Our fifth point of Calvinism for discussion is the Perseverance of the saints. This is a doctrine that means that once a person is truly saved, they are God’s forever. This doctrine begs a few questions. First, what is the function of Baptism? Next, when does justification occur? How do you know that you are one of the elect? What happens when a person turns away from God? Was that person truly saved? What if he was already Baptized? These are all tough questions, but they need answers.
Baptism is the sacrament through which a person enters into covenant relationship with God. This is the same as signing a contract. You have no access to the benefits of the contract if you didn’t sign it. The issues next become who has access to a contract for signing and what happens when a person breaks the contract? Justification occurs when the elect person is Baptized, infant or adult, but Baptism does not confer justification. You know that you are one of the elect, really, if you care about the answer to that question. The reprobate probably doesn’t care about that question. But that’s just a flippant answer. The answer is that the elect believe in Christ’s redeeming work on the Cross as testified in Scripture. The elect attempts to live in obedience to His will and struggles with sin, repents of this sin and receives Grace regularly by hearing the preached Word and receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
What about the person who is Baptized, but who is actually reprobate and turns from God? Clearly this will happen. Why is Baptism not 100% effective while the atonement was 100% effective? The answer is simple. Man will baptize whoever will receive the sacrament; but man does not know the movings of the Holy Spirit. It is clearly possible that many will be baptized and not receive the Holy Spirit. This leads to a dangerous place that Pentecostalism has clearly exploited, and that is the issue of the fruits of the spirit.
In this Calvinist model, it is important to understand the distinctions of category. We have defined two types of reprobate and one type of Christian. There is the reprobate who is never Baptized and also the one who is baptized, but never really believes. The Pentecostal describes two types of reprobate and two types of Christian, because Pentecostals are Arminian on their best day and Pelagian on their worst. The Holy Spirit does something different for the Pentecostal than reveal the truth of the Gospel concerning Christ Jesus. The decision to be Christian for the Pentecostal is a self contribution, one that can be retracted at a later date. The Holy Spirit is involved in other things besides the gathering of Christ’s elect to Him and the revelation of the truth of the Gospel to those elect. This something extra that they argue is contributed by the Holy Spirit stratifies the Christian community into carnal and higher Christians, a demarcation that has no Biblical support.
Therefore, back to the Calvinism model, when a person is baptized but falls away from Christ after however many years, it is clear that the Holy Spirit did not give that person belief. It is therefore possible to have a person attend church every week for their whole life and not ever receive the gift of belief from the Holy Spirit. It is likewise possible for a person to be Baptized and believe in the truth of the scripture without attending a church since their Baptism. This violates the scriptural mandate for the life of the believer to remain in community with other believers, but it is still possible. The main issue here is that once the Holy Spirit has revealed the truth of the scripture to a person, God will not lose that person. The truth will persevere in that person regardless. That person remains a believer even if they appear to wander away from church for a time. The Holy Spirit will gather them back to Christ before their death or the Last Day, whichever comes first. That is the meaning of the perseverance of the saints.
The fruit of the spirit, then, is that a person cares about his sin and understands his imperfections while trying to obey the simplified mandate of the Law as given by Jesus: Love God and Love your neighber, as if that were easy. The reprobate has no regard for his sin. This does not mean that a believer is without sin, quite the contrary. This means that a believer has great concern over his failure to be obedient to Christ. This is not to say, in the mind of a Calvinist, that there is a fear over the loss of salvation over sin. On the contrary, salvation is assured by his justification through the blood of Jesus. But in his sanctification, as he struggles throughout life with the fact that his body, mind and soul are still currently under the curse of Adam, he recognizes that he falls short of the standard and repents of these sins and the condition of sin regularly and receives absolution for this sin. This turning away from sin requires constant support and encouragement. We receive Grace from the hearing of the Word and the Sacrament, but this is after repentance. This is a minidrama of salvation that occurs regularly, to renew us in the Grace and Love of God.
One final question that is often asked is what happens if a believer dies with unconfessed sin in his life. If a Calvinist is asked this question, there is a slam dunk easy answer. Of course he will die with unconfessed sin. We will die in the condition of sin. It is unavoidable. If our salvation was dependent upon our own perfection, we would be totally without hope. Fortunately, this is not a problem. Due to the propitiating, vicarious, penal sacrifice of Jesus, known as the Atonement, our Advocate Christ Jesus imputes His perfection to us and our sinfulness is imputed to Him. Therefore, the Holy Spirit who gives us this belief, seals the deal on our salvation. In this way, through the righteousness given to us through the blood of Jesus, we may approach judgment with confidence and certainty. This is not the sin of arrogance. The sin of arrogance is the sin of self righteousness. Our righteousness is in the blood of Christ. That is how we saints may persevere.
--Troll--
No comments:
Post a Comment