New Themelios now available

The new edition of the Themelios Journal (edited by D.A. Carson) is now available online.  The article by Carson is particularly good and, as always, there are lots of book reviews.

Bruce Waltke's Resignation from RTS

There has been a lot of stuff on the internet, and even in USA Today, about Bruce Waltke's recent resignation from Reformed Theological Seminary, where he taught the Winter and Spring semesters in Orlando.  There has been a lot of speculation that the Seminary forced Waltke to retire.  I thought it would be worthwhile to share links to a few accurate stories about what happened.  RTS is stating that this coverage from the Aquila Report is an accurate representation of what happened.  Justin Taylor also shares a letter that Dr. Waltke posted on Facebook and an announcement from RTS Chancellor Ric Cannada about the separation.  From the accounts of those personally familiar with the situation it sounds like this was a peaceful agreement and not the harsh exchange reported by Inside Higher Ed or USA Today.

Some quick book news

Reformation Heritage Books is offering Daniel Hyde's Welcome to a Reformed Church: A Guide for Pilgrims for just $7.50 for this week only.  I haven't read this one but it looks to be a good book that covers both what Reformed churches believe but also why they have the practices that they do.  Sean Michael Lucas' On Being Presbyterian: Our Beliefs, Practices, and Stories is my favorite book in this category but Pastor Hyde has written some other excellent things and I'm sure this will be worthwhile.

Also, the Meet the Puritans blog has made a study guide available for John Owen's Communion with God.  This would be a great book to work through for anyone who finished Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion last year.  The guide is free as a .pdf here.

Easter Sunday - The Resurrection and Union with Christ

Paul often speaks of Christ's resurrection in terms of its benefits for believers.  Specifically, what happens to Christ, in his human nature, is applied to Christ's people as they are in Spirit-wrought union with him by faith.  Paul describes Christ's resurrection as his justification, sanctification, and adoption.  First justification:

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (1 Tim. 3:16)

The word here for vindicated is the same word as justification.  So we have to ask what it means for Christ to have been justified by the Spirit.  Now we know that Jesus was not sinful and so he never needed salvation as we do.  Yet we also know that he bore our sins in his body in his death.  So in his death he suffered the penalty for our sins even though he did not have any sin of his own.  In his resurrection by the Spirit, the Father declares that he accepts Jesus as righteous. In other words it is the sign that the Father accepts the obedience of the Son on behalf of his people and declares him to be righteous.  So as Jesus was truly condemned in his death because he bore our sins he is also truly justified in his resurrection as he is our righteousness.

Also the Bible is clear that Christ’s resurrection has to do with his sanctification.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. (Rom. 6:9-10)

So in Christ’s death he came under the power of sin because death is the consequence of sin (although this never ever means that Jesus became a sinner).  In his resurrection Jesus is delivered from this power and dominion.  So this is a reference to the definitive aspect of sanctification where the power of sin is broken and removed.  So the power of sin in our mortal bodies is destroyed in Christ’s resurrection as we are raised with him to new life in the Spirit.

Finally, Christ’s resurrection points to his adoption.

concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 1:3-4)

Again, this is a declaration of what happened regarding Christ in history.  He was descended from David according to the flesh.  But according to his resurrection he was declared to be powerful Son of God.  As the Second Person of the Trinity he was Son of God from all eternity.  However in his human nature he was descended from David as we see in the genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 4.  Here Paul refers to an economic reality about Christ.  As the eternal divine Second Person of the Trinity he was always Son of God even in his humiliation but now in his human nature and body he was declared to be Son of God in his glorification and resurrection.
 
Lane Tipton writes, "To be in Christ is to be in the one who has become for believers the crucified and resurrected embodiment of all saving benefits.  Therefore, there are no benefits of the gospel apart from union with Christ." (Lane G. Tipton, "Union with Christ and Justification," in Justified in Christ: God's Plan for Us in Justification, ed. by K. Scott Oliphint, Geanies House: Mentor, 2007, 23-49).  All of this is again to show that all the aspects of Christ's work (his atoning death, resurrection, ascension, and sending the Spirit at Pentecost) are inseparable and are completely effective for the salvation of his people.  The eternal Son of God takes to himself a human body and soul and suffers for our sins in our place and he rises from the dead in our place too.  If we are in Christ then in him we died to the penalty and power of sin and in him we are raised to righteousness and new life and are declared to be children of God.  Easter is a wonderful time of year to meditate on our justification, sanctification, and adoption in Christ and to praise God that even while we were dead in our trespasses in sin God made us alive in Christ for it is by grace that we have been saved (Eph. 2:4-6).  As Calvin wrote:
 

We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.  We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.  If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him.”  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.  If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. . . .  If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.  In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other. (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.19)

 

Good Friday - Some Thoughts on the Atonement 6

Redemption

Conclusion

All of this serves to remind us that Good Friday is not a time to meditate on what we ought to do but rather upon what Christ did to save us.  J. Gresham Machen once wrote:

What good does it do me to tell me that the type of religion presented in the Bible is a very fine type of religion and that the thing for me to do is to just start practicing that type of religion now? I will tell you, my friend. It does not one tiniest bit of good! What I need first of all is not exhortation but a gospel, nor directions for saving myself, but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news for me? That is the question I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you tell me the facts?

Christianity is not a religion about what we have to do but rather the proclamation of what has already been done.  The very word "gospel" means "good news."  The gospel is all about how sinners are made righteous before God and Good Friday is a time to remember that Christ's atonement means the salvation of sinners.

