Hebrews 11: Saving Faith

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40 ESV)

Once again, I want to hit the punch line first before diving into the meat of the text.  We have seen a litany of examples that we might construe as saving faith. And then, we arrive at verse 39. All of these wonderful works accomplished by these Old Testament patriarchs, and then the writer of Hebrews tells us to wait a second, that wasn't the point.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

How is it that we can simultaneously be exhorted to do great works, and yet be told that the promise was not received based upon those works? What is this faith that enables such great deeds, and yet falls short in perfecting us? What is it that God provided that was better for us? Rest assured, eager reader, that the author of Hebrews knows the answer. Remember back at the beginning of our journey through Hebrews, that we made some assumptions. A key assumption is that this letter or sermon was delivered to people who already had saving faith. Here, we see the faith of the Old Testament patriarchs set in contradistinction to this saving faith. This obviously begs the question, what is saving faith?

For my long-time readers, this will sound repetitive, because I wrote a similar post back in March. But is an important topic, one that bears repeating. Let us start from the notion that we must have faith. What is faith? Is faith tangible? Is faith itself an object? I ask this in a grammatical sense as well as a metaphysical sense. Grammatically speaking, faith is used as a noun. But more properly, we should think of faith perhaps as a gerund. Take this sentence: faith is believing. Using this construction, is quite easy to see my meaning. So I ask again, is it enough to have faith?

Is faith necessarily a Christian construct? Do you have faith in the Texans' ability to win with the third string quarterback? Is this the same faith of which we speak in a biblical context? Clearly not, therefore, it is obvious that faith must have an object. So, what is the object of our faith?

Let's start small, and build up as we need. I believe in God. For many, that is a sufficient statement of faith. Very quickly, we can argue that this is not a particularly Christian claim. In fact, statistically, most people in the United States believe in God, or a god, or some supreme being. Certainly, our Old Testament patriarchs believed in God, and yet the author of Hebrews has already declared that this was not saving faith.

I believe in Jesus, that he is the Christ, the Messiah. Certainly, that is a step farther than the Old Testament patriarchs were able to take. Does this constitute saving faith? Let's look at Matthew 4 for a moment. What is the supposition that the devil keeps making to Jesus?  And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God….” Without getting into too much of a philosophical argument about it, this is clearly a rhetorical statement by the devil. The devil knows Jesus is the son of God; he doesn't just believe it, he knows it. The point is this: if the devil knows Jesus is the son of God, and the devil isn't saved by that knowledge, can we consider this to be saving faith?

Now let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15. It's a long chapter, but I want you to read it now.  Here is just a sampling of the early part of the chapter.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:3-10a ESV)

In verse 1, Paul calls this his gospel, and he exhorts us to the same perseverance as does the author of Hebrews.      Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  (1 Corinthians 15:1-2 ESV)  

We are being saved, not by our works, but by virtue of this gospel, this news about Jesus. The whole basis of this faith, according to Paul, is the truth of the resurrection. Paul reminds us that this was an actual historical event. He tells us about witnesses, he tells us about the names of some of those witnesses, he tells us about the number of witnesses, more than 500 brothers at one time. This, my friends, is what it means to be a witness. It is a legal word, it is a word used in courtrooms. These 500+ eyewitnesses testify and witness to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, His resurrection is the basis of saving faith.

Now, let's go back to Hebrews 11:2. …looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Once again, saving faith is linked to the events of the cross. Once again, the New Testament links salvation to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Once again, the New Testament declares the object of our saving faith.

Elsewhere, I have tried to help you understand how it is that these events on the cross connect directly with you. Biblical words like justification, imputation, and propitiation are used to describe how this saving faith is connected directly to you. The first 11 chapters of Romans deal with this subject, particularly Romans 3:21-31, which we have discussed many times before.

            But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

            Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:21-31 ESV)

It is easy to stumble over some of the language, particularly if you are still lacking the Reformation categories of law and gospel. But whether you have a clear understanding of these two paragraphs or not, one cannot deny that Paul explicitly excludes righteousness by works, and he links righteousness, justification, and salvation to faith in Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. It's all there, and it is repeated throughout the New Testament.

In conclusion, then, saving faith is faith that gives us our eternal reward, bodily resurrection, and everlasting life with Christ our King. The link between Jesus Christ and you is His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His future coming in glory. That is the object of saving faith, nothing more and nothing less.

--Ogre--

Hebrews 2

After careful thought, I decided that I needed to go backwards and get us caught up to the present.  Next week, we are entering into a key point of the book, but perhaps without the background necessary to understand the argument.  Hebrews builds an argument in much the same way as the Book of Romans.  Perhaps no two other Books in the whole of the Bible build up momentum and construct an argument with such tightness and clarity as these two.  Therefore, we need to continue from where we left the story.

