Why sanctification is an execution, not a murder

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Paul doesn’t say to “kill” the old Adam in you. He says rather to “put to death” the earthly members, the deeds of the body.

This language refers to execution by an authorized agent (even if that authority is being misused in some cases). You carry out a death sentence on your sinful habits and desires.

And you carry out that sentence first and foremost by understanding that the death of Jesus was the death sentence against your sin. You are free from sin definitively by God’s judicial action in history so that you might behave free from sin in your life.

That’s Romans 6 as I understand it.

I think this actually describes the Reformed presence on the Web from 1995 to 2010

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The original idea of the site was to gather a diverse group of writers and guest contributors who would then write about the “intersection of theology and life”. This could find its expression in art, poetry, prose, meditation, short fiction, or more typical non-fiction theological fare. But in the end, I wanted it to be the expression of hearts whose affections had been inflamed by the deeper truths of who God is.

And I think we greatly succeeded in this. The vast majority of writings on the site certainly constituted this calibre of expression. It was exciting. But then people, due to life and such, stopped writing. Eventually, in my desperation to get somebody–anybody–to consistently write, I let the quality of the posts at times slip. The site’s readership, for one reason another (probably because it had the word “Reform” in it) began to appeal and primarily lead towards the … groupies and wanna-be’s; the “TR’s” as we would call them at my seminary (the “Totally Reformed!”). It just wasn’t fun and fruitful anymore when the hyper-Calvinistic theology police came to town, and it all went downhill from there, until no one was writing anything, and the only other person that had written as much as I had on the site deleted all of her stuff off the site, on the off-chance that someone would find her name attached to it someday.

via Reform & Revive: officially shutting down | the long way home.

[Note: I edited out a couple of specific names because they have nothing to do with why this description appealed to me. In my experience, the “wanna-be’s” of people whom I respect are still destructive. It is not the teacher’s fault as far as I can tell. In any case, I have no experience with such specific people and they are not really the issue of why I thought it was worth quoting this description.]

Stuff Paul didn’t say

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Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to make clear to everyone that I am the chief of sinners in all my present conduct.

Surfing on your body parts and passions

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When you surf, sometimes you have to paddle out against the tides and sometimes you get the joy of riding the wave. Good surfers develop skill both in going against and with the current.

Likewise in Proverbs. Sometimes your passions and parts won’t lead you anywhere you want to go.

A fool’s lips walk into a fight,
and his mouth invites a beating (Proverbs 18.6)

So you must restrain them and yourself.

When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent (Proverbs 10.19).

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16.32).

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding (Proverbs 17.27).

A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back (Proverbs 29.11).

“Restrains,” “rules,” “quietly holds it back” One might think that emotion and impulse and appetite are your sworn enemy.

But you would be wrong. They are the horses that move you. You just need to point them in the right direction before allowing them to go.

A worker’s appetite works for him;
his mouth urges him on (Proverbs 16.26).

Thus, Solomon’s marital counseling:

Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated always in her love.
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths (Proverbs 5.15-21).

 

Future Salvation in Romans

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While it is common to talk about the tenses of salvaiton, the already/not-yet of salvation, in Paul’s letters, it strikes me as odd how obviously Paul tends to view salvation as a future hope in Romans. That is, it strikes me as odd how people seem to ignore this:

  • Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Romans 5.9).
  • 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 (Romans 5.10).
  • Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Romans 13.11).

Then there is Romans 8.24 which uses “saved” as a past event or present status and yet…

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

So we are “saved” when we have reason to hope for salvation. Kind of like God handing us a check.

Now consider Romans 10.8-13:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Here we have statements that could be interpreted as immediate or future, with one possible exception. But I wonder. When someone calls on the name of the Lord is that only effective if God answers immediately? Romans 5.9, 10 would indicate that one believes in Jesus and is justified and then is promised salvation. One calls on the name of the Lord and then one is saved. In the meantime we experience the frustration Paul describes in Romans 8 but with the confidence and hope that we will see what we were promised.

There are some other uses of “saved” and “salvation” in Israel which work well with the conventional understanding, but I don’t think they contradict the above.

