Sunday P. M., February 7, 2010
THE DECISIVE VOTE ON JUSTIFICATION
Let’s begin this morning by reading again Phil. 2:12-13, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." We are commanded to work out the practical implications of the salvation that has been give us, to bring that salvation to its completion. But how can we do that? We can do it because it is God who works in us both to make us willing to do His good pleasure and to give us the power to carry it out.
I remind you again that salvation has three tenses. We were saved in the past. That is justification, when God forgave us of our sins and imputed to us the righteousness of Christ in response to our faith in Christ. We are being saved in the present. That is sanctification, the process by which we are being continually set apart to God and thus made like Christ. We will be saved in the future. That is glorification, that glorious day which marks the beginning of an eternity with our precious Lord. When we were justified in the past, we were saved from the penalty of sin. As we are being sanctified in the present, we progressively are being saved from the power of sin. When we will be glorified in the future, we will be saved from the very presence of sin.
To continue to help us understand this paradox of sanctification being both our work and God’s work, I think it will help us to go back to justification. Why? Because what we believe about justification will influence what we believe about sanctification. Before we do that, I need to make a slight correction. Two weeks ago I asked a question. I put it several different ways, but one way I asked it was like this: “When it comes to sanctification, we have seen that it is God’s work and that it is our work. But which is the more important of the two?” That question certainly implies that one is more important than the other. That is not accurate. One is not more important than the other, and I will explain why later on. I appreciate that word of correction that was given to me. Later on, I will try to rephrase the question.
Now let’s come back to the time when we were saved at first. The big question I want to ask is the same question we asked about sanctification: “Is it God’s work, or is it man’s work?” I imagine one of the first scriptures that will be mentioned is the one we read at the end of the service last Sunday -- Eph. 2:8-9. Let’s read it, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast." We were saved by grace through faith, and the who thing is a gift of God. It is not of us, and it is not of works.
After reading that, I would certainly conclude that this salvation begun in the past is God’s work. God makes us right with Himself by His grace, not by our works. We could read a number of other passages that reinforce this truth, such as Gal. 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."
So does man have a part? I repeat, does man have a part? Let me put it another way: Did Jesus tell lost men to do anything? Indeed, He did. In Mark 1:15 we read these words of Jesus: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.” Paul said to the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house” (Acts 16:31). According to Acts 17:30, “But now God commands all men everywhere to repent.” We could read more of the same. The message to lost men is simple, “Repent and believe.” So man also has a part.
Now comes the key question: Does one have priority over the other? To put it another way, does the initiative lie with man or God? In trying to deal with this question, I acknowledge that we are only scratching the surface, because there is so much involved. Nevertheless, let us proceed with reverence and humility to seek the truth of God’s Word.
Just last Sunday we turned to John 3, the story about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee, if not the leading Pharisee in Israel. Jesus told him that he must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was an achiever. He could boast of so many achievements, good achievements. One Christian teacher from Jewish background (Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Life of the Messiah) contends that being “born again” was a part of Jewish experience. He says that a person could be born again by becoming a Jew (if a Gentile), by being crowned a king, through Barmitzvah at 13, by marrying a wife, by being ordained a Rabbi, by being the head of a Rabbinic seminary. If that is indeed the case, then Nicodemus had been born again more than once. His question was, “How can a man be born again when he is old.” Perhaps he was saying after all he had achieved, it seemed kind of foolish to speak of being born again. But Jesus emphasized that Nicodemus must be born spiritually. All of his experiences up to that time had been of the flesh, in the physical. Before he could see God’s kingdom, he would have to be born spiritually. In spite of all his accomplishments, there was a birth that he could not control (no more than he could control his own physical birth). Nevertheless, this spiritual birth (being born from above) was absolutely necessary.
After focusing on the necessity of this spiritual birth that was beyond his control, Jesus soon began to speak of Jesus being lifted up. Let’s read John 3:14-15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Surely the order is no accident. After being born from above, a person then puts his trust in the Christ who died for him.
It must be acknowledged that there are those who have a different interpretation. Some would say that when a person repents and believes, he is then born again. The problem with that is the truth that before we come to salvation (justification) through Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. If we are dead, how can we repent and believe? Down through the years, some rather complicated theological systems have been devised to deal with this problem. Some have taught that while man’s sinful nature inherited from Adam makes him incapable of responding to God, the death and resurrection of Christ has enabled him to have the ability to repent and believe.
Rather than weigh the merits of such systems, I think it best that we come directly to this question: In the final analysis, when it comes to justification, is it up to man or God? Yes, we can say that God has a role and man has a role. God saves us by grace. Our response to God is repentance and faith. But in the final analysis, whose decision does justification depend upon -- God’s decision or man’s decision?