The first word of chapter 2 is therefore.  Already, we have to start looking back into chapter 1 to see the antecedent of therefore.  Chapter 1 argues that Jesus is the Messiah, and much loftier and greater than the angels.  Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.  As we finish the first paragraph, the question that must be asked is: what is the topic?  The topic is salvation.

Let us pause for a moment and consider salvation.  Remember the audience to whom the writer is speaking: believing and converted Jews.  Throughout the whole of this epistle, it is vital to remember that audience.  Because of that audience, the writer will make some assumptions, assumptions that we should perhaps clarify.  Salvation is not about the here and now, in this present evil age.  Salvation is not about these Last Days, after the revelation of God’s redemptive plan through Jesus Christ and His Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.  Salvation is about the result of these events upon our verdict on Judgment Day, after the Second Coming of Jesus when He will gather his sheep and separate the wolves.  This whole argument, then, will be about the end game.  This book is about Salvation.  Keep that in mind.  When we come to passages about works, remember that those passages have this vital assumption in mind.  We are talking about Salvation first, and works second.

Look now at verse 5.  What is the meaning of the world to come?  This phrase will filter back into the argument later in the letter, so let us be sure to understand it now.  We are talking about the world after the Second Coming, when the elect are resurrected and living with Christ in His Eternal Kingdom.  The world to come is not this present world in these Last Days in which we currently live.  This is a vital point.  The writer is setting up this contrast intentionally.  This is the contrast that we have discussed in the past concerning the types and shadows of the Old Covenant, Mount Sinai, the original covenant people (the Jews), Israel, Jerusalem, Moses and the Law, with the fulfilled and fully realized counterparts in the Age to come, the world to come, where each becomes their real selves, the New Covenant, Mount Zion, the new covenant people (believers in the promise of salvation through the redeeming work of Christ), the full and complete Israel with its adopted members, the heavenly Jerusalem discussed by John, Jesus and the Gospel.  I have tried to maintain parallel construction of that last sentence so that you may see clearly the types and shadows of the old juxtaposed with the fully realized new.  This is what the writer of Hebrews is doing in this book.  He is setting up this vision of our future.  Why?  We will come to that eventually.

Psalms 8 is directly quoted in the next few lines.  What is meant by the line you made him for a little while lower than the angels?  Again, what was the antecedent argument to our current argument?  Jesus is much in every way superior to the angels.  But now, for a little while, He is lower than the angels.  This is a direct reference to Jesus condescending to become incarnate through Mary as fully human.  The reason for this will be discussed again shortly, but it is important to understand the direction of the argument.  It sounds a bit like the Gospel of John.  In the beginning was the Word, and now He has become incarnate.  Why?  This passage is about Salvation, so there will be a link developed soon in verse 9. 

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  So, the writer is making a direct connection between Grace and death.  Look at that again.  By the Grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.  It cannot fail to be obvious to even the casual reader that has to be some benefit or purpose behind the death of Jesus.  There is Grace involved, and Jesus is dying for everyone.  Why?  Yes, the writer is going to help us out with that.  Remember, this is going to be about Salvation.  What is Salvation?  Salvation is about getting the sheep verdict on Judgment Day instead of the wolf verdict.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.  That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers

Now, if you are like me, this verse was akin to being whacked with a 2 x 4 across the head.  This is the whole point of chapter 2, so let’s break it down.  The first He in this passage is referring to God the Father.  Notice that the writer says for whom and by whom, and yet he does not say through whom.  Through whom is the second person of the Trinity and that is also the second He of this passage.  Who are the many sons to glory?  Look in the mirror.  We are talking about the elect, the believers, the sheep, all those who will be saved on Judgment Day.

I don’t know how to draw any more emphasis to these next two phrases than I have already, but focus now.  I’m going to move the antecedents back into the phrase for clarity.  Watch this.  For it was fitting that God should make Jesus, the founder of their Salvation, perfect through suffering.  Why?  What’s up with that?  Jesus is the founder of our salvation.  Founder means the one who founds or establishes.  So, we have several implications here.  There was no salvation before Jesus.  That’s tricky, but we will deal with the Old Testament patriarchs soon enough.  There is no salvation without Jesus.  This one is not as clearly implied here, but it is the logical flow from the first point.  The founder becomes the foundation, the first born from the dead.  That is the idea that we will be developing later.  Keep hold of that thought.

Now, the second part of that phrase is more difficult.  God makes Jesus perfect through suffering.  This is NOT saying that Jesus was not perfect before.  This is discussing salvation.  Remember the difficult question from earlier.  How does Jesus dying involve Grace?  Purpose.  There must be a purpose.  Jesus is being made a perfect sacrifice.  We have to connect all of the dots.  Remember again that the audience for this letter already know the Old Testament.  They know about the sacrifices and the roles of the priests and the relationship between all these things and the people of Israel.  When we get farther into this epistle, that statement is going to seem odd.  But for now, remember that the types and shadows are known to this audience.  The writer is connecting the dots for them.  So, the issue is that Jesus became incarnate in order to be made a perfect sacrifice.  Now, what’s this about suffering?

