faith for faith

Before we continue further in our text in Romans 10, it would beneficial to look at the essence of belief and faith (which shall for all intents and purposes be here considered synonymous, for they are English variations of a single root in the Greek). As my Theology professor, Dr. David Hogg, accurately pointed out in a lecture, faith and belief cannot be reduced to a list of mental assents to the nature of the work and person of Jesus Christ. In other words, granting our natural state, belief in Jesus Christ is by necessity a supernatural work of God that brings about genuine change, not a checklist of doctrinal affirmations. This by no means diminishes the necessity for doctrinal orthodoxy by the renewal of one’s mind by the Spirit to the Scriptures, but it does highlight the simplicity of original faith in Jesus Christ.

In a beautiful analogy, John Piper likened original faith to the cry of baby at birth. Just as a baby springs forth from his mother’s womb into new life and cries because he is alive, so the child of God at regeneration simultaneously cries out in faith, believing with his fleshly heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as it could be said on the one hand that a baby is alive because his mother borne him and on the other that a baby is alive because he cries, so on the one hand it is said that we are alive in Christ because the Spirit borne us and on the other that we are alive in Christ because we believe in Jesus Christ and confess him as Lord.

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Having just completed my one-hundredth post here at blog.xpistou.com, I thought that it might do well for me to revisit my reasons for writing on this site day after day. I have written a post prior to this one entitled, “Why I Write,” and hence the name of this present post, “Why I Write Reborn.” Though I did address the same question in said prior post, it was by no mean exhaustive nor adequate. I hope that this post will better answer the question, Why do I write?

I Write To Glorify God
If you were to press me and ask what verse in all of Scripture drives my life day in and day out, I would tell you 1 Corinthians 10:31. In this well known verse, the apostle Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all the glory of God.” In it, Paul uses the most common activities of men, viz. eating and drinking, to demonstrate that every action that we take, no matter how minute or how menial, should be an act of worship to God.

My goal, therefore, is that this blog will be an act of worship to God. I know very well that, because I am a sinful man, this site falls well short of this goal often, but nevertheless God’s glory is the bar that I set. This means by necessity that I write some things that I might should not have written and that I am inaccurate and wrong in some of the statements that I make, and for these things I must constantly turn to God by repentance. Though I do falter often in this regard, I continue to write because I am compelled to do so.

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This piece was originally titled “On the Scope of Adam’s Universal Condemnation and Its Implications on the Doctrine of “The Age of Accountability” and can be found here. I believe its content is pertinent to the subject at hand.

Though Romans 7:14-25 does not deal directly with original sin and the imputation of Adam’s guilt to his offspring, it does offer clarification as to the scope of Adam’s sin and its punishment. Romans 5:12-21, like our present text, is a very difficult passage of Scripture with regard to its subject and its complexity. In it, the Apostle deals with the very difficult subject of original sin and the universal condemnation afforded by that sin. The Apostle complicates the passage exponentially by introducing Jesus Christ as the Second Adam and by comparing and contrasting the two God-ordained heads of the human race. The passage is complicated further by the Apostle’s seemingly free use of universal and particular language, making it seem at one point that Christ is the universal head of the human race and at another, the head of a particular race. Thus the passage reads:

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:15-21, emphasis mine).

There are several terms to note when trying to understand this passage. First is the persons over whom Christ is head. At some points in the passage, Christ is said to be the head of “the many” and at other points, “all men.” Second is the grace afforded to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is the “abundance of grace” (vv. 5:15, 17, 20), and for all men, the “grace of God” (v. 5:15). Third is the state of those over whom Christ is head. For the many, is the state of “righteousness” (v. 5:17, 19, 21), and for all men, “justification” (v.
5:16, 18). Fourth is the life granted to those over whom Christ is head. For the many is “eternal life” (v. 5:21), and for all men, “life” (v. 5:18).