Please turn to I Corinthians 1. Let’s read I Cor. 1:17-2:5…
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29. That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31. That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Please notice that there are two themes that run throughout this passage. On the one hand, we have the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross. On the other hand, we also have the choosing of God. The preaching of the cross is the power and the wisdom of God to those who are called (23-24). And who are these who are called? We can answer that question by reading verses 26-28…
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.
In verse 27, we would expect Paul to say, “But God has called the foolish things of the world...” Instead, he says that God has chosen the foolish, has chosen the weak, and has chosen the despised and even the things which are not. Paul says God has not called the wise, the mighty, or the noble, but He has chosen the foolish, the weak, and the base. While the terms “call” and “choose” are certainly not synonymous, it is obvious that those who are called are those whom God has chosen.
So who are these who are chosen by God? How did God choose them? What was the basis of His choice? That takes us back to Eph. 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith…” What is the nature of this grace by which we are saved? These are important questions.
Let’s come back to the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Let’s read Eph. 1:1-14…
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2. Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
Speaking to believers, to those who are God’s children through Christ, Paul says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. How has He done that? It began when He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He continued, as He predestined us to be adopted as His children by Jesus Christ. It is through the blood of that Christ that we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Yes, we trusted Christ, the one in whom we believed. That is the sequence of events in this passage. And don’t miss the fact that all of it is unto the praise of His glory. Notice that this and similar phrases occur three times in this brief passage: to the praise of the glory of his grace (6), that we should be to the praise of his glory (12), unto the praise of his glory (14).
So what are we to make out of this statement that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world? This is what is known as the doctrine of election. The term “election” is just another word for “choosing.” God has chosen us in Christ; God has elected us in Christ. All who believe the Bible believe the doctrine of election, because it is clearly taught in the Bible. However, there are disagreements about what it means. What does Paul mean when he says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world?
The simplest meaning possible goes like this: “Before the world was created, God chose us to be His own. But that choice was not apart from His Son Jesus Christ. All those He chose will put their trust in Christ, even as we read later in the passage.” Do not miss the emphasis on the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage. If I count right, in verses 3-14 the Lord Jesus is referred to over a dozen times (including the “hims” and “whoms”). Nevertheless, Paul says that God set His choice upon us long before He sent His Son into this world.
So what’s the problem? Is there a problem? The objections that have been raised concerning this simple understanding of the doctrine of election are along these lines… If God chose us before the foundation of the world, that means that we don’t have any choice in the matter? And if we don’t have any choice in the matter, that means that God isn’t fair. How can we possibly say that God chose some to be His own and that He did not choose others? That makes God a capricious dictator and reduces human beings to robots. Furthermore, if God chooses His own before He made the world, then His commands that we should tell others about Christ are pointless. If He has already chosen, then all of our actions make no difference whatsoever. Therefore, this cannot possibly be what Paul means when he says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
What we believe about election will influence us more than most of us realize. For that reason, I want us to take a brief look at it. Perhaps the first question we should ask is this: “If Paul didn’t mean that God before the foundation of the world chose individuals to be His own, then what did He mean?” I am aware of two very prominent answers that have been given to that question.
The first centers on the word “us” in Eph. 1:4. What is sometimes called “The Corporate View of Election” emphasizes that the “us” is not talking about a group of individuals, but about the church as a whole. It says that God purposed before creation to form a people through Christ’s redemptive death on the cross. In other words, God’s choosing before the foundation the world had nothing to do with the electing of individuals to be His. Rather, it was His decision to create an entire people that would belong to Him. That people will be made up of those who choose to repent and place their faith in Jesus Christ.
There is no doubt that God did indeed decide to form a people to be His own. That truth is not in question. But is that all that is meant by “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him”? That interpretation seems to weaken the word that is translated “choose.” That word literally means “to pick out.” Part of the word is the preposition that mans “out of.” It suggests picking something out of the larger group. While the corporate view of election emphasizes that God chooses to form His people from among mankind, it reflects more a single decision than the selecting out inherit in the word “choose.”
The other difficulty with the corporate view is Romans 9. In Romans 9 Paul specifically applies election to individuals. He moves from all Israel to only the descendants of Isaac, and from there he narrows it even more. Paul actually speaks of God’s choice of Jacob rather than Esau. Was it because He looked down through time and saw something admirable in Jacob? No. As a matter of fact, Paul makes the very point that God made his choice before either of them were born and that choice had nothing to do with what either of them did. Let me read you the short version in Rom. 9:11, "(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)" Lord willing, we will look more thoroughly at the argument of Romans 9 on a Sunday evening during this month.