As an aside, I don’t want to deal yet with the Trinitarian issues that scream out to us throughout Hebrews.  We have to assume the Trinity and know that we cannot separate the Trinity as we read Hebrews.  The arguments for the Oneness of the Trinity are not contradicted by Hebrews, but that is far too much to tackle while we are developing the Salvation theme. 

Suffering.  The writer continues.  Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.  OK, that makes it clear.  Suffering means to share in flesh and blood.  Another way of saying this is that life, by definition, involves suffering.  Or maybe that Jesus, being God and condescends to incarnation as flesh and blood is suffering relative to His original state.  But finally, the only way to defeat death is to die, and then resurrect his body.  To die from flesh and blood is to suffer the penalty of sin.

Slavery.  We are slaves to sin and death, the fear of death.  When Jesus overcomes death, He frees the believer from the fear of sin and death.  Notice that He doesn’t eliminate our sin or our death.  He frees us from the fear of the Wrath of God, which are the ultimate cause of our fear of sin and death.  Our bodies remain IN Adam.  We will have to die to Adam to be reborn in Christ, unless the Second Coming happens during our lifetime.  While spiritually, those true elect believers in the New Covenant are already dead to sin and reborn in Christ, bodily we must await the Second Coming.

Pushing on to the last passage, who are the offspring of Abraham?  To understand this, we must go back to Genesis 15 and understand two things.  First, based upon what is Abraham deemed righteous.  This is getting back to that question earlier.  If Jesus is the founder of Salvation, how are Old Testament people saved?  The answer is there for us in the Word.  He is deemed righteous based upon His belief in the promise of God.  Abraham knew that Salvation was beyond himself, and that it would require God’s mercy and grace.  Second, the promise of God to Abraham and his offspring gets to the notion of family.  There are natural members of his family, the Jewish branches, and there are the adopted members of his family, those Gentiles grafted into the family.  Sons through adoption are full inheritors of the mercy and grace of God through the Redeeming work of Jesus.  So, don’t forget that we are adopted into this family.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

My goodness, that is a mouthful.  Here, we are introduced to the term high priest.  This will also be developed later in Hebrews.  I keep pointing out that the audience is supposed to already understand the types and shadows.  They know what a high priest does.  The writer is connecting the dots.  Jesus is the New High Priest.  He is the First, Last and Only High Priest.  That is the revelation in redemptive history that has brought us into this period in time, these Last Days, the time between the First and Second Comings of Christ.

I want to focus my last thought for this post on the end of verse 17:   to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  I have spoken in great detail in the past about this word.  In some translations, the word is removed, changed, edited, discarded.  But here it is again.  Hilasterion must be translated in some way, and propitiation offers the most full and complete manner of understanding all that Christ accomplishes for us.  As the Great High Priest, Jesus not only washes away our sin, but He reconciles us to God.  Both parts of this are vitally important.  You cannot be saved if you are still in enmity with God.  There must not only be a cleansing of the sin, but a turning away of the Wrath of God from those elect who are Christ’s own. 

So when we get to the last verse, how does Jesus help those who are being tempted?  Does Jesus prevent us from sinning?  No, we are still born IN Adam, under the curse.  We still will fail in our efforts to keep from sinning.  Jesus helps us by becoming the Great High Priest, our Intercessor, our Only Mediator and Advocate.  When does this happen?  He intervenes for us on the Last Day, Judgment Day.  How is this relevant to us now?  Well, for that, we must wait for later chapters.

Therefore is used frequently in Hebrews.  The writer is building an argument.  We must keep straight the points of the argument as we go, so that we understand the full argument at the end.

--Troll--

Arminianism vs. Calvinism: The debate part one

One of the more difficult parts about writing this sort of blog is that my readership is from a variety of backgrounds.  While some can quote chapter and verse from the Bible, others can discuss the nuances of theology.  All have some combination of the two that ranges from weak in both to strong in both.  Therefore, while some posts are necessarily redundant for some, the same post can fly over heads of others.  This is a difficult balancing act, and I beg for your indulgence as I launch into this topic.

Jacobus Arminius lived at the end of the theological century, the sixteenth century.  He was a Dutch theologian who challenged some of the positions of the Reformation, particular those enumerated in the Belgic Confession, a document that I will likely review over the summer unless I do Luther or Heidelberg first.  In any case, the Canons of Dordt contained the five points of Calvinism which were drafted to deal with Arminius’ theology and controversy.  Arminius had written the Five Articles of the Remonstrants, published after his death, to which the Dordt Synod was responding.    

