The Gonzo Journalism of Grace Book 3 - The Tribunal

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GGGGOD OD OD OD SSSSAVE AVE AVE AVE MMMME E E E FFFFROM ROM ROM ROM YYYYOUR OUR OUR OUR FFFFOLLOWERSOLLOWERSOLLOWERSOLLOWERS Or the gonzo journalism of grace

TRILOGY

BOOK THREE - THE TRIBUNAL

These men have the freedom of futility,

Heaven is not a reward.

You have brought us back to Eden,

To eat of the tree of life.

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will permit him to eat from the tree of life that is in the Paradise of God.

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Jesus Christ, 95 A.D.

Written and edited by DL Coulon

rhēma Christou ό λόγος τού Θεού en Christō

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PART FIVE - FISH, FOWL, AND BEAST

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heaven. And God created great whales , and every living creature that moveth, which waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Genesis i. 20-23.


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Salvation Endures Forever

The Scapegoat

Lev 16:20 “When he has finished atoning the holy place, the Meeting

Tent, and the altar, he is to present the live goat. 16:21 Aaron is to lay

his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all

their sins, and thus he is to put them on the head of the goat and send

it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready. 16:22 The goat is to bear on itself all their iniquities into an

inaccessible land, so he is to send the goat away in the wilderness.

NET

Isa 53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.19 NET 19tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of ugp means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11;

36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here.

Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning,

“encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or

attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the

preposition -B= (see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative

Hiphil has a double object—the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -B=. In their sin the group

was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to

attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then

the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.


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Opening Comment

Drawing from my own experience as a member of an engineering

group, a similar dynamic within Christianity occurs to me. My company

engaged in critical applications of proven knowledge to solve

commercial power production problems. There was a book in

manufacturing headquarters that was the creation of decades of modern

generator design and operation data. This book was known as “the

bible.” On many occasions, either from a competing company or one of

our own associates, an objection would be raised to a proposed

“solution.” Now objections are healthy and many times helpful. They

show that people are concerned and alert.

What I find uncannily relevant to the theme of this paper is the

combination of a particular type of objection voiced by a certain kind of

individual. On many occasions, a junior contributor would fret and insist

the plan was flawed because of some basic engineering criteria. He

would then proceed to demonstrate - to a captive audience of highly

compensated and very busy men and women - his competence regarding

a fundamental objection to a proposed solution that was over his head.

Bear in mind, not all of the captive audience were technical experts,

rather a mix of the customer’s operation and upper-level administrators

responsible for the final outcome of the proposed repair, rebuild, or

replacement solution.

To the point, the self-impressed individual had introduced a negative

contribution that now must be countered by someone competent in the

various parameters and practical application of proven knowledge

contained in “the bible.” Therefore I suggest, Arminian theology is the

distracting contribution made to Christianity by those who do not know

the only person who can explain the Bible – Jesus Christ.

The Testimony of God - Seven Proofs That Salvation Endures

Forever

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

THE CONSUMMATING SCRIPTURE

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for them who are

in Christ Jesus.

AS THE LETTER to the Romans is designed to give the plan and scope

of salvation by and through the grace of God made possible through


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the death of Christ, it is to be expected that that Letter will present the

essential truth that the one who is saved is safe for all eternity. …

Of supreme importance in the consideration of the eighth chapter

of Romans are the indisputable facts that this is the divinely ordained

book for the setting forth the whole plan and scope of salvation by

grace, and that the eighth chapter serves as the consummation of the

doctrinal structure of this Epistle.

Since the opening statement of the eighth chapter of Romans is so

unequivocal, the Apostle proceeds to offer seven proofs of its

truthfulness.

I. DELIVERED FROM THE LAW

Rom 8:2-3 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made

me free from the law of sin and death. For what law could not do, in

that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the

likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that

the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not

after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do

mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the

things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be

spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is

enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither

indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

In this context, the law stands as the representation of the merit

system – that divine arrangement which according to the New

Testament, is held as the antipodes of God’s plan of salvation by

grace. Beyond the one truth that both systems are ordained of God for

application in such ages as He may elect, they set up contrasts at

every point. The fact that, under the new order, the law principle is

done away as having nothing to contribute to the outworking of the

principle of grace (cf. Rom 11:6; 4:4-5; Gal 5:4), should not create

the impression that the law did not originate with God; that it is not

holy, just, and good; or that it has not had His sanction. On this point

the Apostle is most emphatic. When arguing the power of the law as

designed by God, he said, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

God forbid” (Rom 7:7); “Whereof the law is holy, and the

commandment holy, and just, and good. … For we know that the law

is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom 7:12, 14);

“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of

transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was

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made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Gal

3:19). Though holy, just, and good the law undertook no more than to

serve as a rule of life for people already rightly related to God by His

covenants with them. However, as for its holy demands, it is in no

way to be compared with that manner of life which is set before the

Christian under grace. Over against this, the heaven-high system of

conduct under grace, while demanding a supernatural manner of life

(cf. John 13:34; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Eph 4:30), does provide divine

enablement; that is, by the presence of the indwelling Spirit the

believer is able to do that which these high standards demand.

Therefore, this truth is to be observed that, while requiring far less,

the law system failed; yet, while presenting that heaven-high

requirement in daily life which belongs to the grace relationship,

there is expectation that these standards will be realized.

It is well to contemplate the glorious truth that, so far as the

believer’s standing in Christ is concerned, the heavenly ideals are

reached to infinite perfection. Only in the sphere of the believer’s

daily conflicts is the grace ideal at times unrealized. It is too often

supposed that the outworking of grace is restricted to the Christian’s

walk and conversation, and the real triumph of grace – the perfecting

of the child of God forever – is unrecognized. No matter how

disproportionate these issues become under Arminian influence, it

must be remembered that to walk worthy of the heavenly calling –

though of great importance – is not to be compared for a moment

with the heavenly calling itself. The believer may often fail in his

conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil; but this should not

blind one to those immeasurable, divine achievements which have

already united the believer to Christ and thereby constituted him as

perfect in the sight of God as his Savior. It is this faultless standing in

Christ which conditions the believer’s walk; never does the believer’s

walk condition his standing. Just here is where, more than elsewhere,

the essential difference between Arminianism and Calvinism is

demonstrated. The upholders of the Arminian system have never

evinced ability to comprehend the truth regarding a perfect standing

in Christ which is as enduring as the Son of God. To the Arminian,

standing before God is just what a feeble believer makes it by his

daily life. Under those conditions the Christian may fail and be lost

again. For the moment it seems to be forgotten that every believer

sustains an imperfect daily life and therefore, on that basis, all must

be lost forever. The New Testament teaches that those who believe

are saved from the merit system by having all demands satisfied in

Christ, and thus the believer endures forever. In the Arminian system


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God becomes the a colossal failure, unable to realize His purposes in

grace; in the Calvinistic system God never fails even to the slightest

degree.

The all-important phrase in the context now under consideration

(Rom 8:2-4), so far as the present phase of truth is concerned, is, “for

what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.” By

these words the Apostle is accounting for the failure of the law

system (cf. Rom 9:30-32). He does not imply that the law was, or is,

weak in itself; it was powerless because the flesh to which it was

addressed and on which it depended for response, was too weak to

comply with its commandments. It follows that, if God would bring

perfected beings into glory out of the midst of this weakness, He must

adopt another and more efficacious plan than that which the merit

system represents. The new plan adopted does, as seen in earlier

chapters of Roams, secure a triumph of divine grace, even the

justifying forever of the one who believes on Christ. Therefore, the

discussion for the moment centers on the problem of the daily life of

the justified one. This problem is greatly influenced by the fact of

“sin in the flesh,” or the Adamic nature. This context asserts that the

Adamic nature has been “condemned” – that is, judged – and to that

end that the Holy Spirit may be free righteously to control that nature.

The aim of all this divine provision concerning daily life is that “the

law” – meaning the entire will of God for every moment of the

believer’s life – “might be fulfilled in us.” The crucial word here is

έν, which in this instance is furthest removed from the idea that the

will of God is fulfilled by the believer. The contrast set up between

what the Spirit may do in the believer as compared to that which the

believer, under a merit system, may do for God. However, that he

may avail himself of the power of the Spirit in the daily-life problem,

the Christian is told that he must “walk not after the flesh, but after

the Spirit.” The conclusion of the matter is that “there is therefore

now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” because of

the fact that they are delivered from the law, or merit, system.

II. THE FACT OF THE PRESENCE OF THE DIVINE NATURE

Rom 8:9-13 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that

the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of

Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead

because of sin; but he Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the

Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that

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raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies

by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Having pointed out that the flesh was opposed to God and that the

walk of the flesh is in the way of spiritual death as the walk in the

Spirit is in the way of life and peace, the Apostle declares that the

Christian – with reference to position – is not in the flesh, though the

flesh is in the Christian. The Christian is “in the Spirit.” However, the

Spirit is also in the Christian; for he states, “Now if any man have not

the Spirit of Christ [the Holy Spirit], he is none of his.” This

indwelling reality is again asserted by the words, “if Christ be in

you,” and, “if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead

dwell in you.” That indwelling One shall quicken the mortal body of

the one whom He indwells. This is not a reference to the present

energizing of the body by the Spirit, but rather to the fact that the

Spirit will quicken that body in resurrection from the dead. The

presence of the indwelling Spirit guarantees the endurance of the

believer – even his mortal body is under the divine covenant which

assures its presence in glory. No Arminian uncertainty is admitted in

this unalterable declaration. However, the Apostle does refer again to

the believer’s daily life and asserts anew the warning that to walk

after the flesh is in the way of spiritual death, and to walk after the

Spirit is in the way of life and peace. Having received the divine

nature “There is therefore [with full consideration of an imperfect

walk] now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

III. THE CHRISTIAN A SON AND HEIR OF GOD

Rom 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the

sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to

fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,

Abba, father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we

are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and

joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may

be also glorified together.

It is certain that “the foundation of God standeth sure, having this

seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Tim 2:19); and it is

impossible, unthinkable, and – what is more important - unscriptural,

that God should lose He has begotten into actual sonship. Some may

“go out from us, but they are not of us” (1 John 2:19); the implication

is that those “who are of us” never go out. God reserves the right to


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chasten an erring child, as He did the sons of David (cf. 2 Sam 7:14);

Ps 89:31-32), but the chastisement of the child of God has for its

supreme purpose “that we should not be condemned with the world”

(1 Cor 11:31-32). “That which is born of God,” the Apostle declares,

endures; for “his seed remaineth in him” (1 John 3:9).

Likewise, to be a son of God is to be an heir of God, even “a joint

heir with Christ.” Here all the riches of God are in view. Christ said

“All things that the Father hath are mine” (John 16:15). The purpose

of a will being made out to specified heirs is that they may receive

that benefit without fail. None would contend that there is danger that

all that the Father bequeathed to Christ will not be delivered; nor

should it be intimated that a “joint-heir” will fail of his portion. The

revealed truth that God bequeaths His riches to His “joint-heirs with

Christ” means they are to receive this benefit, else God has failed. As

Christ said, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with

me where I am” (John 17:24), in like manner the Father has willed to

His heirs all His riches in glory; and to claim that they will not

receive their portion is to assume that God is defeated. There is a

common sharing of interest between the Father and the Son. This is

indicated by the words of Christ, “All mine are thine, and thine are

mine” (John 17:10). It is thus demonstrated that, because of the truth

that believers are sons and heirs of God, “There is therefore now no

condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

IV. THE DIVINE PURPOSE

Rom 8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to

them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

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.

Nothing could be more fundamental or more determining in this

universe than the purpose of God. Comparable to the above passage is

Ephesians 1:4-12. In that context such decisive statements as the

following are found: “chosen in him” (vs. 4); “having predestinated

us” (vs. 5); “according to the good pleasure of his will” (vs. 5); “the

mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath

purposed in himself” (vs. 9); “being predestinated according to the

purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own

will” (vs. 11); the divine objective is said to be, “that we should be

holy and without blame before him” (vs. 4); “to the praise of the glory

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of his grace” (vs. 6); “that in the dispensation of the fullness 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” (vs. 10); and, “the we

should be to the praise of his glory” (vs. 12).

From these declarations, a devout person will rightfully conclude

that back of all secondary causes which may be divinely arranged to

cooperate in the realization of the purpose of God, there is a

sovereign intention – that which actuated God in creation and

continues to actuate Him in providence and preservation – and when

man has divested himself of self-centered prejudice, and is moved

common reason, he will conclude that this universe belongs to God

by absolute title and that He therefore has inherent rights and

indisputable freedom to execute things after the counsel of His own

will. In this recognition of divine authority it is also acknowledged

that man is but a creature and that his highest destiny will be realized,

not in opposition to God, but in complete conformity to God.

The text cited – Romans 8:28-29 – states that there are those who

are “called according to his purpose” (they are said to “love God” and

this implies He has revealed Himself to them), and that for them He is

undertaking that all things are working together for good in their

behalf. It is the usual idea that the “all things” here mentioned are to

be observed in the minute details of a believer’s experience in life.

Such divine care is an actuality and should be acknowledged; but the

major issues which are itemized in this context lift the specific “all

things” into the highest realms of divine achievement. The saved one

has been foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified.

Such a sequence of blessings is rightfully classed as that which is

“good.” …

God is causing everything to work together to that end. Should

they fail to reach this end, on the human side the issue would be

comparatively small; but on the divine side the issue would be as

great as the failure of God the Creator. It will not do to conclude, as

Arminians do, that God has left the whole matter of His sovereign

purpose, as it applies to an elect company, to their own determination.

He needs no alibi in case of failure, since there will be no failure.

Pious men have never challenged Deity more violently than when

they have implied that the realization of His sovereign purpose must

be conditioned by secondary causes. God thus degraded and

dishonored becomes, in the mind of men, no God at all. It still stands

true, though all men stagger in unbelief (Rom 4:20), that “there is

therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”


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V. THE EXECUTION OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE

ROM 8: 30-33 “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. What shall we then say to these

things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not

his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with

him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the

charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

It is certain that, in the vast range of creation, God has manifold

purposes and there will be no question raised about whether His will

is done in other spheres. It is only within the restricted realm of

certain human beings that doubt is engendered relative to the

sovereignty of God; and it is significant that such doubt springs from

men and from God. His Word may be taken as the declaration of what

He deems to be true, and He asserts His own sovereignty with no

condition or qualification. After all, the opinions of men, who are

steeped in self-exalting prejudice and afflicted with satanic

independence of God, are of no actual value. The entire theme of

predestination is outside the human horizon. …

All that enters into the problem of qualifying a sinner for heaven’s

holy associations is perfected in justification, it being the

consummation of all that enters into salvation both as a dealing with

demerit and as a provision of infinite merit before God – the very

merit of Christ. As a divine undertaking, justification, which is

secured without reference to any human cause (Rom 3:24),

incorporates as essential to it, not only the value of the death and

resurrection of Christ, but every step that enters into divine salvation

by grace. Indeed, it is the very scope of that which justification

incorporates that leads the Apostle to declare as he does in verse 31

and 32, that God is “for us.” This is a marvelous truth and His attitude

of love is demonstrated by the fact that He did not spare the supreme

gift of His Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Having given the

supreme Gift, all else will easily and naturally be included. God gives

unqualified assurance that He justifies all whom He predestinates and

He bases justification on the death and resurrection of Christ, which

basis renders it at once a divine act altogether righteous in itself –

even to the point of infinity. Little wonder that the Spirit’s answer to

His own question “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s

elect?” is, “It is God that justifieth.” That is, the very thing that would

serve as a charge against the believer has been so dealt with already,

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that there can be no charge recognized. From the standpoint of

infinite holiness, it is no slight achievement for God to justify

eternally an ungodly enemy who himself does no more than to

believe in Jesus, and to do this in such a manner as to shield the One

who justifies from every complication which mere leniency with sin

and unworthiness would engender. This is not a human disagreement

where one believer is charging another with evil; it is an issue of far

greater proportions. It is God who is challenged to take account of he

sin of His elect. The Arminian contends that God must judge and

condemn the one He has saved if there is ought to charge against him.

Over against this notion, which notion seems never to have

comprehended the workings of divine grace, is the clear assertion that

God has already justified the one who has given full proof of his

election by believing on Christ, and this in spite of not just one evil

alone being charged against him, but in spite of every sin – past,

present, and future.

It remains true – regardless of human doubt, misunderstanding,

and blindness – that the purpose of God for His elect is executed on a

basis so righteous and reaching to such a degree of infinite perfection,

that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in

Christ Jesus.”

VI. CHRIST’S OWN ACHIEVEMENT

Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea

rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who

also maketh intercession for us.

By His substitutionary death, Christ has borne the condemnation

of sin of those to whom the value of His death has been applied in

response to saving faith. Because of the value of His death having

been applied, no condemnation can return upon that one. The

resurrection of Christ has provided the gift of eternal, resurrection life

that cannot die. The appearing of Christ as Advocate in the court of

heaven in behalf of the sinning Christian guarantees that the very

place where insecurity might find entrance the Lord Himself so

advocates before the Father, by presenting the fact of His own

sufficient sacrifice for sin, as to preserve the one who sins on a basis

so indisputable that the Advocate wins the title, “Jesus Christ the

righteous.” And, lastly, the Savior intercedes and by His intercession

is able to save to completion all that come unto God by Himself (Heb

7:25).


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Any one of these four achievements of the Son of God is

sufficient to answer the Arminian contention and, as set forth in the

New Testament, they are intended to serve as a ground for the

believer’s safekeeping for all eternity. It therefore follows that the

primary declaration of the eighth chapter of Romans, “There is

therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” is

altogether true and is completely provided for by the Savior Himself.

VII. THE INCOMPETENCY OF CELESTIAL AND MUNDANE

THINGS

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall

tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or

peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all day

long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all things

we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am

persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,

nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor

depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the

love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thus far, arguments sustaining the doctrine of eternal security, as

drawn from Scriptures, have been based on those infinite resources

which the Persons of the Godhead guarantee. This, the closing portion

of Romans 8, approaches the fact of security from the negative side –

setting aside that which other forces, both heavenly and mundane,

effect. As for the first category, which enumerates mundane things

(vs. 35), they are ordained for the believer’s experience in the world

and over them, by divine enablement, he is to be victor. By the

authority of God, the believer is to recognize the force of these things

and to prevail in spite of them. As for the second category, which is

of celestial realities (vss. 38-39), the Apostle can say, “I am

persuaded,” is distinctive, being used but twice by the Apostle Paul,

and but three in the Sacred Text (A.V.); and in two of these instances

– Romans 8:38; 2 Timothy 1:12 – reference is made directly to the

security of the child of God. In the present instance – Romans 8:38 –

he includes all believers; in the second – 2 Timothy 1:12 – he gives a

personal testimony, and in these words: “For the which cause I also

suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom

I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I

have committed unto him against that day.” It is no small distinction

and encouragement to the one who believes that the true child of God

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is eternally safe, that he, in this particular, is in complete harmony

with the great Apostle; especially is this true in the light of the fact

that the Apostle’s statement is given by inspiration. On the other

hand, it is no small discredit and delinquency on he part of the one

who denies the doctrine of eternal security that he, in attempting to

maintain his contention, must impugn the inspired testimony of the

one who above all men has been selected of God to receive and to

transmit this very gospel of divine grace. Regardless of avowed

sincerity, Arminians are not Pauline in their essential theology. To

them the doctrinal hesitations of one leading Arminian are more

worthy of adoption and promotion than are the unqualified, inspired

teachings of the Apostle Paul. This attitude of unbelief is exhibited by

the Arminians in their treatment – usually a dire neglect – of all

unqualified New Testament declarations on the truh respecting

security, and none more commonly than their treatment of Christ’s

words as recorded in John 10:28-29. In this context the Savior

declares, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never

perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father,

which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck

them out of my Father’s hand.” It is the Arminian gloss or evasion to

say that no power can “pluck” the believer out of the hand of Christ

or of the Father, except the believer himself, who, it is asserted, is

able, because of the sovereignty of the human will, to remove himself

from that security. The Lord seemed to anticipate such evidence of

distress on the part of those who would “wrest the Scriptures unto

their own destruction,” and purposely inserted one phrase, namely,

“and they shall never perish,” which Arminians fail to receive at its

face value.

It is to be observed that of all things celestial and mundane which

the Apostle enumerates as forces which are potent in their spheres,

yet impotent to cast as much as a shadow of doubt over the great truth

of the believer’s security, no mention is made of two subjects – the

human will and human sin – which are the points of danger according

to Arminian theology. With no consideration of the scope of the

argument of this great chapter, the Arminian may suppose, contrary to

fact, that the two features – the will and sin – are omitted from these

categories because the Apostle believed that they do have the power

to separate the Christian from Christ. It will be discovered, rather, that

these two factors are omitted because the truth that they have been

accounted for in earlier portions of the this context. The human will

has been brought into harmony with the divine purpose by the

effectual call (vs. 30), and the Son of God by His intercession guards


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the believer from pitfalls and by His advocacy preserves from

condemnation in case of actual evil. So, also, the Christian’s sin has

been judged by Christ in His substitutionary death and thus, like the

issue of the will, having been disposed of earlier in the argument of

the chapter, these subjects are not included in this closing category.

It therefore stands that the unqualified assertion that “there is

therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” is

true, being sustained by at least seven major proofs, and the proof

which concludes the seven is to the effect that all potent forces,

celestial or terrestrial are not able to separate he child of God from

“the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” – a love set

eternally free to realize its every desire toward meritless sinners, and

on the ground of the redemption which is in Christ.

CONCLUSION

It is here dogmatically asserted, and on the basis of proofs from

the Word of God which have been presented in this volume, that there

is no Scripture which, when rightly interpreted, will even intimate

that a Christian might be lost; that there is no salvation now offered to

the unsaved which is not eternal in its nature; that no soul once saved

has ever been lost again; and that the New Testament declares in

terms both multiplied and unqualified that the believer, though he

may be subject to correction and chastisement, is eternally safe from

all condemnation.

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a

good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil

1:6).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which

according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively

hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an

inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,

reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God

through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1

Pet 1;3-5). 207

The Arminian’s View of His Self-Endurance for Salvation

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

The shallow appraisal which the Arminian system places on that

which constitutes salvation leads its advocates to estimate a saved

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person, though forgiven the sins committed before he was saved, to

be himself in no way changed into a new creation, indwelt by the

Holy Spirit, or subject to new ideals by which he may live to the

glory of God. Were these great provisions recognized and

incorporated into that system, its promoters could evince a more

comprehensive understanding of all that enters into the relation which

the believer’s daily life and conduct sustain to his perfect salvation

and eternal security in Christ. …

Due consideration [should be given] to the wholly different and

independent plan of God by which the believer may be enabled to

walk worthy of his perfect standing in Christ. … Arminians have

always evinced a reprehensible blindness – not unlike that of

unregenerate men – concerning these so vital distinctions. Armini-

anism’s misleading error in the field of Soteriology is that it persists

in attempting to build the believer’s standing upon his feeble and

faltering daily life, rather than on the sufficient and immutable merit

of Christ. The Arminian Soteriology becomes little more than a

system of human conduct; for, though the idea of regeneration is

incorporated, it is, in the Arminian idea of it, of no abiding value,

being supported only by a supposed human virtue. …

It is generally recognized that the Christian faces three opposing

forces which are sources of evil – the cosmos world, the flesh, and the

devil – and that, when he was in his unregenerate state, these forces

were in no way arrayed against him; for he was then a part of the

cosmos world, restricted in his being to the flesh, and under the

dominion of Satan. Conscience and social ideals may have made their

feeble demands upon him, but he knew little, if anything, of the

unceasing conflict which besets the child of God. In other words, the

believer in his problem of daily life, because of new foes and new

standards of holy living which rightfully impose their claim upon

him, is far less able to live the life set before him than he was able to

live with more or less virtue in the sphere of the unregenerate man. It

follows, then, that if the believer must sustain his salvation by a

correct manner of life, as the Arminian contends, he, because of

impossible heavenly demands and because of supernatural foes, is

unconditionally defeated before ever he begins. The Arminian’s

preaching of his ideals has been tolerated only because of an inability,

if not an unwillingness on his part, to face the stupendous issues

involved. It sounds practical, simple, and it ministers to the inherent

conceit of man, to propose a salvation which endures on the basis of

human merit. In such a scheme there is little need of the sustaining

grace of God. He may be called in to forgive wherein man has failed


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in his self-saving program. As water seeks its level, Arminianism, in

its modern form, has departed from its original claim to orthodox

truth and for the reason, among others, that the defenders of that

system have never relied upon supernatural forces in the realization of

their soteriological scheme.208

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The Tribunal

Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things

God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Do not participate in

the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. But all

things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything

made evident is light, and for this reason it says:

“Awake, O sleeper!

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” 209


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927

Jer 6:10-11 I answered,

“Who would listen

if I spoke to them and warned them?

Their ears are so closed

that they cannot hear!

Indeed, what the Lord says is offensive to them.

They do not like it at all.

I am as full of anger as you are, Lord,

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered,

“Vent it, then, on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included,

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.” NET

The Opening Address to the Jurist

This disclosure of the entrenched Christian error of Arminianism in

the Rectoral or Governmental theory of atonement is an indictment of

said theory for the prejudice and violence committed against the Gospel

of the Grace of God. An unabridged citation of this theory, from a

leading Arminian theologian, will be entered as evidence for the defense.

Opening Statement:

As the logical truth and biblical revelation would support, there is

only one true gospel: “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid

up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of

truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this

gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and

growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the

grace of God in truth” (Col 1:5-6). Inherent in this statement is the

negative logical truth that there may be many false gospels. The false

gospel to be referred to as the Negative Gospel – specifically derived

from, and associated with the Rectoral or Governmental theory of

atonement - is the subject of this indictment. Not by the clear exposition

of biblical truth, but by the denial of numerous plain biblical statements


928

of God’s grace does this theological scheme maintain a “rational”

credibility. It will be the burden of the prosecution to prove this scheme

to be false.

Atonement is not a NT Christian thought, principle, nor teaching.

Christ redeemed sin, He paid the ransom price for sin. Christ did not

“atone,” (Heb. kāphar - to cover) sin on the cross. The word “atonement”

appears many times in the Old Testament, where sins were “covered” by

the blood of animal sacrifices under the Mosaic Law. In the New

Testament (Romans 3:25) this Jewish sacrifice for sins in the past is

spoken of as “remission,” or more accurately, a “passing over” of sins,

however, all sin, Jewish and Gentile, was not expiated or “taken away”

until the historical reality of the antitype of the “scapegoat” was

presented in the death of Christ on His cross of crucifixion. John the

Baptist proclaimed the great doctrinal difference between OT and NT

divine dealings with sin when he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God

which taketh away [expiates] the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This was

a change of cosmic proportions. At this point in history, God reconciled

all unsaved men to Himself through Christ. The word “atonement”

appears in the KJV translation of the New Testament only by mistake,

and this only once, in Romans 5:11. Which is immediately followed by

the most major, theologically critical verse in the New Testament,

Romans 5:12, which includes another error that is rendered “all have

sinned,” which is universally misunderstood as personal sins. This verse

should read “all sinned,” in the past, historical, shared sense of “original

sin.” Reconciliation is present tense for all men who look back upon the

death of Christ and to a living Savior, whereas atonement is past tense

for men who looked forward to the first advent of Christ and to a living,

resurrected Savior. For this reason, atonement is not a New Testament

929

principle upon which to base a theory. The word. katallage (Rom 11:15;

2 Cor 5:18-19 210

) is properly rendered “reconciliation,” as rendered in

the verses that follow 5:11, and as rendered in an appended KJV. Also,

as rendered in all other major translations.

Personal sin is the outworking of the inherited sin nature. These

negative acts and, the penal consequence of these actions, may only be

redeemed by the blood of Christ. Thereby, the need, the necessity of a

required substitutionary penal death of Jesus Christ for the unsaved. Only

the substitutionary death of the Lamb - that God the Father provided as a

satisfactory (propitiation) “payment of a ransom” (Gk. apolutrosis) in

full (not a waiver or cancellation) from the redeemer (Heb. goel - Christ,

the kinsman-redeemer) for the penal consequences of sin committed by

the lost (Gk. apollumi) – can reconcile the lost to God and render them

“meet” (qualified, made suitable, fit) for salvation. In short, the standing

of all men before God because of provisionary salvation as the finished

work of Christ.

The fact that Christ died saves no man or woman, nor any child past

the age of responsibility. It does, however, provide the ground for the

gospel of the grace of God to be proclaimed. A gospel that declares that

the wrath of the holy judgments of God were against all men, yet Christ

paid the price in full, redeemed, and reconciled all men to God by

satisfying, propitiating God’s judgment against all men as He “took

away,” expiated, all sin. God’s covenants and promises cannot fail. A

salvation that is based on the Word of God is absolute, “ These things

have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that

you may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the

name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). If this is believed and Christ is

trusted as the Savior, then and only then, may the new believer know that


930

he has eternal life and receive forgiveness and salvation as the saving

work of God. This salvation consists of many changes and

transformations brought about by all three Persons of the Godhead in a

continuing ministry of the work of grace for each believer until that

individual is perfected into the very image of the Son of God, Christ

Jesus. This is the “power of God” and “the wisdom of God,” “For I am

not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to

everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the

righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as

it is written, “The righteous by faith will live” (Rom 1:16-17 NET).

Salvation as the finished work of Christ is to be communicated to the

unsaved, whereas, the Positive gospel of the grace of God is only

complete, only a whole truth, when it encompasses salvation as the

saving work of God for the those who believe in the power of God that

begins with the irreversible regeneration of the new child of God by the

Holy Spirit and the imputation of the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ.

“But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable

priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that

come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for

them” (Heb 7:24-25 KJV). Christ Himself makes intercession for those

“come unto God by Him.” Not only is the risen Christ the Intercessor to

keep the believer safe from external sources of sin, also, He is an

Advocate when they themselves sin, “My little children, these things

write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an

advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the

propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also the whole world”

(1 John 2:1-2). “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own

blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal

931

redemption for us” (Heb 9:12 KJV). “For by one offering he has

perfected for all time those who are made holy” (Heb 10:14 NET). “And

just as it is appointed for [all] men once to die, and after that the [certain]

judgment. Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon

Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will

appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin,

but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and

patiently] waiting for and expecting Him” (Heb 9:27-28 AMP).

The reconciliation that is available to all unsaved men is the ground

upon which God may offer them salvation. This salvation is “much

more” than the forgiveness of personal sins. “Saving grace is more than

love; it is God’s love set absolutely free and made to triumph over His

righteous judgments against the sinner. “By grace are ye saved through

faith” (Eph 2:8; cf. 2:4; Titus 3:4-5).” 211

God insures the continued

salvation of all who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior. The saved receive

salvation as a work of God through faith. Romans 8:1 has a scribal

addition in the KJV that reads, “for those who walk not after the flesh,

but after the spirit,” that is universally ignored by major translations, and

has been extrapolated from verse 4. The proper rendering is the simple,

unmistakable assurance of, “There is therefore now no condemnation for

those who are in Christ Jesus” (also John 3:18; 5:24; 6:37; Rom 5:1; 1

Cor 11:32).

To preach Christ as an insufficient Savior is spiritual sin of the

highest magnitude. To substitute personal behavior for salvation is pure

unadulterated pride and declares God to be a liar. The Arminian concept

of God’s grace is insufficient and must be augmented by the inclusion of

personal worth. Where grace is extended on the one hand, but taken

away by the other, the net effect is zero grace. In Arminian thought and


932

practice, the true meaning behind the three key elements for saving faith

in the finished work of Christ – redemption, reconciliation, and

propitiation – is denied and not presented in their full sufficiency. A

limited scheme of forgiveness is substituted in their place. In Arminian

thought and practice salvation as the saving work of God by grace is

denied and not presented. The same limited scheme of forgiveness is

maintained and offered to the saved as the only resource of God that is

available to those who believe. The unsaved man cannot discern spiritual

truths, rather he is burdened to explain away the supranatural aspects of

God’s glorious salvation by grace. Consequently, a revolving door from

saved to unsaved, is conceived, based upon a non-substitutionary

bloodless concept of atonement which may only put forward a beggarly

scheme of benevolent forgiveness. Accordingly, it is speciously and

mistakenly asserted that one may “lose” their salvation. This is due to a

grossly misconceived and sadly Non-Christian appreciation of God’s

regeneration by the Holy Spirit. This misconception is defined in the

following citation from Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible: “men can be

born again more than once (1) All men had eternal life in Adam until he

sinned. If he had not sinned all men would live forever. The new birth of

John 3:1-8 is really a re-birth or a restoration to original life by

cancellation of the death penalty. If this can thus happen once it can

happen again and again if necessary. (2) There is no comparison

between the natural and spiritual birth as to choice in the matter,

conception, embryo, process, and actual birth. The very moment one is

grown enough to recognize he is a sinner and when he repents and

believes the gospel a moral and spiritual change takes place. The very

moment he decides to sin again he has a moral fall, incurs the penalty of

the broken law again and comes under the sentence of death again. (3)

933

If any man sins he has an advocate with the Father. What is this advocate

for if not to restore backsliders to God?” 212

Issue will not be taken with misguided expositions of God’s Holy

Word. The Apostle Paul warned his young friend, Timothy, concerning

the fate of the gospel of the grace of God, “They will maintain the

outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So

avoid people like these” (2 Tim 3:5). In this indictment, evidence and

disclosures will be presented regarding the underlying false conception

that drives a forced, prejudiced reading of Scripture by Arminians. The

foundation of Arminian thought and practice is grounded in the writings

of Hugo Grotius. The Grotian theory of Rectoral or Governmental

atonement is the source of Arminian Christian error. This conception

cannot qualify as biblical. Even more to the point, it fails as a partial

truth. This theory is a counterfeit New Testament doctrine based upon

the ideas of Old Testament atonement for salvation. It contains no

redeeming blood of Christ as a ransom for the lost (apolutrosis for the

apollumi) (cf. John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Heb 9:26). In this theory Christ is

not the kinsman-redeemer who suffers a substitutionary penalty for those

He redeems. In this scheme God goes no farther in salvation than to

wave a gloved papal hand in a benediction of forgiveness for those who

are worthy, for as many times as they may make themselves worthy,

again and again. It is a rational attempt to explain forgiveness as the

“passing over” of sins and the cancellation of penalty that is reasoned

away by an extra-biblical concept of a human need that dictates that God

must mandate a common good and execute punishment, and this, only

because He is bound to “good people.” In this scheme God must judge

those who fail to maintain their salvation out of fairness to other men

who are properly penitent and worthy. This is an exercise in a rationalism


934

that would reason cause to be personal merit and asserts heaven is a

reward for good people. Whereas, the biblical revelation of forgiveness is

based in the substitutionary penal death of Christ, which states that

forgiveness is the cause of a predicted effect – salvation for mankind.

The Governmental theory of forgiveness is a bold, straight out–of-hand

censorship and suppression of the divinely declared doctrines of

imputation and propitiation, righteousness and justification, and

regeneration by the Holy Spirit on which the Positive gospel of God’s

grace stands. This theory is less than what God offers. For this reason,

the Governmental theory of atonement has created a Negative gospel. It

addresses man’s basic need for hope, yes, but - only in the most

malicious and insignificant fashion does it extend forgiveness as

something less than a human offer of reprieve. Forgiveness and salvation

in this scheme is little more than a stay of execution.

In this implausible contrivance, God’s salvation is explained as

forgiveness resulting from the actions of a savior who came into

existence to set an example for men to follow. A savior who died

exclusively to redeem the honor of his loving father and free him to

forgive men their sins. Conceptually, this father is the redeemed

forgiving Ruler of an all-important celestial Government, such as may

only be exemplified in the fable of the dilemma confronting the ruler of

an ancient kingdom in southern Italy, the mythic Zaleucus.

The Negative gospel is an offer of salvation limited to penitence for

the forgiveness of personal sins only. It is a reliance upon human merit

and behavior, not a Savior. It is a reliance upon leniency towards sin.

God cannot be, and has never been, lenient towards sin. The true

meaning of antinomianism is a Christian who doubts the force of the law

and holds a flexible concept of morality. What could encompass these

935

beliefs more unmistakably than the Arminian teachings on self salvation,

where human not divine effort must fulfill the demands of divine law,

and, secondly, the extremely flexible concept of morality in undefined

sins that will cause the loss of salvation? It will become obvious and

clearly proven beyond doubt, in the evidence against the Negative

gospel, that this system suppresses and censors God’s declarations of

glorious grace provided to all His children. A scheme of theology

grounded upon the denial, the biblical expurgation, and the prejudice

which insinuates that God’s secure salvation in grace is lewd and vulgar

cannot teach salvation by the grace of God. A salvation by grace that is

given freely and made available only through trust in the resurrected,

ascended, glorified Christ Jesus the Son of God. The gospel of the grace

of God that provides for thirty-three immediate and seven future divine

positions and transformations is declared to be the only salvation in the

saving work of God.

By the following disclosures presented as evidence, the prosecution

will prove the Rectoral or Governmental theory of atonement and its

derivative, the Negative gospel, to be false. The well established and

respected views of Dr. Lewis Chafer, cited in the following, will further

validate this indictment:

“The Arminian insists that human merit is essential for

safekeeping and by so much he denies that the eternal purpose in

salvation is to be accomplished by unconditional sovereign grace. To

him the promise is not sure, and he denies that God has concluded all

under sin for the very intent that the human element should be

dismissed forever. This Arminian misrepresentation is not an

insignificant matter. The gospel he preaches is perilously near being

“another gospel,” that which merits the unrevoked anathema of


936

Galatians 1:8-9.213

… The Arminian contends that man is supreme and

that God is compelled to adjust Himself to that scheme of things. …

Having incorporated into his scheme the finite human element, all

certainty about the future is for the Arminian overclouded with

doubts. Having made the purpose of God contingent, the execution of

that purpose must be contingent. By so much the glorious, divine

arrangement by which the ungodly may go to heaven, is replaced by

the mere moral program in which only good people may have a hope.

… All of this becomes another approach to the same

misunderstanding that is the curse of that form of rationalism which

cannot comprehend the gospel of divine grace. Such a rationalism

plans it so that good people may be saved, be kept saved because of

their personal qualities, and be received into heaven on their merit.

The gospel of divine grace plans it so that bad people – which

wording describes every person on earth – may be saved, be kept

saved as they were saved through the saving work and merit of

Christ, and be received into heaven, not as specimens of human

perfection, but as objects of infinite grace. Arminianism, with its

emphasis upon human experience, human merit, and human reason,

apparently has little or no comprehension of the revelation that

salvation is by grace alone, through faith. … Salvation through Christ

is the essence of Christianity, while salvation through personal

worthiness is no better than any pagan philosophy, and it is of this

notion, so foreign to the New Testament revelation, that Arminianism

partakes.

Though Scripture is cited by Arminians to defend their contention

that the Christian is not secure – their appeal is usually more to

experience and reason than to the testimony of the Bible. When

937

turning thus to experience, it is often recounted that some individual

has first been a Christian and then, later, became unsaved; but in

every instance two unsupportable assumptions appear. It could not be

demonstrated finally that the person named was saved in the first

place, nor could it be established that he was unsaved in the second

place. If Demas be cited because he forsook the Apostle Paul (2 Tim

4:10), it will be remembered that is far removed from the idea that

God forsook Demas. … Another experimental consideration of the

Arminian is the claim that if, as the Calvinist teaches and as certainly

set forth in the New Testament, the believer will not be lost because

of sin, the effect of that doctrine is to license the saved one to sin,

thus tending to antinomianism. In other words, God has no other

motive to hold before the believer that will insure a faithful manner of

life, than the one impossible proposition that he will be lost unless he

is faithful. … Security does not mean, as the Arminian supposes, that

God merely keeps unholy people saved regardless of what they do.

He has made immeasurable divine provisions respecting the daily life

of the believer, namely, the Word of God that may be hid in the heart

that one thus fortified may not sin against God, the presence of the

victorious Spirit as a delivering power in every believer’s life, and the

incomparable sustaining power of the unceasing prayer of Christ for

those who are saved. … No system of theology may boast that its

scheme of doctrine guarantees that those who are saved will never

sin. It would be difficult to prove, though constantly asserted by

Arminians, that those, like the Puritans, who believe they are secure

in Christ, were and are greater sinners than Arminian adherents who

make no such claim. It may be repeated that the greatest incentive in

any person’s life is that which rightfully impels a true believer and


938

which no Arminian has given a worthy trial in his own life, namely,

to honor God in his life because he believes he is saved and safe in

the redeeming grace of God, rather than to attempt to honor God

because by so much he hopes to be saved and safe. Doing right never

saved a sinner nor did it ever preserve a saint; but it is true that being

divinely saved and preserved is the most imperative obligation to do

right. … As for human reason, which the Arminian employs against

the doctrine of security, it need only be pointed out that no human

reason is able to trace the divine undertaking which provides both

salvation and safekeeping on the ground of the sacrifice and the

imputed merit of the Son of God, and with no other requirement

resting on the sinner than that he believe on Christ as Savior. What

God accomplishes is according to reason, but it is that higher reason

which characterizes every divine undertaking. … Neither in the

sphere of sovereign grace, nor in the sphere of human experience, nor

in the sphere of Biblical interpretation have the Arminian advocates

established their claims, and the insufficiency of their position will be

disclosed further as this discussion turns from the negative to the

positive. It may well be pointed out that Arminians have not taken up

the security passages with candor and with an attempt to reconcile

these to their insecurity contention. A collection of mere negatives

sustained by human guesses has no claim to the title a system of

Christian theology.” 214

I ask you, the jurist, in all seriousness, “Who would offer a Negative

gospel and an unsecured salvation?” In the OT, as Balak attempted to

have Balaam curse the Israelites - before they failed to enter the

promised land - while they were still under the divine power of grace in

939

the Exodus and not self-imposed law, God responded to Balak, “I see no

iniquity in Jacob.”

Should even one of the following indictments be admitted, the entire

construction of tradition embodied in the de facto Christianity supported

by the Rectoral or Governmental theory of atonement will collapse upon

itself. This will be for you to decide based on the evidence to be

submitted to you - the unique jurist.

The Articles of Indictment will now be presented:


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941

The Indictment, Testimony, and Prosecution of the Negative Gospel

Articles of Indictment

I.

It is a denial of Original Sin, the resulting Sin Nature, and the

subsequent Wrath of God towards all unregenerate men as the need for

the death of Christ.

II.

It is a denial of Christianity therefore it is religious humanism.

III.

It is a denial of Eternal Salvation and the reason Christ lives as

Advocate and Intercessor.

IV.

It is a denial of Substitutionary Penalty and Propitiation; the essential

cause and effect by which God forgives men unconditionally by grace

through faith in Christ for belief in a completed forgiveness.

A. The Negative gospel for the forgiveness of personal sins is not

the fully developed “my gospel” revealed to Paul for the

propagation of Christianity.


942

B. The tenet of the Grotian Governmental theory of atonement is

humanistic because it is primarily man ward, and secondarily

god ward.

C. The Governmental theory of atonement assigns a sub-Christian

death to Jesus Christ. That Christ was “made to be sin” and

“died for the sins of the world” is denied.

D. The one dimensional loving God who trades forgiveness of

personal sins for penitence is not the Father of divine conscience

and honesty who provided the sacrifice of His Son as atonement

for the expiation and propitiation of sin that accomplished the

reconciliation and salvation of men through faith in the finished

work of Christ.

The following are preliminary proofs of this indictment.

I. Original Sin

“He who holds fast to the witness of Scripture and conscience to

sin as sin (anomia) cannot deduce it from creation, but must accept

the conclusion that it began with a transgression of God’s command

and thus with a deed of the will. Pythagoras, Plato, Kant, Schelling,

Baader have all understood and acknowledged this with more or less

clearness. He who denies the Fall must explain sin as a necessity

which had its origin in the Creation, in the nature of things, and

therefore in God Himself; he justifies man but accuses God,

misrepresents the character of sin and makes it everlasting and

indefeasible. For if there had not been a fall into sin, there is no

redemption of sin possible; sin then loses its merely ethical

943

significance, becomes a trait of the nature of man, and is

inexterminable.” 215

“The message of the Bible is one of redemption from that estate in

sin which, according to the Sacred Text, must be due to the fall. Thus

the whole Biblical revelation comes to be without reason or reality

when the fall of man is denied. … By the immediate experience of

spiritual death man’s first parents were converted downward and

became a kind of being wholly different from that which God created.

… Proof of this is found in the record that the first-born was a

murderer, and in the intimation that Abel recognized his own sin

when he presented a slain lamb as his offering to Jehovah. From that

fall of the first parents every member of the human race is blighted

and they, each one for himself, must accept God’s redeeming grace or

go on to the consummation of spiritual ruin which consummation is

known as the second death (cf. Rev 2:11; 20:14; 21:8). Thus the

effect of the fall is universal.” 216

II. Christianity

Christ is forgiveness and salvation by faith in Him. Christ was the

propitiation (cf. Rom 3:24; John 2:2; 4:10). The doctrine of the Negative

gospel for the forgiveness of Sins is due to a willful focus on personal

sins as illustrated by compounded denials. These are the stated denials of

the source of original sin and the denial of the imputed original sin

contained in Romans 5:12, that is continued through to verse 21 and

further supported by John 3:6. This denial is maintained only by a four

hundred year old translation that points to personal present sin. The KJV

rendered “have” in “all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). All major


944

translations; NIV, NASB, and AMP render “all sinned” and disagree

with this willful ignorance, as do any competent Greek translators. The

Negative gospel would maximize this flawed translation in verse 12 and

deny and censor the declaration by God in the verses that follow, which

include: “And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment,

resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the

gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. For if, by the

transgression of the one man [Adam], death reigned through the one,

how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of

the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!”

(Rom 5:16-17 NET).

That Satan has been judged by God to be the original source of evil

has no credence in the Arminian view. Christianity is God’s graceful

creation whereby men that are ruined by sin are transformed by the

ministries of the Holy Spirit and regenerated into a progressive sinless

perfection. Saved men are perfected after the curse of death releases the

saved man from his inherited sin nature. This is the Christianity denied

by the Negative gospel. Arminian salvation is for a unique race of men

unaffected by the sin of Adam and thus not in need of the ministries of

the Holy Spirit and the ascended Jesus Christ who provide for eternal

salvation from the guilt and power of sin. This is the Christianity that the

Negative gospel would deny. Based on human imagination, a subjective

theory of atonement states that God decreed the crucifixion of Christ so

that man may be forgiven out of hand by God the Father for the sake of

His Rulership. Penitence, not faith, is the requirement for this out of

hand forgiveness. By denying the blood of the Lamb of God,

Arminianism has based salvation on Grotian concepts of mathematized

945

natural law that he himself said would exist if there were no God.

Whereby the essential truth of Christianity is denied.

III. There is “another Gospel” (Gal 1:6; 2 Cor 11:4) “which is not

another,” but a perversion of the Gospel of the grace of God, against

which we are warned. It has had many seductive forms, but the test is

one – it invariably denies the sufficiency of grace alone to save, keep,

and perfect, and mingles with grace some kind of human merit. In

Galatia it was law, in Colossi fanaticism (Col 2:18, etc.). In any form

its teachers lie under the awful anathema of God. (Scofield Reference

Bible, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p. 1343) (Bold italics mine, this writer)

Arminianism is not true Christianity and therefore guilty of religious

humanism. For this reason, the Negative gospel is guilty of “another

gospel” (Gal 1:8-9).

III. Eternal Salvation

The false doctrine of Arminian unsecured salvation and a future

determination is grounded upon the denial of truth in the Rectoral or

Governmental theory of atonement. These truths establish the eternal

security of God’s salvation:

1. imputed sin and imputed righteousness that are illogically

explained away in the Grotian Governmental theory of

atonement

2. the sin nature and the continuance of its effect on the saved

3. the merit of imputed righteousness through the baptism by the

Holy Spirit and the essential verse 1 Cor 12:13


946

4. irreversible regeneration in John 3:5 and restated in John 3:7

5. reconciliation whereby all men stand forgiven of personal sin

6. the repeated emphatic eternal unity prayers of Jesus in John 17,

which looked forward to the work of the baptism by the Holy

Spirit where each believer is placed “in Christ,” “Ye in me and

I in you”

7. all eternal security and imputed righteousness verses contained

in Scripture

IV. Substitutionary Penalty and Propitiation

Lastly and most critically, the Negative gospel for the forgiveness of

personal sins is founded upon a theme of religious humanism and a

theory of atonement that would attribute a sub-Christian reason to the

voluntary, substitutionary penal death of Jesus Christ the Savoir of

mankind. For this reason a sub-Christian religion is conceived and

practiced by the denial of thirty-three immediate and seven future divine

undertakings that result in the transformation of a sinner, that taken

together, is the Christian salvation by grace that is offered in the Gospel

of the Grace of God.

A. The Negative gospel for the forgiveness of personal sins is not

the fully developed “my gospel” revealed to Paul for the

propagation of Christianity.

“My Gospel (Rom 2:16), which designation is used by the Apostle when

referring to all the revelation that was given him, namely, the gospel of

saving grace revealed to him in Arabia (cf. Gal 1:11-12) and also the

947

revelation respecting the Church as the one Body of Christ composed, as

it is, of believing Jews and Gentiles. To all this should be added the

range of truth which sets forth the Christian’s responsibility in daily life,

with the new and incomparable provisions for holy living through the

power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Apostle’s designation, “my

gospel,” is equivalent to Christianity when a direct, constructive, and

unrelated (to Judaism, etc.) consideration of Christianity is in view.” 217

B. The tenet of the Grotian Governmental theory of atonement is

humanistic because it is primarily manward, and secondarily

godward.

“Grotius, as those who follow him, distinguished between that which was

governmental and that which is personal in God with respect to His

judgment of sin. The theory proposes that God could not judge sin on a

personal basis or as that which outrages His holiness, since He is love,

but He must judge sin on the ground of His rectoral or governmental

relation to man. No penalty falls on a substitute [Christ] and the penitent

sinner is forgiven as an act of divine compassion.” 218

C. The Governmental theory of atonement assigns a sub-Christian

death to Jesus Christ. That Christ was “made to be sin” and

“died for the sins of the world” is denied.

“The Rectoral or Governmental theory contends that in His death Christ

provided a vicarious suffering, but that it was in no way a bearing of

punishment. The advocates of this theory object to imputation in all its

forms, especially that human sin was ever imputed to Christ or that the


948

righteousness of God is ever imputed to those who believe. … That there

was a substitution of the most absolute character both as respects merit

and demerit, which does not become effective apart from a vital union

with Christ – the result of saving faith – but does accrue to all who are in

Christ, is rejected. … To say, as they do, that Christ’s sufferings were

sacrificial but not punitive, is equal to saying that Christ answered by His

death some divine necessity other than the penalty which sin incurs from

divine holiness and divine government. It is asserted that the sin of man

caused God to suffer and that the suffering fell on Christ, though he

Father was in complete rapport with the Son in he Hour of suffering. The

sufferings are said to manifest thus divine compassion rather than penal

judgment. When so estimated it is declared, the sufferings are not

lessened nor is their efficacy reduced. By these sufferings of Christ, God

reveals His holy hatred for sin, and, by an actual demonstration on the

cross, He displays the distress which sin causes Him. This is allowed to

pass as an objective value of Christ’s death God ward, and is as near to

propitiation as the system is able to approach.

The plea of those who hold the Governmental theory is that , since

God is love and ever has been, there is no occasion for Him to be

propitiated. Yet Scripture declares that the unsaved are “children of

wrath” (Eph 2:3) and that by His death Christ has rendered God

propitious (1 John 2:2). In its objective value man ward, or as it effects

the sinner for whom He died, it can mean no more than a moral influence

such as would arise in the mind of one who is impressed by the spectacle

of divine sorrow for sin and compassion for the sinner. By so much, the

death of Christ accomplishes no change in the estate of the sinner. This is

as near to reconciliation as the theory may come; yet the Bible declares

that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and, by that

949

death, so changed the estate of men that He is now not imputing their

trespasses unto them (2 Cor 5:19). Similarly, considering the value of

Christ’s death sunward, according to this theory God is safe, in a

governmental sense, in forgiving the one who is rendered penitent by the

recognition of the fact of Christ’s death; and that is as near as the system

may approach to a redemption. Yet this Christ, according to His own

declaration, gave His life “as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28; cf. Mark

0:45; 1 Tim 2:6). The theory is exhausted by its one claim that, on the

rectoral or governmental side of the divine requirements, having by

Christ’s death demonstrated the divine estimation of evil and by His

sacrificial suffering displayed the divine compassion, God may with

safety to His government pardon in a sovereign manner the sinner who,

being influenced by the fact of Christ’s death, is penitent. Divine

government is thought to be protected sufficiently in the maintenance of

its holy standards if forgiveness as a divine generosity is extended to the

penitent. Labored arguments have been presented to demonstrate that a

forgiveness based on an expression of divine displeasure concerning sin

– which expression is accepted as a form of atonement for sin – is not a

sovereign forgiveness, but is based on a worthy ground. Such arguments

fail to carry any weight of conviction with those who oppose the theory.”

219

D. The one dimensional simplistic loving God - created by the

imagination of men - who trades forgiveness of personal sins for

penitence is not the Father of divine conscience and honesty that

provided the sacrifice of His Son as atonement. A satisfactory

atonement that achieved the expiation and propitiation of sin.

For this reason, men who reconcile themselves to God by faith

in the finished work of Christ are forgiven, positionally


950

righteous “in Christ”, and redeemed for all eternity from

condemnation.

“In tracing the genealogy of Christ back to Adam, Luke accounts for

Adam’s existence by declaring him to be a son or creation of God (Luke

3:38). This, most evidently, is sonship by right of creation – the only

conception of divine fatherhood which an unregenerate person can

entertain. The Apostle similarly quotes the pagan poets as asserting that

all men are the offspring of God thus (cf. Acts 17:28). All men may

indeed be considered sons of God inasmuch as they owe their existence

to Him. This greatly restricted conception has been seized upon by

modern men, however, as a basis for a supposed universal sonship and

universal fatherhood of God on intimate terms. It should be remembered,

contrary to such an assumption, that Christ told the very authorities of the

Jewish nation how they were children of the devil (cf. John 8:44). Hence

sonship that is based on mere existence, which existence but links man to

God as Creator, must be far removed from a sonship which is the estate

of each believer – regenerated, born of God, and member of the family of

God as he is.” 220

This concludes the indictment of the Negative gospel by the pro-

secution. The witness for the defense of the Arminian Rectoral or

Governmental theory of atonement will be next.

951

Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for

those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching

that you learned. Avoid them! 16:18 For these are the kind who do

not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth

talk and flattery they deceive the minds of the naive. NET

Eph 4:14 So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth

by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery

of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes.19 NET

19tn While the sense of the passage is clear enough, translation in

English is somewhat difficult. The Greek says: “by the trickery of men,

by craftiness with the scheme of deceit.” The point is that the author is

concerned about Christians growing into maturity. He is fearful that

certain kinds of very cunning people, who are skilled at deceitful

scheming, should come in and teach false doctrines which would in turn

stunt the growth of the believers

1 Tim 1:3 As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on

in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings, 1:4

nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies.

Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s

redemptive plan that operates by faith. NET

1 Tim 4:1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some

will desert the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and

demonic teachings, 4:2 influenced by the hypocrisy of liars whose

consciences are seared. NET

1 Tim 4:6 By pointing out such things to the brothers and sisters, you

will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, having nourished yourself on

the words of the faith and of the good teaching that you have

followed. 4:7 But reject those myths fit only for the godless and

gullible, and train yourself for godliness. NET

1 Tim 4:10 In fact this is why we work hard and struggle, because we

have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people,

especially of believers. NET

1 Tim 6:3 If someone spreads false teachings and does not agree with

sound words (that is, those of our Lord Jesus Christ) and with the

teaching that accords with godliness, 6:4 he is conceited and

understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in controversies


952

and verbal disputes. This gives rise to envy, dissension, slanders, evil

suspicions, 6:5 and constant bickering by people corrupted in their

minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way

of making a profit. NET

John 7:14 When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple

courts and began to teach. 7:15 Then the Jewish leaders were

astonished and said, “How does this man know so much when he has

never had formal instruction?” 7:16 So Jesus replied, “My teaching is

not from me, but from the one who sent me.

7:17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my

teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own

authority.

7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive

honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent

him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

NET

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is one of the

best-known plays of the Irish-

born writer Samuel Beckett. The

tramps Vladimir and Estragon,

shown here, wait for Godot, who

never arrives. Beckett’s play

addresses the absurdity of, and

need for, hope.

Corbis/Robbie Jack

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006.

© 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

953

“The Necessity for Atonement”

The following citation is from Dr. John Miley, who will be stating

and defending the Rectoral or Governmental theory of atonement against

the biblical doctrine of “Completed Satisfaction”:

(1). An Answer to the Real Necessity. – The redemptive mediation

implies a necessity for it. There should be, and in scientific consistency

must be, an accordance between a doctrine of atonement and the ground

of its necessity. The moral theory finds in the ignorance and evil

tendencies of man a need for the higher moral truth and motive than

reason affords; a need for all the higher truths and motives of the Gospel.

There is such a need – very real and very urgent. And Christ has

graciously supplied the help so needed. But we yet have no part of the

necessity for an objective ground of forgiveness. Hence this scheme does

not answer to the real necessity for an atonement. Did the necessity arise

out of an absolute justice which must punish sin, the theory of

satisfaction would be in accord with it, but without power to answer to its

requirement, because such a necessity precludes substitutional

atonement. i We do find the real necessity in the interests of moral

government – interests which concern the divine glory and authority, and

the welfare of moral beings. Whatever will conserve these ends while

opening the way of forgiveness answers to the real necessity in the case.

Precisely this is done by the atonement we maintain. In the requirement

of the sacrifice of Christ as the only ground of forgiveness the standard

of the divine estimate of sin is exalted, and merited penalty is rendered

more certain respecting all who fail of forgiveness through redemptive

grace. And these are the special moral forces whereby the divine law

may restrain sin, protect rights, guard innocence, and secure the common

welfare. Further, the doctrine we maintain not only gives to these

salutary forces the highest moral potency, but also combines with them

the yet higher force of divine love as revealed in the marvelous means of

our redemption. Thus, while the highest good of moral beings is secured,

the divine glory receives its highest revelation. The doctrine has,

i “Be ye holy for I am holy,” is not an exhortation to righteous conduct, it is a

command to be humbly recognized as impossible. “I know it is so of a truth: but how

should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). Which can only be fulfilled in the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Thus, the real necessity for a substitutionary at-one-ment. Additionally, an important distinction is - in NT principle the word “for,” meaning instead of or on behalf of what Christ did for man in a vicarious or substitutionary sense, is used in every passage where the death of Christ is redemptive, as in “a ransom for all,” (Mtw 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim 2:6).


954

therefore, not only the support derived from an answer to real necessity

for an atonement, but also the commendation of a vast increase in the

moral forces of the divine government.

(2). Grounded in the deepest Necessity. – We are here in direct issue with

the doctrine of satisfaction: for here its advocates make special claim in

its favor, and urge special objections against ours. We already have the

principles and facts which must decide the question. In their scheme, the

necessity lies in an absolute obligation of justice to punish sin, and

ultimately in a divine punitive disposition. But we have previously

shown that there is no such necessity. i We have maintained a punitive

disposition in God; but we also find in him a compassion for the very

sinners whom his justice so condemns. And we may as reasonably

conclude that his disposition of clemency will find its satisfaction in a

gratuitous forgiveness of all as that he will not forgive any, except on the

equivalent punishment of a substitute. Who can show that the punitive

disposition is the stronger? ii We challenge the presentation of a fact in its

expression that shall parallel the cross in its disposition of mercy. iii

And

with no absolute necessity for the punishment of sin, it seems clear iv

that

i The core meaning of this entire scheme is derived from conjecture. It is assumed

that Christ provided help and then immediately prior to footnote 2, the author only surmised, not from Scripture, but stated his own, non-argued, argumentum ad

libitum, quick and slick by the use of the one word precludes substituitional atonement, an insinuation – of which he burdens the reader to grasp and agree with him, what he with rhetorical skill does not openly state, in the following unspoken conclusion, – that, patently, if punishment to satisfy justice was a requirement, then only the punishment of the guilty would satisfy that requirement. To the contrary, God’s method is “water and blood.” Without the first cleansing by blood, water is of no effect. “Unless I wash your feet you have no part in me.” Thus, he has leaped over all biblical principle that applies to atonement and to the blood of Christ. From this expedient insinuation, flows the balance of his rationale, as he here emphasizes. A

quick review of the trial of Jesus by Caiphas will show that it was altogether expedient. ii Angels are God’s first beloved creation of free moral agents. Satan and his rebellious angels are not forgiven, stated in the fact that the Lake of Fire was created specifically for Satan. iii Salvation by undeserved grace satisfies mercy. The cross was not mercy, it was an expression of the exceedingly sinfulness of sin that could not be forgiven. It is the epitome of the expression of God’s wrath. It required that God himself should die as

a creature of His own hand to cleanse His creation of sin. And this done, irrespective that any man should ever avail himself of salvation. iv Where is the point of clarity argued? Because Dr. Miley himself stated, “there is no absolute necessity for the punishment of sin” because no one can show a greater parallel in that the cross was an “expression” and “disposition” of mercy, which it was not?

955

but for the requirement of rectoral justice compassion would triumph

over the disposition of a purely retributive justice. Hence this alleged

absolute necessity for an atonement is really no necessity at all. i What is

the necessity in the governmental theory? It is such as arises in the

rightful honor and authority of the divine Ruler, ii and in the rights and

interests in the moral beings under him. The free remission of sins

without an atonement would be their surrender. Hence divine justice

itself, still having all its punitive disposition, but infinitely more

concerned for these rights than in the mere retribution of sins, must

interpose all its authority in bar of a mere administrative forgiveness. The

divine holiness and goodness, infinitely concerned for these great ends,

must equally bar a forgiveness in their surrender. The divine justice,

holiness, and love must, therefore, combine in the imperative

requirement of an atonement in Christ as the necessary ground of

forgiveness. These facts ground it in the deepest necessity. The rectoral

ends of moral government are a profounder imperative with justice itself

than the retribution of sin, simply as such. One stands before the law in

the demerit of crime. His demerit renders his punishment just. Though

not a necessity. But the protection of others, who would suffer wrong

through his impunity, makes his punishment an obligation of judicial

rectitude. The same principles are valid in the divine government. The

demerit of sin imposes no obligation of punishment upon the divine

Ruler; but the protection of rights and interests by means of merited

penalty is a requirement of his judicial rectitude, except as that protection

can be secured through some other means. It is true, therefore, that the

rectoral atonement is grounded in the deepest necessity. iii

(3). Rectoral Value of Penalty. – We have sufficiently distinguished

between the purely retributive and the rectoral offices of penalty. The

former respects simply the demerit of sin; the latter, the great ends to be

attained through the ministry of justice and law. As the demerit of sin is

i Again, another conclusion, without a stated deduction nor induction, drawn from the strength of his own non-argued insinuations. Both of Dr. Miley’s theological legs are too short to reach the ground. ii Note, He nor Him, when referring to God, was previously capitalized, but here, Ruler is capitalized. Dr. Miley’s contemporaries do use capitals for pronouns when referring to God in their writings. iii What I understood Dr. Miley to say: – God punished Christ to make it possible for Him to punish men because His forgiveness for all sin would not be fair to the men who are the subjects of His primary concern, His Rulership, His government. I’m getting the distinct impression of a genius Mentalist with a Ruler-god complex. I’ll reserve any more running commentary until my response at the end of this citation.


956

the only thing justly punishable, the retributive element always

conditions the rectoral office of justice; but the former is conceivable

without the latter. Penal retribution may, therefore, be viewed as a

distinct fact, and entirely in itself. As such, it is simply the punishment of

sin because of its demerit, and without respect to any other reason or end.

But as we rise to the contemplation of divine justice in its infinitely

larger sphere, and yet not as an isolated attribute, but in its inseparable

association with infinite holiness, and wisdom, and love, as attributes of

one divine Ruler over innumerable moral beings, we must think his

retribution of sin always has ulterior ends in the interest of his moral

government. We therefore hold all divine punishment to have a strictly

rectoral function. Punishment is the resource of all righteous government.

Every good ruler will seek to secure obedience, and all other true ends of

a wise and beneficent administration, through the highest and best

means. Of no other is this so true as of the divine Ruler. On the failure of

such means there is still the resource of punishment which shall put in

subjection the harmful agency of the incorrigible. Thus rights and

interests are protected. This protection is a proper rectoral value of

penalty, but a value only realized in its execution. There is a rectoral

value of penalty simply as an element of law. It has such value in a

potency of influence upon human conduct. A little analysis will reveal its

salutary forces. Penalty, in its own nature, and also, through the moral

ideas with which it is associated, makes its appeal to certain motivities in

man. As it finds a response therein, so has it a governing influence, and a

more salutary influence as the response is to the higher associated ideas.

First of all, penalty, as an element of law, appeals to an instinctive fear.

The intrinsic force of the appeal is determined by its severity and the

certainty of its execution; but the actual influence is largely determined

by the state of our subjective motivity. Some are seemingly quite

insensible to the greatest severity and certainty of threatened penalty,

while others are deeply moved thereby. Human conduct is, in fact, thus

greatly influenced. This, however, is the lowest power of penalty as a

motive; yet it is not without value. Far better is it that evil tendencies

should be restrained, and outward conformity to law secured, through

such fear than not at all. The chief rectoral value of penalty, simply as an

element of law, is through the moral ideas which it conveys, and the

response which it thus finds in the moral reason. As the answers to these

ideas in the helpful activities of conscience and the profounder sense of

obligation, so the governing force of penalty takes the higher form of

moral excellence. As it becomes the clear utterance of justice itself in the

declaration of rights in all their sacredness, and in the reprobation of

crime in all its form of injury or wrong, and depth of punitive desert, so it

957

conveys the imperative lessons of duty, and rules through the profounder

principles of moral obligation. Now rights are felt to be sacred, and

duties are filled because they are such, and not from fear of the penal

consequences of their violation or neglect. The same facts have the

fullest application to penalty as an element of divine law. Here its higher

rectoral value will be, and can only be, through the higher revelation of

God in his moral attributes as ever active in all moral administration.

(4). Rectoral Value of Atonement. – The sufferings of Christ, as a proper

substitute for the punishment, must fulfill the office of penalty in the

obligatory ends of moral government. The manner of fulfillment is

determined by the nature of the service. As the salutary rectoral force of

penalty, as an element of law, is specially through the moral ideas which

it reveals, so the vicarious sufferings of Christ must reveal like moral

ideas, and rule through them. Not else can they take the place of penalty

as they reveal God in his justice, holiness, and love; in his regard for his

own honor and law; in his concern for the rights and interests of moral

beings; in his reprobation of sin as intrinsically evil, utterly hostile to his

own rights and to the welfare of his subjects. Does the atonement in

Christ reveal such truths? We answer, Yes. Nor do we need the

impossible penal element of the theory of satisfaction for any part of this

revelation. God reveals his profound regard for the sacredness of his law,

and for the interests which it conserves, by what he does for their support

and protection. In direct legislative and administrative forms he ordains


958

his law, with declarations of its sacredness and authority; embodies in it

the weightiest sanctions of reward and penalty; reprobates in severest

terms all disregard of its requirements, and all violation of the rights and

interests which it would protect; visits upon transgression the fearful

penalties of his retributive justice, though always at the sacrifice of his

compassion. The absence of such facts would evince an indifference to

the great concerned; while their presence evinces, in the strongest

manner possible to such facts, the divine regard for these interest. The

facts, with the moral ideas they embody, give weight and salutary

governing power to the divine law. The omission of the penal element

would, without a proper rectoral substitution, leave the law in utter

weakness. Now let the sacrifice of Christ be substituted for the primary

necessity of punishment, and as the sole ground of forgiveness. But we

should distinctly note what it replaces in the divine law and wherein it

may modify the divine administration. The law remains, with all its

precepts and sanctions. Penalty is not annulled. There is no surrender of

the divine honor and authority. Rights and interests are no less sacred,

nor guarded in feebler terms. Sin has the same reprobation; penalty the

same imminence and severity respecting all persistent impenitence and

unbelief. The whole change in the divine economy is this – that on the

sole ground of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ all who repent and

believe may be forgiven and saved. This is the divine substitution for

the primary necessity of punishment. While, therefore, all other facts in

the divine legislation and administration remain the same, and in an

unabated expression of truths of the highest rectoral force and value, this

divine sacrifice in atonement for sin replaces the lesson of a primary

necessity for punishment with its own higher revelation of the same

salutary truths; rather it adds its own higher lesson to that penalty. As

penalty remains in its place, remissible, indeed, on proper conditions, yet

certain of execution in all cases of unrepented sin, and, therefore, often

executed in fact, the penal sanction of law still proclaims all the rectoral

truth which it may utter. Hence the sacrifice of Christ in atonement for

sin, and in the declaration of the divine righteousness in forgiveness, is

an additional and infinitely higher utterance of the most salutary moral

truths. The cross is the highest revelation of all the truths which embody

the best moral forces of the divine government. The atonement in Christ

is so original and singular in many of its facts that it is the more difficult

to find in human facts the analogies for its proper illustration. Yet there

are facts not without service here. An eminent lecturer, in a recent

discussion of the atonement, has given notoriety to a measure of Bronson

Alcott in the government of his school. He substituted his own

chastisement for the infliction of penalty upon his offending pupil,

959

receiving the affliction at the hand of the offender. No one can rationally

think such a substitution penal, or that the sin of the pupil was expiated

by the stripes which the master suffered instead. The substitution

answered simply for the disciplinary ends of penalty. Without reference

either to the theory of Bronson Alcott or to the interpretation of Joseph

Cook, we so state the case as obvious in the philosophy of its own facts.

Such office it might well fulfill. And we accept the report of the very

salutary result, not only certified by the most reliable authority, but also

as intrinsically most credible. No one in the school, and to be ruled by its

discipline, could henceforth think less gravely of any offense against its

laws. No one could think either that the master regarded with lighter

reprobation the evil of such offense, or that he was less resolved upon a

rigid enforcement of obedience. All these ideas must have been

intensified, and in a manner to give them the most helpful influence. The

vicarious sacrifice of the master became a potent and most salutary moral

element in the government maintained. Even the actual punishment of

the offender could not have so secured obedience for the sake of its own

obligation and excellence. We may also instance the case of Zaleucus,

very familiar in discussions of atonement, though usually accompanied

with such denials of analogy as would render it useless for illustration. It

is useless on the theory of satisfaction, but valuable on a true theory.

Zaleucus was lawgiver and ruler of the Locrians, a Grecian colony early


960

founded in southern Italy. His laws were severe, and his administration

rigid; yet both were well suited to the manners of the people. His own

son was convicted of violating a law, the penalty of which was blindness.

