Doctrines of Grace, Judgment, Discernment, Discipline and Forgiveness

   It has been discussed in public forum of late the particular sin of a particular young man. As he is a public figure, his image and reputation have taken a beating. To begin this discussion, I would start by first differentiating The Law from civil ordinance. The Law of God as expressed in the Decalogue and interpreted by Jesus is incontrovertible, absolute, fundamental and at the same time impossible. Civil ordinance is by man for man, judged by man, enforced by man and punished by man. It has a purpose that in many respects parallels the Law, but takes far more specifics into account. Case law is another animal altogether and beyond the scope of this post. To discuss the doctrines of grace, one is entering into discourse concerning The Law of God.

   The doctrines of grace are a set of principles that were a response to a challenge by the followers of Jacob Arminius to the followers of John Calvin by those same followers of Calvin. We use the English acronym TULIP to abbreviate those doctrines, but this often seems to wash the discussion of any serious consideration. The mere mentioning of the word “Calvinist” shuts down the brains of many who would rather lose their eyes than read about anything as heretical as God’s grace. Nonetheless, that is where I will soldier onward with the post.

   In order to understand grace, you have to understand the problem. The problem is the fall, the fall of Adam, and the resultant inherited condemnation of all men under the Law. Many have said that this is not fair, that we should inherit the guilt of our fathers. Yet, examples of this are as plain in human history as our noses, and we still deny this basic tenet. Are monarchies fair? Ask the Romanovs, the children. The punishment for Adam's sin was death. God said that we have inherited this guilt forever (Genesis 3:17-19) for surely there are no true human immortals on this earth. Our faith is based upon a lifting of this curse by some mechanism. So, the first doctrine of grace is that all humans are born into sin without exception.

   Now, it comes to this, some people are saved by God for God. It should come to no one’s surprise that there are people in this world who are damned for all time. Without a doubt, Judas Iscariot falls into this category. In Matthew 27, Judas changes his mind and attempts to return the thirty pieces of silver. In the Greek, the word for changing your mind is different than that for repent. Thus, Judas is said to not have repented and is therefore condemned. If you accept that God, as the potter, has the right to make one vessel for one purpose and another vessel for another purpose, and that there are no conditions made by that vessel that can effect God’s purpose, then you are understanding the concept of God’s sovereignty.

   This next point is tricky, but it follows directly from the above. God has decided to save some of humanity for Himself. Which ones? Only He knows, but there is nothing any of us can do about becoming one of His vessels chosen for salvation. Again, this is a sovereignty issue. The manner of this salvation is of course not disputed: Christ came into the world to save sinners.

  If God has selected you for salvation, it is going to happen. There is nothing that you can do about it. It’s like catching chicken pox. One day, you will find yourself in the right place at the right time, and it just happens. Just like chicken pox, once you have been selected, you cannot be unselected. Why would God undo His own will? So, His grace is sufficient for His people, completely sufficient.

   Some of you are astute readers, and would have recognized these doctrines of grace for what they are without the benefit of their English acronym labels. But this is just pure logic from the pen of the Reformers. The doctrines of grace mean that God ultimately chooses His own people, and we do not hold the answers to who is on the roster. There are many side issues that happen along this discussion that I will not wander upon today, but when a Reformed person talks about grace, that person has a very high view of God’s sovereignty and a very humble view of his own merits.

   Which brings me back to this young public figure and the definitions of judgment and discernment. There is only one Judge, and I am not He. Judgment is coming, and God already knows the verdict. We are all guilty, yes, guilty. See total depravity above concerning the problem of sin. But some of us have an Advocate with the Father, one who has ransomed our salvation with His own blood. We have been reclaimed from the refuse heap, saved from damnation, selected for eternal life. Judgment is not a human thing in this context.

   Discernment is another matter. We are charged to discern between right preaching, right theology and that other gospel that is not really the gospel at all. Not all people are equally equipped in this matter, and many should avoid that playing field entirely. Because the penalty for wrong shepherds are steep indeed according to Paul’s letters to Timothy. With leadership comes great responsibility. Discernment is the realm of wisdom, the application of reason and knowledge to the arena of faith. Discernment is about interpretation and hermeneutics, a fertile ground for disagreement even amongst biblical scholars. Yet, it doesn’t take a PhD to recognize some obvious failings of doctrine.

   In the realm of men, we have civil laws. We have social responsibilities. We have actions and consequences. In civil law, we in the West begin from a very different starting point. Go back to the third paragraph: God starts from the position that all of humanity is damned. Humans in our civil undertakings start from the opposite premise that all of humanity is innocent. If you do not recognize that this is a vastly different playing field, then you will be doomed to misunderstand judgment in the two contexts. Humans judge humans according to civil ordinances and social standards. Actions have consequences in this realm. An infringement of the civil law should have a commensurate judgment and punishment. In this way, men judge men.

   No one is suggesting that our young public figure should escape civil justice, far from it. God instructs us to respect the laws of men for a reason, namely, he fully expects us all to mess it up from time to time. We are all inheritors of the fall, after all. In addition, the world is made up of vessels chosen for salvation and those who were not. Both the Law and civil law applies to all of us, but the civil law is something that we ourselves can police and enforce.

  Let me introduce another word here: discipline. Discipline is not just punishment. Punishment is the result of an adverse judgment. Discipline involves correction. Our responsibility as Christians is to discipline our own. This means that we should come alongside each other and help them to correct their errs and assist in creating patterns of behavior that best resemble those set forth by The Law as explained by Christ. Let me emphasize not the correction, but the coming alongside portion of that definition. Do you think that publically ridiculing this young man has any place in the sort of discipline that I am describing?

