Tag Archives: salvation

Rock of Ages

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(I’m finishing up a trip to the Northeast; let me post a bulletin article I wrote a few years ago)

When it comes to church music, I have to admit that I favor the old songs. Generally speaking, the older the better. These are the hymns that have endured, that have stood the test of time. I’m moved by today’s praise songs (like “Awesome Power” or “Highest Place”) and enjoy singing the toe tappers of the 20th century (like “Gloryland Way” or “Just A Little Talk With Jesus”) but the old hymns are the ones that tend to touch me deep inside with their elegant music and reflective words.

One such hymn was written in 1776 by Augustus M. Toplady. The words preach a sermon in and of themselves:

1. Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

Toplady begins with the sacrifice of Jesus. This is the basis of all gospel preaching. We preach Jesus, not ourselves. We preach his sacrifice, not our works. Paul said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Our preaching should imitate his.

2. Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Here is a key thought that must be brought to the minds of all men, especially those of us who have come to know Jesus. In our zeal to obey Him, we can sometimes forget that our obedience does not work our salvation. We are saved by grace, not by works. Jesus’ words should ring in our ears: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”” (Luke 17:10)

The Christians of Galatia became confused about this. They began to think that salvation came through works and not through faith. Paul called this a “different gospel” and condemned it. He wrote: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (Galatians 3:1-5)

3. Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the 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.

How hard it is to put all of our trust in Jesus! Especially in a country which stresses independence and self-sufficiency. We are taught to believe in ourselves and our own accomplishments. Yet Jesus calls us to believe in Him and His accomplishments.

4. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

In the end, all that will matter is whether or not we are in Christ. If we have surrendered ourselves to Him, burying our old selves in the waters of baptism and rising to a life dedicated to Him, we need not fear those final moments. We will be able to approach God’s judgment with joy, knowing that our salvation depends not on ourselves but on Jesus and His blood.

If you find yourself feeling anxious as you think about that final judgment, it may be that you are trusting in your own works and not in Jesus’ all-sufficient work. Surrender yourself to the Rock of Ages. Only He can save your from sin and make you pure in His Father’s eyes.

Bounded vs. Centered Sets

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Last week, Leadership Journal ran an article by John Ortberg where he discussed a concept made popular by Paul Hiebert: bounded vs. centered sets. Hiebert was sort of the Yoda of missionary anthropology, so I’ve read lots of his writings, included his discussion of this concept. But I hadn’t really thought of it in the way that Ortberg applied it.

The idea is that instead of looking at our salvation as a bounded set (saved, not saved), we should look at it as a centered set, the center being Christ. What happens is that we start with salvation by grace, then begin to act as if we were saved by works. In Ortberg’s words:

If we treat Christianity as a bounded set, there will always be a disconnect between the gospel and discipleship. The gospel will be presented as something to get you “inside the circle.” Once you’re inside, we don’t want to say you have to do anything to stay in (that would be salvation by works). But we don’t want to say you don’t have to do anything (the triumph of entropy, or, to use a biblical word, being lukewarm, or to use a theological word, antinomianism). So we don’t know what to say.

However, if we treat Christianity as a centered set, the relationship between the gospel and discipleship becomes much clearer. The gospel is the proclamation that life with and through Jesus is now available to ordinary people. It is a free gift of forgiveness and grace that cannot be earned. If I want it, the way that I enter into it is by becoming a follower of Jesus and orienting our lives with him at the center.

There have been times on this blog where I’ve presented an idea and someone says, “So if we don’t do that, we’re lost?” That’s bounded-set thinking. We need to understand that sanctification is a continual process, the process of becoming like Christ. We should ever be working to be more like Jesus.

Now before someone points it out, yes, I do believe there is a difference between saved and not saved, that there is a boundary. The idea of the bounded set is not totally wrong. But it’s less than helpful as we examine the concept of sanctification.

I found Ortberg’s article to be thought-provoking. I hope you’ll read it.

Moving on…

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Adam and Eve driven out of gardenSo… how do we move ahead with this discussion of perseverance of the saints? For now, we don’t. That is, I feel like some good discussion has taken place. I’ve stated some of my views and had a chance to hear the views of others. I’m ready to move on to something else, but let me state a few things:
(1) I remain unconvinced by the arguments for POTS (perseverance of the saints). In a similar way, I don’t buy into predestination. Nor do I see the Bible as teaching that God controls each and every thing that happens in this world.