The case came to Zaleucus both as ruler and father. Hence there was a

conflict in his soul. He would have been an unnatural father, and of such

a character as to be unfit for a ruler, had he suffered no conflict of

feeling. His people entreated his clemency for his son. But, as a

statesman he knew that the sympathy which prompted such entreaty

could be but transient; that in the reaction he would suffer their

accusation of partiality and injustice; that his laws would be dishonored

and his authority broken. Still there was the conflict of soul. What should

he do for the reconciliation of the ruler and the father? In this exigency

he devised an atonement by the substitution of one of his own eyes for

one of his son’s. This was a provision above law and retributive justice.

Neither had any penalty for the father on account of the sin of the son.

The substitution therefore, was not penal. The vicarious suffering was

not in any sense retributive. It could not be so. All the conditions for

penal retribution were wanting. No one can rationally think that the sin of

the son, or any part of it, was expiated by the suffering of his father in his

stead. The transference of sin as a whole is unreasonable enough; but

the idea of a division of it, a part being left with the actual sinner and

punished in him, and the other part being transferred to a substitute and

being punished in him, transcends all the capabilities of rational thought.

961

The substitution, without being penal, did answer for the rectoral office

of penalty. The ruler fully protected his own honor and authority. Law

still voiced its behests and sanctions with unabated force. And the

vicarious sacrifice of the ruler upon the alter of his parental compassion,

and as well as upon the alter of his administration, could but intensify all

the ideas which might command for him honor and authority as a ruler,

or give to his laws a salutary power over his people. This, therefore, is a

true case of atonement through vicarious suffering, and in close analogy

to the divine atonement. In neither case is the substitution for the

retribution of sin, but in each for the sake of the rectoral ends of penalty,

and thus constitutes the objective ground of its remissibility. We have,

therefore, in this instance a clear and forceful illustration of the rectoral

value of the atonement. But so far we have presented this value in its

nature rather than its measure. This will find its proper place in the

sufficiency of the atonement.

(5). Only Sufficient Atonement. - Nothing could be more fallacious than

the objection that the governmental theory is in any sense acceptilational,

or implicitly indifferent to the character of the substitute in atonement. In

the inevitable logic of its deepest and most determining principles it

excludes all inferior substitutions and requires a divine sacrifice as the

only sufficient atonement. Only such a substitution can give adequate

expression to the great truths which may fulfill the rectoral office of

penalty. The case of Zaleucus may illustrate this. Many other devices

were also at his command. He, no doubt, had money, and might have

essayed the purchase of impunity for his son by the distribution of large

sums. In his absolute power he might have substituted the blindness of

some inferior person. But what would have been the signification or

rectoral value of any such measure? It could give no answer to the real

necessity in the case, and must have been utterly silent respecting the

great truths imperatively requiring affirmation in any adequate

substitution. The sacrifice of one of his own eyes for one of his sons did

give the requisite affirmation, while nothing below it could. So in the

substitution of Christ for us. No inferior being and no inferior sacrifice

could answer, through the expression and affirmation of great rectoral

truths, for the necessary ends of penalty. And, as we shall see in the

proper place, no other theory can so fully interpret and appropriate all the

facts in the sacrifice of Christ. It has a place and a need for every element

of atoning value in his substitution. (Ibid., Vol 2, pp 176-84, cited in

Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 147-153) (bold italics

and highlights mine, this writer)


962

Witnesses for the Prosecution - Analysis and Response

This writer:

Superficial views of an all-important cosmic government may only

contain a dishonoring evaluation of the work of Christ. I ask: If this

loving God who can deny Himself and overcome His wrath for judgment

against sin, was He the same God that authored the Flood and the

writings of the prophet Ezekiel? The O.T. prophet who wrote the words

of God, “You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness until I have

fully unleashed my anger upon you. I the LORD have spoken: judgment is

coming and I will act. I will not relent, or show pity, or change my mind.

I will judge you according to your conduct and your deeds, declares the

Sovereign LORD” (Ezk 24:13-14 NET).

The underlying principles proposed by Dr. Miley are not to be found

in the Scriptures of Truth and, without exception, are an insult to the

sacrifice of the Son of God for the sin of man. It is an argumentum ad

exemplum. Initially, the learned Dr. Miley seems to have excised his NT

Bible from all mention of the much prized word that recognizes the

crowning completion of salvation in this life – justification. Justification

is the act of a judge requiring due payment of penalty, not that of a

“Ruler” maintaining a common good. God is and can only be - good.

Additionally, Dr. Miley completely confuses human forgiveness as

divine forgiveness. Whereas the latter demands the just payment of a

debt for satisfaction – divine substitutions who actually suffer the penalty

being acceptable. And, the former may only relinquish the right to be

satisfied. Thirdly, Dr. Miley has made partial use of the doctrine of

reconciliation in his scheme of forgiveness. Although the unsaved may

be forgiven, this forgiveness is but one part of divine salvation. The

sinner is reconciled (changed thoroughly from unsavable to savable) and

God is propitiated (completely satisfied) by the redeeming reconciliation

and propitiation provided by the substitutionary sacrificial death of

Christ. However, forgiveness may not be claimed by the unregenerate,

i.e., those not “born from above” (begotten) by God the Father, baptized

into Christ, indwelt, and sealed “until the day of redemption” by the Holy

Spirit until saving trust is placed in the finished work of Christ. The

simple message and truth of the gospel of grace is to trust that the one

who believes is forgiven all sins by the once-and for-all sacrifice of

Christ. The Governmental theory asserts that one is forgiven after tru Dr.

Miley’s theory lacks the ability to produce the desired result - salvation.

This Governmental theory of atonement is inadequate in that it lacks the

“necessity” of usefulness.

963

As to the origins of the Governmental theory, one may note, Hugo

Grotius was a Dutchman, who possessed the inherent baggage of the

national beginnings of the emerging global power of Holland in the 17th

century. A country that was fighting for freedom from Spanish rule. The

Dutch equivalent of our George Washington was the one-eyed Clavius

Civilus (cf. “Zaleucus”; the late works of Rembrandt) who deserted the

Roman army to lead the Batavians to independence. The following is a

an excerpt from Encarta: “Earlier, his [Hugo Grotius] efforts to moderate

a bitter doctrinal dispute among Dutch Calvinists had embroiled him in a

political clash between his province of Holland and the rest of the Dutch

Republic and its orthodox majority. He was sentenced to life

imprisonment in 1619 but escaped to Paris in 1621. There he finished De

Veritate Religionis Christianae (On the Truth of the Christian Religion,

1627), a nonsectarian statement of basic Christian beliefs that was widely

translated and won Grotius great acclaim. His voluminous writings

included other theological and legal works as well as poetry, histories,

and classical translations.

The Dutch jurist Hugo

Grotius is considered the

founder of the modern

theory of natural law. His

break with Scholasticism

is in methodology rather

than content. His

definition of natural law

as that body of rules

which can be discovered

by the use of reason is

traditional, but in raising

the hypothetical argument

that his law would have

validity even if there were

no God or if the affairs of

human beings were of no

concern to God, he

effected a divorce from

theological presuppose-

tions and prepared the

way for the purely

rationalistic theories of the

17th and 18th centuries. A second innovation of Grotius was to view this

law as deductive and independent of experience: “Just as the


964

mathematicians treat their figures as abstracted from bodies, so in

treating law I have withdrawn my mind from every particular fact” (De

Iure Belli ac Pacis; On the Law of War and Peace, 1625).”

Additionally, the political content in the scheme of Governmental

atonement, based as it is in ancient emperor worship contained in Roman

Caesarian law, is more in the vein of early 20th

century Italian Fascism.i

To think of God in natural, material terms as an all powerful ruler is most

unlike communism, but greatly related to the smoke and mirror social

engineering for a common beneficial good and the peaceful co-existence

ideal of fascist intolerance. For example, during his public appearances

in the United States in the late 1950’s the darling of the American press,

the “El Loco” Cuban attorney, the hero of the July 26 slaughter of

Batista’s army forces sleeping in the barracks at Moncado, and the leader

of the revolt hiding in the Sierra

Maestra whose famous claim was,

“History will absolve me” - Fidel

Castro - portrayed himself as an

idealist and his Cuban revolt as

“Green” not “Red.” He lied. Today’s

idealistic, South American democratic

socialism, based on the Christian ideals

of community, not private property,

will be tomorrow’s military dictator-

ships. If I were to attempt to duplicate

the political hyperbole and rhetoric of

the Governmental theory espoused by

Dr. Miley, I would say: No one can

pose a rational objection to this deepest

and most determining principle of the

undeniable logic of the salutary good that with the utmost force is stated

to be the highest and most exalted rights of the state and the protection of

the rights of the individual to share in a common beneficial good – a

i Fascism, modern political ideology that seeks to regenerate the social, economic, and cultural life of a country by basing it on a heightened sense of national belonging or ethnic identity. Fascism rejects liberal ideas such as freedom and individual rights, and often presses for the destruction of elections, legislatures, and other elements of democracy. Despite the idealistic goals of fascism, attempts to build fascist societies have led to wars and persecutions that caused millions of deaths. As a result, fascism

is strongly associated with right-wing fanaticism, racism, totalitarianism, and violence. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved.

965

common beneficial good which, incidentally, would be controlled by and

determined by a state with zero tolerance for dissent. The all hail Caesar,

who sacrificed his son (symbolized as the eye of Zaleucus) for the public

good motif of the Rectoral or Governmental theory, conceived by a man,

Hugo Grotius who was obsessed by the natural laws of this world, is not

the place to find God. The logic of this thinking, biblically, conforms to

the ideas embodied in a world controlled by the ultimate stealth control

freak, Satan, in this, the God permitted penumbra of our world - the

cosmos diabolicus. The entire concept is based in penalty and reward for

the superficial. The “Ruler” is not the Father that Jesus came to manifest

and, it is not the new law of life – to obey the gospel of the grace of God.

“Jesus replied, “This is the deed God requires—to believe in the one

whom he sent” (John 6:29).

Easton’s Bible Dictionary credits the revelation of justification to the

following: “The Epistle to the Galatians and that to the Romans taken

together "form a complete proof that justification is not to be obtained

meritoriously either by works of morality or by rites and ceremonies,

though of divine appointment; but that it is a free gift, proceeding

entirely from the mercy of God, to those who receive it by faith in Jesus

our Lord."” I would include the book of Hebrews, also, as it is outlined

from Galatians. Hebrews is intended to prove Christ is superior to Moses

and the Mosaic Law. Additionally, Hebrews states that salvation is a new

system under a new High Priest that lives forever to intercede for His

brothers and sisters “begotten of the Father.”

Once again, this theory is based on carrots and sticks. Regardless, that

the Governmental exempli gratia atonement theory predicts fear for

penalty, the effect of the stated cause is jealousy brought forth by the

inherited sin nature in all men that requires a completed satisfaction for

all sin by God in the substitutionary penal death of His Son.. When NT

Scripture is read without bias, one finds that God has designed

forgiveness in such a way as to preclude the competitive enticement of

merit. The passage quoted at the end of this paragraph describes the

motive of God as righteous judgment placed upon Christ, which makes

one worthy of the kingdom through the finished work of Christ.

Forgiveness is accomplished through belief in a righteous Christ who

bore our substitutionary judgment. The righteous wrath of judgment put

upon Christ made the “cleansing” of reconciliation possible.

Reconciliation is self-validating and forgiveness is not waggled as a

future competitive goal to those who do not obey the gospel and believe

that Christ paid a just penalty for all sin. It is not a solicitation to

pragmatism. It is stated in such a way that one may take it or leave it.

This is forgiveness for a belief that we could never merit our own


966

forgiveness and righteousness which is not a call to a green-eyed envious

penitence that would compete with a Great Example to receive a

completed future satisfaction. A forgiveness that would deny

immediate divine transformation to substitute future behavior with divine

forgiveness in reformation is an insignificant surrogate. Belief in the

imputed righteousness of Christ excludes the stealth of a marketed, “I

will be like the most high God – You must forgive me” and the

underlying enticement, “You will be like gods,” originally conceived and

offered to Eve, who was deceived. To his credit and man’s federal

shame, Adam did not believe the false religious proposal, but only

desired his now pagan companion and boldly rejected God’s one

command. Thereby demonstrating by his actions, “My progeny be

damned, I will have my companion.” A sad excuse for a mother and

father were they both. They begat a murderer. They begat a race of

“marred,” apollumi, men and women that are doomed to “perish” in

eternal perdition unless they receive zōēn aiōnion, eternal life (cf. John

3:16). And this eternal life may be received only after the reality of a just

payment in penalty by the Righteous Substitute – Jesus Christ. Divine

wrath is most real. The Apostle Paul explains:

Rom 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness

of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not

unrighteous, is he? (Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is

he?”) (I am speaking in human terms.) 3:6 Absolutely not! For

otherwise how could God judge the world? NET

The Governmental theory meets the criteria for a biblical “strong

delusion” sent by God: “… and with every kind of evil deception

directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in

their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. Consequently God sends on

them a deluding influence [23tn Grk “a working of error.”] so that they

will believe what is false. And so all of them who have not believed the

truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned” (2 Thess 2:10-12

NET).

2 Thess 1:5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make

you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are

suffering. 1:6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who

afflict you, 1:7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together

with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty

angels. 1:8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those

who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

967

1:9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from

the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 1:10 when

he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day

among all who have believed—and you did in fact believe our

testimony. (bold highlights mine) NET

Whereas, NT Christianity, for me, is not to be a protected subject that

is the property of a Cosmic State, it is to be a family member, with not a

shared, divine, and sinless blood, but a shared humanity that is to be

glorified, and a shared pleroma [the very life of God; eternal life] that is

afforded by the “objective” at-one-ment. Objective meaning that the

authority of the Bible plainly states it. Heaven high revelation and world

wide subjective instrumentalism 221

are antithetical, sharing only the

single orthodoxy that Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross. From this

single common point, Arminian Christianity leaves the Bible and enters

into the proven allegory and fiction of the Rectoral theory of fear cited

above. The above citation is not abridged, it is an unabridged statement

by a leading theologian of Arminian Christianity. His thought and

writings have been taught and cited by generations of Arminian seminary

graduates. Thus, this de facto theory of atonement is well established

Christian fascism, spread by its derivative false negative gospel of

repent/believe and forgiven/saved to the naïve and ignorant. This theory

and the offshoot gospel is a parody of catholicizing. Biblically, in sense

and word root, faith-believe-repent are synonyms and are not required

separate acts. Over 130 verses state salvation is by belief only. Some, but

a very few, use two of these synonyms. An often repeated false

dichotomy does not a truth make. Repetition induces tradition.

Salvation is revealed to be a completed satisfaction began by the

sacrificial death of Christ and finalized by His resurrection and ad

interim ascension into heaven. This transformation is available by God

assisted faith. Who in their right mind would not desire, but reject the

thought of God’s assistance in salvation? Yes, faith is assisted, plainly

proven by the fact that it is His Son – His Bible – His Spirit - His

messengers – His plan - that assists simple trust in Christ for the “whole

enchilada” which is an eternal salvation in a new progressive state of

existence lived in the righteousness and the image of Christ.

The death of Christ is not just a mere cosmic background for

forgiveness of personal sins, it includes the judgment of the primary

source of sin - my inherited sin nature and my personal guilt in original

sin. The forgiveness of inherited and personal sin produced by the sin

nature was completed 2,000 years ago. This is to say, conclusively,

whosoever will believe on Christ as Savior possesses a completed


968

salvation based in the Word of God that states God’s judgment against

sin was completely satisfied. Thereby, a completed satisfaction and an

eternal salvation from the moment of saving faith is available to

whosoever and each and everyone of their earthly family with the never-

ending assurance of son and daughtership in the heavenly family of God.

This, His New Creation of glorified humanity in Christ Jesus our Savior,

now and forevermore.

Dr. B. B. Warfield:

The Grotian theory has come to be the orthodox Arminian view -

the theory, that is, that conceives the work of Christ not as supplying

the ground on which God forgives sin, but only as supplying the

ground on which He may safely forgive sins on the sole ground of

His compassion - and is taught as such by the leading exponents of

modern Arminian thought whether in Britain or America; and he who

will read the powerful argumentation to that effect by the late Dr.

John Miley, say for example, will be compelled to agree that it is,

indeed, the highest form of atonement doctrine conformable to the

Arminian System. … In a word, wherever men have been unwilling

969

to drop all semblance of an “objective” atonement, as the word now

goes, they have taken refuge in this half-way house that Grotius has

builded for them. I do not myself look upon this as a particularly

healthful sign of the times. I do not myself think that, at bottom, there

is in principle much to choose between the Grotian and the so-called

“subjective” theories [non-Biblical personally conceived schemes,

this writer]. It seems to me only an illusion to suppose that it

preserves an “objective” atonement at all. But meanwhile it is

adopted by many because they deem it “objective,” and it so far bears

witness to a remnant desire to preserve an “objective” atonement. 222

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

As a summarization of this discussion of the Rectoral or Govern-

mental theory, three indictments may be lodged against this system.

(a) It is a hypothesis based on human reason, which makes no avowed

induction of the Scriptures on the theme which it essays to expound,

but contends that the Scriptures, by special interpretation, can be

made to harmonize with it.

(b) It attempts an impossible distinction between the sufferings of

Christ as sacrificial in contrast to the sufferings of Christ as penal.

The weakness of this distinction is well published in Dr. Miley’s two

illustrations, quoted above – the teacher punished in place of the pupil

and the Zaleucus who sacrificed his eye for the crime of his son. Of

these, Dr. Miley asserts that they could not be penal. If he means they

render no satisfaction to God for sin as God saw it, none will contend

with him; but within their sphere as related to human laws and

regulations, each became a definite penal substitute which not only

upheld the law that was involved, but gave, so far as human standards

may require, a righteous discharge of the offender. One fallacy which

dominates this theory lies hidden in the unrecognized distinction

which exists between divine and human governments.

(c) It restricts the scope of the value of Christ’s death to the one issue

of the forgiveness of the sins of the unsaved, the assumption being

that fallen man – if, indeed, man be fallen at all – needs no more than

the forgiveness of sin. The death of Christ unto the sin nature and the

death of Christ for imputed righteousness are either neglected or

rejected. 223


970

Dr. B. B. Warfield:

We are getting more closely down to the real characteristic of modern

theories of the atonement when we note that there is a strong

tendency observable all around us to rest the forgiveness of sins

solely on repentance as its ground. In its last analysis, the Grotian

theory itself reduces to this. The demonstration of God’s

righteousness, which is held by it to be the heart of Christ’s work and

particularly His death, is supposed to have no other effect on God

than to render it safe for Him to forgive sin. And this does not as

effecting Him, but as effecting men – namely, by awakening in them

such a poignant sense of the evil of sin as to cause them to hate it

soundly and to turn decisively away from it. This is just Repentance.

We could desire no better illustration of this feature of the theory than

is afforded by the statement of it by one of its most distinguished

living advocates, Dr. Marcus Dods. The necessity of atonement, he

tells us, lies in the “need of some such demonstration of God’s

righteousness as will make it possible and safe for Him to forgive the

unrighteous.” Whatever begets in the sinner true penitence and impels

him towards the practice of righteousness will render it safe to forgive

him. Hence Dr. Dods asserts that it is inconceivable that God should

not forgive the penitent sinner, and that Christ’s work is summed up

in such an exhibition of God’s righteousness and love as produces, on

its apprehension, adequate repentance. “By being the source, then, of

true and fruitful penitence, the death of Christ removes the radical

subjective obstacle in the way of forgiveness.” “The death of Christ,

then, has made forgiveness possible, because it enables man to repent

with an adequate penitence and because it manifests righteousness

and binds men to God.” There is no hint here that man needs anything

more to enable him to repent than the presentation of motives

calculated powerfully to induce him to repent. That is to say, there is

no hint here of an adequate appreciation of the subjective effects of

sin on the human heart, deadening it to the appeal of motives to right

action however powerful, and requiring therefore an internal action of

the Spirit of God upon it before it can repent: or of the purchase of

such a gift of the a Spirit by the sacrifice of Christ. As little is there

any hint here of the existence of any sense of justice in God,

forbidding Him to account the guilty righteous without satisfaction of

guilt. All God requires for forgiveness is repentance: all the sinner

needs for repentance is a moving inducement. It is all very simple;

but we are afraid it does not go to the root of matters as presented

either in Scripture or in the throes of our awakened heart. 224

971

This writer:

For a professing Christian belief system the Arminian concept of

atonement, like the Greek word hamartia, meaning sin, has completely

missed the mark. Man’s rationalizations can never weigh against God’s

revelations. From a grace understanding, this theory is comparable to

voluntarily using an incomplete deck of cards where in order to play a

game one needs to draft special senseless rules. Grotius, Miley, and

Wardlaw are to be given this measure of credit. It is to be expected from

a scheme that is drawn from natural law and not the heaven high divine

principles given in the Bible. The mercy seat, substitution, redemption,

reconciliation, propitiation, expiation, holiness, the cross, blood

atonement, imputation, and righteousness are not contained in the

Arminian scheme of atonement for the beggarly rights of Rulership.

Arminian human-styled forgiveness falls far short of the biblical

measures taken by God to secure the salvation of men. Dr. Charles Ryrie

would define and group atonement theories in the following manner:

Governmental – Grotius (1583-1645) Also Wardlaw and Miley.

God’s government demanded the death of Christ to show His

displeasure with sin. Christ also did not suffer the penalty of the Law,

but God accepted His suffering as a substitute for that penalty.

Penal Substitution – Calvin (1509-1564). Christ the sinless One took

on Himself the penalty that should have been borne by man and

others.

(1) Views that related the death of Christ to Satan (Origin and Aulen)

(2) Views that consider His death a powerful example to influence

people (Abelard, Socinus, Grotius, Barth).

(3) Views that emphasize punishment due to the justice of God and

substitution (perhaps Anselm – though deficient – and the

Reformers). Although there may be some truth in views that do not

include penal substitution, it is important to remember that such truth,

if there be some, cannot save eternally. Only the substitutionary death

of Christ can provide that which God’s justice demands and thereby

become the basis for the gift of eternal life to those who believe.

(Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 356)

.


972

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

The belief that Christ met the righteous demands of God against sin

has been the view of true believers in all their history, and because of

the fact that it is the plain testimony of the Word of God and the

natural conclusion whenever an unprejudiced induction of the Bible

teaching bearing on this theme is made. It remains, as it has been, the

unquestioned belief of expositors, conservative preachers, and

evangelists. …

As in contrast to all other theories regarding the value of the death

of Christ – including the Rectoral or Governmental – which entire

group restricts the work of Christ to the one undertaking of providing

a way by which the sinner may be forgiven, the doctrine of

satisfaction, because of its full accounting for all that the Bible

affirms, recognizes and includes the typical foreshadowings of the

Old Testament, and is as much concerned to be in accord with these

as with the New Testament antitypical teachings; it sustains from the

Word of God the actual substitution by Christ both in the field of

disobedience which He bore (άνгί) in the room and stead of the

sinner, and in the field of obedience which He offered to God in

behalf of those who are void of obedience; it incorporates the truth

that Christ by His death ended the entire merit-system for all who

believe; it respects the peculiar and far reaching doctrines of

redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation; it gives unreserved

consideration to the death of Christ in its relation to the sin nature and

the personal sins that flow out from it; it accounts for those specific

personal sins committed by Christians; it also advances into angelic

realms and into heaven itself. Compared to all of this, a theory which

cannot, by its limitations, expand beyond a gratuitous or sovereign

forgiveness of the personal sins of those who are unsaved is less than

a human gesture where naught but the mighty arm of the infinite One

can avail. Nor should it be overlooked that so-called theories are not

only hopelessly inadequate but they dishonor God by assuming that

He can disregard, if not insult, His own holiness by an attitude of

leniency toward sin; and, as has been stated, if divine leniency for sin

is once admitted, a principle is introduced which denies the Word of

God and besides, if extended to all sin, would account the death of

Christ foolishness.

973

Dr. B. B. Warfield:

I am not meaning to imply that the doctrine of substitutive atonement

– which is after all the very heart of the gospel – has been lost from

the consciousness of the Church. It has not been lost from the hearts

of the Christian community. It is in its terms that the humble

Christian everywhere still expresses the grounds of his hope of

salvation. It is in its terms that the earnest evangelist everywhere still

presses the claims of Christ upon the awakened hearer. It has not even

been lost from the forum of theological discussion. It still commands

powerful advocates wherever a vital Christianity enters academical

circles: and, as a rule, the more profound the thinker, the more clear is

the note he strikes in his proclamation and defense. But if we were to

judge only by the popular literature of the day – a procedure happily

not possible – the doctrine of a substitutive atonement has retired well

into the background. Probably the majority of those who hold the

public ear, whether as academical or as popular religious guides, have

definitely broken with it, and are commending to their audiences

something other and, as they no doubt believe, something very much

better. A tone of speech has even grown up regarding it which is not

only scornful but positively abusive. There are no epithets too harsh

to be applied to it, no invectives too intense to be poured out on it. An

honored Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church tells us that “the

whole theory of substitutional punishment as a ground either of

conditional or unconditional pardon is unethical, contradictory, and

self-subversive” (Bishop Foster, in his “Philosophy of Christian

Experience”: 1891, p. 113). He may rightly claim to be speaking in

this sweeping sentence with marked discretion and unwonted charity.

To do justice to the hateful theme requires, it seems, the tumid

turmoil and rushing rant of Dr. Foster’s rhetoric. Surely if hard words

broke bones, the doctrine of the substitutional sacrifice of the Son of

God for the sin of man would long ago have been ground to

powder.225

Dr. Charles Ryrie:

The Denial of Substitutionary Atonement

Attempts to deny the force of this evidence are usually made in

one of two ways. Some claim that even though substitution may be in

the picture, it must not be made the controlling meaning of Christ’s

death. Thus substitution is submerged in and among other meanings


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of His death until it becomes such a minor part of the concept that it

has disappeared for all practical purposes. Here is an example: “The

death of Jesus is bigger than any definition, deeper and more

profound than any rationale. … By a rich variety of terms and

analogies it is set forth, but it is never completely captured in any

verbal net. … Even though no final rationale of the cross is to be

achieved, we must seek its meaning again and again.” 226

Others simply attempt to reinterpret substitution as always

meaning “for the sake of.” Here is an example:

The fact is that he [Paul] intends what we may call a

“representative” view of Christ’s death. When Paul writes that

Christ died “for” me, he usually means not “instead of me” but

“for my benefit.” … Thus it cannot be a matter of substitution or

of a scapegoat. In another context, it is true, the analogy of the

ransom of a captive or (very rarely) that of a sacrificial offering is

brought in play by Paul and suggests substitution. But this motif

… is dominated by the ruling conception of our participation with

Christ in His death to sin and Law. 227

This writer fails to examine any of the evidence of the prepositions or

verses I have cited.

Clearly according to His own teaching and that of the rest of the

New Testament, Christ’s death was a substitution for sinners. (Basic

Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 333)

The Evidence for Substitution in the Death of Christ

Dr. Charles Ryrie:

The Bible teaches that Christ’s sacrifice was not a matter of

sympathy but of substitution.

1. In the Old Testament. The arrangement of the sacrificial system of

the Old Testament included the necessity of the offerer laying his

hands on the animal being offered as a sacrifice.

This meant transmission and delegation, and implied represent-

tation; so that it really pointed to the substitution of the sacrifice

for thee sacrificer. … If the sacrifice was brought by more than

one, each had to lay on his hands. It is not quite a settled point

whether one or both hands were laid on; but all are agreed that is

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was to be done “with one’s whole force” – as it were, to lay one’s

whole weight upon he substitute. 228

The animal’s death took the place of the death due the one offering

that animal. The system clearly taught substitution.

2. In the use of the preposition anti. The root meaning of this

preposition, which occurs twenty-two times in the New Testament, is

face-to-face, opposite, as two objects placed over against each other

and one being taken instead of the other as in an exchange. Critic’s of

substitutionary atonement label this “crude transactionalism.”

Nevertheless, the preposition anti does support substitution.

a. In classical Greek. Anti uniformly means “in the place of,” and

it has no broader meaning as, for instance, “for the sake of.”

b. In Greek of the New Testament Period. Moulton and Milligan

give no examples of anti meaning “on behalf of” or “for the sake of.”

The common meaning is “instead of.” The same and only meaning is

found in Polybius (ca. 200-ca.118 B.C.), Philo, and Josephus.

c. In the Septuagint. Among the 318 occurrences of anti there is

no example of the broader meaning “on behalf of.” Uniformly it

means “in place of” and translates tachath (Gen. 44:33).

d. In the New Testament. Examples of the clear meaning “instead

or in place of” are found in Matthew 2:22 and Luke 11:11. Instances

where the idea of exchange is prominent occur in John 1:16; Romans

12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; Hebrews 12:16; and 1 Peter 3:9.

Matthew 17:27 ( the incident concerning paying the temple tax)

seems to bear a clear substitutionary sense. The tax was redemption

money (Exodus 30:11-16). The idea of equivalence appears in

Matthew 5:38 and 1 Corinthians 11:15, though some understand the

use of anti in the latter reference to mean that a woman’s hair serves

in place of a covering. However, this would seem to contradict Paul’s

teaching in the preceding verses, so likely it has the idea of

equivalence. That is, hair in the natural realm is equivalent to what

the covering stands for in the spiritual realm.229

Clearly none of these

verses support the meaning “on behalf of” or “for the benefit of.”

The crucial verse is Mark 10:45 (KJV): “For even the Son of Man

came … to give his life a ransom for many” (see also Matt 20:28).

Anti demands the interpretation that the Lord came to die in our place

and as our substitute. It cannot be understood otherwise, and this, of

course, was Christ’s own interpretation of the meaning of His

sacrifice. Anti also appears as the prefix on the compound word anti-

lutron in 1 Timothy 2:6. Christ was our substitution ransom.


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3. In the use of the preposition huper. The original meaning of this

preposition was over, upper, and for one’s benefit. The idea included

standing over someone to protect him and to receive the blows on his

behalf and in his place. Thus the basic ideas in the word include both

benefit and substitution, simply because to act on behalf of or for the

benefit of someone often includes acting in his place. Both these ideas

occur in the New Testament usage as we shall see.

a. In classical Greek. Both ideas of benefit and substitution occur

in classical writings (compare Davies, Christ in Our Place, 82).

b. In the Greek of the New Testament period. Again both ideas are

found. Often huper is used of someone writing a letter for someone

else who was illiterate. Clearly this a substitutionary idea.

c. In the Septuagint. Again both ideas are found, but it is

especially important to soteriology to note that the substitutionary

meaning is clearly the meaning in such verses as Deuteronomy 24:16

and Isaiah 43:3-4.

d. In the New Testament. No one debates that huper means “for

the benefit of.” The debate centers on whether or not it can mean “in

the place of.” Those who deny substitutionary atonement naturally

want to eliminate the latter meaning and insist that Christ’s death was

not in any sense a substitutionary payment but only a benefit to

mankind. Those who affirm substitutionary atonement can rest there

case on the meaning of the anti, but they can also point to the

substitutionary meaning in huper. The case is further strengthened by

he fact that huper clearly has a substitutionary meaning in passages

that are not concerned with the Atonement. There are three clear

ones.

(1) In Romans 9:3 Paul wishes he could be accursed in the place

of his fellow Jews. He wanted to take their place under God’s curse.

(2) First Corinthians 15:29 most likely refers to those who by

being baptized showed that they had joined the Christian ranks to take

the place of those who had died, and therefore could be said to have

been baptized for (in the place of ) those who had died. This

understanding of the verse requires a substitutionary meaning of

huper.

(3) Even if there were any questions about the two preceding

examples, there certainly can be no question about the substitutionary

meaning of huper in Philemon 13. Onesimus, the converted slave,

was in Rome with Paul, and he was about to return to his master

Philemon in Colossae. In this wonderful letter of intercession on

Onesimus’s behalf, Paul told Philemon that he would like to keep

Onesimus with him in Rome to help him on Philemon’s behalf (huper

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sou). That can only mean that someone had to be in Rome with Paul –

either Philemon himself or his slave Onesimus as his substitute. Of

course, the idea is present as well, but the only way there could have

been any benefit to Paul was to have Philemon’s substitute,

Onesimus, with him in Rome. If huper had both ideas, benefit and

substitution in non-atonement passages, then it may also carry both

meanings in atonement passages, and indeed it does. Some important

examples where the substitutionary idea is present are John 11:50-51;

Romans 5:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Titus 2:14; and 1

Peter 3:18.

To summarize: anti always has the idea of equivalence, exchange,

or substitution. It never has the broader idea of “for the sake of” or

“on behalf of.” Huper has both ideas, including the idea of

substitution in atonement passages in the New Testament. (Basic

Theology, Dr, Charles Ryrie, pp 330-33)

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

Substitution is not a Biblical term (cf. Trinity, incarnation, etc.),

but a Biblical doctrine nonetheless.

1. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. a. In general, every animal sacrifice

offered during Old Testament times substituted for the offender. All

this was accordingly a type of Christ dying in the room and stead of

the sinner.

b. The sweet-savor and non-sweet savor offerings of Leviticus,

chapters 1-5, indicate that two accomplishments are to be noticed in

Christ’s accomplishment:

(1) The non-sweet savor oblations were, first, the sin offering and,

second, the trespass offering. In these the perfection of the offering

itself had to be insisted upon since Christ the Antitype is perfect in

Himself, but of course, at the same time, the offering is invested with

the sin of the offerer. They are called non-sweet savor offerings since

God cannot look upon sin with allowance whatsoever. In fulfilling

this type of sacrifice Christ cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou

forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).

(2) Sweet savor offerings were three in number: first, the burnt

offering, second, the meal offering, and third, the peace offering. In

these were depicted an aspect of Christ’s death which was a delight to

His Father, as it has been suggested in Hebrews 9:14: He “offered

himself without spot to God.” Here is substitution in the sense that

God requires of the believer, not merely that he should have no sins

(as typified by the non-sweet savor offerings), but that he indeed


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should have done all good. These three offerings, consequently,

suggest how the perfection of Christ may be accepted for a Christian.

They are sweet to God since only Christ’s perfections are in view,

and manifestly as such they could apply to the elect alone.

2. NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE. Again the same twofold con-

ception obtains. The Scriptures state the doctrine fully.

a. Sweet savor (Phil 2:8; Heb 9:11-14; 10:5-7).

b. Non-sweet savor (Rom 3:23-26; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18;

cf. Ps 22:1; Matt 27:46).

3. DETERMINING PREPOSITIONS. a. The Greek ύπέρ often has a

restricted meaning, as for another’s good, in another’s behalf (cf.

Luke 22:19-20; John 10:15; Rom 5:8; Gal 3:13; 1 Tim 2:6; Titus

2:14; Heb 2:9; 1 Pet 2:21; 3:18; 4:1). Actual substitution is not

included at bottom in the word, but from usage it doubtless came to

be anyway.

b. άντί. Here the thought of substitution is clear (Matt 20:28; Rom

12:17; 1 Thess 5:15; 1 Tim 6:2; Heb 12:2, 16; 1 Pet 3:9).

(Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 296-97)

Substitutionary Penal Death Verses

Lev 1:4 He must lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it

will be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. NET

Isa 53:5 He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds,

crushed because of our sins;

he endured punishment that made us well;

because of his wounds we have been healed.

53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. NET

1 Cor 5:7 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of

dough—you are, in fact, without yeast. For Christ, our Passover lamb,

has been sacrificed. NET

Matt 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to

serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” NET

Matt 27:46 At about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice,

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have

you forsaken me?” NET

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Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but

to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” NET

Luke 22:19 Then he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it

and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.” NET

John 10:18 No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my

own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the

authority to take it back again. This commandment I received from

my Father.” NET

John 11:48 If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will

believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our

sanctuary and our nation.” 11:49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who

was high priest that year, said “You know nothing at all! 11:50 You

do not realize that it is more to your advantage to have one man die

for the people than for the whole nation to perish.”102 11:51 (Now he

did not say this on his own, but because he was high priest that year,

he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation, 11:52

and not for the Jewish nation only, but to gather together into one the

children of God who are scattered.) 11:53 So from that day they

planned together to kill him. NET

102sn In his own mind Caiaphas was no doubt giving voice to a

common-sense statement of political expediency. Yet he was

unconsciously echoing a saying of Jesus himself (cf. Mark 10:45).

Caiaphas was right; the death of Jesus would save the nation from destruction. Yet Caiaphas could not suspect that Jesus would die, not in

place of the political nation Israel, but on behalf of the true people of

God; and he would save them, not from physical destruction, but from

eternal destruction (cf. 3:16-17). The understanding of Caiaphas’ words

in a sense that Caiaphas could not possibly have imagined at the time he

uttered them serves as a clear example of the way in which the author

understood that words and actions could be invested retrospectively with

a meaning not consciously intended or understood by those present at the

time.

John 13:1 Just before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time

had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his

own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end.3

NET


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3tn Or “he now loved them completely,” or “he now loved them to the

uttermost” (see John 19:30). All of John 13:1 is a single sentence in

Greek, although in English this would be unacceptably awkward. At the

end of the verse the idiom είς τέλος (eis telos) was translated literally as

“to the end” and the modern equivalents given in the note above, because

there is an important lexical link between this passage and John 19:30,

τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “It is ended”).

John 19:30 When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is

completed!”89 Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. NET

89tn Or “It is accomplished,” “It is finished,” or “It is ended.” See tn

on John 13:1.

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we

were still sinners, Christ died for us. 5:9 Much more then, because we

have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved

through him from God’s wrath. NET

1 Cor 6:20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God

with your body. NET

2 Cor 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. NET

Gal 2:21 I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness

could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing! NET

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a

curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on

a tree”) NET

Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the

forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

NET

2:15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in

decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus

making peace, 2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God

through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.32

2:17 And

he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to

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those who were near, 2:18 so that through him we both have access in

one Spirit to the Father. NET

32tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”

Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NET

1 Tim 2:6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s

purpose at his appointed time. NET

Titus 2:14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of

lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who

are eager to do good. NET

Heb 2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a

little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered

death, so that by God’s grace he would experience death on behalf of

everyone. NET

9:12 and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the

blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself

secured eternal redemption. NET

10:10 By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the

body of Jesus Christ once for all. NET

10:14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are

made holy. NET

12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our

faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its

shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

NET

1 Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we

may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds

you were healed. NET

3:18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins,

the just for the unjust,

to bring you to God,

by being put to death in the flesh


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but by being made alive in the spirit. NET

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: REDEMPTION - There are many passages

in the New Testament which represent Christ's sufferings under the

idea of a ransom or price, and the result thereby secured is a purchase

or redemption (comp. Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; Gal. 3:13; 4:4, 5;

Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Titus 2:14; Heb. 9:12; 1 Pet. 1:18,

19; Rev. 5:9). The idea running through all these texts, however

various their reference, is that of payment made for our redemption.

The debt against us is not viewed as simply cancelled, but is fully

paid. Christ's blood or life, which he surrendered for them, is the

"ransom" by which the deliverance of his people from the servitude of

sin and from its penal consequences is secured. It is the plain doctrine

of Scripture that "Christ saves us neither by the mere exercise of

power, nor by his doctrine, nor by his example, nor by the moral

influence which he exerted, nor by any subjective influence on his

people, whether natural or mystical, but as a satisfaction to divine

justice, as an expiation for sin, and as a ransom from the curse and

authority of the law, thus reconciling us to God by making it

consistent with his perfection to exercise mercy toward sinners"

(Hodge's Systematic Theology).

The Evidence for Justification in the Death of Christ

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our

justification. (Rom 4:25) KJV

Rom 4:25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions,

and was raised because of our justification. NASB

Rom 4:25 Who was betrayed and put to death because of our

misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal),

[making our account balance and obsolving us from all guilt before

God]. AMP

Rom 4:25 He was given over45 because of our transgressions and

was raised for the sake of46 our justification. NET

45 sn The verb translated given over (�αρδίδωµι, paradidōmi) is also

used in Rom 1:24, 26, 28 to describe God giving people over to sin. But

it is also used frequently in the gospels to describe Jesus being handed

over (or delivered up, betrayed) by sinful men for crucifixion (cf., e.g.,

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Matt 26:21; 27:4; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33; 15:15; Luke 20:20; 22:24;

24:7). It is probable that Paul has both ideas in mind: Jesus was handed

over by sinners, but even this betrayal was directed by the Father for our

sake (because of our transgressions).

46tn Grk “because of.” However, in light of the unsatisfactory sense that

a causal nuance would here suggest, it has been argued that the second

διαv (dia) is prospective rather than retrospective (D. Moo, Romans

[NICNT], 288-89). The difficulty of this interpretation is the structural

balance that both διάv phrases provide (“given over because of our

transgressions…raised because of our justification”).

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: JUSTIFICATION - a forensic term, opposed

to condemnation. As regards its nature, it is the judicial act of God, by

which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ, and

accounts, accepts, and treats them as righteous in the eye of the law,

i.e., as conformed to all its demands. In addition to the pardon (q.v.)

of sin, justification declares that all the claims of the law are satisfied

in respect of the justified. It is the act of a judge and not of a

sovereign. The law is not relaxed or set aside, but is declared to be

fulfilled in the strictest sense; and so the person justified is declared to

be entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect

obedience to the law (Rom. 5:1-10).

It proceeds on the imputing or crediting to the believer by God

himself of the perfect righteousness, active and passive, of his

Representative and Surety, Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:3-9). Justification is

not the forgiveness of a man without righteousness, but a declaration

that he possesses a righteousness which perfectly and for ever

satisfies the law, namely, Christ's righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom.

4:6-8).

The sole condition on which this righteousness is imputed or credited

to the believer is faith in or on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is called a

"condition," not because it possesses any merit, but only because it is

the instrument, the only instrument by which the soul appropriates or

apprehends Christ and his righteousness (Rom. 1:17; 3:25, 26; 4:20,

22; Phil. 3:8-11; Gal. 2:16).

The act of faith which thus secures our justification secures also at the

same time our sanctification (q.v.); and thus the doctrine of

justification by faith does not lead to licentiousness (Rom. 6:2-7).

Good works, while not the ground, are the certain consequence of

justification (6:14; 7:6).

This writer:


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It may be noted, that the positive evidence presented by the

prosecution has either been causal, or motiving. It may be apparent, also,

that an motivated reading of the KJV translation may lead to many

misconceptions that would mask the true intent of the underlying

language. This claim is well supported in the clarifications and

expositions of God’s Word given by the witnesses. The witnesses

gathered here are servants of the Word of God. Continuing in a like

manner, the evidence for justification in the death of Christ will be

presented.

Justification is a critical distinction in salvation that must not be

minimized by misconceptions. It may be remembered, from previous

testimony, that there exists a great fundamental difference between the

OT Jew who was just, and the NT saint who is justified. This infinite

difference is separated, on the one side from the other, by the death of

Christ, crucified on His cross. Christ ascended, in His present position as

Advocate for the defense of a sinning believer, pleads His righteousness

before God the Father at every occasion of sin committed by a believer.

Thereby, a believer’s justification is maintained and salvation is secured

in Christ, the Righteous One. This is grounded upon the “sweet savor”

burnt-offering on the brazen altar, the non-penal, the second aspect of

forgiveness in the substitutionary death of Christ, where “he offered

himself without spot or blemish” (Heb 9:14).

Rev 15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and glorify your name, because you alone are holy?16

16sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally

reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John's language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you

are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition

of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and

complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral

purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly

includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply

involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate

and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing

since it is the term όσιος (hosios) and not the more common NT term

άγιος (hagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic

status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in

Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (όσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX])

where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification)

985

brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in

Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term όσιος in a

context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an

implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered

by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of

Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K.

Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).

Holiness belongs to God and is not an attribute that man can obtain as

a result of reformation. Holiness begins at the point beyond the known

limits of this world. The transcendence of God is holiness. “Be ye holy

for I am holy” is not a command from God that man can perform,

contrary to Pelagius and any ancient notion of human perfectionism. God

promises “you shall be holy,” holiness is imparted from God to man

when the believer is placed into Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

as declared in the passage:

1 Pet 1:16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.”

1:17 And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges

according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary

residence here in reverence. 1:18 You know that from your empty

way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by

perishable things like silver or gold, 1:19 but by precious blood like

that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. 1:20 He

was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested

in these last times for your sake. 1:21 Through him you now trust in

God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your

faith and hope are in God.

1:22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to

show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure

heart. 1:23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from

imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

NET

Man may become holy by the work of God for man. Unforgiven is the

opposite of holiness. Justification is a legal position resulting from the

imputation of the righteousness of Christ to those who are perfectly and

completely forgiven from the penalty of sin. Whereas, born from above

and placed into the Body of Christ transcends the known limits of this

world, and is part and parcel of the impartation of eternal life in Christ

which separates the believer from the power of sin by the indwelling

Holy Spirit.


986

It may be recalled that all men were in Adam, thereby “all sinned,”

resulting in the natural state of spiritual death for all men. The judgment

of the “dead” at the end of this age will be determined not by behavior,

not by whether or not one is just, but whether or not one is justified and

has received eternal life before they died. This and only this, determines

if one’s name is missing, an awful blank space, in the Lamb’s Book of

Life as proof of condemnation in the seventh and final judgment of

God’s morally free intelligent creatures. Evolutionary notions count for

nothing. When the eternal soul stands without Christ for paradidōmi, to

give himself over to judgment, that soul will not be surrounded by

kindred monkeys, bears, and dolphins - as so many supposedly educated

children assert today. Does impersonating an animal excuse unforgiven

evil?

For the reasons above, the following testimony will present

justification as proof that the Governmental theory, in its humanistic

assumptions, is fundamentally flawed in conceiving that forgiveness for

personal sins is accomplished by a release to overlook sin. Sin is never

overlooked, forgiveness of all sin is secured in the blood of Christ, but

yet, requires His personal appearance before the Father for each occasion

of sin committed by any member of God’s family.

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

Who was delivered [paradidōmi] for our offenses, and was raised

again for our justification. (Rom 4:25) (brackets mine) KJV

Because of a complicated translation in the A.V. [KJV] of

Romans 4:25, the impression is abroad that in some way – not well

defined – Christ was delivered to death for our sins, but was raised

again to the end that believers might be justified. However,

justification does not depend on the resurrection of Christ, but on His

death; and this particular text really asserts a quite different idea. The

A.V. rendering is, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was

raised again for our justification.” Romans 3:24 states that

justification is “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”; and,

again, “justified by his blood” (Rom 5:9). The sense of Romans 4:25

is that, the ground having been provided for justification by His

death, the Lord arose from the grave. Bishop Moule writes in the

Cambridge Bible on this verse:

Lit. because of our justification. The construction is identical [i.e., in

this and the corresponding phrase earlier]. This, and the balance of the

clauses, seem to demand the exposition: “He was raised, because our

987

justification was effected;” not, “in order to give us justification,” as

many interpret it. The parallel is complete: “We sinned, therefore He

suffered: We were justified, therefore He rose.” – To this it is objected

that the thought is not doctrinally true; justification being, for each

believer, dated not from the Lord’s death, but from the time of faith (see

ch. v.1). But the answer is obvious: the Apostle here states the Ideal of

the matter; he means not individual justifications, but the Work which forever secured Justification for the believing Church. A close parallel is

the “IT IS FINISHED” (John xix.30). (See too the ideal language in viii.30;

and instructive parallels in Heb. i.3 and x.14).

Rom 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he

called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

NET

Heb 1:3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the

representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his

powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for

sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. NET

Heb 10:14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those

who are made holy. NET

In the divine Idea every future believer was declared to be justified,

through an accomplished Propitiation, when Jesus rose. His resurrection

proved His acceptance as our Substitute, and therefore our acceptance in

Him. No doubt the other interpretation is true as to fact: He was raised that, through the Gospel, (which but for His resurrection would never

have been preached,) we might receive justification. But the Gr.

construction, and the balance of clauses, are certainly in favor of that

now given. – “Romans.” P. 98

To the same purpose, F. Godet writes, “In the same way, as Jesus

died because of our offences, that is our (merited) condemnation, He

was raised because of our (accomplished) justification. Our sin had

killed Him; our justification raised Him again. How so? The

expiationi of our trespasses once accomplished by His death, and the

i sin-offering. Genesis 4:7 “sin1 lieth at the door” 1 (4:7) Or, sin-offering. In

Hebrew the same word is used for “sin,” and “sin-offering,” thus

emphasizing in a remarkable way the complete identification of the believer’s sin with his sin-offering (cf. John 3:14 with 2 Cor 5:21). Here both

meanings are brought together. “Sin lieth at the door,” but so also “a sin-


988

right of God’s justice proved in earnest, God could pronounce the

collective acquittal of future believers, and He did so. … So long as

the security is in prison the debt is not paid; the immediate effect of

payment would be his liberation. Similarly, if Jesus wee not raised,

we should be no more than ignorant whether our debt were paid: we

might be certain that it was not. His resurrection is the proof of our

justification, only because it is the necessary effect of it” (Romans, I,

312, cited by Griffith Thomas, Romans, I, 187). (Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, pp 88-89)

Dr. John MacArthur:

paradidōmi (gave … over [Rom 1:24]) is an intense verb. In the

New Testament it is used of giving one’s body to be burned (1 Cor

13:3) and three times of Christ’s giving Himself up to death (Gal

2:20; Eph 5:2, 25). It is used in a judicial sense of men’s being

committed to prison (Mark 1:14; Acts 8:3) or to judgment (Matt.

5:25; 10:17, 19, 21; 18:34) and of rebellious angels delivered to pits

of darkness (2 Pet. 2:4). It is also used of Christ committing Himself

to His Father’s care (1 Pet. 2:23) and of the Father’s delivering of His

own Son to propitiatory death (Rom. 4:25; 8:32).

He who was delivered up because of our transgression, and was raised because of our justification. (Rom 4:25 NASB)

If, despite his limited revelation Abraham could anticipate the

Savior and believe that God could raise the dead, how much more

reason do men today have to believe that the Father did indeed raise

Jesus our Lord from the dead, in order that those who believe “in Him

should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Jesus was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was

raised because of our justification. Delivered up was a judicial

term, referring to the commitment of a criminal to his punishment.

Jesus Christ was delivered up to serve the sentence of death that our

offering croucheth at the [tent] door.” It is “where sin abounded” that “grace

did much more abound {superabound}” (Rom 5:20). Abel’s offering implies

a previous instruction (cf. Gen 3:21), for it was “by faith” (Heb 11:4), and

faith is taking God at His word; so that Cain’s unbloody offering was a

refusal of the divine way. But Jehovah made a last appeal to Cain (Gen 4:7) even yet to bring the required offering. (Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I.

Scofield, p 11)

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transgressions deserve, and He was raised up to provide the

justification before God that we could never attain in our own power

or merit.

The great nineteenth-century theologian Charles Hodge wrote,

With a dead Saviour, a Saviour over whom death had triumphed and

held captive, our justification had been forever impossible. As it was necessary for the high priest, under the old economy, should not only

slay the victim at the alter, but carry the blood into the most holy

place, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat; so it was necessary not

only that our great High Priest should suffer in the outer court, but

that He should pass into heaven to present His righteousness before

God for our justification. Both, therefore, as the evidence of the

acceptance of His satisfaction on our behalf, and as a necessary step

to secure the application of the merits of His sacrifice, the

resurrection of Christ was absolutely essential, even for our

justification. (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans [Grand

Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983 reprint] p. 129)

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us

all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom 8:32 NASB)

God intervened to spare Isaac and provided a ram in his place

(Gen. 22:-13). At that point, however, the analogy changes from

comparison to contrast, because God did not spare His own Son,

but delivered Him up for us all.

Isaiah extolled the wondrous love of both God the Father and God

the Son when he wrote,

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet

we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God [the Father], and

afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was

crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon

Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have

gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has

caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. … But the Lord [the

Father] was pleased to crush Him [the Son], putting Him to grief; if

He would render Himself as a guilt offering. (Isa 53:4-6,10) NASB

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross not only is the foundation of our

salvation but also of our security. Because the Father loved us so


990

much while we were still under condemnation,. “He made Him who

knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the

righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Because the Son loved us

so much while we were still under condemnation, He “gave Himself

for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age,

according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4; cf. 3:13). (The

MacArthur New Testament Commentary Romans 1-8, Dr. John

MacArthur, p. 99; 268; 505)

Dr. C. I. Scofield:

John 12:24 I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls

into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it

produces much grain. NET

(12:24) Chapters 12-17 are a progression according to the order of

approach to God in the tabernacle types: Chapter 12 in which Christ

speaks of His death, answers to the brazen altar of burnt-offering,

type of the cross. Passing toward the altar toward the holy of holies,

the laver is next reached (Ex 30:17-21), answering to Chapter 13.

With His associate priests, now purified, the High Priest approaches

and enters the holy place, in the high communion of Chapters 14-16.

Entering alone the holy of holies (17:1), the High Priest intercedes

(Cf. Heb 7:24-28). That intercession is not for salvation, but the

keeping and blessing of those for whom He prays. His death

(assumed as accomplished, 17:4) has saved them.

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this

world will be driven out. NET

(12:31) The Seven Judgments. (1) Of Jesus Christ bearing the

believer’s sins. The sins of believers have been judged in the person

of Jesus Christ “lifted up” on the cross. The result was death for

Christ, and justification for the believer, who can never again be put

in jeopardy (John 5:24; Rom 5:9; 8:1; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; Heb

9:26-28; 10:10; 14-17; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). See other judgments, 1 Cor.

11:31, note; 2 Cor. 5:10, note; Mt. 25:32, note; Ezk. 20:37, note; Jude

6, note; Rev. 20:12, note. (Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I.

Scofield, p 1133)

1 Cor 11:30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a

few are dead. 11:31 But if we examined ourselves, we would not be

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judged. 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are

disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world. NET

(11:31) (2) Self-judgment is not so much the believer’s moral

condemnation of his own ways or habits, as of himself, for allowing

such ways. Self-judgment avoids chastisement. If neglected, the Lord

judges, and the result is chastisement, but never condemnation (v.32;

2 Sam 7:14, 15; 12:13,14; 1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tim 1:20; Heb 12:7). (Ibid., p

1222)

2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done

while in the body, whether good or evil. NET

(5:10) (3) The judgment of the believer’s works, not sins, is in

question here. These have been atoned for, and are “remembered no

more forever” (Heb 10:17); but every work must come into judgment

(Mt 12:36; Rom 14:10; Gal 6:7; Eph 6:8; Col 3:24, 25). The result is

“reward” or “loss” (of the reward), “but he himself shall be saved” (1

Cor 3:11-15). This Judgment occurs at the return of Christ (Mt 16:27;

Luke 14:14; 1 Cor 4:5; 2 Tim 4:8; Rev 22:12). (Ibid., p 1233).

Luke 14:14 Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you,

for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” NET

1 Cor 4:5 So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until

the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness

and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition3

[praise] from God. NET

Mtw 25:32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will

separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep

from the goats. NET

(25:32) (4) This judgment is to be distinguished from the judgment of

the grate white throne. Here there is no resurrection; the persons

judged are living nations; no books are opened; three classes are

present, sheep, goats, and brethren; the time is at the return of Christ

(v. 31); and the scene is on the earth. All these particulars are in

contrast with Rev. 20:11-15. The test in this judgment is the treatment

accorded by the nations to those whom Christ here calls “my

brethern.” These “brethren are the Jewish Remnant who will have

preached the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations during the


992

tribulation. See “Remnant” (Isa 1:9; Rom 11:5). The test in Rev.

20:11-15, is the possession of eternal life [the Book of Life].

(brackets mine) (Ibid., p 1036)

Ezk 20:37 I will make you pass under the shepherd’s staff, and I will

bring you into the bond of the covenant. NET

(20:37) (5) The passage is a prophecy of the future judgment of

Israel, regathered from all nations … into the old wilderness of the

wanderings (v. 35). The issue of this judgment determines who of

Israel in that day shall enter the land for kingdom blessings (Psa 50:1-

7; Ezk 20:33-34; Mal 3:2-5; 4:1, 2). (Ibid., p 861)

Jude 1:6 You also know that the angels who did not keep within their

proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has

kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of

the great Day. NET

(v. 6) (6) The judgment of the fallen angels. The “great day” is the

day of the Lord (Isa 2:9-22, refs.). As the final judgment upon Satan

occurs after the thousand years, and preceding the final judgment

(Rev 20:10), it is congruous to conclude, as to the time, that other

fallen angels are judged with him (2 Pet 2:4; Rev 20:10). Christians

are associated with Christ in this judgment (1 Cor 6:3). (Ibid., p 1328)

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing

before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was

opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was

written in the books, according to their deeds. NET

(20:12) (7) The final judgment. The subjects are the “dead.” As the

redeemed were raised from among the dead one thousand years

before (v. 5), and have been in glory with Christ during that period,

the “dead” can only be the wicked dead, from the beginning to the

setting up of the great white throne space. As there are degrees in

punishment (Lk 12:47, 48), the dead are judged according to their

works. The book of life is there to answer such as plead their works

for justification, e.g., Mt. 7:22, 23; an awful blank where the name

might have been. (Ibid., p 1351)

The Evidence for Wrath and Propitiation in the Death of Christ

“God, be thou propitiated to me the sinner.” (Luke 18:13b, R.V.)

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“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects

the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.”

( John 3:36 NET)

“but wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition and do not

obey the truth but follow unrighteousness.” (Rom 2:8 NET)

“Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his

blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.” (Rom 5:9 NET)

And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which

you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to

the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now

energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly

lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of

the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the

rest… (Eph 2:1-3 NET)

For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the

truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful

looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the

adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two

or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall be

thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath

counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an

unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

(Hebrews 10:26-29 KJV)

“And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through

Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In other

words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting

people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of

reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God

were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf,

“Be reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be

sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”

(2 Cor 5:18-21 NET)

“God publicly displayed him at his death32 as the mercy seat33

accessible through faith.34 This was to demonstrate his righteousness,


994

because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously

committed.” (Rom 3:25 NET)

32tn Grk “in his blood.” The prepositional phrase (en tō autou haimati) is

difficult to interpret. It is traditionally understood to refer to the atoning

sacrifice Jesus made when he shed his blood on the cross, and as a modifier

of ίλαστήριον (hilastērion). This interpretation fits if ίλαστήριον is taken

to refer to a sacrifice. But if ίλαστήριον is taken to refer to the place where

atonement is made as this translation has done (see tn on the phrase “mercy

seat”), this interpretation of (en tō autou haimati) creates a violent mixed

metaphor. Within a few words Paul would switch from referring to Jesus as

the place where atonement was made to referring to Jesus as the atoning

sacrifice itself. A viable option which resolves this problem is to see (en tō autou haimati) as modifying the verb �ροέθετο (proetheto). If it modifies

the verb, it would explain the time or place in which God publicly displayed

Jesus as the mercy seat; the reference to blood would be a metaphorical way

of speaking of Jesus’ death. This is supported by the placement of (en tō autou haimati) in the Greek text (it follows the noun, separated from it by

another prepositional phrase) and by stylistic parallels with Rom 1:4. This is

the interpretation the translation has followed, although it is recognized that

many interpreters favor different options and translations. The prepositional

phrase has been moved forward in the sentence to emphasize its connection

with the verb, and the referent of the metaphorical language has been

specified in the translation. For a detailed discussion of this interpretation, see D. P. Bailey, “Jesus As the Mercy Seat: The Semantics and Theology of

Paul’s Use of Hilasterion in Romans 3:25” (Ph.D. diss., University of

Cambridge, 1999).

33tn The word ίλαστήριον (hilastērion) may carry the general sense “place

of satisfaction,” referring to the place where God’s wrath toward sin is

satisfied. More likely, though, it refers specifically to the “mercy seat,” i.e.,

the covering of the ark where the blood was sprinkled in the OT ritual on the

Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This term is used only one other time in

the NT: Heb 9:5, where it is rendered “mercy seat.” There it describes the

altar in the most holy place (holy of holies). Thus Paul is saying that God displayed Jesus as the “mercy seat,” the place where propitiation was

accomplished. See N. S. L. Fryer, “The Meaning and Translation of

Hilasterion in Romans 3:25,” EvQ 59 (1987): 99-116, who concludes the

term is a neuter accusative substantive best translated “mercy seat” or

“propitiatory covering,” and D. P. Bailey, “Jesus As the Mercy Seat: The

Semantics and Theology of Paul’s Use of Hilasterion in Romans 3:25”

(Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1999), who argues that this is a direct

reference to the mercy seat which covered the ark of the covenant.

995

34tn The prepositional phrase διάV �ίστεως (dia pisteōs) here modifies the

noun ίλαστήριον (hilastērion). As such it forms a complete noun phrase and

could be written as “mercy-seat-accessible-through-faith” to emphasize the

singular idea. See Rom 1:4 for a similar construction. The word “accessible”

is not in the Greek text but has been supplied to clarify the idea expressed by

the prepositional phrase (cf. NRSV: “effective through faith”).

This writer:

No matter the soaring flights of cosmic rectitude and ancient Greek

exemplifying undertaken by the learned Dr. John Miley in his theorizing

effort, the wrath of God is most certainly real in this present age. There is

a vast body of teaching regarding the death of Christ that entirely

overwhelms the meager assumptions put forth in the Governmental

theory of atonement. God’s wrath is revealed and testified to by John the

Baptist in the above passage John 3:36, by Paul in Romans 2:8, 5:9, and

Ephesians 2:3. Judgment is darkness. Light is sinless perfection. The

antediluvian Noah and seven others found grace, but how many

hundreds of millions did not?

The intended purpose of the teaching that includes “God, be thou

propitiated towards me the sinner” is to qualify who, at the end of the

day, goes home justified. It is the matter of the nature of salvation that is

sought that forms the humble or proud attitude. The religious and

sanctimonious Pharisee who believed and pursued self salvation did go

home blameless under the Law, but not justified by God. The KJV

translation in Luke 18:3b, rendered “God be merciful to me” is wrong.

The humble, justified tax collector’s prayer for propitiation has been

answered. Propitiation and reconciliation is what the gospel of God’s

grace offers for men to believe in. God could never, and has never been

“merciful” towards sin. He has been merciful towards individuals by

providing a Penal Substitute. As exemplified in the religious humanism

of the Governmental theory, human forgiveness always means the

remission of penalty. This is never true of divine forgiveness, which

throughout Scripture follows the “completion of the penalty” upon a

substitute. In Matthew 26:28 Jesus says, “This is my blood of the new

covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Such a

prayer for propitiation as offered by the humble OT Jewish tax collector

is wholly wrong since the death of Christ in this present age of grace.

Here was a man who had special reasons to ask that his sacrifices

satisfied God because he was a despised “publican,” working for the

Romans, who was discriminated against and grouped with “sinners,”

those who did not offer the appropriate sacrifices for their personal sins,


996

by the “blameless” religious bigots called the Pharisees. The NT clearly

reveals the truth that God is satisfied in His judgment of sin. God is

propitious. He has been propitiated by the propitiator – Jesus Christ.

Thus the completed circle of propitiation.

For this reason, He remains just and is the justifier of sinners because

the “Lamb of God that was slain for the sins of the world” propitiated

His required judgment upon sinners. The Christian Day of At-one-ment,

the Yom Kippur of reconciliation, is complete, once and for all men, once

and for all time. This is something for the unregenerate to believe, and is

not to be asked for. To ask is extreme unbelief and insult to God.

Unbelief saves no one. It is an upside down, false gospel that would

preach that the unsaved request forgiveness. It is a gospel that denies the

death of Christ satisfied the Father’s penal judgment against sin and

rendered Him satisfied towards the sin of all men. Whereby, all men are

reconciled to God. Propitiation is God’s recognition of a completed

satisfactory expiation of sin. For this reason, reconciliation is a finished

work that gives to whosoever a standing in redemption that renders them

redeemable through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. God has reconciled

the world through the infinitely satisfactory Lamb of sacrifice that He

provided - Jesus Christ on the cross. Propitiation is the same as

justification in that both are a recognition by God of a divinely

completed work. Justification is the recognition by God of the completed

work of the Holy Spirit when a new believer is baptized into Christ and

receives all the “Righteousness of God,” which is Christ. Thereby, the

work of God - expiation/reconciliation is integral with propitiation. Also,

the work of God for man - the Positive gospel/the baptism by the Holy

Spirit/imputed righteousness is integral to justification. Both – propitia-

tion and justification - are the divine recognition of completed works of

grace consisting of multiple aspects of divine work.

An everyday example is: to drink a cup of hot tea, one must have a

source of thermal energy [which can be hugely complicated, consisting

of the entire myriad of the electrical system followed back to the nuclear

fuel rods that heat the low pressure steam to spin the huge turbines and

generating equipment that make the mystery of electricity possible],

water [again, a complicated system of municipal facilities and delivery],

and finally, a means of containment in order to boil the water. This

example is simplified, in that it excludes all the multi-faceted dynamics

of the human body in which one is enabled to enjoy a cup of hot tea.

Finally, a very legitimate question would be: Who made the cup of hot

tea that you enjoyed?

The elements of God’s salvation by His work of grace, when fully

defined, like life, is straightforward, but not as uncomplicated as one

997

might desire it to be. Special attention to the absence of carrots and

sticks, present punishment and future reward, may be noted in the above

discussion. When properly presented, joy not fear is the response to the

gospel of the grace of God. Amazement is not an untypical reaction when

confronted with the truth of God’s grace. This is the belief in the gospel

of the grace of God that saves and transforms men eternally. For this

reason, the Negative gospel that would cheat Christ and God to make

request for the forgiveness of personal sins only - is false. To ask saves

no one. To ask is to answer a false gospel of unbelief in God’s work of

the unmerited gratis of grace to “whosoever will believe” in the good

news that he is already forgiven and will be eternally saved for his belief.

If one believes it, he already has it. “He who is forgiven much, loves

much.” To condemn and disparage the gospel of God’s secured grace is

to come under a curse in the first of two NT anathemas: “Let anyone who

has no love for the Lord be accursed. Our Lord, come!19” (1 Cor 16:22

NET).

19tn The Greek text has µαράνα θά v (marana tha). These Aramaic

words can also be read as maran atha, translated “Our Lord has come!”

In Luke 18:13b (cf. Heb 2:17), the KJV translation of “merciful”

should be a understood as a request for God to be satisfied by the proper

sacrificial offering that kept an OT Jew “blameless” under the Law. As

previously discussed at length, under the division of Law, the KJV “all

have sinned” in Romans 5:12 should be understood as “all sinned” in

Adam. A system of theology, like Arminianism, can hinge on the use of

incorrectly translated words, such as the Old Testament principle of

“atonement” and “merciful,” to construct a delusion of atonement in a

theory of NT forgiveness that requires penance by penitents for salvation.

This is religious humanism, not NT reconciliation. The future reality for

Christians far exceeds Dr. Miley’s imaginative abilities. His ideas are

literally brought in “off the street,” not the Bible. I do not use the word

“delusion” lightly, as this effort is to prove beyond doubt that the theory

of Rectoral or Governmental atonement is so far removed from NT

reality that it qualifies as a God wrought strong delusion, “And with all

deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they

received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this

cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”

(2 Thess 2:10-11 KJV).

With the insight given above, it remains that the following are the

major translations of this verse under discussion, Luke 18:13b:


998

God be merciful to me a sinner. KJV

O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially

wicked sinner that I am! AMP

‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ NASB

‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ NIV

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, merciful 2433 - ίλάσκοµαι, (Luke 18:3; Heb 2:17) hilaskŏmai: mid. From the same as 2436; to

conciliate, i.e. (trans.) to atone for (sin), or (intrans.) be propitious: -

be merciful, make reconciliation for.

“‘God, be merciful39 to me, sinner that I am!’” NET

39tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy

(ίλάσκοµαι, hilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for

atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

Psalm 51 is the prayer of a saved man, King David, for restoration not

salvation. David was a man who knew he would see his deceased infant

son and that one of his sons would sit on the throne of Israel forever. All

OT saints were saved by believing that God would send a Savior that

would expiate sin. They knew that sacrificial sheep were only a “passing

over” – as in the High Holy Day of Passover – for sin, and, that the

“taking away” of sin was yet future.

Ps 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love!

Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts!

51:2 Scrub away my wrongdoing!

Cleanse me of my sin!

51:3 For I am aware of my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin.

51:4 Against you, especially you, I have sinned;

I have done what is sinful in your sight.

So you are just when you confront me;

you are right when you condemn me. NET

This prayer comes from the mouth of a OT Jew, who was born into a

covenant relationship with the Lord. It is the prayer of an insider not an

“outsider.” The psalmist is King David in the verses below.

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Ps 25:11 For the sake of your reputation, O Lord,

forgive my sin, because it is great.

Ps 34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him from all his troubles. NET

Dr. C.I. Scofield:

Mtw 26:28 for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is

poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. NET

(Mt 26:28) Forgiveness. Summary. The Greek word translated

“remission” in Mt 26:28; Acts10:43; Heb 9:22, is elsewhere rendered

“forgiveness.” It means to send off, or away. And this, throughout

Scripture, is the one fundamental meaning of forgiveness – to

separate the sin from the sinner. Distinction must be made between

divine and human forgiveness: (1) Human forgiveness means the

remission of penalty. In the Old Testament and the New, in type and

fulfillment the divine forgiveness follows the execution of the

penalty. “The priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath

committed, and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev. 4:35). “This is my

blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission

[sending away, forgiveness] of sins” (v. 28). “Without shedding of

blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). See “Sacrifice” (Gen. 4:4;

Heb. 10:18, note. The sin of the justified believer interrupts his

fellowship, and is forgiven upon confession, but always on the ground

of Christ’s propitiating sacrifice (1 John 1:6-9; 2:2). (2) Human

forgiveness rests upon and results from the divine forgiveness. In

many passages this is assumed rather than stated, but the principle is

declared in Eph. 4:32; Mt. 18:32,33. (Old Scofield Study System, Dr.

C.I. Scofield, p. 1038)

Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more 2offering for sin. KJV

Heb 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no

longer any offering for sin. NET

2

(10:18) Sacrifice, Summary: (1) The first intimation of sacrifice is

Gen. 3:21, the “coats of skins” having obviously come from slain

animals. The first clear instance of sacrifice is Gen. 4:4, explained in


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Heb. 11:4. Abel’s righteousness was a result of his sacrifice, not his

character.

Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain,

and through his faith6 he was commended as righteous, because

God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith7 he

still speaks, though he is dead. NET 6tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through which.”

7tn Or “through his sacrifice”; Grk “through it.”

(2) Before the giving of the law [until Isaac was born all men were

Gentiles] the head of the family was the family priest. By the law an

order of priest was established who alone could offer sacrifices.

