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Infinite Inherent Merit

Charles Hodge describes the “orthodox [Protestant] view” of the atonement:

According to this doctrine the work of Christ is a real satisfaction, of infinite inherent merit, to the vindicatory justice of God; so that He saves his people by doing for them, and in their stead, what they were unable to do for themselves, satisfying the demands of the law in their behalf, and bearing its penalty in their stead; whereby they are reconciled to God, receive the Holy Ghost, and are made partakers of the life of Christ to their personal sanctification and eternal salvation.

–Systematic Theology, vol. 2, pp. 563-564

I am trying to make a habit of posting some straightforward theology on Fridays. This is a great summary of the gospel.

“It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith” (Warfield)

Some 11 years ago I bought, and binged on, the works of B.B. Warfield. One of his statements that has held fast in my mind and experience is, “It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith.” That line came to mind this week, so I decided I would record it here with some context:

The saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the Almighty Saviour on whom it rests. It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving,—as if this frame of mind or attitude of heart were itself a virtue with claims on God for reward, or at least especially pleasing to Him (either in its nature or as an act of obedience) and thus predisposing Him to favour, or as if it brought the soul into an attitude of receptivity or of sympathy with God, or opened a channel of communication from Him. It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ: faith in any other saviour, or in this or that philosophy or human conceit (Col. ii.16, 18, I Tim. iv.1), or in any other gospel than that of Jesus Christ and Him as crucified (Gal. i.8, 9), brings not salvation but a curse. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith; and in this the whole biblical representation centres, so that we could not more radically misconceive it than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attributed in the Scriptures solely to Christ Himself…

So little indeed is faith conceived as containing in itself the energy or ground of salvation, that it is consistently represented as, in its origin, itself a gratuity from God in the prosecution of His saving work. It comes, not of one’s own strength or virtue, but only to those who are chosen of God for its reception (2 Thess. ii.13), and hence is His gift (Eph. 6.23, cf. 2.8, 9; Phil. i.29), through Christ (Acts iii.16; Phil. i.29; II Peter i.21; cf. Heb. xii.2), by the Spirit (II Cor. iv.13; Gal. v.5), by means of the preached word (Romans x:17; Galatians iii:2, 5); and as it is thus obtained from God (II Peter i.1; Jude 3; I Peter 1.21), thanks are to be returned to God for it (Col. i.4; II Thess. 1.3). Thus, even here all boasting is excluded, and salvation is conceived in all its elements as the pure product of unalloyed grace, issuing not from, but in, good works (Eph. ii.8-12). The place of faith in the process of salvation, as biblically conceived, could scarcely, therefore, be better described than by the use of the scholastic term “instrumental cause.” Not in one portion of the Scriptures alone, but throughout their whole extent, it is conceived as a boon from above which comes to men, no doubt through the channels of their own activities, but not as if it were an effect of their energies, but rather, as it has been finely phrased, as a gift which God lays in the lap of the soul.

–B.B. Warfield, Works, Vol. 2: Biblical Doctrines (Grand Rapids:Baker), Reprinted 2003, pp. 504, 505, emphasis added

Holiness is a Purpose (Not the Cause) of Salvation (The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification)

Though we are not saved by good works, as procuring causes, yet we are saved to good works, as fruits and effects of saving grace, which God has prepared that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). It is, indeed, one part of our salvation to be delivered from the bondage of the covenant of works; but the end of this is, not that we may have liberty to sin…but that we may fulfill the royal law of liberty, and that we may serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (Gal. 5:13; Rom. 7:6)…

They would be free from the punishment due to sin, but they love their lusts so well that they hate holiness, and would not be saved from the service of sin. The way to oppose this pernicious delusion is not to deny, as some do, that trusting on Christ for salvation is a saving act of faith, but rather to show that none do or can trust on Christ for true salvation, except they trust on Him for holiness.

-Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Chapter 8, Kindle Loc. 1702-19 (Get a free copy for Kindle HERE).

The choice of the name ‘Jesus’ had a purpose: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is a Greek play on the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yeshua – Yah Saves. Jesus is announced as the salvation of Yahweh. But what does he save his people from? The angel puts it plainly: he saves his people from their sin. This could be taken to mean a number of things: he saves them from the wrath and curse of God against man due to their sin. He saves them from the consequences of sin. But, Walter Marshall reminds us, salvation includes salvation from sin itself.

Jonathan Edwards put it like this:

The most remarkable type of the work of redemption by divine love in all the Old Testament history, was the redemption of the children of Israel out of Egypt. But the holy living of his people was the end God had in view in that redemption, as he often signified to Pharaoh, when from time to time he said to him by Moses and Aaron, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” And we have a like expression concerning Christ’s redemption in the New Testament, where it is said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, . . . to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:68-75). All these things make it very plain that the end of redemption is, that we might be holy (Charity and Its Fruits, Chapter 11).