  I need to introduce one last term: forgiveness. Recite the Lord’s Prayer right now. Go on, I’ll wait. “…forgive us our sins (trespasses) as we forgive those who sin (trespass) against us." (My apologies to those who use “debtors” in this place.) So, according to the Lord’s Prayer, and many other places besides, we have an obligation to forgive. We have an OBLIGATION to FORGIVE. This is not an option for Christians. Why? Because judgment under the Law of God is not our province. We must forgive, that is our province.

   Finally, coming back again to our young public figure. Let us walk through a full and appropriate response to his actions. First, under civil law, he is innocent until proven guilty. Once adjudged guilty, he will be punished. Second, under social convention, our standards are not as high. He has already been adjudged unworthy of his position as a public figure and accordingly punished. As Christians, our obligation is to forgive him his sin. As Christians in his local Christian community, those involved must also exercise discipline, to come alongside the young man and redirect his actions, showing him the way and assisting him in developing habits worthy of his calling as one of Christ’s own.

   There are certainly nuances and what if games to play, but this should be sufficient discussion of this topic to allow for a more successful discernment of the issues at play in this discussion. 

-Troll-

Forgiveness

This post is in response to a conversation I had yesterday.  I suppose everyone, if you have lived long enough, has been wronged by someone.  I know that I’ve been on both sides of that divide more times than I can imagine.  Today, I want to look at a transgression and to work through the theology of forgiveness.

Let us say that your home was violated and many of your belongings were liberated from your possession.  Among those items, most of which were replaceable, was one item that had particular sentimental value besides having enough absolute value that it was stolen.  For the loss of this one item you were heartbroken.  After some time, your emotions changed to anger and distrust.  You did not have an object for your emotions, no accused upon whom you could heap blame, but you were just angry in general.

In this first example, you have sinned against God.  You have placed an idol above your love of God.  Under the standard of the Law, you have failed in perfection.  You have done nothing wrong, in fact you are the victim of a crime, in the world of man.  But at the same time, in the Kingdom of God, you have sinned.

Now suppose that a young vagrant is arrested for the crime.  One of your blankets and some cash is found in his possession.  Now you have an object of your emotional rage.  You hate this man.  He denies his culpability in the crime and says that he found the blanket and some clothes by the side of the road.  He needed the blanket and so he kept it, but he sold the clothes to a second hand store to get the cash.  You don’t believe him.  You hate him.

In this second example, you have sinned against God.  You have committed murder.  According to Jesus’ interpretation of the Law, and He wrote it, so He is allowed to explain it to us, hateful thoughts are just the same as murder.  Now you have violated another commandment.  You have not actually done anything to the man, according to the law of man.  But according to the Law of God, you have committed murder.

The police realize that the man in question actually spent the night in the drunk tank at the local jail on the night that your house was robbed.  He could not possibly have committed the crime.  In fact, his whole story checks out and he is released from custody, uncharged and vindicated.  The police return your blanket and the cash from the sale of your clothes to you.  As you stare at the items, you realize that you have not forgiven the man.  You find that you cannot release your hatred towards this man, partly because you have no other place to put your anger.  You grab your blanket and the cash and storm home.  You have just wronged your neighbor.  You had identified a person who had a greater need of those things, and you took them from him.

In this third example, you have sinned against God and your neighbor.  In addition to all of the above, you have now added direct transgressions against your neighbor.  Consider this line from the prayer of confession.  We confess that we have sinned by thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  You left undone the Love for your neighbor.

Summarizing the events, your house was robbed.  You have done absolutely nothing wrong from beginning to end according to the law of man.  You have done nothing but sin against God from beginning to end according to the Law of God.  Right now, you are not exactly on top of your game.  What should you do?

First of all, notice where your pile of debt resides.  What is required is repentance.  Whether you agree with every theological point of your pastor and church, this person is by office the representative of Christ’s church in this world.  Go to church.  Take the confession of sins seriously.  Whether it is done individually or corporately, this repentance is sorely needed.  Afterwards, the priest or pastor will say a prayer of absolution.  I wish sometimes we could ask him to slow down so we can savor every word of that prayer.  By office, you can believe that you have received absolution for your sins.  This is vitally important.  Although we as reformed Christians believe that our sin is completely covered by the justification that occurred through Jesus Christ, we remain in this world under the curse of Adam.  This process of repentance, absolution and reconciliation that occurs every Lord’s Day is crucial in maintaining our spiritual growth and sanctification throughout our lives.  Listen to this portion of the service clearly and carefully.  Receive the Grace of God through the Holy Spirit.

Now that you are feeling right with God again, you might go looking for the vagrant.  You might plan to give him the blanket and the cash, two blankets and twice the cash.  Perhaps you might want to feed him.  You might try to clothe him.  You might want to get him plugged into civil aid services.  You may know of a job.  The trouble is that you can’t find him.  Now what?

You take your donations to the local aid center.  You notice a sign that asks for volunteers.  You volunteer.  You learn about what aid is really needed and you learn how to give it.  This isn’t at a church sponsored aid mission.  Who says you have to help your neighbor through the church?  Who says the church is responsible for developing programs for aid?  The church doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to be effective.  The church membership can be very effective through secular missions.  So, you volunteer.

Six months later, a man, who has been avoiding your town, wanders into a soup kitchen.  By chance you are there working.  He doesn’t recognize you, but he is very edgy.  After all, besides being homeless and hungry, he’s had a very bad experience in your town in the not too distant past.  Now is your chance.  You walk over to him….

Who knows?  Perhaps even God smiled that day.

--Ogre--