Those sacrifices were “shadows,” types, expressing variously the

guilt and need of the offerer in reference to God, and all pointing to

Christ and fulfilled in Him. (3) As foreshadowed by the types and

explained by the N.T., the sacrifice of Christ is penal (Gal 3:13; 2 Cor

5:21); substituitional (Lev 1:4; Isa 53:5,6; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24);

voluntary (Gen 22:9; John 10:18); redemptive (Gal 3:13; Eph 1:7; 1

Cor 6:20); propitiatory (Rom 3:25); reconciling (2 Cor 5:18, 19; Col

1:21,22); efficacious (John 12:32,33; Rom 5:9, 10; 2 Cor 5:21; Eph

2:13; Heb 9:11,12, 26; 10:10-17; 1 John 1:7; Rev 1:5); and revelatory

(John 3:16; 1 John 4:9,10). (brackets mine) ((Old Scofield Study

System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p. 1300)

1 John 4:9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has

sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through

him. 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he

loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice27 for our sins.

NET

27sn As explained at 2:2, inherent in the meaning of the word translated

atoning sacrifice (ίλασµός, hilasmos) is the idea of turning away the

divine wrath, so that “propitiation” is the closest English equivalent.

God’s love for us is expressed in his sending his Son to be the

propitiation (the propitiatory sacrifice) for our sins on the cross. This is

an indirect way for the author to allude to one of the main points of his controversy with the opponents: the significance for believers’ salvation

of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, including especially his sacrificial

death on the cross. The contemporary English “atoning sacrifice”

communicates this idea more effectively.

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Dr. Lewis Chafer:

ATONEMENT

Complexity arises in some minds respecting the use of the word

atonement and this is due to certain facts.

1. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. So far as the English translation is

concerned, the use of the term atonement – excepting the

mistranslation of Romans 5:11 – is restricted to the Old Testament.

Though there is a translation of two Hebrew words, but one of them,

kāphar, is generally in view and it is used about seventy times. Its

meaning is ‘to cover.’ This, the distinct and limited meaning of the

Hebrew word, should not be invested with the New Testament ideas,

which contemplate a finished or completed work. Under the Old

Testament provision the one who had sinned was himself fully

forgiven and released, but the ground pon which it could be wrought

was itself only typical and not actual. God forgave and restored where

sin was only covered by the animal sacrifices, but the true basis on

which forgiveness could ever be be granted was the intention on

God’s part to take up the sin later that He has forgiven and deal with

it righteously and effectively through the sacrificial death of His Son

on the cross. That efficacious death was typified in the required

animal sacrifice. According to Romans 3:25 – “Whom God hath set

forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his

righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the

forbearance of God” – the fact that Christ bore the sins which were

committed before, which sins had already been forgiven on the

typical ground that they were covered, ranks as one of the major

accomplishments of His death. It is as though unnumbered

promissory notes has been handed to Christ for Him to pay. If the

notes are paid as promised, God is thereby proved to be righteous in

the forgiving of sin with no other demands having been made upon

the sinner than that an offering be brought which, regardless of how

much it was understood by that sinner, was in God’s sight an

anticipation and recognition of His final meeting of every holy

demand against sin by the efficacious blood of Christ. In other words,

God pretermitted or passed over the sins, not judging them finally at

the time they were forgiven. Such a course, it is obvious, would be a

very unrighteous dealing if those sins were not in due time to be

brought into judgment. All sins of the Mosaic age were thus shown to

have been “covered” but not “taken away.” In contrast to this

temporary expedient, all sin which God forgives has been and is now

“taken away.” In two New Testament passages that vital cintrast


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appears. It is written: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and

of goats should take away sins. … And every priest standeth daily

ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can

never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice

for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth

expecting til his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering

he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10:4, 11-14).

Added to this is the direct statement of John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb

of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” This great

declaration from John was a doctrinal innovation of immeasurable

proportions. The same contrast between the divine dealings with sin

in the past dispensation and in the present dispensation is indicated

again in Acts 17:30.

Acts 17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked106 such times of

ignorance,107 he now commands all people everywhere to repent,109

NET 106tn Or “has deliberately paid no attention to.” 107tn Or “times when people did not know.”

109sn He now commands all people everywhere to repent. God was now

asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded.

2. IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. Though appearing once by an

unfortunate translation in the New Testament (cf. Rom 5:11), the

word atonement is not really found in the New Testament. It is a

though the Holy Spirit in jealousy for the truth is not allowing room

for such an error respecting the divine plan of dealing with sin in the

present age. The etymological meaning of atonement is ‘at-one-

ment’; those once estranged are brought into agreement. The New

Testament word for this great truth is reconciliation. There would be

no doctrinal error committed should at-one-ment be substituted for

reconciliation, but the careful student must be much influenced by the

fact that ‘atonement’ as such is confined to the old order and is not

used by the Spirit respecting any feature of the new order in

Christianity.

3. IN THEOLOGY. By common usage and yet with little reason,

modern theologians have seized upon the word atonement as a term

to represent all that Christ did on the cross. In earlier portions of this

work (Vol. III) upwards of fourteen stupendous achievements by

Christ in His death have been indicated. These reach beyond all

present time into other ages and past human situations into angelic

spheres. It is not possible that the limitless outreach of Christ’s death

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should be represented in any single one or dozen words; and from the

fact that the term in question does not belong in the New Testament

vocabulary and from the fact that it is employed in the Old Testament

to represent one idea wholly foreign to and superceded in the New

Testament , no word related to Christ’s death is more inapt as a

reference to that which He really wrought for men of the present age.

As the extent of Christ’s death is understood, so, correspondingly, the

use of the term atonement will cease. (Systematic Theology, Dr.

Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 25-27)

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: PROPITIATION - that by which God is

rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his

character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The

propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders

it consistent for him to exercise his love towards sinners.

In Rom. 3:25 and Heb. 9:5 (A.V., "mercy-seat") the Greek word

hilasterion is used. It is the word employed by the LXX. translators in

Ex. 25:17 and elsewhere as the equivalent for the Hebrew kapporeth,

which means "covering," and is used of the lid of the ark of the covenant

(Ex. 25:21; 30:6). This Greek word (hilasterion) came to denote not only

the mercy-seat or lid of the ark, but also propitation or reconciliation by

blood. On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of

the sacrifice he offered for all the people within the veil and sprinkled

with it the "mercy-seat," and so made propitiation.

In 1 John 2:2; 4:10, Christ is called the "propitiation for our sins." Here a

different Greek word is used (hilasmos). Christ is "the propitiation,"

because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he

expiated our guilt, covered it, by the vicarious punishment which he

endured. (Comp. Heb. 2:17, where the expression "make reconciliation"

of the A.V. is more correctly in the R.V. "make propitiation.")

ATONEMENT - This word does not occur in the Authorized Version of the

New Testament except in Rom. 5:11, where in the Revised Version the

word "reconciliation" is used. In the Old Testament it is of frequent

occurrence.

The meaning of the word is simply at-one-ment, i.e., the state of being at

one or being reconciled, so that atonement is reconciliation. Thus it is

used to denote the effect which flows from the death of Christ.

But the word is also used to denote that by which this reconciliation is

brought about, viz., the death of Christ itself; and when so used it means

satisfaction, and in this sense to make an atonement for one is to make


1004

satisfaction for his offences (Ex. 32:30; Lev. 4:26; 5:16; Num. 6:11),

and, as regards the person, to reconcile, to propitiate God in his behalf.

By the atonement of Christ we generally mean his work by which he

expiated our sins. But in Scripture usage the word denotes the

reconciliation itself, and not the means by which it is effected. When

speaking of Christ's saving work, the word "satisfaction," the word used

by the theologians of the Reformation, is to be preferred to the word

"atonement." Christ's satisfaction is all he did in the room and in behalf

of sinners to satisfy the demands of the law and justice of God. Christ's

work consisted of suffering and obedience, and these were vicarious, i.e.,

were not merely for our benefit, but were in our stead, as the suffering

and obedience of our vicar, or substitute. Our guilt is expiated by the

punishment which our vicar bore, and thus God is rendered propitious,

i.e., it is now consistent with his justice to manifest his love to

transgressors. Expiation has been made for sin, i.e., it is covered. The

means by which it is covered is vicarious satisfaction, and the result of its

being covered is atonement or reconciliation. To make atonement is to do

that by virtue of which alienation ceases and reconciliation is brought

about. Christ's mediatorial work and sufferings are the ground or efficient

cause of reconciliation with God. They rectify the disturbed relations

between God and man, taking away the obstacles interposed by sin to

their fellowship and concord. The reconciliation is mutual, i.e., it is not

only that of sinners toward God, but also and pre-eminently that of God

toward sinners, effected by the sin-offering he himself provided, so that

consistently with the other attributes of his character his love might flow

forth in all its fullness of blessing to men. The primary idea presented to

us in different forms throughout the Scripture is that the death of Christ is

a satisfaction of infinite worth rendered to the law and justice of God

(q.v.), and accepted by him in room of the very penalty man had

incurred. It must also be constantly kept in mind that the atonement is not

the cause but the consequence of God's love to guilty men (John 3:16;

Rom. 3:24, 25; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9; 4:9). The atonement may also be

regarded as necessary, not in an absolute but in a relative sense, i.e., if

man is to be saved, there is no other way than this which God has

devised and carried out (Ex. 34:7; Josh. 24:19; Ps. 5:4; 7:11; Nahum 1:2,

6; Rom. 3:5). This is God's plan, clearly revealed; and that is enough for

us to know. (Easton’s Bible Dictionary shareware on the NET Resource

CD)

Raymond E. Brown, S.S.

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2a. and he himself is an atonement for our sins. [I John 2:2] As Balz,

Johannesbriefe 169, has recognized, we move now from the setting of

an advocate before a heavenly court to that of a high priest in a

heavenly temple; and Westcott, Epistles 44, is correct in insisting that

the manner in which Jesus is a paraklētos in 2:1 must be interpreted

through the reference to him as a hilasmos, “atonement,” in 2:2.

Bultmann, Epistles 23, exaggerates when he sees a contradiction

between forgiveness of sins through intercession (2:1 from the

epistolary author) and atonement for sins through blood (2:2 from the

Ecclesiastical Redactor). Those ideas were already joined in the

intertestamental Judaism where the martyrs made intercession at the

moment they wee shedding their blood, e.g., IV Macc. 6:28-29 in

which Eleazar says as he faces martyrdom, “Be merciful [adj. related

to hilasmos] to Your people and let our punishment suffice for them;

make my blood serve as a cleansing for them and take my life for

theirs.” … And if paraklētos has a more forensic back ground, the

introduction of hilasmos into such a setting is not unattested, e.g., Ps

130:3-4: “If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But

with you there is mercy [hilasmos] for the sake of your name.”

Let me begin with reflection on the word hilasmos itself and then

turn to the Johannine context. Since the author was describing Jesus,

a person, one might have expected him to use the concrete term

hilastēr (one who offers atonement) rather than the abstract hilasmos

(atonement/atoning action). The answer to this may lie in the fact that

like the neuter “what” in 1:1, the abstract noun is more complexive

(Clavier, “Notes” 295-97; THLJ 41) and catches the fact that Jesus is

victim as well as priest. A glance at the Bibliography for this unit will

suggest that hilasmos is not a term easily understood. English

translations for it include: atonement, atoning sacrifice, expiation,

propitiation, remedy for defilement, sacrifice for sin; and in antiquity

the Latin translations reflected a similar range of meanings:

deprecation, exoratio, placation, propitiatio. A series of Greek words

from the same root must be considered:

� hilaskesthai, a verb used 11 times in the LXX and twice in the NT

(never in the Johannine writings): Luke 18:13 “God be merciful to

me a sinner”; and Heb 2:17: Jesus became “a merciful and faithful

high priest in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of

the people.”

� exilaskesthai, which with over 100 uses in the LXX is ten times

more frequent than hilaskesthai. It is never used in the NT but

appears in the Apostolic Fathers: I Clem 7:7: “The people of

Ninevah … when they repented, they propitiated God and gained


1006

salvation”; Hermas, Vis. 1:2:1: “How shall I propitiate God for the

sins I have committed?”

� hilastērion, a noun used 27 times in the LXX (22 of which refer to

the mercy seat or cover of the Ark of the Covenant) and twice in the

NT (never in the Johannine writings): Rom 3:24-25: “The

redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as an

expiation (propitiation) by his blood, to be received by faith”; Heb

9:5: “Above the Ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the

mercy seat.”

� hilasmos, a noun used 10 times in the LXX and twice in the NT,

both in I John: the present passage and 4:10: “God loved us and sent

His Son as an atonement for our sins.”

� hileōs, an adjective used some 35 times in the LXX, particularly to

describe God as He turns His anger from His people. It is used

twice in the NT (never in the Johannine writings) : Matt 16:22:

“[May God] be merciful to you, Lord”; Heb 8:12 (citing Jer

31[48]:34: “I will be merciful towards their wrongdoings [adikia].”

The root of the Greek word is related to hilaros and hilaroun

(English “hilarity”) and so has something to do with rendering

pleasant. (The Epistles of John, The Anchor Bible, Raymond E.

Brown, Volume 30, pp 217-21)

The Negative Evidence Against the Governmental Theory

EXEMPLUM Atonement

“Barlaam and Josaphat, a spiritual romance popular during the

Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). Barlaam and Josaphat is an

exemplum (narrative used to tell a moral or sustain an argument) that has

been compared to The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Both tales

develop the theme of man's struggle to attain eternal life and are

enlivened by imaginative episodes. Josaphat, according to the legend, is a

prince of India who has been raised and educated with the aim of making

him content with his present life. To this end he has been kept ignorant of

the evils that beset humanity and lives isolated in a palace surrounded by

all of the pleasures that his father's great wealth can command.

Accidentally, however, he encounters human misery in the form of a

leper, a blind man, and an old decrepit man. Barlaam, a hermit, teaches

the young prince that life is a time of probation leading to happiness for

those who resist earthly allurements and who surmount the disasters that

test the souls of humans. After many conflicts, Josaphat retires from the

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world with his teacher, ending his life as a hermit of extraordinary

wisdom and sanctity.

The original version of this legend, which is based on the life of

Buddha, was written in India probably between 100 bc and ad 100. It was

introduced into the Byzantine Empire, then in close contact with India,

about ad 600. The story was translated into Greek and Christianized by a

Greek monk and then translated into Latin by Anastasius, librarian to the

pope, about 1100. During the 13th century, abridgements of the story

were included in two popular medieval miscellanies: the Mirror of

History by Vincent of Beauvais and the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend)

by the archbishop of Genoa, Jacobus de Voragine. Both of these editors

treated the tale as historical and regarded Barlaam and Josaphat as saints.

As such they were admitted to the Roman Martyrology of 1574. The

story has been translated into most of the European and Asian languages.

It is the source of certain tales in the works of Giovanni Boccaccio and

John Gower and of portions of the Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the

Romans). It also supplied the plot of the morality play Everyman.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved.

2 Cor 11:3 But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by

his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure

devotion to Christ. 11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims another

Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a

different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than

the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough! 11:5 For I

consider myself not at all inferior to those “super-apostles.” 11:6 And

even if I am unskilled in speaking, yet I am certainly not so in

knowledge. Indeed, we have made this plain to you in everything in

every way. 11:7 Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that

you could be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you

free of charge? … 11:13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful

workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 11:14 And no

wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 11:15

Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as

servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions.

“The Necessity for Atonement”

First of all, penalty, as an element of law, appeals to an instinctive

fear. Far better is it that evil tendencies should be restrained, and

outward conformity to law secured, through such fear than not at all.

We therefore hold all divine punishment to have a strictly rectoral


1008

function. Punishment is the resource of all righteous government. The

whole change in the divine economy is this – that on the sole ground

of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ all who repent and believe may be

forgiven and saved. 230

Dr. John Miley,

Arminian theologian

“The Necessity for At-one-ment”

God has never proposed the amendment of sinners now, nor will He

in eternity. He has provided at infinite cost a perfect regeneration and

new creation through faith in Christ. This may be received or

rejected by men. 231

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer,

Grace theologian

This writer:

In the above quotations, one theologian, a “minister of righteous-

ness,” would suggest that personal righteousness by reformation is the

individual’s right relation to God. The second theologian would suggest

that only by divine regeneration received through faith does one belong

to God, and thereby, one may have a right relation to God. God Himself

would proclaim that the wisdom of men is foolishness: “Guard against

self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in

this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. For the

wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches

the wise in their craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows that the

thoughts of the wise are futile. So then, no more boasting about mere

mortals! For everything belongs to you, whether Paul or Apollos or

Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.

Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs

to God” (1 Cor 3:18-23 NET).

In the denial of the primary truth of the substitutionary penal death of

Christ, that provides for redemption in His shed blood, the Rectoral or

Governmental theory creates a void that must be filled. Thus the required

substitutionary meritorious life (the idolized EXEMPLUM) of the

successful Arminian advocate is made to be primary. Primary because

this is what determines salvation. For the unfortunate Arminian failure,

he is relegated to his original unsaved estate. By extension, this logic

predicates the exact opposite of that which the Arminian would fervently

deny – Calvinist predestination. Luther did not agree with Calvin’s later

doctrine of predestination. They were in agreement on the primary truth

of a salvation secured in the death and shed blood of Christ.

1009

The Arminian primary assertion that salvation can be lost and

Calvin’s secondary truth of predestination, logically state the same thing.

There is no difference. Why? Because of what is overlooked in the

notion of the revolving door of Arminian salvation. “The Lord gives and

the Lord takes away.” What professing Christian would deny that God

chooses the time of one’s death? As repulsive as this statement will be to

an Arminian concept of salvation, it is logically true: the successful

Arminian is elected and predestined by God to receive salvation! This is

to say that God chooses - not that one comes to belief – but that one dies

in either a saved or unsaved estate. This is undeniably true, as it matters

not whether the sovereignty of God in salvation is front loaded or back

loaded, God’s sovereignty yet remains the deciding factor. The

Arminian, albeit unrealized and unstated, believes in a predestined

salvation for the elect in agreement with the extreme five-point Calvinist.

The single rational approach, to be completed as quickly as possible,

is to do as God commands – obey the gospel of the grace of God. Then

and only then, is one eternally secured in a salvation that is the work of

God. Exactly as it is promised and declared in the NT. Not only may one

choose the time of the new birth and regeneration, but simultaneously,

one chooses his time of death, and thus, secures salvation. The Apostle

Paul was not using a metaphor when he stated this thought very clearly

and unmistakably, “For through the law I died to the law so that I may

live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who

live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live

because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave

Himself for me. I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness

could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!” (Gal 2:19-21

NET).

Based on the following forensic axioms, derived from natural law, I

will construct a defining statement of the source of the subtle exterior

distinctions between the negative and positive gospel. What is hidden

below the surface is a colossal, unforgivable Christian error. Correct

Christology goes much deeper than the fact that Christ was fully man and

fully God. Shallow orthodoxy is no warrant to profit from the preaching

of a false gospel. The reason for His death and what it accomplished for

man is paramount, not opinion. Dr. Lewis Chafer writes regarding the

opinion proposed by the Governmental theory of atonement: “It would

be simple, indeed, to devise a scheme by which sinless unfallen human

beings may reach heaven on the basis of their worthiness; but God is

undertaking to bring sinful, fallen beings into glory, and the plan He has

devised, of necessity, can take no account either of human merit or

demerit. Immeasurable grace is manifested in the provision of a righteous


1010

way by which fallen men may be translated from a ruined estate to a new

creation; but, after one is translated, there is no passing back and forth

from one estate to the other as changing merit or demerit might seem to

require.”232

To desecrate God’s plan of salvation, as Arminian

Christianity has done, is the crime of the ages. It is to eat from the table

prepared by the blood of Protestant martyrs who were burned alive by

the advocates of self-salvation and a Negative gospel of righteousness.

The hypocrites who take their salaries and pensions should well enjoy

them now. If the Negative gospel be a proven lie, and the very words of

Jesus define a lie as Satan’s natural language, what should one conclude

about those who defend the Negative gospel? But, most importantly,

God’s great commission, His witness to the world, contemporary

Protestant Christianity, suffers the argument of the Grotian Govern-

mental theory that leads to the sadly under-appreciated dilemma of an

impoverished unsecured salvation that trades Penitence for proof of

divine Forgiveness. That God’s Great Commission suffers a false gospel

is intolerable sin.

Axiom 1: A lie is inverted truth.

Axiom 2: The dirty get dirtier, the clean get cleaner.

For a stated two fold atonement that precludes substitution but

encompasses the illogical distinctions between penal and sacrificial, all

of the following meanings apply:

1. Exemplum – an example or illustration, a brief story to support a

moral point or argument

2. Except (syn.) – excused, exempted, excepted, released, off the hook

(informal), relieved, not liable, discharged, let off, immune, freed

3. antonym: required 233

The theory of EXEMPLUM atonement does not agree with what is

revealed in the NT order of events. The three concepts and chronology of

a biblically required Completed Satisfaction at-one-ment are:

Forgiveness-Past, Faith-Present, and Future-Perfect. These F and P

couplets are rearranged in this “subjective theory,” and the meaning of

the substitutionary penal death of Christ, to be washed clean by His past

shed blood once and for all future times - is omitted. But most critically,

the eternal wrath of God that is upon those born into the darkness of

eternal Judgment is denied. Also, the divine unity of the Godhead with

the Body and Bride of Christ as those born into the light of the eternal

Righteousness of Christ is denied.

1011

The theory of EXEMPLUM atonement proposes that the past-perfect

life and the death of Christ accomplished an EXEMPLUM that has

excepted the salutary rights of Government, so as, to allow the all loving

Father to future-forgive penitent sinners of past personal sins. As the

following words excerpted from the previous citation of Dr. Miley will

demonstrate:

(1) “The demerit of sin imposes no obligation of punishment upon the

divine Ruler; but the protection of rights and interests by means of

merited penalty is a requirement of his judicial rectitude”

(2) “The rectoral ends of moral government are a profounder

imperative with justice itself than the retribution of sin, simply as

such.”

(3) “And with no absolute necessity for the punishment of sin, it

seems clear that but for the requirement of rectoral justice com-

passion would triumph over the disposition of a purely retributive

justice. Hence this alleged [completed satisfaction] absolute necessity

for an atonement is really no necessity at all.” (brackets mine)

From the information above, I submit the following summary statements

for comparison:

EXEMPLUM atonement accomplishes a Past-Perfect EXEMPLUM, Future-

Forgiveness for Present-Faith AND PENITENCE/ LORDSHIP grounded on

Savior-like behavior.

Completed Satisfaction at-one-ment accomplishes a Forgiveness-Past for

Present-Faith and Future-Perfect grounded on redemption in the blood of

the Savior.

One may readily see the only commonality is the unalterable

chronology and concept, Present-Faith. To which, violence has been

done to this logically inseparable condition. It is altered by the addition

of a separate required act of non-biblical, self-absorbed sorrow in either

penitence and/or Lordship making. By comparison, the final induction to

be made is that both statements above cannot be true. In the Exemplum

atonement, Future-Forgiveness is conditioned by continued Present-Faith

and Penitence. In this theory Christ becomes the EXEMPLUM and the

believer a living impersonation of Christ – thus the statement for

salvation is: Salvation by EXEMPLUM is in continued faith. Which is far


1012

removed from the opposing statement, where the believer in a normal

state of being led by the Spirit is the personification of Jesus Christ:

Salvation in Christ is for faith.i The Word of Truth declares: “But the

fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no

law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its

passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in

accordance with the Spirit” (Gal 5:22-25).

The Good News is not sorrowful, nor is Lordship making for the

unsaved. The Good News is Christ redeemed “whosoever will believe”

forever from the eternal damnation of inherited sin. The distinction yet to

be admitted by the willfully ignorant and antichrist, is that personal sins

are not the all-determining judgment of condemnation. Men are

condemned before they are born and must be regenerated in this life. In

conception, the Negative gospel is a distortion and only a superficial

anti-gospel of the gospel of the grace of God. It is a scheme whereby

good people may be respectable because they continue to go to church

and the unquantified really good may go to heaven and live happily in a

nebulous ever after because they died in a self-maintained “state of

grace.” The only Arminian that is referred to as a man of God is the

preacher. The laity are allowed only to be godly. This false gospel

message is one and the same preached by the antichrists revealed to be

“already in the world” 2,000 years ago in the NT. Any gospel that

distorts the person (birth) or the work (death) of Christ is a distortion of

Christianity. It is a false Christology. Christ came to save men not from

personal sins that are the outworking of a ruined humanity, but to

manifest the gospel of grace that men might believe in Him for salvation

and not perish. He came and died that men might be transformed by faith

into a “new creation.” Only through trust in Christ as Savior may men

“metanoia” (turn to the opposite direction) and enter - once and for all

time - the light of eternal Righteousness from the darkness of eternal

Judgment by the miracle of the new birth; but only by the gospel of the

grace of God may men learn why. Personal sin then becomes a matter of

communion in the eternal union of a believer and God - after salvation.

The Oracles of Truth would tell us to “test the spirits.” In the case of

the Negative gospel of righteousness, as it is structured on individual

future behavior, the prophetic accuracy of salvation is inherently

unknowable. God has given His “little children” another test, a second

test to be applied to a false spirit. This is to ask and determine, “Does that

spirit recommend idolatry?” The “spirit of deceit” will recommend

i see Book One – Glorious Grace, subsection - Declaration of Grace

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idolatry. If self-reliance for admission into heaven is not idolatry, then

excessive admiration for ability is not idolatry, and language means

nothing - as in “American Idol” and tens of millions of pay-per-vote calls

are nonsense. The antichrist in the passage cited below, would not

confess Jesus as Savior, or Christ. The anti-gospel derived from the

theory of Governmental atonement does not confess Christ as the penal

substitute for the judgment of sin and, holds back the reservation of

personal behavior as a contribution to Jesus as the Savior for all

mankind. This theory rejects the imputation of any sin to Christ. This

theory will not confess that Christ was “made to be sin” and that He was

“the lamb that was slain for the sins of world.” This theory does not

confess the dozens of imputed righteousness verses based on the

substitutionary death of Christ. This theory would deny the very heart of

the death of Christ – the justification of the unjust. Instead, this theory

advocates idolatry - personal righteousness based on Christ as the Past-

Perfect EXEMPLUM.

The Messiah of the OT was never expected to be dependent upon

Israel for help to fulfill the promised salvation of that nation. Surely they

expected to be used by God, but that is the very point - God chose to use

them. A replication of God, as in the reformation of behavior, was never

the “ground” of God’s choice. In the OT, God structured victories for

Israel in such a way, that Israel could not claim the glory. “Salvation is of

Jehovah” and “Thou shall have no other God before me.” In the NT, in

the book of Hebrews, the OT saints in the Hall of Faith of chapter 11 are

never, repeat never, commended for their faithfulness to the Law. The

universal question asked by Christ, “Who do you say I am?” is answered

falsely in the EXEMPLUM theory of atonement and the gospel of the

forgiveness of personal sins for the reformation of mankind is not His

gospel of the new creation for the transformation of mankind.

The following is NT proof that the Negative gospel does not confess

Jesus to be the Christ “come in the flesh,” predicted in Isaiah 53:5. The

Hebrew “causal” preposition translated “because of” for deeds, sins,

wounds, and healing is denied to be the imputed need for and the cause

of - His substitutionary penal death to effect salvation for the removal of

men from “the power of Satan to God;” when they are “born from

above” with the ability to “see” and “enter the Kingdom of God,”

thereby, “creating in Himself one new man out of two” from “those who

are called, wrapped in the love of God the Father and kept for Jesus

Christ”:

Isa 53:5 He was wounded because of15 our rebellious deeds,

crushed because of16 our sins;


1014

he endured punishment that made us well;17

because of his wounds we have been healed.18 NET

15tn The preposition [Heb.] /m has a causal sense here.

16tn The preposition [Heb.] /m has a causal sense here.

17tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” [Heb.] <wlv,

“peace,” is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our

peace.”

18sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group

acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4)

resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.

(brackets mine)

2 Cor 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. NET

Luke 1:79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the

shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace. NET

Acts 26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light

and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive

forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by

faith in me.’ NET

Eph 2:15ff He did this to create in himself one new man out of two,

thus making peace, NET

Col 1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred

us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, 1:14 in whom we have

redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NET

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit,1 but test the

spirits3 to determine if they are from God, because many false

prophets have gone out into the world. 4:2 By this you know the

Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ8 who has

come in the flesh is from God, 4:3 but every spirit that does not

confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist,

which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world. 4:4

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because

the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 4:5

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world’s

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perspective and the world listens to them. 4:6 We are from God; the

person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God

does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit

of deceit.16 NET

16sn Who or what is the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit in 1 John

4:6? (1) Some interpreters regard the “spirits” in 4:6 as human spirits. Although 4:1a is ambiguous and might refer either to human spirits or

spiritual beings who influence people, it is clear in the context that (2) the

author sees behind the secessionist opponents with their false Christology

the spirit of the Antichrist, that is, Satan (4:3b), and behind the true

believers of the community to which he is writing, the Spirit of God .

This is made clear in 4:4 by the reference to the respective spirits as the

One who is in you and the one who is in the world.

1sn 1 John 4:1-6. These verses form one of three units within 1 John that

almost all interpreters consider a single unit and do not divide up (the

other two are 2:12-14 and 15-17). The subject matter is so clearly

different from the surrounding context that these clearly constitute

separate units of thought. Since the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit active in the world, the author needs to qualify for the recipients how to

tell if a spirit comes from God. The “test” is the confession in 4:2.

3sn Test the spirits. Since in the second half of the present verse the

author mentions “false prophets” who have “gone out into the world,” it

appears highly probable that his concept of testing the spirits is drawn

from the OT concept of testing a prophet to see whether he is a false

prophet or a true one. The procedure for testing a prophet is found in

Deut 13:2-6 and 18:15-22. An OT prophet was to be tested on the basis

of (a) whether or not his predictive prophecies came true (Deut 18:22)

and (b) whether or not he advocated idolatry (Deut 13:1-3). In the latter

case the people of Israel are warned that even if the prophet should perform an authenticating sign or wonder, his truth or falsity is still to be

judged on the basis of his claims, that is, whether or not he advocates

idolatry. Here in 1 John the idea of “testing the spirits” comes closer to

the second OT example of “testing the prophets” mentioned above.

According to 1 John 4:2-3, the spirits are to be tested on the basis of their

christological confession: The person motivated by the Spirit of God will

confess Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh, while the person

motivated by the spirit of deceit will not confess Jesus and is therefore

not from God. ...

8tn This forms part of the author’s christological confession which

serves as a test of the spirits. Many interpreters have speculated that the author of 1 John is here correcting or adapting a slogan of the

secessionist opponents, but there is no concrete evidence for this in the

text. Such a possibility is mere conjecture (see R. E. Brown, Epistles of


1016

John [AB], 492).… This is discounted by R. E. Brown because the verb

in John 9:22 occurs between the two accusative objects rather than

preceding both as here (Epistles of John [AB], 493—although Brown does mention Rom 10:9 as another parallel closer in grammatical

structure to 1 John 4:2). Brown does not mention the textual variants in

John 9:22, however: Both Ì66 and Ì75 (along with K, Ë13 and others)

read (homologēsē auton Christon). This structure exactly parallels 1 John

4:2, and a case can be made that this is actually the preferred reading in

John 9:22; furthermore, it is clear from the context in John 9:22 that

Χριοτν is the complement (what is predicated of the first accusative)

since the object (the first accusative) is αύτόνn rather than the proper

name ΄Ιησοϋν. The parallel in John 9:22 thus appears to be clearer than

either 1 John 4:2 or 2 John 7, and thus to prove useful in understanding

both the latter constructions.

2 John 1:9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the

teaching of Christ30 does not have God. The one who remains in this

teaching has both the Father and the Son. 1:10 If anyone comes to

you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your

house and do not give him any greeting, 1:11 because the person who

gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds. NET

30tn The genitive tou' Cristou' (tou Cristou, “of Christ”) is

difficult because it may be understood as objective (the teaching about

Christ), subjective (Christ’s own teaching), or both (M. Zerwick’s

“general” genitive [Biblical Greek §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary”

genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). An objective genitive (with Christ as the object

of the “apostolic” teaching) might seem to be the obvious reading in context, especially since verse 7 makes reference to what a person

“confesses” about Jesus Christ. A good case can also be made for a

subjective genitive, however, since other Johannine uses of the genitive

following the noun didachv (didach, “teaching”) favor a subjective

sense here. In John 7:16, 17 Jesus himself refers to “my teaching” and “teaching from me,” and 18:19 refers to “his (Jesus’) teaching.” Rev

2:14, 15 refers to the “teaching of Balaam” and “the teaching of the

Nicolaitans,” both of which are clearly subjective in context. In the

present context, to speak of “Christ's teaching” as a subjective genitive

would make Christ himself (in the person of the indwelling Spirit) the

teacher, and this is consistent with the author’s position in 1 John 2:27

that the community does not need other teachers. In 1 John 2:27 it is the

Paraclete, referred to as “his anointing,” who does the teaching. Since the

dispute with the opponents concerns the salvific significance of the

earthly life and ministry of Jesus, the “teaching” here would refer to

1017

Jesus’ own teaching (reflected in the Gospel of John) concerning his

person and work. Since this is ultimately one with the apostolic

eyewitness testimony about Jesus, it is perhaps best to view the genitive

here as both objective and subjective (perhaps the author deliberately

intended not to be specific).

Jude 1:1 From Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to

those who are called, wrapped in the love of God the Father and kept

for Jesus Christ. NET

John 9:22 (His parents said these things because they were afraid of

the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already

agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put

out of the synagogue. NET

The idea expressed behind “confess Jesus to be the Christ” is not

directed against admittance to the Person of Jesus, nor to the EXEMPLUM

of Jesus, but to Jesus as the one who was to accomplish the salvific work

of the Messiah, revealed in the OT. The unvarnished determination is

that a gospel, or a paradigmatici theory, a “form” of Christianity, that

does not place belief in the finished work of Christ to save men from

eternal damnation is the “spirit of the antichrist.” Irrespective that it

parades itself as a religion of Christianity. What else should it do?

Denounce itself as a look-alike evil? The Governmental theory advocates

idolatry of the EXEMPLUM. Which is the behavior of the christ-like

adherent who wins a Future-Forgiveness, a Super Bowl salvation to

which the Past-Perfect, EXEMPLUM, the Great Example, Jesus only

contributed the example. This form of Christianity exalts the Person of

Christ, not the work of Christ. This theory advocates personal behavior

not a Savior. Men die physically because of Adam’s sin. Men are born

with a dead spirit because of Adam’s sin. Men die and their souls go to

hell because all men were present when Adam sinned. How may the

forgiveness of personal sins based on behavior in the Governmental

theory, held so dear by the Arminians, address this dilemma? By

EXEMPLUM perhaps? With the denial of plain Scriptural fact, has been

the response for centuries. This theory based in fear, not joy, owes much

of its commercial success to Hugo Grotius and the natural law of an evil

world system. The final conclusion is - the spirit of EXEMPLUM is the

i 2. model that forms basis of something: an example that serves as a pattern or

model for something, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


1018

spirit of deceit. Only the Person of Jesus is held up for faith. There is no

redemption in the blood of Jesus, no faith in the finished work of Jesus,

and no salvation as the work of God in the regeneration of a believer.

Contrary to the Governmental theory, redemption, reconciliation, and

propitiation are three completed aspects of the once and for all sacrifice

of Christ that makes up the entirety of salvation as the finished work of

Christ. This is the essence, the very heart, of the gospel message to be

received and believed by the unsaved. The thief on the cross, who went

to paradise, died after Christ. And this, after Christ had said, “It is

finished.” All men condemned by the triple jeopardy imposed upon the

triad of sin, that was brought into this world by Satan - original, nature,

and personal - stand, at the cross 2000 years ago, universally forgiven

during the probationary period of mortal life. Thereby, God is obligated,

not to a twofold purpose - to send His Son to the cross as an EXEMPLUM

for men and release the Father to forgive men - quite to the contrary, the

Father has joyfully obligated Himself to forgive those who “obey the

gospel of the grace of God,” to believe in the One He sent to receive

salvation as the work of God for all the promised benefits of an eternal

salvation based on the justification of the sinful in the finished work of

Christ His Son.

The Governmental Theory Denies the Substitutionary Blood Redemption of Christ and Regeneration by the Power of God

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

Satan has always adapted his methods to the times and conditions.

If attention has been gained, a complete denial of the truth has been

made, or, when some recognition of the truth is demanded, it has been

granted on the condition that that which is vital in redemption should

be omitted. This partial recognition of the truth is required by the

world today. For, while the direct result of the believer’s testimony to

the cosmos has been toward the gathering out of the Bride, there has

been an indirect influence of this testimony upon the world, which

has led them to see that all that is good in their own ideals has been

already stated in the Bible and exemplified in the life of Christ.

Moreover, they have heard that every principle of humanitarian

sympathy or righteous govern-ment has been revealed in the

Scriptures of Truth. Thus there has grown a more or less popular

appreciation of the value of these moral precepts of the Scriptures and

of the example which Christ presents. This condition has prevailed to

such a degree that any new system or doctrine which secures a

1019

hearing today must base its claim upon the Bible, and include, to

some extent, the Person and teachings of Christ. The fact that the

world has thus partly acknowledged the value of the Scriptures is

taken by many to be a glorious victory for God, while, on the

contrary, fallen humanity is less inclined to accept God’s terms of

salvation than in the generations past. It is evident that this partial

concession of the world to the testimony of God has opened the way

for counterfeit systems of truth, which, according to the prophecy, are

the last and most-to-be-dreaded methods in the satanic warfare. In

this connection it must be conceded that Satan has really granted

nothing from his own position, even though he be forced to acknow-

ledge every principle of truth save that upon which salvation depends.

Rather is he advantaged by such a concession; for the value and

delusion of a counterfeit are increased by the nearness of its likeness

to the real. By advocating much truth, in the form of a counterfeit

system of truth, Satan can satisfy all the external religious cravings of

the world, and yet accomplish his own end by withholding that on

which man’s only hope depends. It is, therefore, no longer safe to

subscribe blindly to that which promises general good, simply

because it is good and is garnished with the teachings of the Bible; for

good has ceased to be all on the one side and evil all on the other. In

fact, that which is evil in purpose has gradually appropriated the good

until but one issue distinguishes them. Part-truth-ism has come into

final conflict with whole-truth-ism, and woe to the soul that does not

discern between them! The first, though externally religious, is of

Satan, and leaves its followers in the doom of everlasting banishment

from the presence of God, while the latter is of God, “having promise

of the life that now is, and that which is to come.”

It is also noticeable that the term “infidel” has, within a generation,

disappeared from common usage, and that the manner of open denial

of the truth has been almost wholly abandoned. Yet the real Church

has by no means lost her foes, for they are now even more numerous,

subtle, and terrible than ever before. These present enemies, however,

like the unclean birds in the mustard tree, have taken shelter under her

branches. They are officiating at her most sacred altars and conduct-

ing her institutions. These vultures are fed by a multitude, both in the

church and out, who, in satanic blindness, are committed to the

furtherance of any project or the acceptance of any theory that

promises good to the world if it is apparently based upon Scripture,

little realizing that they are often supporting the enemy of God.

A counterfeit is Satan’s most natural method of resisting the

purpose of God, since by it he can realize to the extent his desire to be


1020

like the Most High. Every material is now at hand, as never before,

for the setting up of those conditions which are predicted to appear

only in the very end of the age. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 one of these

predictions may be found: “This know also, that in the last days

perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own

selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to pa-

rents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,

false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of

God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from

such turn away.” Here it is stated that in these last days forms of

godliness shall appear which, however, deny the power of God, and

from such the believer is warned to turn away. The important element

in the true faith which is to be omitted in this “form” is defined

elsewhere in the Scriptures: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of

Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that

believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16); “But

we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto

the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which area called, both Jews

and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor

1:23-24). Therefore, that which is omitted so carefully from these

forms is the salvation which is in Christ. This is most suggestive, for

“there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby

we must be saved,” and it is by salvation alone that any deliverance

can be had from the power of darkness. Without this salvation Satan

can still claim all his own. It is perhaps necessary to add that, judging

from all his writings, this salvation of which Paul confesses he was

not ashamed was no less an undertaking than regeneration by the

Spirit; and whatever other theories may be advanced, this is the

teaching of the Spirit through the Apostle Paul. This prophecy

concerning conditions in the “last days” ends with an injunction

which is addressed only to the believers who are called upon to live

and witness during those days. To them it is said: “from such [a form

of godliness which denies the power thereof] turn away.” As certainly

as the last days are now present, so certainly this injunction is now to

be heeded, and the Lord’s people are called upon to separate from

churches and institutions which deny the gospel of God’s saving

grace through the substitutionary blood redemption of the cross. To

support institutions or ministries which “deny the power thereof,” is

to lend aid to Satan – the enemy of God. With no less force it is stated

in 2 Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people,

even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall

1021

bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them

and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” In the manner,

according to this passage, the denial falls not on the Person of Christ,

but rather on His redeeming work – “the Lord that bought them.” It

therefore follows that one feature of the last days will be a form of

godliness which carefully denies the power of God in salvation.

Again, Satan is “in the latter times” to be the promoter of a system

of truth or doctrine: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the

latter times some shall depart from the faith [the gospel of the grace

of God, this writer], giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of

devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their consciences seared

with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:1-2). These predicted satanic systems are

here accurately described. Their offers will be so attractive and

externally so religious that into them will be drawn some who “shall

depart from the faith,” they being enticed by seducing spirits. No

reference is made here to personal faith by which one may be saved.

It is “the faith” – a body of truth (cf. Jude 1:3) which is first seen to

some extent, and then rejected. This a regenerate person will never

do. These attractive systems are not only from Satan, but are

themselves “lies in hypocrisy,” being presented by those whose

conscience has been seared with a hot iron. No more illuminating

terms could be used than these. A lie covered by hypocrisy means,

evidently, that they are still attempting to be counted among the

faithful; and the conscience seared would indicate that they can

distort the testimony of God and blindly point other souls to perdition,

without present remorse or regret. The doctrines of devils are again

referred to in Revelation 2:24, R.V. as “the deep things of Satan,” and

this is Satan’s counterfeit of “the deep things of God” which the Spirit

reveals to them that love Him (1 Cor 2:10). Thus there are predicted

for the last days of this age both a form of godliness which denies the

power of salvation that is in Christ, and a system known as ‘the deep

things of Satan” or “doctrines of the devils,” speaking lies in

hypocrisy. Can there be any doubt that these two Scriptures describe

the same thing, since they also refer to the same time? The lies of one

can be but the covered denial of salvation in the other.

Again, Satan has his assembly, or congregational meeting, which

is his counterfeit of the visible church. This assembly is referred to,

both in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, as the “synagogue of Satan,” an

organized assembly being relatively as important for testimony in the

deep things of Satan as it has been in the things of God. In Matthew

13 the tares appear among the wheat and their appearance is said to

after the sowing of the wheat. So, also, the “children of the wicked


1022

one” appear and are often included and even organized within the

forms of the visible church. The assembly of Satan, calling itself part

of the visible church, is to have its ministers and teachers. This is

sated in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: “For such are false apostles,

deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of

light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be

transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be

according to their works.” Here is a remarkable revelation of the

possible extent of the satanic counterfeit – “false apostles, deceitful

workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” and

“ministers of righteousness”; yet these are shown to be only agents of

the great deceiver, Satan, who is himself transformed into an angel of

light. It is evident that the method of this deception is to imitate the

real ministers of Christ. Certainly these false apostles cannot so

appear unless they gather into their message every available “form of

godliness” and cover their lies with the most subtle hypocrisy. Evil

will not appear on the outside of these systems; but they will be

announced as “another gospel” or as a larger understanding of the

previously accepted truth, and will be all the more attractive and

delusive since they are heralded by those who claim to be ministers of

Christ, who reflect the beauty of an “angel of light,” and whose lives

are undoubtedly free from great temptation. It should be noted,

however, that these false ministers do not necessarily know the real

mission they have. Being unregenerate persons of the cosmos, and

thus blinded to the real gospel, they are sincere, preaching and

teaching the best things the angel of light, their energizing power, is

pleased to reveal unto them. Their gospel is one of human reason, and

appeals to human resources. There can be no appreciation for divine

revelation in them, for they have not come really to know God or His

Son, Jesus Christ. They are ministers of righteousness, which

message should never be confused with the gospel of grace. One is

directed only at the reformation of the natural man, while the other

aims at regeneration through the power of God. As all this is true,

how perilous is the attitude of many who follow attractive ministers

and religious guides only because they claim to be such and are

sincere, and who are not awake to the one final test of doctrine by

which alone the whole covert system of satanic lies may be

distinguished from the truth of God! In this connection John writes

the following warning: “If there come unto you, and bring not this

doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed”

(2 John 1:10).

1023

False teachers are usually sincere and full of humanitarian zeal;

but they are unregenerate. This judgment necessarily follows when it

is understood that they deny the only ground of redemption. Being

unregenerate, it is said of them: “But the natural man receiveth not

the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither

can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor

2:14). Such religious leaders may be highly educated and able to

speak with authority on every aspect of human knowledge; but if they

are not born again, their judgment in spiritual matters is worthless and

misleading. Al teachers are to judged by their attitude toward the

doctrine of the blood redemption of Christ, rather than by their

winsome personalities, their education, or their sincerity.

Since the blood redemption of the cross is the central truth and

value of the true faith, it being the power of God unto salvation”

(Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:23-24), any counterfeit system of doctrine which

would omit this essential, must force some secondary truth into the

place of prominence. Any of the great Scriptural subjects which are of

universal interest to humanity, such as physical health, life after

death, morality, unfulfilled prophecy, or religious forms, may be

substituted in the false system for that which is vital. And while these

subjects are all found in their proper relations and importance in the

true faith, the fact that people are universally inclined to give

attention to them furnishes an opportunity for Satan to make a strong

appeal to humanity through them, using these subjects as central

truths in his false and counterfeit systems. Many are easily led to fix

their attention upon the secondary things, and to neglect wholly the

one primary thing. Especially is this true since the secondary things

are tangible and seen, while the one essential thing is spiritual and

unseen; and Satan has blinded their eyes toward that which is of

eternal value. A system of doctrine may be formed, then, which

includes every truth of the Scriptures save one: exalting the Person of

Christ, but not His work, and thereby emphasizing some secondary

truth as its central value. This system will be readily accepted by

blinded humanity, though the real power of God unto salvation has

been carefully withdrawn. Naturally it would be supposed that such

Satan-inspired systems would have no value or power, since their

could be no divine favor upon them. Such a supposition would be

possible only because of the prevailing misunderstanding with respect

to the real power of Satan. If the description given of him in the

Scriptures is accepted, he will be seen to be possessed with

miraculous power, able to perform such marvels that the whole world

is led to wonder and then to worship. He is free also to bestow this


1024

miraculous power upon others (Rev 13:2). So it is no marvel if his

ministers, who appear as the ministers of righteousness, are able to

exert superhuman power when it is directly in the interests of the

satanic projects. The great power of Satan has doubtless been active

along these lines during all the ages past; for it is impossible that

humanity should have worshipped other gods blindly without some

recompense, and it is Satan himself who has been thus worshipped

(Lev 17:7; 2 Chron 11:15; Rev 9:20).

It is not final evidence, therefore, that a system of doctrine is of

God simply because there are accompanying manifestations of super-

human power, nor is it final evidence that the Almighty has

responded simply because any form of supplication has been

answered. The divine movements are, of necessity, limited by the

laws of His own holiness; and access into His presence is by the

blood of Christ alone, by a new living Way which was consecrated

for us through His flesh (Heb 10:19-20). Assuming to come before

God in prayer but ignoring this truth is but to insult with pollution

Him who is infinitely holy and pure. Surely the Satan-ruled world

does not come before God by the blood of Christ.

Churches sometimes fall an easy prey to forms of doctrine –

“deceivableness of unrighteousness” – which Satan originates. Sad is

the spectacle of churches meeting week after week to be beguiled by

the philosophy of men, and raising no voice in protest against the

denial of their only foundation as a church, and the individual’s only

hope for time and eternity! Far more honorable were the infidels of

the past generation than those who minister in these churches. They

were wholly outside the church. But now, behold the inconsistency!

Men who are covered by the vesture of the church, ministering its

sacraments, and supported by its benevolence, are making an open

attack upon that wisdom of God which made Christ Jesus the only

ground for all righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The

predictions for the last days are thus not only being fulfilled by false

systems and doctrines, but they are found in the visible church itself.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;

but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,

having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth,

and shall be turned into fables” (2 Tim 4:3-4). Great religious

activities are possible without coming into complication with saving

faith. It is possible to fight against sin and not present the Savior, or to

urge the highest Scriptural ideals and yet offer no reasonable way of

attainment. There is a strange fascination about these undertakings

which are humanitarian, and are religious only in form or title. And

1025

there is a strange attractiveness in the leader who announces that he is

not concerned with the doctrines of the Bible, because the helping of

humanity is his one passion and care; yet all his passion is lost and his

care is of no real end unless coupled with a very positive message of a

particular way of salvation, the true understanding of which demands

a series of most careful distinctions.

Who can be the God of these systems? The energizing power in

these people? And the answerer of their prayers? Surely not the God

of the Scriptures who cannot deny Himself, and whose Word cannot

be made to pass away! Revelation sets forth but one other being who

is capable of these undertakings; and it not only assigns to this being

a great and sufficient motive for all such activity, but clearly predicts

that he will thus “oppose” and “exalt himself” in this very day and

age. Much of the secondary truth is the present inheritance of the

child of God. However, if there is a choice to be made, the deepest

wisdom will perceive that all the combined secondary values which

Satan can offer are but for a fleeting time, and are not worthy to be

compared with the eternal riches of grace in Christ Jesus.

Certain religious systems which are in no way related to the Bible

and have continued for millenniums – including the ancient pagan

systems and spiritism – have held the devotion of uncounted millions

and bear every evidence of being inspired by Satan. The moral

problem, which is felt to some degree by every human being, is

seized upon by almost every unscriptural system. The idea that man

will stand on a basis of personal worthiness has been the chief heresy,

opposing the central doctrine of grace, from the time of Christ’s death

to the present hour. It so permeates the church that few who preach

are able to exclude it from their attempts at gospel preaching. It is

safe to say that wherever the element of human merit is allowed to

intrude into the presentation of the plan of salvation, the message is

satanic to that extent. The ministers of Satan proclaim personal

righteousness as the ground of the individual’s right relation to God

(2 Cor 11:13-15). No sphere of profession has been more confused

and befogged by the intrusion of human merit than has the Church of

Rome.

As has been observed, cults are now multiplying and their

appearance is restricted to very recent times. … There is but one acid

test, namely, What place does it give to the redeeming grace of God

made possible only through the death and shed blood of Christ? …

It may be concluded that, by creation, Satan is the highest of all

angels and that he fell into sin, being befogged by the distortion of

sanity which pride engenders. His sin took the form of an assumption


1026

to act in independence of the Creator – an undertaking which, of

necessity, became a concrete embodiment of untruth as certainly as

God is Truth. According to the divine method in dealing with creature

assumption, as seen in all past history, Satan is allowed – if not

required – to put his scheme of independent action to an experimental

test, and its present development, though manifesting even now its

corrupt nature, is yet incomplete. The inerrant, prophetic Scriptures

carry the stupendous enterprise on to the unavoidable, irrational,

incomprehensible spiritual bankruptcy which characterizes the

consummation of this gigantic experiment. During these terrible ages

of trial, Light is pitted against darkness, and Truth against falsehood.

Little attention can have been given to Scripture on the part of men

who propose to account for the evil one as a mere influence in the

world. Of such wicked inattention to revelation, Dr. Gerhart writes:

“In the history of Jesus the fact of the deadly hatred of Evil to the

ideal Good, of fiendlike wickedness towards spotless Virtue, no one

can deny. Those who choose to describe such appalling inhumanity

and diabolism exclusively to Jews and Gentiles, (instead of referring

it to a mighty personal evil spirit, as its background,) do not get rid, as

they suppose, of a devil. Then man is himself resolved into a devil;

for he is invested with a kind and degree of malice which

dehumanizes human nature, turns earth into pandemonium, and

history into an interminable war of incarnated fiends” (Institutes of

the Christian Religion, I, 697). Perhaps both things here stated are

true. Not only are Satan and his angels tot be seen in their true light as

fiends of darkness, but humanity as allied with them is evidently seen

by God to be wholly evil, if not diabolical. It is such who, having cast

in their lot with a satanic lie, must, if not saved out of it, share the

lake of fire which originally was prepared only for “the devil and his

angels” (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10). It is to these fallen, God-repudiating

human beings that the gospel of eternal redemption and heavenly

glory is to be preached. How matchless is the grace of God toward

these enemies (Rom 5:10)! And how incomprehensibly blessed are

the words of Christ, “… should not perish, but have everlasting life”!


Concluding Evidentiary Testimony and Disclosures

The Negative Gospel Preaches Regret for Sin, not Christ

Crucified for the Expiation of Sin

Dr. B. B. Warfield:

1027

“The widespread tendency to represent repentance as the atoning

fact might seem, then, to be accountable from the extensive

acceptance which has been given to the Rectoral theory of the

atonement. Nevertheless much of it has had a very different origin

and may be traced back rather to some such teaching as that, say, of

Dr. McLeod Campbell. Dr. Campbell did not himself find the atoning

fact in man’s own repentance, but rather in our Lord’s sympathetic

repentance for men. He replaced the evangelical doctrine of

substitution by a theory of sympathetic identification, and the

evangelical doctrine of expiatory penalty-paying by a theory of

sympathetic repentance. Christ so fully enters sympathetically into

our case, was his idea, that He is able to offer to God an adequate

repentance for our sins, and the Father says, It is enough! Man here is

still held to need a Saviour, and Christ is presented as that Saviour,

and is looked upon as doing for man what man cannot do for himself.

But the gravitation of this theory is distinctly downward, and has ever

tended to find its lower level. There are, therefore, numerous

transition theories prevalent – some of them very complicated … The

essential emphasis in all these transition theories falls obviously on

man’s own repentance rather than on Christ. Accordingly the latter

falls away easily and leaves us with human repentance only as the

sole atoning fact – the entire reparation which God asks or can ask for

sin. Nor do men hesitate today to proclaim this openly and boldly. …

Christ sympathetically enters into our condition, [Dr. Forsyth]

tells us, and gives expression to an adequate sense of sin. We,

perceiving the effect of this, His entrance into our sinful atmosphere,

are smitten with the horror of the judgment our sin has brought on

Him. This horror begets in us an adequate repentance of sin: God

accepts this repentance as enough; and forgives our sin. Thus

forgiveness rests proximately only on our repentance as its ground:

but our repentance is produced only by Christ’s sufferings: and hence,

Dr. Forsyth tells us, Christ’s sufferings may be called the ultimate

ground of forgiveness.

It is sufficiently plain that the function served by the sufferings

and death of Christ in this construction is somewhat remote. Accord-

ingly they quite readily fall away altogether. It seems quite natural

that they should do so with those whose doctrinal inheritance comes

from Horace Bushnell, say, or from the Socinian theorizing of the

school of Rischl. We feel no surprise to learn for example, that with

Harnack, the sufferings and death of Christ play no appreciable part.

With him the whole atoning act seems to consist in the removal of the


1028

false conception of God from the minds of men. Men, because

sinners, are prone to look upon God as a wrathful judge. He is, on the

contrary, just Love. How can the sinners misjudgment be corrected?

By the impression made upon him by the life of Jesus, keyed to the

conception of the divine Fatherhood. With all this we are familiar

enough. But we are hardly prepared for the extremities of language

which some permit themselves in giving expression to it. “The whole

difficulty,” a recent writer of this class declares, “is not inducing or

enabling God to pardon, but in moving men to abhor sin and to want

pardon.” Even this difficulty, however, we are assured is removable:

and what is needed for its removal is only proper instruction.

“Christianity,” cries our writer, “was a revelation, not a creation.”

Even this false antithesis does not, however, satisfy him. He rises

beyond it to the acme of his passion, “Would there have been no

Gospel,” he rhetorically demands – as if none could venture to say

him nay – “would there have been no Gospel had not Christ died?”

Thus “the blood of Christ’ on which the Scriptures hang the whole

atoning fact is thought no longer to be needed: the gospel of Paul,

which consisted not in Christ simpliciter but specifically in “Christ as

crucified,” is scouted. We are able to get along now without these

things.

To such a pass have we been brought by the prevailing gospel of

the indiscriminate love of God. For it is here that we place our finger

on the root of the whole modern assault upon the doctrine of an

expiatory atonement. In the attempt to give effect to the conception of

indiscriminate and indiscriminate love as the basal fact of religion,

1029

the entire Biblical teaching as to atonement has been torn up. If God

is love and nothing but love, what possible need can there be of an

atonement? Certainly such a God cannot need propitiating. Is not He

the All-Father? Is He not yearning for His children with an

unconditioned and unconditioning eagerness which excludes all

thought of “obstacles to forgiveness?” What does He want but – just

His children? Our modern theorizers are never weary of ringing the

changes on this single fundamental idea. God does not require to be

moved to forgiveness; or to be enabled to pardon; or even to be

enabled to pardon safely. He raises no question of whether He can

pardon, or whether it would be safe for Him to pardon. Such is not the

way of love. Love is bold enough to sweep all such chilling questions

impatiently out of its path. The whole difficulty is to induce men to

permit themselves to be pardoned. God is continually reaching

longing arms out of heaven toward men: oh, if men would only let

themselves be gathered into the Father’s eager heart! It is absurd, we

are told – nay, wicked – blasphemous with awful blasphemy – to

speak of propitiating a God such as this, of reconciling Him, of

making satisfaction to Him. Love needs no satisfying, reconciling,

propitiating; nay, will have nothing to do with such things. Of its very

nature it flows out unbought, unpropitiated, instinctively and

unconditionally, to its object. And God is Love!

Well, certainly, God is Love. And we praise Him that we have

better authority for telling our souls this glorious truth than the

passionate assertion of these somewhat crass theorizers. God is Love!

But it does not in the least follow that He is nothing but love. God is

love: but Love is not God and the formula “Love” must therefore

ever be inadequate to express God. It may well be - to us sinners, lost

in our sin and misery but for it, it must be – the crowning revelation

of Christianity that God is love. But it is not from the Christian

revelation that we have learned to think of God as nothing but love.

That God is the Father of all men is a true and important sense, we

should not doubt. But this term “All-Father” – is not from the lips of

Hebrew prophet or Christian apostle that we caught it. And the

indiscriminate benevolencism which has taken captive so much of the

religious thinking of our time is a conception not native to

Christianity, but of distinctly heathen quality. As one reads the pages

of popular religious literature, teeming as it is with ill-considered

assertions of the general fatherhood of God, he has an odd feeling of

transportation back into the atmosphere of, say, the decadent

heathenism of the fourth and fifth centuries, when the gods were

dying, and there was left to those who would fain cling to the old


1030

ways little beyond the saddened sense of the benignitas numinis. The

benignitas numinis! How studded the pages of those genial old

heathen are with the expression; how suffused their repressed life is

with the conviction that the kind Deity that dwells above will surely

not be hard on men toiling here below! How shocked they are at the

stern righteousness of the Christian’s God, who loomed before their

startled eyes as He looms before those of the modern poet in no other

light as “the hard God that dwelt in Jerusalem”! Surely the Great

Divinity is too broadly good to mark the peccadillos of poor puny

men; surely they the objects of His compassionate amusement rather

than of His fierce reprobation. Like Omar Kyayyam’s pot, they were

convinced, before all things, of their Maker that “He’s a good fellow

and “twill all be well.”

The query cannot help rising to the surface of our minds whether

our modern indiscriminate benevo-lencism goes much deeper than

this. Does all this onesided proclamation of the universal Fatherhood

of God import much more than the heathen benignitis numinis? When

we take those blessed words, “God is Love,” upon our lips, are we

sure we mean to express much more than that we do not wish to

believe that God will hold man to any real account for his sin? Are

we, in a word, in these

modern days, so much

soaring upward toward

a more adequate

apprehension of the

transcendent truth that

Good is love, as

passionately protesting

against being ourselves

branded and dealt with

as wrath deserving

sinners? Assuredly it is

impossible to put

anything like their real

content into these great

words, “God is Love,”

save as they are thrown

out against the

background of those

other conceptions of

equal loftiness, “Good

is Light,” “God is

1031

Righteousness,” “God is Holiness,” “God is a consuming fire.” The

love of God cannot be apprehended in its length and breadth and

height and depth – all of which pass knowledge – save as it is

apprehended in the love of God who turns from the sight of sin with

inexpressible abhorrence, and burns against it with unquenchable

indignation. The infinitude of His love would be illustrated not by His

lavishing of His favor on sinners without requiring an expiation of

sin, but by His – through such holiness and through such

righteousness as cannot but cry out with infinite abhorrence and

indignation – still loving sinners so greatly that He provides a

satisfaction for their sin adequate to these tremendous demands. It is

the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity, after all, not that it

preaches a God of love, but that it preaches a God of conscience.

A somewhat flippant critic, contemplating the religion of Israel,

has told us, as expressive of his admiration for what he found there,

that “an honest God is the noblest work of man.” There is a profound

truth lurking in the remark. Only it appears that the work were too

noble for man; and probably man has never compassed it. A

benevolent God, yes: men have framed a benevolent God for

themselves. But a thoroughly honest God, perhaps never. That has

been left for the revelation of God Himself to give us. And this is

really the distinguishing characteristic of the God of revelation: He is

a thoroughly honest, a thoroughly conscientious God – a God who

deals honestly with Himself and us, who deals conscientiously with


1032

Himself and us. And a thoroughly conscientious God, we may be

sure, is not a god who can deal with sinners as if they were not

sinners. In this fact lies perhaps the deepest ground for the necessity

of an expiatory atonement.

And it is in this fact also that there lies the deepest ground of the

increasing failure of the modern world to appreciate the necessity of

an expiatory atonement. Conscientiousness commends itself only to

an awakened conscience; and in much of recent theologizing

conscience does not seem especially active. Nothing, indeed, is more

startling in the structure of recent theories of atonement, than the

apparently vanishing sense of sin that underlies them. Surely, it is

only where the sense of guilt of sin has grown grievously faint, that

men can fancy that they can at will cast it off from them in a

“revolutionary repentance.” Surely it is only where the heinousness of

sin has practically passed away, that man can imagine that the holy

and just God can deal with it lightly. If we have not much to be saved

from, why, certainly, a very little atonement will suffice for our

needs. It is, after all, only the sinner that requires a Saviour. But if we

are sinners, and appreciate what it means to be sinners, we will cry

out for that Saviour who only after He was perfected by suffering

could become the Author of our Salvation.” 234

(bold italics mine)

The Power of God in Salvation as the Saving Work of God

THE NEGATIVE GOSPEL DENIES THE TWELVE RESOURCES OF

GRACE THAT KEEP A BELIEVER SAVED

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

UNAVOIDABLY, much that enters into the Calvinistic doctrine of

security has been alluded to by way of contrast or comparison in the

foregoing analysis of the Arminian position. Perhaps enough has been

presented respecting the Calvinistic view on the doctrines of original

sin, efficacious calling, decrees, the fact and character of the fall,

divine omniscience, divine sovereignty, and sovereign grace, though

it may safely be restated that what is termed Calvinism – largely for

want of a more comprehensive cognomen – is, so far as devout men

have been able to comprehend it, the essential Pauline theology,

especially in its soteriological aspects. After all, Systematic Theology

is the attempt on the part of men to state in orderly arrangement what

God has revealed in the Bible. The Word of God is consistent with

itself and it is regrettable that good men do not agree among

1033

themselves about the interpretation. In seeking a reason, or reasons,

for this lack of unity, certain suggestions may be advanced. First, it

has pleased God so to embed the truth in the Sacred text that only

those who study unceasingly and who are qualified for the task by

educational background, all of this coupled with true spiritual insight,

are able to discern with some degree of accuracy its revelation in its

length and breadth, its height and depth. Men with little or no

conformity to these educational requirements have rendered super-

ficial opinions, which are based on mere human reason and claim to

be final. This shallow dogmatism has swept multitudes who think but

little into cults and sporadic religious movements. It has long been

recognized that the man least qualified to speak with authority will

be, very often, the most dogmatic. A second explanation of disagree-

ment in Bible interpretation is slavish conformity to human leaders.

This tendency can easily beset the best of interpreters. Each sect feels

called upon to maintain its theological schools and to pursue its

peculiar point of view. Their theology is published and defended by

those who are run in their specific molds. In the light of the fact that

there is but one body of revealed truth setting forth but one system,

that which God has given, the disagreement which obtains between

sincere and educationally disciplined men may be accounted for on

the basis of this tendency to cleave to human authorities identified

with a given sect. The creed of the denomination is more to be

defended than the Word of God itself. In the present day, there is but

little resentment when the Scriptures are discredited, but there is

strong opposition experienced when the position occupied by the

denomination is questioned. Men seldom change their preconceived

views whether good or bad. Their early training and theological

discipline serve as a mold from which the individual will seldom be

extricated. Such a slavish bondage to human leaders and creeds may

impede Calvinists as well as Arminians. It will be recognized by all,

however, that Calvinist as a body, judging from their writings, are

more concerned to be conformed to the Bible than any other group

that is held together by common theological beliefs. Ignorance,

intolerance, unteachableness, and slavish devotion to human leaders

are the roots of doctrinal confusion with the attending evils which that

confusion engenders. The names Calvinism and Arminianism may

well be dismissed if only a clear understanding of the word of God

may be gained. However, these appellations do represent, in the main,

two conflicting schools of theological thought, and it is the purpose of

this thesis to defend the Word of God and Calvinism is favored only

because it, in turn, favors the Scriptures of Truth. The Calvinistic


1034

interpretations, especially respecting security, are unstrained and

show an amenableness to the Word of God. The great doctrines of

Scripture bearing on security – universal depravity, effectual calling,

decrees, the fall, omniscience, divine sovereignty, and sovereign

grace – are taken by Calvinist in the plain and natural meaning which

may be drawn from the Sacred Text. It is not claimed that there are no

truths which are too deep for human understanding; but these, when

received in the natural sense of the language of the Scriptures, if not

fully understood, are found to be harmonious with the revealed plan

and purpose of God. It has been demonstrated … that the Scriptures

upon which the Arminian depends, for such Biblical appeal

respecting insecurity as he chooses to make, are none of them in any

final sense a support for his contention. His interpretation for these

portions of the Word of God is well described by the text: “as also in

all his epistles, speaking in them of these things ; in which are some

things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and

unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own

destruction.” Over against these passages to which the Arminian

resort, is the positive, constructive, and consistent declaration of

uncounted New Testament passages which in unqualified terms assert

that the believer is secure. Added to these positive assertions of the

Word of God are those deductions to be drawn from every doctrine

which is at all related to a complete soteriology. No Arminian

undertakes to demonstrate that the positive passages are uncertain in

their meaning. Their only recourse is to claim that human

responsibilityi must be read into these passages in order to make them

harmonize with the interpretation they have placed on so-called

insecurity texts. John 5:24 must read, “He that heareth My word, and

believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not

come into condemnation that is, if he holds out to the end.” Romans

8:30 must read, “Moreover whom He did predestinate by

foreknowing their faith and works, them He also called provided they

are willing to be called: and whom He called, them He also justified

provided they do not sin: and whom He justified, them He also

glorified provided they do not fall from their own stead-fastness.” It is

i As discussed in Part One in the section The Body of Man, Randy Alcorn coined the

term christoplatonism to describe the spiritualizing of the afterlife in Scripture. Here, Dr. Chafer, is making an illustration of religious humanism being read into Scripture. This is a mandatory burden upon the Arminian. Hence the consistently held “perception” that salvation is dependent upon behavior. An anecdotal analogy is that when I first began reading the Bible, as many do, regardless of the verse, I tried to apply it to myself. One gets beyond that point.

1035

no small responsibility to add to, or take from, the Word of God (Rev

22:18-19), or to handle that Word deceitfully (2 Cor 4:2).

2 Cor 4:2 But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not

behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by

open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to

everyone’s conscience before God. NET

Having previously discussed the Calvinistic beliefs respecting the

great soteriological doctrines, it remains now to consider the direct

and positive unfolding of eternal security as presented in the New

Testament.

While there are unnumbered secondary declarations and infer-

ences respecting the security of the true Christian, this chapter will

present twelve major reasons, declared in the New Testament, why

the believer once saved can never be lost. Liberty is to claimed in

connection with each of these reasons to point out what the

rationalistic denial of the truth in question involves. These twelve

reasons, it will be found, are equally divided in their relation to the

three Persons of the Godhead – four are the responsibility of the

Father, four are the responsibility of the Son, and four are the

responsibility of the Spirit. This threefold fact at once lifts the theme

to a major doctrine of Soteriology. Of these twelve reasons it may be

said that any one of them is in itself a final and sufficient basis for

confidence that the child of God will be preserved unto heaven’s

glory. When twelve reasons, each complete and conclusive in itself,

are contemplated, the evidence is overwhelming. In general the New

Testament presents the Father as purposing, calling, justifying, and

glorifying those who believe in Christ; the Son is presented as

becoming incarnate that He might be a Kinsman-Redeemer, as dying

a substitutionary and efficacious death, as rising to be a living Savior,

both as Advocate and Intercessor, and as Head over all things to the

Church; the Holy Spirit is presented as administering and executing

the purpose of the Father and the redemption which the Son has

wrought. It is reasonable, then, that all three Persons of the Godhead

should have their individual share in preserving to fruition that which

God has determined.

I. THE REASONS WHICH DEPEND UPON GOD THE FATHER

The four reasons for security which are assigned to the Father are:

(1) the sovereign purpose of God, (2) the Father’s infinite power set


1036

free, (3) the infinite love of God, and (4) the influence on the Father

of the prayer of His Son.

1. THE SOVEREIGN PURPOSE OF GOD. By no process of worthy

reasoning and certainly by no word of revelation can it be concluded

that He who created all things according to His sovereign purpose –

which purpose extends on into eternity to come and comprehends

every minute detail that will ever come to pass – will be defeated in

the realization of all His intention; nor should there be failure to

accept the truth that the bringing of redeemed men into heaven’s

glory is a major divine purpose behind all His creative undertaking.

The assumption is unfounded and vain which declares that the saving

of souls and the outcalling of the Church is but a minor detail which,

if unsuccessful, would, on account of its insignificance, have no

important bearing on the main divine objective. It is true that, on the

human side, man exercises his will in that he acts according to his

desires and best judgment. It is also true and of greater importance

that God molds those desires and enlightens that human judgment. It

is natural for men to conclude that since in the range of their own

experience their acceptance of Christ is optional, the salvation of a

soul and its attaining to heaven’s glory is a matter of indifference or

uncertainty in the mind of God. The failure of one soul to be saved

and to reach glory whom God has ordained to that end means the

disruption of the whole actuality of divine sovereignty. If God could

fail in one feature, be it ever so small, He could fail in all. If He could

fail in anything, He ceases to be God and the universe is drifting to a

destiny about which God Himself could know nothing. None would

doubt that the incarnation and death of Christ were major features in

the purpose of God; but all this, it is revealed, is for the purpose of

bringing many sons into glory. It is written: “But we see Jesus, who

was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,

crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should

taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things,

and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to

make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Heb

2:9-10). God did not give His Son as a fortuitous venture, with

uncertainty about whether a remnant of His purpose would be

realized. Every devout mind would be shocked by the recital of such

God-dishonoring insinuations; yet every feature of this impious

sequence is unavoidably admitted if it be allowed that God could fail

in the realization of His purpose in the instance of one soul.

