faith for faith

After it was dark one evening, a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus. He was a ruler and a teacher of the Jews, and his coming by night to speak to Jesus reveals a bit of the sincerity of his heart behind his coming. For while the rest of the Pharisees were notorious for conspiring together and then questioning Jesus during the day so as to attempt to trap him in blasphemy, Nicodemus came at night to Christ so that he would not to be seen by the other Pharisees and associated with their trickery.

Upon coming to Jesus, Nicodemus said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (Jn. 3:2). Nicodemus’s confession to Christ is an astounding one, and it places him in direct opposition to his Pharisee brothers. Yet, despite the greatness of Nicodemus’s confession, Christ does not respond to his confession with a “Thank you,” or a “You are right,” or even the response he gave to Peter upon his confession, “Blessed are you!” Christ does none of these things but seems to ignore the Nicodemus’s statement altogether.

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For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rm. 1:22, 23).

I heard Douglas Wilson at one time give an argument for the existence of God from the existence of God’s gifts. He argued this way: that if a man were walking through a deserted forest and along the way found a gift neatly wrapped, he would likely think it odd to find such a thing on a path going through such a forest. He might receive the gift, though he might consider it a sheer and freak coincidence that this one solitary gift was laid in the path of his footsteps. However, if that same man walked further and started to find gift after gift laid along the path that he alone was walking, he would by necessity conclude that someone had placed these things ahead of him and for his enjoyment. He would know from the string of gifts that there was a giver, and that giver, whoever he is, is deserving of thanksgiving.

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The late, great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said many times concerning the doctrines of free will which are commonly labeled Arminianism, that, “The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works.” In other words, Spurgeon believed, and quite passionately, that the gospel preached by those who hold that men have a free will that can choose Christ is nothing more than a salvation that is based upon works not upon faith in Christ alone.

Such a charge is not a light charge, for when one takes that which is the Gospel and distorts it into a salvation that is based upon human merit and law-keeping, he does not merely tarnish the Gospel, but he destroys it in its entirety. The apostles, for this reason, speak very harshly concerning those who do thus to the Gospel and admonish the church over and over throughout their letters to watch out for those who distort the Gospel in this way and to cast them out of their fellowship. And to demonstrate this great passion of the apostles for the purity of the Gospel, the apostle Paul speaking to the Galatian church regarding the Judaizers (those who sought to add the work of circumcision to the Gospel), wrote:

You [Galatians] were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? [i.e. The Judaizers did.] This persuasion [of the Judaizers] is not from him [i.e. God] who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump [i.e. a little distortion ruins the whole Gospel]. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine [i.e. the Gospel that I have preached], and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who [Judaizers] who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (Gal. 5:7-12).

Now, the apostle makes it very clear of how he feels about the Judaizers adding the work of circumcision to the Gospel. He says that their doing thus, first, leavens and destroys the whole Gospel, in that, second, it removes the offense of the cross of Christ thereby demonstrating that it is a false gospel, and, third, that, because of this false teaching, he wishes that they who did this to the Gospel would castrate themselves! In other words, he is saying in not so many words, “I wish that they who wish to cut off the foreskin of your flesh and by it destroy the Gospel would instead keep cutting on their own genitals and leave you and the Gospel alone.”

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There is a sad reality in the existence of denominations in the church, and it is this: denominations unite people in the church under secondary doctrines of the Faith so as to make those doctrines primary to the denomination, and they take doctrines that should be primary and make them secondary for the sake of unity in the denomination. For example, the Southern Baptist denomination is a denomination that is united under the secondary doctrine of the mode of baptism (viz. immersion), and since Southern Baptists have this secondary doctrine of mode of baptism in common, it becomes to the denomination a primary doctrine. Despite this common ground on baptism, there is division within the denomination on other issues that are of primary concern to the Faith (e.g. the Gospel and its proper understanding) that however become secondary issues in the denomination because they divide the denomination. And thus you will find in these denominations capitulation of doctrines that are of first importance for the sake of preserving the denomination, for the denomination, not the Church nor righteousness, is end of doctrine and practice, and therefore every doctrine must be filtered and ranked through the denomination not through the Revelation of God.

And thus, to jump to the point, you will find efforts in the Southern Baptist Convention to unite with one another within the denomination over issues such as Calvinist / Arminian understandings of the Gospel for the sake of what is being called the Great Commission Resurgence whose chief end is to get the Gospel out to the Nations. The problem with such an endeavor is that despite pious sounding mantras to “Just give the world the name of Jesus,” it neglects the very Gospel that is to be delivered to the Nations. Its practice would be tantamount to rounding up medicine and sending it to a country that is perishing from smallpox, when it is not merely medicine that the country needs, it is the particular medicine of a smallpox inoculation. Sending aspirin would not do, and neither would a measles vaccine, but they need the pure, unadulterated cure of a smallpox vaccine. Likewise, when we speak of a Great Commission Resurgence, we do not merely need to send to them the name of Jesus (for the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as well-equipped to do that), but we need to send to them the pure, unadulterated Gospel that was delivered to the prophets and apostles.