Through this passage alone, we can deduce that Christ’s headship and the grace that God gives through Christ is universal in one respect and particular in another. What is not so clear however is the scope of the condemnation (whether it be temporal or eternal death) of Adam’s sin imputed to all of his offspring. For this, Romans 7 offers a clearer insight. In v. 7:9, the Apostle writes, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” In this verse, the Apostle clarifies what can be deduced in Romans 5:12-21, viz. that the death afforded by Adam is strictly temporal in nature, viz. that the punishment afforded to all men through Adam is physical death. For in v. 7:9, the speaker, being a descendent of Adam, is already condemned to physical death and yet is said to die when he encounters the law and transgresses it. Therefore, it can be said that spiritual death comes to the speaker when he first comprehends the law of God and transgresses against that law (cf. v. 1:20). The experience of the speaker of Romans 7 is identical to the experience of Adam, for God said to Adam, “On the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die,” and yet Adam remained physically alive after he ate. God’s word did not fail, for Adam, like the speaker of Romans 7, died spiritually the moment that he transgressed the commandment though he did not die physically until much later.

Was not the sin of Adam sufficient for both the physical and spiritual death of his offspring? It was indeed, but we see even from Genesis 3 the promised coming of the second Adam who would crush the head of the serpent and who granted Adam and his offspring, even prior to his coming, the grace of physical life though they deserved immediate, physical death. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:23-25, “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.” This divine forbearance that allowed God to pass over the sins of the human race and not to commit the race immediately to the judgment of physical death did not come without a price, but it came through the very blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Here we see clearly how Christ is the universal head of all men and is also the particular head of the many. Christ is head of all men insofar as God through his death grants to all men a measure of physical life. Christ was offered up as a propitiation for the human race—a temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that all men are temporarily justified in the sight of God so that they will not immediately bear the physical condemnation of Adam’s sin or their own transgressions. This is indeed a grace of God afforded by Christ for all men, for apart from this universal grace no man would live.

This grace of physical life that God grants to all men through Christ, the second Adam, has an even greater purpose, of which the Apostle speaks in Romans 9:20-24 when objections are made against the purpose of God:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

In this weighty passage of Scripture we see that God not only withholds his wrath from all men so that those who would believe in Christ would come to him in faith but also so that those who would be vessels of the abundance of God’s mercy would comprehend the riches of the grace of God granted to them through Christ. Christ’s universal headship that withholds the hand of God’s judgment exists ultimately to bring glory to his name through the realization of his great and particular mercy that he has shown to those over whom Christ is their particular head in the abundance of grace. Of this abundance of grace, the saints of God will sing forever, witnessing how God has sovereignly called them out of the world of common grace and into the fold of particular and abundant grace.

Going back to the testimony of Romans 7:9, the justification that Christ grants to all men is justification of the original sin of Adam that brings eternal condemnation. Though those who have not sinned after the likeness of the offense of Adam might fall under the physical curse and die without comprehending and volitionally transgressing a law (e.g. infants, mentally handicapped, etc.), their condemnation is not eternal death, for where there is no comprehension of the law there is no imputation of sin (v. 5:13). Thus it can be said that those who are children of Adam who have not comprehended the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law, are spiritually alive until they reach a point of comprehension of God’s law. This fact is clearly seen in v. 7:9 where the speaker says, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died.” The sin that came alive in the speaker, viz. covetousness from the command, “You shall not covet,” was sufficient enough to kill the speaker spiritually thereby affording him enslavement to sin and eternal damnation. And though Christ is the speaker’s universal head, who relieves him from original sin’s eternal condemnation, the curse of original sin, that which indwells the speaker and remains dormant until cognition of the law of God, is such that it is certain to kill the speaker the very moment that recognition of the law of God occurs.

All this is to say that Christ’s universal headship is such that it justifies eternally those who have died apart from comprehension of the law of God, be it the Mosaic law or Natural law. This doctrine is commonly expressed as the “age of accountability,” but until studying Romans 5:12-21 in light of Romans 7:9, I have never encountered Scriptural warrant for the doctrine. Indeed, I was quite on the fence, as it were, with regard to the salvation of those who died apart from volitionally transgressing the law, for I have always heard it argued from texts that were never meant to express that truth. This doctrine, expressed from Romans 5:12-21 and Romans 7:9, places the salvation of those who have not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s offense in its proper light, viz. in the grace of God afforded by the work of Christ. For apart from Christ even those who have never comprehended the law of God are under the condemnation of Adam which is both temporal and eternal death. However, Christ’s work as the Second Adam has placed all men under his headship, justifying them from the eternal condemnation of Adam sin. All men are relieved of this judgment of eternal condemnation until they comprehend the law of God, which brings with it certain rebellion and death because of the sin that indwells all men and remains dead until the time of that cognition.