Ephesians 1:11-12 is a proper declaration in respect to the divine

purpose: “In whom also we have also obtained an inheritance, being

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predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things

after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his

glory, who first trusted in Christ.” And though often referred to

previously, Romans 8:28-30 proclaims the same immutable divine

intention, with plenary assurance that the sovereign purpose of God

will be realized. … The primary pronouncement of this passage is

that “all things work together for good to them that love God [a

reference to those who are saved], to them who are called according

to his purpose.” This entire program centers in His purpose, which

began with predestination and foreknowledge acting in their

combined effectiveness. That this intent which was foreseen and

predetermined might be achieved, He calls, He justifies, and He

glorifies. This purpose is for each individual who is saved. If it is

inquired whether the individual must believe by the action of his own

will, it will be remembered that the divine call consists in the moving

of the human will – not by coercion, but by persuasion – and that by

so much, the only human responsibility – believing which is of

measureless importance – is guaranteed. All that God has purposed in

behalf of those who area saved He has promised in unconditional

covenant and His covenant cannot be broken, else the holy character

of God is defamed. Would any pious individual assert that God might

promise and not fulfill? Yet He has, by the very revelation of His

sovereign intent, promised complete preservation of those who are

saved at all. He does not hesitate to include the element of human

faith in this great undertaking. When it is thus included, it is not the

introduction of an uncertainty, as is easily supposed. There is no

uncertainty whatever where He is Author of faith. When God says He

will save those who believe, it is understood from other Scriptures

that His elect, under the persuasion which cannot fail, will believe.

God’s ability to make unconditional covenants in the outworking of

His sovereign purpose is demonstrated in the covenants made with

Abraham and David. The only responsibility in either of these

covenants is contained in the sovereign “I will” of Jehovah. Both

covenants reach on for their fulfillment to future ages. Because of

their duration, if for no other reason, these covenants could not rest on

the faithfulness of either of the men involved. The span of their lives

scarcely marked the beginning of the realization of all that God

promised in these covenants. It is of peculiar interest to note that, in

the case of David – and what may be perplexing to Arminians – God

declared the sins of David’s sons, through whom the covenant was to

be perpetuated, would not in any case abrogate the covenant; though,


1038

it should also be observed, Jehovah reserved the right to chastise

those in David’s line who offended (2 Sam 7:8-16; Ps 89:20-37).

2 Sam 7:14 I will become his father and he will become my son.

When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with

wounds inflicted by human beings. 7:15 But my loyal love will

not be removed from him… NET

The word promise as employed by the Apostle Paul (cf. Rom

4:13-14, 16, 20; Gal 3:17-19, 22, 29; 4:23, 28), though much

neglected in doctrinal study, represents precisely the form of

unconditional promise which God made to Abraham – not the

promise of the same thing, but that which in each case is

unconditional and therefore an expression of divine sovereignty. The

promise made to the believer of this age is not only concerning

different objectives, but reaches out to realms unrevealed to

Abraham. God did not covenant with Abraham that He would present

Abraham faultless before the presence of His glory (Jude 1:24); nor

did He promise that Abraham would be accepted in the Beloved (Eph

1:6).

Jude 1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling,

and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his

glorious presence, NET

Under present relationships, the word promise represents all that God

in sovereign grace designs for the believer. Abraham is the divinely

determined pattern of salvation by promise (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3, 20-

25); but the scope of the promise now is widely different in the case

of the believer as compared to that which was addressed to Abraham.

The force of this divinely arrayed principle to make a sovereign

covenant of promise and to execute it apart from every human

condition is seen in Romans 4:16, where it is written: “It is of faith

[nothing on man’s part], that it might be by grace [everything on

God’s part], to the end the promise might be sure.” If the end in view

depended at any point on human resources or factors, the promise

could not be sure; but, being an unconditional, sovereign work of

God, the result is as sure as the existence of the eternal God.

Similarly, in Galatians 3:22 it is written that, “the scripture hath

concluded all [Jew and Gentile alike] under sin,” which means that

God accepts no merit from man which might be credited to his

account in his salvation. This is so in order that “the promise,” which

is realized by faith in Jesus Christ, “might be given to them that

1039

believe” – meaning, who do no more than believe. The Apostle is

careful to point out that, in the case of Abraham, he was declared

righteous by believing. It could not be because of law observance

since the law was not given until five hundred years later; nor could it

have been merited by circumcision, since Abraham was not then

circumcised (Rom 4:9-16).

Rom 4:9 Is this blessedness then for the circumcision or also for

the uncircumcision? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham

as righteousness.” 4:10 How then was it credited to him? Was he

circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but

uncircumcised! 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a

seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still

uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those

who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could

have righteousness credited to them. 4:12 And he is also the father

of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also

walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham

possessed when he was still uncircumcised.

4:13 For the promise22 to Abraham or to his descendants that he

would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but

through the righteousness that comes by faith. 4:14 For if they

become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is

nullified. 4:15 For the law brings wrath, because where there is no

law there is no transgression either. 4:16 For this reason it is by

faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise

may be certain to all the descendants—not only to those who are

under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham,

who is the father of us all. NET

22sn Although a singular noun, the promise is collective and does not

refer only to Gen 12:7, but as D. Moo (Romans 1-8 [WEC], 279)

points out, refers to multiple aspects of the promise to Abraham:

multiplied descendants (Gen 12:2), possession of the land (Gen

13:15-17), and his becoming the vehicle of blessing to all people

(Gen 12:13).

Thus the grace-promise with all that it includes is addressed to the

believer apart from all ceremonials. It is the sovereign purpose of the

sovereign God, which is accomplished to infinite perfection through

sovereign grace on the sole condition of faith in Christ as Savior.


1040

The Arminian insists that human merit is essential for safekeeping

and by so much he denies that the eternal purpose in salvation is to be

accomplished by unconditional sovereign grace. To him the promise

is not sure, and he denies that God has concluded all under sin for the

very intent that the human element should be dismissed forever. This

Arminian misrepresentation is perilously near being “another gospel,”

that which merits the unrevoked anathema of Galatians 1:8-9.

The unconditional divine covenant of promise is the substance of

a vast body of Scripture. It enters into every passage in which

salvation and safekeeping are made to depend upon faith in Christ.

The following texts will serve as illustration:

John 3:16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his

one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not

perish but have eternal life.

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message

and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be

condemned, but has crossed over from death to life.

6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and

the one who comes to me I will never send away.

10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one

will snatch them from my hand. NET



NET

2. THE FATHER’S INFINITE POWER SET FREE. The problem related

to the exercise of divine power in the safekeeping of the believer is

more complex than it would be were there no moral features

involved. Granting that God is omnipotent, and to this all pious souls

will agree, it would not be difficult to imagine a situation in which

God could preserve an individual Christian by His arbitrary

domination, or a situation in which He could surround the believer

with influences which would safeguard him throughout his days; but

Christians sin and are imperfect, which fact introduces a moral

problem when their safekeeping is considered. Without doubt, it is

this moral problem which is the formidable obstacle to security in the

Arminian’s mind. … The Arminian readily discloses his mind when

asked the direct question, What would serve to unsave the Christian?

His answer, of course, is sin – not minor sins, such as all believers

commit, else no Christian would endure at all and they evidently do

1041

endure; even Christians of the Arminian faith endure to some extent,

and some do reach heaven at last. No Arminian would contend that

those of their number who reach heaven do so on the basis of a sinless

life. The contention is, rather, that those thus favored did not commit

sins sufficiently wicked to unsave them. By so much, as all will

admit, a rationalistic and unscriptural claim is introduced which

distinguishes between big sins and little sins. Yet even more daring in

its unbelief is the obvious confession involved, which asserts that sin

may unsave after Christ has borne it. The Scriptures declare that

Christ by His death became the propitiation for our sinsi (1 John 2:2),

which certainly means that the believer’s sins, in contrast to the “sins

of the whole world,” have had their specific and perfect judgment

wrought out by Christ in His death – a judgment so perfect that the

Father is rendered infinitely propitious [satisfied] by it. It would seem

unnecessary to state here the qualifying truth that, though the

Christian’s sin does not surpass the propitiation which is originated to

disannul its power, it does carry with it other penalties, and not the

least of these is chastisementii by the Father should the sinning

Christian continue to sin without repentance and confession (1 Cor

11:31-32).

1 Cor 11:31 But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judg-

ed. 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined

so that we may not be condemned with the world. NET

The special point which division of this theme aims to establish is

that God the Father not only is able because of omnipotence to keep

His own, but that He is set free through the death of His Son to keep

them, in spite of the moral problem which the imperfection of each

Christian engenders. The New Testament bears abundant testimony to

the unrestrained ability of God to keep those whom He has saved

through Christ. It is written:

John 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. Rom 4:21 He

was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.

i The second aspect of expiating (taking away sin) the believer’s sins, the “sweet-

savor” sacrifice in the burnt offering ii If one may recall “older” drawings of the shepherd with the lost sheep being

carried on his shoulders – the sheep’s leg was bandaged because the shepherd broke it to keep it in the flock.


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4:22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. 4:23 But

the statement it was credited to him was not written only for

Abraham’s sake, 4:24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be

credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from

the dead. 4:25 He was given over because of our transgressions and

was raised for the sake of our justification. 8:31 What then shall we

say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor

powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will

be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his

own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able

to make him stand. Eph 3:20 Now to him who by the power that is

working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think,

Phil 3:21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the

likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is

able to subject all things to himself. 2 Tim 1:12 Because of this, in

fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in

whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect

what has been entrusted to me until that day. Heb 7:25 So he is able

to save completely those who come to God through him, because he

always lives to intercede for them. Jude 1:24 Now to the one who is

able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing,

without blemish before his glorious presence, NET

To all this may be added the specific disclosure of Ephesians 1:19-21,

wherein it is revealed that the very power which wrought in Christ to

raise Him from the dead – the supreme power – is “to us-wards.”

Who, indeed, is able to estimate the advantage to the child of God of

that immeasurable power?

3. THE INFINITE LOVE OF GOD. That which actuated God from all

eternity in His elective choice of those whom He would bring into

glory was His love for them. If, as many scholars believe, the words

in love, which in the Authorized Version are at the end of Ephesians

1:4, are to be made the opening words of that which follows, a flood

of light falls on this important revelation respecting the motive of

God. Under this arrangement the passage would read and probably

should read, “in love having predestined usi.” Love is one of the

i (Eph 1:4-5 NET) 12tn The prepositional phrase ejn ajgavph/ (en agaph, “in

love”) may modify one of three words or phrases: (1) “chose,” (2) “holy and

1043

attributes of God. “God is love,” which means that He has never

acquired love, He does not maintain it by any effort whatsoever, nor

does His love depend upon conditions; for He is the Author of all

conditions. God loved before any being was created, and at a time – if

time it be – when there was no other than His own triune Being. He

loved Himself supremely, but upon a plane far above that of mere

self-complacency. His love is as eternal and unchangeable as His own

existence, and it was in that incomprehensible past that He also loved

the beings He would yet create. Though expressed supremely by the

death of Christ at a moment in time, and though seen in the

preservation of, and the providence over, His redeemed, His is a love

of the dateless past and its continuation is as immutable as the

predestination it devises. Yes, predestination is, so far from being a

hard and awful predetermination of God, in reality, the supreme

undertaking and satisfaction of His infinite compassion.

At an earlier point in this thesis, attention has been called to the

truth that salvation springs not from the misery of men which God in

mercy might choose to relieve, but it springs from the love God has

for His creatures, which love can be satisfied by nothing short of their

conformity to Christ in His eternal presence. It is this unchangeable

endearment that … [one] must contemplate and in the light of it must

form [their] conclusion. In this contemplation, it will not do to invest

the divine compassion with the fitfulness and capriciousness which

characterizes human love, as though God loved His creatures when

unblemished,” both in v. 4, or (3) “by predestining” in v. 5. If it modifies “chose,” it refers to God’s motivation in that election, but this option is unlikely because of the placement of the prepositional phrase far away from the verb. The other two options are more likely. If it modifies “holy and unblemished,” it specifies that our holiness cannot be divorced from love. This view is in keeping with the author’s use of

ajgavph to refer often to human love in Ephesians, but the placement of the

prepositional phrase not immediately following the words it modifies would be slightly awkward. If it modifies “by predestining” (v. 5), again the motivation of God’s choice is love. This would fit the focus of the passage on God’s gracious actions toward believers, but it could be considered slightly redundant in that God’s predestination itself proves his love. 13tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”). sn By predestining. The aorist participle may be translated either causally (“because

he predestined,” “having predestined”) or instrumentally (“by predestining”). A causal nuance would suggest that God’s predestination of certain individuals prompted his choice of them. An instrumental nuance would suggest that the means by which God’s choice was accomplished was by predestination. The instrumental view is somewhat more likely in light of normal Greek syntax (i.e., an aorist participle following an aorist main verb is more likely to be instrumental than causal).


1044

they were good, but withdrew His love when they were wrong. The

fact is, though incomprehensible, that God loved men enough to give

His Son to die for them even when they were enemies and sinners

(Rom 5:7-10). He was not merely shocked by their unworthiness

enough to provide some relief; He actually died for them in the

Person of His Son. It is in this connection – and at Romans 5 – that

the words “much more” occur twice and when contrasting the

outworking of the love of God for the saved. It is not implied that He

loves more, though the individual saved by His grace is more lovable

than when unregenerate; it is rather that the opportunity has been

made, through salvation, for His love to have a much more

manifestation in those who are saved. “Much more then, being now

justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For

if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of

his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”

(Rom 5:9-10). The preservation declared in the end of this passage is

not due to the indwelling Christ, which is eternal life (Col 1:27), but

is due to the essential fact of Christ’s own life and all that He, the

resurrected Son of God, is to the believer.

If this truth respecting the immeasurable and immutable love of

God for believers is recognized, it will be seen that, because of this

unalterable motive, God will conclude perfectly what He has begun –

that which He predestinated with infinite certainty. Love removed

every barrier that sin erected and love will keep, by a much more

manifestation even than that exhibited at Calvary, all whom He hath

chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Little place, indeed, does the Arminian make in his system for this

unalterable, undefeatable love of God for those whom He has saved.

To deny this love its full manifestation and satisfaction, as it is

disclosed by God Himself, is to attempt to impair, if not to deny, the

essential reality of one of God’s most glorious attributes.

4. THE INFLUENCE ON THE FATHER OF THE PRAYER OF HIS SON.

Many cognomens are used in the New Testament to designate those

from among Jews and Gentiles who are saved - Christians, believers,

brethren, children of God, the household of faith, the family of God,

“my sheep,” a kingdom of priests, His Body, saints – and each of

these, to which others might be added, carries a specific meaning and

suggests a peculiar relationship. There is, however, one title which,

because of the One who used it and the circumstances under which it

was employed, surpasses in hallowed exaltation all other appellations

combined. The Lord Himself used it exclusively in that supreme hour

when He was leaving this world and was returning to the Father – an

1045

hour when He was accounting to the Father respecting the completion

of His incomparable mission to this world. The time and

circumstances thus marked the climax of all that He had wrought

while here in the world. Whatever term the Savior might employ at

any time would be of the greatest significance, but above all and

exalted to the highest heaven is that designation which He employs

when He is in holy and familiar converse with His Father in heaven.

At once the devout mind is aroused to its supreme attention to catch

the terminology which is current in the intercourse between the Father

and the Son. It is then in His High Priestly prayer that the Savior

seven times refers to those who are saved as “those whom thou hast

given me” (John 17:2, 6, 9, 11-12, 24). This so exalted company

includes all that believe on Him throughout the age (John 17:20). This

title at once suggests an event of measureless import in past ages

concerning which but little may be known. It is reasonable to believe

that each individual ever to be saved by the grace of God through the

Savior, Jesus Christ, was in the ages past individually presented as a

particular love gift from the Father to the Son; that each individual

represents a thought that could never be duplicated; and that if one of

these jewels should be missing from the whole company, the Lord

would be deprived as only infinity could be injured by imperfections.

While referring to believers as “those whom thou hast given me,”

the Son asks the Father this definite petition: “Holy Father, keep

through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they

may be one, as we are” (John 17:11). The prayer that they may be one

no doubt refers to the organic unity of all believers, which is

illustrated by the figure of a body and its relation to its head. The

implication is that no member shall be absent. But, more top the

point, is the fact and force of the direct prayer to the Father by the

Son, in which He makes request that the Father keep through His

name those whom He has given to the Son. Naturally, the question

arises whether this prayer of the Son will be answered. The

Arminians hesitate to believe that it will be answered, nor could it be.

The request itself which this prayer presents should not be

overlooked. The Son asks the Father to keep those saved whom the

Father has given to the Son. If it could be demonstrated – which it

cannot – that the Father has no interest of His own in these elect

people, it must be observed that He, for the Son’s sake, to whom

nothing is denied, must employ His infinite resources to accomplish

precisely what the Son has requested. It is thus that the prayer of the

Son of God to the Father becomes one of the major factors in the


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believer’s security. To deny the safekeeping of the believer is to

imply that the prayer of the Son of God will not be answered.

II. THE REASONS WHICH DEPEND ON GOD THE SON

While the four reasons for the Christian’s security which depend

upon God the Son are discussed separately in various places in the

New Testament, they all appear together in one verse and as a

fourfold answer to a challenging inquiry whether the child of God is

secure. The passage reads:

Rom 8:34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one

who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right

hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. NET

The question with which this passage opens is preceded by a similar

inquiry – “Whoi shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”–

which question draws out the assuring answer, “It is God that

justifieth.” The argument is that if God has already justified, which is

the case with everyone who believes in Jesus (cf. Rom 3:26; 8:30),

how can He lay anything to the charge of His justified one? It is in no

wise the common problem of one person discovering imperfections or

sin in another person. In such an undertaking, God above all others,

could identify the Christian’s failures. He has never shut His eyes to

those failures, nor does He fail to give righteous consideration to

them. The believer’s justification is secured on the ground on the

imputed merit of the Son of God and it is legally his, being, as he is,

in Christ. There could never be such a thing as a justification before

God which is based on human worthiness. On the other hand, a

justification which is not subject to human merit could hardly be

subject to human demerit. As in human relationships where there are

ways by which an earthly father may correct an erring son without

disrupting either sonship or family standing, in like manner God as

Father maintains the perfect standing – even complete and eternal

justification – of His child at the very moment it is necessary for Him

to correct that child. The truth therefore stands that God, having

justified the ungodly (Rom 4:5), will not and cannot contradict

Himself by charging them with evil, which charge amounts to the

reversing of their justification. Bearing on this truth, Dean Alford

quotes Chrysostom as saying: “He saith not, ‘God who remitteth

sins,’ but which is more, ‘God who justifieth.’ For when the vote of

i Isa 50:8 Who is my accuser? 16tn Heb “Who is the master of my judgment?”

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the judge himself acquits, and such a Judge, of what weight is the

accuser?” (N.T. for English Readers, new ed., on Rom. 8:34). …

The second question and the one which draws out the fourfold

answer now under consideration – “Who is he that condemeth?” – is

quite similar to the one which precedes it, though a different body of

truth is summoned to serve as an answer. Here, as throughout the

New Testament, the inquiry whether the believer is unconditionally

safe forever through the provisions of infinite grace is answered in the

affirmative. Concerning the complete answer to this second question,

De Wette remarks: “All the great points of our redemption are ranged

together, from the death of Christ to His still enduring intercession, as

reasons for negativing the question above” (Alford, loc. cit.).

A sincere attention to this question and its fourfold answer is

demanded, to the end that there may be a worthy understanding of the

truth embraced in this particular theme which occupies so great a

place in Soteriology. This interrogation whether the true believer will

ever be condemned is both propounded and answered by the Holy

Spirit. These are the words of God and not the words of a man alone.

It is as though the divine Author anticipated the doctrinal confusion

that was to arise and, with that in view, caused these momentous

questions to be recorded with their unequivocal answers.

Nevertheless, such direct questions and conclusive answers have not

deterred a form of rationalistic unbelief, which poses as pious and

sound, from denying the entire revelation.

The four answers to the question “Who is he that condemneth?”

are here taken up separately and in their order since they constitute

the four reasons for the believer’s security which belong, for their

achievement, to the Son of God. The answers are: (1) Christ has died,

(2) Christ is risen, (3) Christ advocates, (4) Christ intercedes.

1. CHRIST HAS DIED. The first answer to the question “Who is he

that condemneth?” is a citation of the fact that Christ has died, and

properly so, since that death is a major ground for the assurance that

the believer cannot be condemned. To a degree that is complete and

final, Christ has Himself borne the condemnation which otherwise

would fall on the Christian who has sinned. No new principle is thus

introduced. It was on the basis of the efficacy of Christ’s death for his

sins that the believer was saved in the first place and apart from all

penalty or punishment, a holy God being thus set free to pardon

righteously every sin that ever was or ever will be, with respect to its

power to condemn (Rom 8:1 R.V.). It is the same divine freedom,

based on the fact that Christ died for the Christian’s sins (1 John 2:2),

which creates the freedom of God to forgive righteously the sin – now


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within the sphere of fellowship with God – of the believer who

confesses that sin (1 John 1:9). The solution of the problem of the

salvation of the unregenerate person and of the preservation of those

who are saved is identical. This divinely wrought solution is not only

equitable and legal, but it is practical and reasonable. Though Satan-

blinded minds do not see this truth until they are enlightened, the fact

that the Substitute has borne the penalty is the simplest of methods by

which a problem, otherwise impossible of solution, may be wholly

solved. Though God reserves the right to correct and chasten His

child, He has never allowed an intimation to go forth by His

authority, that His child would be condemned. In defense of his

theological position, The Arminian must either deny that the death of

Christ is a sufficient divine dealing with sin, and, therefore, the

believer may be disowned for the very sins which Christ bore, or he

must abandon the testimony of the Bible outright and conclude that

Christ did not die efficaciously for anyone. Such conclusions are the

inescapable deductions from the Arminian position respecting the

doctrine of substitution. Naturally, there is no intermediate

ground. Either the believer must be condemned for each and every

sin – which is the logical contention of Arminianism – or his sins are

in no way a ground of judgment, the judgment of them having been

borne by Another. There is no question about what the Bible teaches

on these two propositions, nor about which one it favors.

2. CHRIST IS RISEN. The glorious truth of the resurrection of

Christ becomes at once the ground upon which two conclusive

reasons for the security of the child of God are found to rest: (a) that

the believer has partaken has partaken of the resurrection life of the

Son of God, and (b) that the believer is a part of the New Creation

over which the resurrected Christ is the all sufficient Head. The latter

of these to reasons will be discussed under those features of security

which are the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. The former, now to be

considered, is that the child of God partakes of the resurrection life of

the Son of God. An exceedingly important statement of truth appears

in Colossians 2 and 3. It is to the effect that the Christian is already in

the sphere of resurrection by virtue of the fact that he is in the

resurrected Christ. In chapter 2, the Apostle asserts directly that the

Christian is raised with Christ (vs. 12). This reality is not a mere

symbolism or figure; it is as real as Christ’s own resurrection, in

which it shares. To be “quickened” is to made alive by the receiving

of the resurrection life of Christ. The Christian has been, and is said

to be even now, raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenlies

(Eph 2:6). To be in the resurrected Christ and to have the resurrected

1049

Christ within, constitutes a spiritual resurrection which, as to the

believer’s whole being, will be completed in due time by the

resurrection of the body or by its transformation in translation. With

this spiritual reality in mind, the Apostle writes in Colossians 3:1-4

and in respect to the believer’s daily life, “If ye then be risen with

Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the

right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things

on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear

with Him in glory.”

The life which the believer receives in regeneration is the life of

Christ in resurrection. That life cannot decrease or perish. It is the

common claim of Arminians that, whatever eternal life may be, it can,

and in many instances does, depart. Some have said that it is eternal,

resurrection life while it is possessed, but that the Christian may

become dispossessed of it. But that life is not a detached something

which may come or go. It is a nature secured by divine generation

and, like any nature that is possessed, it cannot be detached and

dismissed. There seems to be a peculiar bond of relationship between

the two realities – “eternal life” and “shall not perish” as these are

twice used together by Christ (John 3:16; 10:28).

3. CHRIST ADVOCATES. In 1 John 1:1-2:2, two important

questions are answered, namely, what the effect of the Christian’s sin

is upon himself and what its cure, and what the effect of the

Christian’s sin is upon God and what its cure. … Turning for the

moment to the effect of the Christian’s sin upon himself, it will be

seen that in 1 John alone there are at least seven damaging

consequences which result from that sin; yet it is not once intimated

that the believer will be lost again. One of these penalties is that of

the loss of communion with God the Father and the Son, and the cure

– far removed indeed from regeneration – is a simple confession of

the sin to God from a penitent heart (1 John 1:3-9). Attention has

been called to thirty-three divine undertakings which together

constitute the salvation of a soul. Among them is the truth that all sin

is forgiven. Not one of these thirty-three transformations could be

claimed alone or separated from the whole, nor could thirty-two be

selected with the intentional omission of one. They constitute one

indivisible whole; nor is one of these subject to a second experience

of reception. Even the forgiveness of sin – which is unto union with

Christ and into a state where there is no condemnation – is never

repeated. The Christian’s forgiveness in the household and return to

fellowship with the Father and the Son is quite another thing; yet, it


1050

too, is based on the same substitutionary death of Christ. The removal

of the effect upon himself of the Christian’s sin is, through divine

grace, perfect and complete when the requisite confession is made.

The provision is specific and sufficient whereby the sin is forgiven

and the sinner cleansed (1 John 1:9).

On the other hand, the effect of the Christian’s sin upon his holy

God is most serious indeed. It is asserted with all possible emphasis

that the least sin – such as believer’s habitually commit, as omissions

and commissions – has the power in itself to hurl the believer down

from his exalted position into perdition, were it not for that which

Christ has wrought. It is here that the form of rationalism which

characterizes Arminianism asserts itself. Apart from revelation, it is

natural to conclude that God cannot get along with one who is

sinning, even though that one is His own child by regeneration; but it

is discovered that God does get on with those who are imperfect, then

the problem of the security of the believer is solved in so far as the

Christian’s sin affects God.

The central passage, in 1 John 2:1, opens with the address, “My

little children,” which is complete evidence that this declaration – as

is true of this entire Epistle – is addressed to those who are born of

God (1 John 1:12-13). “These things” of which the Apostle writes are

doubtless are the particular doctrine of forgiveness and cleansing for

the Christian as revealed in chapter 1, and that, also, which

immediately follows in this verse, wherein the divine way of dealing

with the Christian’s sin is disclosed. The effect of these truths upon

the believer – quite contrary to the claims of the Arminians - is to

deter him from sinning. The “natural” or unregenerate man who

delights to sin will embrace a doctrine which lifts the penalty of sin;

and at this point Arminians seem able to comprehend no more than

the view of the natural man. That there are greater incentives to

purity, holiness, and faithfulness than the mere dread of punishment,

they fail to recognize. At least in their writings they make no mention

of those higher motives. All this is largely due to the fact that they

cannot, because of the very beliefs they profess, look upon

themselves as accepted and sealed in Christ. Were they to see

themselves in such a relation to God, reason as well as revelation

would remind them of the corresponding obligation to live as an

accepted sealed person should live. So to live is the greatest motive

that can actuate a human life. It far transcends in its effectiveness the

mere fear of law or punishment which, after all, everyone on every

hand is disregarding. On the antinomian235

charge against the

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Calvinist which the Arminians universally enter, Dr. Charles Hodge

writes:

Antinomianism has never had any hold in the churches of the

Reformation. There is no logical connection between the neglect of moral

duties, and the system which teaches that Christ is a Savior as well from

the power as from the penalty of sin; that faith is the act by which the

soul receives and rests on Him for sanctification as well as for

justification; and that such is the nature of the union with Christ by faith and indwelling of the Spirit, that no one is, or can be partaker of the

benefit of His death, who is not also partaker of the benefit of His life;

which holds to the divine authority of the Scripture which declares that

without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb. xii.14); and which, in

the language of the great advocate of salvation by grace, warns all who

call themselves Christian’s: “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor

idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with

mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor

extortioners, shall inherit shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor vi.9,

10). It is not the system which regards sin as so great an evil that it

requires the blood of the Son of God for its expiation, and the law as so

immutable that it requires the perfect righteousness of Christ for the sinner’s justification, which leads to loose views of moral obligation;

these are reached by the system which teaches that the demands of the

law have been lowered, that they can be more than met by the imperfect

obedience of fallen men, and that sin can be pardoned by priestly

intervention. This is what logic and history alike teach. – Systematic

Theology, III, 241

Evidently the Apostle John anticipates that the power of the truth

he is disclosing will tend to a separation from sin. This is the force of

the words, “that ye sin not.” The phrase which follows, “if any man

sin,” refers to Christians exclusively. It could not include the unsaved

along with the saved. It is any man within the Christian fellowship. A

similar usage, among several in the New Testament, is found in 1

Corinthians 3:12-15 where the restricted classification is equally

evident. The term any man corresponds numerically to the pronoun

“we” which follows here immediately. The sufficient provision for

the sinning Christian is indicated by the words, “We have an advocate

with the Father.” The scene is set in the high court of heaven with the

Father as Judge upon the throne (incidentally, it should be noted that,

though the child of God has sinned, God is still his Father). A

prosecuting agent is present also. The record of his activity as

prosecutor is found in Revelation 12:10, which reads: “And I heard a


1052

loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength,

and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the

accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our

God day and night.” If any accusing voice were needed, that need

Satan himself supplies. The question “Who is he that condemneth?”

easily includes in the sphere of its possibilities vastly more than the

charges which one human being might prefer against another. But

even the prosecution by Satan cannot avail, for there is an Advocate,

a Defender. What this means every hour to the believer will never be

known in this life. The truth respecting the advocacy of Christ is in

view in these declarations: “who is even at the right hand of God”

(Rom 8:34) and “now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb

9:24).

If inquiry be made concerning what influence the Advocate brings

to bear on the Father by which the believer is cleared from

condemnation, some might venture the opinion that He is making

excuses; but there are no excuses. Another might suggest that He

pleads with the Father for leniency; but the Father, being holy, cannot

be, and therefore is not, lenient with sin. Still another might propose

that this Attorney, or Advocate, is a shrewd lawyer who is able to

make out a case where no case exists; but – and great is the force of it

– at this very point and in connection with the specific work of

delivering the sinning Christian from condemnation, the Advocate

wins an exalted title which He gains for no other service, namely,

Jesus Christ the Righteous. The claim to this unique appellation is

probably twofold: (1) He presents the evidence of His own sacrifice

for the sin in question – the truth that He bore it fully on the cross.

Thus when the Father withholds condemnation, His ground for doing

so is just, since the Savor has died. It is direct line with this aspect of

the Advocate’s work that this very context goes on to say: “And he is

the propitiation for our sins.” By the death of His Son for the

Christian’s sin, the Father is rendered propitious. (2) Christ is made

unto the believer righteousness (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21), and He, as

the source of this imputed righteousness, is the One by whom the

Christian is saved and in whom he stands forever.

It is evident then, that, while paternal discipline will be exercised

by the Father over His erring child according to His good pleasure

(Heb 12:3-15), that child will not be condemned, since Christ who

bore the Christian’s sin appears in heaven for him and Christ is the

very righteousness in which the Christian is accepted before God.

4. CHRIST INTERCEDES. Among the neglected doctrines – and

there are many – is that which brings into view the present

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intercession of Christ in behalf of all that are saved. The very fact that

He thus intercedes implies the danger which besets the believer in this

the enemy’s land, and the necessity of Christ’s prayer in his behalf.

The strange inattention which obtains with regard to this ministry of

Christ may be due to various causes and none, it is probable, than the

influence and power of Satan, who would rob the believer of the

advantage and comfort which this intercession secures. As a practical

experience, believers are without the knowledge of this intercession

in their behalf and therefore deprived of the help and strength which

this knowledge affords. The neglect cannot be attributed to the lack of

revelation, for it stands out with more than usual clearness on the

Sacred Page. Four major passages appear, and these should be given

careful attention. It will be seen that the divine purpose in Christ’s

intercession, as exhibited in these passages, is the security of all those

for whom He intercedes.

John 7:1-26. A quotation, or reproduction, of the text of this

supreme chapter is uncalled for. The passage embodies the prayer of

Christ and the reasonable conclusion is that it is the norm or pattern

of that prayer which Christ continues to pray in heaven. If it were

fitting for Him to intercede for His own who were then in the cosmos

world, it is fitting that He should pray for those who are now in the

cosmos world. In this prayer His solicitude for all who are in the

cosmos world is most apparent, so, also, His dependence upon the

Father to keep them from the evil one. As before indicated, the

request of the Son in behalf of the safekeeping of those who are

saved, can be refused by the Father only on the supposition that

Christ’s prayer might not be answered; or that it is beyond the power

of Infinity, even though the Father is released from all moral restraint

by the death of Christ for sin. The latter position – that to preserve the

believer is beyond the power of God even when the sin question is

eliminated – Arminians have not hesitated to assume. Nevertheless,

the savior ceases not to intercede in behalf of those whom He has

saved and to the end that they may be preserved forever.

Romans 8:34. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died,

yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,

who also maketh intercession for us.”

In this Scripture it is declared that there is no condemnation for

the child of God because of the truth, among others already

considered, that the Savior “maketh intercession for us.” On the

divine side of the problem of the eternal security of the Christian,

there is evidently a definite dependence upon the prayer of the Son of

God.


1054

Luke 22:31-34. “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan

hath desired to have you, that He may sift you as wheat: but I have

prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted,

strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go

with thee, both unto prison, and unto death. And he said, I tell thee,

Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice

deny that thou knowest me.”

Luke 22:31 “Simon, Simon, pay attention! Satan has demanded to

have you all,77 to sift you like wheat,78 NET

77sn This pronoun is plural in the Greek text, so it refers to all the

disciples of which Peter is the representative.

78sn Satan has demanded permission to put them to the test. The idiom “sift (someone) like wheat” is similar to the English idiom “to

pick (someone) apart.” The pronoun you is implied.

While this is the record of Christ’s prayer for but one man and that

man the one who is to deny his Lord, it is reasonable to assume that

Christ sustains this same solicitude and care over each individual

believer. Doubtless He could say to every believer many times in the

day, “I have prayed for thee.” The petition which Christ presented for

Peter was secured. He prayed that Peter’s faith should not fail, and it

did not fail, though through all this experience Peter manifested the

traits of a believer who is out of communion with his Lord.i There is

no intimation that Peter became unsaved, or that he was saved a

second time. The doctrine respecting the believer’s restoration to

fellowship with God – confused by Arminians with salvation – is that

which Peter illustrates.

And finally,

Hebrews 7:23-25. “And they truly were many priests, because

they were not suffered to continue by reasons of death: but this man,

because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto

God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

No more direct and unqualified declaration respecting the eternal

security of the believer than this is recorded in the New Testament,

i The Arminian contention that a believer may reject Christianity and thus his

salvation, could have no stronger illustration to the negative as here; where Peter denied the very Person of Christ. One may be converted, turn back to God, many times, but salvation comes but once.

1055

and that security is here made to depend wholly on the intercession of

Christ; that is, the believer is said to be secure in the most absolute

sense because Christ prays for him – else language ceases to be a

dependable medium for the conveying of thought.

In His priesthood over believers, Christ differs widely from the

priests of the old order and in the one particular especially: that as

they were subject to death and by death their ministry was

interrupted, Christ’s priesthood is interminable. He hath an

immutable, or unchangeable priesthood, and that corresponds to the

equally important truth that He liveth forever. “Wherefore?” Because

He liveth forever and, on that account, His ministry as priest has no

end. He is able to save the Christian – some say “to completeness”

and others say “evermore” or “eternally” (είς τό �αντελές will

sustain both conceptions; for that which is saved into completeness

and is saved without end – all those that come unto God by Him; that

is, those that trust in the Savior). This certitude is based on the

enduring Savior’s interminable ability as Priest to bring to pass

eternal security. The assertion is unqualified and the unequivocal

divine guarantee is made to depend directly and only, so far as this

passage is concerned, upon the prevailing power of Christ’s

intercession. Such is efficacious power and the infinite reality of it

cannot be comprehended by the mind of man; and to deny its supreme

potency, as all do who disbelieve in the absolute security of the child

of God, is to enter the unwarranted sphere of assumption.

The intercession of Christ, it is well to observe, is more than the

mere exercise of prayer. Christ is a Shepherd and Bishop to those

whom He saves. He guides His own away from the pitfalls and snares

of Satan. The Christian could never know in this life what he owes to

the interceding Shepherd who sustains him every hour of his life.

David caught the same assuring confidence concerning his own

relation to Jehovah when he said, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall

not want” (Ps 23:1). David did not testify merely that he had not

wanted anything up to that moment, but he boldly declares that his

future is as certain as the Shepherdhood of Jehovah could make it.

Returning for the moment to the one text (Rom 8:34) into which

all four reasons for the believer’s security which depend on God the

Son are compressed, it may be restated that, by His substitutionary

death, Christ provides the Father with righteous freedom to undertake

eternal blessedness for those who believe. By His resurrection Christ

provides the Christian with imperishable resurrection life. By His

Advocacy He meets the condemning effect of the believer’s every sin

as that sin is seen by God in heaven. And by His intercession He


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engages the infinite power of God – including His own Shepherdhood

– in behalf of those who believe. Every step in this incomprehensible

service of the Savior is in itself wholly sufficient to achieve the end in

view; yet every step is challenged and disowned by Arminian

rationalism.

What the Savior undertakes – especially as Advocate and

Intercessor – is at His own appointment. He saves and keeps simply

because of the truth that His salvation is by its very nature eternal. It

follows, then, that He should never be implored to advocate or

intercede, though unceasing thanksgiving should ascend to Him for

these accomplishments.

III. RESPONSIBILITIES BELONGING TO GOD THE HOLY

SPIRIT

Much indeed, is directly undertaken by the Holy Spirit to the end

that the child of God shall be safe forever. Under the present divine

arrangements, He is the Executor of very much that the Godhead

undertakes; however, as in the case of the Father and the Son, four

achievements are wrought by the Third Person and these demand

recognition.

1. THE HOLY SPIRIT REGENERATES. The widespread Arminian

emphasis upon human merit has tended to obscure one of the primary

realities of a true Christian, which reality is secured, not by merit, but

by divine grace, in answer to saving belief in Christ. That reality is

that the believer is regenerated and thus is introduced into a new

estate, a new existence, a new relationship which is well defined as a

new creation. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it is written: “Therefore if any

man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;

behold all things have become new.” The Apostle likewise declares

that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:10).

This passage reveals the truth that, as a result of the divine

workmanship, the Christian is no less than a divine creation – a form

of being which did not exist before. That new being is said to partake

of the “divine nature,” which implies that it is as enduring as the

eternal God. Similarly, the same Apostle writes: “For in Christ Jesus

neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new

creature” (Gal 6:15). Upon this specific aspect of the truth the Lord

placed the greatest emphasis when speaking to Nicodemas. It is

significant that, when declaring the necessity of the birth from above,

Christ did not select a dissolute character, but He chose one who

ranked highest in Judaism and whose character was beyond reproach.

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It was a personal message when He said to Nicodemas, “Ye must be

born again,” and the universally acknowledged mystery of it must not

be suffered to detract from either the reality or the necessity of that

divine regeneration. In the instance of human generation, a being

originates who did not exist before and who will go on forever. Like-

wise, in spiritual regeneration a being originates which was not

identified as such before and this being will go on forever. By what

law of reasoning can it be assured that eternal existence belongs to a

form of existence which outwardly seems to be temporal, and not to

that form of existence which because of its source and essential

character is not temporal but is eternal? An earthly parent imparts a

nature to his child by human generation, and that nature is immutable.

Thus, and to a degree which is far more exalted, the Holy Spirit forms

a new creation which is immutable. An earthly father might disinherit

and utterly abandon his son, but he cannot stop the son from

resembling himself, and the reason is obvious. The Arminian’s

difficulty is initial. To him salvation itself is no more than a state of

mind, a good intention, a resolution, or an outward manner of life.

Such passing or transient verities as these are far removed from that

inviolable, divine creation which Christ pressed upon Nicodemas and

that which is presented in every New Testament reference to this

theme. It may be safely asserted that regeneration, as presented in the

Scriptures, is an enduring actuality and the one who questions the

eternal continuation of the child of God, questions the process (and its

result) by which he becomes a child of God. When God is declared to

be the Father of all who believe, reference is not made to a faint

moral resemblance which a good life might suggest; it is a reference

to legitimate Fatherhood and legitimate sonship grounded on an

actual regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

2. THE HOLY SPIRIT INDWELLS. Closely akin to the truth

respecting the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is the fact that He

indwells every true child of God. Besides, there is a distinct and

extended testimony of the Scriptures to the specific truth of the

Spirit’s indwelling. … Out of a formidable list of passages bearing on

this particular theme, one declares specifically that the Spirit who

indwells abides forever. This passage records the words of Christ and

reports His prayer respecting the coming of the Holy Spirit into the

world. These are the words of the Savior, “And I will pray the Father,

and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you

forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,

because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but you know him; for

he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17). Thus the


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assurance is given that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and that

His presence is abiding. He may be grieved; but He will not be

grieved away. He may be quenched – which carries the thought of

resisting – but He cannot be extinguished. He never leaves the

Christian, else the word of Christ is untrue and His prayer is

unanswered. The Apostle writes, “Now if any man have not the Spirit

of Christ, he is none his” (Rom 8:9). This great declaration is not a

warning to the believer that he might lose the Spirit and be unsaved

again; it is a direct statement to the effect that, if the Spirit is not

present in the heart, that one has never been saved. The Apostle John

points out (1 John 2:27) that the Spirit is identified, among other

characteristics of His presence within, as the One who abides. This

determining Scripture reads, “But the anointing which ye have

received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach

you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth,

and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

Again, the Arminian position can be sustained only by a denial of

the truth set forth in those notable Scriptures which not only aver that

the Spirit indwells each believer, but that He abides forever.

3. THE HOLY SPIRIT BAPTIZES. Not many New Testament

doctrines are more misunderstood than that of the Spirit’s baptism;

and few misunderstandings could be more misleading than this, for

on the right apprehension of that which is involved in this divine

undertaking the believer’s discernment of his possessions and

positions depends, and the knowledge of these constitutes the true

incentive for a God-honoring daily life. The fuller meaning of this

ministry of the Spirit and its importance as the foundation of other

doctrines must be reserved … As a ground upon which the certainty

which eternal security rests, the baptism of the Spirit should be

recognized as that operation by which the individual believer is

brought into organic union with Christ. By the Spirit’s regeneration

Christ is resident in the believer, and by the Spirit’s baptism the

believer is thus in Christ. This union is illustrated in the word of God

by various figures – notably the members of a body in their relation to

the head. This union is also said to be a New Creation humanity in its

relation to the new and unfallen Last Adam, Christ Jesus. It would be

enough to point out here that the glorious Body of Christ will not be

marred or maimed because of amputated members, and that there will

be no fall in the Last Adam; but the members of Christ’s body are

constituted what they are on the sole basis of the truth that the merit

of Christ is their standing, which merit is neither withdrawn nor does

it fail in its potentiality. Likewise, the New Creation Headship

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guarantees the same perfect standing. Were it not for the fact that

minds seem to be darkened on this point, it would be unnecessary to

restate the obvious truth that God undertakes, along wholly different

and adequate grounds, to govern in the matter of irregularities which

appear in the Christian’s life, and quite apart from holding over them

the threat that an impossible separation from the New Creation

Headship will follow should so much as one sin be committed. It

would be simple, indeed, to devise a scheme by which sinless

unfallen human beings may reach heaven on the basis of their

worthiness; but God is undertaking to bring sinful, fallen beings into

glory, and the plan He has devised, of necessity, can take no account

either of human merit or demerit. Immeasurable grace is manifested

in the provision of a righteous way by which fallen men may be

translated from a ruined estate to a new creation; but, after one is

translated, there is no passing back and forth from one estate to the

other as changing merit or demerit might seem to require.

Let it be restated that, by that baptism which the Spirit

accomplishes, the believer is vitally joined to the Lord. Being in

Christ, he is a partaker of the righteousness of God which Christ is.

He is thus perfected to that point which satisfies infinite holiness, and

on that ground and on no other God declares him justified in His own

sight. Though He may discipline the justified one, God having

justified, cannot consistently lay anything to the charge of His elect

(Rom 8:33).

To the Arminian, salvation is no more than an indefinite divine

blessing upon a life that is worthy of it, which blessing endures as

long as personal worthiness continues. To the Calvinist, salvation is a

divine achievement which is unrelated to human merit, which secures

the forgiveness of sin, the gift of eternal life, imputed righteousness,

justification, acceptance and standing in Christ, and final conformity

to Christ in eternal glory.

4. THE HOLY SPIRIT SEALS. The last of the twelve reasons why the

believer is secure, to be named in this connection, is that he is sealed

by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwelling as an anointing is Himself

the Seal. His presence in the Christian indicates a finished transaction,

divine ownership, and eternal security. The believer is a temple of the

Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19); and, though woefully unrecognized and

unappreciated by the best of men, that fact of indwelling is,

apparently, a most distinguishing reality in the reckoning of God. It is

an age characterizing fact (Rom 7:6; 2 Cor 3:6). Three references to

the Spirit’s sealing are found in the New Testament. (1) 2 Corinthians

1:21-22: “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath


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anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of

the Spirit in our hearts.” Every one of the four parts in this passage

speaks of security, and the truth is asserted that the presence of the

Spirit in the believer’s heart is a foretaste of the knowledge-

surpassing experience of divine blessing yet to be enjoyed. The

passage breathes no intimation of uncertainty either about present

blessings or about a future consummation. (2) Ephesians 1:13-14: “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, which is the earnest of our

inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the

praise of his glory.” More correctly the passage begins, “upon

believing ye were sealed,” etc. (cf. R.V.).

Eph 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of

your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were sealed

with the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of

our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to

the praise of his glory. NET

Here, again, the thought of the earnest, which the presence of the

Spirit is, appears and it is made clear that the blessings which the

present relation to the Spirit secures are but an indication of the glory

yet to be. As the Spirit is an earnest of the future inheritance, He is

also the “first-fruits” of it (Rom 8:23). (3) Ephesians 4:30: “And

grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until the day

of redemption.” This signal passage declares that the believer is

sealed until the day of redemption. The redemption to which

reference is made is its final aspect when the body is changed so as to

become like unto the body of Christ (Rom 8:23), and the sealed one is

complete forever – even conformed to the image of Christ in glory.

Like every other declaration respecting security, this one presents no

human condition, but is set forth as a work of God, and on a basis so

righteous and so independent of human cooperation that no human

responsibility could be included as a factor in this sublime out-

working of grace through Christ.

In concluding this division of this treatment of the doctrine of

security, it may be restated that of these twelve major reasons why the

true believer is safe, any one of them alone would suffice to end all

doubt and terminate all controversy for the individual who gives

unprejudiced attention to the Word of God. These reasons cover an

incomprehensible range of truth Arminianism does not enter; for that

system, if consistent with itself, must deny every one of these twelve

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reasons, or else vitiate them by writing into them by writing into them

the human element which God, of necessity and for His glory, has left

out. Some among the Arminians may not comprehend this body of

immeasurable truth; others may prefer to avoid assuming an attitude

of bold rejection of these portions of the New Testament. At any rate

and for whatever reasons, the Arminian does not attempt even a

feeble exposition of what are well classed as security verses.

Final testimony from the witnesses for the prosecution of the above listed

four indictments will be presented next.


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Concluding Proof

I.

Indictment 1: Concluding Proof of Original Sin

Concluding Proof for the prosecution of the Negative gospel for denying

Original Sin, the Sin Nature, and the subsequent Wrath of God

towards all men as the need for the death of Christ.

This writer:

Completed satisfaction for the propitiation made by Christ is not

theory. It is the divinely planned effect of the essential need for a

required action to make satisfaction for sin. Most importantly, the

voluntary, the substitutionary, and the penal death of Christ expiated all

sin and propitiated (satisfied) the Father. This is proven in the fact that

Christ defeated death. Christ has risen and lives - so that man may live.

Imputation is not theory. It is proven in the certain fact that men die.

Adam and Christ are the source of two separate creations of men. They

are the source of imputed sin and imputed righteousness as surely as

genetic traits are transferred. Original sin in all men is the fundamental

and primary reason why Christ died. The “wrath” of God remains on all

unsaved men. If God has no wrath towards sin and is free to forgive men

because of the death of Christ, as the Governmental theory would assert,

then by this stated rationale, Revelation chapters 5-19, that include the

horrors that fall upon mankind in the Great Tribulation, must be

interpreted as something that happened before Christ died. Much like the

Great Flood. What reputable Bible commentary takes that view?

1 Thess 5:9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining

salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. NET

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

God sees but two representative men and all humanity is

comprehended either in one or the other. He sees the first Adam with

a race fallen and lost in him, and He sees the last Adam with a new

creation redeemed and exalted in Him. Vital distinctions are


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observable between these two headships. The truth revealed

respecting Adam may be divided into that found in the Old Testament

and that found in the New Testament.

1. According to the Old Testament. … Not only does Genesis

record Adam’s origin and estate, but all subsequent Scripture builds

its teaching on the reality and truthfulness of the Genesis account. In

this the Bible is consistent with itself. Having declared the origin of

the race after the manner set forth in Genesis, it treats those records as

true. There is no shadow of suspicion that any other theory relative to

man’s origin exists. Thus he who rejects the Genesis account rejects

the whole Bible in so far as it bears upon the origin, development,

history, redemption, and destiny of the race. In the doctrinal scheme

of the Bible Adam and Christ are so interwoven and interdependent

that it must be concluded that if the Genesis account respecting Adam

be erroneous – on the theory he was a character who never existed –

the record respecting Christ is subject to question also. …

2. According to the New Testament. The New Testament teaching

regarding Adam and Christ is one of type and antitype; but in every

respect save one – namely, that each is head of a creation of beings –

the typology is one of contrast. Two primary passages are to be

considered and also other secondary passages.

a. Romans 5:12-21. Observing but two representative men, God

see likewise just two works – one of disobedience and one of

obedience – and two results – one of death and one of life. The race is

thus divided into two main classifications: those in Adam, lost and

undone, and those in Christ, saved and secure forever. This most

important passage bearing upon the relation between Adam and

Christ – theologically to the last degree – draws out the distinctions

which exist between Adam and Christ.

As he was warned of God, Adam died both spiritually (which took

place at once) and physically (which occurred eventually) as a result

of his first sin, and the race that was included with him shared in the

same twofold judgment of death. Resulting from Adam’s first sin are

two lines of effects reaching down alike to every member of Adam’s

race. One is the sin nature, which results in spiritual death and is

transmitted mediately from parent to child; the other is imputed sin

with its penalty of physical death, which is transmitted immediately

from Adam to each individual member of his race. A person dies

physically not because Adam alone sinned, not because of personal

sins, and not because of the sin nature; he dies because of his own

share – in the seminal sense – in the original sin which drew out the

judgment of death. Because its natural head in creation, Adam is seen

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as representative of the entire race. In that headship position he

contained the race and his lapse, or sin, is imputed with its penalty of

physical death to his posterity as an actual imputation; because as

what is antecedently their own sin, then, physical death as a judgment

falls on all alike, even on those, such as infants, who have not sinned

– as Adam did – willfully (Rom 5:14). This divine principle of

reckoning heavy responsibility to an unborn posterity is seen again in

Hebrews 7:9-10 where Levi, the great-grandson of Abraham, is

declared to have paid tithes to Melchizedek, being yet in the loins of

his father Abraham (cf. Gen 14:20). Romans 5:2 declares that all his

race sinned in Adam when Adam sinned. No other interpretation than

that will carry through the remaining verses of this context.

b. 1 Corinthians 15:22. This Scripture reads: “For as in Adam all

die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Such is the Authorized

version reading of this important declaration. There is no difficulty

regarding the first clause, that “in Adam all die”; but as for the rest of

the verse, the same numerical all – πάντες – will be made alive; for,

as Christ said, “ the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the

graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (John 5:28-29). It is

more fully in accordance with the context which follows (1 Cor

15:23-24) if the passage is understood to mean that all men die

because of Adam and all men – the same numerical all – will be

raised by or because of Christ. For the context continues by saying

that every man will be raised in his own classification; every man will

be raised – that disclosure precludes a restriction of the context to

those who are only in Christ by position. Such a limited type of

resurrection, nevertheless, is later declared by the words “they that are

Christ’s at his coming” (v. 23). The subject in view is clearly

universal death through Adam and universal resurrection through

Christ. Romans 5:18 presents a similar case with a twofold use of

πάντες.

c. Secondary Passages. In 1 Corinthians 15:45 it is asserted that,

in contrast again, Adam was made a life-receiving soul while Christ is

a life-giving Spirit. In like manner (vs. 47), Adam was “of the earth,

earthly”; the Second Man is none other than the Lord from heaven.

Though the believer has worn the image of the earthly, he is

appointed to bear the image of the heavenly. He will be “conformed

to the image” of Christ (Rom 8:29). Again in 1 Timothy 2:3-14 it is

said that Adam, quite in contrast to Eve, was not deceived in his

transgression. Adam sinned knowingly and willfully. In Romans 5:14

reference is made to those who, because of immaturity and

incompetency, have not sinned after “the similitude of Adam’s


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transgression” (that is knowingly and willfully). Thus also in Jude

1:14 Enoch is declared to be “the seventh from Adam,” as throughout

the entire Bible Adam is recognized for a living man, the beginning

of the human race. In the genealogy of Christ given by Luke Christ is

traced back to Adam who, it is averred, was the son of God (Luke

3:38). Christ Himself upholds the Genesis record respecting Adam

and Eve (cf. Matt 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8). (Systematic Theology, Dr.


1 Cor 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the

firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 15:21 For since death

came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through

a man. 15:22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be

made alive. 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits;

then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. 15:24 Then comes

the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he

has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. 15:25 For

he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 15:26

The last enemy to be eliminated is death.

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II.

Indictment 2: Concluding Proof of Christianity


Christianity

2 Cor 1:18 But as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes”

and “No.” 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was

proclaimed among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—

was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has always been “Yes” in him. 1:20

For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him; therefore also

through him the “Amen” is spoken, to the glory we give to God. 1:21

But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who

anointed us, 1:22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our

hearts as a down payment.41

41sn Down payment. The Greek word άρραβών (arrabōn) denotes the

first payment or first installment of money or goods which serves as a

guarantee or pledge for the completion of the transaction. In the NT the

term is used only figuratively of the Holy Spirit as the down payment of the blessings promised by God (it occurs later in 2 Cor 5:5, and also in

Eph 1:14). In the “already—not yet” scheme of the NT the possession of

the Spirit now by believers (“already”) can be viewed as a guarantee that

God will give them the balance of the promised blessings in the future

(“not yet”).

This writer:

Men are not lost because of personal sin. The Negative gospel is

based on a theory of divine Government that is limited to provide for the

forgiveness of personal sin only. This is a denial of Christianity on two

counts. One, It is a denial of the reconciliation of mankind accomplished

through the atoning blood of Christ. “In other words, in Christ God was

reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses

against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making

His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be

reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for

us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor

5:19-21 NET). Two, it is a denial of Christianity, in that a Christian may


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not lose their salvation, or become unregenerate, or born in Adam, a

second time. All personal sins are redeemed and judgment has been

passed on Christ as substitutionary penalty and He as Advocate pleads

the sufficiency of His death for the sins of believers. “There is therefore

now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” i (Rom 8:1

NET).

It is a monument to gross blindness that the Negative gospel was ever

created a second time, after the Reformation, as it is a parody of ancient

Catholicism. And proof that many within the Negative gospel are blinded

to the true gospel by Satan, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled

only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has

blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the

light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor

4:3-4 NET). To ignore the fact that personal sins do not send the unsaved

to hell is to preach religious humanism and “another gospel.” That the

completed satisfaction in the death of Christ covers the unaccountable

soul of a child and the deficient individual is proof that personal sins do

not condemn the sinner and that Christ died a substitutionary penal death.

Also, the fact that they die is proof of the real imputed sin of the sin

nature, as per Romans 5.

The Arminian motto encapsulated in the forgiving father of the

prodigal son is a dead wrong salvation gospel of forgiveness for personal

sins and a unsecured future salvation. No faith, no trust, no Jesus Christ,

ergo no gospel is contained within this parable. A conversion, a change

of direction, a 180 degree change of mind is contained in this parable.

This parable of the lost, and the others in Luke 15 are eternal security

illustrations for the saved child of God. The pearl in the parable of

Matthew 13 was not bought by a beggarly wicked sinner competing with

Christ for salvation – Christ bought the pearl of great price, the single,

unified church of His body in Christ. Jesus stated the parables He spoke

were meant to hide truth from the unsaved. Parables are a tool meant for

discernment. They are given to the saved child of God for him to

i NET 1tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as

well as a few others (Í* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional

words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D1 Y 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words mhV kataV savrka peripatou'sin (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not

walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (Í2 D2 33vid Ï) added ajllaV kataV pneu'ma (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”).

Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much

by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.

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distinguish the unsaved false professing Christians who preach the false

gospel. As all Bible doctrine is interrelated and all error is based on

disregard and overemphasis on doctrine, predictably, the Negative gospel

has focused on personal sin much in the same manner as a Seventh Day

Adventist misreads and misapplies the Bible, as the Jewish sixth day

Sabbath has been deleted from the Decalogue in the NT restatements of

Godward and manward obligation inherent upon a Christian. The

Negative gospel for the forgiveness of personal sins is false because it

denies the meaning of Christianity – the suffix “ity,” means to be in the

state of - what a Christian is “in Christ” for all eternity.

Raymond E. Brown, S.S.:

“and in Him there is no darkness at all,” This is our first encounter

with einai en, “to be in,” one of the two frequent and revealing

Johannine expressions for interiority; see Malatesta, Interiority 27-32.

(The other is menien en, “to abide, dwell in”; it will be discussed in

the NOTE on 2:6a, the first occurrence.) The expression einai en

occurs in GJohn 13 times, and 14 more times with the verb “to be”

clearly understood. In I John einai en occurs 18 times, with 4 more

instances where the verb “to be” is clearly understood. The usage

maybe divided under three headings:

(A) INDWELLING PERTINENT TO GOD. Einai en is used to describe

the presence of the Christian in God and Jesus and vice versa. (The

more frequent formula for this, however, is menein en; and I shall

postpone the general discussion of divine immanence until 2:6a; see

also ABJ 29A, 602-3.) The 9 instances of this use in GJohn and in the

3 in I John (one with the verb implicit: 4:4) may be analyzed thus:

� for the Christian in God: I John 2:5

� for the Christian in Jesus: John 14:20; 15:2

� for the Christian in the father and Jesus: John 17:21; I John 5:20

� for Jesus in the Christian: John 14:20,23; 17:23,26

� for Jesus in the Father: John 14:20

� for the Father in Jesus: 17:23

� for both Jesus in the Father and the Father in Jesus: John 10:38;

14:10,11; 17:21

� for the Spirit of Truth in the Christian: John 14:17; I John 4:4

This use of einai en is not exclusively Johannine, e.g., Acts 17:28: “In

Him we live and move and are.” In the Pauline Epistles there are 165

instances of the expression “in Christ: or its equivalent, and there are


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also instances of Christ in the Christian – the verb “to be” is often

implied in these expressions (see JBC 79 # 138).

(B) INDWELLING OF OTHER REALITIES IN THE CHRISTIAN. The

dualistic Johannine world view divided people according to their

inmost being, so that various realities could be said to be in Christians

and not in their opponents. There are some 5 instances of this usage

of einai en in GJohn and 7 in I John. In the following instances

realities related to God or Jesus are said to be in the Christian:

� light: John 12:35

� Jesus’ joy: I John 2:15

� The love the Father had for Jesus: John 17:26

But most often we learn of the divine realities in the Christian from a

statement about their absence in opponents. The following positive

things are said not to be in those of whom the Johannine authors

disapprove (e.g., “the Jews,” the secessionists, the devil):

� light: I John 11:10

� love of the Father: 2:15

� truth: John 8:44; I John 1:8; 2:4; (cf. 2:8)

� word of God: I John 1:10 (cf. John 8:37)

By way of comparison we may note what Ignatius in Magn. 5:2:

(unless we choose to die to the world through Christ), “his life is not

in us.” Returning to the Johannine writings, we find that the following

negative things are said not to be in Christ or in the true Christian:

� dishonesty (adikia) : John 17:18

� sin (hamartia) : I John 3:5

� stumbling block (skandalon) : I John 2:10

(C) MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL USES. These are often corol-

laries of the dualism reflected in the preceding grouping but do not

lend themselves easily to schematization. The following realities are

the subject or the object of einai en:

� light or darkness: God in light (I John 1:7); hater of one’s brother

not in light but in darkness (I John 2:9ac, 11); no darkness in God (I

John 1:5)

� life: What came to be in the Word was life (John 1:4); eternal life in

God’s Son (I John 5:11)

� love: No fear in love (I John 4:18)

� in the world: Jesus (John 1:10; 9:5; 17:11); Christian (13:1; 17:11; I

John 4:17); Spirit of the Antichrist or the Evil One (I John 4:3,4);

evil things (I John 2:15-16) (The Epistles of John – The Anchor

Bible, Raymond E. Brown S.S., pp195-96)

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Dr. Lewis Chafer:

THE ESTATE OF THE LOST

The word lost is used in the New Testament in two widely

different ways. An object may be lost in the sense that it needs to be

found. This use of the word does not imply that a change in the

structure or character of the lost object is thereby indicated. It is lost

only to the extent that it is out of its rightful place. Israel wandering

from their covenants were styled by Christ as “the lost sheep of the

house of Israel” (Matt 10:6). In like manner, a Christian who is out of

fellowship with God because of sin is misplaced; yet he remains

unchanged with respect to the essential realities which make him a

child of God – eternal life, imputed righteousness, and union with

God. The God-given illustration of this wonderful truth is declared in

the threefold parable of Luke 15. A sheep is lost and is “found.” It

was a sheep all the time, but was out of its place. A coin is lost from

its place in the woman’s headdress and is “found.” It was the same

coin all the time, but was out of its place. A son was lost and is

“found.” And he was a son in every step of his wanderings. On the

other hand, a person may be lost in such a manner as to need to be

saved. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was

lost” (Luke 19:10). It is because of the fact that in salvation the

structural changes are such as to demand the divine provisions and

divine creative powers, that the transition from the lost estate to that

of the saved can be wrought only by God.

The body of truth now being considered contemplates at least four

reasons why those who are of this fallen estate are lost:

1. The lost soul has attained to none of the eternal realities that

make a Christian what he is. i All that may be said of the unsaved is

negative. No Scripture makes this clearer than Ephesians 2:12, in

which the Ephesian Christians are reminded from the lost estate from

which they were saved: “That at that time ye were without Christ,

being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the

covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the

world.”

2. Individuals are lost, also, because of the fact that they are

born with a fallen sinful nature. This is no doubt he most

condemning feature of man’s lost estate. When Adam sinned, he

experienced a conversion downward. He became an entirely different

kind of being. After the fall, he could propagate only “in his own

i The thirty-three positions and possessions by grace of a Christian in Christ.


1072

likeness,” and his first son is a murderer. Adam – in whom Eve is

reckoned as one – is the only human being who became a sinner by

sinning. All other members of the race commit sin because they are

born sinners. Though this evil nature remains in the Christian as long

as he is in the world, it was judged for the Christian by Christ on the

cross (Rom 6:10), and its condemnation removed. The death of Christ

unto the sin nature is also the ground of the believer’s deliverance by

the Holy Spirit from the power of inbred sin. It is true that men are

lost because of personal sins: but, since personal sins are the normal

fruit of the evil nature, they should never be made the only, or even

important, basis upon which a soul is lost. In reply to a claim that he

is lost because of personal sin, an unregenerate person might easily

assert, that he had never been one percent evil as he might have been,

therefore he is only one percent lost. The lost estate consists primarily

in a fallen nature, which is one hundred per cent evil. An effort to be

good or form a worthy character is a poor remedy for a fallen nature.

Only he grace of God acting on the death of His son will avail.

3. Again, men are lost because of a decree which God has made

concerning all who live on earth – Jew and Gentile alike – in the

present age, which age is bounded by the two advents of Christ. It is

written: “What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we

have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under

sin” (Rom 3:9); “But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that

the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that

believe” (Gal 3:22). The phrase “under sin” means, as stated above,

that Good will accept the merit of no person as a contributing factor

in his salvation. This decree, which eliminates all human merit, is

essential if salvation is to be by grace. This does not imply that a

good life is not of value in its place; but he issue under consideration

is the problem of how a holy God can perfectly save those who, in

His sight, are perfectly lost. He disregards that which men deem to be

good – and some possess more of this goodness than others – that He

may replace it with the perfection of Christ. What, for the moment,

seems to be a complete loss, thus in the end becomes an infinite gain.

Since, by the very way in which He saves the lost, God is preparing

the material for a heavenly demonstration of the unsearchable riches

of His grace (Eph 2:7), the inclusion in this salvation of any human

element is impossible.

4. Similarly and finally, men are lost because of the fact that they

are under the power of Satan. Only the Word of God can speak with

authority on this theme. But four passages need be cited:

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2 Corinthians 4:3-4. This text declares that the unsaved are

blinded in their minds by Satan, lest the saving gospel of Christ

should shine unto them.

Ephesians 2:1-3. The testimony at this point is that the unsaved

are “children of disobedience” – being in the headship of disobedient

Adam – and that everyone is energized by Satan. In contrast to this it

would be well to note Philippians 2:13, where, by use of the same

word, the Christian is said to be energized by God.

Colossians 1:13. This text points to the striking fact that a soul

when saved is translated out of the power of darkness, in which

darkness it naturally dwells.

1 John 5:19 (R. V.). The cosmos, it is asserted, including the

unregenerate (as being a part of it), “lieth in” the wicked one. The

word wickedness, found in the Authorized Version, is better

translated evil or wicked one (note the preceding verse where the

same word occurs). Likewise, the phrase lieth in is deeply suggestive,

indicating as it does that in some measure the unsaved are in Satan,

while the Christians are in Christ.

There is strong enough intimation with regard to the

condemnation that rests upon the unsaved in Scriptures, to assert that

when they are saved it is from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13), from

wrath (1 Thess 5:9; John 3:36), from death (2 Cor 7:10), and from

destruction (2 Thess 1:9). (Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer,

Vol 3, pp 230-32) (bold italics mine, this writer)

Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a

curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on

a tree”) NET

1 Thess 5:9 For God did not destine us for wrath11 but for gaining

salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. NET

11sn God did not destine us for wrath. In context this refers to the

outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth in the day of the Lord (1 Thess

5:2-4).

1 Thess 5:2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will

come in the same way as a thief in the night. 5:3 Now when they are

saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes

on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely

not escape. 5:4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness

for the day to overtake you like a thief would. NET


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John 3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one

who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath70 remains on

him. NET

70tn Or “anger because of evil,” or “punishment.”

2 Cor 7:10 For sadness as intended by God produces a repentance

that leads to salvation, leaving no regret, but worldly sadness brings

about death. NET

2 Thess 1:8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those

who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

1:9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from

the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 1:10

when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that

day among all who have believed— NET

Raymond E. Brown, S.S.:

The author of I John is not worried about initial justification but

about the forgiveness of sins committed as a Christian. When people

first believe and come to the light, their sins are forgiven. They may

sin again; yet if they try to walk in the light, the blood of Jesus, which

cleanses from all sin, cleanses from these sins as well.

Moving on from the grammatical logic of the clauses in 7cd, let us

discuss “the blood of Jesus.” Of the 362 uses of “blood” in the

Hebrew Bible, 103 refer to sacrificial blood (Morris, Apostolic

Preaching 109). The distinctive note in sacrifices for sin was not the

death of the animal but the use made of the blood in sprinkling the

Temple veil or in anointing the horns of the altar, a task confined to

the priest. It was demanded, of course, that the blood have been

obtained by the violent death (slaughter) of the victim; and this

presupposition affects the NT understanding of the sacrificial quality

of Christ’s blood as well. J. Behm, “haima,” TDNT 1, 175, wrongly

underplays this when he says, “The early Christian representation of

the blood of Christ as sacrificial blood is simply the metaphorical

garment clothing the thought of the self-offering, the obedience to

God, which Christ demonstrated in the crucifixion.” It has these

notions, of course; but the shedding of blood was important as well

(see John 19:34; ABJ 29A 951). In the NT the term “blood” occurs 97

times; of those, 6 are in GJohn and 4 in I John, a statistic which

means that proportionately “blood” is far more important in I John.

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Of the six usages in GJohn, four (6:53-56) refer to Jesus’

(Eucharistic) blood to be drunk, and only one (19:34) refers to the

blood shed on the cross. In concentrating on the latter, then, the

epistolary author is capitalizing on a minor theme in GJohn. Yet, if

the Book of Revelation is an offshoot of Johannine thought, the

frequency of the blood theme there suggests that GJohn may not have

done justice to its overall importance in Johannine thought, e.g., “To

him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Rev

1:5); “For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed men for

God” (Rev 5:9); “They have washed their robes and made them white

in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14; see 12:11). Certainly the theme

of the redemptive blood of Christ is common in the NT for initial

justification (Col 1:20; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 1:18-19), combined with

ongoing forgiveness and reconciliation (Eph 1:7; 2:13; Rom 5:9; 1

Pet 1:2; Heb 9:14). …

7e. cleanses us from all sin. The Johannine redemptive language

contains many words to describe what has been done to sin (see

Rivera, La redención 20-26), including:

� “forgive” (aphienai) : John 20:23; I John 1:9; 2:12

� “take away” (airein) : John 1:29

� “destroy” (lyein) : I John 3:8

� “atonement, expiation” (hilasmos) : I John 2:2; 4:10

� “cleanse” (katharizein) : here; I John 1:9

� “clean” (katharos) : John 13:10-11

The idea of cleansing or being clean from sin is well attested in

the OT, e.g., Ps 19:13 (12); Prov 20:9. I John 1:9d will use the

synonymous expression, “cleanse us from all wrong doing” (adikia);

and that is found in Jer 33(40) :8: “I will cleanse them from all their

wrongdoings whereby they have sinned against me.” Although in the

OT such cleansing can refer to either making clean or simply

declaring clean, the fact that I John speaks also of destroying and

taking away sin makes it clear that a real cleansing is meant here. In

John 13:10-11 the disciples are said to be cleansed with the word of

Jesus (although the context there describes an action of Jesus that is

symbolic of his death); but here the author uses the imagery of

cleansing with blood reflecting sacrificial terminology from the

levitical practices of Israel, as discussed in the preceding NOTE. The

outlook is eloquently summarized in the words of the Lord in Lev

17:11: “I have given it [blood] to you that you may make atonement

with it upon the altar for your souls,” and in Heb 9:22: “According to

the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the

shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Probably the author of I


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John had a particular OT sacrifice in mind when he described the

shedding of Jesus’ blood, i.e., the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement;

but we shall discuss that under “atonement” in 2:2a below. The

present passage never specifies the circumstances under which the

cleansing takes place, but I do not find plausible the suggestion of

Houlden, Epistles 56, “The sense of 1:7 may be that the sacrifice of

Jesus serves to obliterate a Christian’s sins as soon as they are done.”

