Tag Archives: justification

Piper to Augustine: The Blood of Christ Cleanses Us From All Sin

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John Piper writes on 1 John 2:1-2,

In verse 1, John urges us not to commit any future (!) sins. But then he says if we do commit any future sins, we have an advocate in that case with the Father.

Then in verse 2, he bases the effectiveness of that advocacy on the finished, once for all, propitiating work of Christ. “He—this wonderful advocate—is the propitiation for our sins.”

Therefore, the very same propitiation that took the sting from our pre-baptismal sins also has taken the sting from our post-baptismal sins. My future sins are not dealt with any differently than the sins of my youth.

Read the rest: No, No, Augustine!.

Jesus Makes Us Really See

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In this way everyone will easily be able to learn for himself the limit and discretion, as they say, of his bodily castigations, for he will fast, watch, and labor as much as he finds sufficient to repress the lasciviousness and lust of his body. But those who presume to be justified by works do not regard the mortifying of the lusts, but only the works themselves, and think that if only they have done as many and as great works as are possible , they have done well and have become righteousness . . . This is the height of folly and utter ignorance of Christian life and faith, that a man should seek to be justified and saved by works and without faith.

Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, 296 (emphasis mine)

Luther’s point is very simple: those who trust in their works are incapable of dealing with their real sin problem.

It is only those who believe the gospel, who embrace Jesus Christ as their all-sufficient Savior, who can actually see the ugliness of their hearts and how much they need such a Savior. Faith in the gospel frees the person from focusing so much “out there” and leads him or her to feel the immensity of their inner-brokenness. And in knowing their inner-brokenness, he or she believes the gospel again, considers themselves dead to sin, alive to God in Christ, and so is transformed from one degree of glory to another. This is how sanctification happens. It does not happen—indeed it cannot!— apart from the gospel.

I think that my failure to believe the gospel explains why I cannot always see the ugliness of my heart as clearly as I do at other times. If I’m not recognizing and feeling and hating how ugly it is in my heart then it is because I am trusting in something I do, not in the gospel. What I do or how others perceive me has been hoisted up as a pseudo-savior. This pseudo-savior blinds me from bemoaning my real brokenness, evil, sin, etc. and keeps me from throwing myself on the good news that Jesus has rescued me from all of that.

Faith in Jesus Christ is more dramatic and stunning and daring than what we would have ever imagined.

Resurrection Observation: It Really Matters

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Paul takes us the centrality of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 with a special focus on its implication for believers. He also gives an in-depth look in Romans 6 of how the resurrection affects the nuts and bolts of the believer’s everyday experience. 1 Cortinthians 15 and Romans 6 are important passages about the resurrection and their role in the believer’s life.

1 Corinthians 15 is the more broad, bold effect– “if Jesus is not raised then this whole thing is worthless and we are morons.”

Romans 6 is the more detailed, day-to-day effect– “live in the newness of life because Jesus is raised and you were raised with Him.”

Being ‘In Christ’ and the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness

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Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts–in short, that mystical union–are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed. We do not, therefore, contemplate him outside ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may be imputed to us but because we put on Christ and are engrafted into his body–in short, because he deigns to make us one with him. For this reason, we glory that we have fellowship of righteousness with him.

John Calvin, Institutes, 3.XI.10

We should object to any notion of imputation that pictures God giving us something 0f Christ’s outside of Christ. The scene is not that Jesus Christ stands there in His righteousness and I stand here in my need and then God takes Christ’s righteousness there and gives it to me here. That is not how it happens and to contemplate it in that fashion is to undermine Christ Himself. This is the rigid individualism that raises valid concern.

The reality is not “there and here” but that we are there in Him. We are there in Him and being united with Him we share in the given righteousness of Himself to all those in Himself. Union with Christ and imputation are not two distinct categories. In Christ we are imputed with His righteousness. Being imputed with Christ’s righteousness means that we are in Him.

This is the Thing With N.T. Wright…

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If you would give his ‘argument’ to someone who was from the Reformed tradition then I think they would be able to make it better than he does…

I am torn when I read him. He really has important things to say and we should listen. But it is the way that he says it. The way his writing sounds keeps him from being heard by the people he wants to hear him.

The continual shots at the ‘old perspective’ and the newness that he trumps is embraced more by the neophilia of young wannabe church planters with shallow theology than by those who stand on the shoulders of Luther and Calvin. It is frustrating.