Therefore, it is historically accurate to state that these are theologically opposed perspectives. In other posts, I have highlighted and explained the five points of Calvinism.  They are found under the Building Blocks tab on the right, or by clicking on March, for they were all done in the last ten days of March.  But for this particular post, I have some of the typical questions that are asked about Calvinism.  They are a useful framework for this debate.  Therefore, I’ll give the stock answers from the point of view of Calvinism. 

Since God made man in His image, called his creation "Good", and gave us dignity, is Calvin's Total Depravity literal ?   Perhaps “Total Inability” is a more apt expression. 

This seems like the best place to begin.  In the Building blocks section, I have written a more lengthy discussion on Total Depravity, but let us try just this.  Paul believes that the Law is meant to convict us, to show us what is expected of us, and then to demonstrate that we fell completely short of the mark on every count.  Total depravity does not mean that everyone is equally evil.  This does not mean that the reprobate are incapable of civic righteousness.  Oprah Winfrey does wonderful things for many people, but few, only the most liberal, would confuse her with being a Christian.  Total Inability, although certainly true in the sense of what is intended in terms of works righteousness, also fails to make this distinction.  This is a Two Kingdom issue.  While we may do good deeds and help many people, our motives are tainted by the condition of sin.  Therefore, these deeds fail utterly in satisfying the just wrath of God.  This is about the extreme Holiness of God.  We must be perfect to satisfy the Law.  Anything short of perfection is failure in the eyes of God.  This is why we need a Savior. 

Is there a connection between Calvinism and Determinism  -- the idea that what you do is determined by external things like environment & genes, but not by your free will so that you are not really responsible or accountable?

Responsibility and accountability is exactly the problem.  The idea that God is offended by sin, such that God condemns all sin with the death penalty, is often lost in this debate.  Original sin is the idea that all aspects of humanity are tainted by that original sin.  Unless you understand this concept, the rest will not make any sense.  It is pointless to argue about free will without an understanding of Original sin.  Free will is tainted by sin.  We are able to choose on the horizontal plain of man in this world to do what we like, but all of those decisions, in fact all of the observations and conclusions that we make that form the basis of those decisions, are tainted by sin.  Therefore, we are unable to make a decision in the vertical direction of God, a direction that requires perfection.  That is why it is necessary for God to condescend to us.  He must come down to us to save us.  He gave us the Law to try to make us understand this.  He became incarnate to accomplish this. 

What about people around us who are predestined to be excluded from the "elect" and whose souls are condemned to eternal apartheid ?    Why would God bring a soul into this world inherently condemned to eternal damnation with no ability or possibility to believe in Christ? 

Predestination is very often the stumbling block for this debate.  The concept of election is foreign to many, particularly Americans.  Americans have a particular “can do” arrogance about us.  Many think that Franklin’s quip that God helps those who help themselves is actually Biblical.  Obviously, this is not the case.  We must imagine this problem, not from our own perspective, but from the perspective of God.  God looks upon humanity and sees an ocean of lost souls, completely corrupted by sin.  In His goodness and mercy, God sets about the greatest rescue mission in history.  He will save more souls than can be counted.  He will select those whom He will save and leave the rest.  Therefore, from His perspective, we earn eternal damnation by our own doing, but we receive Salvation by His Grace.  As to why not save everyone?  Who can speak for God?  Some things remain hidden from us.

Calvin seems stern & grim.  He emphasized that Christ took on the penalty of sin.  But redemption also makes us Sons of God, like jewels in which God delights, like a spouse.  We're more than ex-cons pardoned from prison;  The Bible tells us God paid double: Christ took on our sins and He imputed His spotless record on to us.

We are Christ’s elect to be sure.  He will not lose one of us whom He has claimed as His own.  That is what is called the perseverance of the saints.  But we are nothing without Him.  We are doomed without the Righteousness given us by Jesus in His vicarious atonement, with the imputations to which you refer.  There were three great imputations.  Adam's sin is imputed to man.  The sin of Man, elect, is imputed to Jesus.  Jesus' righteousness is imputed to the elect, so that we may stand in judgment on the Last Day, confident in the not guilty verdict.  I do not understand how this message is stern and grim.  This is the Gospel message, and it is the greatest news we can ever hear.  Calvin explains to us that regardless of our imperfection, God has reconciled us to Him.  Propitiation and imputation are not excluded by Calvin; they are embraced by Calvin as the essential components of justification.  That is the Gospel, according to Paul.

We will explore this more as needed.  I'll post specifically on Arminius this week.

--Troll--

Beyond Gethsemane Rebuttal

It has become the practice of my family to view Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ annually on Good Friday.  This movie is nothing more and nothing less than a dramatization of the Stations of the Cross, one of the older versions of those stations.  Mel is a Roman Catholic and criticism of his behavior and comments might be best viewed in that context.  Regardless of how you feel about some of the artistic liberties he took with the film, the graphic portrayal of the violence of Christ’s torture and death have an all too realistic feel to them.  The guttural reaction to this film, particularly the lashings, is akin to the reaction of the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan.  And that is the point that Mel intends to make.  Meditation on the brutality of His death and the depth of His human suffering places the context of His life and resurrection into a different light.  In addition, it gives the viewer a very limited, but very powerful, view of the wrath of God.