An interval is required between the sin and the forgiveness; for v. 9

casts light on v. 7, and from that verse we learn that a confession of

sin was desired. The power over sin given in John 20:23 was

probably invoked in the cleansing from sin. (The Epistles of John,

The Anchor Bible, Raymond E. Brown, Volume 30, pp 202-204)

Dr. Charles Spurgeon:

“I will; be thou clean.” Mark i. 41.

c RIMEVAL darkness heard the Almighty fiat, “light be,” a

straightway light was, and the word of the Lord Jesus is equal in

majesty to that ancient word of power. Redemption like Creation has

its word of might. Jesus speaks and it is done. Leprosy yielded to no

human remedies, but it fled at once to the Lord’s “I will.” The disease

exhibited no hopeful signs or tokens of recovery, nature contributed

nothing to its own healing, but the unaided word effected the entire

work on the spot and for ever. The sinner is in a plight more

miserable than the leper; let him imitate his example and go to Jesus,

“beseeching Him and kneeling down to Him.” Let him exercise what

little faith he has, even though it should go no further than “Lord, if

thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;” and there need be no doubt as

to the result of the application. Jesus heals all who come, and casts

out none. In reading the narrative in which our morning text occurs, it

is worthy of devout notice that Jesus touched the leper. This unclean

person had broken through the regulations of the ceremonial law and

pressed into the house, but Jesus so far from chiding him broke

through the law Himself in order to meet him. He made an

interchange with the leper, for while He cleansed him, He contracted

by that touch a Levitical defilement. Even so Jesus Christ was made

sin for us, although in Himself He knew no sin, that we might be

made the righteousness of God in Him. O that poor sinners would go

to Jesus, believing in the power of His blessed substitutionary work,

and they would soon learn the power of His gracious touch. That

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hand which multiplied the loaves, which saved sinking Peter, which

upholds afflicted saints, which crowns believers, that same hand will

touch every seeking sinner, and in a moment make him clean. The

love of Jesus is the source of salvation, He loves, He looks, He

touches us, WE LIVE. (Morning and Evening Devotions, Charles

Spurgeon, Sept. 4 Morning, p 496)


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III.

Indictment 3: Concluding Proof of Eternal Salvation


Eternal Salvation and the reason why Christ lives as Advocate and

Intercessor.

This writer:

The imputation of righteousness is a NT verity that the Christ

professing advocates of the Negative gospel should take notice of.

Salvation by grace through faith is past complete, present perfect, and

future perfected. Salvation is eternal. Personal sin has no part in the

immediate salvation of a sinner. Personal sin was redeemed 2000 years

ago. Quite distinct from the Arminian theory is the Biblical revelation

that a completed basis for the infinite riches of salvation by grace was

accomplished by the atoning blood of Christ. Salvation is why Christ

lives. He lives as the Intercessory High Priest and Advocate for His

kingdom of priests. Additionally, the baptism of the Holy Spirit places

one into the body of the living, resurrected, glorified, and ascended

Christ. Thereby, the “righteousness of Christ” is a possession of each

believer and God sees “no iniquity in Jacob.” For this is the reason that

Christ lives – sin and death could not conquer Him. He conquered sin

and death so that men may be created into His image. Men created

through faith for salvation in the grace of the risen Righteous One.

“Bible doctrines are the bones of revelation, and the attentive Bible

student must be impressed with the New Testament emphasis on

“sound doctrine” (Matt 7:28; John 7:16-17; Acts 2:42; Rom 6:17;

Eph 4:14; 1 Tim 1:3; 4:6, 16; 6:1; 2 Tim 3:10, 16; 4:2-3; 2 John

9:10). Not knowing the doctrines of the Bible, the child of God will

be, even when sincere, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with

every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,

whereby they lie in wait to deceive”; the many well-meaning

believers who are drawn into modern cults and heresies being

sufficient proof. On the other hand, the divine purpose is that the

servant of Christ shall be fully equipped to “preach the word; be

instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all

longsuffering and doctrine.” 236

Lewis Sperry Chafer


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1 John 2:1 (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that

you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate3 with the

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,4 2:2 and he himself is the atoning

sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole

world. NET

3tn The description of the Holy Spirit as ‘Paraclete’ is unique to the Gospel

of John (14:16, 26; 15:26; and 16:7). Here, in the only other use of the word

in the NT, it is Jesus, not the Spirit, who is described as �αράκλητος (paraklētos). The reader should have been prepared for this inter-

changeability of terminology, however, by John 14:16, where Jesus told the

disciples that he would ask the Father to send them ‘another’ paraclete

(άλλος, allos, “another of the same kind”). This implies that Jesus himself

had been a paraclete in his earthly ministry to the disciples. This does not

answer all the questions about the meaning of the word here, though, since it

is not Jesus’ role as an advocate during his earthly ministry which is in view,

but his role as an advocate in heaven before the Father. The context suggests

intercession in the sense of legal advocacy, as stress is placed upon the

righteousness of Jesus (Ίησοϋν Χριστόν δίκαιον, Iēsoun Christon

dikaion). The concept of Jesus’ intercession on behalf of believers does

occur elsewhere in the NT, notably in Rom 8:34 and Heb 7:25. Something

similar is taking place here, and is the best explanation of 1 John 2:1. An

English translation like “advocate” or “intercessor” conveys this.

4tn Or “Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

The question here raised and which has been for so long under

theological controversy is simply stated in the words, “Can a person

once saved be lost again?” To this question two widely differing

answers have been given. These are as simply stated in the two

words, Yes and No. There is no middle position, or ground for

compromise, for both answers cannot be true at the same time. One

cannot really be secure if he is insecure as to his eternal keeping by

the slightest degree.

… Eternal security is a doctrine of Scripture, a divine revelation of

an abiding fact which exists, whether it is believed or not. … The two

schools of belief regarding eternal security have existed for several

centuries and certain church creeds have taken positive sides on the

question. The belief, or disbelief, in security is, however, more of a

personal matter than creedal. It depends much on the extent of

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personal Bible study and heart response to the whole revelation of

God. Because one is enrolled under a “Calvinistic” creed does not

guarantee that he himself will be free from the distractions of mere

human reason: on the other hand, because one is enrolled under an

“Arminian” creed is no guarantee that he will learn to rest in every

revelation and promise of God.

The question resolves itself to one issue: did Christ do enough on

the cross to make it possible for God righteously to keep one saved,

as well as righteously to save at all? Since this question strikes at

the very heart of the revelation regarding the cross, its importance cannot be overestimated. The solution of the question involves the

very foundation of personal rest and peace, and must qualify

Christian service as well. No one can rest while in terror of eternal

damnation, nor can one be normal in service if he is confronted with

the superhuman task of self-keeping in the realm of the new creation.

A careful survey of the whole field of discussion regarding the

security of those who are saved will reveal that one group return

constantly in their discussions of this subject to the conclusions of

human reason, to the uncertain evidence of human experience, and

such Scripture as is cited by them, they “wrest to their own

destruction.” The other group are guided by revelation alone,

believing that there is nothing about any phase of salvation that can

be explained within the circumscribed limits of unaided reason or

knowledge. …

To claim that the child of God is not safe because of the

supposed unsaving power of sin, is to put sin above the blood and to set at naught the eternal redemption that is in Christ Jesus. … If the

saved one is finally lost, it must be concluded that God is, to that

degree, lacking in power. He Who has testified that not one of His

sheep will ever perish, must yet retract His bold assertions and

humbly submit to a power that is greater than His own. He who

created and holds the universe in His hands; Who calls things that are

not as though they were; Who could speak the word and dismiss

every atom of matter and life from existence forever must retire

before the overlordship of some creature of His hand.

And, lastly, admitting the revelation concerning God’s eternal

purpose and His infinite power to accomplish that purpose, if it could

still be proven that the saved one might be lost we would be shut up

to the one and final conclusion that it could be so only because the

All-Powerful God did not sufficiently care to keep those whom His

power had created as new-born children. But what do we find? The

revelation is full of testimony concerning that very care. Who can


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measure the revealed devotion of His boundless love towards the

objects of His saving grace? Who will dare claim that He will not

answer the prayer of His Son?

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those

who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one,

just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be

in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you

gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are

one—I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so

that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them

just as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to

be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave

me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous

Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these

men know that you sent me. I made known your name to them, and I

will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me

with may be in them, and I may be in them.” (John 17:20-26) NET

Many have placed an emphasis out of all due proportion upon the

three years’ ministry of Christ on the earth as compared with His

present ministry at the right hand of God. So little is this latter

ministry considered that it is almost unknown to many Christians; but

no one can enter intelligently into the revelation concerning the fact,

purpose and value of the present ministry of Christ and not be assured

of the eternal security of all who have put their trust in Him.

Whatever else lies in the purpose of the Eternal Son at the right hand

of God, the Scriptures reveal only that He is there for the keeping of

His own who are in the world.

The present heavenly ministry of Christ is both intercessory and

advocatory. As intercessor He prays for all that the Father has given

Him, or every member of His blessed body. This prayer is concerning

their weakness and helplessness. His intercessory ministry began with

His High Priestly prayer which He prayed before His death as

recorded in John 17. This petition it should be noted, is not only

limited to His own in the world, but altogether for their keeping and

fitting for their heavenly destiny (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25). No child of

God will ever know before reaching heaven from what dangers and

testings He has been saved by the faithful and unfailing intercession

of His Lord. He is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, brought again

from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant Who is

guarding His own, and of them He will say: “And I have lost none of

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them, save the son of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled”;

while they can say of Him, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not

want.”

It is inconceivable that the prayer of the Son of God should not be

answered. It was answered in the case of Peter. “And the Lord said,

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you as he might sift

you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” He

did not pray that Peter should be kept out of Satan’s sieve. He did

pray that Peters faith might not fail, and it did not fail. What

consolation it yields to contemplate the fact that He, with all His

understanding of every weakness and danger before us, is praying this

moment, and every moment, for us! His is not a prayer that will not

avail. His praying is perfect and the result is absolute. Moreover, His

intercession is without end.

The Aaronic priesthood was most limited in its continuance

because of the death of the priest.” But this man [Christ], because He

continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is

able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,

seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:24-25).

He is able to save to the uttermost (Greek, panteles, meaning

forever, or perfectly in point of time). Such security is vouchsafed

only to those “who come unto God by Him,” and such security is

assured to these on no other grounds, in this passage, than that, “He

ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

As Advocate He now “appears in the presence of God for us”

(Heb 9:24). This ministry has only to do with he believer’s sin. “If

any [Christian] man sin, we have an advocate with he Father [not an

advocate with God], Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). In

exercising this ministry He does not continue to atone for sins as they

are committed: sin has been atoned for “once for all,” and what He

does is in the value of that finished work of the cross. He does not

seek to excuse the sinning Christian before the Father’s presence. Sin

is ever that soul-destroying stain that can be cleansed only by His

precious blood; but the blood has been shed. Nor is He appealing for

the pity and leniency of God the Father towards the Christian’s sin.

God cannot be lenient toward sin; but having perfectly satisfied every

demand of His own righteousness against sin by the cross, He can be

eternally gracious towards the sinner who has come unto Him by

Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ is now appearing before the face of God for

us and He appears there with His glorified human body in which are

the scars of His crucifixion (Zech 13:6). It is the presence of the very


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death scarred body which answers the condemning power of every sin

of the child of God. It is also a sufficient answer to every accusation

of Satan who accuses the brethren before God day and night. “Who is

he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen

again, who is even at the right hand of God.” It is Christ, superior to

all finite beings, Who died. The death of such as He is the

undisputable answer to the condemning power of every sin; and He is

risen. Oh blessed Presence! Oh eternal safety! No condemnation can

ever pass His nail-scarred body. What priceless consolation to the

imperfect and sin-conscious saint.

We have been kept to the present hour by the living intercessor

Who ceases not to shepherd our wandering feet, and by the living

Advocate Who ceases not to appear for us before the right hand of the

Father. The same Intercessor and Advocate will yet prevail until that

blessed day when we shall see Him as He is and be like Him.

To challenge the eternal security of the believer is to deny that the

prayer of the Son of God will be answered and to deny the eternal

efficacy of His atoning blood. In ignorance, perhaps, such insult has

been heaped upon the blessed Savoir; yet still He is faithful. He prays

and appears before the Father in behalf of just such ignorant or

sinning believers. (Salvation, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp101-12)

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IV.

Indictment 4: Concluding Proof of Substitutionary Penalty and

Propitiation


Substitutionary Penalty and Propitiation; the essential cause and effect

of Completed Satisfaction and the At-One-Ment of reconciliation by

which God forgives men unconditionally by grace through faith in Christ

for belief in this forgiveness.

This writer:

Forgiveness is the very heart of the Gospel, but so also - eternal life.

To deny propitiation is to deny the personal effect of sin upon the justice

of God that required the sacrificial substitutionary penal death of Christ.

And this, the Gospel that is to be believed for salvation. So, to the one

who would deny the wrath of God, he must deny propitiation exists at all

in the word of God, moreover, the alternate loving, forgiving god and

christ of the Governmental theory is proven to be a fraud. No more

conclusive proof may be given than that which is in the Oracles of God’s

Truth. The fixed idea that the death of Christ has but one goal leads to a

false interpretation of the value of His death. This is evidenced by the

Negative gospel based in the Governmental atonement theory that has

created a false graveni image of God. The following verses prove

conclusively the substitutional penalty and the completed satisfaction

of propitiation accomplished in the death of Christ. God’s judgment

against sinners has been borne by the substitutionary penal death of

Christ and the Father was propitiated, utterly and completely satisfied.

Forgiveness is complete and to be had by faith in the revealed facts of the

positive gospel of God’s grace which states that it may be had gratis.

God, in His Word, reveals the Father’s required penal judgment against

sin, His provision of His Son as the essential, satisfactory, substitutional

sacrifice for judgment, and the work of the Holy Spirit in effecting the

transformation of a sinner to saint. By grace, or undeserved merit, the

simple faith of the sinner who believes this to be true is “obeying the

gospel” and receives all the divine benefits of salvation. The sinner

i Graven1. fix something in mind: to fix something firmly in the mind

(literary) graved it in her mind Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P)

1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


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reposes on the salvation that God proposes. God proposes no theories

concerning His completed work and divine unconditional offer of eternal

salvation and transformation.

Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood,20 the

forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

NET

20sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the

price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of

Christ on the cross.

Heb 2:9 … so that by God’s grace he would experience death on

behalf of everyone. NET

1 John 2:2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice5

[propitiation/satisfaction] for our sins, and not only for our sins but

also for the whole world. NET (brackets mine)

sn The Greek word (ίλασµός, hilasmos) behind the phrase atoning

sacrifice conveys both the idea of “turning aside divine wrath” and the idea of “cleansing from sin.”

5tn A suitable English translation for this word (ίλασµός, hilasmos) is a

difficult and even controversial problem. “Expiation,” “propitiation,” and

“atonement” have all been suggested. L. Morris, in a study that has

become central to discussions of this topic (The Apostolic Preaching of

the Cross, 140), sees as an integral part of the meaning of the word (as in

the other words in the [hilaskomai] group) the idea of turning away the

divine wrath, suggesting that “propitiation” is the closest English

equivalent. It is certainly possible to see an averting of divine wrath in

this context, where the sins of believers are in view and Jesus is said to

be acting as Advocate on behalf of believers. R. E. Brown’s point

(Epistles of John [AB], 220-21), that it is essentially cleansing from sin

which is in view here and in the other use of the word in 4:10, is well

taken, but the two connotations (averting wrath and cleansing) are not

mutually exclusive and it is unlikely that the propitiatory aspect of Jesus’

work should be ruled out entirely in the usage in 2:2. Nevertheless, the

English word “propitiation” is too technical to communicate to many

modern readers, and a term like “atoning sacrifice” (given by Webster’s

New International Dictionary as a definition of “propitiation”) is more appropriate here. Another term, “satisfaction,” might also convey the

idea, but “satisfaction” in Roman Catholic theology is a technical term

for the performance of the penance imposed by the priest on a penitent.

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1 John 4:10 In this is love: not that26 we have loved God, but that he

loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice27 [propitiation] for

our sins. NET (brackets mine)

sn What is important (as far as the author is concerned) is not whether we

love God (or say that we love God—a claim of the opponents is probably

behind this), but that God has loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning

sacrifice which removes believers’ sins. This latter point is similar to the

point made in 2:2 and is at the heart of the author’s dispute with the

opponents, because they were denying any salvific value to Jesus’ earthly

life and ministry, including his death on the cross.

27sn As explained at 2:2, inherent in the meaning of the word translated

atoning sacrifice ( hilasmos) is the idea of turning away the divine wrath,

so that “propitiation” is the closest English equivalent. God’s love for us

is expressed in his sending his Son to be the propitiation (the propitiatory

sacrifice) for our sins on the cross. This is an indirect way for the author

to allude to one of the main points of his controversy with the opponents:

the significance for believers’ salvation of Jesus’ earthly life and

ministry, including especially his sacrificial death on the cross. The contemporary English “atoning sacrifice” communicates this idea more

effectively.

Mark 24:46 Thus it stands written that the Messiah would suffer116

and would rise from the dead on the third day, 24:47 and repentance

for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all

nations NET

116tn Three Greek infinitives are the key to this summary: (1) to suffer,

(2) to rise, and (3) to be preached. The Christ (Messiah) would be slain,

would be raised, and a message about repentance would go out into all the world as a result. All of this was recorded in the scripture. The

remark shows the continuity between Jesus’ ministry, the scripture, and

what disciples would be doing as they declared the Lord risen.

117sn This repentance has its roots in declarations of the Old Testament.

It is the Hebrew concept of a turning of direction.

Dr. C. I. Scofield:

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his

blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are

past, through the forbearance of God. (Rom 3:25) KJV

(3:25) Lit. a propitiatory [sacrifice], through faith by his blood, Gr.

hilasterion, “place of propitiation.” The word occurs, 1 John 2:2;


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4:10, as the trans. of hilasmos, “that which propitiates,” “a

propitiatory sacrifice.” Hilasterion is used by the Septuagint, and in

Hebrews 9:5 for “mercy seat.” The mercy-seat was sprinkled with

atoning blood on the day of atonement (Lev 16:14), in token that the

righteous sentence of the law had been (typically) carried out, so that

what must else have been a judgment-seat could righteously be a

mercy-seat (Heb 9:11-15; 4:14-16), a place of communion (Ex 25:21-

22). In fulfillment of the type, Christ is Himself the hilasmos, “that

which propitiates,” and the hilasterion, “the place of propitiation” –

the mercy-seat sprinkled with His own blood – the token in our stead

that He so honoured the law by enduring its righteous sentence that

God, who ever foresaw the cross, is vindicated in having “passed

over” sins from Adam to Moses (Rom 5:13) and the sins of believers

under the old covenant (Ex 29:33 note), and just in justifying sinners

under the new covenant. There is no thought in propitiation in

placating a vengeful God, but of doing right by His holy law and so

making it possible for Him righteously to show mercy. (Old Scofield

Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1195

Dr. Charles Ryrie:

… It is proper and biblical to view the death of Christ as a great

display of the love of God or to see it as an example for us to be self-

sacrificing (these are biblical truths, John 15:13; Rom 5:8), but if

these comprised the only meaning of the death of Christ, there would

be no eternal value in it. It must provide a substitution and a payment

for sin, or the example means relatively little. … The reality of the

wrath of God raises the need for appeasing that wrath or for

propitiation. Though to the liberal such an idea is pagan, the truth is

that the wrath of God is a clear teaching of both the Old and New

Testaments.

1. In the Old Testament. More than twenty different words occurring

about 580 times express the wrath of God in the Old Testament (2

Kings 13:3; 23:26; Job 21:20; JER 21:12; Ezek 8:18; 16:38; 23:25;

24:13). … At the same time the Old Testament also portrays God as

loving His people and yearning for their fellowship. So the Old

Testament concept is not a pagan one of an unreasonable God who

demands to be placated, but of a Righteous God who cannot overlook

sin but whose love also provides avenues for fellowship with

Himself.

2. In the New Testament. Though not mentioned so frequently as in

the Old Testament, wrath in the New Testament is a basic concept to

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show the need for propitiation. The New Testament uses two

principal words. Orge conveys a more settled anger (John 3:36; Rom

1:18; Eph 2:3; 1 Thess 2:16; Rev 6:16), while thumos indicates a

more passionate anger (Rev 14:10, 19; 15:1, 7; 16:1; 19:15). Together

they clearly convey the divine hostility against sin in a personal way.

His wrath is not simply the inevitable, impersonal result of the

working of cause and effect, but a personal matter. To appease that

wrath was not a matter of vengeance but of justice, and it required the

sacrificial gift of God’s Son. …

C. The Negation of Propitiation: The Teaching of C.H. Dodd

1. His background. C. H. Dodd (1884-1973) was a British

congregational minister and New Testament scholar. He held

professorships at Manchester and Cambridge, and after his retirement

he served as general director of the New English Bible translation. He

is primarily known for his work in “realized eschatology” and in the

apostolic kerygma.

2. His view on propitiation. Dodd’s view was first stated in a article

in the Journal of Theological Studies (1931, 32:352-60) entitled

“Hilaskesthai, Its Cognates, Derivatives, and Synonyms,” In essence

his view is this: “The rendering propitiation … misleading,

misleading for it suggests the placating of an angry God, and although

this would be in accord with pagan usage, it is foreign to biblical

usage.” i Though he cited elaborate philological and exegetical

evidence, his principal reason for this conclusion appears to be

theological. To him it is sub-Christian to think that God can be angry

and therefore needs to be appeased; therefore, propitiation must be

defined in some other way. He proposed expiation as the substitute

word and concept for propitiation.

3. His evidence. Dodd cites the following. (1) At least two pagan

contexts furnish the examples of the meaning expiate and show that

in pagan usage the meanings of expiate and propitiate were

ambiguous. (2) The Old Testament word kipper is translated in the

Septuagint by sanctify, purify, cancel, purge, forgive, and not by

propitiate. Therefore, hilaskethai will have those other meanings also.

(3) Hilaskethai is used to translate other Hebrew words as cleanse and

forgive. (4) When the word is used to translate kipper, it does not

mean appeasement but to remove guilt.

i The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, C. H. Dodd, p 55


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4. The response. Roger Nicole has offered the most comprehensive

and persuasive reply to Dodd’s arguments. i He points out (a) that

Dodd’s choice of evidence is selective, since he omits consideration

of a number of relevant words; (b) that he fails to include evidence

from Philo and Josephus, both of whom understand propitiation as

appeasement; (c) that he often ignores the contexts of passages that if

considered would not support his conclusions; and (d) that basically

his logic is faulty when he assumes that the root meaning of a word is

changed or lost just because it is used to translate words other than

the most directly equivalent ones.

Basically, the stumbling block to Dodd’s way of thinking is the

idea of the wrath of God. He must eliminate that and goes to great

philological lengths to try to accomplish it. However, he does not

succeed either philologically or biblically. Romans 1:18; Colossians

3:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; and Revelation

6:16 cannot be explained away by Dodd or anyone else. Yet his

influence has been widespread (T.W. Manson, D. M. Baille, Vincent

Taylor, C.K. Barrett, and the Revised Standard Version).

D. The Distinction between Propitiation and Expiation

Propitiation, as we have seen, means the placating the personal

wrath of God. Expiation is the removal of impersonal wrath, sin, or

guilt. Expiation has to do with reparation for a wrong; propitiation

carries the added idea of appeasing an offended person and thus

brings into the picture the question why was the offended person

offended. In other words, propitiation brings the wrath of God into

the picture while expiation can leave it out. If one wanted to use both

words correctly in connection with each other, then he would say that

Christ propitiated the wrath of God by becoming an expiation for our

sins.

E. An Important Practical Point

If because of the death of Christ God is satisfied, then what can

the sinner do to try to satisfy God? The answer is nothing. Everything

has been done by God Himself. The sinner can and need only receive

the gift of righteousness God offers.

i Westminster Theological Journal, May 1955, 17:127-48, “C. H. Dodd and

the Doctrine of Propitiation,” Roger Nicole,

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Before Christ died, it was perfectly proper to pray, as did the tax-

gatherer in Luke 18:13, “God be merciful [lit., propitiated] to me, the

sinner.” Though provision for fellowship with God was provided

under the Law, this man could only rely on a finished and eternal

sacrifice for sin that would appease God once and for all. So that was

an entirely appropriate prayer fro him to pray. But now Christ has

died and God is satisfied, and there is no need to ask Him to be

propitiated. He is appeased, placated, and satisfied eternally. This is

the message we bring to a lost world: Receive the Savoir who through

His death satisfied the wrath of God. (Basic Theology, Dr. Charles

Ryrie, pp 329-42)

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the

Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

KJV

In two recorded utterances, John the Baptist, as declared by the

Apostle John, reaches out into the oncoming glories of divine grace

made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ. Since the

preaching of John the Baptist, as set forth in the Synoptics, is so

drastically legal and so clearly a call to a merit system, the

recognition of the ground and fact of a grace relationship, presented

only in John’s Gospel is significant. The entire content of John 1:15-

34 constitutes a rare unfolding of the grace vision accorded in some

measure to John the Baptist. But two of these utterances by John may

be noted here. In 1:29 one is written as quoted above. The great

forerunner – to whom it was not given evidently to understand that

the Messianic kingdom which he announced was to be rejected and

postponed, with a new heavenly, divine purpose to be ushered in –

did, nevertheless, by the Holy Spirit announce the immeasurable

declarations of divine grace. John the Baptist could not fail to

comprehend to some degree that the title “Lamb of God,” which he

himself employed, implied a sacrificial death; and the assurance that

He would take away the sin of the world measured an achievement

far beyond the bounds of his own nation or of the usual Messianic

expectation – but then have not prophets often spoken beyond the

range of their understanding? In fact, is not this great proclamation far

beyond the understanding of all human minds? It is averred that the

sin of the world is taken away by the dying Lamb. The scope of this

undertaking – something to effect the whole cosmos world (cf. John


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3:16) – must not be misinterpreted. There is no reference here to the

elect of this age, else language ceases to serve as an expression of

truth. The Church is a company saved out of the cosmos and therefore

not to be confused with the cosmos. It is true that the Scriptures

specify that Christ died for the Church (Eph 5:25-27), but it is as

clearly said that He died for the cosmos. The assumption that Christ

could have but one objective in His death has led to much error.

His death was as well the judgment of angels, a specific dealing with

the sins of Israel past and future, the end of the law, and the ground of

heaven’s purification. However, the question concerning the sense in

which the sin of the world is “taken away” is pertinent at this point. It

would be a defenseless contradiction of subsequent New Testament

doctrine to contend that the sin of the cosmos is so removed by the

death of Christ that the individual unregenerate person could not

come into judgment. The same, subsequent Scriptures teach that sin

has been dealt with in three spheres of relationship – with reference to

its power to enslave, Christ has provided a ransom; with respect to its

effect upon the sinner, Christ has wrought a reconciliation with God;

and with regard to its effect upon God, Christ has achieved a

propitiation. These three consummations – redemption, recon-

ciliation, and propitiation – are not things which God will do if one

believes; they are already finished and constitute the very thing which

the sinner must believe. The sin of the world is taken away in the

sense that by Christ’s threefold accomplishment in His death every

hindrance is removed which restrained God from saving even the

chief of sinners. However it has pleased Him to require personal

acceptance of this Saviorhood of Christ, at which time, and on this

sole condition, He will apply all His saving grace. Even though Christ

has completed so perfect a basis for salvation, men are not saved

thereby except they believe. Similarly, to claim that men must be

saved since Christ died for them is equally at fault. The Scriptures

teach a finished work for the entire cosmos (cf. John 1:29; 3:16; Heb

2:9; 1 John 2:2), but the same divine revelation asserts that vast

multitudes of those who are of the cosmos will be lost forever. These

are not problems that belong to some one system of theology; they

belong to every exegete who receives the words of Scripture in their

plain meaning (cf. 2 Cor 4:2). Through the death of Christ, God has

so dealt with the problem of human sin that the cosmos stands in an

entirely new different relation to Him. The human family is

reconciled, not in the sense that they are saved, but in the sense that

they may be saved (2 Cor 5:19). The prison door which Satan would

not open (Isa 4:17) has been unlocked for all (Isa 61:1; Col 2:14-15).

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Heb 2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a

little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered

death, so that by God’s grace he would experience death on behalf of

everyone. NET

1 John 2:2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and

not only for our sins but also for the whole world. NET

2 Cor 4:2 But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving

with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open

proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s

conscience before God. NET

2 Cor 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world

to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has

given us the message of reconciliation. NET

Isa 14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,

who ruined its cities,

and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’ NET

Isa 61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,

because the Lord has chosen me.

He has commissioned me to encourage the poor,

to help the brokenhearted,

to decree the release of captives,

and the freeing of prisoners, NET

Col 2:14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of

indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it

away by nailing it to the cross. 2:15 Disarming the rulers and

authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over

them by the cross. NET

John the Baptist announced, likewise, the immeasurable results of

divine grace when he said, “And of his fulness have all we received,

and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and

truth come by Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17). By the death of Christ –

not by His birth – a new reality is secured which he terms “grace and

truth.” This new thing supercedes the Mosaic system. Grace upon

grace, or grace added to grace, accomplishes no less for the believer

than experience of the pleroma of Christ for all who come within the


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range of its provisions. No more all-inclusive statement of the

limitless workings of divine grace than this is to be found. The

pleroma of the God-head is that which grace bestows upon those who

are saved (cf. Col 1:19; 2:9-10). Whatever John the Baptist himself

may have comprehended is a secondary issue. He did by the Spirit

declare the whole basis, scope, and consummation of divine grace.

Col 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the

Son NET

Col 2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives20 in bodily form,

2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler

and authority. NET

20sn In him all the fullness of deity lives. The present tense in this verse

(“lives”) is significant. Again, as was stated in the note on 1:19, this is not a temporary dwelling, but a permanent one. Paul’s point is polemical

against the idea that the fullness of God dwells anywhere else, as the

Gnostics believed, except in Christ alone. At the incarnation, the second

person of the Trinity assumed humanity, and is forever the God-man.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the

ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much

fruit. (John 12:24) KJV

A principle is announced in this text which, though working

throughout nature generally, is especially evident in Christ’s death

and resurrection as they reach out in benefit to others. It is through

death that life is multiplied (cf. 1 Cor 15:36). That the principle

applies to men is declared by Christ when He went on to say, “He that

loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world

shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). In His death Christ

entered the greatest sphere of sacrifice. Of this Dean Alford makes

note, “The saying is more than a mere parabolic similitude: the divine

Will, which has fixed the law of the spring up of the wheat-corn, has

also determined the law of the glorification of the Son of Man, and

the one in analogy with the other: i.e., both through Death. The

symbolism here lies at the root of that in ch. vi., where Christ is the

Bread of life. “It abideth by itself alone,” with its life

uncommunicated, lived only within its own limits, and not passing

on” (New Testament for English Readers, Vol 1, 592) So, also, R.

Govett adds:

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He compares Himself, then, to the grain of wheat which must die

before it appears in a new form, and associate others with itself. As

the Son of God risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, He can knit

to Himself in closest contact both Jew and Gentile, who are made of one

spirit with Him. Thus His atonement and His righteousness may be ours.

The grain in the granary is possessed of life, but single and limited. If it

is to expand, it must die and take a new form. He must, then, die and be buried; like the grain of wheat, which is to spring out of earth and take a

new shape, having many new grains united with it. Thus He would

discover to His persecutors, if they had eyes to see it, the falsehood of

their hopes. They grieved over Jesus’ success while living, and thought to

cut off all by putting Him to death. “Let us kill Him, and there will be an

end of the matter!” They did so; but it was only to find that the disciples

then multiplied by the thousands, and filled Jerusalem and the land – nay,

and the Gentiles, with their doctrine. Our Lord, then, knows the counsels

of His Father, whose ways are not as ours. Death and resurrection is His

plan. And as for Jesus, so for His members,. We are familiar with this

view of it in the ancient saying, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of

the Church.” (Exposition of the Gospel of St. John, Vol 2, 69-70)

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also

for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) KJV

With respect to the imperative demands which outraged holiness

must otherwise impose upon sinners, God is rendered propitious by

Christ’s judgment death for them. Propitiation on the part of God is

not salvation on the part of sinners. It rather secures the possibility of

salvation. God is propitious, therefore the sinner may be saved upon

such terms as a propitious God may dictate. The sinner is not called

upon by tears and entreaties to persuade God or to influence Him to

be well disposed; that much has Christ’s death as a substitute has

wrought to infinite completeness. The sinner has but to believe, by

which act he reposes confidence in that which God has provided. In

like manner, when the Christian sins, his restoration to divine

fellowship is conditioned on the same truth – that, through the death

of Christ, God is propitious. The passage under consideration states

forth a primary statement regarding the sins of Christians and only a

secondary statement regarding the sins of the unsaved. Preceding this

assertion that God is propitious concerning our “sins,” the Apostle

John has brought into view two great questions along with their

answers: (1) What is the effect of sin upon the Christian himself who

commits it? The answer, stated throughout this Epistle and especially

in chapter 1, is that fellowship with the Father and Son is lost, as also


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all spiritual power and blessing. (2) What is the effect of the

Christian’s sin upon God? This is a most vital problem, for it

determines everything with respect to the believer’s salvation. The

answer of a shallow rationalism which argues that, because of

God’s holiness, He must disown His child is wholly at fault, since it

ignores the present ministry of Christ as Advocate in heaven. The

believer is told that, when he sins, he has an Advocate in heaven. This

is a distinct and sufficient provision. The Advocate is Christ and He

stands to plead that He bore the sin on the cross. His advocacy is so

absolutely perfect with regard to its equity that He wins in this service

a title which is given Him in no other relationship – “Jesus Christ the

Righteous” (1 John 2:1). This perfect advocacy in which He pleads

His finished work on the cross thus becomes the ground of the

propitiation which He is to God, all of which is mentioned in the next

verse, the one under consideration. There would be no hope for any

sinner – saved or unsaved – apart from the death of Christ; but

sheltered under that provision, divine propitiation is infinitely real

and unchangeably effective for man. (Systematic Theology, Dr.

Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 189-98). (bold italics mine)

The prosecution will now submit as evidence the final and incontestable

proof of the error in the Negative gospel of salvation that denies thirty-

three immediate and seven future eternal effects of God’s grace bestowed

upon each and every one who believes on Jesus as Savoir.

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PART SIX - MAN

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God was saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis i. 24-31.


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The Disclosure of the Forty Effects of Grace

MORNING April 4

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we

might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians v. 21.

MMMMOURNING CHRISTIAN! Why weepest thou? Art thy mourning over

thine own corruptions? Look to thy perfect Lord, and remember, thou

art complete in Him; thou art in God’s sight as perfect as if thou hast

never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness hast put a divine garment upon thee, so that thou hast more than the

righteousness of man – thou hast the righteousness of God. O thou

who art mourning by reason of inbred sin and depravity, remember,

none of thy sins can condemn thee. Thou hast learned to hate sin; but thou hast learned also that sin is not thine – it was laid upon Christ’s

head. Thy standing is not in thyself - it is in Christ; thine acceptance

is not in thyself, but in thy Lord; thou art as much accepted of God to-day, with all thy sinfulness, as thou wilt be when thou standest before

His throne, free from all corruption. O, I beseech thee, lay hold on

this precious thought, perfection in Christ! For thou art “complete in Him.” With thy Saviour’s garment on, thou art holy as the Holy one.

“Who is he that condemeth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is

risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh

intercession for us.” Christian, let thy heart rejoice, for thou art “accepted in the beloved” – what hast thou to fear? Let thy face ever

wear a smile; live near thy Master; live in the suburbs of the Celestial

City; for soon, when thy time has come, thou shalt rise up where thy Jesus sits, and reign at His right hand, even has He has overcome and

has sat down at His Father’s right hand; and all this because the

divine Lord “was made to be sin for us; who knew no sin; that we

might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Morning and Evening Devotions, Charles H. Spurgeon


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The Power and the Grace of God

1 Cor 2:6 Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, [spiritually

mature in Christ] but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this

age, who are perishing. 2:7 Instead we speak the wisdom of God,

hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our

glory. 2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had

known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 2:9 But

just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or

mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love

him.” 2:10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit

searches all things, even the deep things of God. 2:11 For who among

men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him?

So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 2:12

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who

is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to

us by God. 2:13 And we speak about these things, not with words

taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit,

explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 2:14 The unbeliever

does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are

foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are

spiritually discerned. 2:15 The one who is spiritual discerns all things,

yet he himself is understood by no one. 2:16 For who has known the

mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of

Christ. NET (brackets mine)

Acts 4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the

Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city

against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, 4:28 to do as

much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would

happen. NET

This writer:

In the first passage above, the conclusion that a great difference exists

between the saved and the unsaved to perceive certain realities is

undeniable. A change has occurred as a result of salvation. One of which,

is the potential to become spiritually mature in life. The second passage

above would indicate the named individuals and groups were controlled

by God to do their part in His plan for the salvation of mankind through

the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. The accounts of the life and

death of Jesus Christ are contained in the Gospel books of the Bible. The


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NT Greek euangelion used to announce “good news” from the self-

deified Emperor, Old English “godspiel” the story of God, later called

the gospel or “good news,” was the reality interpreted and given meaning

through the Spirit of God by the NT writings of God’s servants, those

who were all witness to the events, and also, witness to the resurrected

Christ. Historical fact and the interpretation thereof is not an uncommon

occurrence. This is the definition of a legal fact:

4. LAW actual course of events: the circumstances of an event or

state of affairs, rather than an interpretation of its significance

Matters of fact are issues for a jury, while matters of law are issues

for the court.

5. LAW something based on evidence: something that is based on or

concerned with the evidence presented in a legal case Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The gospel is not a strict retelling of matters of fact, but the interpretation

of the significance of the facts of the origin, life, and death of a unique

man named Jesus. The unique jurist - the individual who sits in judgment

of the case of Jesus Christ - is asked to cast his vote with a black or white

stone for, not only the matters of fact, but also, the matters of law

presented as evidence in the gospel. Therefore, the great importance of a

true and accurate gospel presentation. Thereby, the great differences

between the Negative and Positive gospel. Therein, a life lived in

recognition of the glorious riches of an eternal salvation or a life wasted

in the hope of an unsecured salvation. The biblical term reconciliation

means that all men may be saved and stand forgiven - universally. The

biblical terms; predestination, foreknowledge, election, foreordination,

and chosen have been taken by some to mean that the individual has no

say in salvation. This is simply not true. Reconciliation saves no one as

surely as Election or Predestination saves no one. The means of the

message and saving faith must be present. The unique jurist, by

necessity, must have access to the correct matters of fact and law in order

to cast a vote of saving faith, which is to choose the “white stone” (a

diamond) inscribed with the unique name of the jurist. It is the duty of

the servants of the Most High Court to present these facts. The servants

would be those who are called and not self-appointed by reason of a

human “wisdom of this age.” Therein, is the sovereignty of God in all

human matters. Paul confessed in Galatians 1:15 that he had been set

apart “even from his mother’s womb.” The Apostle Paul was

incontestably chosen on the road to Damascus, but just as surely, when

1103

Paul inquired, “Who are you Lord?” - he received a true and accurate

answer in which he trusted.

In the Positive Gospel, the fact of completed forgiveness in the

substitutionary redemption from the guilt of personal sin is something to

be believed in for salvation, not to be asked for nor hoped for. There is,

most assuredly, a second salvation that must be presented and believed

in. This is the ongoing salvation from the power of sin. It is provided for

in thirty-three divine realities of eternal life that are possessed by each

and every jurist who votes with a white stone. These are the glorious

riches of grace in a true Christianity that is most certainly not a mere

Christianity as contained in the Negative gospel that secures only the

theoretical forgiveness of personal sin and a maybe salvation.

The thirty-three immediate and seven heavenly future effects will

now be submitted as evidence.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer writes:

Most of the great doctrinal epistles of the New Testament may be

divided into a general twofold division: namely, first, that which

represents the work of God already accomplished for the believer,

and, second, that which represents the life and work of the believer

for God. The first eight chapters of Romans contain the whole

doctrine of salvation in its past and present tense aspects: the last

section, beginning with chapter twelve (chapters nine to eleven being

parenthetical in the present purpose of God for Israel) is an appeal to

the saved one to live as it becomes one thus saved. This section opens

with the words, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of

God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable

unto God, which is your reasonable service.” So the entire closing

section of Romans is an exhortation to that manner of life befitting

one who is saved.

The first three chapters of Ephesians present the work of God for

the individual in bringing him to his exalted heavenly position in

Christ Jesus. Not one exhortation will be found in this section. The

helpless sinner could do nothing to further such an undertaking. The

last section, beginning with chapter four, is altogether an appeal for a

manner of life befitting one raised to such an exalted heavenly

position. The first verse, as in the opening words of the hortatory

section of Romans, is an epitome of all that follows: “I therefore, the

prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the

vocation wherewith ye are called.”


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The first two chapters of Colossians reveal the glory of the Son of

God and the believer’s present position as identified with Him in

resurrection life. This followed by the two closing chapters, which are

an appeal that may again be briefly condensed into the first two

verses of the section: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those

things which are above.”

It is important to note the divine order in presenting these most

vital issues. The position to which the believer is instantly lifted by

the power and the grace of God are always mentioned first and

without reference to any human merit or promises. Following this is

an injunction for a consistent life in view of the divine blessing.

It is obvious that no attempt to imitate this manner of life could

result in such exalted positions; but the positions, when wrought of

God, create an entirely new demand in life and conduct (in the Word

of God these demands are never laid upon unregenerate men). Such is

always the order in grace. First, the unmerited divine blessing; then

the life lived in the fullness of power which that blessing provides.

Under the law varying blessings were given at the end according to

the merit: under grace full measure of transformation is bestowed at

the beginning and there follows an appeal for a consistent daily life. It

is the divine purpose that a Christian’s conduct should be inspired by

the fact that he is already saved and blessed with all the riches of

grace in Jesus Christ, rather than by the hope that an attempted

imitation of the Christian standard of conduct will result in salvation.

In turning to the Scriptures to discover what it has pleased God to

reveal of His saving work in the individual at the instant he believes,

it will be found that there are at least thirty-three distinct positions

into which such a person is instantly brought by the sufficient

operation of the infinite God. All of these transformations are super-

human, and taken together, form that part of salvation which is

already the portion of everyone who has believed. Of these thirty-

three at least five important things may be said:

First, They are not experienced. They are facts of the newly

created life out of which most precious experiences may grow. For,

example, justification is never experienced; yet it is a new eternal fact

of divine life and relationship to God. A true Christian is more than a

person who feels or acts on a certain high plane: he is one who,

because of a whole inward transformation, normally feels and acts in

all the limitless heavenly association with his Lord.

Second, The Christian positions are not progressive. They do not

grow, or develop, from a small beginning. They are as perfect and

complete the instant they are possessed as they ever will be in the

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ages to come. To illustrate, sonship does not grow into fuller sonship,

even though a son may be growing. An old man is no more the son of

his earthly father at the day of his death than he was at the day of his

birth.

Third, These positions are in no way related to human merit. It

was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for the ungodly. There

is a legitimate distinction to be made between good sons and bad

sons; both equally possess sonship if they are sons at all. God is said

to chasten His own because they are sons, but certainly not they may

become sons. Human merit must be excluded. It cannot be related to

these divine transformations of grace; nor could they abide eternally

the same if depending by the slightest degree on the finite resources.

There are made to stand on the unchanging Person and merit of the

eternal Son of God. There are other and sufficient motives for

Christian conduct than the effort to create such eternal facts of the

divine life. The Christian is “accepted (now and forever) in the

beloved.”

Fourth, Every position is eternal by its very nature. The imparted

life of God is as eternal in its character as its Foundation Head. Hence

the Word of His grace: “I give unto them eternal life and they shall

never perish.” The consciousness and personal realization of such

relationship to God may vary with the daily walk of the believer; but

the abiding facts of the new being are never subject to change in time

or eternity.

Fifth, These positions are known only through a divine revelation.

They defy human imagination, and since they cannot be experienced

their reality can be entered into only by believing the Word of God.

These eternal riches of grace are for the lowest sinner who will only

believe.

That God may in some measure be glorified, some, if not all, of

these positions are here given. “The half has never been told.” The

reader is humbly invited to remember that these things are now true of

each one who believes, and if there should be the slightest doubt as to

whether he has believed that question can be forever settled even

before the following pages are read: (Salvation, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp

56-58)

The following verses are from the New English Translation Bible. The

verses are chosen from the outline in the above book by Dr. Chafer. The

citations below are Dr. Chafer’s and are taken from his Systematic

Theology, Vol 3, pages 232 through 265.


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01. IN THE ETERNAL PLAN OF GOD

To be in the eternal plan of God is a position of surpassing

importance both with regard to the reality itself and its timeless

character. The human mind cannot grasp what it means to be in the

divine purpose from all eternity, nor what is indicated when it is declared

that the same divine purpose from all eternity, nor what is indicated when

it is declared that the same divine purpose extends into eternity to come –

“whom he predestinated, he glorified.” …

FOREKNOWN

Acts 2:23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan

and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at

the hands of Gentiles.

Rom 8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be

conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the

firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

1 Pet 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being

set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus

Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure!

1 Pet 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but

was manifested in these last times for your sake.

PREDESTINATED

Eph 1:5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons

through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—

Eph 1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own

possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose

of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his

will



ELECTED

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1 Thess 1:4 We know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has

chosen you, [ Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God

(KJV) ]

Rom 8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God

who justifies.

Col 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe

yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and

patience,

Titus 1:1 From Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, to

further the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth

that is in keeping with godliness, [ … Jesus Christ, according to the

faith of God’s elect (KJV)]

CHOSEN

Mtw 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

1 Pet 2:4 So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but

chosen and priceless in God’s sight,

CALLED

1 Thess 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself make you

completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept

entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:24 He

who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this.

02. REDEEMED.

Redemption as a doctrine and as it obtains in the present age, is

properly subject to a threefold classification: (1) It is universal in

character in the sense that it includes the whole world and provides a

sufficient ground of righteousness upon which God may save those who

are lost. (2) It is specific when contemplated as the position into which

the saved one has been brought. He is purchased out of the bond slave

market and set free with that liberty which is the rightful portion of the

sons of God (Gal 5:1). It is not a position to be sought or secured by

faithfulness; it is that which God has wrought in behalf of every

regenerate person. The exercise of divine grace – even to the finality of

justification – is said to be “ through the redemption that is in Christ”


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(Rom 3:24). It is connection with redemption that the believer has

“forgiveness of sins,” and this is “according to,” and a part of, “the riches

of his grace” (Eph 1:7). (3) There is yet a redemption of the body of the

believer and for that redemption the Christian is waiting (Rom 8:23). The

thought here, as in all the riches of grace, is that redemption is a position

of transforming reality and is the possession of all who are saved.

REDEEMED BY GOD.

Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1 Pet 1:18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from

your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like

silver or gold

Rom 3:24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

OUT OF ALL CONDEMNATION.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus.

John 5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my

message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will

not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life.

1 Cor 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined

so that we may not be condemned with the world. 3:18 The one who

believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has

been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of

the one and only Son of God.

John 3:18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one

who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has

not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

03. RECONCILED

Again, a special reconciliation is in view, one which reaches far

beyond that aspect of it which contemplates the whole world. It is the

reconciliation of the believer to God as presented in 2 Corinthians 5:20.

A difference will be recognized between the reconciliation of the world –

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as declared in 5:19 – and the reconciliation of the individual – as

declared in 5:20-21. The reconciliation of the world does not obviate the

reconciliation of the individual. The latter is that form of reconciliation

which is applied to the believers heart and results in a perfect and

unending peace between God and the reconciled believer. To be perfectly

reconciled to God on the ground of the merit of Christ, as is true of every

child of God, is a position of blessedness indeed and is one of the riches

of divine grace.

RECONCILED BY GOD

2 Cor 5:18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to

himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of

reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the

world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and

he has given us the message of reconciliation. 5:20 Therefore we are

ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through

us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”

5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that

in him we would become the righteousness of God.

Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all

creation,

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all

things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions,

whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him

and for him.

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together in

him.

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning,

the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself may become

first in all things.

1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making

peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on

earth or things in heaven.

RECONCILED TO GOD

04. RELATED TO GOD THROUGH PROPITIATION

The central truth contained in this doctrine - and more engaging

than any other aspect of it – is the abiding fact that God is propitious. He


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has been rendered free toward sinners by the death of His Son for them.

That which constitutes the divine problem in the salvation of sinners,

namely, the solution of the problem of sin has been solved perfectly. In

the case of the unsaved, that which remains is the human responsibility

of saving faith. The truth that all that enters into the divine responsibility

has been perfectly wrought indicates that God is propitious toward

sinners; but He is also propitious towards His blood-bought child who

has sinned, which sin Christ bore on the cross. The truth is of greatest

import that “He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). The ever

recurring need of adjustment between the Christian and His Father is

possible on the ground of the truth that the Father is propitious. To be in

that relation to God in which He is propitious toward the specific sins of

the child of God is a benefit of infinite grace. It is a position more

advantageous than heart or mind can comprehend.

05. FORGIVEN ALL TRESPASSES

In the sense that there is now no condemnation to them which are

in Christ Jesus, believers are forgiven all trespasses. The declaration of

Colossians 2:13 – “having forgiven you all trespasses” – covers all

trespasses, past, present, and future (cf. Eph 1:7; 4:32; Col 1:14; 3:13). In

no other way than to be wholly absolved before God, could a Christian

be on an abiding peace footing with God or could he be, as he is, justified

forever.

The divine dealing with sin is doubtless difficult for the human mind

to grasp, especially such sins as have not yet been committed. However,

it will be remembered that all sin of his age was yet future when Christ

died. Its power to condemn is disannulled forever. In this connection the

Holy Spirit inquires, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s

elect?” and, “Who is he that condemneth?” The inspired answers are

conclusive: God justifies rather than charges with sin; and condemnation

has been laid upon Another, who died, who is risen, who is at the right

hand of God for us, and who also “maketh intercession for us” (Rom

8:33-34). This chapter of Romans which begins with “no condemnation”

ends with “no separation”; but such complete forgiveness is possible

only on the ground of Christ’s work in bearing sin and in releasing His

merit to those who are saved and through His mediation and are in Him.

Men either stand in their own merit or in the merit of Christ. If they stand

in their merit – the only conception that is within the range of reason and

that which is advocated by the Arminian system – there is only

condemnation for each individual before God; but if they stand in the

merit of Christ, being in Him – whether all its righteous ground is

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comprehended or not – there remains naught but continued union with

God and therefore no condemnation and no separation.

At this point a distinction is called for between this abiding judicial

forgiveness and the oft-repeated forgiveness within the family of God.

The seeming paradox that one is forgiven and yet must be forgiven, is

explained on the ground of the truth that there are two wholly and

unrelated spheres of relationship between the believer and God.

Regarding his standing, which like his Sonship is immutable since it is

secured by his place in Christ, he is not subject to condemnation and will

never be unjustified or separated from God. Regarding his state, which

like the daily conduct of a son is mutable and is wholly within the family

relationship, he must be both forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9). The

writer to the Hebrews declares that, had the old order of the sacrifices

been as efficacious as the sacrifice of Christ, those presenting an animal

sacrifice for their sin would “have had no more conscience of sins”

(10:2). On the other hand, it is the believer’s portion to be free from the

sense of the condemnation of sin – he never thinks of himself as a lost

soul, if at all instructed in God’s Word; however, this is not to say that

the Christian will not be conscious of the sins he commits. Sin, to the

believer is more abhorrent than ever it could have been before he was

saved; but, when sinning, he will not have broken the abiding fact of his

union with God though he has injured his communion with Him. Within

the family relation – which relation cannot be broken – he may sin as a

child (without ceasing to be a child) and be forgiven, and be restored

back into the Father’s fellowship on the basis of his own confession of

his sin and the deeper truth that Christ has borne the sin which otherwise

would condemn.

None of the believer’s positions before God, when rightly

apprehended, is more a blessing to the heart than the fact that all

condemnation is removed forever, God for Christ’s sake having forgiven

all trespasses.

06. VITALLY CONJOINED TO CHRIST FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE OLD

MAN “UNTO A NEW WALK”

The essential doctrine of union with Christ appears as the basis of

many of these riches of divine grace. In the present aspect of truth, only

that which has to do with the death of Christ unto the sin nature is in

view, and the central passage which declares this truth is Romans 6:1-10.

This important Scripture will be brought forward in various places in this

work on theology, but always it will be pointed out that it refers neither

to self-judgment by self-crucifixion nor to a mode of ritual baptism. If

the passage does not contemplate more than these interpretations imply,


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one of the most vital truths of the New Testament is deprived of its most

important affirmations. The death of Christ, quite apart from its

achievement as a final dealing with sins, is a judgment of the sin nature,

which judgment does not mean that that nature is rendered incapable of

action or that it is changed in its character; it does mean that a perfect

judgment is gained against it and that God is now righteously free to deal

with that nature as a judged thing. The evil character of that nature, does

not, after it is judged, restrain the Holy Spirit from curbing its power for

us. Thus, by faith in the indwelling Spirit, the believer may be delivered

from the reigning power of sin and on the ground of Christ’s death as a

judgment of the sin nature. This feature of Christ’s death is

substitutionary to the last degree. The central passage asserts that the

death of Christ is so definitely an act in behalf of the believer, that it is a

cocrucifixion, a codeath, a coburial, and a coresurrection (cf. Col 2:12).

The application of this truth is not an injunction to enact all or any part of

it; it is rather something about himself which the Christian is to believe

or reckon to be true, being, as it is, the ground upon which he may by an

intelligent faith claim deliverance from the power of the inbred sin

nature.

To be placed thus permanently before God as one for whom Christ

has died a judgment death against the sin nature is a position of privilege

of infinite blessedness.

07. FREE FROM THE LAW

As now considered, the law is more than a code or set of rules

governing conduct. Too often it is thought that to be free from the law is

to be excused from doing the things which the law prescribes, and,

because he law is “holy, and just, and good,” it is difficult for many to

accept the New Testament teaching that the law is not the prescribed rule

of life for the believer. Why, indeed, it is inquired, should the believer do

other than to pursue that which is holy, just, and good? Over against this

idea is the uncompromising warning to the Christian that he by the death

of Christ is free from the law (cf. John 1:17; Acts 15:24-29; Rom 6:14;

7:2-6; 2 Cor 3:6-13; Gal 5:18). In one passage alone – Romans 6:14 – the

child of God is told that he is not under the law, and in another – Romans

7:2-6 – he is said to be both dead to the law and delivered from the law.

Since every ideal or principle of the law, except the fourth

commandment, is carried forward and restated and incorporated in the

grace manner of life, it hardly seems reasonable to contend that the

believer should be warned so positively against doing the things

contained in the law. The solution of the problem is to be found in the

fact that the law is a system demanding human merit, while the

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injunctions addressed to the Christian under grace is unrelated to human

merit. Since the child of God is already accepted in the Beloved and

stands forever in the merit of Christ, application of the merit system to

him is both unreasonable and unscriptural. When the principles contained

in the merit system reappear it is always with this vital change in the

character. It is one thing to do a thing that is contained in the law in order

that one may be accepted or blessed; it is a wholly different thing to do

those same things because one is accepted and blessed. Freedom from

the merit obligation is that “liberty” to which reference is made in

Galatians 5:1. It is not liberty to do evil; but it is a perfect relief from the

crushing burden – the yoke of bondage (Acts 15:10) – of works of merit.

To be “free from the law” (Rom 8:2), to be “dead to the law” (Rom

7:4), and to be “delivered from the law” (Rom 7:6; cf. Rom 6:14; 2 Cor

3:11; Gal 3:25), describe a position in grace before God which is rich and

full unto everlasting blessing.

08. CHILDREN OF GOD

To be born anew by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit into

a relationship in which God the First Person becomes a legitimate Father

and the saved one becomes a legitimate child, is a position which is but

dimly apprehended by any human being in this world. This far-flung

reality is more a matter of heavenly values than of the earth.

Nevertheless, this very regeneration is one of the foundational realities of

everyone who has believed upon Christ as Savior. This birth from above

accomplishes a measureless transformation. To be born into an earthly

home of outstanding character is of great advantage, but to be born of

God with every right and title belonging to that position – an heir of God

and a joint heir with Jesus Christ – passes the range of human

understanding. This new existence is not only intensely real, but it, like

all begotten life, is everlasting in its very nature. The theme is so vast

that it includes other positions and possessions which, in turn, will be

mentioned as this analysis progresses.

Varied terms are used in the New Testament to identify this new

birth. Each of these is distinct in itself and revealing.

BORN AGAIN. It is of more than passing import that the Lord Jesus Christ

selected Nicodemus, the most religious and ideal man of his day in

Judaism, to whom and as applied to himself Christ declared the necessity

of the new birth. The word άυωθευ is rendered anew, and its implication

is that it is not only an actual birth, but it is new in the sense that it is

complete in itself and no product of the flesh. Of this distinction Christ

said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of


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the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Other confirming passages are John 1:12-

13; 1 Pet 1:23.

John 1:12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in

his name—he has given the right to become God’s children 1:13 —

children not born by human parents or by human desire or a

husband’s decision, but by God.

1 Pet 1:23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from


REGENERATED. This expressive term, which appears in Titus 3:5 – “by

the washing of regeneration” – conveys the same idea of a rebirth. The

passage relates a cleansing to this birth, but the birth does not consist in a

mere cleansing of the old being; it is rather that a cleansing, like

forgiveness, accompanies the regeneration.

Titus 3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have

done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new

birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

QUICKENED. The word quickened expresses the thought that an object is

made alive that did not possess that life before. Through regeneration by

the Spirit, as in the case with the flesh, there is an impartation of life.

Regeneration imparts the divine nature. Attention should be given also to

Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13

Eph 2:1 And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2:2 in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present

path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the

spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, 2:3 among

whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our

flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by

nature children of wrath even as the rest…

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with

which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions,

made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— 2:6

and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly

realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the

surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

2:8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from

yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from works, so that no

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one can boast. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created

in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we

may do them. NET

Col 2:13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and

in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive

with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. NET

SONS OF GOD. This title, used many times (cg. 2 Cor 6:18; Gal 3:26 RV;

1 John 3:2), publishes the true relationship between God and those who

are saved. They are sons of God, not by a mere title or pretense, but by

actual generation the offspring of God. The reality which the title

designates cannot be taken too literally.

A NEW CREATION. Thus again, and by language both appropriate and

emphatic, the mighty creative power of God is seen to be engaged in the

salvation of men. As respects their salvation it is said that they are His

workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. That exalted new creation is not

only the direct work of God, but owes all that it is to its vital relation to

Christ Jesus.

09. ADOPTED

The peculiar position of one who is adopted is an important

feature of the riches of divine grace. Its unique place in the following

passage indicates its major import: 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: having predestinated us unto the

adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good

pleasure of his will” (Eph 1:4-5). In attempting to discover what this

position really is, it is needful to recognize that divine adoption has

almost nothing in common with that form of it as accepted and practiced

among men. According to human custom, adoption is a means whereby

an outsider may become a member of a family. It is a legal way to create

father and son relationship as a substitute for father and son reality. On

the other hand, divine adoption, while referring both to Israel’s kinship to

God (Rom 9:4) and to redemption of the believer’s body (Rom 8:23), is

primarily a divine act by which one already a child by actual birth

through the Spirit of God is placed forward as an adult son in his relation

to God. At the moment of regeneration, the believer, being born of God

and therefore the legitimate offspring of God, is advanced in relationship

and responsibility to the position of an adult son. All childhood and

adolescent years, which are normal in human experience, are excluded in

spiritual sonship and the newly born believer is at once in possession of


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freedom from tutors and governors – who symbolize the law principle –

and is responsible to live the full-orbed spiritual life of an adult son in the

Father’s household. No period of irresponsible childhood is recognized.

There is no body of Scripture which undertakes to direct the conduct of

beginners in the Christian life as in distinction to those who are mature.

Whatever God says to the old and established saint, He says to every

believer – including those most recently regenerated. There should be no

misunderstanding respecting the “babe in Christ,” mentioned in

Corinthians 3:1, who is a babe because of carnality and not because of

immaturity of years in the Christian life. In human experience legitimate

birth and adoption never combine in the same person. There is no

occasion for a father to adopt his own child. In the realm of divine

adoption, every child born of God is adopted the moment he is born. He

is placed before God as a mature, responsible son. Thus adoption

becomes one of the important divine undertakings in the salvation of men

and is a position of great importance.

10. ACCEPTABLE TO GOD BY JESUS CHRIST

As a position before God, none could be more elevated or

consummating than that a believer should be “made accepted in the

beloved” (Eph 1:6) and “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).

Such an estate is closely akin to that already mentioned wherein there is

no condemnation, and to that, yet to be considered, of justification; but

this aspect of truth not only announces the marvelous fact that the

Christian is accepted, but grounds that acceptance in the position which

he holds in Christ. As definitely as any member that might be joined to a

human body would partake of all that the person is to whom it is joined –

honor and position – so perfectly and rightly a member joined to Christ

by the baptism of the Spirit partakes of all that Christ is. In respect to this

union with Christ and that which it provides, wonderful declarations are

made:

MADE RIGHTEOUS. Reference here is neither to any merit nor good

works on the part of the individual believer, nor has it the slightest

reference to the unquestioned truth that God is Himself a righteous

Being. It rather represents that standing or quality which Christ released

by His death according to the sweet-savor aspect of it, and which

rightfully becomes the believer’s portion through his living union with

Christ. It is righteousness imputed to the believer on the sole condition

that he has believed on Christ as his Savoir. Two major realities which

constitute a believer are: imparted eternal life (John 20:31) and imputed

righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). Of the two great salvation books in the New

Testament, it may be said of John’s Gospel that it stresses the gift of

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eternal life, and it may be said of the Epistle to the Romans that it

stresses imputed righteousness. Eternal life is defined as “Christ in you,

the hope of glory” (Col 1:27), and imputed righteousness is based on the

truth that the believer is in Christ. These two supreme truths are

compressed by Christ into seven brief an simple words, “ye in me, and I

in you” (John 14:20). Whether it be the exception of eternal life or of

imputed righteousness, but one condition is imposed on the human side,

namely, to believe on Christ as Savoir (John 3:16; Rom 3:22).

In the earlier treatment of this theme the central features of imputed

righteousness have been recorded and the extended body of Scripture

bearing on this doctrine has been cited. The believer is “acceptable to

God,” even the infinitely holy God, since he has been made accepted in

the Beloved; and this constitutes a transforming feature of the riches of

divine grace.

SANCTIFIED POSITIONALLY. That there is a positional sanctification

which is secured by union with Christ has too often been overlooked,

and, because of this neglect, theories of a supposed sinless perfection in

daily life have been inferred from those Scriptures which assert the truth

that the believer has been “perfected forever” through this sanctification.

The point of misunderstanding is with regard to the design of the

sanctification, which may be defined as the setting apart of a person or

thing, a classifying. It is thus that Christ sanctified Himself by becoming

the Savoir of the lost with all that involved (John 17:19), which

sanctification certainly could not imply any improvement in moral

character on His part. Likewise, the sanctification of an inanimate object,

such as the gold of the temple or the gift on the alter (Matt 23:17, 19),

indicates that a moral change in the thing sanctified is not demanded.

Thus, in the case of the sanctification of a person, the moral change in

that person’s life may not be the result of sanctification; but no person or

thing is sanctified without being set apart or classified thereby. Christ has

been “made unto us … sanctification” (1 Cor 1:30), and the Corinthians

– even when being corrected for evil practices – are assured that they

were not only “washed” and “justified,” but that they were “sanctified”

(1 Cor 6:11). Such sanctification was neither the estate of those believers

nor did it refer to their ultimate transformation when they would appear

in glory (Eph 5:27; 1 John 3:2). It evidently indicated that greatest of all

classifications, which resulted in the standing and position of every

believer when he enters the New Creation through being joined to Christ

and partakers of all that Christ is. This truth is declared in the phrase -

PERFECTED FOREVER. This consummating phrase appears in Hebrews

10:14 and applies equally to every believer. It, too, relates to the


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Christian’s standing and position in Christ. Such a union with Christ

secures the perfection of the Son of God for the child of God.

MADE ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED. The student would do well to

observe the force of the word made as it appears in a considerable

number of passages, where it indicates that the thing accomplished is not

wrought by the believer for himself, but is the work of God for him. If he

is made something which he was not before, it is evidently the work of

another in his behalf. In this instance, the believer is said to be made

accepted. He is accepted on the part of God who, because of His infinite

holiness, could accept no one less than Himself. All of this is provided

for on the basis of the truth that the believer is made accepted “in the

beloved” (Eph 1:6). Without the slightest strain upon His holiness God

accepts those who are in union with His Son; and this glorious fact, that

the one who is saved is accepted, constitutes a measureless feature of

divine grace.

Made Meet. Here, again, the word made with all its significance

appears, but with respect to that requirement which must be demanded of

all who would appear in the presence of God in Heaven. The text in

which this assuring phrase occurs is Colossians 1:12, and it asserts that

the believer is, even now, fitted for that celestial glory: “giving thanks

unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the

inheritance of the saints in light.” No mere pretense or bold assumption is

indicated in this passage. The least believer, being in Christ, is even now

made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. It

therefore becomes no arrogance or vainglory to accept this statement of

God’s word as true, and as true from the moment one believes on Christ

as Savoir.

11. JUSTIFIED

No present position in which the believer is placed is more exalted

and consummating than that of being justified by God. By justification

the saved one is lifted far above the position of one who depends on

divine generosity and magnanimity, to the estate of one whom God has

declared justified forever, which estate the holy justice of God is as much

committed to defend as ever that holy justice was before committed to

condemn. Theological definitions of justification are more traditional

than Biblical. Only inattention to Scripture can account for the confusion

of justification with divine forgiveness of sin. It is true that each of these

is an act of God in response to saving faith, that none are forgiven who

are not justified, and that none are justified who are not forgiven; but in

no particular do these divine undertaking coalesce. Likewise, though they

are translated from the same Greek root, the terms righteousness

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(imputed) and justification present different wholly conceptions. The

believer is constituted righteous by virtue of his position in Christ, but is

justified by a declaratory decree of God. Righteousness imputed is the

abiding fact, and justification is the divine recognition of that fact. In

other considerations of the doctrine of justification incorporated in this

general work, a more exhaustive treatment is undertaken, including the

scope of this divine enterprise in which God justifies the ungodly (Rom

4:5) without a cause (Rom 3:24), and on a ground so worthy, so laudable,

and so unblemished that He Himself remains just when He justifies. He

reserves every aspect of this measureless benefit to Himself, for the only

human obligation is that of believing in Jesus (Rom 3:26). It is the

Christian’s right to count this work done and to say, as in Romans 5:1,

“Therefore being justified by faith …” Though language may describe

it, only the Spirit of God can cause the mind to realize this essential

position so elevated and so glorified.

12. MADE NIGH

The saved one, according to Ephesians 2:13, is said to be “made

nigh.” This text states: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes

far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” As seen before, the word

made is significant in that it assigns the whole undertaking to another

than the one who receives the blessing. Various terms are employed in

the New Testament to describe the close relation which is set up and

exists between God and the believer. To be “made nigh” is not only a

work of God, but it is to be brought into a relationship to God which is of

infinite perfection and completeness. To it nothing could be added in

time or eternity. What such a nearness may mean to the Christian when

he is present with the Lord cannot be anticipated in this life; nevertheless,

the reality which the phrase made nigh connotes is as cogent an

acquirement at the inception of the Christian’s salvation as it will be in

any point in eternity.

Divinely wrought positions are often accompanied by a corres-

ponding Christian experience. This is true of the subject in hand. While,

as has been stated, the position which is described as nigh to God is itself

complete and final, the one who is thus nigh is exhorted to draw nigh to

God. It is written: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double

minded” (James 4:8); “Let us draw near with a true heart in full

assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,

and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). These exhortations

belong wholly in the realm of Christian experience, in which realm they

may be a consciousness, more or less real, of personal fellowship with


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the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). The process by which a believer may

draw nigh – as required by James and in response in which God Himself

will draw nigh to the believer – is that of a confession of sin and an

adjustment of one’s life to the will of God. Over against this it will be

observed that, whether in fellowship or out of fellowship as respects

conscious experience, the Christian is, because of his position in Christ,

ever and always made nigh.

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have

been brought near [ have come near in the blood of Christ ] [made

nigh (KJV)] by the blood of Christ. NET (brackets mine)

13. DELIVERED FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS

As declared in Colossians 1:13, this special position, as described

here in this passage, may be taken as representative of all the Scripture

bearing on he Christian’s deliverance from the power of Satan and his

evil spirits. Previously, certain passages have been cited relative to the

power of Satan over the unsaved. One passage, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4,

reveals the blinding power of Satan over the unregenerate person’ mind

respecting the gospel; Ephesians 2:1-2 declares the company of the lost -

designated “children of disobedience” (disobedient in the headship of

disobedient Adam) – to be energized by Satan; 1 John 5:19 states that the

cosmos world, in contrast to believers who are of God, “lieth in” the

wicked one. The passage under consideration – Colossians 1:13 – reads:

“who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated

us to the kingdom of his dear Son.” It will be observed that all these

passages, to which reference is made, assert that the unsaved are under

the power of Satan and that the believer is delivered from that power,

though he must continue to wage a warfare against these powers of

darkness; and the Apostle assures the Christian of a victory made

possible by an attitude of faith in the Lord (Eph 6:10-12). The same

Apostle, when relating his own divine commission, mentions one certain

result of his ministry, namely, that the unsaved were to be turned “from

darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18).

