talk of obedience we've had here lately. He says:
If we cannot be saved by keeping in our flesh the law of God, does that mean that we are under no obligation anymore to pay attention to the law? The answer is “God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” That when a person becomes redeemed, there is never a separation between grace and law? And that is a major fallacy in the thinking of many people. They want to so purify grace that they make salvation all of grace and no responsibility or obligation whatsoever. And this is an effort to maintain what some have chosen to call super-grace. But grace and gracious salvation never makes null and void the law but rather establishes the law. Now that statement has all kinds of interpretive ramifications, but just to focus on one--becoming a Christian by grace does not remove from us the obligation to obey God. All Paul is saying is you cannot save yourself by your good works, he is not saying therefore give up and never bother with them. He is saying - when you come to Christ and are justified, and as we shall see later in this epistle, when you are implanted with the Holy Spirit, He then can produce in you those good works, yes, He will produce in you those good works and you will even establish the law or fulfill it.
And it’s very important, I think, that we understand this. When people want ... now listen carefully to this thought because it’s really the hook to hang the whole deal on tonight ... when people want to separate grace from law altogether, the logical step that follows that is to separate the Savior-hood of Christ from His Lordship. And so, they will affirm that Jesus Christ is Savior and receive purely and only as Savior, and then there’s no other thing required for salvation and hopefully at a later time, you’ll acknowledge Him as Lord and get with the issue of obedience, that is not germane to salvation. Now this is an artificial dichotomy. It does not belong there. It is not biblical. It is an effort to maintain pure grace. But I think it is an ill-advised effort. And so, we have people today who tell us all you have to do is receive Jesus as Savior, and that’s it. There doesn’t have to be any manifest change in your life.
...Now this is not adding a 'works' to salvation, it is a recognition of who He is. In Acts 2:36 at the first sermon preached by Peter there in the birth of the church, after the Holy Spirit had descended upon them, he says: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for sure that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.” He is Lord. And that is a biblical affirmation that cannot be denied. And the word “Lord” there, by the way, that’s a quote out of Psalm 110:1 and the word used there is adon, adoni, which means “sovereign ruler.” Again and again, Christ is designated as sovereign ruler. First Corinthians 12:3 uses that same idea, it says that “No man speaking, by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit.” Now what’s important about that verse is that’s talking about salvation. Nobody can be saved except through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Nobody can make the proper insight into who Christ is except by the Holy Spirit. Nobody will truly understand Jesus except by the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit does His work, he will say: “Jesus is the Lord.” And so, there is no reason to dichotomize the saving work of Christ from His Lordship, you do disservice to His person and you miss the message of true salvation. There’s no way in the Bible that you could ever separate; mark this, faith from obedience. Why in Romans chapter 1 verse 5 it says: “We have received grace and apostleship,” listen to this phrase, “for obedience to the faith among all nations.”
In other words, he says as an Apostle, we are proclaiming to the nations the obedience of faith. There’s no such thing as a faith that has no obedience. There’s no such thing as a salvation that does not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ. (Emphasis added)
So obedience to the law of God isn't something that just gradually comes IN ADDITION to salvation; it's INTRINSIC to true salvation. Not sure I've ever thought about it one way or the other. How about you?
Tomorrow's passages: Isaiah 34-36, Romans 4
2 comments:
I've definitely noticed that many Christians are more than happy to claim Jesus as their Saviour, but there is very little evidence of His Lordship in their lives.
Is it even possible to have one and not the other? If you do not allow Christ to be Lord, does that mean you have not truly understood what it means to accept Him as Saviour and that you are not saved? Or does it mean that you just squeaked in the door, and will miss out on many of the blessings and rewards God had in store?
Well, that's definitely one of the sticky issues between the way we were raised, Tammy, and this more Calvinist/Reformed view you and I both seem to have adopted more recently. The former seem to adhere to the "once saved, always saved" idea, but the latter question conversion if life evidence doesn't suggest anything has really changed.
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