In our justification we are counted as righteous for sake of Christ. In sanctification we live out the trajectory of our justification as we are actually being made righteous through the continuing work of his Spirit within us. This work will culminate in our glorification, as all remnants of sin are wiped out and we are made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God for all eternity. So then, justification is the beginning, actual holiness is the end. Justification is the inauguration, glorification is the culmination. Sanctification is the road in between.

RC’s believe in a purgatory in which sins are purged. We follow the teaching of the apostle Paul: the purging of sin (along with positive living unto righteousness) is present-life sanctification. I once had a (Reformed) professor who recommended that we read (specifically) Dorothy Sayers’ translation of Dante’s Purgatorio. He hypothetically asked himself the question we were all thinking in our minds: ‘Why should a bunch of protestant seminary students read a book about Purgatory?’ His answer was this: apply it all to sanctification. That was great advice, and I used it as I read the book. I use it almost every day. God (as a loving Father) is purging me of my sins.

This does not entail that we will ever achieve sinless perfection in this life; but it does mean that we must believe in the promise of God: ‘He will save his people from their sin.’ Your salvation is of free grace. You did not earn a bit of it. And that grace toward you is not in vain. So get to work, for it is him who is at work in you.

Justification: You are Washed, You are Welcome

Romans 8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

I came across this quote during my sermon preparation this week. John Stott references these words of Marcus Loane in his commentary on Romans. The quote eloquently summarizes the importance, and effect, of the active obedience of Christ in our justification. Christ’s passive obedience, his cross-work, procures forgiveness for our sins. His active obedience in positively keeping, and fulfilling, the law of God, ensures our complete acceptance as those counted as positively righteous before the Father through faith in Christ:

The voice that spells forgiveness will say: ‘You may go: you have been left off the penalty which your sin deserves.’ But the verdict which means acceptance will say: ‘You may come; you are welcome to all my love and presence.’

You could paraphrase this a number of ways, here’s my best shot at it, taking forgiveness and acceptance as the flip sides of the coin of justification:

  • Forgiveness says, ‘Go and sin no more.’ Acceptance says, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’
  • Forgiveness says, ‘Go, your sins are forgiven.’ Acceptance says, ‘draw near with confidence.’
  • Forgiveness says, ‘You are washed.’ Acceptance says, ‘You are welcome.’
  • Forgiveness says, ‘You are cleansed by his blood.’ Acceptance says, ‘You are counted as righteous.’
  • The forgiven one says, ‘Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!’ The accepted one says, ‘Bold I approach th’ eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amazing love!’

Demanding the Sanctification of the Lost

In my meditations on Romans 8, I remembered an old thought, somewhere deep in my mind, that I first heard expressed clearly by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I had to do some digging to find the source. I’d heard him say it before but I was sure I had read it as well. And, after said digging, I now share it:

The problem of life, my friends, is not individual sins but Sin itself, the whole background – the thing itself, the desire process which is the cause of all these local and minor manifestations and eruptions.  And that is our problem.  We are not here to teach and lecture men and women about individual sins you may control and conquer.  You are still a sinner, your nature is still evil and will remain so, until by the death of Christ and the resurrection you are born again and receive a new nature.  Our trouble is that our nature is evil; it really does not matter how it may manifest itself.

What is our duty then?  Well, it is this.  Before we talk to anyone we must find out first whether he believes in Christ or not.  Is he a new man?  If he is not, then he is still struggling with flesh and blood.  Are we to lecture him on his sins and to preach morality to him?  No, we are to preach Christ to him and do all we can to convert him, for what he needs is a new nature, a new outlook, a new mind.  It is no use our expecting to find figs on a thorn bush, however much we may treat and tend and care for it.  The trouble is the root.  We are wasting our time and neglecting our duty by preaching morality to a lost world.  For what the world needs is life, new life, and it can be found in Christ alone.

For purity, as I say, is something for Christians only, it is impossible to anyone else. Sanctification is impossible without conversion… (Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, pp. 159-160).

From my perspective this is a major issue for the church in the U.S. presently. We have spent so much time hammering on particular sins and all the while the doctrine of Original Sin, the teaching of the sinful nature and condition of man, has languished. We are constantly attacking the fruit while neglecting to attack the root.

The Doctor was indeed a doctor after all. He knew that in the medical field it was not good practice to simply treat symptoms. This is what we do when we spend all of our time lambasting particular sins without getting to the deeper issue of the sinful nature – we’re diagnosing and attacking the particular manifestations, the symptoms, without addressing its cause – that our souls are jacked up. The problem is not simply my sin, the problem is me, the sinner.