It is the Wrath of God that is at issue this week.  The Wrath of God, says Brent McGuire, is what Jesus truly fears, not human suffering and death.  This is an interesting and helpful theological point.  The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath is what Jesus is holding, fearing to drink.   Who better to know the depth of that Wrath than One who is of one substance, of one being, with the Father?  In Jesus Christ, we have One man who truly understands into what trouble He is getting.

McGuire leads us through Psalms 69 and tells us about the prophetic need for One to come who can redeem humanity.  God wants to save humanity from its fall.  God understands His own justice and what will be required.  That is why Jesus condescended to become Man.  His vicarious death on the cross means nothing without His vicarious and sinless life before it.  We are meant to know not only that He died, but why He died, and specifically what He believed about His impending death.  It is His humanity that fears not death but His Wholly divine Wrath.  He understands exactly what is at stake.  Do we?

The Holiness of God is profoundly offended by Sin.  This places humanity in a death sentence.  Only God can provide a sacrifice sufficient to Propitiate on our behalf.  The expiation of sin is only half of the formula.  There must be reconciliation as well or it was a complete waste of time.  The vicarious nature of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is recorded for our remembrance.  But the motives and emotions of God are recorded as well.

I commended Brian McGuire’s piece to you because he points out that the Wrath of God was propitiated for us on Good Friday.  And the New Covenant with its New Cup of Salvation was introduced on Maundy Thursday and realized and begun on Easter.  These are all parts of the historical record of our Salvation, of our justification, of our propitiation with God, of our God condescending to us to save some of us for Himself.  That was a heavy burden on the Humanity of Jesus.

I will watch Mel’s movie again tomorrow.  But I will probably pause the movie after the opening station to discuss this topic.  McGuire is correct in this.  What is the point of understanding the depth of Christ’s human suffering if you have no comprehension of His motives and exactly what was at stake.

--Troll--

Propitiation--Word Study

While this particular topic is much larger than can be expressed in a blog post, I want to try and focus in on the word “propitiation” and why it should be used in various places rather than some of the alternatives that exist.  The topic of the atonement is much larger and many books are written on the subject.  I do not intend at this point to summarize all of the possible views of the atonement, but rather I will declare the Reformation position of penal-substitution as the reference point for my discussion.

To begin, it is helpful to understand the penal-substitution theory of the atonement.  The issue here is exactly what did Christ accomplish on the Cross.  This question is the foundation of the Christian faith.  Surprisingly, there may be a dozen widely disseminated views on this event.  The Reformation view has two key elements in it that combine two of the better views into one.  The point is that Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is a precious commodity for the Godhead to sacrifice willy-nilly; therefore, the reason has to be great to justify the event.  Otherwise, God comes off as a cruel tyrant rather than a just sovereign.

The first element of penal-substitution is the idea of satisfaction.  The sin of man made such a grievous insult of God, that God’s honor must be satisfied.  This is a concept far greater than mere atonement, or covering up.  In his death, Jesus dies in the place of man suffering the just punishment for the sins of the world.  This is the substitution portion of the equation.  There must be a penal, or punishment, aspect of the deal, and Jesus substitutes for the elect in this transaction with God.  The legal or accounting transaction that is proposed here is difficult for many to accept.  But to the reformers, it is the only reason sufficient to justify us to God, offering a satisfactory sacrifice for our sin.

The second element is the idea of propitiation.  Jesus, by his death, because of the highest quality of His sacrifice, not only atones for our sins, but he reconciles us to God.  He repairs the damaged relationship between God and sinners.  This reconciliation is a vital component of the Atonement in the eyes of the reformers.   In some translations, the word expiation appears.  The concept of expiation is the washing away of sin, the cleansing of sin.  The problem is that expiation is an action done on sin, while propitiation is an action done on the sinner.  Propitiation includes the reconciliation component of the atonement that is lacking in the idea of expiation.

The Greek word translated to propitiation is hilasterion.  In this form and conjugation, it appears in four places in the Bible.  Variations on the root appear in about a dozen other places, particularly in the Old Testament.  Given the different moments in redemptive history between OT and NT, we must be careful in interpreting the OT uses of the word in light of our knowledge of the Gospel.  Remember that the OT writers did not have the benefit of knowing the end of the story.  Therefore, their usage of some of the words may not covey the same richness of texture in the OT that can and should be applied to the NT usages.