We can and should talk about the corporate reality of salvation, our solidarity with Christ, the Abrahamic promise in reading Paul, and the Spirit in salvation without lumping it into ‘New Persepctivish’ thinking. That is the real danger here. The ‘spit out the bones’ analogy hardly works because most people don’t want that many bones in their mouths to begin with. We’ll throw it all away and label it ‘bad.’ But, despite the sound of demeaning geocentric illustrations and the like, we still should spend the extra energy needed to hear.

The Glory of God, the Abrahamic Promise, and N.T. Wright

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Knowing God for onself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living. Discovering that God is gracious, rather than a distant bureaucrat or a dangerous tyrant, is the good news that constantly surprises and refreshes us. But we are not the center of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him…

We are in orbit around God and his purposes.

N.T. Wright, Justification, 23ff.

Yes. That is right. That is good. This a good flavor of Wright. I like it. And he should keep that in mind when he thinks about the Abrahamic promise. God doesn’t circle around you and me, and God doesn’t circle around Abraham, either. The Abrahamic paradigm for reading Paul is helpful, but even that needs to be put into a greater context. Keep asking why, why, why.

If God is not doing the circling but everything else is circling around Him, then how did the circling happen? God made it happen. God made things revolve around him. He is the great causation then to all this revolving. His glory is ultimate. His glory is the point. He cares about his glory. He started the circling because he wanted to magnify His glory.

But Wright states:

But the great story of Scripture, from creation and covenant right on through to the New Jerusalem, is constantly about God’s overflowing, generous, creative love–God’s concern, if you like, for the flourishing and well-being of everything else. Of course, this too will redound to God’s glory because God, as the Creator, is glorified when creation is fl0urishing and able to praise him gladly and freely (70).

He admits God’s glory is important, but the flavor is that it is peripheral. He says the main point is “God’s overflowing, generous, creative love–God’s concern, if you like, for the flourishing and well-being of everything else.” Why, though? For His own glory! God’s glory is not “Of course, this too…” It is the point. It is the causation behind the circling.

It is about God’s glory. And that is good news.

Grow Up and be a Man… A Thought on the Gospel-centeredness of this Subject and More

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… it all having to do with Jesus Christ…

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my being truly masculine, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to be any bit of truly masculine.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon the intensity of my affections for God, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to have any intense affection for God at all.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my track record in decision-making, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that drives me to make any right decisions.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my knowledge of theology, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to have any real knowledge of theology.

I am glad that my justification is not based upon my role or giftedness in the church, but upon the death of Jesus Christ that makes me to a part of the church at all.

Etc.

The Mercy Song: Job, 9

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Elihu steps in full of passion. We are told that he “burned with anger” four times in 32: 1-5. The indictment on Job is nearly as clear. Twice it is said that he was seeking to justify himself.

“he was righteous in his own eyes” (v. 1)

Elihu burned with anger at Job “because he justified himself rather than God” (v. 2)

Elihu has been the silent observer. He watched Job and his three friends and now he speaks up in the LORD (v. 8). Who is man before God? What right do we have before the Almighty? What shall we do? How then shall we be?

Our hope is God’s mercy. It is only in the LORD’s mercy that we are delivered, then we are accepted, by mercy! The song is a song not of the righteous, but of the redeemed! This man who has found mercy…

He sings before men and says: “I sinned and perverted what was right and it was not repaid to me” (v. 27).

Thank you, Father, that the depths of Your mercy abound with supreme beauty in Jesus on the cross.

More Than That…

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The gospel is like a crystal. Its numerous aspects glimmer in glory as it meets in Christ every possible need that man has before God. And we often focus the most on that glimmer which meets what seems to us our greatest need.

For instance, the struggle with idolizing man’s approval would make me preach the gospel for its justification in Christ. I would declare and sing that I am made righteous in Christ, being set free from the shackles of any other’s perception of me, whether good or bad. 

Good then, except we could be in danger of preaching a one dimensional gospel. We could ignore the other problems we have that perhaps are not as prevalent to our minds. So we let the Word speak…

So we are justified in Christ. Saved from God’s wrath. But we are saved for what? Paul says More than that we rejoice in God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation. We are brought near to God, we are made His (Romans 5:1-11).

May the whole beauty of the gospel have its imprint in our lives, and may our walking be in the light of its myriad of dimensions.