Therefore the great issue we face is not simply convincing folks that such and such particular action is wrong, but convincing them that they are sinners by nature, rebels against God, in need of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, in need of a new nature. And thus the great pastoral dilemma according to John Owen – that the two great problems we face are convincing non-believers that they are sinners, and convincing Christians that sin no longer has dominion over them, stands true.

My job therefore is a lot harder than convincing my gay co-worker, or the abortion doctor, or the wife-beater, or the shoplifter, or the porn addict, that his particular action is wrong. I have to convince him that his whole soul is wrong, that his self is wrong, that his nature is wrong and that he therefore needs a new one.

To focus solely on particular sins, and the need for obedience, rather than the need of a new nature through new birth is to promote false religion and self-righteousness. As John Owen puts it,

This is the work of the Spirit; by him alone is it to be wrought, and by no other power is it to be brought about. Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world (Mortification of Sin in Believers, ch. 1).

Again, Owen says, believers alone are able to mortify sin because of the work of the Spirit in them:

The pressing of this duty immediately on any other [i.e. non-believers] is a notable fruit of that superstition and self-righteousness that the world is full of, — the great work and design of devout men ignorant of the gospel (Ibid).

So our job is not simply to call for repentance concerning specific sins. Rather we must call for a repentance from/of self, for a complete denial of self: that is, for complete rebirth – a putting to death of the old man, which is the root of those sins. For only as they are born anew and united to Christ will they find power to put sin to death. In bypassing justification and demanding sanctification from the world we are, if not denying the gospel, surely forfeiting its promises and power (perhaps that is a denial).

Someone might object to this line of thought: ‘God demands holiness from everyone, we must demand it too.’ I do not deny this, but I would add the following: Why is it that we demand holiness from the homosexual but not from the wealthy business man who lives a fairly upright life but has never prayed in his life and cares for nothing but his own private kingdom? His sin isn’t public enough I guess. Both the homosexual and the self-absorbed upper middle class non-believer who isn’t bothering anyone have this in common: they need to be born again. They both have  a sinful nature – that’s the issue. Their particular sins are just manifestations of a common problem – spiritual death.

Snippets: Complete Spiritual Contentment (Matt. 11:28)

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I’ve heard the ‘rest’ that Jesus offers described in various ways. Typical modern folk like to think of it purely in psychological terms. But, in the context of biblical theology it takes quite a clear shape:

Rest is rooted in God’s Sabbath-act of resting on the seventh day. After six days of creation, God was content that His works were ‘very good,’ and therefore he ceased. Jesus, along with the author of Hebrews in chapter 4, is playing off of that idea here.

Throughout his ministry he speaks to ‘legalists’ upon whom the demands of the Law are constantly weighing. They have taken seriously God’s charge: ‘You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD’ (Lev. 18:5). They are seeking life in the Law but are, in actuality, only becoming burdened.

The weight of the Law is a greater burden than most of us realize. God’s standard is perfection – perfect obedience. With every attempt at trying to establish our own righteousness before God we will only find the Law therefore to be a weight too great for us to bear. Indeed, the very weight of it it will crush us and bring us down to the depths of hell.

And so, it is in that context that Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all of you who are burdened and weighed down, and I will give you rest.’ Jesus is offering us complete spiritual contentment. He is saying that it is possible that we, like God on the Sabbath, can look back on our labors and say, ‘Behold, it is very good.’

But how can this be so? If we are honest we know that our labors don’t meet up to the standard of God’s Law. This is so because Christ does the work for us. For, as we are justified by faith, we are being judged by His record, not ours. Therefore it is Christ’s work that we look back to, and indeed it is very good.

Not the labors of my hands, can fulfill Thy Law’s demands. Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone, Thou must save and Thou Alone. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.

It is only when we come to this point of absolute trust in the record of Christ that we will find rest. The Christians rest is a resting from efforts to earn a righteous standing before God. It is a rest from seeking to justify myself. It is a rest from worrying whether or not I am good enough, or meet up to the standard. It is an absolute reliance on Christ that lets the soul experience the Sabbath of God.

If you find yourself trying to earn God’s love by moral efforts, or any type of effort for that matter, Jesus’ command to you is that you find rest in him. Jesus is the end of the Law for you. He is the end of self-righteousness. He is the end of pride. Rest from these things. Don’t you see they’re burdening you?

To offer a paraphrase, he is saying, All of you who are working so hard trying to please God. Stop it! Come to me, I’ve already pleased Him for you.

If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly (Martin Luther).