Paul is the first to use the word in the New Testament in Romans 3:25.  Remember that Paul has just finished, in the first 2 ½ chapters, leveling all of mankind, hammering home the doctrine of original sin as described by Isaiah and Jeremiah.  Next, from the latter half of chapter 3 through chapter 5, Paul outlined the formula for salvation, defining justification and sanctification.  The key passage in question is Paul’s summary of the purpose of Christ’s work on the cross.  All of the key elements are present in this passage.  Justification is introduced as a result of the Grace of Jesus Christ, the redeemer.  Redemption connotes salvation.  God puts forth Jesus as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.  Clearly, we can see the penal portion of this equation given the reference to blood.  Justice can only be satisfied by an appropriate punishment, which is provided for us in Christ, and is received by us through faith.  Chapter 4 develops the Abrahamic Covenant, recalling the promise to Abraham through his seed.  By invoking this covenant language, Paul gives us the reconciliatory component, declaring us just inheritors of the promise.  Both of these concepts are tied back into the word propitiation that is the key word in this section of the Epistle. 

The writer of Hebrews uses the word in a similar fashion.  Hebrews 2:17 comes in a passage that first of all is about the Holy Priesthood of Christ, specifically making reference to the sacrifice that He makes both as priest and as sacrifice and in actuality, to Himself, being all parts of the drama for us.  But the whole passage is a discussion of Salvation, which again includes the element of reconciliation to God.  Therefore, once again, both of the key components of propitiation are central to the passage.

John uses the word twice in his first epistle, in 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10.  It is not my purpose at this time to discuss the components of Sanctification in terms of Wesleyan or Roman Catholic arguments on this passage, but rather to focus on the use of propitiation by John.  The key to the way John uses the word is found in the section preceding chapter 2.  We get two ideas there: the expiation of our sin and the forgiveness of our sins from Christ.  He combines these two ideas in the word propitiation in the next section and goes on to make the statement not only personal, but general.  The implications of this statement towards election I’ll cover in a subsequent post.  In chapter 4, John refers to propitiation, but here he does not further develop the concept, but rather he uses it as a fully understood concept in the development of his argument concerning God’s love.

What is interesting at this point is to notice where various translations have removed the word propitiation, substituting it most commonly with atonement or less commonly with expiation.  The Amplified Bible goes the extra mile in Romans to include the Mercy-Seat along with propitiation, presumably making sure that all the bases are covered.  The NIV goes with sacrifice of atonement, stripping much of the texture and depth from the passage.  The KJV, as always, sounds rather stilted, but does use the word propitiation in the same context as the newer English Standard Version.  The importance of the much maligned King James Version in this debate is its historical proximity to the Reformation.  The KJV was written in the early 17^th century, within 100 years of Luther and Calvin and within 50 years of the Council of Trent.  It was among the first few Bibles commissioned in English, well within this 100 year period.  The Geneva Bible, the direct antecedent to the KJV, uses the words reconciliation through faith in His blood in this verse, emphasizing the portion actually omitted in so many of the other versions.

The omission of the word propitiation from recent English versions of the Bible and from the newer rites of the Episcopal BCP demonstrates an insidious shift in theology away from Reformed thinking.  The elimination of the component of reconciliation, the component explicitly included in the Geneva Bible, demonstrates the theological pressures on translation that will shape religious thought in the near future.  The release of the ESV in 2001 has been heralded as an important development in reformed circles, and in most passages, it seems to be a worthy successor to the KJV.  In terms of the doctrine of propitiation, the inclusion of the word propitiation is more consistent with the usage of the Greek word hilasterion as well as the context of the passages.

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2 Corinthians 5

Bible study this week for us will be on this key passage, 2 Corinthians 5.  The arguments leading up to this section in chapters 3 and 4 have laid the groundwork for the imagery of chapter 5.  We have seen the New Covenant in Christ proclaimed and that the witness to this Gospel is the Holy spirit.  We have seen the two kingdom motif laid out and the idea of our earthly bodies being mere jars of clay that are cracked by sin and doomed to decay and break.  We have the idea that the Holy Spirit indwells the elect, making us transformed and capable of sharing this information with others, but we realize that it is the Holy Spirit within that transforms, not the vessel that carries the Gospel in this world.  In chapter 5, Paul is hammering home the authorship of this salvation.  At the same time, he is reminding us that we are all charged with the ministry of spreading the Gospel.  What I have laid out below is a paragraph by paragraph paraphrasing of this chapter, adding antecedent concepts back into the argument for clarity and developing this argument in view of what Paul has said to the Corinthians and others before.

5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

We know that if we die (these jars of clay break) and leave these earthly bodies behind, we have a resurrection body for us on the Last Day that will last forever in Heaven.  While we remain in this world, we look forward to the world yet to come.  By virtue of our faith in the promise of the world yet to come for the elect through Jesus’ work on the Cross, we will be redeemed.  While we remain in this world in these bodies under the curse of Adam, we look to the resurrection, but with full knowledge that we are secure in our regeneration and salvation.  God has done all the work, has arranged all of the events for our salvation; they are finished, objective and historical facts, and the Holy Spirit gives testimony to these facts.