Good Friday - Some Thoughts on the Atonement 5

Reconciliation

Redemption

The atonement as sacrifice deals with the guilt of our sin, the atonement as propitiation deals with our unrighteousness, the atonement as reconciliation deals with God’s alienation from us, and the atonement as redemption deals with our bondage to sin.  Christ’s work as a whole means total salvation of the whole person from the penalty and power of sin.  Here we will focus on how the atonement redeems us from the curse of the law and from the power of sin.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”  But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:10-14)

Now it is important for us to clarify here that we are not redeemed from the law.  That would be to say that we are redeemed from not having any God’s before the one true God of the covenant or to say we were redeemed from the requirement to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor.  This would obviously be nonsense.  Instead the Bible does say that we are redeemed from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is its penal sanction for those who disobey it.  Because of our disobedience to God’s law we are under a curse and must be redeemed from that curse.  Christ has redeemed us by becoming a curse for us in hanging on the tree.  He paid the penal sanction that we owed.

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.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3:24-26)

In this passage we can see that we are redeemed from the guilt of sin.  Paul has finished his universal case against humanity in showing that we are all sinners who fall short of God’s glory.  So we are all under God’s wrath.  After this Paul proclaims that now we who believe in Jesus are justified and redeemed so that the guilt of our sins is paid for by the blood of Christ.  So there is no guilt for those who are in Christ and God is just in justifying us in him.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tit. 2:11-14)

Here we see that redemption from the power of sin does not just mean its guilt but also its controlling influence.  Christ gave himself so that we might be redeemed from all lawlessness and might be purified and zealous for good works.  The grace of God in Christ’s atoning work is not a grace that takes place in a vacuum but is instead a grace that is tied to teaching us to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions and to live in a manner that is please to God.  So redemption is not in anyway limited to penal sanctions or to guilt but is closely related to holiness and presenting us before God as actually redeemed from sin’s power. 

All of this emphasizes the point made above, salvation in Christ is the perfect salvation of our whole person.  It saves us from the penalty of sin (sacrifice).  It saves us from our own unrighteousness (propitiation).  It saves us from God's alienation from sinners (reconciliation).  It saves us from the curse, guilt, and power of sin (redemption).

Conclusion

Good Friday - Some Thoughts on the Atonement 4

Propitiation

Reconciliation

The atonement as sacrifice presupposes the guilt of sin and shows how the atonement provides for the payment of the penalty that the legal guilt demands.  The atonement as propitiation presupposes that we are legally unrighteous in the sight of God and shows how the atonement provides a covering so that God sees us as legally righteous before him.  The atonement as reconciliation presupposes that we are legally alienated from God and shows how the atonement makes it possible for us to drawnear to God.  What we have in mind here is not our enmity towards God but rather God’s alienation from us.  So it is appropriate to say that we are reconciled to God and not that God is reconciled to us.  God is the wronged party in the relationship.  So the action of reconciliation is the removal of God’s ground of alienation from us and the result of reconciliation is that our relationship with God is again harmonious and peaceful.  We will look at two passages on this.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.  More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Rom. 5:8-11)

Paul does not have subjective human feelings, in the sense of our feeling alienated from God, in sight here but the divine attitude toward us because of the work of Christ.  So first we see that Paul’s focus is on what was accomplished once-for-all in history by the work of Christ.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.  Along with this idea of reconciliation we see that Paul also says that we were justified by his blood.  We know that justification is a forensic and legal declaration of our standing before God.  Therefore we can say that reconciliation has a similar forensic force in declaring that God’s grounds for alienation from us have been removed.  So now we rejoice that we do not suffer alienation from God any longer but instead enjoy his favor and blessings upon us as we are in right relationship with him.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:18-21)

Here we can make several observations.  (1) We see that as God was reconciling us and the world to himself in and through Christ that this reconciliation is not our work but is the monergistic (one worker) activity of God.  He alone accomplishes the reconciliation in Christ.  (2) This is a completed work of God.  There is no further work of reconciliation that needs to be done.  In Christ God has accomplished his work of reconciliation.  It is finished and applied to each believer at the very beginning of their Christian life.  (3) Again we see that this reconciliation is forensic.  It is done as our sins are not counted against us but against Christ and that in turn his righteous is counted to us.  So the reconciliation is a legal declaration that the grounds for God’s alienation from us have been removed and that in Christ we now stand righteous before a just and holy God.  (4) This message of reconciliation is now the Gospel message that is proclaimed.  Murray writes:

The accomplished work of reconciliation is the message committed to the messengers of the gospel (ver. 19).  It constitutes the content of the message.  But the message is that which is declared to be a fact.  Conversion, it ought to be remembered, is not the gospel.  It is the demand of the gospel message and the proper response to it.  Any transformation which occurs in us is the effect in us of that which is proclaimed to have been accomplished by God.  The change in our hearts and minds presupposes the reconciliation. (John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman's, 1955, 41).

Therefore when we make an evangelistic plea for people to be reconciled to God we are not asking them to do something to accomplish that reconciliation.  We ask to claim by faith was Christ has already done to reconcile them and trust that the Holy Spirit works through that faith to apply the salvation that Christ accomplished to them.  The only grounds for proclaiming that sinners can be saved by God's grace through faith in Christ is the fact that Christ has accomplished salvation and made it available to as many as believe him (John 1:12).

Redemption