faith for faith

Since what most modern American Christians call faith is actually not faith but a work of acceptance, faith is no longer the unmeritorious means by which one is justified by the work of Christ, but it is righteousness itself. In other words, in the end we say that we are saved exclusively by our acceptance and not exclusively by the work of God since God has supposedly granted to everyone the ability to accept him and the Christ whom he has sent, no matter who they are, where they live, or when they lived. Therefore, the buck stops with us. We are saved in the end not because God did something, but because we did something. We charge that everyone is given the opportunity, and some, like us, have accepted Christ, and the rest have not.

Our justification by acceptance therefore is not justification by faith, but it is justification by works lite. For our justification by acceptance is no different than any other justification by works religion on the planet save the fact that we have only one rule, “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” If you obey this rule you will be considered righteous, but disobey it you will be judged for not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

But what of those who have not heard the Gospel? What will be their fate?

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For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:8-10).

To a particular extent, it is easy for most of us to grasp that our salvation is not to be credited to us. We understand it was Christ Jesus who died and who lived righteously that we might be righteous before a Judge who is holy and just and therefore demands perfection. And whether we credit our faith to God or to our own free volition, most of us recognize that apart from Christ and faith in him there is no salvation, and therefore we have no cause boast, except, as the apostle Paul declared, in the cross of Christ (cf. Gal. 6:14).

But what of our religious and righteous deeds after our salvation? Do we have reason to credit our own personal volition or to glory in our own sanctification? No, not at all. For Scripture declares that it is the Holy Spirit who not only began in us the good work of salvation, but it is he who finishes it (cf. Ph. 1:6). Furthermore the apostle declares elsewhere that in the Church–in those who are called by God, among them there are appointments of different measures of faith so that no one should “think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Rm. 12:3). And it is by the Spirit, not by our selves, that we are commanded to put to death the deeds of the body (cf. Rm. 8:13), and it is God who has prepared beforehand good works for us to walk in. Therefore our question and our answer must be just as the apostle’s: “What then becomes of our boasting? It is excluded” (Rm. 3:27).

Through chapters two and three of Romans, there are seeming paradoxical and contradictory statements made by the apostle concerning the advantage that the Jews have over the Gentiles in having the written code and circumcision. We find first in Romans 2:13 the declaration that “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be made righteous.” Following this there is the condemnation of Jews who esteem themselves as teachers because they know the will of God and know what is excellent because they are instructed from the Law, but, though these know the law, they dishonor God by breaking the very law that they boast in and therefore cause the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles by their hypocrisy. Therefore because they break the law, their circumcision is regarded as uncircumcision (v. 2:25), and those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law are considered circumcised (v. 2:26), because circumcision and Jewish-ness is not an outward manifestation nor is it based upon physical descent exclusively, but it is a matter of the heart by work of the Spirit of God.

It is in chapter 3 that Paul makes his two seemingly contradictory statements. First he writes, “What advantage has the Jew? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God” (vv. 3:1, 2). Okay, therefore the Jews’ having the oracles / the word of God is an advantage. Case closed. But then the apostle makes this statement a few verses later, “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (v. 3:9). In other words, oracles or no oracles, the state of Jews and Greeks are the same. Why?–Sin. Sin is the great equalizer. Sin has so captivated all men, both Jews and Greek, to such an radical degree so as to make written code / Scriptures of no benefit by itself. This is why apostle follows with this statement with the all familiar declaration of man’s natural state: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (v. 3:10-12), and why the apostle writes earlier, “Circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit” (v. 2:29). For just as no one is righteous on his own accord, so no one can circumcise his own heart to obedience. It is the Spirit’s work alone, not according to man’s will or exertion (cf. Jn. 3:6-8; Rm. 9:16).

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Etymologically, it is quite easy to understand ancient thoughts on procreation. The two common words that we use today for the male contribution to procreation, spermatozoa and semen, coming from Greek and Latin respectively, both mean seed. In other words, it was thought that a child was conceived in a way similar to that of crops being planted–as seed scattered on fertile soil. Taking this into consideration, the promise given in Genesis 3 is quite an astounding one. There God declares, “I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” It is from the seed of woman that the Christ was promised, a saying that does not seem so odd to our scientifically enlightened minds but was surely odd to its hearers granting their understanding of procreation. Yet in this, Scripture demonstrates its divine authority in this passage and also foreshadows the virgin birth of the Christ and its necessity, where he who is not of the seed of Adam shall come forth as the Second Adam to redeem the elect of Adam’s race thereby creating a new humanity through himself.