To be liberated thus is a great reality and constitutes one of the major

positions into which the believer is brought through divine grace.

Acts 26:15 … ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 26:16 But get

up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason,

to designate you in advance47 as a servant and witness48 to the

things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you.

26:17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles,

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to whom I am sending you 26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn

from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that

they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are

sanctified by faith in me.’ NET

47tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to

designate in advance.’” 48sn As a servant and witness. The commission is similar to Acts 1:8 and

Luke 1:2. Paul was now an “eyewitness” of the Lord.

54sn To open their eyes so that they turn… Here is Luke’s most

comprehensive report of Paul’s divine calling. His role was to call

humanity to change their position before God and experience God’s

forgiveness as a part of God’s family. The image of turning is a key one

in the NT: Luke 1:79; Rom 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8; Col

1:12; 1 Thess 5:5. See also Luke 1:77-79; 3:3; 24:47.

14. TRANSLATED INTO THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF HIS LOVE

As Dean Alford points out in exposition of Colossians 1:13 ( N.T.

for English Readers, new ed., in loc.), the translation into the kingdom is

“strictly local”; that is, it is now that it is accomplished, when saving

faith is exercised, and the entrance is into the present form of the

kingdom of God and of Christ. Two other passages shed light upon this

great change which is experienced by all who pass from the lost estate to

the saved estate: “ that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called

you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12); “For so an entrance

shall be ministered unto you abundantly unto the everlasting kingdom of

our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11). In Colossians 1:13, the

term “translated” evidently refers to the removal from the sphere of

Satan’s dominion to that of Christ. The kingdom is that of God, which

may be considered also the kingdom of the Son of His love. Entrance

into the kingdom of God is by the new birth (John 3:5). Such a position

is far more than merely to be delivered from darkness, however much the

advantage of that may be; it is to be inducted into and established in the

kingdom of God’s dear Son.

15. ON THE ROCK, CHRIST JESUS

In the consideration of divine grace as exercised in behalf of the

lost, it is essential, as in other matters of similar import, to distinguish

between the foundation and the superstructure. In the parable of the two

houses – one built upon the rock and one built upon the sand (Matt 7:24-

27) – Christ made no reference to the superstructure, but rather

emphasized the importance of the foundation. The smallest edifice built

on the rock will endure the tests which try its foundations, and only


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because the rock endures. Over against this, the Apostle writes (1 Cor

3:9-15) of the superstructure which is built upon the rock, which

superstructure is to be tested by fire. Reference is thus made, not to

salvation, but to the works in which the Christian engages. It is not

character building, but Christian service. There are, again, two general

classes of superstructure being built upon Christ the Rock, and these are

likened to gold, silver, and precious stones, on the one hand, and to

wood, hay, and stubble, on the other hand. As gold and silver are refined

by fire, and wood, hay, and stubble are consumed by fire, so the

judgment of Christian service is likened to fire in which the gold and

silver will stand the test and receive a reward, while that which

corresponds to wood, hay, and stubble will suffer loss. It is declared,

however, that the believer who suffers loss in respect to his reward for

service will himself be saved, though passing through that fire which

destroys his unworthy service.

The important truth to be recognized at this point is that, while the

unsaved build upon the sand, all Christians are standing and building on

the Rock, Christ Jesus. They are thus secure with respect to salvation

through the merit of Christ, apart from their own worthiness or

faithfulness. While this figure used by Christ does not lend itself to a

literal development in every particular, it is clearly stated by this object

lesson that Christ is the foundation on which the Christian stands and on

which he builds. To be taken off the sand foundation and to be placed on

the enduring Rock which is Christ, constitutes one of the richest treasures

of divine grace.

16. A GIFT FROM GOD THE FATHER TO CHRIST

No moment in the history of the saints could be more laden with

reality than that time when, as the consummation of His redemptive

mission – foreseen from all eternity and itself a determining factor in the

character of all ages to come – the Lord Jesus Christ reviewed in prayer

to the Father that which He had achieved by His advent into this cosmos

world. He fully intended for His own who are in this world to hear what

He said in that incomparable prayer (John 17:13). Devout minds will

ponder eagerly every word spoken concerning themselves under such

august and solemn circumstances. What, indeed, would be the

designation by which believers will be identified by the Son? What

appellation is proper in such converse? What cognomen answers the

highest ideal and conception in the mind of Deity with respect to

Christians? Assuredly, the superlative title, whatever it is, would be

employed by the Son when He presents formally His own, and petitions

the Father in their behalf. Seven times in this prayer by one form or

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another and quite exclusively His saved ones are referred to as those who

Thou hast given Me. Nothing but ignorance of the great transaction

which is intimated in this title will explain the inattention of Christians to

this descriptive name. When it is considered, it is seen that in the

background are two important doctrines, namely, that all creatures

belong inherently to their Creator and, hence, that in sovereign election

He has determined in past ages a company designed to be a peculiar

treasure for His Son; but the title itself tells its own story of surpassing

interest and importance, which is, that the Father has given each believer

to the Son. This is not the only instance in which the Father gives a

company of people to the Son. In Psalm 2:6-9 it is predicted that, at His

second advent and when He is seated upon the Davidic throne, the then

rebellious and raging nations will be given by Jehovah to the Messiah.

The imagination will not have gone far astray if it pictures a situation in

eternity past when the Father presents individual believers separately to

the Son – each representing a particular import and value not approached

by another. Like a chest of jewels, collected one by one and wholly

diverse, these love gifts appear before the eyes of the Son of God. Should

one be missing, He, the Savior, would be rendered inexpressibly poor.

Immeasurable and unknowable riches of grace are latent in that

superlative cognomen, those whom Thou hast given Me.

Dr. C. I. Scofield’s comment on this truth is clear and forceful:

“Seven times Jesus speaks of believers as given to Him by the Father (vs.

2, 6 [twice], 9, 11, 12, 24). Jesus Christ is God’s love gift to the world

(John 3:16), and believers are the Father’s love gift to Jesus Christ. It is

Christ who commits the believer to the Father for safe-keeping, so that

the believer’s security rests upon the Father’s faithfulness to His Son

Jesus Christ” (Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1139).

John 17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so

that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

17:6 “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the

world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they

have obeyed your word.

17:9 I am praying on behalf of them. I am not praying on behalf of

the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they

belong to you.

17:11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am

coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you

have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. 17:12

When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in

your name that you have given me. Not one of them was lost except


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the one destined for destruction, so that the scripture could be

fulfilled.

17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I

am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you

loved me before the creation of the world. NET

17. CIRCUMCISED IN CHRIST

One of the Apostle’s threefold divisions of humanity is the

“Uncircumcision” with reference to unregenerate Gentiles, “the

Circumcision in the flesh made by hands” with reference to Israel, and

“the circumcision made without hands” with reference to Christians (Eph

2:11; Col 2:11). However, the important truth that the believer has been

circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and wholly apart

from the flesh, is the grace position which is now in view. In the

Colossians passage (2:11), the believer’s spiritual circumcision is said to

be the “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of

Christ.” Two closely related words occur in this passage, namely, body

[soma] (σώµα) and flesh [sarx] (σάρξ ). The physical body does not

commit sin except as it is dominated by the flesh – which flesh includes

the soul and spirit, manifests that fallen nature which all possess, saved

and unsaved alike. The physical body is not put off in a literal sense, but,

being the instrument or sphere of sins manifestation, the flesh with its

“body of sin” may be annulled (Rom 6:6), or rendered inoperative for the

time being. As the sin nature was judged by Christ in His death, so the

believer, because of his vital place in Christ, partakes of that “putting

off” that Christ accomplished, and which fell as a circumcision upon

Him and becomes a spiritual circumcision to the one for whom Christ

substituted. It is a circumcision made without hands.” To stand thus

before God as one whose sin nature, or flesh, has been judged and for

whom a way of deliverance from the dominion of the flesh has been

secured, is a position which grace has provided, and is blessed indeed.

18. PARTAKERS OF THE HOLY AND ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

In his first Epistle, Peter declares that the believers form a holy

priesthood (2:5) and a royal priesthood (2:9), and their royalty is again

asserted by John when in Revelation 1:6 (R.V.) they are titled “a

kingdom … priests,” or according to another reading (A.V.), “kings and

priests.” The truth that Christ is a king-priest is reflected here. The

believer derives all his positions and possessions from Christ. The child

of God is therefore a priest now because of his relation to the High Priest,

and he will yet reign with Christ a thousand years – when Christ takes

His earthly throne (Rev 5:10; 1 Tim 2:12).

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Priesthood has passed through certain well-defined stages or aspects.

The patriarchs were priests over their households. Later, to Israel was

offered the privilege of becoming a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6); but it

was conditional and Israel failed in the realization of this blessing, and

the priesthood was restricted to one tribe or family. On a grace basis, in

which God undertakes through the merit of His Son, in the New

Testament is introduced the true and final realization of a kingdom of

priests. Every saved person in the present age is a priest unto God. The

Old Testament priest is the type of the New Testament priest. Israel had a

priesthood; the Church is a priesthood. To be a priest unto God with a

certainty of a kingly reign is a position to which the one who believes on

Christ is brought through the saving grace of God.

19. A CHOSEN GENERATION, A HOLY NATION, A PECULIAR PEOPLE

All three of these designations (1 Pet 2:9) refer to one and the

same general idea, namely, that the company of believers of this age –

individuals called out from the Jews and Gentiles alike – are different

from the unsaved Jews and Gentiles to the extent to which thirty-three

stupendous miracles transform them. They are a generation, not that they

are restricted to one span of human life, but in the sense that they are the

offspring of God. They are a nation in the sense that they are separate, a

distinct grouping among all the peoples of the earth. They are a peculiar

people in the sense that they are born of God and are therefore not of this

cosmos world. They are not enjoined to try to be peculiar; any people in

this world who are citizens of heaven, perfected in Christ, and appointed

to live in the power of and to the glory of God, cannot but be peculiar.

These three designations represent permanent positions to which the

believer has been brought and they, likewise, make a large contribution

to the sum total of all the riches of divine grace.

20. HEAVENLY CITIZENS

Under this consideration, commonwealth privilege, or what is

better known as citizenship, is in view. Writing of the estate of the

Ephesians, who were Gentiles before they were saved, the Apostle states

that they were” aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.” Israel’s

citizenship, though earthly, was specifically recognized by God as

separate from all other peoples. Into this position no Gentile could come

except as a proselyte. Thus it is said that the Gentile, being a stranger to

Israel’s commonwealth, had not so much as any divine recognition; yet

immeasurably removed and heaven-high above even Israel’s

commonwealth is the Christian’s citizenship in heaven. Of Christians it is

written, “For our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20 R.V.); their names


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are written in heaven (Luke 10:20), and they are said to have “come unto

Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”

(Heb 12:22). To enforce the same truth, the Apostle also write, “Now

therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens

with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). Actual

presence in heaven is an assured experience for all who are saved (2 Cor

5:8); but citizenship itself – whether realized at the present moment or

not – is an abiding position accorded to all who believe. In truth, the

occupation of that citizenship by instant removal from this sphere would

be the normal experience for each Christian when he is saved. To remain

here after citizenship has been acquired in heaven creates a peculiar

situation. In recognition of this abnormal condition, the child of God is

styled a “stranger and pilgrim” (1 Pet 2:11; cf. Heb 11:13) as related to

this cosmos world-system. In like manner, he is said to be an ambassador

for Christ (2 Cor 5:20). To remain here as a witness, a stranger, a

pilgrim, and an ambassador is but a momentary experience; the heavenly

citizenship will be enjoyed forever. It is a glorious feature of the riches of

divine grace.

21. OF THE FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD OF GOD

Closely akin to citizenship and yet more restricted in their extent,

are the positions the Christian is said to occupy in the family and

household of God. As has been observed, there are various fatherhood

relations which God sustains; but none in relation to His creatures is so

perfect, so enriching, or so enduring as that which He bears to the

household and family of the saints. So great a change has been wrought

in the estate of those who are saved respecting their kinship to God, that

it is written of them, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and

foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of

God” (Eph 2:19). With this position an obligation arises which makes its

claim upon every member of the household. Of this claim the Apostle

writes, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,

especially unto them that are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). In the

present human relationship sustained in the cosmos world, there is, of

necessity, but a limited difference observable between the saved and

unsaved; yet those who comprise the household of faith are completely

separated unto God, and into that family none could ever enter who

sustains no true relation to God as his Father. Human organizations,

including the visible church, may include a mixed multitude, but “the

foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth

them that are his” (2 Tim 2:19). “In a great house there are many vessels

to honor and some to dishonor, some of gold and silver, and some of

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wood and of earth. If a man purge himself from vessels of dishonor, he

shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use,

and prepared unto every good work (2 Tim 2:20-21). This picture of

household relationships does not imply that there are those in the family

of God who are not saved; the truth set forth is that not all believers are,

in their daily life, as yielded to God as they might be, and that by self-

dedication they may be advanced from the position of vessels of dishonor

– of wood or of earth – to the position and substance of vessels of honor

– of gold and silver.

Like citizenship in heaven, a participation in the household and

family of God is a position as exalted as high as heaven itself, and

honorable to the degree of infinity. Thus there is correspondence with all

other features of the riches of divine grace.

22. IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SAINTS

A Christian citizenship pertains to a relation to heaven, and as the

household pertains to God, so the fellowship of the saints pertains to their

relation to one to the other. The fact of this kinship and the obligation it

engenders is stressed in the New Testament. The fact of kinship reaches

out to incomparable realities. Through the baptism of the Spirit – by

which the believers are , at the time they are saved, joined to the Lord as

members in His Body – an affinity is created which answers the prayer of

Christ when He petitioned the Father that the believers might all be one.

Being begotten of the same Father, the family tie is of no small import,

but to be fellow members in the Body of Christ surpasses all other such

conceptions. To be begotten of God results in sonship; but to be in Christ

results in a standing as exalted as the standing of God’s Son. To be

partners in this standing added to regeneration’s brotherhood, constitutes

that vital relationship for which Christ prayed when He asked “that they

all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee” (John 7:21). A

repetition of any statement as it occurs in the Bible is for emphasis. It

would seem, however, that, when speaking to His Father, there would be

little occasion for reiteration; yet in that one priestly prayer Christ prays

four times directly and separately that believers may be one, and once

that they may be one in their relation to the Father and to Himself (John

17:11, 21-23). With all this in view, it must be conceded that few, if any,

truths are so emphasized in the Word of God as the unity of believers.

This prayer of Christ’s began to be answered on the day of Pentecost

when those then saved were fused into one corporate Body, and it has

been answered continuously as, at that moment of believing, those saved

are also joined to Christ’s Body by the same operation of the Holy Spirit.


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An unknowable unity exists between the Father and the Son. It is the

mystery of the Trinity itself; yet it is on this very level that Christ has

requested that believers may stand in relation to each other – “that they

all may be one; as thou, father, art in me, and I in thee … that they may

be perfect in one” (John 17:21-23). This prayer, as all that Christ ever

prays, is answered, and the fact of oneness between the saints of God is a

present truth whether anyone ever comprehends it in this world or not.

This marvelous unity between believers becomes the logical ground

for all Christian action, one toward another. Such action should be

consistent with the unity which exists. Never are Christians exhorted to

make a unity by organizations or combines; they are rather besought to

keep the unity which God by His Spirit has created (Eph 4:1-3). This can

be done in but one way, namely, by recognizing and receiving, as well as

loving and honoring, every other child of God. The spirit of separation

from, and of exclusion of, other believers is a sin that can be measured

only in the light of that ineffable union which separation and exclusion

disregard.

To be in the fellowship of the saints is a position in grace too exalted

and too dignified for mere human understanding.

23. A HEAVENLY ASSOCIATION

What is termed “the heavenly places” is a phrase which is peculiar

to the Ephesians Letter and has no reference to heaven as a place or to

specific places of spiritual privilege here on earth; but it does refer to the

present realm of association with Christ, which association is the inherent

right of all those who are in Christ Jesus. The association is a partnership

with Christ which incorporates at least seven spheres of common interest

and undertaking.

PARTNERS WITH CHRIST IN LIFE. The New Testament declares not only

that the believer has partaken of a new life, but asserts that life to be the

indwelling Christ. In Colossians 1:27 a mystery is revealed which is

“Christ in you, the hope of glory”; and in Colossians 3:4 it is also said

that “Christ … is our life.” Likewise in 1 John 5:11-12 it is written: “And

this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his

Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he who hath not the Son of God

hath not life.” Upwards of eighty times in the New Testament the truth

appears, that among the major features which characterize a Christian is

the impartation of a new life from God. Thus a unique partnership is

established between Christ and all who believe which is both a position

and a possession.

PARTNERSHIP IN POSITION. As an incomparable position, the Christian

is raised with Christ (Col 3:1), and seated with Christ in the heavenly

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association. This truth is clearly revealed in Ephesians 2:6, which

declares, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in

heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” To be raised with Christ and to be

seated with Christ is a partnership in position which is real and abiding.

Its contribution to the entire fact of the believer’s association with Christ

is enough to characterize the whole. The honor and glory of it are

knowledge-surpassing.

PARTNERS WITH CHRIST IN SERVICE. A number of passages unite in a

testimony that the service of the Christian is one of copartnership with

Christ. Of these, none is more direct and convincing than 1 Cor 1:9,

which reads: “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the

fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” In the A.V. the word

κοινωνία is rendered fellowship. As the word is at times rendered

communion (cf. 2 Cor 6:14) with the thought of agreement or

partnership, and to be in harmony with the message of Christian service,

which theme characterizes this Epistle, the idea of joint undertaking may

be read into this passage. Some, as Meyer and Alford, see a sharing here

in Christ’s coming glory; but as this Epistle is almost wholly one

parenthesis which begins with the verse following this notable text and

ends with 15:57, it is important to observe the next verse in the direct

course of the message, namely, 15:58. With the rendering of κοινωνία by

partnership, the two dominant and connecting verses would read: “God

is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the partnership of his Son Jesus

Christ our Lord … Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,

unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye

know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” The same Epistle

states, “For we are labourers together with God” (3:9); and 2 Corinthians

6:1 designates the believers as “workers together with him” – in the same

context they are said to be “ministers of God” (6:4) and “ministers of the

new testament” (3:6). To be thus in partnership with Christ is a position

of limitless responsibility as well as exalted honor.

PARTNERS WITH CHRIST IN SUFFERING. Of the entire field of the

doctrine of human suffering, a well defined feature of that experience is

suffering with Christ. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim

2:12). Likewise, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only

to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Phil 1:29); and, again,

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try

you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice,

inasmuch as ye are partakers in Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory

shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet 4:12-

13). The Apostle testified of himself, “who now rejoice in my sufferings

for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my


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flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Col 1:24), and, “For I

reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:8);

similarly, “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for

yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto” (1 Thess 3:3).

While the child of God may suffer the reproaches of Christ, which is

a definite form of copartnership suffering with Christ, the form of the

fellowship suffering which is closest to the heart of the Savior is to share

with Him His burden for lost souls – those for whom He died. Such

longings are not natural to any human nature, but are generated in the

heart by the Holy Spirit who causes the yielded believer to experience

the compassion of God. It is written, “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Gal

5:22), and, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy

Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom 5:5). As an illustration of this ability

of the believer to experience the compassion of Christ, the Apostle

testifies of himself thus, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my

conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great

heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself

were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the

flesh” (Rom 9:1-3). Partnership with Christ in suffering is real and

reflects the fact that the Christian occupies a position of untold

distinction.

PARTNERS WITH CHRIST IN PRAYER. The very act of praying in the

name of Christ is in itself an assumption that He also makes petition to

the Father for those things that are in the will of God and for which the

Christian prays. The central passage bearing on this aspect of partnership

is John 14:12-14: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on

me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these

shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in

my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye

shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” “Greater works” are to be

done by the Son of God in answer to the believer’s prayer in His name.

The partnership in responsibility is defined thus, “If ye shall ask … I will

do.”

PARTNERS WITH CHRIST IN BETROTHAL. To be betrothed to a person

is a position both definite and demanding. It is also a partnership. The

Church is espoused as a bride to Christ. The marriage day is that of His

return to receive her unto Himself. It was the Apostle’s desire that he

might present believers a chaste virgin (not as a chaste virgin) to Christ

(2 Cor 11:2); and from Ephesians 5:25-27 it is to be understood that

Christ loves the Church as a bridegroom might love a bride and that He

gave Himself for His Bride.

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PARTNERS IN EXPECTATION. The “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) is ever

the expectation of the instructed Christian; for the coming of Christ will

be the moment of release from these limitations into the fullness of glory,

and the moment of seeing Him who is the center of all reality for the

believer. But Christ, too, is now “expecting” (Heb 10:13), and His

longings to claim His bride are as great as ever His willingness to die for

her.

All partnerships in human relations create their corresponding

positions and possessions; in like manner the sevenfold partnership

which the child of God sustains with Christ creates positions and

possessions, and these are the riches of divine grace.

24. HAVING ACCESS TO GOD

Could any human being catch but one brief vision of the glory,

majesty, and holiness of God, from that time forth that one would marvel

that any human being – even if he were unfallen – could have access to

God; yet, through Christ as Mediator, sinners are provided with an open

door into the presence of God. In attempting to understand what is

granted in that access to God, it would be well to pursue certain revealed

truths in a purposeful order.

ACCESS INTO HIS GRACE. Divine grace in action is that achievement

which God is free to undertake because of the satisfaction respecting sin

which Christ provided by His death and resurrection; therefore, access

into the grace of God is access into His finished work. This door is open

to all; but only those who have believed have entered in. Of this position

which Christ procured, it is written: “By whom also we have access by

faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Rom 5:2). The believer is not

only saved by grace (Eph 2:8), but he stands in grace. He is ensphered in

divine grace. The same grace that saved him sustains him. The same

principle upon which he is saved when he believes, is continually applied

to him for safekeeping throughout his earthly pilgrimage. Of the

ensphering grace, Peter wrote these words, “But grow in grace, and in the

knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). The

thought seems to be that the Christian, being in grace, is appointed

therein to grow in the knowledge of Christ. Certainly no one who has not

found entrance into divine grace through faith, will grow. It is not a

matter of growing more gracious, but of coming to know Christ, which

knowledge is possible since the believer has entered the sphere of grace

(cf. 2 Cor 3:18).


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2 Cor 3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the

Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of

glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

ACCESS UNTO THE FATHER. Of this specific access it is written: “For

through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph

2:18). All three persons of the Godhead appear in this brief text. It

declares both Jew and Gentile, being saved, have access through Christ

and by the Spirit unto the Father. The essential part which Christ has

accomplished has been considered at length, but there is also a part

which the Holy Spirit undertakes. The Christian’s apprehension (1 Cor

2:10), communion (2 Cor 13:14), and much of his qualification for the

divine presence (1 Cor 12:13), are directly the work of the Holy Spirit.

The all important truth – marvelous beyond comprehension – is that each

believer has perfect and immutable access unto the Father.

ACCESS IS REASSURING. So perfect, indeed, is this admission into the

divine presence and favor that the Christian is urged to come boldly. In

this instance, boldness becomes the believer, since every obstacle has

been removed. Two passages, both in the Epistle to the Hebrews, enjoin

this boldness: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (4:16);

“having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the

blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for

us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (10:19-20).

To be one to whom unrestrained access into the presence of God is

accorded is to occupy a position of superior privilege and standing,

whether it be measured by the standards of heaven or of earth.

25. WITHIN THE MUCH MORE CARE OF GOD

OBJECTS OF HIS LOVE. It will be conceded by all who are awake

to the divine revelation, that the love of God for the unsaved is as

immeasurable as infinity; yet, there is clear revelation that the expression

of divine love for those who are saved is even “much more.” The

argument is that, if God loved sinners and enemies enough to give His

Son to die for them, His attitude will be “much more” toward them when

they are reconciled and justified. The Apostle states: “But God

commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we

shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies,

we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being

reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Rom 5:8-10). This

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inconceivable devotion on the part of God for those He has saved leads

on to various blessings for them.

OBJECTS OF HIS LOVE. The unchangeable love of God underlies all that

he undertakes. It was His love that originated the way of salvation

through Christ and thus by infinite grace. It is true that God is propitious;

that is, He is able through the death of Christ to receive the sinner with

unrestrained favor. The death of Christ did not cause God to love sinners;

it was His love which provided that propitiation in and through Christ

(John 3:16; Rom 5:8; 1 John 3:16). The satisfaction which Christ

rendered released the love of God from that demand which outraged

holiness imposed against the sinner. The love of God knows no

variations. It experiences no ups and downs, moods and tenses. It is the

love of One who is immutable in all His character and ways.

OBJECTS OF HIS GRACE. Men are not saved into a state of probation,

but into the sphere of infinite grace – a sphere in which God deals with

them as those for whom Christ died, and whose sins are already borne by

a Substitute. That grace contemplates:

(1) Salvation. Thus it is written: “that in the ages to come he might

shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us

through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that

not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man

should boast” (Eph 2:7-9).

(2) Safekeeping. As the Scripture declares: By whom also we have

access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Rom 5:2).

(3) Service. Of this it is said: “As thou hast sent me into the world,

even so have I sent them into the world” (John 17:18); “But unto

every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of

Christ” (Eph 4:7).

(4) Instruction. So, also, it is asserted: teaching us that, denying

ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,

and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and

the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour Jesus Christ”

(Titus 2:12-13).

(5) Objects of His Power. A full induction of all passages in which

God is said to be able to work in behalf of those who trust Him will

prove a real help to the student. It will be seen that infinite power is

ever actively engaged in the support and defense of the believer. It is

written: “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-

ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power”

(Eph 1:19); “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to

do of his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).


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(6) Objects of His Faithfulness. Limitless comfort is provided for

those who recognize the faithfulness of God. It is said: “I will never

leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:15); “being confident of this

very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform

it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6); “Faithful is he that calleth

you, who also will do it” (1 Thess 5:24).

(7) Objects of His Peace. Not only is that peace with God in view

(Rom 5:1) which is due to the fact that all condemnation is removed,

but the imparted, experimental peace is promised also: “Peace I leave

with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I

unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

(John 14:27); “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the

which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Col 3:15),

and “The fruit of the Spirit is … peace” (Gal 5:22).

(8) Objects of His Consolation. Respecting divine consolation it is

written: “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our

Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation

and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in

every good word and work” (2 Thess 2:16-17).

(9) Objects of His Intercession. While it is revealed that the Holy

Spirit “maketh intercession” for the saints according to the will of

God (Rom 8:26) and they are enjoined to pray “in the Spirit” (Eph

6:18; Jude 1:20), it is also indicated that one of the greatest ministries

of Christ in heaven is His unceasing intercession for the saints. In His

Priestly prayer He said that He prayed not for the cosmos world, but

for those the Father had given Him; and it is probable that His present

intercession, like this Priestly prayer, is restricted to His own who are

in the world. Three passages assert this heavenly intercession: “Who

is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen

again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh

intercession for us” (Rom 8:34); “Wherefore he is able also to save

them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever

liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25); “For Christ is not

entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of

the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God

for us” (Heb 9:24).

To be included in the “much more” love and care of God becomes a

position in divine grace which is of surpassing value.

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26. HIS INHERITANCE

A partial anticipation of this position in grace has been expressed

under the previous heading, which announced that each Christian is a gift

of the Father to the Son; however, beyond the treasure which he is to

Christ as a gift from the Father, Ephesians 1:18 asserts that the believer is

also the inheritance of the Father. This exalted truth is the subject of the

Apostle’s prayer. As though, apart from the supernatural revelation of the

Holy Spirit, they could not understand, he prays “the eyes of your

understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of

his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the

saints” (Eph 1:18). Much is promised the believer respecting his future

place in glory. It is written: “And the glory which thou gavest me I have

given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22);

“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” (Rom 8:30); “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then

shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4). It is only by such

changes as He shall have wrought in fallen sinners that God will be

glorified. They will reflect the “glory of his grace” (Eph 1:6). Each child

of God will serve as a medium or material by which the Shekinah glory

of God will be seen.

27. THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS

Far easier to comprehend than that just considered is the truth that

the believer has an inheritance in God. The believer’s inheritance is God

Himself and all that God bestows. This is asserted by Peter thus: “An

inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,

reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:4). The present blessings which the

Spirit brings into the Christian’s heart and life are likened to an earnest or

comparatively small payment of all that is yet to be bestowed. The

Apostle writes: “which is the earnest of our inheritance until the

redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory”

(Eph 1:14); “knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the

inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Col 3:24). An eternal

inheritance (Heb 9:15) is a possession under grace; its specifications are

unknowable until they are claimed in heaven.

28. LIGHT IN THE LORD

As presented in the Scriptures with its symbolic meaning, an

extensive body of truth is related to the general theme of light. Above all

and supreme is the revelation that “God is light” (1 John 1:5). The

meaning of this term as thus applied to God is that He is transparently


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holy and in Him there is no moral darkness at all. That holy light which

God is, has its manifestation on the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The

believer has by divine grace, become light (Eph 5:8) – not merely that

divine light shines upon him, but is light in the Lord. This great reality

does not dismiss the truth that the believer is commanded to “walk in the

light” (1 John 1:7), the light which God is. Both truths obtain and each

engenders its own obligation. To walk in the light is not to become the

light; it is rather to be wholly subject to the mind and will of God and

adjusted to the holy character of God. In this respect, the Bible is a lamp

to the feet and a light upon the path (Ps 119:105). However, with regard

to the light which the believer is, it may be observed that to have

received the light into one’s being is a possession and to be light in the

Lord is a position. No person becomes the light by attempting to shine;

rather, having become light in the Lord and that as a divine achievement,

he is appointed to shine as a light in a dark world. It is unreasonable to

conclude that the light which the believer is may be identified as the

indwelling divine nature, and that that light is veiled in this world, but

will have its manifestation in glory.

29. VITALLY UNITED TO THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

As perplexing as it may be to the human mind, the Scriptures

advance six distinct revelations regarding relationships between the

Godhead and the believer, and these relationships represent realities

which find no comparisons in the sphere of human intercourse. It is said:

1. that the believer is in God the Father (1 Thess 1:1)

From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the

Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. that God the Father is in the believer (Eph 4:6)

one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

3. that the believer is in the Son (8:1)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus.

4. that the Son is in the believer (John 14:20)

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You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me

and I am in you.

5. that the believer is in the Spirit (Rom 8:9)

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit

of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,

this person does not belong to him.

6. that the Spirit is in the believer (1 Cor 2:12)

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who

is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to

us by God.

The force of these stupendous declarations is centered in the intensity of

meaning which must be assigned to the word in as used in each of these

six declarations. It is evident that to be in the Father, or the Son, or the

Holy Spirit is a position; and for the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit

to be in the believer constitutes a possession. A corresponding truth

grows out of all this which is a result of it, namely, that the believers are

one in each other as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the father

(John 17:21). Since the believer’s physical body is a corporate entity, it is

not as difficult to think of that body as an abode; and the body is termed

a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). On the other hand, it is

exceedingly difficult to understand the truth asserted that the believer is

in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This peculiar relationship to

the Son is amplified by a sevenfold declaration or under seven figures:

1. the believer is a member in Christ’s Body (1 Cor 12:13)

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or

Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.

2. the believer is to Christ as a branch to the vine (John 15:5)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—

and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can

accomplish nothing.

3. the believer is to Christ as a stone in the building of which Christ

is the Chief cornerstone (Eph 2:19-22)


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So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are

fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and

prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the

whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the

Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place

of God in the Spirit.

4. the believer is to Christ as a sheep in His flock (John 10:27-29)

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I

give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch

them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater

than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 10:30

The Father and I are one.”

5. the believer is a part of that company who forms the Bride of

Christ (Eph 5:25-27)

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave

himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of

the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as

glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy

and blameless.

6. the believer is a priest in a kingdom of priests over which Christ

is High Priest forever (1 Pet 2:5, 9)

you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be

a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable

to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a royal

priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may

proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into

his marvelous light.

7. the believer is part of the New Creation over which Christ as the

Last Adam is the Head (2 Cor 5:17)

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has

passed away—look, what is new has come!

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In John 14: 20: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye

in me, and I in you,” three great truths are declared as those which the

believer is to know specifically in this age, namely, (1) Christ is in the

Father, (2) the believer is in Christ, and (3) Christ is in the believer.

Similarly, there is much in the New Testament respecting the

relationship which obtains between the Holy Spirit and the believer,

which will yet be considered more fully in Volume VI. 237

The truths declared and distinguished under this heading represent not

only the most vital positions and possessions which infinite grace can

create, but are the very heart of Christianity, being never intimated in the

Old Testament.

30. BLESSED WITH THE EARNEST OF FIRST-FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT

As before intimated, the immeasurable blessings which come to

the child of God because of his relation to the Holy Spirit are as a

comparatively small down-payment which binds with certainty the larger

gifts of heaven’s glory. These present ministries of the Spirit are said to

be an “earnest” (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:4) and “first-fruits” (Rom 8:23) of the

Spirit. There are five of these present riches:

1. The believer is born of the Spirit (John 3:6), by which operation

Christ is begotten in the one who exercises saving faith.

2. The believer is baptized by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13), which is a

work of the Holy Spirit by which the believer is joined to

Christ’s Body and comes to be in Christ, and therefore a partaker

of all that Christ is.

3. The believer is indwelt or anointed by the Spirit (John 7:39;

Rom 5:5; 8:9; 2 Cor 1:21; Gal 4:6; 1 John 2:27; 3:24), by which

Presence the believer is equipped for every conflict and service.

4. The believer is sealed by the Spirit (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 4:30),

which is the work of God the Holy Spirit by which the children

of God are made secure unto the day of redemption.

5. The believer may be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), which

ministry of the Spirit releases His power and effectiveness in the

heart in which He dwells.

The Spirits work in and through the Christian results in both positions

and possessions that are themselves marvelous realities of the riches of

divine grace, and all these together form but a foretaste of the glory

which is assured in heaven.


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31. GLORIFIED

What God has determined, though it be yet future, is properly

looked upon as sufficiently certain to be considered a present

achievement. He is the One “who … calleth those things which be not as

though they were” (Rom 4:17). Awaiting the child of God is a surpassing

heavenly glory – even partaking of the infinite glory which belongs to

the Godhead. Of this fact it is written: “For I reckon that the sufferings of

this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which

shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18); “When Christ who is our life shall

appear, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Col

3:4). It is not to be concluded that there is a present and a future glory

which are unrelated. The present is the divine reckoning of the future

glory to be even a present reality. No passage more clearly asserts this

fact than Romans 8:30, which states: “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.”

To be a glorified saint is a position in divine grace of immeasurable

riches and, in the certainty of the divine purpose, it becomes a

possession.

32. COMPLETE IN HIM

This, with the theme which follows, serves as a conclusion of that

which has gone before in this attempt to record the riches of divine grace;

yet these are specific disclosures of all that enters into the exceeding

grace of God. What may be included in the word complete when the

Apostle says, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and

power” (Col 2:9-10), is beyond the range of human understanding. No

careless use of terms will be discovered in any Scripture, and this

passage presents the voice of the Holy Spirit declaring that, to the degree

by which God values things and according to those standards which God

employs, the child of God is complete; but so great a transformation is

due to the all-determining fact that he is in Christ. The truth is thus once

more presented that, because of his vital union with Christ, the believer

partakes of all that Christ is. The Father finds infinite delight in the Son,

nor can He find delight in that which is less than the perfection of the

Son. While men may ever be before the Father as the creatures of His

hand, those who are saved are, even now, perfected in His sight by and

through their vital relation to the Son. Thus a principle is introduced

which is far removed from human custom or practice and, naturally,

beyond human understanding, but not beyond the range of human

acceptance or belief, since it is declared in the Word of God. To be

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complete in Christ is a glorious reality and is a portion of that grace

which is extended to all who believe.

33. POSSESSING EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING

No text of Scripture more perfectly accounts for all the riches of

grace than Ephesians 1:3, which reads: “Blessed be the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings

in heavenly places in Christ.” All the riches of grace tabulated in the

thirty-two points before are to be included in this sweeping term – “all

spiritual blessings.” These are again and finally declared to be realized

on the basis of the believer’s relation to Christ. Thus all positions and

possessions which together measure the riches of divine grace are traced

to the believer’s place in Christ. These are accorded the one who believes

on Christ to the saving of his soul.

CONCLUSION OF THIRTY-THREE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF GRACE

It would hardly be amiss to restate the truth that salvation is a work of

God for man and not a work of man for God. It is what God’s love

prompts Him to do and not a mere act of pity which rescues creatures

from their misery. To realize the satisfaction of His love God has been

willing to remove by an infinite sacrifice the otherwise insuperable

hindrance which sin has imposed … Nothing short of transformations

which are infinite will satisfy infinite love. … Those who believe on

Christ in the sense that they receive Him [“But to all who have received

him—those who believe in his name i —he has given the right to become

i 28tn On the use of the (pisteuō + eis) construction in John: The verb πιστεύω occurs 98 times in John (compared to 11 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark [including the longer ending], and 9 times in Luke). One of the unsolved mysteries is why the corresponding noun form πίστις (pistis) is never used at all. Many have held the noun was in use in some pre-Gnostic sects and this rendered it suspect for John. It might also be that for John, faith was an activity, something that men do (cf. W. Turner, “Believing and Everlasting Life—A Johannine Inquiry,” ExpTim 64

[1952/53]: 50-52). John uses πιστεύω in 4 major ways: (1) of believing facts, reports, etc., 12 times; (2) of believing people (or the scriptures), 19 times; (3) of believing “in” Christ” (πιστεύω + είς + acc.), 36 times; (4) used absolutely without any person or object specified, 30 times (the one remaining passage is 2:24, where Jesus refused to “trust” himself to certain individuals). Of these, the most significant is the use of πιστεύω with είς + accusative. It is not unlike the Pauline έν Χριστώ' (en Christō)

formula. Some have argued that this points to a Hebrew (more likely Aramaic) original behind the Fourth Gospel. But it probably indicates something else, as C. H. Dodd observed: “πιστεύειν with the dative so inevitably connoted simple credence, in the sense of an intellectual judgment, that the moral element of personal trust or reliance inherent in the Hebrew or Aramaic phrase—an element integral to the


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God’s children.”i] … as their Savoir enter instantly into all that divine

love provides. These thirty-three positions and possessions are not

bestowed in succession, but simultaneously. They do not require a period

of time for their execution; but are wrought instantaneously. They

measure the present difference which obtains between one who is saved

and one who is not saved. (Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol

3, pp 234-66) (brackets mine)

This writer:

The preceding is substantial evidence that the individual contributes

nothing to his standing in Christianity. The end is as certain as the

beginning with grace at work. The beginning is as certain as the end with

men at work. Christianity is a complete work of grace by God. The

Christian is given everything that makes he or she a Christian. A

Christian has only voluntary consent to give to the Lord who will work

His good works through that willing Christian soul. As stunning as the

previous divinely wrought changes are, they are but the preview, the new

beginning of what is to be. The Bible reveals the sure prospect of a

Christian’s entrance into the glory of heaven for the assurance of all

believers. In a heaven high manner, as God created the woman from the

first Adam as a companion, God is creating a companion from the Last

Adam. This is the New Creation in Christ, the Body and the Bride of

Christ.

The seven future effects of grace are the final and irrefutable

evidence, beyond any measure of doubt, that will prove the Rectoral or

Governmental theory of atonement - that conceives the Negative gospel

for the forgiveness of personal sins only and the concept of heaven as a

future reward for deserving individuals - is without reservation, non-

biblical. It absolutely and dreadfully false. In a word – a criminal act

against the gospel of the grace of God as charged in this indictment.

Dr. Lewis Chafer, will now give his expert testimony. The subject of

the believer’s future faultless presentation in heaven is for your decision

on matters of fact and matters of law.

Seven Future Effects of Grace

Dr. Lewis Chafer:

primitive Christian conception of faith in Christ—needed to be otherwise expressed” (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 183). i John 1:12 NET

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“The consumating experience for the sinner whom God saves is his

presentation in glory. Of this the Apostle writes, “Now unto him that is

able to keep you able from falling, and to present you faultless before the

presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24). In this passage,

the word “falling” is better translated “stumbling” (R.V.), and it should

be observed that the “exceeding joy” is that of the One who conceives,

constructs, and consummates the whole undertaking. The entire

enterprise is strictly His own. Similarly, when writing to the Corinthian

believers, the Apostle Paul declared what is true of all believers – the

Body and Bride of Christ – “For I am jealous over you with godly

jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you

as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2). Here again the force of the text

is discovered when the italicized words “you as” are omitted; for the

Apostle did not desire merely to present believers as a chaste virgin, but

his purpose was rather to present a chaste virgin to Christ. In like

manner, it was the supreme desire of Christ in His sacrificial death, that

He might claim a perfected Bride. Of this it is revealed: “Husbands, love

your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the

word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having

spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without

blemish” (Eph 5:25-27).

The truth that the believer will be presented faultless before the

presence of God’s glory is unfolded in the New Testament with

magnificent detail. The changes to be wrought are in comprehensible;

but, in all, they indicate that the transformation, so extended, is

calculated to obliterate almost every vestige of those elements which

together constitute humanity in its present existence. To be reconstructed

until completely adapted to, and meet for, the celestial sphere, is an

exalted distinction which is guaranteed by infinite competency and

sustained by sovereign intention. This is the portion of every believer,

not varied according to degrees of human merit; for it is the standardized

divine achievement in behalf of all who believe.

Some of the changes which enter into this immeasurable trans-

formation, a portion of which is already incorporated into the believer’s

present estate, are listed here:

34. HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

The fact that heavenly citizenship begins in this life and at the

moment one believes does not alter the abiding character of it, though so

great a development from the present order to that which is to follow


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must ensue. Though that citizenship is now possessed with respect to the

right and title, it is, nevertheless, unoccupied and therefore unex-

perienced. Immeasurable advantage and ascendancy await tenure of that

exalted estate.

35. A NEW FRATERNITY

This feature of coming felicity comprehends a vast field of eternal

realities. It begins with the new birth into actual and legitimate sonship to

God, which, in turn, engenders the whole compass of the family and

household relationship. Not only sonship to God is wrought, but noble

kinship to all saints of all the ages, and, apparently, to all the unfallen

heavenly hosts. These ties are perfectly established while in this world,

yet the larger, joyous experience of them awaits the gathering together of

all who are Christ’s with Him in glory.

36. A STANDING PERFECTED FOREVER

A perfect standing in Christ is not only begun in this life, but its

incalculable value is to be demonstrated and experienced throughout

eternity. Little can the human mind grasp the oncoming restfulness and

blessedness of the consciousness that the standing is secured, and

qualities instituted and divinely approved which are properly required in

the sphere of infinite holiness and purity.

37. A RENEWED BODY

But little can be anticipated of the coming zest, satisfaction, and

comfort of a renewed body which will be fashioned like unto Christ’s

glorious body (Phil 3:21). A wide distinction is to observed between the

possession of eternal life and the experience of it which is yet to be. The

present experience of human life in a death-doomed body is little to be

compared to the experience of eternal life in a renewed body that

corresponds to Christ’s resurrection body – that which, to the point of

infinity, is suited to the eternal needs of the Second Person of the

Godhead. In describing this stupendous change, the Apostle declares (1

Cor 15:42-57) that this body of “dishonour” will put on glory, this body

of weakness will put on inconceivable power, this body which is natural

– adapted to the soul – will become a spiritual body – adapted to the

spirit.

38. FREEDOM FROM THE SIN NATURE

Again all human powers of anticipation are wholly inadequate. So

embedded in the very structure of the present existence is the sin nature

with all its unholy demands and its contrariness to the indwelling Spirit

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(Gal 5:17), that no imagination can forecast the hour of release to

describe it.

39. TO BE LIKE CHRIST

If the believer’s destiny were not so clearly asserted it could not

be believed by any in this world. The testimony of the Scriptures,

however, cannot be diminished: “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” (Rom 8:28); “And as we have borne the image

of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor

15:49); “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear

what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be

like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Though these

statements seem to reach far beyond the range of possible things, this

exalted destiny comports with that which is required in the very purpose

of God. It will be remembered that salvation is wrought to the end that

the grace of God may be revealed. God’s grace is infinite and therefore

requires that the undertakings which measure that grace shall extend into

infinite realms. Like wise salvation is wrought to satisfy the infinite love

of God, and, in the satisfying of that love, God must do His utmost for

the objects of His affection – for whom He is free to act at all.

Conformity to the image of Christ is the supreme reality in the universe,

and divine love can be content with nothing less as the measure of its

achievement. In general, the likeness to Christ includes all other features

indicated in this listing of heavenly realities.

40. TO SHARE IN CHRIST’S GLORY

Precisely what Christ comprehended when He prayed, “Father, I

will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;

that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me” (John 17:24),

finite minds could not know in this world. So, likewise, the title deed

recorded in John 17:22, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have

given them,” cannot be broken. Consequently it is written, “But we all,

with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed

into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the

Lord” (2 Cor 3:18); “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,

worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (4:17);

“It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is

raised in power” (1 Cor 15:43); “When Christ, who is our life shall

appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4); “For it

became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in

bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation


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perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2:10); “But the God of all grace, who

hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have

suffered for a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1

Pet 5:10). Added to this is the glory which is the result of cosuffering

with Christ – the reward for the burden the believer may experience for

lost souls: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not

worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”

(Rom 8:18); “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim 2:12).

By all this it will be seen that the salvation of a soul, as proposed by

God, contemplates the fruition of that purpose. Whom He predestinates,

He glorifies, and “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform

it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). Failure is impossible with

God. Because of this, the New Testament writers are exceedingly bold in

declaring the certainty of coming glory for everyone who believes. That

no intimation of possible failure is mentioned, is due to the truth that the

end is as certain as the ability of infinity to achieve it. Arminians are

casting doubts upon God’s supreme ability to bring to pass that which He

has determined, and upon the truthfulness and dependable character of

the words which record the divine purpose and competency; but such

efforts to weaken the testimony of God respecting Himself cannot avail.

Note the words of Balaam respecting Israel – the people of God’s

election: “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man,

that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he

spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received

commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He

hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in

Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among

them. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a

unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there

any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of

Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Num 23:19-23). Of

Jehovah’s attitude towards this elect people it is said, “For the gifts and

calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29). If it is possible that,

because of sovereign election, God will never change His purpose toward

the earthly people and see no “iniquity in Jacob” nor any “perverseness

in Israel,” if He will never repent regarding any gift or calling of that

nation, is it deemed an impossibility that He is able to preserve the Body

and Bride of His Son for whom it is said that Christ died in a most

specific sense (Eph 5:25-27)?

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CONCLUSION OF SEVEN FUTURE EFFECTS OF GRACE

“In reviewing this extended thesis which has aimed to present the

seven aspects of the saving work of God, it will be seen that salvation is

of Jehovah, whether it be in the sphere of the finished work, the

enlightening work, the saving work, the keeping work, or the presenting

work. In every respect and in every step of its majestic progress it is a

work of God alone – a work which is wrought in spite of the sin of those

whom He saves and in spite of any hazard which the will of man might

engender. God is sovereign over all and is both free and able to realize all

that He has purposed to do.

As before observed, the salvation of a sinner is, so far as revelation

discloses, the sole exercise of one of God’s most conspicuous attributes,

namely, His grace. Not only must salvation provide an adequate scope

for the exercise of this attribute – measuring its amplitude completely –

but it must satisfy God to an infinite degree. As for the amplitude, the

divine undertaking begins with that which is perfectly lost. On this

subject, humanity can have no worthy opinions. To them, at worst, man

is in need of much divine consideration. They cannot approach in

thought the unfathomable reality of the lost and doomed estate of man.

Such words as are written down in Romans 3:9-19 are seldom accepted

by men at their intended meaning. To be lost is to be utterly condemned

of God, to be joined to Satan, and to be consigned along with Satan to the

lake of fire. Such a judgment is not pronounced over some trivial failure

of men. The very fact that the utmost judgment must be meted out upon

him discloses in unmistakable terms the depth of meaning which God

assigns to man’s lost estate. Over against this, salvation lifts the saved

one to the heights of heaven – with reference to eternal abode – and

transforms that one into the image of Christ. To have made any being

like Christ is the most consequential undertaking in the universe. It

represents the limit to which even infinity may go. It is this distance

between the abysmal depths of the lost estate and conformity to Christ in

heaven, which not only exercises the divine attribute of grace, but

measures it completely. As for the divine satisfaction, reason alone

dictates that, since God cannot fail of any purpose, His measurements of

His grace in the salvation of a soul will satisfy Him to infinity. So

completely is the demonstration of grace set forth in each saved

individual that, were but one saved thus by grace, that one would answer

entirely the divine expectation and serve as a conclusive display before

all intelligences of the exceeding, superabounding grace of God; not of

works, lest any man should boast.


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It were enough for God to disclose the fact that He intends to bring

many sons into glory; but He is not satisfied with a limited revelation.

He, rather, honors men by spreading before them for their wonder and

delight the steps which He takes and the righteous ground which all that

He undertakes is accomplished. It is in the sphere of eternal realities to

be wrought by unrestrained, infinite ability; and the devout mind, having

taken cognizance of these facts, may well hesitate to deny to God the

authority, power, and the freedom through Christ, to do all His adorable

and holy will. The prayer of the Apostle is in order: “That the God of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of

wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your

understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of

his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the

saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who

believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought

in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right

hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and

might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this

world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph 1:17-21).” 238

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PART SEVEN - THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis ii. 1, 2.


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And to whom sware he that they should not enter his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews iii. 18, 19.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world [earth] … For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Hebrews iv. 2, 3, 8-11.

Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and the profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin … There was not one wise man upon the earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole race, folly as to self-preservation – the most foolish of all follies. Folly in doubting the most true God – the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul, is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason, then they leave their madness and act like rational beings, but not till then.239

C. H. SPURGEON


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FINAL ARGUMENT AND WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTION

MORNING June 26

“Art thou become like unto us?” – Isaiah xiv. 10.

WWWWHAT must be the

apostate professor’s doom

when his naked soul appears

before God? How will he

bear that voice, “Depart, ye

cursed; thou hast rejected

me, and I reject thee; thou

hast played the harlot, and

departed from Me: I also

have banished thee for ever

from my presence, and I will

not have mercy upon thee.”

What will be this wretch’s

shame at the last great day

when, before assembled

multitudes, the apostate shall

be unmasked? See the

profane, and sinners who

never professed religion,

lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he

is,” says one, “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says

another, “he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself !”

“Aha!” says another, “here comes a psalm-singing Methodist – one who

was always at his meeting; he was the man who boasted of his being sure

of everlasting life; and here he is!” No greater eagerness will ever be

seen among satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the

hypocrites soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but

awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. Seven

devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road

to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him from the

back-door into hell. Mind that back-way to hell professors! “Examine

yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” Look well to your state; see

whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give

a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here.

Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on

which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. 240


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1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given

us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his

Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one

will snatch them from my hand. 10:29 My Father, who has given them to

me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s

hand. 10:30 The Father and I are one.”

John 14:19 … Because I live, you will live too. 14:20 You will know at

that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true

God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

The Sabbath and the Life Giving Work of God for Man

John 5:16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the

Jewish leaders began persecuting him. 5:17 So he told them, “My Father

is working until now, and I too am working.”33 5:18 For this reason the

Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was

he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father,

thus making himself equal with God.

5:19 So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son

can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father

doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.39 5:20 For

the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will

show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. 5:21 For

just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son

gives life to whomever he wishes. [41 Grk “the Son makes whomever he

wants to live.”] 5:22 Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but

has assigned all judgment to the Son, 5:23 so that all people will honor

the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the

Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and

believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned,

but has crossed over from death to life. 5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, a

time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of

the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26 For just as the Father

has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself,


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5:27 and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because

he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all

who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out—the

ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and

the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in

condemnation. NET

33sn “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” What is the

significance of Jesus’ claim? A preliminary understanding can be obtained

from John 5:18, noting the Jewish authorities’ response and the author’s

comment. They sought to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the

Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself

equal with God. This must be seen in the context of the relation of God to

the Sabbath rest. In the commandment (Exod 20:11) it is explained that “In

six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth…and rested on the seventh

day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Philo,

based on the LXX translation of Exod 20:11, denied outright that God had

ever ceased his creative activity. And when Rabban Gamaliel II, R. Joshua,

R. Eleazar ben Azariah, and R. Akiba were in Rome, ca. a.d. 95, they gave

as a rebuttal to sectarian arguments evidence that God might do as he willed

in the world without breaking the Sabbath because the entire world was his

private residence. So even the rabbis realized that God did not really cease to work on the Sabbath: Divine providence remained active on the Sabbath,

otherwise, all nature and life would cease to exist. As regards men, divine

activity was visible in two ways: Men were born and men died on the

Sabbath. Since only God could give life and only God could deal with the

fate of the dead in judgment, this meant God was active on the Sabbath. This

seems to be the background for Jesus’ words in 5:17. He justified his work

of healing on the Sabbath by reminding the Jewish authorities that they

admitted God worked on the Sabbath. This explains the violence of the

reaction. The Sabbath privilege was peculiar to God, and no one was equal

to God. In claiming the right to work even as his Father worked, Jesus was

claiming a divine prerogative. He was literally making himself equal to God,

as 5:18 goes on to state explicitly for the benefit of the reader who might not have made the connection.

39sn What works does the Son do likewise? The same that the Father does—

and the same that the rabbis recognized as legitimate works of God on the

Sabbath (see note on working in v. 17). (1) Jesus grants life (just as the

Father grants life) on the Sabbath. But as the Father gives physical life on the

Sabbath, so the Son grants spiritual life (John 5:21; note the “greater things”

mentioned in v. 20). (2) Jesus judges (determines the destiny of people) on

the Sabbath, just as the Father judges those who die on the Sabbath, because

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the Father has granted authority to the Son to judge (John 5:22-23). But this

is not all. Not only has this power been granted to Jesus in the present; it will

be his in the future as well. In v. 28 there is a reference not to spiritually

dead (only) but also physically dead. At their resurrection they respond to

the Son as well.

Summary Address to the Jurist

This writer: intro argument

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The

one who believes in me will live even if he dies, 11:26 and the one

who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

11:27 She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the

Son of God who comes into the world.” NET

1 John 5:9 If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God

is greater, because this is the testimony of God that he has testified

concerning his Son. 5:10 (The one who believes in the Son of God

has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has

made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that

God has testified concerning his Son.) 5:11 And this is the testimony:

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 5:12 The one

who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the

Son of God does not have this eternal life. NET

1 Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By

his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1:4 that is, into an

inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in

heaven for you, 1:5 who by God’s power are protected through faith

for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. NET

“Art thou become like unto us?” No matter what height of earthly

success is obtained as a so-called blessing, one will remain as they are if

one hears and follows only a false gospel. This is irrespective of any and

all effort and sincerity. Is a Mormon, a Seventh Day Adventist, a Jehovah

Witness, a Unitarian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Hindu, and

members of many other such religions – a Christian? How is one to know

the only true God and trust in Jesus the Christos (the Messiah, the

anointed One) whom He sent to give eternal life to those who believe in

His name? Eternal life is in the Word of God, “the message,” and cannot


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be contained in a “false message”: “For it is not those who hear the law

[hear and follow a false message] who are righteous before God, but

those who do the law [obey the true message - trust in the Son the Father

sent for forgiveness and salvation] will be declared righteous” (Rom

2:13, brackets mine). Among the many beggarly and superficial religious

perceptions of what constitutes a Christian, now and in the future, the

reality far, far exceeds the many facts that are revealed in the Oracles of

Truth. What mean and lowly manner of destitute pride in a professing

Protestant Christian theology would scoff at God’s glorious grace which

makes a Christian what they are and will be? Without the crowning event

of the resurrection of Christ who says, “I am the resurrection and the

[eternal] life,” who is “highly exalted” above every name in heaven,

there would be no Christian, no New Creation, and no true gospel to

obey. Over against these magnificent truths, at the root and core of

Christian transformation is the gift of eternal life for the salvation of

mankind. The possession of the gift of eternal life is the single difference

between the saved and the unsaved in God’s Book of (Eternal) Life that

will be used to determine who spends eternity in perdition (Ex 32:32-33;

Dan 12:1; Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; Rev 20:14-15). Knowing this as a

foundational truth, can any true Christian seriously trust in himself to the

extent that he believes salvation and the gift of eternal life is earned,

kept, or maintained by personal behavior? Or that the gift of eternal life

may be voluntarily forfeited, as in “return to sender,” by any one who has

been made spiritually alive and placed into union with all who are in the

Body of the resurrected Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Might

the perfect and complete Body of Christ, in which Christ is the Head of

the Body, cut-off a part of His own Body?

Dr. John Walvoord: Regeneration

As the Christian’s life of faith begins with being born again,

regeneration is one of the fundamental doctrines in relation to

salvation. Accurate definition of this work of the Spirit and an

understanding of it’s relation to the whole Christian life are important

to effective evangelism as well as to spiritual maturity.

A. REGENERATION DEFINED. In the Bible the word “regeneration”

is found only twice. In Matthew 19:28 it is used of the renewal of the

earth in the millennial kingdom and does not apply to the Christian’s

salvation. In Titus 3:5, however, the statement is made, “Not by

works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His

mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of

the Holy Ghost.” On the basis of this text, the word “regeneration”

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has been chosen by theologians to express the concept of new life,

new birth, spiritual resurrection, the new creation, and, in general, a

reference to the new supernatural life that believers receive as sons of

God. In the history of the church, the term has not always had

accurate usage, but properly understood, it means the origination of

the eternal life which comes into the believer in Christ at the moment

of faith, the instantaneous change from a state of spiritual death to a

state of spiritual life.

B. REGENERATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. By its nature, regen-

eration is a work of God and aspects of its truth are stated in many

passages (John 1:13; 3:3-7; 5:21; Rom 6:13; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:5, 10;

4:24; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1 Pet 2:9). According to John 1:13, the

regenerated one is “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor

of the will of man, but of God.” It is compared to spiritual

resurrection in several passages (John 5:21; Rom 6:13; Eph 2:5). It is

also compared to creation in that it is a creative act of God (2 Cor

5:17; Eph 2:10; 4:24).

All three persons of the Trinity are involved in the regeneration of

the believer. The Father is related to regeneration in James 1:17-18.

Jesus Christ is frequently revealed to be involved in regeneration

(John 5:21; 2 Cor 5:18; 1 John 5:12). It seems, however, that as in

other works of God where all three persons are involved, the Holy

Spirit is specifically the Regenerator as stated in John 3:3-7 and Titus

3:5. A parallel may be observed in the birth of Christ in which God

became His Father, the life of the Son was in Christ and yet He was

conceived of the Holy Spirit.

C. ETERNAL LIFE IMPARTED BY REGENERATION. The central

aspect of regeneration is that a believer who formerly was spiritually

dead now has received eternal life. Three figures are used to describe

this. One is the idea of being born again, or the figure of rebirth. In

Christ’s conversation with Nicodemas He said, “Ye must be born

again,” or as sometimes translated, “Ye must be born from above.” It

is thus in contrast with human birth in John 1:13. In a second figure,

that of spiritual resurrection, a believer in Christ is declared to be

“alive from the dead” Rom 6:13). In Ephesians 2:5 it is stated that

God, “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together

with Christ,” literally, “made us alive together with Christ.” In the

third figure, that of the new creation, the believer is exhorted to “put

on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true

holiness” (Eph 4:24). In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the thought is made clear:

“Therefore if any be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are


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past away; behold, all things are become new.” All three figures

speak of the new life which is received by faith in Christ.

From the nature of the act of new birth, spiritual resurrection, and

creation, it is clear that regeneration is not accomplished by any good

work of man. It is not an act of the human will in itself, and it is not

produced by any ordinance of he church such as water baptism. It is

entirely a supernatural act of God in response to the faith of man.

Likewise, regeneration should be distinguished from the

experience which follows. Regeneration is instantaneous and is

inseparable from salvation. A person genuinely saved will have a

subsequent spiritual experience, but the experience is the evidence of

regeneration, not the regeneration itself. In a sense it is possible to say

that we experience the new birth, but what we mean is that we

experience the results of the new birth.

D. THE RESULTS OF REGENERATION. In many respects, regen-

eration is the foundation upon which our total salvation is built.

Without new life in Christ, there is no possibility of receiving the

other aspects of salvation such as the indwelling of the Spirit,

justification, or all the other subsequent results. There are some

features, however, that are immediately evident in the fact of

regeneration.

When a believer receives Christ by faith, he is born again and in

the act of the new birth receives a new nature. This what the Bible

refers to as “the new man” (Eph 4:24) which we are exhorted to “put

on” in the sense that we should avail ourselves of its contribution to

our new personality. Because of the new nature, a believer in Christ

may often experience a drastic change in his life, in his attitude

toward God, and in his capacity to have victory over sin. The new

nature is patterned after the nature of God Himself and is somewhat

different than the human nature of Adam before he sinned, which was

entirely human even though sinless. The new nature has divine

qualities and longs after the things of God. Although in itself it does

not have the power to fulfill its desires apart from the Holy Spirit, it

gives a new direction to the life and a new aspiration to attain the will

of God.

While regeneration in itself is not an experience, the new life

received in regeneration gives the believer new capacity for

experience. Once he was blind, now he can see. Once he was dead,

now he is alive to spiritual things. Once he was estranged from God

and out of fellowship; now he has a basis for fellowship with God and

can receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In proportion as the

Christian yields himself to God and avails himself of God’s

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provision, his experiences will be a wonderful, supernatural

demonstration of what God can do with a life that is yielded to Him.

Another important aspect of having eternal life is that it is the

ground for eternal security. Although some have taught that eternal

life can be lost and that a person once saved can be lost if he defects

from the faith, the very nature of eternal life and the new birth forbids

a reversal of this work of God. It is first of all a work of God, not of

man not dependent on any human worthiness. While faith is

necessary, faith is not considered a good work which deserves

salvation but rather is opening the channel through which God may

work in the individual life. As natural birth cannot be reversed, so

spiritual birth cannot be reversed; once effected, it assures the

believer that God will always be his Heavenly Father.

In like manner, resurrection cannot be reversed, as we are raised to

a new order of being by an act of God. The new birth as an act of

creation is another evidence that once accomplished it continues

forever. Man cannot uncreate himself. The doctrine of eternal

security, accordingly, rests upon the question the question of whether

salvation is a work of God or of man, whether it is entirely of grace or

based on human merit. Although the new believer in Christ may fall

short of what he ought to be as a child of God, just as in the case of

human parentage, it does not alter the fact that he has received life

which is eternal. It is also true that the eternal life which we have now

is only partially expressed in spiritual experience. It will have its

ultimate enjoyment in the presence of God in heaven. (Major Bible

Themes, revised by John Walvoord, pp 97-100)

This writer: intro

Gathering all that has been presented, into one single victory, is the

triumph of the death that defeated death – the death and resurrection of

our Lord Jesus Christ. In his Systematic Theology, Volume 4, Dr. Lewis

Chafer gives witness to the untold value of the resurrection of Christ in

the following abridged testimony on the true Church as the New Creation

in the resurrected and glorified Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: resurrection and New Creation

“Far more than is true at the end of the age, the early church was

sustained by the fact of the resurrection and magnified it above all

else. The influence of that great event is seen in the change on the

part of the saved Jews from the celebration of the seventh day to the


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celebration of the first day – the day of resurrection. The great power

with which the Apostles witnessed to the resurrection at Pentecost,

and after, can alone account for the fact that thousands, including a

great company of the priests, were obedient to the gospel. - P. 82

The true Church as a New Creation with the resurrected Christ as

its federal Head introduces a body of truth unsurpassed both in its

importance and its transcendent exaltation. Naturally several vast

themes combine under this conception: (a) the resurrected Christ, (b)

the New Creation, (c) two creations require two commemoration

days, and (d) the final transformation. As before indicated, the New

Creation, as a designation of the true Church, includes more than is

comprehended in the idea of the Church as Christ’s Body. In the New

Creation reality, Christ is seen to be the all-important part of it,

whereas, in the figure of the Body, that entity is viewed as a thing to

be completed in itself and separate from, and yet [future, this writer]

to be joined to, the Head. The Body is an entire unit in itself, which is

vitally related to Christ. Over against this, the New Creation is a unit

which incorporates the resurrected Christ and could not be what it is

apart from that major contribution – the Source of all the verity which

enters into it. …

The student who examines the existing works on Systematic

Theology will discover that the subject of Christ’s resurrection is

almost wholly absent from these writings. Extended consideration is

accorded the general theme of Christ’s death; but no more than a

passing reference is made, if any at all, to Christ’s resurrection. In the

contemplation of these writers, Christ’s resurrection, at most is no

more than a reversal of His death, a mere getting up out of death since

He could not and should not “be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). That Christ

arose into a new sphere of reality which incorporates His glorified

human body, that He became a type of Being that had not existed

before, and that He became the pattern of that which glorified saints

will be in heaven, are apparently themes which are little recognized

by theologians of the past. There is a sufficient reason for this neglect.

It lies in the fact that the whole meaning of the resurrection is

embodied in the doctrine of the New Creation and the fact that

theology, almost without exception, has considered the Church to

have been in existence throughout the period covered by the Old

Testament, and continuing without appreciable change into the New

Testament. Under such a conception, there is no occasion for a new

federal Headship since, it is assumed, there is no New Creation which

requires that Headship. In other words, the resurrection of Christ is

slighted in theological courses simply because the system as

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presented – drawn from Roman sources – does not require a

resurrection more than that the Savior of men may live forever. It is

but one more evidence of the confusion which arises when the whole

field of a Pauline, Biblical Ecclesiology is disregarded. It is certain

that these great writers on Systematic Theology – mighty, indeed, in

certain aspects of divine truth – have not intended to neglect the Word

of God; yet, because of the system they inherited, they could not

make a place for a new beginning. If the Church began with Adam or

Abraham, why should there be a new beginning? – Pp. 79-80

If the declarations of the Scriptures are accepted – which assert

that for the purposes of redemption the Second Person of the

Godhead became incarnate, suffered and died on a cross, and that He

is appointed to sit forever on David’s throne – the resurrection of

Christ is not only reasonable in itself, but is required. To a mind

which excludes all that is supernatural, the anthropic Person is

excluded as well as the undertakings which are predicated of Him. To

die is a human experience within the range of human observation;

hence the death of Christ is allowed by many who cannot accept the

resurrection, since that is not within the range of present human

experience and observation. In reality, and as will be seen, the

experience of resurrection is yet to be the actual experience of every

person that will have lived on earth and who has passed through

death. Looking backward from the ages to come, resurrection must be

recognized to be a as universal as death has been.

Christ is the fountain source of life. He declared, and in

connection with His rising from the dead: “Verily, verily, I say unto

you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the

voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the

Father hath life in himself; so hath he given the Son to have life in

himself” (John 5:25-26). He also said, “I am come that they might

have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

In the same context He also stated, “No man taketh it [life] from me,

but I lay it down of myself. I have power to take it up again. This

commandment I have received from my Father” (10:18). It is

significant that He, as no man has ever been able to do, had power to

take His life again after His death. At least twenty-five passages after

that He was raised by the Father (cf. Acts 2:24). Adam was a life-

receiving person, but the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor

15:45). By the first Adam came death; by the Last Adam came life (1

Cor 15:22). All of this testimony converges upon one important truth,

which is, that death, however possible within the range of His

humanity, was utterly foreign to the Son of God. Death was permitted


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to intrude only that redemption might be consummated. When that

purpose was realized, the One who is deathless by nature returned to

His normal estate. It was not possible that He should be holden of

death (Acts 2:24). It is thus the testimony of the Scriptures that the

resurrection of Christ is reasonable. – Pp. 83-84

… The Savior who died and rose again is no less than a member

of the Godhead, and, as such, is from everlasting to everlasting (Mic

5:2), the Father of eternity (Isa 9:6). His death was, therefore,

extrinsic to all that belongs to Deity. A very special and exceptional

undertaking was necessitated which was without precedent in the past

which could never occur again. It is written: “Knowing that Christ

being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more

dominion over him” (Rom 6:9); “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and

to day, and for ever” (Heb 13:8). This voluntary excursus into the

realms of death - death which is itself the divine judgment upon sin

(Gen 2:17) – was an Immeasurable demand upon each Person of the

Trinity. The Father “gave” and “spared not” His own Son; the Son

“endured the cross, despising the shame”; and it was through the

eternal Spirit that the incomprehensible sacrifice was made. It thus

follows that the eternal Son would not, and could not, remain in the

sphere of His own curse and judgment upon sin a moment beyond the

precise time that was divinely indicated as required for the

accomplishment of all satisfaction respecting sin. This time

anticipated in type (Jonah 1:17; cf. Matt 12:40) and measured in

history was “three days and three nights.” It remains therefore true

that the resurrection of Christ was required by the very nature of the

case, for, being what He is, He could not be holden of death (Acts

2:24). – Pp. 85-86

In the sense that the believer is now the recipient of resurrection

life, he is said to be both positionally raised in Christ’s resurrection

and the possessor of that life. Writing to the Colossians, the Apostle

Paul says, “Ye are risen with him” (Col 2:12). In this passage the

truth is being set forth that, being in Christ by the baptism of the

Spirit, the believer partakes of the value of Christ’s death and

resurrection as fully as though the believer had himself died and risen

from the dead. In fact the central reason for Christ’s death and

resurrection is that He might substitute for those whom He would

save. This is the “operation of God” in which the Christian’s faith

rests. Continuing the thought of a coresurrection with Christ, the

Apostle also says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things

which are above not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your

life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, then shall

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ye also appear with him in glory” Col 3:1-4). Beyond all this and as

an indivisible part of it, is the truth that the believer’s body is yet to

be raised at the return of Christ (1 Thess 4:13-18). - P. 87

Apart from a careful investigation into the New Testament

teaching, it would be natural to assume that the resurrection of Christ

was, like other experiences recorded in the Bible, only a reversal of

death. Every so-called resurrection which the Sacred Text chronicles

was but a restoration. The one who died was returned to the same

sphere of existence which he occupied before, and, eventually, he

died again. There is no parallel in these incidents with the resurrection

of Christ. He did not return to a death doomed estate, nor was He the

same order of Being in resurrection that He had been before. He is not

only the incomparable theanthropic Person, but He has experienced a

marvelous transformation in respect to the nature, structure, and

mutability of the body in which He died. It is now a “glorious body”

in its nature, a body of flesh and bones (but without blood) in its

structure, and immortal and therefore immutable in its endurance. It is

a body suited both to heaven and to eternity. No other human body

has yet experienced such a change. It is written of Christ, “who only

hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach

unto” (1 Tim 6:16). It is needful to remember that, in spite of

incorrect terms which men carelessly employ, the word immortality

refers only to the physical body and not to the soul. Christ died, but

He did not see corruption (Ps 16:10; Acts 2:27); He passed from the

mortal to the immortal even though He died and was in the realms of

dissolution for three days and three nights (cf. John 11:39). Those

believers who have died have seen corruption and they must yet put

on incorruption; that is, they have not yet received their resurrection

bodies. With the same certainty it can be declared, on the authority of

God’s Word, that none of all humanity has “put on immortality,”

which experience is appointed to occur at the moment of translation,

when those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord (1

Thess 4:17) will be changed. It is, therefore, to be accepted as true

that Christ alone has immortality. He alone represents that marvelous

change which the physical body of the Christian is to undergo; and

nothing more effective could be said of them with respect to their

bodies than is asserted by the Apostle when he said, “For our

conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior,

the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be

fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working

whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil 3:20-


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21); “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal

must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53). - Pp. 91-92

The whole New Creation incorporates two factors, namely, the

resurrection of Christ, and that entire company of believers who are

identified as the true Church which is vitally united to Christ – the

new humanity.