Therefore, the doctrine that is known as the “age of accountability” would be better named the “state of accountability,” for it is not a certain age that makes one accountable to God, but it is a state of comprehension. For the very moment that a person, no matter his age, comprehends a command of God and by his sinful nature rebels against it and thereby rebels against God, he dies spiritually, becomes enslaved to sin, and is condemned in the sight of God. This rebellion against the commandments of God can indeed come at a young age, therefore making the declaration of the Gospel to children of great import. No parent should withhold from his child the teaching of the Gospel, especially if he sees in his child the evidences of rebellion. The first thing that a child should learn from his parent is that his rebellion has a much weightier consequence than a rod on the back—condemnation in the sight of a holy God. Every spanking of a child for his rebellion must then be used as an opportunity for the Gospel, so that through that discipline a parent might save his child from eternal damnation (cf. Proverbs 23:14).

So, then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:12-14).

At its root, Christianity is a phenomenally simple religion. While other religions go to great lengths and into great detail about how a man by his own power might reach the divine, Christianity offers no such prescription. Instead, according to Christianity, a man can live one of two ways–he can live according to himself and in his own power or he can live according to the Spirit and in God’s power. There is no middle ground, and the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:4-17 goes to great lengths to make this extremely clear.

The nature of Christianity’s simplicity is found not in man but in God. The Christian religion is unlike every other religion in that is fully accomplished by its End, which is to say that God brings the Christian to himself. Thus when the Apostle writes, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” it is tantamount to saying, “Those who live apart from the Spirit of God and his power cannot please God.” For there is no satisfaction in the Father save in the Son, whom he crucified so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The expression, “walking according the Spirit,” carries with it significant connotations. It is first a conformity. All men are said to be walking in accordance to one way or Another. And it is not the destination to where one is walking that is significant in these verses (though there is indeed a destination), but it is the manner in which he walks. A man can either walk in the manner of his flesh (which is in accordance to his own desires and aspirations), or he can walk in the manner of the Spirit. The manner of the Spirit is said to be the fulfillment of the law and righteousness (v. 8:4) and to be the way of life and peace (v. 8:6).

Walking according the Spirit is secondly an activity. A man who is walking is not at any point standing still. Therefore all men at all times are participating in activities that are either according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. These activities, by the Apostle’s testimony, are not isolated incidences in a person’s life, but they are a declaration of his final destination. The Apostle writes, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Therefore, the activities in which a person consistently participates demonstrate his final end–either fleshliness leading to destruction or Godliness leading to regeneration.

Finally, this activity has a very particular manifestation. The Apostle writes, “If you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” In other words, walking according to the Spirit means ultimately to put to death the deeds of the body through the power of the Holy Sprit and thereby pursue righteousness. There is no other prescription. Either one lives through the power of the Spirit and actively crucifies the deeds of the flesh, or he lives in his own power and pursues the things of the flesh. This manifestation clearly shows whether one is being led by the Spirit of God and therefore a son of God (v. 8:14) or whether he is led by his flesh and therefore an enemy of God.

How do you walk? Do you walk according to Spirit of God and strive for righteousness, or do you walk according to the flesh and pursue your own personal desires? Know that your answer to this question will show you where your final destination will be.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12, 13).

We live in a unique time in history. We live in a time of microwave ovens, jet planes, fast food, and high-speed everything, so much so that we by nature expect all things to be done at lightning fast speeds. When our age of microwave ovens encounters the doctrine of salvation, we tend to get a doctrine that is warmed over, but one that has been irradiated of its healthful qualities. Question the typical Christian where the proof of his salvation lies, and he will point to a walking down the aisle during a worship service, or to a prayer he recited as a child, or to the black ink that bears his name on a membership roll. Ask the same man of his fears and uncertainties before a holy and righteous Judge, and he will truthfully say that he has none. He knows that he pressed the button of salvation years ago and that once one is saved he is always saved.

Though orthodox Christianity does indeed hold onto the glorious truth that, “He who began a good work in you will carry it out till the day of Christ Jesus,” something of substance is missing from our doctrine of salvation that was not missing in the doctrine of the saints of old. While the olden saints saw the light of the Gospel, believed upon Jesus, and lived the rest of their lives with holy fear before a holy God, we in the American church repeat a fabricated prayer, claim to believe in Jesus, and go about living our lives in much the same manner as we had before. Some things might change mind you—we may go to church more often, we may switch political parties, we may stop watching particular television shows or movies, but do our lives really change? Do our new lives in Christ genuinely reflect the profundity of being brought from death to life, of being blind and now seeing, of being deaf and now hearing? Would a man raised from the dead simply go to church more often? Would a blind man having gained his sight simply switch political parties? Would a deaf man having gained his hearing simply change the programs that he watches? How much greater then should our transformation be, we who were at one time spiritually dead, blind to the glory of God, and deaf to the call of Christ!

