Justification or Gratitude

First of all, this is an excellent post that could bear some serious meditation on the part of Reformed and/or Evangelical readers.

Second, I wasn’t there so I didn’t here the historical and cultural particulars about Rich Bledsoe’s case for gratitude. I’m only resonding in an ahistorical way. Because if we’re talking about abstract principles one might want to prioritize from Scripture, my instinct is to say that trust comes first, gratitude second. This is what Daniel Fuller has convinced me is true.

Of course, gratitude is important. Romans 1.18ff makes ingratitude a central feature of human depravity. But Paul also deliberately contrasts human depravity with faith. Human depravity doesn’t trust God. Here are the texts; first, the negative:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Now here is Paul’s counter-example:

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Humanity desperate for someone to trust, certain that the one who is trustworthy cannot possibly be god, search for that on which they can rely. They will attribute absurd majesty to unreliable things to comfort themselves.

What was the issue in the wilderness for Israel. Were they ungrateful? Yes. But why? Because they didn’t trust God to take care of them in the future. They invented cruel rationales for their past blessings (“You brought us out here to kill us in the wilderness.”). And this is exactly what we see in Genesis 3 as well. Satan tells Adam and Eve that God is just trying to keep them down.

And I can’t help but wonder if that is not at the root of ingratitude today. God cannot be trusted to care about us, to take care of us, to provide for us, to guide us, or for just about anything else. Jesus, if he is respected at all, is more or less an idiot savant at best–a guy who managed to transmit some wisdom but who didn’t hold down a job and eventually got himself killed. In presenting Jesus, the pressure a Chritian typically feels is to convince the hearer that most of his life will remain under control if he becomes a Christian. The idea that people actually ought to respect Jesus so much that they would be glad to follow him is almost as stange in the church as anywhere else.

This is why, by the way, it is so important to remember that the blessings we receive are supposed to be interpreted as tokens of the future. Otherwise, the deliverances God gives us will always be attenuated in our minds by the stresses. “God just provided us with a new job, but why did he let my car break down? I can’t afford that!” Well, if you’re looking for a complete victory, that’s called the resurrection, and it’s not here yet. We’re supposed to let the small victories assure us that the future is not in doubt. But instead, it is all too easy for us to let doubts make us ungrateful.

Postscript:
In writing this post, I remembered to put the Daniel Fuller book on my wishlist. I read it in seminary and found it was an excellent treatment on the centrality of faith throughout the Bible. However, I think Fuller doesn’t portray Calvin at his best. If you read it, I suggest following up with Pete Lillback’s study.