The other alternative view focuses on God’s foreknowledge. We have looked at this idea before. This view takes election seriously in that it recognizes that God has indeed chosen certain people to salvation. It tries to answer the question, “Why did God choose the ones He chose?” Its answer emphasizes God’s foreknowledge, the fact that He knows what will happen beforehand. This is the concept that because God has all knowledge of all history, He looked down through time and saw that Ron Tyson would believe in Jesus Christ. And so God chose Ron Tyson on the basis of that foreseen belief. That view is often supported with passages like Rom. 8:28-30, where we read, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son” (29). God knew beforehand that I would choose to believe in Christ, so on that basis He predestined me to be conformed to the image of Christ.
There is no question that God has all knowledge. He knows what will happen tomorrow as well as He knows what happened yesterday. The Lord God is not confined to time the way we are. That is hard for us to understand, but I don’t know how we can escape that conclusion, if we simply trust what the Bible says. So the question is not whether or not the Lord knows who will repent and believe; the question is this: “Does God choose a person on the basis of the fact that He knows that person will trust Christ? Or, does God know that person will trust Christ because God has chosen Him?” In other words, does the foreknowledge come before the choosing? Or, is the foreknowledge a result of that choice?
Now this is where we get down to the real question about the initiative in justification. Ultimately, is it up to God? Or, is it up to man? If God’s election is on the basis of His foreknowledge of what a man will do, then the ultimate decision lies with the man. God simply responds to what the man will do. I believe there are two great problems with that concept? First of all, it is a misunderstanding of foreknowledge. Paul isn’t talking about mental knowledge of future actions. Rather, he is talking about the kind of knowledge he wrote about in Phil. 3:10, “That I may know him…” This is not mental knowledge about something, but rather the knowledge of personal acquaintance. Apply this kind of knowledge to God. Ps. 1:6, “For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” He is not saying that the Lord has mental knowledge about the righteous, for He certainly has the same mental knowledge of the ungodly. The Lord knows the righteous in the sense that He chooses to set His love upon the righteous.
Look for a moment at Rom. 8:28-30…
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
You will notice the order -- God foreknew, He predestined, He called, He justified, He glorified. God foreknew them in the sense that He set His love and choice upon them beforehand. The foreknowledge of Rom. 8:29 is the election of Eph. 1:4.
Conclusion
I want to suggest to you that the fact of God’s election is not difficult to understand. It is not complicated at all. Before the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ, in order that we might be holy and without blame before Him. Though it is not difficult to understand, for many it is difficult to accept. I don’t want to make light of those difficulties. They are not new; Paul faced them in his day. “Lord, I hear what your Word says, but how can that be?” Surely you must mean something else.
The doctrine of election is often rejected because people believe it does away with faith in Christ. That is not the case at all. The only people who will be in heaven with the Lord are those who repent and put their trust in Christ (with the exception of infants and very young children). Election is not contrary to repentance and faith. Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to His Son. And what comes next? Those He predestined He called. And those He called He justified.
Look at it from the other side. So who will repent and believe? This is where the rubber meets the road. Those whom God has chosen. This is the bottom line. It isn’t the decision of man that is the ultimate decider; it is the decision of God before the world began.
So what is the implication of this truth? What is the weight of the doctrine of election? Let’s go back to I Corinthians 1. This is one of the places where we find the purpose of God’s election. Let’s read again I Cor. 1:26-31…
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29. That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31. That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Notice again the emphasis on the fact that God Himself has chosen these who are weak and foolish and despised. And why did He choose them? That no flesh should glory in His presence (29). That is, that no one who is saved can ever boast about it. On the contrary, if anyone boasts, let him boast (glory) in the Lord (31). Why? Because it is “of him that ye are in Christ Jesus” (30). God Himself is the one who made Jesus our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
If the ultimate decider of who is saved rests with man, then man has something to boast about. Someone says, “No, that isn’t true, because we are saved by grace.” Yes, but the one who is saved by grace can still say, “But at least I made the decision to trust the Lord instead of myself.” If my salvation does not rest with God who chooses, then why am I saved and others are not? Because I had the good sense to repent and believe, because something in me caused me to yield to the Lord. And if there is anything in me that is the cause, then I have room to boast.
That’s enough for tonight. Next week we will bring this back to sanctification. Or perhaps we will spend a little more time in Romans 9 first. Lord willing, over the next two Sunday evenings we will look some more at Ephesians and at Romans 9.
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