1. THE RESURRECTED CHRIST. An effort was made earlier to

clarify the truth that Christ has Himself through His resurrection

entered into a sphere of existence that the universe has never seen

before. When on earth and before His death, He was “God manifest in

the flesh,” but now He is God manifest in a resurrection body of

infinite perfection and glory. There is no implication that Christ is in

any sense a creation of God, but that which He became through an

incarnation has been “highly exalted.” The Apostle John had seen the

Lord possibly in childhood, in manhood, in transfiguration, in death,

and in that form in which He appeared in resurrection when

remaining here for forty days; but when John saw the glorified Christ

- as described in Revelation 1:12-18 – he fell at His feet as dead. This

description of the glorified Christ claims close attention on the part of

those who are His, as, also, every reference in the Gospels to His

resurrection body, since this glorified body is the pattern of that body

which the believer will share (Col 3:4). Christians will not only have

joined the heavenly beings, but will be constitutionally fitted for that

sphere and fellowship. All this, it will be seen, depends wholly on the

Savior and what He is “made” to the believer – the great redemption

through His death, the great transformation through His resurrection,

and partaking of His knowledge-surpassing exaltation in heaven.

Christ is now the Lord of Glory, the rightful Head of the new

humanity which He is gathering unto Himself.

2. THE NEW HUMANITY. Uncounted errors in theological teaching

have been engendered through the failure to comprehend the

distinctive, unrelated, and supremely exalted character of the true

Church. No differentiating quality in this eminent humanity is more

to be apotheosized than the truth that by baptism with the Spirit each

individual of this company, including the entire group, is vitally

joined to Christ in a union which is absolute, and which establishes

identity between Christ and the believer and creates the ground upon

which all that Christ is may be imputed to the one who is in Him.

Doubtless, in logical order, divine forgiveness and divinely wrought

regeneration through the operation of the Spirit serve as a qualifying

preparation for this high estate. The generating work of the Spirit is a

creative work of God; but what is termed a New Creation is

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apparently that which results from the union with Christ which is

accomplished by the baptism with the Spirit. Certain New Testament

texts are a guide in this important issue:

2 Corinthians 5:17-18. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a

new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are

become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to

himself by Jesus Christ.”

It is asserted in this passage that to be in Christ is to become a new

creation in which old things – relative to position rather than

experience – have passed away, and these things are, all of them,

wrought of God.

Galatians 3:27-28. “For as many of you as have been baptized

into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there

is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are

all one in Christ Jesus.”

Thus, again, to be joined to Christ is to put on Christ, and that

relationship results in a unity, since those joined to Christ “are all one

in Christ Jesus.”

Galatians 6:15. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth

any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

The truth is asserted that works of merit are of no avail to the one

who is in Christ Jesus. All that counts – and how immeasurable is its

value – is a new creation which is secured by a vital union with the

Lord of Glory. …

So far as its influence upon the believer’s daily life is concerned,

the New Creation position for the believer is, incidentally, “unto good

works”; but the greater reality is acknowledged in the words “created

in Christ Jesus,” whatever the daily may be.

Ephesians 2:15. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even

the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in

himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”

Though this text emphasizes the truth that Jew and Gentile find

peace in the one Body, the purpose is to make in Himself one “new

man” – not new men individually, but one complete unity composed

of Christ and the Church.

Ephesians 4:21-24. “If so be that ye have heard him, and have

been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning

the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to

the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in th spirit of your mind; and that

ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness

and true holiness.”


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The Ephesians had been taught by Christ (through His Apostle)

the truth respecting position in Christ, which is, “that ye [did, when

saved] put off … the old man.” The form of the verb places this

putting off as a complete past action. You were taught, the Apostle

says, the truth about being in Christ and that by so much your “old

man” was laid aside. The former Adamic standing is in view, and

with its corrupt practices which are no longer in order. At that time,

also, ye did put on the new man – the last Adam – which after God

(answering to His eternal purpose) is created in righteousness and true

holiness. While this passage presents a challenge to the student for

careful exegesis, its contribution at this point is seen in the declaration

that the believer has been transferred from one Adam to Another. The

term old man, as used here, is not equivalent to the flesh, or the

Adamic nature. The standing in Adam is terminated with salvation,

while the flesh and the nature continue. (cf. Gal 5:16-17).

Gal 5:16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the

desires of the flesh. 5:17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to

the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for

these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you

want. NET

Colossians 3:9-10. “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have

put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man,

which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created

him.”

On this equally important Scripture, Bishop Moule writes: “The

‘taking off’ and ‘putting on’ here may be explained as meaning,

practically, “you broke connexion (of guilt and helplessness) with the

First Adam, and formed connexion (of acceptance and life) with the

Second.’ … ‘The old Man’ is, so to speak, the parent of the

‘deceitfulness of sin’ in all its phases; connexion with ‘the new Man’

is the deathblow to it, as the anxious conscience is set at rest, the

relation the relation of the believer to God wholly altered, and a

spiritual force not his own given to him. … By union with Him his

members become (be it said with reverence and caution) repetitions

of Him the glorious Archetype. To come to be ‘in Him’ is thus to ‘put

on (Him as) the New Man,’ in sharing His acceptance and His life and

power” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges – Colossians and

Philemon, p. 124).

From the seven passages, cited above, the truth is established that

there is a New Creation which is engendered directly by organic

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union with Christ. A complete disposition of the former existence in

the first Adam has been accomplished. It has been terminated by

cocrucifixion, codeath, and coburial with Christ. Of this termination it

is written: How shall we who that are dead [who died] to sin, live any

longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into

Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried

with him by baptism into his death: that like as Christ was raised up

from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk

in newness of life” (Rom 6:2-4). In this instance, the words of

Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9 – “ye have put off” – are again in

evidence (cf. Col 2:12-13, 20). In the same actual manner, there is

now a perfect vital union with Christ on the part of all who are in

Christ. It is written: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things

which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set

your affections on things above, not on things on earth. For ye are

dead [ye died], and your life [eternal life, this writer] is hid with

Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life [eternal life, this writer],

shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col 3:1-4).

Similarly, Romans 6:5: “For if we have been planted together in the

likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his

resurrection.” Here the child of God is assured that as certainly as he

has shared in Christ’s death, he as certainly shares in Christ’s

resurrection. It is thus by the resurrection of Christ that the Christian

is eligible to entrance into the New Creation. Christ did not die, nor

did He rise from the dead, in behalf of Himself; it was substitutionary

and representative. The Christian was truly raised in Christ’s

resurrection. This is the deeper meaning of the words of Christ: “I am

the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Reference was not made

by Christ to the truth that He Himself would arise from the dead, or

that He would cause the dead to rise at the last day (cf. John 5:21, 25,

28-29); but to the present aspect of truth that all who are in Him are,

by virtue of their place in His resurrection, raised in Him. This

positional truth respecting the child of God is asserted in two

passages: (a) Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his

great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,

hath quickened [to make alive, this writer] us together with Christ,

(by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us

sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Both with respect to

resurrection and with respect to seating in the heavenly, the believer

is now vitally joined to Christ. The word together, twice used in this

sixth verse, relates Him, not to the fellowship of the saints as in

Thessalonians 4:17, but to the risen and glorified Christ. The Apostle


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is justified in the confidence that the reader will not have forgotten

the setting forth of Christ’s glorious resurrection and exaltation in the

verses immediately preceding (1:20-23), and that he will understand

to some degree the surpassing, heavenly reality and glory which

belong to the one who, because of his union with Christ, is now raised

and seated in Christ Jesus, far above all earthly or heavenly

comparison (1:21). To be in Christ, which is the portion of all who

are saved, is to partake of all that Christ has done, all that He is, and

all that He will ever be. It is to have died in His death, to have been

buried in His burial, to have been raised in His resurrection, to have

ascended in His ascension, and to be now seated with Him (because

he is in Him) in glory. Such is the believer’s present position in Christ

Jesus. Over against all this, and in no way to be confused with it, is

the experimental fact that a bodily resurrection and actual heavenly

exaltation await all who are “alive and remain unto the coming of the

Lord,” the present, unalterable fact of the believer’s position in Christ

being the guarantee of the yet future experience. (b) “If ye then be

risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ

sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above,

not on things on the earth. For ye are dead [ye died], and your life is

hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, then shall ye appear

with him in glory” (Col 3:1-4). Aside from the exhortation to a

worthy manner of life, which the passage enforces, the essential fact

is again revealed that the believer has not only died in Christ’s death,

but is now actually risen with Him.

Generally speaking, all that enters into the reality which

constitutes salvation – already analyzed as representing at least thirty-

three positions and possessions - contributes directly or indirectly to

the fact of the New Creation. However, as the Scriptures, cited

above, demonstrate, the New Creation is specifically the result of the

believer’s position in Christ.

There is probably no word of Scripture which more clearly defines

the essential fact concerning the Christian than the phrase, in Christ;

and as the Christian is the most important fact of all creation, there

has never been a word uttered which is so far-reaching in its

implication, or which is fraught with greater meaning to humanity

than the phrase, in Christ. This phrase, with its equivalents, “in Christ

Jesus, in him, in the beloved, by him, through him, and with him,”

appears in the grace teachings of the New Testament no less than 130

times. This most unusual emphasis upon one particular truth is

arresting, and its import must not be slighted. Over against this

emphasis which is given to this truth in the teachings of grace, is the

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corresponding fact that there is no hint of a possible position in Christ

in any teaching of the law or of the kingdom. The believer’s present

position in Christ was not seen in type or prophecy. In the ages past it

was a secret hid in the mind and heart of God. He “hath blessed us”

with all spiritual blessings in Christ, “hath chosen us in him before

the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without

blame before him in love: having predestined us unto the adoption of

children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of

his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made

us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his

blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

having made known unto us the mystery [sacred secret] of his will,

according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

that in the dispensation of the fullness 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: in whom also we have obtained an

inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who

worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be

the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” Who can

comprehend the full scope of these eternal wonders? Knowing the

limitation of the human heart, at this point the Apostle breaks forth

into prayer: “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord

Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you,

making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom

and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your

understanding [heart] being enlightened; that ye may know what is

the hope of his calling, and what [are, this writer] the riches of the

glory of his inheritance in the saints.”

Having thus prayed that the Christian may know by divine

illumination the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of the

inheritance which God now has in the saints, he continues to pray that

they might also know by the same divine revelation “the exceeding

greatness of his power us-ward who believe, according to the working

of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him

from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly

places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and

dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but

also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet,

and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his

body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:3-12, 15-23).


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Growing out of this glorious relationship in Christ is a most natural

responsibility to walk worthy of the calling; but the issues of a daily

life and the character of the conduct which should enter into it,

though important in their place, are lost and forgotten in the blaze of

the eternal glory of that unchangeable grace which has brought the

believer into the New Creation in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ is to be

in the sphere of His won infinite Person, power, and glory. He

surrounds, He protects, He separates from all else, and He indwells

the one in Him. He also supplies in Himself all that a soul will ever

need in time or eternity. The union which is formed in Christ is

deeper than any relationship the human mind has ever conceived. In

His Priestly prayer, in which He had advanced on to resurrection

ground, and where He contemplated the glory of His finished work as

having been already accomplished (cf. John 17:11), Christ spoke of

three unities within the sphere of one relationship: (1) the unity within

the Persons of the blessed Trinity, (2) the unity between the Persons

of the Trinity and all believers, and (3) the unity of the believers

themselves, since they are in Him. We read: “Neither pray I for these

alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their

word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in

thee, that they also may be one in us … I in them, and thou in me, that

they may be made perfect in one” (John17:20-23). Who can fathom

the depths of the revelation that the believer is related to Christ on the

very plane of that oneness which exists between the Father and the

Son?

Again, as before stated, Christ likens the union which exists

between Himself and the believer to the vital, organic relation that

exists between the vine and its living branch. The branch is in the

vine and the life of the vine is in the branch; but the branch possesses

no independent life in itself. It cannot exist apart from the vine. The

human child may outgrow dependence upon its parents and, in turn,

support and sustain them; but the branch can never become

independent of the vine. In like manner, the fruit and every

manifestation of life in the branch is due to the ceaseless inflow of

vitality of the vine. The fruit is as much the fruit of the vine as it is of

the branch (cf. John 15:5; Rom 7:4; Gal 5:22-23). Thus it is with the

one in Christ. Considering the same fact of unity, the Apostle Paul

likens Christ to the head and the believers to members in a body. This

figure illustrates the same vital, dependent relationship. The members

in the body partakes of the merit and honor of the head, and the life

and power of the head is important to the member. So perfect is this

unity between the Head and the members of the Body, that it is

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probable that Christ will never be seen in glory apart from His Body,

and the Body will never be seen apart from Him (cf. 1 Cor 12:12).

From these illustrative Scriptures it will be observed that the unity

between Christ and the believer is twofold: The believer is in Christ,

and Christ is in the believer. The believer is in Christ with regard to

positions, possessions, safekeeping, and association; and Christ is in

the believer giving life, character, and dynamic for conduct.

It has already been pointed out that the Upper Room conversation,

recorded in John 13-16, presents the grace teachings of Christ, and is

the germ of all the truth that is found in the Epistles, which, in turn,

contain the revelation of the essential fact of the New Creation and

the resulting obligation in daily life. The doctrinal truth of the

Epistles, which is the doctrinal truth of grace, is subject to the same

twofold division – what the saved one is in Christ, and the character

and power of the daily life that will be experienced when the

victorious energy of the indwelling Christ is imparted. At one point in

the midst of the Upper Room Discourse, Christ compressed the whole

doctrinal structure of grace into one brief phrase. This phrase is

notable because it is the key to all the facts and relationships under

grace, and because of its simplicity and brevity of language: “Ye in

me, and I in you” (John 14:20). - Pp. 93-100

c. A NEW DAY IS INDICATED BY IMPORTANT EVENTS. Beginning

with the resurrection, and following it, every event recorded in the

New Testament which had important religious significance fell on the

first day of the week, or the Lord’s day. No greater emphasis through

events could be given to this new day than that found in the teachings

of grace, and, added to this, is the fact that in these same Scriptures

the Sabbath is wholly set aside. If it be claimed that there is no direct

commandment for the keeping of the Lord’s day, it should be

observed that there is explicit command against the observance of the

Sabbath day, and that a lack of commandments concerning the Lord’s

day is both in accordance with the character of the new day, and the

entire order of grace which it represents and to which it is related.

Colossians 2:16-17. In the context which this Scripture is found, the

Apostle warns believers against any complicity with the law, or works-

covenant, since they have been transferred to a position under grace. The

passage states that they have been made “complete” in Christ, to which

estate nothing could ever be added; hence, for the one who is in Christ,

the objective of all meritorious works is already gained, and the legal

obligation to do good works is forever met (vs. 10). The believer is also

said to be “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of


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Christ.” Therefore, since the flesh – the one thing the law proposed to

control – is, in the sight of God, put away, there is no need of the law.

The Jewish child was circumcised on the eighth day, which was the first

day of a new week following the passing of a completed week. The

circumcision on the eighth day, or first day of a new week, typified the

deliverance from the old creation which would be accomplished for

believers through the resurrection of Christ from the dead; for in that

death He bore all the curse of the old creation. For this reason the

believer under grace is not called upon to celebrate any aspect of the old

creation which was represented by the Sabbath (vs. 11). The one who is saved has been “buried with him in baptism, wherein [i.e. baptism] also

ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God [his own

faith in God’s power], who hath raised him from the dead.” The use of

the aorist tense in connection with the reference to a burial with Him in

baptism, makes that burial out as being contemporaneous with the

circumcision just mentioned. Therefore it is evident that the baptism with

the Spirit which vitally relates the believer to Christ is in view (1 Cor

12:13; cf. Gal 3:27). In that baptism, as in no other, the Christian par-

takes of all that Christ is, and all that Christ has done. He shares in

Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection ( Rom 6:1-10). With

the old creation thus buried in the tomb of Christ, the believer is in no wise obligated to any observance related to the old creation (vs. 12).

Again, the believer has been delivered from the law by no less an

undertaking than the nailing of the law with its handwriting of ordinances

to the cross. After this great transaction, how can the child of God rea-

sonably recognize the law in any respect whatsoever (vs. 14)? – P. 109

Mention should be made of the great events which fell on the first day

of the week.

On the first day of the week Christ arose from the dead. His

resurrection is vitally relayed to the ages past, to the fulfillment of all

prophecy, to the values of His death, to the Church, to Israel, to

creation, to the purposes of God in grace which reached beyond to the

ages to come, and to the eternal glory of God. Fulfillment of the

eternal purposes related to all of these was dependent upon the

coming forth of the Son of God from that tomb. He arose from the

dead, and the greatness of that event is indicated by the importance of

its place in Christian doctrine. Had not Christ arisen – He by whom

all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,

visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or

principalities, or powers, He for whom things were created, who is

before all things, and by whom all things consist (hold together) –

every divine purpose and blessing would have failed, yea, the very

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universe and the throne of God would have dissolved and would have

been dismissed forever. All life, light, and hope would have ceased.

Death, darkness, and despair would have reigned. Though the

spiritual powers of darkness might have continued, the last hope for a

ruined world would have been banished eternally. It is impossible for

the mind to grasp the mighty issues which were at stake at the

moment when Christ came forth from the tomb. At no moment of

time, however, were these great issues in jeopardy. The

consummation of His resurrection was sure, for omnipotent power

was engaged to bring it to pass. Every feature of the Christian’s

salvation, position, and hope was dependent upon the resurrection of

the Lord. Very much depended on the death of Christ, but every value

of that death would have been sacrificed apart from the resurrection.

When Christ arose from the dead, Christianity was born, and the New

Creation was brought into existence. There is nothing in the old order

for the believer. He stands on resurrection ground. He belong sonly to

the New Creation. God is faithful to all that He has wrought in Christ

and He, according to His Word, will not suffer the child of the New

Creation to go back and celebrate the beginning of the old fallen

creation from which His child has been saved through infinite riches

of grace. If the children of grace persist in relating themselves to the

old creation by the observance of the Sabbath, it is evidence of their

limitations in the knowledge of the Word and will of God; it is to fall

from grace.

Since the day of Christ’s resurrection is the day in which the New

Creation was formed, and all that enters into the Christian’s life and

hope was brought into being, both according to Scripture and

according to reason the Christian can celebrate no other day than the

Lord’s day.

On the first day of the week Christ met His disciples in the new

power and fellowship of His resurrection-life.

On the first day of the week Christ symbolized the new

resurrection-fellowship by breaking bread with His disciples.

On the first day of the week He gave them instructions in the new

resurrection-ministry and life for Him.

On the first day of the week He commanded the disciples to

preach the new message to all the world.

On the first day of the week Christ ascended into heaven as the

“wave sheaf.” In fulfilling the Old Testament type and the eternal

purpose of God, it was necessary that He should appear in heaven as

the earnest of the mighty harvest of souls whom He had redeemed

and who came out of that tomb with Him to share His eternal life and


1176

glory. So, also, He must, having accomplished the sacrifice for sin,

present His own blood in heaven (Lev 16:1-34; Heb 9:16-28). Having

not yet ascended, He said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet

ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I

ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your

God” (John 20:17). How little the import of this message from Christ

was understood then, and how little it is understood even now! That

He ascended on that day is evident; for He said unto them at evening

of that day, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle

me, and see” (Luke 24:39). He had ascended to heaven, accomplished

His work there, and returned to earth to complete His postresurrection

ministry.

On the first day of the week He breathed on His disciples and

imparted the Holy Spirit to them.

On the first day of the week the Spirit descended to take up His

age-characterizing ministries in the world. – Pp. 116-19

THE FINAL TRANSFORMATION. As stated above, very much that

enters into the New Creation reality is already an accomplished fact

in the believer. Every aspect of his salvation is a distinctive quality in

the new order of being which he is, especially the new position in

Christ. However, there are at least three great benefits which, though

assured by all the faithfulness of infinity, are yet deferred. Though

mentioned before, attention should be given more at length to these

particulars.

1. RELEASE FROM THE SIN NATURE. At the end of his pilgrim

journey, there is for the believer a release from the lifelong conflict

with the sin nature. He will have sustained a warfare with the cosmos

world and with Satan; but these are forces from without whose

pressure will be withdrawn forever. The release from the sin nature

involves a constitutional change – the removal of a force from within

which has been an integral part of the believer all his days. The great

Apostle included himself – and it was true of him at the time of his

deepest spiritual development – when he said, “For the flesh lusteh

against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are

contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye

would” (Gal 5:17). The end of this conflict was anticipated by him

when he wrote as the closing testimony of his life, “For I am now

ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have

fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the

Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me

only, but to all them that love his appearing” (2 Tim 4:6-8).

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2. THE ACTUAL OCCUPATION OF HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. In this

aspect of the Christian’s release, there is sa conveyance from this

sphere of ambassadorship, from this existence as a stranger and

pilgrim, into that home-center in glory which has been held by right

and title, though unoccupied, from the moment of salvation through

Christ. No imagination can portray nor can language describe this

stupendous change with its transfer from earth to heaven, from part

knowledge to whole knowledge, from seeing through a glass darkly

to seeing face to face, from association with fallen humanity to

fellowship with glorified saints and angels, from a death-doomed

body to a glorious, eternal body, from earthly hovels to the mansions

He has gone to prepare, and from an existence which is defined as

“absent from the Lord” to that which is characterized by His

immediate presence. The Patmos [John the Apostle, this writer] seer

avers:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many mansions [dwelling places]: if it were not

so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and

prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;

that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:1-3, brackets mine); …

3. The Possession of a Transformed Body. The third deferred feature of salvation to be realized at the end of this life and which makes its

contribution to the sum total of that which constitutes the Christian a new

creation, is the reception and occupancy of a transformed body. In

respect to the physical or material part of the believer, a stupendous

metamorphosis awaits him. Though two possibilities of process are held

before him, the end is the same in either case. He may go by the way of

death and resurrection, or he may go by translation; yet a standardized

reality awaits him. He will have a body like unto Christ’s glorious body

(Phil 3:20-21).

Phil 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a

savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 3:21 who will transform

these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body

by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to

himself. NET

As is to be expected, there is a central and exhaustive portion of

Scripture bearing on so great a theme as the resurrection of the

believer’s body; and that Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 35-57.

In the first section – 15:20-23 – the resurrection of the believer’s body


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is seen in its order as preceded by the resurrection of Christ, with the

present period between the first and second advents intervening, and

followed by the resurrection of all humanity – which resurrection is

termed “the end” resurrection, or the last in the order of resurrections

(cf. Rev 20:2-15) - and separated from the believer’s resurrection by

Christ’s reign and authority which must continue until all enemies are

under His feet. This period is determined with regard to its duration

by the testimony of Revelation 20, and is declared to be a thousand

years (cf. 2 Pet 3:7-10).In this time the Church, having been raised

and translated, is reigning with Christ (Rev 20:4).

The second section of this central passage presents the essential

facts related to the resurrection of the bodies of those that are

Christ’s. If the question – natural, indeed – be asked, “How are the

dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (1 Cor 15:35),

the answer is that, as there is a great variety of forms and bodies in

God’s creation, it is not strange that God will give the believer a

transformed body in resurrection, or in translation. Concerning the

transformation that comes by resurrection, there are four contrasts

drawn: (a) that sown – note this significant synonym for the word

burial – in corruption is raised in incorruption; (b) that sown in

dishonor, or humiliation, is raised in glory; (c) that sown in weakness

is raised a powerful body; and (d) that sown as a natural body –

adapted to the soul – is raised a spiritual body, i.e. adapted to the

human spirit. This aspect of truth is concluded with the assuring

words: “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also

bear the image of the heavenly” (vs. 49).

Over against this is the engaging truth that some will not die, or

“sleep,” but will be translated in their living state. They are not to go

to heaven burdened and restricted by this body of limitations. They

being mortal – alive in the flesh – will put on immortality. The

change is sudden and complete. It is wrought “in a moment, in the

twinkling of an eye.” The trump shall sound and the dead in Christ

shall be raised incorruptible, but those living – and the Apostle again

rightly includes himself as one who entertained this blessed hope –

shall be changed. The decree and purpose of God cannot fail: “For

this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on

immortality.” All of this, and translation is far better than having to

die first, is stated by the Apostle when he says, “Behold I shew you a

mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a

moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet

shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall

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be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this

mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:51-53).

Though He did not see incorruption (Ps 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31),

Christ’s present body is the pattern of the believer’s resurrection

body. Here it may well be restated that Christ’s resurrection was

vastly more than a reversal of death; and such, indeed, will be the

character of the believer’s glorified body. The Scriptures record

restorations from death back into the present sphere to die again (cf. 2

Kings 4:32-35; 13:21; Matt 9:25; Luke 7:12-15; John 11:43; Acts

9:36-41; 14:19-20). One has but to reconsider the four great changes

listed above which are recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 to be

assured that a different form of resurrection awaits the body of the

child of God who has died, quite diverse from any restoration ever

accomplished in human history. The transformed, resurrected body

will be limitless in power, infinite in glory, eternal in endurance, and

adapted to the spirit. Such is the particular glory each individual will

contribute to the whole New Creation.

All this is assured both by unfailing promise and by

incomprehensible rights through identification with the glorified

Savior. Being thus in Christ and therefore possessing all the values of

His death and resurrection as fully as those values would be

possessed had one actually died in Christ’s death and been actually

raised in His resurrection, there is nothing unreasonable in the

disclosure that the body, too, will yet be raised and be changed that it

may be like His glorious body (Phil 3:20-21).

The Apostle writes in Romans 8:23 of the “redemption of our

body.” This phrase evidently comprehends the metamorphosis which

is wrought either by becoming incorruptible or immortal. This truth

respecting the redemption of the body closely parallels the

resurrection doctrine; for the saints are redeemed in this present

estate, and yet their bodies are to be redeemed – which is similar to

the fact that, though they are now raised in Christ, their bodies are yet

to be raised or changed. – Pp. 122-26

This writer: intro

The redemption of the believer’s body is a now-but-not-yet feature of

NT Christianity. There is “nothing” the believer need do in order to

inherit this transformation. All is provided by God. This being true,

might the believer simply rest upon this assurance? Or is it incumbent

upon all true believers who are “raised in the knowledge of Christ” to

witness the gospel of the grace of God to a lost world of condemned


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humanity? On this important theme, Dr. Lewis Chafer writes the

following.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: the Church

In contrast to Israel, which nation was an organization or

commonwealth (Eph 2:12), and in contrast to the visible church,

which is merely a human systemization, the true Church is an

organism. The term organism indicates that the thing specified is

permeated throughout all its parts with one common life. It is the

same life in the roots and the upper structure of a tree. It is the same

life which is in every member of a human body. Similarly, it is the

same life that is in the Church. Each individual in that company has

not only been baptized into one Body, but has been made to drink into

one Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). The figure of the head and body with its

many members is employed in the Sacred Text more than any other

and serves to indicate certain essential facts respecting the Church,

namely, (a) that the Church is a self-developing body, (b) that the

members of this body are appointed to specific service, and (c) that

the body is one. … In this age, as in no other, there is a specific

message to be preached to every creature and, while there are

leadership men who are God’s gift to the Church, the obligation to

witness rests upon every Christian alike. … The objective in this

general witnessing on the part of the whole company of believers is to

accomplish a specific task in a prescribed time: “till we all come in

the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a

perfect man, unto the measure the measure of the stature of the

fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). The “perfect man” here cited is not to

be interpreted to mean perfect men; it is the completion of the Body

of Christ by the adding thereto of all who are His elect people in this

age. The dangers which beset believers who are deprived of the

teaching, that which was referred to in the previous verse 14: “That

we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried

about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning

craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” Over against this, the

one who is taught will “hold the truth in love.” The word in verse 15

translated speaking is better rendered holding (c.f. R.V. marg.). The

truth is to be held as a controlling possession. Such a one will grow

up into Christ in all things. To conclude this statement respecting the

development of the Body of Christ, the Apostle writes: “From whom

the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of

supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part,

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works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in

love” (vs. 16, J. N. Darby translation).

From the above it will be seen that the Church, like the human

body, is self-developing. Her members, as evangelizing agencies, are

appointed to secure other members. Intelligent soul-winning service

on the part of Christians is the New Testament expectation.” 241

This writer: argument

An example of intelligent soul-winning is the first recorded gospel

message by the Apostle Paul given to the Jews of Antioch in Galatia. The

Jews who had believed on Jesus for salvation were “persuaded to

continue in the grace of God.” At that time, Gentiles asked that the

gospel message might be preached to them on the next Sabbath. “And the

next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of

God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,

and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting

and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was

necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but

seeing ye put it [Lit. thrust] from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of

everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord

commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that

thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the

Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord:

and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:44-48).

The gift of God to those who trust in Jesus as Savior is eternal life

which He has been granted by the Father. By this means, the believer is

“in Christ.” The biblical teaching with regard to eternal life is

summarized by Dr. C. I. Scofield in the following: “(1) The life is called

“eternal” because it was from the eternity which is past unto eternity

which is to come - it is the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is

God (John 1:4, 5:26; 1 John 1:1, 2). (2) This life of God, which was

revealed in Christ, is imparted in a new birth by the Holy Spirit, acting

upon the word of God, to every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ (John

3:3-15). (3) The life thus imparted is not a new life except in the sense of

human possession; it is still “that which was from the beginning.” But the

recipient is a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). (4) The life of God

which is in the believer is an unsevered part of that which eternally was,

and eternally is, in Christ Jesus – one life, in Him and in the believer –

Vine and branches; Head and members (1 Cor 6:17; Gal 2:20; Col 1:27;

3:3, 4; 1 John 5:11, 12; John 15:1-5; 1 Cor 2:12-14).” (Old Scofield Study

System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1353)


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Col 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of

this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of

glory. 1:28 We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people

with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in

Christ. 1:29 Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his

power that powerfully works in me. NET

John 1:4 In him was life,8 and the life was the light of mankind. NET

8tn John uses zwhv (zwh) 37 times: 17 times it occurs with

aijwvnio" (aiwnios), and in the remaining occurrences outside the

prologue it is clear from context that “eternal” life is meant. The two uses

in 1:4, if they do not refer to “eternal” life, would be the only exceptions.

(Also 1 John uses zwhv 13 times, always of “eternal” life.)

The Spirit empowered Apostles first witnessed the person, deity, and

work of Christ from eye-witness testimony of His words and actions that

revealed the Father and, from OT Messianic prophecies revealed to them

by the resurrected Christ before His ascension. Later, the Apostle Paul

was given further Christ sanctioned revelations concerning the gospel

that were built upon the words of Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus

commanded Thomas: “Do not be faithless and incredulous, but [stop

your unbelief] and believe! … Blessed and happy and to be envied are

those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and

trusted and relied on Me. … (John 20: 27, 29 AMP).

After the death of Paul and then Peter, the Apostle John contended

with an internally derived threat to early Christianity – a false gospel.

This false message was a distortion of the man-Christ and therefore could

not truthfully represent the Father. Consequently, this message separated

the Father from the Son. The simple Spirit empowered response to this

false gospel was in the Johannine formula: “Jesus is the Christ.” By the

straightforward fact that this statement is univocal, that it may contain

multiple conceptions, it was then determined that those who cannot

confess either a Jesus or a Christ as revealed by the Spirit of Truth (for us

today, the indwelling Spirit and God’s Word) were an “antichrist,” and

the Truth (of the Spirit) was not in them. Dr. R. E. Brown comments on 1

John 3:23-24: “One may know that God abides in Christians from the

fact that they profess a true faith about His Son, and they can do that only

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if the Paraclete has taught them.i This is in perfect harmony with I John

2:27 where no human teacher is needed because the anointing (with the

Holy Spirit) teaches the Christians about all things.” 242

Regarding

eternal life (regeneration) in the Prologue to the Gospel of John and the

truth encompassed in the “illumination” wrought in the believer by the

Paraclete (Holy Spirit), Dr. Lewis Chafer gives witness.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: illumination by the Spirit

The Gospel written by John in its opening chapter states that a

new thing has come into the range of human experience. This

Scripture declares: “But as many as received the him, to them gave he

power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his

name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor

of the will of man, but of God” (vs. 12-13); and Peter describes a

Christian thus: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of

incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”

(1 Pet 1:23). As for the human responsibility in regeneration, Christ

said to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world [For this is the way

God loved the world: NET], that he gave his only begotten Son, that

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting

life” (John 3:16). As this subject is to be considered later in another

connection, however, it will suffice to add that to be born of God

means an induction into the order of heavenly beings. None, of a

surety, are now able to comprehend the reality in which God becomes

the regenerating and therefore legitimate Father for all eternity and

the one who believes becomes a regenerated legitimate son for all

eternity. Salvation includes a new creation (2 Cor 5:17, R.V. marg.),

which is wrought by the Holy Spirit as the Executor of the Godhead.

… The whole divinely arranged provision whereby the believer may

come to know the things of God and all that enters into a relationship

with God is a system of pedagogy quite unlike anything of which the

this world knows and wholly outside the range of experience into

which the natural man could enter. … Illumination is specifically a

work which is wrought by the Third Person, and, in so far as He

opens the understanding of the Scriptures, He unveils that which He

i “It is implied in Rom 8:15 and gal 4:6 that the gift of the Spirit makes us (by

adoption) God’s sons. In Johannine theology the gift of the Spirit brings eternal life that makes us God’s children; but the fact that we are God’s children and that God abides in us is shown when the Spirit bears witness through us (John 15:26-27). A closer Pauline parallel to this idea would be 1 Cor 12:3: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord [Yahweh],’ except in the Holy Spirit.”


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Himself has originated; yet when Christ declared that the Spirit would

guide the believer into all truth, He made clear the Spirit does not

originate the message which He imparts, for He, the Spirit, does not

speak from Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak

(John 16:13). In this instance it is Christ who originates the message.

Christ opened this particular declaration with the words: “I have yet

many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Thus in the

sphere of “all truth,” “things to come,” and “all things which the

Father hath,” the message arises with the Son and is delivered to the

mind and heart of the believer by the Spirit who indwells him. To this

end the Apostle declares, “We have received … the spirit which is of

God” (1 Cor 2:12). The position within the heart of the believer

which the Holy Spirit now occupies secures the closest relationship,

so that He, the Spirit Himself, is thus able to create impressions

within the Christian’s consciousness which seem to have occurred

only to his own finite mind. All Spiritual truth must be imparted by

the indwelling Spirit in this way. This particular body of truth, or

threefold group of “things,” will be known by the believer only

through the revelation which the Holy Spirit accomplishes. Of this the

Apostle states: …

1 Cor 2:9 But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or

ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for

those who love him.” 2:10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 2:11

For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s

spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the

Spirit of God. 2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world,

but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that

are freely given to us by God. 2:13 And we speak about these things,

not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by

the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 2:14 The

unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they

are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they

are spiritually discerned. 2:15 The one who is spiritual discerns all

things, yet he himself is understood by no one. 2:16 For who has

known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the

mind of Christ. NET

Using earlier the same term as here, namely, “things,” Christ implied

that “all truth” must be shown to the believer by the Holy Spirit (John

16:12-15). The practical appeal which is here confronted by

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Christians reveals the necessity for adjustment of heart and life to the

mind and will of the Holy Spirit lest all progress in learning spiritual

things be hindered. …

When translators turn from translating to interpreting the result

may be easily misleading. In His Upper Room Discourse (John 13:1-

17:26), for example, Christ refers to the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete

(παράκλητος) several times. The Authorized Version translation of the

word Comforter is the result of interpretation; that is, Paraclete means

helper or one called to one’s side as an aid – and in this case an all-

sufficient One. This includes the idea of comforting, but to restrict it

to comforting is wholly inadequate. … For three and a half years

Christ had been to the disciples to whom He was speaking their

Paraclete, their all-sufficient One. When leaving them He promised

them another Paraclete. It follows, accordingly, that whatever Christ

had been to them, the Holy Spirit would continue. In his Word

Studies, Dr. M. R. Vincent discusses this title Paraclete as follows:

Only [used] in John’s Gospel and First Epistle (14:16, 26; 15:26;

16:7; 1 Ep. 2:1). From which πaρά, to the side of, and κaλέω, to summon.

Hence, originally, one who is called to another’s side to aid him, as an

advocate in a court of justice. The later, Hellenistic use of παρακαλείν

and παράκλητος, to denote the act of consoling and consolation, gave rise

to the rendering Comforter, which is given in every instance in the

Gospel, but is changed to advocate in 1 John 2:1, agreeably to its uniform

signification in classical Greek. The argument in favor of this rendering

throughout is conclusive. It is urged that the rendering Comforter is

justified by the fact that, in its original sense, it means more than a mere consoler, being derived from the Latin confortare, to strengthen, and that

the Comforter is the therefore one who strengthens the cause and the

courage of his client at the bar: but, as Bishop Lightfoot observes, the

history of this interpretation shows that it is not reached by this process,

but grew out of a grammatical error, and that therefore this account can

only be accepted as an apology after the fact, and not as an explanation of

the fact. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, by the word παράκλητος, of which

Paraclete is a transcription, represented as our Advocate or Counsel,

“who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action

for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world, of wrong, and

pleads our cause before God our Father.” It is to be noted that Jesus as

well as the Holy Spirit is represented as Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is to be another Paraclete, and this falls in with the statement in the First

Epistle, “we have an advocate with God, even Jesus Christ.” Compare

Romans 8:26. See on Luke 6:24. Note also that the word another is

äλλον, and not ëτερον, which means different. The advocate who is to be


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sent is not different from Christ, but another similar to Himself. – II, 243-

44

In the title Paraclete there is abundant evidence both for the

Personality and the Deity of the Holy Spirit. In his Lectures on the

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, therefore, William Kelley writes:

But I apprehend the word “Comforter” sometimes fails (perhaps to

most fails) to give adequate notion of what it is our Lord Jesus really

meant us to gather from thus speaking of the Holy Ghost. We might very

naturally draw from it, that the term was in relation to sorrow, that it

intimated a person who would console us in the midst of the distresses of this lower world. And, indeed, the Holy Ghost does console us and

comfort us. But this is only a very small part of the functions here

conveyed by the word “Paraclete.” This is the expression if one would

give an English reproduction of that which is in point of fact the very

word our Lord employed. But the meaning of that word “Paraclete” is not

merely “Comforter,” but one who is identified with our interests, one

who undertakes all our cause, one who engages to see us through our

difficulties, one who in every way becomes both our representative and

the great personal agent that transacts all our business for us. This is the

meaning of the Advocate or Paraclete or Comforter, whatever equivalent

may be preferred. Manifestly, then, it has an incomparably larger bearing

than either “advocate on the one hand, or “comforter” on the other: it includes both, but takes in a great deal more than either. In point of fact,

it is One who is absolutely and infinitely competent to undertake for us

whatever He could do in our favor, whatever was or might be the limit of

our need, whatever our want in any difficulty, whatever the exigencies of

God’s grace for the blessing of our souls. Such the Holy Ghost is now;

and how blessed it is to have such an One! But remark here, that it never

was known before. I have already hinted, and indeed plainly expressed

the conviction, that it will never be known again, fully allowing that there

will be, as to extent, a larger outpouring of blessing in the world to come.

But the personal presence of the Spirit here below as an answer to the

glory of Christ at the right hand of God! – such a state of things never can be repeated. While the High Priest is above, the Spirit sent down

gives a heavenly entrance into His glory as well as redemption; when the

High Priest comes out for the earthly throne, the Spirit then poured out

will give a testimony suited to the earth over which the Lord will reign.-

Pp. 87-88 243

This writer: argument

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The value of the birth of Jesus is realized in His “hour” of death. This

“hour,” since His death, in the sense of its value – the Spirit, and the

water, and the blood - continues into eternity. The biblical prophetic truth

of why and how He was born agrees with how He died, but only in the

NT is the value of His death and resurrection revealed in this unpredicted

age of grace that we live in. An age where the Mosaic Law is fulfilled

and a new age has arrived. Wherein Jew and Gentile are classed together

to enter into the kingdom of God only by receiving eternal life in the new

birth through faith in the power of Jesus to place a believer in

communion (koinōnia) with the Father. A relationship with Christ goes

far beyond a conception of a two-way encounter as in a “vine and a

branch.” A Christian is vitally joined, not only to the God-man Jesus

Christ, rather also, to the source of eternal life who is the Father, and this,

while being eternally indwelt by the Spirit of God. Additionally, as an

undeniable result, this unity exists in and between all Christians. The

man-Christ lived His ministry united to the power of God’s Holy Spirit

and to the will of His Father. This was prophetic of all believers who

have the gift of eternal life and the power from above that allows the

light of God to shine into the world.

2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything

as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

3:6 who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based

on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives

life.

The life that is imparted to each believer that makes he/she adequate

is “eternal life.” “One of the distinctive New Testament revelations is

that of God as Father of individuals. Whereas the word “Father” is used

of God only fifteen times in the Old Testament, it occurs 245 times of

God in the New.” 244

Regeneration is an action of the Holy Spirit, but is

not the baptism by the Holy Spirit. Christ said in the Gospel of John “Ye

in me [the result of the Spirit’s baptism] and I in you [the result of the

Spirit’s regeneration, the new birth from above]” (John 14:20). The word

“baptism,” may be correctly defined as: “Whatever is capable of

thoroughly changing the character, state, or condition of any object, is

capable of baptizing that object; and by such change of character, state,

or condition does, in fact, baptize it.” 245

Dr. Lewis Chafer writes: “Too

often it is assumed that Christ came into the world so that men might

have a new ideal for daily living, an example of an exalted character, or a

new rule of life. When Christ said, however: “The thief cometh not, but

for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have


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life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10) – but one

of about eighty-five passages bearing on this essential factor in the

Christian’s new being – He was speaking of an imparted life which no

human being has ever received or possessed apart from the regenerating

power of the Holy Spirit. With all reason, God appeals to the saved for a

daily life which is in accord with this high calling in Christ; but the need

for holy living must ever be disassociated from “the gift of God [which]

is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The possession

of eternal life creates the true motive for holy living [by faith in the

power of being “in Christ”; provided by the baptism of the indwelling

Holy Spirit of God – this writer]; certainly holy living will never impart

divine life or substitute for a birth from above by the Spirit. A

commendable daily life represents the purpose of the one who lives it;

the gift of eternal life represents the eternal provision of God for man

which He purposed in Jesus Christ. From this sublime truth the spiritual

mind naturally advances to the contemplation of the fact that the divine

purpose, like all the works of God, will be yet so realized and completed

to infinity that God will be satisfied with it and be glorified by it. Thus it

is concluded properly that salvation from its beginning in the eternal

counsels of God, down through the provision of and exercise of

redeeming grace, and on to its consummation in glory is wrought only by

God and with the same purpose ever in view, namely, that it should

redound to His eternal glory.” 246

A contemporary gospel that preaches the externalized, counterfeit

imitation of Christ as a Socinian and Unitarian styled EXEMPLUM for a

future salvation based on continued faith is little more than human

determination measured by personal weakness - not the power of God.

The notion that “regeneration” is a mere indefinite influence for good is

far below that which is set forth in the NT. In truth, this idea has been put

upon the naïve by the mass dissemination of a One Covenant theology,

which would be destroyed by admitting a new dispensation that includes

a new rule of life and the full measure of the works of divine grace

plainly stated in the NT. OT saints were not related to God as are NT

believers. This conception falls far short of the message of life that Christ

manifested as the gospel. This short-fall is strikingly close to the

following: “However, the Pharisees and the experts in religious law

rejected God’s purpose for themselves … They are like children sitting in

the marketplace and calling out to one another, ‘We played the flute for

you, yet you did not dance, we wailed in the morning and you did not

weep’” (Luke 7:30, 32). No matter how forcibly the children insist that

God conform to the music in the Negative gospel - He ignores them.

John the Baptist predicted the future of those who are not in tune and “in

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Christ”: “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean out his threshing

floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but the chaff he will

burn up with inextinguishable fire” (Luke 3:17).

Mtw 15:6ff You have nullified the word of God on account of your

tradition. 15:7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you

when he said,

15:8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me, 15:9 and they worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

1 Tim 1:4ff Such things promote useless speculations rather than

God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith. 1:5 But the aim of our

instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience,

and a sincere faith. 1:6 Some have strayed from these and turned

away to empty discussion. 1:7 They want to be teachers of the law,

but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they

insist on so confidently. 1:8 But we know that the law is good if

someone uses it legitimately, 1:9 realizing that law is not intended for

a righteous person … 1:11 This accords with the glorious gospel of

the blessed God that was entrusted to me. 6:20 O Timothy, protect

what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and

absurdities of so-called “knowledge.” 6:21 By professing it, some

have strayed from the faith. Grace be with you all. NET

Isa 5:20 Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead,

who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,

who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. NET

The Socinianism of the 17th century became Unitarianism, a

contemporary system that denies the Holy Trinity to be of one eternal

unity and plurality. The Arminian theologian, Dr. John Miley, who in

earlier testimony defended Grotius’ Governmental theory, writes: “The

fundamental error of the Socinian view was found by Grotius to be this:

“That Socinus regarded God, in the work of redemption, as holding the

place of merely a creditor, or master, whose simple will was a sufficient

discharge from the existing obligation.”247

In so far as it goes, Dr. John

Miley holds orthodox doctrines on the preexistence and incarnation of

Christ. At this point, both he and Arminianism depart from Scripture to

ignore the stated value of the death of Christ and to censor the gift of

eternal life given to Christ by the Father, to grant to whosoever will


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believe in His name for salvation: “Just as the living Father sent me, and

I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live

because of me” (John 6:57). Dr. Lewis Chafer writes: “Satan’s doctrine

(1 Tim 4:1, 2; Rev 2:24; cf. 1 Cor 2:10-12) has always been one of moral

perfection secured by self-effort or personal works (Isa 14:14; Gen 3:4,

5). His program of self-fitting, resulting only in self-glory, is in complete

contrast to the true principle of saving faith, through which one depends

on God alone for all needed transformation (Rom 8:29; 1 John 3:2). … It

is clear from the Scriptures that the Gospel of the substitutionary

sacrifice of Christ is the only possible ground of salvation and escape

from “the power of Satan unto God.” It is therefore suggestive that Satan

is imposing his blindness upon the unregenerate mind only at this one

point. The demons in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry bore faithful

testimony to His deity as the Son of God; just so, Satan is now directly

witnessing to the value of the only offers of salvation by thus centralizing

all his blinding power upon the way of the cross.

In addition to the exercise of his own power in directly blinding the

unsaved as to the value of the cross, Satan is increasingly active, through

his ministers, in attempting to exclude this central truth from the

Christian faith. To do this he is now, as predicted, forcing great

counterfeit religious systems and restatements of doctrine upon the

world. It is also suggestive that in all these the only revealed basis of

salvation is carefully omitted.” 248

In the 17th

century, Hugo Grotius was not consulted for revelation

concerning “the gospel” by any Apostle chosen by Christ. Neither did

Hugo Grotius consult the Bible for the details of the substitutionary

sacrifice of Christ when he created his scheme of atonement that was

borrowed from the earlier works of Socinius, the father of Unitarianism.

The assertions in the Governmental theory do not confess that “Jesus is

the Christ.” Rather, subjective rationalism is substituted for OT and NT

teachings on His birth and death. This scheme assigns to God an inferior

plan that cannot destroy the works of Satan. This scheme presents a

hopeless Jesus who is unable to save a child of God from his own

weakness and, an unworthy Jesus who must expect the return of the gift

of forgiveness from disillusioned believers. The Negative gospel

apportions no redeeming value (apolutrosis – ransom) for human sin

(apollumi – the lost who will suffer perdition) to the sinless flesh of

Christ on His cross of suffering and in the shed blood of His death. The

flesh of Christ has “human value” only in that: (1) He was the Great

Example in His life and, (2) In His death, He was the frightening scene

of future judgment for believers who continue to sin. The “sympathetic

Rulership forgiveness” proliferated in the Governmental theory is

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foolishness. To define this foolishness, which assigns a false value to the

death of Christ on His cross, Dr. Lewis Chafer gives testimony.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: The suffering of Christ

In its more important use in the New Testament, the term cross

refers to the framework of wood upon which Christ was crucified. It

becomes at once not only a symbol of His death by crucifixion but a

synonym of the words sacrifice, suffering, and death. The unique

manner in which the inanimate timber on which Christ as crucified is

linked with the very Person of the One slain there is to be seen in

Galatians 6:14, where the terminology cross becomes, through use of

the words “by whom,” identified with that which Christ became in

His death. The passage reads, “God forbid that I should glory, save in

the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified

unto me, and I unto the world.”

In its doctrinal significance, the word cross is subject to a twofold

usage, namely, (1) that which relates to Christ’s suffering and death

and (2) that which relates to the believer’s suffering and sacrifice.

1. CHRIST’S SUFFERING AND DEATH. One passage may be cited

under this heading, namely, 1 Corinthians 1:18, which reads, “For the

preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us

which are saved it is the power of God.” Here the whole value of

Christ’s sufferings and death are in view. To the unsaved, apart from

the enlightenment of the Spirit, the message of redemption is

“foolishness.” The Apostle declares in 1 Corinthians 2:14 also, “But

the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they

are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are

spiritually discerned.” Likewise he states, “But we preach Christ

crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks

foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,

Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24).

In this revealing body of Scripture the attitude of the unsaved, here

termed foolishness, is not to be considered an intimation that they are

making light of the cross by ridicule; it is rather that the best

explanation of Christ’s death which they are able to conceive falls so

far below the truth that it proves to be foolishness, that is, it would

have been folly for Christ to die if actuated only by the objective

these unregenerate people assign to His death. The historic fact of

Christ’s death, unique event as that was (the only holy man that ever

walked on earth was forsaken of God and crucified as a malefactor),

does require an explanation on the part of every thoughtful person. To

claim, as some have done, that Christ’s death was to the end that


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divine sympathy might be shown to those who are lost fails of the

truth completely. Though He might display the sympathy of God, in

so doing there would be no relief provided for the one whom Christ

suffered either in respect to the cause of the woe or the woe itself. To

declare that Christ’s death is of value to the extent that it declares the

evil character of sin and with the intent that sinners might turn from

sin, once that is exposed, is to miss the essential truth again; for if all

people could be persuaded to abandon sinful practices and even if

they were enabled to sin no more, there would still not be one person

saved by such an achievement. Efforts to reform the lost apart from

regeneration – the true objective in Christ’s death – are well termed

the folly of the ages. To suppose that Christ died as a martyr, the

unwilling victim of a mob, and that to die for one’s convictions must

be glorious is likewise to be misled about the real meaning of His

death. For Christ was not an unwilling victim, for He said of Himself

that He laid down His life that He might take it up again (John 10:17).

In the second place the death of a hero, no matter how glorious,

provides no reconciliation between God and man respecting sin.

There is but one answer to the question of why Christ died. This has

been stated in the Old Testament thus, “But he was wounded for our

transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of

our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we

like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own

way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:5-6),

and in the New Testament by the words, “Behold the lamb of God,

which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). To each

individual the death of Christ should mean what it did to the great

Apostle when he said: “The Son of God, … loved me, and gave

himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

2. THE BELIEVER’S SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE. Here all thought

of making satisfaction for sin, as in the death of Christ, is excluded. It

is only as the cross of Christ represents His personal sacrifice and

suffering that it becomes, too, the symbol of the believer’s sacrifice

and suffering. The denial of self that the life may be lived for God is

in view. Christ said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny

himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt 6:24). A true

definition of the believer’s cross-bearing has been given in 2

Corinthians 4:10-11, where it is said: “Always bearing about in the

body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be

made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered

unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made

manifest in our mortal flesh.” By self-adjustment to the will of God,

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being ready even for a martyr’s death, the attitude of Christ Himself

was reproduced in the Apostle who was ministering to the Corinthian

believers (cf. Rom 9:1-3; 12:1-2; Phil 2:5-8; 3:7-9; Heb 10:4-7).


This writer: Argument

The penalty for sin is divinely quantified in the objective death of

Christ. Only God could pay the price of sin. The death of Christ becomes

qualitative, based on the character of Christ as the Righteousness of God,

only in the subjective determination that His death was truly

substitutional. In other words, when individual saving faith is given

divine permission to “appropriate” the value of His death in the

cancellation of penalty and the impartation of His Righteousness through

the gift of eternal life. The AMP Bible translation of 2 Corinthians 5:19-

21 reads: “It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and

restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding

against [men] their trespasses [but canceling them], and committing to us

the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor). So we are

Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We

[as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of

the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God. For our

sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and

through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and

examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved

and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].”

The life of Christ revealed the “eternal life” in Him that came from

the Father. The ransom for sin is not in Christ as an example or a lord,

but rather in the “death of Christ,” in the flesh that proves those who “do

not confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh” to be false teachers foretold

by Peter, “But false prophets arose among the [OT Jews before the

Captivities] people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These

false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to

the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will

bring swift destruction on themselves” (2 Pet 2:1 brackets mine).

Apostasy is predicted and the believer’s resource in understanding the

seriousness of a false gospel is given in God’s Word for the instruction of

His children. The Apostle Paul revealed in His last letter to his young co-

worker in Christ, Timothy, “This know also, that in the last days perilous

times shall come … Having a form of godliness, but denying the power

thereof: from such turn away ” (2 Tim 3:1, 5). Regarding 2 Timothy 3:1,

Dr. C. I. Scofield writes:


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(3:1) Apostasy, Summary: Apostasy, “falling away,” is the act of

professed Christians who deliberately reject revealed truth (1) as to

the deity of Jesus Christ, and (2) redemption through His atoning and

redeeming sacrifice (1 John 4:1-3; Phil 3:18; 2 Pet 2:1). Apostasy

differs therefore from error concerning truth, which may be the result

of ignorance (Acts 19:1-6), or heresy, which may be due to the snare

of Satan (2 Tim 2:25, 26), both of which may consist with true faith.

The apostate is perfectly described in 2 Tim 4:3, 4. Apostates depart

from the faith but not from the outward profession of Christianity

(3:5). Apostate teachers are described in 2 Tim 4:3; 2 Pet 2:1-19; Jude

4, 8, 11-13, 16. Apostasy in the church, as in Israel (Isa 1:5, 6, 5:5-7),

is irremediable, and awaits judgment (2 Thes 2:10-12; 2 Pet 2:17, 21;

Jude 11-15; Rev 3:14-16). (The Old Scofield Study System, pp 1280-

81)

Any gospel that does not present the correct God-man Jesus Christ

united to His Father and the Holy Spirit of God as the preexistent “only

begotten” and “first begotten” of many “regenerated” sons and daughters

is a psuedogospel. In this name “Jesus” is the original unique, one-of-a-

kind, heavenly man-Jesus and, first of many made into His image.

Herein, is the power and wisdom of God. The man-Jesus was resurrected

by the power of God and glorified. Only in that the man-Jesus was God,

the Word become flesh, may man be ransomed from the power of sin and

perfected into “His image.” Salvation at the moment of saving faith in

Jesus as Savior destroys the works of Satan against men, which is the

power of sin to condemn forever. “There is therefore now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). This is a

literal completed tense declaration. The immediately preceding passage,

gives full recognition to a sinning believer who still must struggle with a

sinful bend in their human nature: “Wretched man that I am! Who will

rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus

Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind,

but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Rom 7:24-25). Can a man

chosen by God as was Paul, admit his sinning flesh and, then, in his next

breath declare the security of his salvation - be a liar? The longer KJV

version of Romans 8:1, that suggests the self-maintenance of a

probationary salvation is a universally recognized scribal addition in the

textus receptus; the underlying Greek manuscript used in the KJV.

Rom 4:7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and

whose sins are covered;

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4:8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count10

sin.” NET

10tn The verb translated “count” here is logivzomai (logizomai). It

occurs eight times in Rom 4:1-12, including here, each time with the

sense of “place on someone’s account.” By itself the word is neutral, but

in particular contexts it can take on a positive or negative connotation.

The other occurrences of the verb have been translated using a form of

the English verb “credit” because they refer to a positive event: the

application of righteousness to the individual believer. The use here in v.

8 is negative: the application of sin. A form of the verb “credit” was not

used here because of the positive connotations associated with that

English word, but it is important to recognize that the same concept is

used here as in the other occurrences.

Christianity, grace, and the Positive gospel are grounded upon the

principles of “imputation” (logizomai – Strong’s Concordance #3049).

The remedy for personal sin is the imputation of the righteousness of

Christ gained through imputed sin that has been judged and redeemed in

His substitutionary death. Stated very simply, a believer cannot go to

perdition as Christ has been there for all who believe. He has redeemed

all demerit for each and every child begotten by God. Christ also judged

the imputed sin of Adam in His death. The sinful bend in human nature is

real. The gospel reveals a twofold remedy for the inherited sin nature; the

cocrucifixion with Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christ was

revealed to “destroy the works of the devil.” Dr. Lewis Chafer writes,

“Infinite favor is extended to those who come under the righteous

provisions for salvation made possible through Christ’s sacrifice for sin.

On this it may be remarked, that at no point is divine justice more

observable than in the plan of redemption. What is done on the divine

side for lost men through Christ’s sacrifice, is wrought in perfect justice

– such justice, indeed, as is consonant with infinite holiness. Justice

demands that the penalty, having fallen on Another and that benefit

having been embraced as the ground of hope by the offender, shall not

fall again upon the offender. Holiness dictates that there shall be no

leniency toward evil on the part of God. It is true that He considers our

frame and remembers that we are dust; but God never condones sin. God

is not said to be merciful or kind when He justifies the one who believes

on Christ; He is said to be just (Rom 3:26). To the same end, when

forgiving and cleansing the Christian who confesses his sin, God is said

to be faithful and just (1 John 1:9; cf. 1 Cor 11:31, 32).” 249

To simply boldly deny imputation is to leave no real necessity for the

death of Christ. To invent a probationary forgiveness, as in the


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Governmental theory - to censor the impartation of eternal life, the true

value of the finished work of the cross for complete forgiveness, and the

gift of the righteousness of Christ which is the ground of justification

(Rom 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4) - is apostate teaching grounded in a expurgated

NT that falls far short of half-truth. Additionally, to censor and obliterate

the glorified God-man Jesus Christ in His current session in heaven as

Advocate and Intercessor who secures the gift of eternal life against the

power of sin for each believer, is to deny, and not confess, that “Jesus is

the Christ” of Scriptural revelation. The Governmental theory depicts a

characterization of the redeeming value in the death of the God-man

Jesus and compounds this error with a prejudiced, biased, bigoted, and

intolerant assessment of the worthiness of the risen and glorified Christ.

This is the spirit of the antichrist: “every spirit that does not confess Jesus

as the Christ who has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:3).

The key thought is “my flesh,” as in “a body thou hast prepared for

me,” and typified in Abraham and Isaac, the son of Promise, on Mt.

Moriah, where the “ram caught in the thicket” was the substitute for the

life of Isaac. The scapegoat who took away sin. And sin is surely the

power of death that was given to Satan as a consequence of the one act of

Adam. Jesus was the substitute that takes away sin, “For my flesh is true

food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks

my blood resides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me,

and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live

because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not

like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats

this bread will live forever.”” (John 6:55-58 NET). God the Father is the

source of eternal life.

James 1:16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. 1:17

All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming

down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the

slightest hint of change. 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth

through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of

all he created. NET

The following, though extended, is vital testimony to the veracity of

the gift of eternal life, of which God the Father is the source. Eternal life,

received by each believer, argues conclusively against the false negative

gospel that is devolved from the Governmental theory which denies the

gift of eternal life. This theory is well likened to a degeneration of the

gospel of the grace of God. On the doctrine of regeneration Dr. John

Walvoord gives witness.

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Dr. John F. Walvoord: Eternal Life

Few doctrines are more fundamental to effective preaching than

the doctrine of regeneration. Failure to comprehend its nature and to

understand clearly its necessity will cripple the efficacy of Gospel

preaching. Both for the Bible teacher and the evangelist an accurate

knowledge of the doctrine of regeneration is indispensable. The

Biblical concept of regeneration is comparatively simple, and a study

of its theological history is not entirely necessary to accurate

preaching. The history of the doctrine, however, reveals its pitfalls

and may warn the unwary of the dangers of a shallow understanding

of regeneration. The doctrine of regeneration offers a rich reward to

those who contemplate its treasures and live in the light of its reality.

… The word regeneration is found only twice in the New Testament

(Mt 19:28; Titus 3:5), but it has been appropriated as the general term

designating the impartation of eternal life. Only one of the two

instances in the New Testament is used in this sense (Titus 3:5),

where reference is made to “the washing of regeneration, and

renewing of the Holy Ghost.” The Greek word παλιενεσία is properly

translated “new birth, reproduction, renewal, re-creation” (Thayer).

It is applied not only to human beings but also to the renewed heaven

and earth of the millennium (Mt 19:28). In relation to the nature of

man, it includes the various expressions used fro eternal life such as

new life, new birth, spiritual resurrection, new creation, new mind,

“made alive,” sons of God, and translation into the kingdom. In

simple language, regeneration consists of all that is represented by

eternal life in a human being. Theological usage of the word

regeneration has tended to confuse rather than enrich the word.

Other words such as conversion, sanctification, and justification have

been either identified or included in the concept of regeneration.

Roman Catholic theologians have regarded regeneration as including

all that is embraced in salvation, not only justification and

sanctification, but even glorification. Regeneration is taken to include

the means, the act, the process, and the ultimate conclusion of

salvation. Protestant theologians have been more cautious in

extending the meaning of regeneration. The early Lutheran theo-

logians used regeneration to include the whole process by which a

sinner passed from his lost estate into salvation, including

justification. Later Lutherans attempted a clarification of the doctrine

by holding that justification did not include a transformation of life,

thereby excluding sanctification from the doctrine of regeneration.


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The Lutheran Church continues to hold that infants are regenerated at

the moment of water baptism, however, at the same time affirming

that this regeneration signifies only their entrance into the visible

church, not their certain salvation. Regeneration becomes then merely

a preparatory work of salvation. On the subject of infant regeneration,

the Lutheran theologian Valentine writes: “May the child be said to

be regenerated by the act of Baptism? We may properly answer,

Yes; but only in the sense that the established vital and grace-

conveying relation, under imputed righteousness and the Holy Spirit,

may be said to hold, in its provisions and forces, the final covenanted

development” (Christian Theology, Vol II, pp 329-30). Valentine

objects, however, to the statement that baptism regenerates children.

Elsewhere, Valentine writes, “Justification precedes regeneration and

sanctification” (Ibid, p 237). It is clear that Lutheran theology does

not use the term in the Biblical sense of impartation of eternal life.

The Lutheran theology does, however, exclude sanctification from the

doctrine of regeneration. Reformed theologians have failed to be

consistent in usage also, and have shared to some extent the errors

embraced by others. During the seventeenth century, conversion was

used commonly as a synonym for regeneration. This usage ignored a

most important fact, however – that conversion is the human act and

regeneration is an act of God. Further, conversion, while usually

related to regeneration, is not always so, as demonstrated by its use in

connection with Peter’s repentance and restoration (Lk 22:32), as

prophesied by Christ. Even Calvin failed to make a proper distinction

between regeneration and conversion. Charles Hodge, however,

argues effectively fro the necessary distinction in the meaning of the

terms (Systematic Theology, Vol III, pp 3-5). Shedd agrees with

Hodge and cites the following contrasts: “Regeneration, accordingly,

is an act; conversion is an activity, or a process. Regeneration is the

origination of life; conversion is the evolution and manifestation of

life. Regeneration is wholly an act of God, conversion is wholly an

activity of man. Regeneration is a cause; conversion is an effect.

Regeneration is instantaneous; conversion is continuous” (Dogmatic

Theology, Vol II, p 494). For the last century, Reformed theologians

have agreed that regeneration properly designates the act of

impartation of eternal life. As Charles Hodge states it: “By a consent

almost universal the word regeneration is now used to designate, not

the whole work of sanctification, nor the first states of that work

comprehended in conversion, much less justification or any mere

external change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual

death to spiritual life” (Op. cit., Vol III, p. 5). In a study of the

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doctrine of regeneration, then, the inquirer is concerned only with the

aspect of salvation related to the impartation of eternal life. Other

important works which may attend it, be antecedent to it, or

immediately follow it, must be considered as distinct acts of God.

Regeneration by its very nature is solely a work of God. While

sometimes considered as a result, every instance presumes or states

that the act of regeneration was an act of God. A number of important

Scriptures bear on the subject of regeneration (John 1:13; 3:3-7; 5:21;

Rom 6:13; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:5, 10; 4:24; Titus 3:5; Jas 1:18; 1 Pet

2:9).It is explicitly stated that the one regenerated is “born, not of

blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”

(John 1:13). Regeneration is likened unto resurrection, which by its

nature is wholly of God (John 5:21; Rom 6:13; Eph 2:5). In other

instances regeneration is declared to be a creative act, the nature of

which assumes it to be the act of God (Eph 2:10; 4:24; 2 Cor 5:17). It

may be seen clearly, then, that regeneration is always revealed as an

act of God accomplished by His own supernatural power apart from

all other agencies. The work of regeneration is properly ascribed to

the Holy Spirit. Like the work of efficacious grace, regeneration is

often ascribed to God without distinctions as to Persons, and in

several instances is ascribed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy

Spirit severally. The First Person is declared to be the source of

regeneration in at least one instance (Jas 1:17, 18). Christ Himself is

linked with regeneration several times in Scripture (John 5:21; 2 Cor

5:17; 1 John 5:12). Again, the Holy Spirit is declared the agent of

regeneration (John 3:3-7; Titus 3:5). As in other great undertakings of

the Godhead, each Person has an important part, in keeping with

Their essence. As in the birth of Christ, where all the Persons of the

Godhead were related to the conception of Christ, so in the new birth

of the Christian the First Person becomes the Father of the believer,

the Second person imparts His own eternal life (1 John 5:12), and the

Holy Spirit, the Third Person, as the efficient agent of regeneration.

The work of regeneration can be assigned to the Holy Spirit as

definitely as the work of salvation can be assigned to Christ. …

As the word itself implies, the central thought in the doctrine of

regeneration is that eternal life is imparted. Regeneration meets the

need created by the presence of spiritual death. The method of

impartation is, of course, inscrutable. There is no visible method or

process discernable. By its nature it is supernatural and therefore its

explanation is beyond human understanding. The Scriptures in

presenting the impartation of eternal life use three figures to describe

it. Regeneration is sometimes presented in the figure of new birth. As


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Christ told Nicodemas, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). In

contrast to human birth of human parentage, one must be born “of

God” (John 1:13) in order to become a child of God. According to

James 1:18, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that

we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” The figure is

eloquent in portraying the intimate relation of the child of God to his

heavenly Father and in relating the kind of life the believer in Christ

receives to the eternal life which is in God. Frequently in Scripture,

regeneration is portrayed as spiritual resurrection. The Christian is

revealed to be “alive from the dead” (Rom 6:13), and God “even

when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ”

(Eph 2:5). Christ Himself said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The

hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the

Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25). The fact of our

resurrection is made the basis for frequent exhortation to live as those

raised from the dead (Rom 6:13; Eph 2:5, 6; Col 2:12; 3:1, 2).

Regeneration is also presented in the figure of creation or re-creation.

We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph 2:10), and

exhorted to “put on the new man, which after God is created in

righteousness and true holiness” (Eph 4:24). The revelation of 2

Corinthians 5:17 is explicit, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is

a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are

become new.” The figure of creation indicates that regeneration is

creative in its nature and results in a fundamental change in the

individual, a new nature being added with its new capacities. The

individual becomes part of the New Creation which includes all the

regenerated ones of this dispensation and Christ its Head. The new

life given to the Christian is manifested in the new capacities and

activities found only in those regenerated, forming the source and

foundation of all other divine ministry to the saved. The important

fact, never to be forgotten in the doctrine of regeneration, is that the

believer in Christ has received eternal life. This fact must be kept free

from all confusion of thought arising from the concept of regeneration

which makes it merely an antecedent of salvation, or a preliminary

quickening to enable the soul to believe. It is rather the very heart of

salvation. It reaches the essential problem of absence of eternal life

without which no soul can spend eternity in the presence of God.

Regeneration supplies this lack of eternal life as justification and

sanctification deal with the problem of sin specifically. It is a

smashing blow to all philosophies which hold that man has inherent

capacities of saving himself. Regeneration is wholly of God. No

possible human effort however noble can supply eternal life. The

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proper doctrine of regeneration gives to God all glory and power due

His name, and at the same time it displays His abundant provision for

a race dead in sin. …

Until the matter has been considered carefully, it is a striking

thought regeneration is not experimental. In Christian testimony,

much has been said of the experience of regeneration. If regeneration

is instantaneous and an act of divine will, it follows that regeneration

in itself is not experimental. It may be conceded freely that abundant

experimental phenomena follow the act of new birth. The experiences

of a normal Spirit-filled Christian may immediately ensue upon new

birth. This fact does not alter the non-experimental character of

regeneration. If it be admitted that regeneration is an instantaneous

act of God, it is logically impossible for it to be experimental, in that

experience involves time and sequence of experience. It may be

concluded, therefore, that no sensation attends the act of new birth, all

experience proceeding rather from the accomplished regeneration and

springing from the new life as its source. In the nature of the case, we

cannot experience what is not true, and regeneration must be entirely

wrought before experience can be found. While the regenerated soul

may become immediately conscious of new life, the act of

regeneration itself is not subject to experience or analysis, being the

supernatural instantaneous act of God. The non-experimental nature

of regeneration if comprehended would do much to deliver the

unsaved from the notion that an experience of some sort is antecedent

to salvation, and in turn, it would prevent those seeking to win souls

of expecting in partial form the fruits of salvation before regeneration

takes place. The popular notion that one must feel different before

being saved has prevented many from the simplicity of faith in Christ

and the genuine regeneration that God alone can effect. The non-

experimental nature of regeneration has also, unfortunately, has

opened the door for infant regeneration as held by the Lutheran

Church. It is argued that if regeneration is not experimental, there is

no valid reason why infants cannot be regenerated. Even Shedd

approves the idea infant regeneration on the ground that regeneration

is not experimental in the following statement: “Regeneration is a

work of God in the human soul that is below consciousness. There is

no internal sensation caused by it. No man was ever conscious of that

instantaneous act of the Holy Spirit by which he was made a new

creature in Christ Jesus. And since the work is that of God alone,

there is no necessity that man should be conscious of it. …” (Op. cit.,

Vol II, pp 505-6). It is doubtful if any of the proof texts offered by

Shedd really prove infant regeneration. While it is true that many


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Christians never know a crisis-experience to which the act of new

birth may be traced, there is no certain Scripture warrant for affirming

infant regeneration, at least in the present age. The normal pattern for

regeneration is that it occurs at the moment of saving faith. No appeal

is ever addressed to men that they should believe because they are

already regenerated. It is rather that they should believe and receive

eternal life. Christians are definitely told that before they accepted

Christ they were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). The case of

those who die before they reach the age of responsibility is a different

problem. The proper position seems to be that infants are regenerated

at the moment of their death, not before, and if they live to maturity,

they are regenerated at the moment they accept Christ. Infant baptism,

certainly, is not efficacious in effecting regeneration, and the

Reformed position is in contrast to the Lutheran on this point. The

doctrine of infant regeneration, if believed, so confuses the doctrine

as to rob it of all its decisive character. No one should be declared

regenerated who cannot be declared saved for all eternity. …

The work of regeneration is tremendous in its implications. A soul

with once dead spirit has received the eternal life that characterizes

the very life of God. The effect of regeneration is summed up in the

fact of possession of eternal life. All other results of regeneration are

actually an enlargement of the fact of eternal life. While life itself is

difficult to define, and eternal life is immaterial, certain qualities

belong to anyone who is regenerated in virtue of the fact that eternal

life abides in him.

