Grace for Then - Grace for Now

Some time back, a controversy arose in the evangelical church over what is called “lordship salvation.” In its simplest terms, the question is whether one can have Christ as Savior but not as Lord. That is, can one possess salvation for eternal life while exhibiting no discipleship in this life? The “lordship salvation” people say that if one has been redeemed by the grace of God, one should also expect that one will be renewed by the grace of God. Those who oppose, say that to measure whether or not people are saved by judging their progress in holiness is a form of legalism — if grace is free apart from works then we should not be judging that grace by works. Lordship people counter by saying that, indeed, grace is free, not a result of works, but the grace imparted for salvation is also imparted for sanctification, they cannot be separated.

I’m with the “lordship salvation” camp. What I find comforting in this doctrine is that the holiness expected of disciples throughout the New Testament does not rest in my will or determination to realize. It is grace that is “training [believers] to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12). As John MacArthur observes, “It is unthinkable that God would sacrifice His Son to purchase heaven for sinners but leave them to fend for themselves against the power of sin in this life.” Grace is available, is at work, to make us into the kind of people Jesus came to save, “a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).

Does that mean that there is nothing for us to do regarding sanctification? Do we just persist in feeding on sin until grace comes along, grabs us by the scruff of the neck to drag us away from the trough? I don’t think that’s what Paul (nor the “lordship” camp) has in mind. Consider the description of the activity of grace in the letter: training. This is the Greek term used to describe the instruction of children. The purpose of training is to direct children to what is good and healthy for them. The hoped for result is that they will learn for themselves, evidenced by their following the wisdom they have embraced, what is profitable and what is not. It’s no different for us. Grace is at work awakening us to what is true, good, and beautiful so that we would “live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Grace saves; grace trains. Grace for then; grace for now. Soli deo gloria.

Pentecostal Preaching, Part 3

The first car I owned was a real clunker. Thankfully, it was of a pedigree that one could spend time tinkering with it to keep it going; and a lot of time was spent tinkering. At one point the gas gauge broke. Gas gauges are not an easy fix. Consequently, I drove without a working gauge, trying to judge when I next needed to fill up by how many miles I had driven. Needless to say, I ran out of gas more than once. At such times one becomes acutely aware of just how difficult it is for a car to do what a car is supposed to do without the requisite fuel in the tank. Having to push a car to the side of the road -- by yourself -- brings it home.

A task has been given to the church, a task that can no more be accomplished without the requisite fuel than a car can take a person from point A to point B without gas in the tank. This is why Jesus told his followers to tarry in Jerusalem after his ascension. He had commissioned them to bear witness to him and they needed to wait until the One who was to be sent, whose job it was was to to bear witness to Jesus (John 15:26), had descended and filled them. In His power they could, and did, carry out the task.

We are in no less need of the Holy Spirit to fulfill our role in making Jesus known than were the first followers of Christ. Persuading people to hand over the reins of their lives to an unseen Savior is not something that will be accomplished using ordinary methods of human persuasion. Mass marketing, appeals to emotions and desires, propaganda, even threat of death, will not bring a soul under the Lordship of Christ. It is only a work of the Spirit, a work of grace, that awakens a spiritually dead soul to life (John 3:3). This is why we need to pray with the early church for fresh fillings of the Spirit that we might speak “the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Our Spirit empowered proclamation connecting with people prepared by the Spirit to hear it, is what Jesus envisioned when he commissioned the church to be witnesses for him “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The Absurdity of the Gospel

Naaman was a powerful man. His king held him in high regard for he had won wars for Syria (see 2 Kings 5). But Naaman was also a sick man. He was a leper and nothing he tried had cured him. As the story unfolds, however, we learn that Naaman’s disease was not his real problem. When a new solution, one that would actually cure him, was offered, he responded according to a set of presuppositions that deafened him to the saving word of God. Tellingly, everything about the prophet Elisha’s plan seemed absurd to the powerful Naaman.

Such is always the case when the word of God comes. The message sounds ridiculous and we respond not with gratitude, but with offense. This is because the word of God is “of a different order,” to use Jacques Ellul’s language. The Greek philosophers in Athens mocked Paul’s preaching as nonsense, while his Jewish hearers thought it blasphemous. Why? As the apostle Paul teaches, the “foolishness” of God is wiser than human wisdom, and we cannot comprehend that the word of God could be true.

This is not just a problem for unregenerate Jews and Greeks (or Syrians, for that matter). We Christians have a problem in accepting the good news as it has been proclaimed. Paul had experienced this first hand when he witnessed the influence of the “judaizers.” These were people within the pale of Christianity who could not really grasp the gospel in all its richness. The redemptive covenant that God had cut in Christ was for those who came into it by faith, whether Jew or Gentile. But for the judaizers, Gentiles had to first become Jews, symbolized by being circumcised. Paul condemned such an expectation in the strongest terms (see Philippians 3:2-3; Galatians 1:6-9). For it is 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” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It’s likely that none of you reading this would assert that one needs to be circumcised to be in good standing with God. However, you might be offering other tokens for God’s approval: your hard work in the church, your eschewing of “worldly” pleasures, your diligent devotional practices. Such pious credentials cannot -- must not -- substitute for standing in the grace of God by faith. If such approval seeking does find its way into your thinking, pray that you have ears to hear and embrace the absurdity of the gospel. It has the power to free you from every attempt to improve on the plan that God has revealed in his gracious word.