For centuries, many Christians have used Romans 7 as an anesthetic to numb the pain of their perpetual sinning. In this unusual passage, we find the speaker (who many presume to be the apostle at the time of his writing), saying,

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (Rm. 7:15-19)

Me, being the contrary person that I am, obstinately disagree with the popular and Reformed interpretation of this passage that says that this is the apostle speaking at the time of his writing, and this passage exists as a comfort to Christians who are in sin. I do so simply because of the context and because of the way the speaker introduces himself at the beginning of this section, namely as one who is of the flesh and a slave of sin (v. 7:14). For anyone who has even thought about reading Romans 6 and Romans 8 knows that the apostle goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Christ’s death and the salvation that it brought has freed every Christian from his slavery to sin (cf. vv. 6:6, 7) and that all who live according to the flesh cannot please God and will die (cf. v. 8:8, 13).

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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

Spiritual warfare–It is a often neglected reality, and it is a reality for which our post-Enlightenment minds are ill-prepared. It is a reality that encompasses us, and one in which we move incessantly, though we do not see it and do not acknowledge it. It is a reality that Martin Luther conversely knew all too well, as he hurled ink wells at his spiritual adversaries who sought to destroy him and the Gospel for which he stood. It is a reality that is as real today as it ever has been, whether we perceive it and choose to acknowledge it or not.

The Adversary on the one hand is an impotent foe, for he has no power of his own but only has that power which is granted to him and creates nothing but twists all things that God has spoken forth. On the other hand, since that which he twists is the very Word of God, his power is great indeed, for the power of the Word is great. It is with this power that he deceived our first parents, slithering about and twisting the Word of God so that both fell without much resistance. It is in this manner that he tempted our Lord in the wilderness, using various Scriptures and twisting them in malicious hope that the One who spoke them forth would not remember what he himself had spoken.

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I love a good milkshake. I especially love a good milkshake from Chick-fil-a. I love how the soft serve ice cream from which it is made gives it the perfect thickness so that it is neither too thick so as to make it collapse a straw nor is it too thin so that it is not easily and immediately consumed. I particularly love the cookies ‘n cream shake from Chick-fil-a and how I am pleasantly surprised every other sip or so with a crunchy piece of cookie to munch. I love of good milkshake.

The other night, I indulged myself (at the expense of my waistline and my household peace for having made an unnecessary purchase) with a cookies ‘n cream shake from Chick-fil-a. As I was driving down the road, I said to myself, “Self, this milkshake is heaven.” After thinking that, I immediately thought of what a blasphemy that thought was. To think that I would even think to compare the temporal tastiness of a milkshake with the unfathomable pleasures and riches in the presence of almighty God! It was a great atrocity indeed.

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In some evangelical circles, there has been a sort of recoiling from the love of God that has come from a response to liberal movements that have distorted the love of God. These have expressed that liberal Christians have overemphasized the love of God above his other attributes, e.g. his wrath, justice, etc. and therefore have neglected the full revelation of God. However, I believe that the love of God in liberal circles has not been overemphasized, but it has rather been twisted and mangled, for how can we overemphasize the love of God? Even in the light of his other attributes—his mercy, his goodness, his wrath, his justice–there are none that are so wonderful as his love. To us God’s revelation of himself always comes through his love, whether it is seen in his mercy and justice as was demonstrated on the Cross or whether it is demonstrated in the judgment of sinners and his wrath against evil. For this reason, the apostle is able to write without apology, “God is love” (1Jn. 4:16), for all things are loving and work to the good of those upon whom God has placed his love and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (cf. Rm. 8:28, 29).

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song (Frederick Lehmen, The Love of God)

According to Paul’s argument, the extent of the rejection which he denies in Rm. 11:1-5 is not merely rejection but it is total rejection. He is not denying what is obvious, namely that the majority of Israelites are turning and have turned away from God in Christ, but he arguing here that Israel has not been rejected absolutely. This is clear in the context, because, one, as we saw yesterday, Paul uses his pedigree in conjunction with his personal faith as an argument to the contrary, and, two, in today’s verses, the apostle quotes the prophet Elijah who believed himself that Israel was absolutely rejected by God. He writes, and the apostle quotes and adds:

”Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace (vv. 11:3-5).

Therefore, the apostle’s point is the point that he puts in the form of a rhetorical question in v. 11: “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means!” In other words, God has not utterly destroyed physical Israel to the extent that they are beyond recovery. The apostle also makes this point in v. 23, “And even [the Jews], if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”

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