OK, is that really what Paul said?  Much of what he is stating here is in shorthand.  He has already revealed the formula for salvation through faith alone in the redeeming work of Christ alone due to His Grace alone for the Glory of God alone.  That is the formula that underlies this whole passage.  Paul will hit every point of it along the way in this passage, but it helps to remember that this whole formula is always in the forefront of the mind of Paul in this discussion.

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

So we are bold in our faith.  We realize that as long as we remain in this world, and though we are citizens of the world to come by faith, we remain separated from God as long as we have these earthly bodies.  We are strong in our faith and long for the day that the Lord Jesus Christ returns in Judgment.  In our recognition of this faith in the Sufficiency of the Blood of Jesus Propitiating for us for our Sin and in our Gratitude for this Gift, we strive to obey the commandments of God.  We will all appear before God in Judgment on the Last Day, and each will be judged according to their righteousness. (It is understood here that the elect will be judged by the imputed righteousness of Christ from earlier arguments.)

Does Paul ever deny the Judgment on the Last Day?  No.  Never.  Does he ever infer that God will be anything but a Just God on that day?  No.  Never.  Does he ever imply, infer, suggest or outright say that we are capable of fulfilling the Law and actually receiving a just judgment of life from God?  No.  Never.  The fact that we will be judged according to our righteousness is terrible news.  This is horrible beyond belief!  This is not meant to be encouraging to man; this is meant to be a heavy handed threat of the Wrath of God.  This paragraph is about our faith, a faith that is manifest in a transformation of the heart by the Holy Spirit, a transformation that cannot be seen by man, but only by God.  This transformation is by the power of the Holy Spirit through knowledge and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who has died in propitiation for our sins, reconciling us to God, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.  Paul is reminding us that our justification is through the Blood of Christ on the Cross.

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Therefore, knowing that God is Just and Righteous, and that all men are imputed sin through Adam, all men should rightly fear the Wrath of God for our sin.  It is our duty to educate others to this reality.  God knows the heart of man, and that is the problem.  It is only through the imputed righteousness of Jesus that we may be judged worthy of salvation.  This transformation in Christ is written in the heart and is not visible to the eye.  The arguments concerning outward appearance and civic righteousness under the law of man do not fool God.  God sees the heart of man and he knows where the Holy Spirit dwells.  If it seems that our arguments are contrary to the logic of man, it is because the mind of God holds us to a different standard.  God’s reasons are hidden to man.  We act in obedience to Christ out of gratitude for his Gift: Jesus Christ died in propitiation for our sin, reconciling us to God, and in arising from the dead, He has secured victory over death for us for eternity.  We no longer live for ourselves, but rather for Him who has secured this eternal victory for us.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Therefore, we no longer regard men by the outer body of this world, but rather by the transformed person that remains hidden while still in the world, because although Christ was once wholly man and of this world, He is also wholly God and of the world yet to come.  When we are made regenerated men by authentic Baptism and true faith through the Holy Spirit acting in us, we become new beings, reborn into the kingdom yet to come.  The old self is gone, though the body hangs on for a time, and the new self is hidden within the body of this world, but now has come through the promise to the world yet to come.  All this is a gift from God.  God through His Son Jesus Christ has accomplished this ministry of reconciliation on our behalf while we were still sinners.  This was done external to us, with no help from us, for us and for our salvation.  It is extrinsic to us.  It is historical fact.  And most importantly, when all of this was going on, we were still sinners, enemies of God.  God has made us His messengers, His ambassadors for Christ.  He has entrusted us with this mission.  And this is the message on behalf of Jesus Christ: Be reconciled to God.  For our sake, God made Jesus to be human, who having no sin and therefore being the Perfect Sacrifice for the whole world, through substitutionary atonement, imputed our sin to Jesus, and the righteousness of Christ to us, propitiated for us with God so that we may be judged righteous and sinless on the Last Day, imparting His victory over death to His elect so that we may live forever with Him in resurrected bodies in the redeemed world.

Why does this sound so repetitive when you read it?  Because, this is a big deal.  This is the Gospel.  Paul repeats himself to make sure we understand it.  I’ve added back the full promise every time Paul refers to the promise to make sure that you understand what is at stake in this passage.  And I could have added the full formula more than I have, and it would have been applicable to the passage.  Faith must have an object.  I can say that I have faith.  You can ask, faith in what?  I might reply faith in Jesus.  You might say, that’s nice.  So, what?  Why should you have faith in Jesus?  What did he do?

I just love (heavy sarcasm) those WWJD bracelets.  They absolutely and totally miss the point and misdirect the person.  It is not about what Jesus would do; it is about what Jesus has already done.  It is finished.  While we were still sinners, He did all of this for us.  That is the good news; that is the Gospel.  Therefore, the whole formula is necessary before we can start using shorthand to describe and articulate our faith.  That is the purpose of creeds.  That is the purpose of liturgy.  That is the purpose of a concise and Biblical statement of faith.  That is what Paul has been doing in 2 Corinthians 5.