(2) I don’t see our understanding on this issue as a question of fellowship. There are some things in the Bible that aren’t clearly stated, and I have to believe that is because God doesn’t see it as necessary that we be in full agreement on those things.

(3) I don’t see this issue as having a practical effect on our actions. Those who believe in perseverance of the saints still believe in encouraging one another, growing in holiness, etc. Some that are smarter than I may be able to point out a difference, but I haven’t seen it.

Still, if you haven’t had enough of this discussion, take heart. Jay Guin is taking it up again. I, on the other hand, plan to move on to some other topics for now.

Revelation’s warnings about losing one’s faith

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Adam and Eve driven out of gardenOK, so I guess I did lapse into a bit of proof-texting in the last post, although that wasn’t my intention. That is, I wasn’t trying to say, “Here are these verses that trump your verses.” I was trying to show why one particular argument by Edward Fudge doesn’t hold water.

Oh, well… so be it. I didn’t express myself well. At least it gave Randall the opportunity to teach us all a bit about Calvinistic views.

Let’s take some particular examples, and see if that helps. Since I’ve been working so much with the letters in Revelation over the last few years, let’s start there. First, there’s the Ephesus church. Hard-working. Sound doctrine. But they’ve lost their first love. Because of it, Jesus says: “Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:5) Since the lampstands are the churches themselves, Jesus is saying the church can cease to be a church. (Just as he will later refer to synagogues that aren’t really synagogues) This would necessitate the removal of these Christians from the body. How else do I say it? They would no longer belong to Christ.

Let’s skip down to the letter to Sardis. Jesus tells them: “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” (Revelation 3:4-5) The minority in that church are ready for Jesus’ return; most need to wake from a spiritual slumber. The ones that overcome (remain faithful, not renouncing Christ during persecution) will not have their names blotted from the book of life. What does that say about the others? That they ran the risk of that very thing, of being removed from the book of life (I gave a fuller explanation of the Book of Life in an earlier post).

Next is the letter to Philadelphia. This is a healthy church, but Jesus warns them: “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.” (Revelation 3:11) Take your crown? The word for crown is the word for the laurel wreath given to the victor in athletic events. The church in Smyrna was told that the crown was the crown of life, that is, life would be their crown for having endured. Jesus says that if Christians don’t hold on to what they have, they can lose that crown. (It’s not the image of the crown being snatched, but of failing to win. We talk of someone getting someone else’s gold medal when the original winner is disqualified. It’s that sort of idea.)

The last church in the group is Laodicea. Note that these Christians have gotten into such a state that Jesus is asking to be let back into their lives (“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20) If they do not change their ways, Jesus will vomit them out of his mouth.

The letters in Revelation were written to prepare the Christians in Asia Minor for a time of testing, a time of persecution. They had to guard their faith, for the risk of losing it was very real. They needed to be willing to lose their lives rather than lose their faith.

Falling away from grace

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Adam and Eve driven out of gardenThe other day I posted some links to Royce Ogle’s blog where he passed on some writings by Edward Fudge. Fudge argues that passages in the New Testament which speak of falling away actually address “unbelievers who claim to be believers.” This is sort of a variation of the argumentation I addressed in the last post.

I can’t buy this reasoning either. Look, for example at the beginning of 1 Corinthians: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:” (1 Corinthians 1:2) Does that description not fit “the elect”? It takes some fancy word wrangling to say that some of the verses in the book apply to Christians and others apply to pseudo-Christians.

Or let’s take Galatians, for example. Fudge refers to this passage: “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4) By implication, he says that this is addressed to these unbelievers in the church. Problem is, reading the verse in context pretty much rules that out. A few verses later, Paul writes: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7) These are not unbelievers, they are believers. And Paul says that it is possible for someone to keep them from obeying the truth, a fact which some Calvinists would deny.

Back in Chapter 3 of Galatians, Paul says: “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?” (Galatians 3:2-4) These Galatians had received the Spirit… yet it could be “for nothing.” Believers whose faith could be in vain. Further down Paul says, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse.” (Galatians 3:10) Under a curse… but saved? Doesn’t make sense.

To the Romans, Paul wrote: “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22)

To the Corinthians he wrote: “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:27) And: “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:2)

To the Galatians he wrote: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

To the Colossians: “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:22-23)

To the Thessalonians: “For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless.” (1 Thessalonians 3:5)

To Timothy: “holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.” (1 Timothy 1:19) and “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1)

I’ll leave the other letters for now. Paul writes to Christians, warning them against falling away. We should heed his warnings as well.