Why do we not respond rightly to the profound change that has been wrought in us by the Triune God? It has much to do with the reason why we cannot make sense of the Apostle’s command to the Philippians: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure.” We simply have no categories in our minds for such things in our microwaved salvation. We claim that we have believed on the Word, yet we cannot make sense of his Word. Perhaps now, for the sake of our soul, we should now make a category for testing and doubting our salvation.

There Is No Fear and Trembling before God
“The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom,” which is to say that there is no wisdom where there is no fear of God. Consequently, the fear of God is the greatest thing that we lack in the American Church. Preachers and teachers go to great lengths to demonstrate that the word “fear” does not mean “to fear” in Scripture, but it means “to respect.” We are not to fear God, they say, but we are to respect him. Yet these same teachers give no account for the trembling of which the Apostle speaks in Philippians, nor do they give account of Isaiah’s exclamation, “Woe is me!” when he beheld the Almighty.

It is clear by this that we as a people have broken the second commandment. We may not have erected physical idols for our homes and churches, but we have erected them in our minds and hearts. We know this because our bodies do not shake when our minds transcend the temporal and attempt to grasp the Almighty. We instead imagine a very safe God—one whom we have no problem drawing in children’s books, about whom we are quick to make cheesy sayings, and for whom we live lukewarm lives. Our lack of fear and lack of due response demonstrates that we do not know the God of Scripture but a god of our own making.

Work Out Your Salvation
The Apostle Paul in his letter to Romans makes it clear that salvation is a free gift from God. It is neither accomplished by works nor by the will of man, so that no man might boast in his destiny and so that in the work of salvation God will receive all of the glory. We must believe this and cherish this, for this is the clear declaration of Scripture. Scripture also declares through the Apostle in the same letter, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” Our salvation is not a onetime event, but it is a lifetime of death. It, like every great story, has an introduction, a climax, and a dénouement—all woven together by its Master Author to glorify his name.

This story, spoken of commonly in the theological terms, justification, sanctification, and glorification, is tainted by the American church to be all justification and glorification and no sanctification. How many in the American church love the free gift of justification and the promise of glory but despise holiness! The testimony of the Apostle flies in the face of this false salvation, “Those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” And also in Philippians he writes, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Our working out our salvation can be described in a number of phrases. It can be described as “our putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit so that we might live;” or as: “we, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree to another;” or as “taking up our cross daily;” or as “losing our life so that we might gain it.” All these things point to a salvation that transforms the entirety of one’s life. Indeed, that is what repentance unto salvation means—to be walking towards hell and destruction and to turn completely around and to be walking toward Christ. There is no standing still in this life. One is either walking toward Christ and holiness, or he is walking toward hell. For this very reason we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that if we are not seeking God and his righteousness, we are walking toward our destruction.

God Sanctifies Us for His Good Pleasure
There is no mystery to the Apostle’s certainty in his statement, “I am sure that he who began a good work in you will perform it till the day of Christ Jesus.” Our sanctification, like our justification and glorification, rests solely in the power of God. It is God who foreknew us, it is God who predestined us, it is God who called us, it is God who justified us, and it is God who will glorify us. In the same way, God will carry us through the good works that he has prepared for us to walk in before the foundation of the world, and he will continue to mold us into the image of Christ. Conversely, if we are not walking in good works or being molded into Christ’s image, regardless of any prayer we might have prayed, or any aisle that we might have walked, or any membership role on which we find our names, we should fear and tremble before God who is the Author of good works and holiness. For a life not characterized by these things is a life that is without God and his power.

If you are not walking in good works, if you are not becoming holy as he is holy, if you not are dying daily to yourself, if you are trying to serve God and money, the appropriate response is to fear for your soul. Your only recourse is to fall on your face before the Holy One, for it is his good pleasure to save those who call upon his name and to do a mighty work in their lives for his name’s sake.