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Imputation

I was listening to my daily dose of Romans today and the doctrine of imputation was raised.  It seems that not a lot of people with whom I have spoken lately have any idea what this doctrine means.  The doctrine of imputation is necessary for the understanding of justification, and these two doctrines are the Gospel, according to Paul.  Sounds like they might be important, then, so let’s try them on for size.

Justice in our culture is blind.  The idea is that all people get a just hearing based on the merits of the particular case to be decided by an impartial jury of peers.  The blindness of justice does not mean that justice cannot discern truth, but rather that the station in life and history of the defendant is not considered when rendering judgment.  God’s justice is not blind.  The station and history of the defendant is clearly at issue.  We enter Judgment Day with facts already stacked against us.  Regardless of any testimony given on that day, we have sin in our column thanks to Adam.  The sentence for sin is suffering God’s Wrath in the form of eternal separation from our creator.  God is not just a little put off by sin; sin really chaps Him and offends Him greatly.  Adam represented all of humanity in a federal way when he sinned.  

Therefore, we inherited his sinful condition.  This was the first great imputation.  Adam’s sin is imputed to all of humanity.  Imputation is therefore a legal declaration where the attribute of one party is transferred to another.  Another way of looking at this switch is by the analogy of an accounting move.  The sin of Adam appears on the ledger of all man for all time.

Is this fair and just?  Absolutely.  Adam is the prototype human.  His fall into sin is transmitted genetically and federally to all of mankind.  We inherit this sin in Adam.  God is aware of this sin and works with the Son and the Holy Spirit to solve the problem for us.  The Covenant of Redemption between the persons of the Trinity states the Father promises the Son He will receive a group of humans that will worship the Son, and the Holy Spirit will gather these elected persons to the Son.  Fair?  So far, what we have is that every human for all time is doomed by Adam’s sin to suffer death.  The Covenant of Redemption exists because God knew that Adam would sin and offered the solution to a remnant of the people.  Death is a just inheritance for the Fall.  Mercy and Grace are offered to a remnant elect people.

The second act of imputation is that the Righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to His elect at Judgment Day.  This portion of the great exchange means that Jesus gives us infinite merits for our judgment with no regard to our own merits, but in due exchange for our faith alone in Him alone by Grace alone to the Glory of God alone.  In return, the third act of imputation is that our sin is imputed to Jesus Christ so that when He dies, God’s Wrath is propitiated for the sin of the elect.

Time out!  Propitiation appears in Romans 3:25 but is mistranslated by the NIV as atonement.  Let’s talk about the difference between the two for a moment.  The Old Testament sacrificial system is set up to appease God periodically for the sins of His royal family, the Jews.  The problems with the sacrificial system are that it merely foreshadows the Ultimate Sacrifice of Christ,  the sacrifice of an animal for the sin of a man can only cover up the sin, but it cannot wash it away, and finally, the system only worked for those in the OT Covenants, i.e. the Jews.  These OT sacrifices atoned, or covered up, for the sins of the Covenant members.  The New Covenant in Christ Jesus is different.  Because Jesus actually fulfilled the Law and therefore became the first and only Man to successfully earn life from the Covenant of Law, He is a Lamb that not only atones for our sin, but actually turns away the Wrath of God from us, washes away our sin and reconciles us to God.  This last part is the definition of propitiation, the key component of which is reconciliation to God, something an atonement or cover up cannot do.  

Getting back to imputation, because the sin of the elect is imputed to Christ, we can say that Christ’s punishment is death and that this is just.  Also, we can say that because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to His elect, His elect can justly be judged righteous before God on Judgment Day.  Because of the imputation and great exchange that occurs between Christ and His elect, justification is possible for His elect.  

Is this fair?  To whom?  Is it fair to Jesus?  It seems that He gets one raw end of the deal.  He chose to do this for us, His elect.  It is not up to us to question His motives.  He is certainly noble and Worthy of tremendous Thanksgiving for this, His Ultimate Gift.  And, He gets a remnant of humans to be His people.  Is it fair to the elect?  No, we are unworthy of anything but death.  Instead, we receive His Grace and may correctly and justly be deemed righteous before God.  Is it fair to the reprobate, those who are not numbered among the elect?  Yes!  They will be judged fairly and justly according to their own merits.  To God the Father?  Absolutely!  He gets to enjoy a just and propitiating sacrifice to appease His Wrath and He gets to remain a Just and Holy God.  To the Holy Spirit?  Well, it seems like He gets the other raw end of the deal because He’s going around doing all of the work in us and for us, the elect, making us aware of the Work of the Cross. 

You must understand the federal relationship of Adam to all humans and Christ to His elect in order to understand imputation and subsequently justification.  Every other doctrine in the Bible flows easily from this beginning.

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