Justification and Union with Christ

In current discussions of justification it is becoming quite common, and I think rightly so, to also bring up in conjunction with it Union with Christ. Union with Christ is the ground of all the benefits of God’s grace we have by faith. Our faith is not in justification but in Christ. The New Testament constantly affirms Christians to be “in Christ.” Our union to Christ by grace through faith entitles us to all the benefits received and inherited through that relationship in and with Him (adoption, sanctification, justification, and glorification). It is from this aspect of union with Christ that Christians in turn find motivation for living the Christian life. There is no need to return to legalism when one is seen as united to Christ. It is when a doctrine such as justification is viewed as separate from union with Christ that trouble brews. Some will see then salvation as receiving justification, and yet the union with Christ, being found in Him, and having been made a new creation by this union (much like marriage) is not on the radar. Such a view will marginalize the relationship as if one got married only to receive the bank account of the now spouse. There is no love, no mutual sacrifice in marriage when one approaches it from only the aspect of what one gets out of it. As the illustration of a relationship goes, it has everything to do with what one puts into it, having received and become something new, the spouse returns love in gratitude understanding not what they are getting out of the relationship, but grasping the person by whom those things came to them in love, mercy and grace.

 

Justification and Union with Christ.

Atheists, the Prodigal Sons

The Atheist acts like the prodigal son from the parable of Jesus in Luke 15:11-32. He wants all that God has to offer in life and fortune, and yet wishes the one providing all he has in this life were dead and gone. They are fascinated with the inheritance they received and want nothing to do with the one who provided it. Until they reach a point of crisis, as did the one son, when all they have been given is stripped away, do they realize the love and care of the father. Most atheists are still in the stage of living life the way they see fit, not yet understanding the temporal and illogical nature of such a life that will one day, either in this life or the next, be reduced to nothing. God willing they will one day return to the Father they are fleeing from. If they remain unchanged in their estate, then the best of this life is due them, as it is the best of times they can hope for, facing an eternity of troubles.

 

Atheists, the Prodigal Sons.

Risen Indeed! – White Horse Inn Blog

Risen Indeed! – White Horse Inn Blog.

Romans 5:18-19 Many or All?

These verses are points of contention for theological discussions because of the repetition of the words “all” and “many.” Evangelical groups adhering to an Arminian or semi-Pelagian point of view emphasize the “all” and Calvinistic circles emphasize the “many.” The problem with both is missing the real import and emphasis of the verses. Try reading these verses again and replace the words “all” and “many” with “a great number.”

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for a great number, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for a great number. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man a great number were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man a great number will be made righteous. (My revision)

All the sudden the real context of the verses comes through. The issue Paul is addressing is not the quantity of people, but the contrast of Adam and Christ. This has been Paul’s argument since verse 12 of chapter 5. Simply put, Adam brought his people into judgment, condemnation and disobedience that made us sinners, and Jesus brought his people the free gift of justification of life and righteousness.

The import is that this is what we are to gather from these verses, the concepts of sin, atonement and the representative and substitutive nature of belonging to Adam or Christ. This is novel because it is not mentioning anything about being a Jew or of Abraham. The contrast is Adam or Christ only.

Now as to the quantity of people affected by these two representative heads and who all partakes of the justification of Christ, we will have to look to other passages of the Bible. We do not have to go far because Paul makes this part of his argument within Romans, that it is those who by faith believe in Christ for their salvation that will partake of His free gift.    

 

Romans 5:13 Sin not counted?

 ”For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.” – ESV

This passage is interesting in that Paul mentions the non-crediting of sins against someone just because the law was not yet given. There is a tension here because the verse starts off saying that sin is indeed in the world during that time. Verse 14 will also add in that those persons from that time experiences physical death, as a proof of them must having to have sin counted against them in some fashion. If they were truly innocent and righteous they would not have died. So what is Paul getting at when stating that sin was not counted when and where the law did not yet exist?

Paul seems to be echoing back to his opening chapters of Romans in my mind. Remember this is one letter and so it is one argument within a point Paul is getting across. So although there are those that did not know or have the law, they were still guilty for refusing and suppressing what knowledge of God they had. At the Day of Judgment there will not be an excuse that we did not know the law, and therefore we should not be guilty of anything. Humans did not really need to be told how to live, as they were created in the Image of God. It should have all been innate and understood. The laws were not some code to live by, but something that Jesus said should reflect from the inside out just from the stand point of being human, much less Christian.