The trees appoint an inquisitor

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The trees once went out to appoint an inquisitor over them to find heretics and protect their congregations, and they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us.” But the olive tree said to them, “Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees? Should I make their leaves shake in the winds of fear and find reason to accuse and malign?” And the trees said to the fig tree, “You come and reign over us.” But the fig tree said to them, “Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees? Should I make their leaves shake in the winds of fear and find reason to accuse and malign?” And the trees said to the vine, “You come and reign over us.” But the vine said to them, “Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees? Should I make their leaves shake in the winds of fear and find reason to accuse and malign?” Then all the trees said to the bramble, “You come and reign over us.” And the bramble said to the trees, “If in good faith you are appointing me inquisitor over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.” And the bramble also said, “Come and see my instruments by which I will ensure the trees conform to the measure of sound doctrine.”

And he showed them the hammer, ax, and saw.

Doug Wilson on casting off in order to press onward

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This is why our time of confession ought not to be about a list of items, kept or broken. We are in the process of becoming a certain kind of person. Everything we confess is that which interfered with that process. If it did not interfere with it, then there is nothing to confess. But the rules are not floating above our heads, independently autonomous. No, God’s rules are simply a description of what He is like, and what we would like to become like.

The new covenant is all about two things—forgiveness of sin, and the internalization of the law. When you are forgiven, you can deal with sin in your life, and the gospel does what the gospel of grace always does—changes you. When you are forgiven, the law of God is internalized, meaning that you are becoming a walking incarnation of God’s words.

Read the whole post: Becoming a Certain Kind of Person.

RePost from 2003: A Chiasm on Jew, Gentile, and Gospel in Ephesians 1

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I was once trying to get a sermon out of Ephesians 1.12-14 and it seemed obvious that I should look for two parallel statements both ending with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Paul here begins talking about two groups of people (“you” and “we”), and he later reveals that these two groups are (from his perspective) we Jews and you Gentiles. The text read in the New American Standard:

to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

After wrestling with this and coming up with nothing. I glanced at the Greek. I realized the first verse had been altered in form. It was not, “to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” but rather “to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ” as the old original American Standard Bible translated correctly.

This meant my quest for two parrallel statements, each ending with “to the praise of his glory” was not going to meet with success. Once properly translated, there was less in common between verse 12 and 14 than I had originally thought.

But then I noticed that we had an AB-BA pattern between the two verses:

to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory,

we who had before hoped in Christ…you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,

to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

This seemed interesting. Paul spoke of the Jews who had hoped in Christ first and then of the Gentiles who had become heirs of the promise. Both seemed like future-oriented ways to describe conversion to Christianity. But it seemed awfully uncertain that Paul was intentionally writing to make that specific point.

But then I noticed something else. Paul had chosen to repeat the same thing in two different ways, describing the Christian message as “the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation.”

I went through two iterations before everything suddenly fell into place. Here’s the structure of Ephesians 1.12-14 with some Greek words transliterated in brackets:

A. to [eis] the end that we should be to [eis] the praise of his glory,

B. we who had before hoped in Christ:

C. in whom you also [en ho kai], having heard

D. the word of the truth,D’. the gospel of your salvation,

C’.in whom you also [en ho kai], having believed,

B’. you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,

A’. to [eis] the redemption of God’s own possession, to [eis] the praise of his glory.

This pattern is called a “chiasm” by Bible scholars, from the Greek letter chi which looks like our “X” (thus the lame title for this column). It means the passage has an inverse parallelism to teach the careful reader something. In this case, the centrality of the Gospel is literally demonstrated (D.D’) and the future nature of Christian salvation is brought out as we see that we are trusting Christ because we are hoping for a future glory and we have a basis for such hope because we have been made heirs (B.B’).

Furthermore, this analysis brings out more clearly what Paul seems to be saying by speaking of “the Gospel of your salvation.” He will later write that the Gospel-mystery, for which he is an ambassador in chains (6.19, 20) that was especially made known to him by revelation is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3.6). The Gospel message can be narrowed down to the declaration of the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, but Paul sees Christ’s resurrection as the reconciliation both of man to God and man to man:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (2.13-22).

Though Paul undoubtedly believes that the Gospel is also good news for Israelites, in Ephesians he is stressing its reference to the Gentiles. By calling it “the Gospel of your salvation” in a context which implies that “we” seems to mean “us Jews” and “you” refers to “you Gentiles,” Paul is already hinting at where he is going in the letter.

See also: What is Paul’s Gospel? All nations are in!