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It has been a solid month-and-a-half since my last update to the Unindebtedness Journal, and many things have, by Grace, happened since that time. The last time I wrote was on September 1, 2009, and that was to report that we, with the help of my most generous in-laws, secured a piece of property on Promise Lane, about a mile from church, closer to work for both Haley and me, closer to our parents, and basically closer to everything except my part-time job and my brother in Christ, Paul Magee.:( We rejoiced over the Lord’s provision in the land’s acquisition, both because of its location, its price, and because of the fact that it was perfect for us in that mobile homes had been put on it in the past and a mobile home was what we were wanting to put on it while we paid off our debts and freed up funds for the sake of grace in generosity.

While that was a huge step in the whole process, we found that it was the first of many huge steps. Our next step from that point was up in the air, because, while mobile homes had been on the property in the past and there is a septic tank on the property, there is no well on the property, because the people who lived on the property before used a well located on an adjacent piece of property. At the time we bought the land, we were unsure of how the family who owns the surrounding properties would respond to our buying the land, and we were pretty convinced in our own minds that they would not allow us to share the well that the lot formerly shared, and, because of that, we would have to have our own well dug before we could do anything else.

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Therefore, since our baptism into the death of Christ has crucified our old and fleshly man so that we would be set free from our slavery to sin, the apostle Paul exhorts the church to live in a way that is consistent with this reality. He gives this exhortation to the church, not because men who have been baptized into Christ are able to overpower the work of the Spirit of God, but because natural men have and always will find their way into the ranks of the fold of God. We know this is true because of the apostle’s later declarations in his discourse, and we see it clearly elsewhere in the promise of the surety of God’s work in the elect. The apostle writes, “I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Ph. 1:6 NASB). For when God begins a work in a soul, he finishes it (cf. Rm. 8:29, 30).

Therefore the apostle gives this command to the church, “Let not sin therefore reign in you mortal bodies to make you obey its passions” (v. 6:12). In other words, do not submit yourself to the slavery of sin and let sin be your Lord so that you follow after the fleshly passions of your body. As those who have been baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, we are cleansed not only from the condemnation of our wicked deeds, but we are released from the slavemaster who commands them of us so that we can live our lives in such as way that we do not submit to the passions of our flesh. For now, Christ has redeemed our flesh so that which was once use for wickedness can now be used for the sake of righteousness.

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Continued from previous post: “Therefore, Ezekiel declares, as the apostle Paul declares, that baptism results in the obedience of God’s people. How? Because God places in his people a new heart and a new spirit, and he puts his Spirit in us so that we will ‘walk in [his] statutes and be careful to obey [his] rules.’ Therefore, man’s inability to fulfill the obedience of faith is remedied by God’s ability, for it is God who works in his people to bring them to obedience through Jesus Christ. The question that remains then is, ‘How is this accomplished?’”

This obedience which God accomplishes in his people comes about first through the emancipation from sin that baptism affords. Paul addresses this truth thoroughly in the sixth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. However, before we look at that text, I would like to explain how the apostle structures his argument. Yes, baptism is the apostle’s topic in Romans 6-8:17, however he does not come at the topic directly as though he were writing an essay on baptism, but he does it in response to certain objectionable questions, each question raised by a prior claim of his. The reason he structures his discourse in this way, I believe, is because he is preparing the church for the false teachers who will inevitably spring up among them proclaiming destructive heresies. He expresses this concern at the end of his epistle, writing, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them” (Rm. 16:17). Therefore, the apostle structures his discourse on baptism in such a way that the church will have a defense against those who bring in a false gospel.

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No man can work his way to God, for, “No one does good, not even one,” and no one can will his way to God, for, “No one understands, no one seeks for God.” It is for this reason that the apostle writes later in the Epistle to the Romans, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16), and why he quotes the prophet Isaiah later in that same chapter concerning Israel, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah” (v. 9:29).

The Good News is that God has not left us to ourselves. For Paul declares in Romans 5 that that same Offspring that preserved the life and the holiness of ancient Israel has come into the world as the Second Adam–the second head of the human race–and where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, succeeded. Where the first Adam brought judgment into the world, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought justification into the world. Where the first Adam brought the reign of death, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the reign of righteousness unto eternal life. Where the first Adam was disobedient, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ was obedient. Where the first Adam brought the condemnation of the law, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the abundance of grace.

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“Baptism is the most important event in the life of a child of God.” If one were to declare thus in a typical American Baptist church, that person would almost immediately be labeled a heretic or at least be charged with misunderstanding the Word of God. “Baptism is merely an outward picture of an inward reality,” they would answer. “Baptism does not save a soul.” To which I would respond, “A symbol of what?” To which they would reply, “Of dying with Christ and being raised with him.” “Which is what?” I would ask. To which I would expect an “I do not know,” or a “Being born again,” or an “Accepting of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.”

The sad irony for most of us who call ourselves Baptists is that we bear baptism in our denominational title, yet we by and large have no clue what baptism is. In this way, we are much like the Circumcision party of whom the apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5 in that we, like them, bear the symbol of God’s covenant in our title, and, we, like them, understand the symbol of the covenant with great precision, and yet we do not understand the reality behind the symbol. We, like the Circumcision party, are zealously meticulous about practicing the symbol correctly, giving lectures and preaching sermons on why baptism by immersion is the only acceptable mode of baptism, all the while neglecting to teach upon the reality of baptism. We will harp upon the mode of the symbol to such detail so as to say that a baptizer cannot hold the nose of the one being baptized because dead people do not hold their noses, yet we neglect to teach that baptism is matter of the heart performed by the Spirit of God not by the letter of the law.

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