An Illustration might be something like when a child offends their parents and when the parents are about to impose punishment the child responds that they didn’t know or where not formally made aware that what they had done is wrong.  Or at a company, an employee is about to be fired for having offended the CEO, and yet complains that what they did was not outlined directly in policy. These sins of actions and performance may not be counted against the child or the employee but the heart and attitude by which the offence came was still sin, and in conflict with the nature of how people are to treat one another and more so with God. We say that sins of even thoughts are an offence to God, and yet for some reason this thought alone does not deter us from sinning as it should.

So as the verse indicates that sin is not counted, to me means that there was not a forma charge of just what sin they committed against the law (breaking the Sabbath or coveting) but they were still in sin by nature and guilty of the motives and intentions of their hearts and minds that did not seek God’s glory and the edification of others. In short then, this is not some loop hole that would counter Paul’s statement in Romans 1:20 that there are no excuses whether one has or does not have the law.    

Freedom of the will

To what extent the human will is “free”

There is the misconception that Reformation churches do not believe in free will. As the debate goes, one side believes in free will and the opposing side does not, instead favoring the sovereignty of God. But this is not exactly the case. Reformed churches do believe that there is a freedom within the will of men, but not in the same way as their opponents would have you understand it.

What the will does is to simply choose or make decisions. The will makes choices based upon information that is both emotional and mental to weigh and make informed decisions about what is advantageous or beneficial to itself. Whether I choose a cookie or a granola bar is something my emotional and mental desires will formulate considering health, taste, availability and tons of other factors. Having made decisions all our lives we tend to make them in split seconds not always weighing all the factors because we believe some factors are a known constant. So then by free will the Reformed/Calvinists understand the will as making free and unforced choices about what it wants. The problem then arises in spiritual matters that man does not choose God and salvation because of sin. The nature and condition of sin is rebellion and against God, and so sees Christianity as darkness and falsely sees self as already in the light. So the problem is not with the will performing its function but that it’s wants (heart and mind) are corrupted by sin to the point that it wars against God and holiness.

As Romans 5 indicate, the Christian has the renewed, reborn, regenerated heart and mind, given by the Holy Spirit to now want and by faith cling to Christ. But in everyday life we fall short time and time again due to the struggling remains of sin. Sin is not our master and king anymore, as indicated in Galatians 5, but we still struggle with habits and selfish ambition. As to sovereignty, God does providentially control all things, and yet this does not remove our responsibility for sin. Romans 9 tells us we cannot rebuke God for how we were made or what purpose we were to fulfill in His ultimate plan. Like Judas (Luke 13) Jesus affirms that the betrayal is both the divine purpose and plan of God, and yet Judas is fully and ultimately responsible for his free actions.

God and Natural Disasters

There is a lot of buzz about the presence or non-presence of God in all the tornados that took place across the plain states this week. Some are asking, “where is God in all of this,” and how to wrap our theology around such events. In Luke 13:4 Jesus uses a similar disaster to teach truth about sin and righteousness. Circumstances of disasters do not determine the overall judgment of a group of people as if others are no less sinful. In the same way we are not to judge the poor as less righteous because they don’t seem to prosper in this life (Luke 16:19-31). Jesus uses the Luke 13 passage to call people to repentance saying or they will likewise perish. It’s not that tornados or falling towers will be the end of us, but that such an end is sudden and unexpected. Those who were killed may have thought or talked about having time in their old age to turn their live over to Christ, and yet in a sweeping moment that possibility is gone. Yet I have to add that these or anyone that perishes in such ways are never to be thought of as an innocent party. The same passages show that judgment is coming and it may be highly unexpected, and so to make the best of the opportunities to repent and seek God now. These temporal reminders of judgment are to remind us of the swift judgment to come, and when there will be a time when it is considered too late. Judgment does come on behalf of sin, and as mentioned we should never attempt to single out a party or a particular sin to define the disaster, we can say that judgment comes because of sin. We should acknowledge the hand of God in all things, and like Job accept that God’s ways are higher than ours, and we should accept the good with the bad, and move on in our sanctification and service to our neighbors, having been pricked in the heart by such events that we do not know the time we have left.