In the nature of eternal life, it involves first of all the creation of a

divine nature in the regenerated person. Without eradicating the old

nature with its capacity and will for sin, the new nature has in it the

longing for God and His will that we could expect would ensue from

eternal life. The presence of the new nature constitutes a fundamental

change in the person which is denominated “creation” (2 Cor 5:17;

Gal 6:15) and “new man” (Eph 4:24). A drastic change in manner of

life, attitude toward God and to the things of God, and in the desires

of the human heart may be expected in one receiving the new nature.

The new nature which is a part of regeneration should not be

confused with the sinless nature of Adam before the fall. Adam’s

nature was a human nature untried and innocent of sin. It did not have

as its source and determining its nature the eternal life which is

bestowed on a regenerated person. The human nature of Adam was

open to sin and temptation and was peccable. It is doubtful whether

the divine nature bestowed in connection with regeneration is ever

involved directly in sin. While the Scriptures are clear that a

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regenerated person can sin, and does sin, the lapse is traced to the sin

nature, even though the act is that of the whole person. This must not

be confused with various statements to the effect that a Christian can

be sinless or unable to sin. The state of sinless perfection can never be

reached until the sin nature is cast out, and this is accomplished only

through the death of the physical body or the transformation of the

body without death at the rapture. Even the new nature, though never

the origin of sin, does not have the ability sufficient to conquer the

old nature. The power for victory lies in the indwelling presence of

God. The new nature provides a will to do the will of God, and the

power of God provides the enablement to accomplish this end in spite

of the innate sinfulness of the sin nature. The state of being in the will

of God is reached when the will of the new nature is fully realized.

Eternal life and the new nature are inseparably united, the nature

corresponding to the life which brings it into being.

While regeneration in itself is not experimental, it is the fountain

of experience. The act of impartation of eternal life being

instantaneous cannot be experienced, but the presence of eternal life

after regeneration is the source of the new spiritual experience which

might be expected. New life brings with it new capacity. The person

who before regeneration was dead spiritually and blind to spiritual

truth now becomes alive to a new world of reality. As a blind man for

the first time contemplates the beauty of color and perspective when

sight is restored, so the new-born soul contemplates new revelation of

spiritual truth. For the first time he is able he is able to understand the

teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is able now to enjoy the

intimacies of fellowship with God and freedom in prayer. As his life

is under the control of the Holy Spirit, he is able to manifest the fruit

of the Spirit, utterly foreign to the natural man. His whole being has

new capacities for joy and sorrow, love, peace, guidance, and all the

host of realities in the spiritual world. While regeneration is not an

experience, it is the foundation for all Christian experience. This at

once demands that regeneration be inseparable from salvation, and

that regeneration manifest itself in the normal experiences of a

yielded Christian life. Regeneration that does not issue into Christian

experience may be questioned.

One of the many reasons for confusion in the doctrine of regen-

eration is the attempt to avoid the inevitable conclusion that a soul

once genuinely regenerated is saved forever. The bestowal of eternal

life cannot be revoked. It declares the unchangeable purpose of God

to bring the regenerated person to glory. Never in the Scriptures do

we find anyone regenerated a second time. While Christians may lose


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much of a normal Christian experience through sin, and desperately

need confession and restoration, the fact of regeneration does not

change. In the last analysis, the experiences of this life are only

antecedent to the larger experiences the regenerated person will have

after deliverance from the presence and temptation of sin.

Regeneration will have its ultimate display when the person

regenerated is completely sanctified and glorified. Our present

experiences, limited as they are by the presence of a sinful nature and

sinful body, are only a partial portrayal of the glories of eternal life.

Through the experiences of life, however, the fact of regeneration

should be a source of constant hope and abiding confidence “that he

which hath begun a good work … will perform it until the day of

Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:16). – The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Dr. John

F. Walvoord, pp 140-151 (cited in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis

Chafer, Vol 6, pp 114-21)


The Rectoral or Governmental theory for the necessity of the

atonement claims as “the gospel” - that the “flesh” and “blood” of Christ

did not, and could not redeem or ransom, nor pay the price in full for all

sin – once and for all the world - but that sin may be forgiven (passed

over) because He freed the Father’s salutary rights as the benevolent

Ruler over His properly penitent subjects. Christ Himself would declare

the gift of eternal life and respond to that claim by saying, ““The Spirit is

the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have

spoken to you are spirit and are life”” (John 6:63 NET). Dr. John

MacArthur writes: “There is obviously such a thing as relative human

goodness. Many unbelievers live on a high moral plane compared to

most people. But that is not the kind of goodness that satisfies God,

because nothing is truly good that is done for any motive other than His

glory and done in any power but His own. Everything that is done in the

flesh can only serve the flesh and is by nature tainted with imperfection

and self-interest. It cannot be done out of the only right motive, that of

pleasing and glorifying God. Whether done to impress others with one’s

goodness, to react to peer pressure, to alleviate guilt feelings, or simply

to feel better about oneself, anything that is not done for God and

through His power is basically sinful and unacceptable to Him – no

matter how outwardly good and self-sacrificial it may appear to be.”250

If you will, think back and hold the thought of “Rulership” and

salutary rights alleged to God in the words of Dr. John Miley, and then

turn them in your mind. How might they weigh against the forty effects

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of grace declared by God? How do the two differing external, revealed

natures of God compare - the one to the other? “I tell you the solemn

truth, the one who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47 NET).

To obey the Negative gospel for the forgiveness of personal sins is to

enter into idolatry. The idolatry of excessive admiration of one’s own

“nature” to replace the “flesh of Christ” in an effort to secure salvation.

In Arminian theology, the only distinction drawn between the saved and

the unsaved is willpower. This is a Christianity that is made to be a

“your” and “my” Christianity, in contradiction to the unity of eternal life

in one faith, one baptism, one mystical Body of Christ, one Spirit that

indwells and seals all Christians “until the day of redemption,” and the

one Father of all who are in Christ.

1 John 5:18 We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin,

but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot

touch him. 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world

lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God

has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we

are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true

God and eternal life. 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from

idols.53 NET

sn The modern reader may wonder what all this has to do with idolatry.

In the author’s mind, to follow the secessionist opponents with their false

Christology would amount to idolatry, since it would involve worshiping

a false god instead of the true God, Jesus Christ. Thus guard yourselves

from idols means for the readers to guard themselves against the opponents and their teaching.

R. E. Brown – These last words of I John present us with a final

obscurity. The definite article implies that the writer was quite clear

about which idols he meant, but interpreters are in complete disarray

in reading his mind. … (10) Under idolatry there may be a reference

to the secession from the Community, which has led former brothers

to a different understanding of God reflected in Christ (Balz,

Houlden, Ska, B. Weiss) and to underplaying the importance of moral

behavior in their own lives – a secession that makes them children of

the devil. … (Indeed, as a deduction from such expressions D. N.

Freedman suggests that “idols” came to designate the people who

pursued such idolatry [Jer 2:5], i.e., the secessionist themselves.)

Some scholars who hold (8) above cite these texts as showing that

idols are the equivalent of sins, but the sins are idolatrous precisely


1206

because they lead the person out of the Community. The several

references to a “stumbling block” alongside “idols” are interesting in

light of the use of the same term in I John 2:10 in the dualism

between the Community and the secessionist, between those who love

their brothers and those who do not. Elsewhere, a NT passage (II Cor

6:14-7:1), which has been regarded as a quotation from a (lost)

Qumran writing, lines up on one side righteousness, light, Christ, and

God; and on the other side iniquity, darkness, Belair, and idols. The

terms “iniquity,” “darkness,” and “Evil One [= Belair]” are associated

with the secessionist in I John, and so it is logical that the “idols” of

5:21 share this association. … In my judgment interpretation (10)

makes perfect sense … it connects 5:21 tightly to the mention of sin,

the Evil One and the world in 5:18-19. rather than demanding any

extraneous guesses about the identity of the audience or the

adversaries, this interpretation relies on information supplied by I

John itself, namely, that there are false prophets and liars who have

left the Community because they have a false notion of Jesus Christ,

and who, because they do not possess Jesus Christ, do not know or

possess God. They belong to the world and seek by their teaching to

seduce the author’s adherents. The warning “Guard your selves

against idols” resembles other I John warnings: “Have no love for the

world” (2:15); “You have no need for anyone to teach you” (2:27);

“Do not believe every Spirit; rather put these Spirits to a test to see

which one belongs to God” (4:1). The examples cited under (10)

make it clear that, in speaking of joining the secession and accepting

its theology as “going after idols,” the author would have been

intelligible to a Christian Community whose language and thought

had Jewish parallels – a background we have found in both GJohn

and I John.251

John 1:4 In him was life,8 and the life was the light of mankind. NET






To believe in Christ for a salvation from the ruined estate and destiny

of all mankind, a salvation man could never earn in any given number of

lifetimes, is to understand and obey the gospel of the grace of God that

rests upon the “Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world.” The Lamb

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who died to redeem all sin and gives the “free gift” of the righteousness

of God and eternal life that is “life more abundantly” is not the same

Lamb who died to release His Father that men may be forgiven of past

personal sin for a future chance try at salvation. Additionally, the thirty-

three immediate and seven future divine transformations wrought upon

the individual, combined with the present and ongoing ministries of

Christ and the Spirit of God, forever sustain and change that individual.

“For this is the will of my Father—for everyone who looks on the Son

and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last

day” (John 6:40 NET). Eternal life that is given to each believer has its

origin in eternity and its primary importance cannot be overemphasized,

nor overstated. It is a gift of divine grace received through trust in God,

the eternally begotten Son, from the eternally existing God the Father

who is the revealed source of eternal life in the Godhead. Concerning

the gift of eternal life, Dr. Lewis Chafer testifies.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: eternal life

Life represents something mysterious and undefined, but more

especially that which is conscious, energy, and existence. … Life is

that which gives sensation to the whole body whereby all functions of

the body continue in their orchestration. With the passing of life,

however, every function of the natural body ceases.

From a Biblical viewpoint, life may signify: (1) that which is

natural and animal or (2) what is divine and eternal.

1. NATURAL. This form of life is subject to death and is derived by

human generation. It is nevertheless endless in every human being,

that is to say, a continuing on forever in the future of everyone born

into this world. Natural life has a beginning, but no end.

2. ETERNAL. This priceless treasure, which is the gift of God,

should not be confused with the mere endless existence which all

possess. It is a life added to that which has been experienced before

by itself. Christ said: “I am come that they might have life, and that

they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). This life is no less

than “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). It comes free

because a gift of His love. It at once relates the one who has received

it to God and to things eternal. Christ likened it to a birth from above

(John 3:3, R.V. margin) “for those which were born … of God” (John

1:13).

Thus, all depends upon receiving Christ and being saved through

Him. John has said so again: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he


1208

that hath not the Son hath not life” (1 John 5:12). (Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 226-27.)

Under this general theme consideration is properly given to

eternity itself, eternity in relation to God, to time, and to “the gift of

God [which] is eternal life.”

1. DEFINITION. No thought ever confronts the finite mind which is

less intelligible than that of eternity, and it is probable the idea that

eternity will never end is more comprehensible than that it never had

a beginning. In fact, the human mind cannot grasp the extent of that

which is eternal. Philosophers and theologians alike have met with

defeat when attempting to portray eternity. A slight increase of

apprehension may be secured when it is contemplated in its relation

to the eternal God.

2. IN RELATION TO GOD. Little will be gained in attempting to

contemplate eternity as a mere negative idea, the absence of time. It is

best considered as the mode of existence of the eternal God.

Abundant testimony has been given in the Scriptures respecting the

eternal character of God. He is never presented in the Bible as

circumscribed by time. He may conform to time with its character of

successions, but His own mode of existence is from everlasting to

everlasting. He is Sovereign Designer and Ruler over all ages of

time. Referring to Christ as very God and Creator of all things,

Hebrews 1:2 declares that He programmed the ages. There is no

reference here to Christ as Creator of material things, as later in verse

10, but rather to the fact He originated and ordered the progression of

all time periods. The mode of existence which belongs to God is

fundamental and basal, compared to which any other manner of

existence such as that related to time may be considered something

unusual or exceptional. To the finite creature, however, who is homed

in time there is no other fashion of life than his own which is

comprehensible to him. Such natural limitations should not blind the

mind to divine revelation or to those conclusions which may be

reached at least by the help of reason. It should be recognized that

there are other modes of existence than that which is related to time,

even those these cannot be comprehended in their essential features.

An eternal existence belongs to the Creator; hence to that mode of life

alone belongs ascendancy and supremacy. Thus the occurrence of a

period of time with its finite creatures and its successions is properly

to be rated as exceptional or inferior.

3. IN RELATION TO TIME. The prevalent notion that time

represents an intercalation which has interrupted the flow of eternity,

that it is “a narrow neck of land between two shoreless seas of

1209

eternity,” seems much at fault. Such a conception involves the

absurdity that eternity too may have a beginning and an ending.

Whatever time may be and whatever its relation to eternity, it must be

maintained that no cessation of eternity has occurred or will. God’s

mode of existence remains unchanged. Time might be thought of as

something superimposed upon eternity were it not that there is ground

for question whether eternity consists of a succession of events, as is

true of time. The consciousness of God is best conceived as being an

all-inclusive comprehension at once, covering all that has been or will

be. The attempt to bring time with its successions into a parallel with

eternity or to give time the character of a segment in the course of

eternity is to misconceive the most essential characteristic of eternal

things.

4. ETERNAL LIFE. A sharp distinction must be made between

human existence which by its nature continues forever and the gift of

God which is eternal life. In the last analysis, humanity is not wholly

conformed to time. Every human being will be living on forever, even

after it has been decreed that time shall be no more. Thus humanity

intrudes into eternity and must, in the end, conform to the eternal

mode of existence. Each human being has a beginning. Each human

being, however, has no end of his existence. In this respect he is to

some extent like God. That human beings have no end is a solemn

thought; but on those who receive God’s gift of eternal life the very

life of God is bestowed. That life is partaking of the divine nature. It

is no less than “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Thus by

regeneration all who believe become possessors of that which in God

is itself eternal. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 it is declared, accordingly, that

the believer will one day know even as he has been known of God,

that is, the finite mind will be superceded by the mind of God. Even

now it is said that he has the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). Little,

indeed, may be anticipated respecting the coming transcendent

experience of those who now possess eternal life when they shall

enter into the experience of eternal life in full. (Systematic Theology,

Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 140-142)


The Governmental theory may only offer a limited and probationary

salvation based on the merits of future behavior after saving faith. For

this reason,252

Arminianism denies the impartation of eternal life and, the

subsequent transformations, to create a false theory of atonement that

fulfills all the limited requirements that religious humanism would


1210

demand. Is-ra-el means “a child of God” born into the relationship of the

old covenant of Mosaic Law that was fulfilled and completed on the

cross. Under the new covenant “made in the blood of Christ,” unless one

is irreversibly begotten by God - born from above with the seed of God

abiding - one is not a Christian and remains condemned to the everlasting

destruction of the Sons of Disobedience.

Why is the Governmental theory so dangerous? Because it is more

deadly than any living threat. It is deadly as nothing else can be, to those

who are the closest, but as far away as any non-believer, to true

Christianity. This theory denies that all souls who believe the Truth

become eternally joined to the Truth. This theory denies that Love has

manifested this Truth, by an act of divine Justice. The Negative gospel

will blind the religious unsaved from the truth of a Christian birthright.

The Arminian doctrine contained in the Governmental theory is not an

interpretation of phenomena in the NT. There are no intrinsic rules to say

that fiction cannot be logical, nor rational. Jesus declared this to be true

when He said to His disciples, “Then the disciples came to him and said,

“Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were

offended?” And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not

plant will be uprooted. Leave them! They are blind guides. If someone

who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Mtw

15:12-14). The “phenomenon” in this passage from the NT can be

“observed,” time and again, in the OT warnings that foretold the future

destruction of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel. These

warnings were given by the prophets of God before the Jewish

Captivities actually occurred. These prophets were the foreshadowing of

the great Prophet – Jesus Christ. The false prophets in the Northern and

Southern kingdoms invariably opposed “the message” and incited with

“peeps and murmurs” the persecution of God’s anointed prophets who

“foamed at the mouth” when caught up in the power of the Spirit

declaring, “Thus saith the Lord.”

The gospel of the grace of God, when evaluated in its proper place, is

the most worthy birthright on earth. There is no larger inheritance, no

family more esteemed, and no greater good than the “eternal life” that is

the very nature of God. Raymond Brown writes: “In many ways, then,

high christology was an identity factor in the Johannine Community over

against Jews and various Christian groups. Theologically, it was the

cornerstone of Johannine soteriology: If Jesus had not come forth from

God, he could not have brought eternal life, which was God’s own life,

and Christians would not be God’s children (3:13,16; 6:57; 1:12-13).” 253

How then may one believe in Jesus for this birthright if the wrong

message concerning Jesus is preached?: “And how are they to preach

1211

unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely is the arrival of those

who proclaim the good news.” But not all have obeyed the good news,

for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report [message]?”

Consequently faith comes from what is heard, …” (Rom 10:15-17ff,

brackets mine). The message of Isaiah 53:1 is here taken to be prophetic

of “obey the gospel;” the one command of God incumbent upon the

unsaved.i The last words in verse 17 contain an anomaly. True saving

faith may only come from the “spoken words of Christ.” The NET

translation notes read: “20tn … (rJhma), which often (but not

exclusively) focuses on the spoken word. 21tn … Internal evidence is

also on its side, for the expression rJh'ma Cristou' (rJhma

Cristou) occurs nowhere else in the NT; thus scribes would be prone to

change it to a known expression.” The last words in the NET translation

are: “and what is heard comes through the preached word20 of

Christ.21.” The AMP Bible reads: “and what is heard comes by the

preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah

Himself)” (10:17ff). The KJV simply reads: “and hearing by the word of

God.” The NASB reads: “and hearing by the word of Christ.” It is

commonly conceived that this verse means simply anything in the “word

of God.” My proposal is the verse is far from nonspecific. If a gospel

message cannot be reconciled with and is not faithful to the words of

Jesus in the Gospel of John, specifically written to prove “Jesus is the

Christ” so “… that through believing and cleaving to and trusting and

relying upon Him you may have life through (in) His name [through

Who He is]” (AMP 20:31ff) - that gospel message is unfaithfully

misleading to the point of being ineffective for salvation. In 1 John the

author is warning those who remain faithful to the “commandment they

had heard from the beginning” not to pray for the group that had “went

out from among them,” those who “did not love their [Christian]

brother.” He writes: “There is a sin resulting in death. I do not say that he

should ask [pray] about that” (5:16). Raymond Brown writes in his

commentary on 1 John:

Among the parallels between 1 Peter and this unit of 1 John (p.

422), we find in 1 Peter 2:9 that Christians have been “called out of

darkness into God’s marvelous light.” Since “world,” “death,”

“darkness,” and “hatred” cover virtually the same realm, it was

probably part of the common Christian baptismal teaching that

i covered extensively in Book One – Glorious Grace (see Appendix – Obey the

Gospel Verses).


1212

Christians had passed into a realm of life, light, and love in Christ.i

The fulfillment of the basic commandment or wordii to love was an

excellent criterion of whether one had truly made such a passage,

because that commandment was so stressed at one’s entrance from

the world into the New Covenant. Notice the contrast in Jesus’ prayer

to His Father in John 14:14: “I have given to them your word, and the

world has hated them because they do not belong to the world” (also

15:18-19). In the epistolary author’s mind may be Jesus’ saying

(5:24), “The man who hears my word and has faith in Him who sent

me … has passed from death to life”; for in 1 John 3:23 the author

will interpret the commandment (or word) as both faith and love.

But does not the charge, “The person who does not love remains

in the abode of death” (3:14c), challenge my contention that the

author is referring to the secessionist? Should he not have said that

they (the secessionist) have committed the sin that is unto death (to be

mentioned below in 5:16-17) and so have passed from life to death?

This objection overlooks two aspects of the author’s thought. First, it

is not clear that in Johannine theology one can lose eternal life (zōē), iii

for by its very nature “life” abides. This means that the sin unto

death may not be a sin which has the power to take away life, but a

sin of unbelief which reveals that one never had life. iv

Second, in the

author’s thought, the secessionist (despite appearances) never really

belonged to the Community (2:19b) and so never had received life.

They turned away from the light because their deeds were evil (John

3:20), just as Cain’s deeds were evil (1 John 3:12d); and their failure

to love, exhibited in murderous hate of their brothers, illustrates that

they do not have life abiding in them (3:15). (The Anchor Bible - The

Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 472-73)

The OT Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel” is considered to

be the central theme of the Jewish faith. There is a curious similarity to

the NT Johannine formula of faith – Jesus is the Christ. There is a

striking example of this which goes much deeper than the typical

i “While 1 John 3:14a speaks of our passing from death to life, John 13:1 speaks of

Jesus passing from this world to the Father.” ii “For the interchangeability of “word” and “commandment,” see the end of the

Note on 2:3b.” iii “The Johannine writings psychē, “soul, life,” 13 times in the context of losing or

giving up one’s life, but never zōē. Jesus says in John 11:26: “Everyone who is alive [verb related to zōē] … shall never die at all.”” iv “One is not to pray fro the one who has committed the sin unto death (5:16), and

the Johannine Jesus prays only for believers (John 17:9,20).”

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conception of a “doubting Thomas.” The OT names of God Yahweh

[Jehovah] and Elohim are important considerations. Dr. Lewis Chafer

writes:

The doctrine of God in the Old Testament is set forth in three

primary names which He bears. These are:

1. EL, meaning strength, and its two cognates - Elah, meaning a

covenant keeping God, and Elohim, a plural name that is used

constantly as if a singular grammatical form. It seems evident that the

doctrine of the Trinity is foreshadowed in this plural name. The one

passage – Deuteronomy 6:4 – is most revealing and might be trans-

lated: “Jehovah [a singular form] our Elohim [a plural] is one

Jehovah.” The word for one here may signify an integration of

constituent parts as for instance when it is said, “And the evening and

the morning … one day,” “And they [two] shall be one flesh” (Gen

1:5; 2:24).

Many modern scholars assert that the plural form of Elohim does

not intimate the Trinity. Oehler, for one, asserts that it is a case for the

plural of majesty – some kind of attempt to multiply the force of the

title. However, he gives no sufficient reason, nor do others succeed in

proving that a trinitarian thought is not present. It all seems, then, to

be a form of unbelief. The Old Testament certainly does not lack for

emphasis upon the majesty of God. …

2. JEHOVAH. The meaning of this term is ‘Self-Existent One.’ As

an exalted title it was so sacred to the Jew that use of it was avoided

by the people for many generations. The moral implications of God

seen in this name are dwelt upon by T. Rees in his article “God”

written fro the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:

The most distinctive characteristic of Jehovah, which finally rendered

Him and His religion absolutely unique, was the moral factor. In saying

that Jehovah was a moral God, it is meant that He acted by free choice, in

conformity with ends which He set to Himself, and which He also

imposed upon His worshippers as their law of conduct.

The essential condition of a moral nature is found in His vivid

personality, which at every stage of His self-revelation shines forth with an intensity that might be called aggressive. Divine personality and

spirituality are never expressly asserted or defined in the Old Testament;

but nowhere in the history of religion are they more clearly asserted. The

modes of their expression are, however, qualified by anthropo-

morphisms, by limitations, moral and physical Jehovah’s jealousy (Ex.

20:5; Deut. 5:9; 6:15), His wrath and anger (Ex. 32:10-12; Deut. 7:4) and

His inviolable holiness (Ex. 19:21-22; 1 Sam. 6:19; 2 Sam. 6:7) appear


1214

sometimes to be irrational and immoral; but they are the assertion of His

individual nature, of His self-consciousness as He distinguishes Himself

from all else, in the moral language of the time, and are the conditions of

His having any moral nature whatsoever. Likewise, He dwells in a place

and moves from it (Judg. 5:5); men may see Him in visible form (Ex.

24:10; Num. 12:8); He is always represented as having organs like those

of the human body, arms, hands, feet, mouth, eyes, and ears. By such

sensuous and figurative language alone was it possible for a personal

God to make Himself known to men. – II,1256

3. ADONAI, meaning ‘Master’; used of God and of men.

The New Testament presents God as Father of all who believe and

as one to be known through His personal interrelations. The name of

God in the New Testament is again a threefold revelation: Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit. Not just one of these but all are required to

present the one God.

Though God exists in a threefold mode of being, He is represented

in the New Testament as one God, and so the Christian is as much

under obligation to defend the doctrine of one God as the Unitarian,

the Jew, or the Mohammedan. (Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis

Chafer, Vol 7, pp173-75)

The Apostle Thomas, in a significant passage that illustrates what the

OT Jew, who was raised with reciting the Shema three times daily,

would realize as primary when coming to faith in Christ – the plurality

and the unity of the onliness of God.

John 20:28 Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!”52 NET

52sn Should Thomas’ exclamation be understood as two subjects with

the rest of the sentence omitted (“My Lord and my God has truly risen

from the dead”), as predicate nominatives (“You are my Lord and my

God”), or as vocatives (“My Lord and my God!”)? Probably the most

likely is something between the second and third alternatives. It seems

that the second is slightly more likely here, because the context appears

confessional. Thomas’ statement, while it may have been an exclamation,

does in fact confess the faith which he had previously lacked, and Jesus

responds to Thomas’ statement in the following verse as if it were a

confession. With the proclamation by Thomas here, it is difficult to see

how any more profound analysis of Jesus’ person could be given. It

echoes 1:1 and 1:14 together: The Word was God, and the Word became

flesh (Jesus of Nazareth). The Fourth Gospel opened with many other

titles for Jesus: the Lamb of God (1:29, 36); the Son of God (1:34, 49);

1215

Rabbi ; Messiah ; the King of Israel ; the Son of Man . Now the climax is

reached with the proclamation by Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” and

the reader has come full circle from 1:1, where the author had introduced

him to who Jesus was, to 20:28, where the last of the disciples has come

to the full realization of who Jesus was. What Jesus had predicted in John

8:28 had come to pass: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will

know that I am he” (Grk “I am”). By being lifted up in crucifixion (which led in turn to his death, resurrection, and exaltation with the Father) Jesus

has revealed his true identity as both Lord (kuvrio" [kurios], used by

the LXX to translate Yahweh) and God (qeov" [qeos], used by the LXX

to translate Elohim).

The confession of faith from Thomas came only as a response to a

command from Jesus, “Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe”

John 20:27ff). On resurrection Sunday, eight days prior to the confession

of faith by Thomas, Jesus had breathed “eternal life” into the ten

Apostles who believed - only after seeing Him.

John 20:19-22 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,

the disciples had gathered together and locked the doors of the place

because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Jesus came and stood

among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had

said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples

rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace

be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And

after he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy

Spirit.37 NET

37sn He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The use

of the Greek verb breathed on (ejmfusavw, emfusaw) to describe the

action of Jesus here recalls Gen 2:7 in the LXX, where “the Lord God

formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life; and man became a living being.” This time, however, it is Jesus who is breathing the breath-Spirit of eternal life, life from above,

into his disciples (cf. 3:3-10). Furthermore there is the imagery of Ezek

37:1-14, the prophecy concerning the resurrection of the dry bones: In

37:9 the Son of Man is told to prophesy to the “wind-breath-Spirit” to

come and breathe on the corpses, so that they will live again. In 37:14 the

Lord promised, “I will put my Spirit within you, and you will come to

life, and I will place you in your own land.” In terms of ultimate

fulfillment the passage in Ezek 37 looks at the regeneration of Israel

immediately prior to the establishment of the messianic kingdom. The

author saw in what Jesus did for the disciples at this point a partial and


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symbolic fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy, much as Peter made use of

the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 in his sermon on the day of Pentecost as

recorded in Acts 2:17-21. What then did Jesus do for the disciples in

John 20:22? It appears that in light of the symbolism of the new creation

present here, as well as the regeneration symbolism from the Ezek 37

passage, that Jesus at this point breathed into the disciples the breath of

eternal life. This was in the form of the Holy Spirit, who was to indwell

them. It is instructive to look again at 7:38-39, which states, “Just as the

scripture says, ‘Out from within him will flow rivers of living water.’

(Now he said this about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were going to receive; for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was

not yet glorified.”) But now in 20:22 Jesus was glorified, so the Spirit

could be given. Had the disciples not believed in Jesus before? It seems

clear that they had, since their belief is repeatedly affirmed, beginning

with 2:11. But it also seems clear that even on the eve of the crucifixion,

they did not understand the necessity of the cross (16:31-33). And even

after the crucifixion, the disciples had not realized that there was going to

be a resurrection . Ultimate recognition of who Jesus was appears to have

come to them only after the postresurrection appearances (note the

response of Thomas, who was not present at this incident, in v. 28).

Finally, what is the relation of this incident in 20:22 to the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2? It appears best to view these as two

separate events which have two somewhat different purposes. This was

the giving of life itself, which flowed out from within (cf. 7:38-39). The

giving of power would occur later, on the day of Pentecost—power to

witness and carry out the mission the disciples had been given. (It is

important to remember that in the historical unfolding of God’s program

for the church, these events occurred in a chronological sequence which,

after the church has been established, is not repeatable today.)

Final Argument and Disclosure

This writer:

By faith in God’s illumination and guidance, I have endeavored to

categorically prove why the Governmental theory is an imitation and a

fraud. The methods employed exposed the non-biblical source of

commonly held false conceptions about “Jesus the man” and “Christ the

Savior” to the truth of NT teachings regarding His substitutionary death

and the expiation of sin. Were that enough, the contradiction of a

counterfeit Truth, Light, Love, Life, and Grace embodied in a

Christianity that professes Christ would not exist. It is not enough - but it

is the necessary ground upon - which to accept that heaven may not of

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itself be a future reward, but will serve its intended purpose as the future

family home of God’s children who have received eternal life (zōēn

aiōnion). The promise and teachings of NT Christianity are summed up within

the completely comprehensible and heart felt engagements of relation

and family. The divine Character of God is eternally active within His

attributes and the reciprocity of agent and object, that demands that God

need be three co-equal and distinct Persons sharing One Absolute

Essence in relationship. The Spirit of Truth within me testifies to the

veracity of the gospel of the grace of God. This is the same Spirit that

energized the early church and defenders of the message of life that

Christ brought to the world. For this reason, prior to presenting what are

reasonably complex and sophisticated “primitive church” arguments

against today’s counterfeit Negative gospel, in the interest of providing a

basis of understanding for you - the unique jurist - I submit supporting

evidence in the following extended discussion concerning the

enlightenment provided to all of God’s children. Dr. Lewis Chafer

testifies conclusively and with the authority of Scripture.

Dr. Lewis Chafer: illumination by the Holy Spirit

The period of time between the two advents of Christ is often

designated as The Age of the Holy Spirit, and properly so, since these

days are characterized by the activity and administration of the Spirit.

In these specific days, also, the child of God is blessed to no small

degree by the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells him, and the Spirit is

thus residing in the Christian to the end that supernatural power may

be ever available. Were it not for this divine resource and sufficiency,

the superhuman manner of life now expected from each believer

would be an impossible and, therefore, inconsistent requisition.

Among the age-characterizing operations of the Spirit is that of

teaching or enlightening the individual in whom He dwells. This

reception of truth is not confined to commonplace issues, but may

reach out into the “deep things of God,” and the experience of the

believer when thus taught by the Spirit is peculiar in this respect, that

the divine Teacher is within his heart and he therefore does not hear a

voice speaking from without and at stated times, as in the method of

human teachers, but the mind and heart are supernaturally awakened

from within to apprehend what otherwise would be unknown. It need

only be observed here that, of necessity, this awakening ministry of

the Spirit may be greatly hindered by sin or by unspiritual ways on

the part of the child of God. This truth alone accounts for the existing


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difference between the spiritual Christian who “discerns all things”

and the carnal Christian who cannot receive the deeper and more vital

truths which are likened to strong meat (1 Cor 2:15; 3:1-3).

On the day of His resurrection, Christ walked with two of His

disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35) and it is recorded that

He “expounded” and “opened” the Scriptures to these disciples.

Similarly, at evening when He appeared to the whole company of

disciples He opened their understanding to the Scriptures (Luke

24:45). Until the crucifixion, these men had not believed that Christ

would die (Matt 16:21-23), and it was to the end that they might

know something of the meaning of His death and resurrection that He

opened their understanding (Luke 24:46). Thus a limitless field of

truth came to them, even the gospel which they were to proclaim

(Luke 24:47, 48); but not without the power which the Spirit coming

upon them would secure (Luke 24:49). On the Day of Pentecost,

Peter, who had so recently rejected the prediction concerning Christ’s

death (Matt 16:21-23), preached the value of that death with such

convincing power that three thousand were saved. It is evident that

Peter’s understanding had been opened concerning Christ’s death;

this, however, was not Peter’s first experience with the penetrating

power of a divine revelation. In answer to Christ’s question, “But

whom say ye that I am?” Peter replied, “Thou art the Christ, the Son

of the living God.” And to this Christ responded, “Blessed art thou,

Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,

but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt:16:15-17). Though in the

Scriptures, above cited, the father and the Son are declared to have

revealed definite aspects of truth to various men, the Spirit of God is

the divine teacher since His advent on Pentecost, and a very extensive

body of Scripture bears on this specified ministry of the Spirit.

After having pre-announced the illuminating power of the Spirit

upon the unsaved by which the satanic veil concerning the gospel is

lifted and apart from which none could ever receive Christ as their

Savior (John 16:7-11), the Lord proceeded to say, “I have yet many

thing to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when

he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he

shall not speak of [“from” – as originator] himself; but whatsoever he

shall hear, that he shall speak: and he will show you things to come”

(John 16:12-15). The primary statement of this crucial passage is that

Christ, who has been teaching these disciples throughout three and a

half years, is going on teaching them, but by a new way of approach

to their hearts. The phrase, “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,” no

doubt anticipates the advent of the Spirit on Pentecost and the new

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undertakings that would be made possible by His indwelling presence

in their hearts – not the least of which is His service as Teacher. But it

must be recognized that the Spirit purposely originates nothing. It is

“whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak,” and, “he shall receive

of mine [including the all things of the Father], and shall show it unto

you.” It is thus by presenting the message of the ascended Christ that

the Spirit will “glorify Christ.” Apart from this so definite yet

unprecedented manner of imparting truth, the disciples – as is equally

true of all believers from that day until now – could not “bear” the

“may things” which, evidently, were still not apprehended after the

three and a half years of unbroken schooling. Language could not

more explicitly convey the fact that certain aspects of truth –

immeasurable indeed – cannot be gained by usual didactic methods.

These supermundane revelations must be disclosed from the ascended

Lord through the mediation of the Spirit and only then as the Spirit

speaks from His incomparable position of nearness – within the heart

itself.

The Upper Room Discourse, in which the above passage is found,

is the seed-plot of that form of doctrine which is later developed in

the Epistles. It is not strange, therefore, that the Apostle Paul takes up

this great theme for further elucidation. This is found in 1 Corinthians

2:9-3:4. It reads: …

But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard,

or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love

him.” God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches

all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows

the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the

spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know

the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these

things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught

by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. The

unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are

foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are

spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he

himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the

Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ. So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as

people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, for

you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still

influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension

among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like


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unregenerate people? For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or

“I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? (verse number omission

mine) NET

The central truth of this context is presented in the opening verse

where it is stated that God hath prepared certain “things” for them

that love Him – things which are not gained by the eye, the ear, or the

heart (reasoning power; cf. Isa 52:15; 64:4; 6:9, 10; Matt 13:15). This

negative declaration concerning the eye, the ear, and the heart is

abundantly sustained in the following verse, where it is asserted that

these specific “things” are revealed unto us by the Spirit. These

“things” are a present reality, and not, as sometimes supposed, an

array of future glories to be experienced in heaven. The Spirit who

reveals these “things” is One who “searcheth all things, yea, the deep

things of God.” It is not difficult to believe that the Third Person of

the Godhead is in possession of all truth; the marvel is that this Third

Person indwells the least Christian, and thus places that Christian in a

position to receive and understand that transcendent truth which the

Spirit knows. Within his own capacity, the child of God can know no

more than “the things of a man,” which are within the range of “the

spirit of man which is in him.” Amazing, indeed, is the disclosure that

“the Spirit which is of God” has been received, and for the express

purpose in view that the children of God “might know the things that

freely given to us of God.” And as written elsewhere: “But the

anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need

not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you all

things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it [He] hath taught you,

ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).

Following the stupendous disclosures that the Christian is indwelt

by the Supreme teacher and is therefore already admitted into an

inimitable seminary where the instruction is said to be “freely given,”

i.e., without limitation, the Apostle proceeds to point out, as before

noted, a threefold division of humanity -, and to disclose the proof

concerning the classification of each man as found in his attitude

toward the Word of God. (a) The natural or unregenerate man cannot

receive the Scriptures, since they are by the Spirit discerned, and the

natural man, though educated with all that the eye, the ear, and the

reasoning power can impart, has not received the Spirit (cf. Jude 1:19

where sensual is the translation of the same designation – ψυχικός. Cf. 1 Cor. 15:46; James 3:15), and therefore all revelation is

“foolishness” to him. Should this natural man, because of human

attainments and ecclesiastical authority, be placed where he molds or

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directs the affairs of the Church of Christ on earth, his influence must

ever be a peril to the things of God. Even reverence and sincerity may

not be wanting, but these cannot substitute for the revelation which

can come only from the indwelling Spirit. (b) The spiritual man is a

position to receive all truth (there is no implication that he has already

attained to it). He is indwelt by the Spirit and all adjustments

concerning his daily life are made with the end in view that the Spirit

may not be hindered in His teaching ministry within his own heart.

And (c) the carnal Christian demonstrates his fleshiness by his

inability to receive the deeper truths which are likened to strong meat

as in contrast to milk. The need of the carnal man is sanctification and

not regeneration.

Lest that which the Spirit teaches be deemed a small feature in the

vast field of human knowledge, it is well to recount what is included

in the category of “things” which are taught by the Spirit. These are:

“things” related to the Father, “things” related to the Son, “things”

related to the Spirit, “things’ to come, and “things” related to the

kingdom of God; for “except a man be born again [‘from above’], he

cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Thus, by comparison, the

sum total of human knowledge is reduced to the point of

insignificance.

There is no didactic discipline in the world comparable to the

teaching of Christ by the Holy Spirit, both because of the fact that

infinity characterizes the themes which are taught, and because of the

Teacher’s method of approach by which He, by the Spirit, enters the

innermost recesses of the heart where impressions originate and there

not only tells out the truth of transcendent magnitude, but causes the

pupil actually to grasp the things thus revealed. “By faith we

understand” (Heb 11:3 R.V.). That Christ would continue the

teaching begun while here on earth was clearly promised (John 16:12-

15), and implied in Acts 1:1 where reference is made to “all that Jesus

began both to do and teach.”

In view of the fact that the minister’s distinctive and essential

message is in the realm of spiritual truth which can be discerned only

by the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit must require a yieldedness

to Himself on the part of the one whom he teaches, the minister or

theological student may well seek by heart-searching and confession

to be in right relation to the One upon whom all progress in the

knowledge of God’s truth depends. A requisite life in conformity to

the will of God, on the student’s part, is neither incidental nor

optional; it is arbitrary, determining, and crucial. There is not the

slightest possibility that the most educated and brilliant mind can


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make one step of progress in the understanding of spiritual truth apart

from the direct, supernatural teaching to the individual heart by the

indwelling Spirit. Hence the imperative aspect of the new birth. In

like manner, there can be no full or worthy apprehension of God’s

revealed truth by the Christian who is unspiritual or carnal. Hence the

imperative of a yielded life. (Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer,

Vol 1, pp 109-13)

This writer: statement

Hereafter, the method used to recognize counterfeit currency will be

employed against the Negative gospel. One “primitive counterfeit” will

be compared to a “contemporary counterfeit.” If even brief consideration

is given to the problem of a false profession of faith, then it must be

admitted that patently this “profession” would be attracted to a false

gospel that would appear to be the true gospel of the grace of God, but in

reality, it is the nebulous of an indefinite “full gospel,” tailor-made to fit

snugly on the shoulders of pride. In the appearance of shape and form -

the same - but the cloth of the cheapened counterfeit would be far less

than the infinite righteousness of God - the snow white wedding garment

provided by the covering of blood from the Righteous One, Jesus Christ -

the author, pioneer, captain, and forerunner of our faith.

My argument against the false Negative gospel leads me, time and

again, to the Epistle of 1 John where it is said: “concerning the word of

life—and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and

announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was

revealed to us” (1 John 1:1ff-2 NET). In this Epistle the first schism

within Christianity, not of external Jewish or pagan origin, is recorded.

Whereas, the book of Romans gives the grand theme of the need for

and, the revelation of, justification through faith by grace, faith is not a

central theme.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power

for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the

Greek. 1:17 For the righteousness35 of God is revealed in the gospel

from faith to faith,37 just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will

live.”38

35tn The nature of the “righteousness” described here and the force of

the genitive qeou' (“of God”) which follows have been much debated.

(1) Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:98) understand

“righteousness” to refer to the righteous status given to believers as a

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result of God’s justifying activity, and see the genitive “of God” as a

genitive of source (= “from God”). (2) Others see the “righteousness” as

God’s act or declaration that makes righteous (i.e., justifies) those who

turn to him in faith, taking the genitive “of God” as a subjective genitive

(see E. Käsemann, Romans, 25-30). (3) Still others see the “righteousness

of God” mentioned here as the attribute of God himself, understanding

the genitive “of God” as a possessive genitive (“God’s righteousness”). 37tn Or “by faith for faith,” or “by faith to faith.” There are many

interpretations of the phrase ejk pivstew" eij" pivstin (ek

pistew" ei" pistin). It may have the idea that this righteousness is obtained

by faith (ejk pivstew") because it was designed for faith (eij" pivstin). For a summary see J. Murray, Romans (NICNT), 1:363-74.

38sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.

Saving faith lies in accepting the very nature of the Righteousness of

God, which is far removed from commitment (viz. Lordship or continued

faith) to Christ. For God the Father is inseparable from the Christ His

Son who came to reveal Him to the world. In 1 John, primitive and

uncontaminated, pure early church arguments are posited against a false

gospel; “the spirit of deceit” which “denies the Father and the Son.” Dr.

C. I. Scofield writes:

First John is a family letter from the Father to His “little children”

who are in the world. With the possible exception of the Song of

Solomon, it is the most intimate of the inspired writings. The world is

viewed as without. The sin of a believer is treated as a child’s offence

against his Father, and is dealt with as a family matter (1:9; 2:1). The

moral government of the universe is not in question. The child’s sin

as an offense against the law has been met in the Cross, and “Jesus

Christ the righteous” is now his “Advocate with the Father.” John’s

Gospel leads across the threshold of the Father’s house; his first

Epistle makes us at home there. A tender word is used for “children,”

teknia, “born ones,” or “bairns.” Paul is occupied with our public

position as sons; John with our nearness as born-ones of the Father.

(Old Scofield Study System, p 1321)

If it be accepted that the nature of man is fallen, then his redemption

is in the nature of One unified Triune God. And this, revealed not fully,

until the appearance and testimony of the Son. The Lord God said to

Moses, “I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their

fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to

them whatever I command. I will personally hold responsible anyone


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who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name”

(Deu 18:18-19 NET). In Hebrews 1:3 the Spirit of God declares: “The

Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and

he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had

accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the

Majesty on high.” i

Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander writes: “In proceeding to consider the

Bible revelations concerning God, the first thing that demands our

attention is the Names by which God there designates Himself. As the

Bible professes to make known to us, not God as He is in Himself, but

His Name or outward manifestation of Himself to His intelligent

creatures, so it attaches special importance to the words by which this

manifestation is indicated to us. All the names by which the Bible

designates God are significant; and thus each of them stands as the

symbol of some truth concerning Him which He would have us to

receive. All this renders it of importance to us that we should rightly

apprehend the import of the Divine Name in Scripture.”254

The nature of

the Son’s relationship to the Father, and the Spirit’s relationship to the

Father and Son, is the revealed external aspect of God that is also the

nature of man’s redemption. In the Name of God as – Lord Jesus Christ,

the Son of God – much is revealed. Hence, the exceeding importance of a

correct understanding of that Name and aspect of God. The Triune God

may be understood in the following testimony. From which, the

arguments used in 1 John may be presented in this light. In so doing, the

closing and final evidencing proof for the prosecution of the Negative

gospel for denying that “Jesus is the Christ” will be established and

proven.

Dr. Lewis Chafer – The Trinity:

i tn The Greek puts an emphasis on the quality of God’s final revelation. As such, it

is more than an indefinite notion (“a son”) though less than a definite one (“the son”), for this final revelation is not just through any son of God, nor is the emphasis specifically on the person himself. Rather, the focus here is on the nature of the vehicle of God’s revelation: He is no mere spokesman (or prophet) for God, nor is he merely a heavenly messenger (or angel); instead, this final revelation comes through one who is intimately acquainted with the heavenly Father in a way that only a family

member could be. There is, however, no exact equivalent in English (“in son” is hardly good English style).

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Since the Second Person of the Godhead is revealed as the

concrete declaration or manifestation of God to men (John 1:18; 2

Cor 4:6; 5:19), the investigation into the doctrine of the Trinity by

theologians has too often centered upon the Second Person to the

neglect of the doctrine it self. Such action on the part of men is

natural, for the whole of the Christian faith is – perhaps more than

elsewhere – compressed in the words, “God was in Christ, reconciling

the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2

Cor 5:19). With reference to this text, Neander says: “We recognize

therein the essential contents of Christianity summed up in brief”

(cited by Harris, God the Creator and Lord of All, p. 294). It is in the

work of redemption that the distinctions between the Persons of the

Godhead more clearly arise. … As a summarization of the doctrine of

the Trinity as found in the Old Testament, Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas

states in his Principles of Theology (pp. 25, 26), and under the

heading “The Doctrine Anticipated”:

At this stage and only here we may seek another support for the

doctrine. In light of the facts of the New Testament we cannot refrain from asking whether they may not have been some adumbrations of it in

the Old Testament. As the doctrine arises directly out of the facts of the

New Testament, we do not look for any full discovery of it in the Old

Testament. We must not expect too much, because as Israel’s function

was to emphasize the unity of God (Deut. vi. 4), any premature revelation

might have been disastrous. But, if the doctrine be true, we might expect

that Christian Jews, at any rate, would seek for some anticipation of it in

the Old Testament. We believe we find it there. (a) The use of the plural

“Elohim,” with the singular verb, “bara,” is at least noteworthy, and

seems to call for some recognition, especially as the same grammatical

solecism is found used by St. Paul (1 Thess. iii. 11, Greek). Then, too,

the use of the plurals “our” (Gen. i. 26), “us” (iii. 22), “us” (xi. 7), seems to indicate some self-converse in God. It is not satisfactory to refer this to

angels because they are not associated with God in creation. Whatever

may be the meaning of this usage, it seems, at any rate, to imply that

Hebrew Monotheism was an intensely living reality. (b) The references

to the “Angel of Jehovah” prepare the way for the Christian doctrine of a

distinction in the Godhead (Gen. xviii. 2,17; xviii. 22 with xix. 1; Josh.

V. 13-15 with vi. 2; Jud. xiii. 8-21; Zech. xiii. 7). (c) Allusions to the

“Spirit of Jehovah” form another line of Old Testament teaching. In

Genesis i. 2 the Spirit is an energy only, but in subsequent books an agent

(Isa. xl. 13; xlviii. 16; lix. 19; lxiii. 10f). (d) The personification of

Divine Wisdom is also to be observed, for the connection between the


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personification of Wisdom in Prov. Viii, the Logos of John i. 1-18, and

the “wisdom” of 1 Cor. i. 24 can hardly be accidental. (e) There are also

other hints, such as the Triplicity of the Divine Names (Num vi. 24-27;

Psa. xxix. 3-5; Isa. vi. 1-3), which, while they may not be pressed, cannot

be overlooked. Hints are all that were to be expected until the fullness of

time should have come. The special work of Israel was to guard God’s

transcendence and omnipresence; it was for Christianity to develop the

doctrine of the Godhead into the fullness, depth, and richness that we

find in the revelation of the Incarnate Son of God.

Within the New Testament, the field of testimony and

investigation relative to the doctrine of the Trinity is greatly enlarged.

There are those, and not a few, who declare that no certain proof of

the triune mode of existence can be established from the Old

Testament, that is, apart from the retroactive influence of the New

Testament revelation. (Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1,

pp 286-302)

… Any true conception of this doctrine must include three major

features, namely, “The oneness and onliness of God; the three eternal

distinctions or modes of being of the one only God – the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit; and the proper deity of each of the three –

God the One indivisible Absolute Spirit in each of these peculiar and

eternal modes of being” (cf. Harris, ibid., p. 232). … A satisfactory

summarization of this great averment of the Bible is made by Dr. W.

L. Alexander as follows:

That as respects the distinction in the one Godhead it is real and

eternal, and is marked by certain properties peculiar to each Person and

not communicable. These properties are either external or internal; the

latter relating to the modes of subsistence in the divine essence, the former to the mode of revelation in the world. The notae internae are

personal acts and notions; the former being (1) That the Father generates

the Son, etc., and breathes the Spirit; (2) That the Son is begotten of the

Father, and with the father breathes the Spirit; (3) That the Spirit

proceedeth from the Father and the Son. The personal notions are (1)

Unbegottenness and paternity as peculiar to the Father; (2) Spiration as

belonging to the Father and the Son; (3 ) Filiation as peculiar to the Son;

(4) Procession (spiratio passiva) as peculiar to the Spirit. The external

notes are (1) The works in the economy of redemption peculiar to each:

the Father sends the Son to redeem and the Spirit to sanctify; the Son

redeems mankind and sends the Spirit; the Spirit enters into the minds of men and renders them partakers of Christ’s salvation. (2) The attributive

or appropriative works, i.e. those which, though common to the three

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Persons, are in Scripture usually ascribed to one of them, as universal

creation, conservation, and gubernation to the Father through the Son; the

creation of the world, raising of the dead, and the conduct of the last

judgment, to the Son; the inspiration of the prophets, etc., to the Spirit. –

(System of Biblical Theology, I, p. 104) (Systematic Theology, Dr.


This writer: Summary Trinity, Regeneration, Intro Schism:

Eternal life is in the Father. The Father eternally begets the Son and

breathes the Spirit. The Son eternally does and speaks the Father’s will.

The Father and Son are One. The Spirit eternally proceeds from the

Father and Son and is the agent of their will. The Father, Son, and Spirit

are one nature, one shared Absolute Spirit. For this reason, man cannot

be saved by the man Jesus alone, but by the complete onliness of God.

The EXEMPLUM of Christ redeems no one. The death of Christ “destroy-

ed the works of the devil” and canceled the judgment against whosoever

will believe He came from the Father to save all men from certain

judgment that is inherited from Adam. His words are life. The revelation

of God given by the Son are Spirit and life that originates with and from

the Father. What is this Spirit and life? Easton’s Bible Dictionary offers

the following explanation of regeneration:

Regeneration only found in Matt. 19:28 and Titus 3:5. This word

literally means a "new birth." The Greek word so rendered

(palingenesia) is used by classical writers with reference to the

changes produced by the return of spring. In Matt. 19:28 the word is

equivalent to the "restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21). In Titus 3:5 it

denotes that change of heart elsewhere spoken of as a passing from

death to life (1 John 3:14); becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus (2

Cor. 5:17); being born again (John 3:5); a renewal of the mind (Rom.

12:2); a resurrection from the dead (Eph. 2:6); a being quickened

(2:1, 5).

This change is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. It originates not with man

but with God (John 1:12, 13; 1 John 2:29; 5:1, 4).

As to the nature of the change, it consists in the implanting of a new

principle or disposition in the soul; the impartation of spiritual life to

those who are by nature "dead in trespasses and sins."

The necessity of such a change is emphatically affirmed in Scripture

(John 3:3; Rom. 7:18; 8:7-9; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1; 4:21-24).

Rom 8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does

not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who


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are in the flesh cannot please God. 8:9 You, however, are not in the

flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if

anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong

to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin,

but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if

the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the

one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal

bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. NET

Eternal life begins with the Father and to deny this, is to ignore the

many times Jesus states that He came from, and was returning to the

Father that sent Him for the expressed purpose of revealing the Father to

men. Only Jesus, I AM, has the power by His death, resurrection, and

ascension to “raise men up” to the Father. A purpose that will not be

completed until the full number of individuals are called into the family

of God. This quite simply, was the reason why He came and, tragically

misunderstood, was the reason for the charge of ditheism used to turn

Jesus over to Pilate - Jesus had claimed to be “I AM.” A second God

Almighty, a God Almighty in the flesh. The Jews would not accept His

claims of unity with the Father. “The Jewish leaders replied, “We have a

law, and according to our law he ought to die, because he claimed to be

the Son of God!” (John 19:7). The preexistence of the Son brought

eternal life to man from the Father: “This is what we proclaim to you:

what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen

with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched

(concerning the word of life—and the life was revealed, and we have

seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the

Father and was revealed to us). What we have seen and heard we

announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us (and

indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ)”

(1 John 1:1-3).

What foolish theory of theology would separate the humanity of

Christ as an EXEMPLUM from the Deity of the Second Person of the Holy

Trinity? What foolish vanity would then lower the salvific value of the

death of Christ in an attempt for man to measure himself against God?

The christology asserted by the Governmental theory of atonement and

the Negative gospel is guilty of teaching an ineffectual pseudochristos.

No red letter verse makes the absurd statement, “I came to be the Great

Example of morality for men to follow after I die.” However, after the

“foot washing” demonstration during the scene of the Last Supper, Jesus

did say, “For I have given you an example—you should do just as I have

done for you” (John 13:15). Contrary to simple-minded Bible teaching,

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this is not a picture of Christian humility. Much like the prophets in the

OT who were instructed by the Lord to act-out a future event, this is a

NT priestly purification “pantomime.” The idea is for the NT priest (the

Christian) who walks in the way of faith to “wash his feet” in confession

to God, as Jesus has purified a NT saint once and for all time. This is the

only named example expressed by Jesus and any other exampling is

conjecture. Only when one is willing to be purified, yielded, and led by

the Holy Spirit to a service and/or ministry chosen by Christ is that

individual living a genuine, and not a false imitation that traffics in the

unlived realities of the man-Jesus. The genuine is the living “out of love”

within the Christian sphere of unity in One God and One Spirit which is

the perfection of Godly love. This love has no place, nor power, between

a Christian and the unsaved. It may only be directed as Godly love

towards the redemption of the unsaved. The Holy Spirit of God

commands Christians as “the temples of God” to remain separate from

the unsaved: “Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for

what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what

fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does

Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with

an unbeliever? And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have

with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I

will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God,

and they will be my people.” Therefore “come out from their midst, and

be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will

welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and

daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord. Therefore, since we have these

promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that

could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of

reverence for God” (2 Cor 6:14-7:1).

Jesus gives the prime directive for a Christian: ““I give you a new

commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also

are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my

disciples—if you have love for one another”” (John 13:34-35 NET).

Introducing the first “my commandment” to His friends, and a third

restatement, Jesus says, “My commandment is this—to love one another

just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays

down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I

command you.” (John 15:12-14). How may one love their Christian

brother as God loves them? This is a heaven-high human impossibility.

Jesus says again: “This I command you—to love one another” (John

15:17). What might commandments from Jesus mean? Contrary to

popular thought, for this age of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, the


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commands from the lips Jesus in the Gospel of John are actually few.

The very first sentence, the opening line in the scene of the Upper Room

Discourse, begins by declaring the unity of the Father and Son and the

Son’s love for those that the Father “had given him”: “Just before the

Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this

world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he

now loved them to the very end” (John 13:1) and “I have revealed your

name to the men you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you,

and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word” (John 17:6).

False ideas regarding the value in the birth, life, and death of “Jesus

as man united to His Father and the Holy Spirit” and “Christ as Savior

and preexistent God” are hardly new. A second generation, secessionist

faction, within 1 John had adopted an opposing view to that held by the

Spirit inspired writings in the Gospel of John. This group had adopted an

“uninspired” rational interpretation of the Johannine confession - “Jesus

is the Christ.” This apostate group and the main body both agreed to the

formula – Jesus is the Christ – but the secessionist by their lifestyle and

teaching proved “they did not love their brother Christian.” The theme of

“assurance” is central and plain. The schism that prompted the need for

“assurance” in the Johannine church is defined in this passage from 1

John.

1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the

antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists39 have appeared. We

know from this that it is the last hour. 2:19 They went out from us,

but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to

us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to

demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.44

2:20 Nevertheless you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you

all know.45 2:21 I have not written to you that you do not know the

truth, but that you do know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 2:22 Who

is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah

49tn]? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father

and the Son. 2:23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the

Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also.

2:24 As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must

remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,

you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 2:25 Now this is

the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.55 2:26 These

things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive

you.56 2:27 Now as for you, the anointing57 that you received from

him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you.

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But as his anointing [Holy Spirit] teaches you about all things, it is

true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him. NET

(brackets and bold highlights mine)

39sn Antichrists are John’s description for the opponents and their false

teaching, which is at variance with the apostolic eyewitness testimony

about who Jesus is (cf. 1:1-4). The identity of these opponents has been

variously debated by scholars, with some contending (1) that these false

teachers originally belonged to the group of apostolic leaders, but

departed from it (“went out from us,” v. 19). It is much more likely (2)

that they arose from within the Christian communities to which John is

writing, however, and with which he identifies himself. This

identification can be seen in the interchange of the pronouns “we” and

“you” between 1:10 and 2:1, for example, where “we” does not refer only to John and the other apostles, but is inclusive, referring to both

himself and the Christians he is writing to (2:1, “you”).

44sn All of them do not belong to us. The opponents chose to depart

rather than remain in fellowship with the community to which the author

writes and with which he associates himself. This demonstrates

conclusively to the author that they never really belonged to that

community at all (in spite of what they were claiming). 1 John 2:19

indicates that the departure was apparently the opponents’ own decision

rather than being thrown out or excommunicated. But for John, if they

had been genuine believers, they would have remained in fellowship.

Now they have gone out into the world, where they belong (compare 1 John 4:5).

45sn The statement you all know probably constitutes an indirect allusion

to the provisions of the new covenant mentioned in Jer 31 (see especially

Jer 31:34). See also R. E. Brown, The Epistles of John [AB], 349.

55sn The promise consists of eternal life, but it is also related to the

concept of “remaining” in 2:24. The person who “remains in the Son and

in the Father” thus has this promise of eternal life from Jesus himself.

Consistent with this, 1 John 5:12 implies that the believer has this eternal

life now, not just in the future, and this in turn agrees with John 5:24.

56sn The phrase those who are trying to deceive you in 1 John 2:26 is a

clear reference to the secessionist opponents mentioned earlier in 1 John

2:19, who are attempting to deceive the people the author is writing to.

57sn The anointing. The “anointing” (χρϊσµα, chrisma) which believers

have received refers to the indwelling Holy Spirit which has been given

to them at their conversion.

Dr. W. Hall Harris III - Note on Johannine theology:


1232

From John’s perspective, a person does not go to hell because

he/she is a sinner. The death of Christ has changed all of that (1 John

2:2). All sin is atoned for except the one (unforgivable) sin of

unbelief. A person goes to hell because he/she does not possess the

life of heaven—eternal life. And this person does not possess it

because he/she has rejected it as God’s free gift. To reject Jesus is to

reject this gift of eternal life, which is (in other words) to commit the

(unforgivable) sin of unbelief.

8:23 kavtw…a[nw Jesus is the one who has come down from above,

from heaven, to enable men to be born from above, and thus to enable

them to possess eternal life. The contrast here is between heaven,

where Jesus is from, and earth, where his opponents are from.

8:24-30 These verses explain the urgency of Jesus’ insistence that,

when he goes away, there will be no other possibility of delivering

them from sin. When Jesus is lifted up (8:28) in crucifixion,

resurrection, and ascension, he will draw all people to himself (cf.

12:32), and in that moment it will be clear to those who have eyes to

see that he truly bears the divine Name, I AM, and that he has the

power of raising people to the Father. But if they refuse to believe—

refuse to see—then there is no other way (cf. 14:6) that leads to the

Father above, and people will go to their graves permanently

separated from the gift and Giver of eternal life.” 255

Luke 8:18 So listen carefully, for whoever has [eternal life] will be

given more, but whoever does not have [eternal life], even what he

thinks he has will be taken from him.” (brackets mine) NET

Mark 4:25 For whoever has will be given more, but whoever does

not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”30 NET

30sn What he has will be taken from him. The meaning is that the one who accepts Jesus’ teaching concerning his person and the kingdom will

receive a share in the kingdom now and even more in the future, but for

the one who rejects Jesus’ words, the opportunity that that person

presently possesses with respect to the kingdom will someday be taken

away forever

This writer: Intro to 1 John Summary:

From this point of John’s argument against the secessionist, a view of

the background of this Epistle is warranted. First Dr. R. E. Brown will

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give testimony and then Dr. Daniel Wallace will testify on the overall

structure of I John.

Dr. R. E. Brown:

The schism in the Johannine Community is being fought over

what one is willing to confess about Jesus – is it salvifically important

that he lived in the flesh? If one believes, one has to be willing to

confess that belief in formulas which may prove costly to one’s

welfare and one’s life! Some scholars would deprecate this Johannine

“dogmatic” faith in favor of the “purer” Pauline concept of faith as

trust in Jesus and obedience to God. Even laying aside the fact that

Paul did not hesitate to formulate the gospel in creedal language

(Rom 1:3-4), one may wonder how long Christians could go on

trusting in Jesus without having to formulate their evaluation of the

one in whom they trusted. In any case, faith is scarcely univocal; and

in the Johannine Community a faith that refused to take a

christological stand would not have been worthy of a disciple.

Another query, less oriented by outside prejudices, may be

directed to the twofold definition of God’s commandment in 3:23.

Granted the inclusion with 3:11, how good a summary of “the gospel”

is this commandment? The double commandment of the Synoptic

tradition (Mark 12:28-31, and par.) offers a parallel attempt to say

what is crucial: love of God and love of neighbor as yourself. I John

offers instead [cf. Gal 5:6, “faith working through love] belief in

Jesus and love of one another, and the differences are not accidental.

As for the first two elements, belief in Jesus (as God’s Son) is a

Johannine interpretation of the love of God: “This is how the love of

God was revealed in us: that God has sent His only Son into the world

… as an atonement [propitiation, satisfaction. this writer] for our

sins” (I John 4:9-10). And for the second of these elements, the

Johannine Community history of persecution has led to a stress on the

love of one’s “brother” or fellow Community member, rather than a

wider love of neighbor [cf. the response of Jesus to the lawyer’s

question in the gospel of Luke, “Who is my neighbor?” was a

reversal. Jesus proposed that the Samaritan was one who “becomes

your neighbor,” as an extension of mercy, rather than someone

recognized beforehand as your neighbor. this writer]. F. Mussner,

“Eine neutestamentliche Kurzformel fur das Christentum, Trier

Theologishe Zeitschrift 79 (1970) 49-52” has suggested that I John

3:23 might serve very well as the NT sentence that best expresses the

essence of Christianity. The theology that underlies it makes clear


1234

that faith in Jesus is really a faith in God whose Son he is; that

Christian life begins with the vertical action by this God in sending

His Son; that what we do comes after what God has done; and that

our love is a horizontal but essential continuation of the vertical love

that God has shown. In its own way it refutes a dogmatic

conservatism which makes creedal orthodoxy the only criterion, a

fideism [religious knowledge depends on faith and revelation] in

which giving of oneself to Jesus is all that matters, and a liberalism

which defines Christianity simply as a way to live. And it does all this

in a pedagogical order whereby through faith we learn about love.”

The last verse of this unit (3:24) shows how far the author is from

a legalistic understanding of keeping the twofold commandment he

has enunciated, for he relates it to abiding in God, the closest type of

intimate union. The two statements he makes about abiding in God

supply an interesting contrast. On our part the abiding is conditioned

upon keeping the commandments given by God; but on God’s part

our abiding stems from His giving the Spirit, which is not

conditioned. The same God who gave the commandment (3:23c) gave

the Spirit that enables us to live out the commandment. The author

introduces the notion of the Spirit here in preparation for the unit on

testing the Spirits, which is to follow (4:1-6). But the sequence from

commandment to Spirit, which seems strange to some commentators,

is perfectly understandable if the author is commenting upon the Last

Discourse – a comment that in turn is more understandable if Part

Two of I GJohn has in mind Part Two of GJohn [Book of Signs

chapters 1-12, Book of Glory chapters 13-21. this writer]. The

commandment he has spoken of, “Love one another,” is first

proclaimed in John 13:34; and the Paraclete passages come in 14:15-

17,25-26. The commandment to love is reiterated in 15:12,17; and the

next Paraclete passages come in 15:26-27 and 16:7-13. Besides being

associated in the Last Discourse, commandment and Spirit would

have been associated in the catechesis related to conversion/initia-

tion/baptism. If the basic commandment annunciated in 3:23 would

have been the stipulation of the New Covenant, Ezekiel (36:27) had

made an essential an essential part of the newness-to-come: “I will

put my Spirit in your midst.” At Qumran (1 QS 4:21-22) it is

promised that God will pour out the Spirit of truth upon those whom

he has chosen for an everlasting covenant. And I John 2:27 has

already spoken of an anointing (with the Holy Spirit) received by the

Johannine Christians, almost certainly when they entered the Com-

munity. The reference to baptizing with the Spirit in John 1:33 and to

begetting by water and Spirit in John 3:5 makes it very plausible that

1235

the notion of God giving the Spirit was associated with the baptismal

part of the entrance ceremony. Indeed, the frequency with which the

NT uses the verb “to give” in relation to the Spirit may mean that this

a set Christian description for the baptismal conferring of the Spirit.

In NT thought it is not unusual to find the Spirit as a type of

criterion or pledge. For instance, Rom 8:14 states, “As many as are

led by the Spirit are sons of God,” while II Cor 1:22 speaks of God

“having given the pledge of the Spirit that He gave us” (3:24d?). How

does an invisible Spirit that the world cannot see or recognize (John

14:17) show that God abides in us? In the NOTE on 3:24d I mention

some proposals that are not convincing in my judgment. The answer

may be found in the next unit in I John 4:2: “Now this is how you can

know the Spirit of God: Everyone who confesses Jesus Christ come

in the flesh reflects the Spirit which belongs to God.” One may know

that God abides in Christians from the fact that they profess a true

faith about His Son, and they can do that only if they only if the

Paraclete has taught them. This is in perfect harmony with I John 2:27

where no human teacher is needed because the anointing (with the

Holy Spirit) teaches the Christians about all things. In the next unit of

I John the function of the Spirit/Paraclete who bears witness against

the world (John 16:8-11); for according to I John 4:2-6 the true faith

confessed by those who have the Spirit that belongs to God will

unmask the secessionist, who belong to the world. The author’s

argument against the secessionist in 3:23-24 is by way of reminding

his adherents of the time when they left the world to join the

Johannine Community, when they were baptized with water and the

Spirit, when they accepted as part of the New Covenant the command

to love one another, as through the Spirit they professed Jesus as the

Christ, the Son of God, receiving life in His name. (The Anchor Bible

– The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 481-84)

Dr. Daniel Wallace: 1 John Summary:

First, the Gospel [of John] has material which would be largely

irrelevant to the Gentile audience, even though its final form was

almost certainly written for Gentiles. As we suggested earlier, this

argues that John had amassed material for his Gospel, without having

a specific audience in mind until the last stage of composition. These

remnants, in turn, suggest that the Gospel may have been published

somewhat hurriedly. Our quite tentative contention is that either the

whole Gospel was produced at Peter’s request (with the appendix

[chapter 21] added after Peter died) or at least the appendix was


1236

added at Peter’s request, for the sake of Paul’s churches which

otherwise did not have an apostolic voice. John brought the Gospel

with him to Ephesus in 65 CE and added the appendix (with the

approbation of the Ephesian elders in 21.24). Hence, he really was not

fully aware of his new audience, even though he knew that he wanted

to minister to them.

Second, the epistle shows signs of having come later. (1) Its

eschatology is much more futuristic than the eschatology of the

Gospel. Rather than arguing for a more primitive eschatology (a view

held by Dodd) in the epistle, if the same man wrote both books and if

the first was written before war broke out, this suggests that the

epistle was written after 66 CE. Not only does the language reflect

concepts and even verbiage found in the Olivet Discourse, but there is

a tone of urgency found in this letter which is lacking in the Gospel.

The best external cause for this shift in eschatological perspective

would have been the Jewish War. Further, the war would not yet have

culminated, otherwise there would almost certainly have been a let-

down in eschatological expectation. (2) There is an obvious

familiarity with the audience which seems to be lacking in the

Gospel. Indeed, if tradition is correct that John 21.24 is a

commendation by the Ephesian elders of the veracity of the Gospel

(or at least of the truth of chapter 21), this implies that John was

largely unknown to his audience. Such could not be said of the epistle,

for the author refers to his audience as “my little children.” (3) 1 John

2.19 also seems to imply that some time had elapsed from the time

John had come to know his audience, for the opponents had left the

church. This statement (“they went out from us”) suggests that John

had been acquainted with the audience long enough to have not only

established a relationship with them, but even to have established a

relationship with those who defected. This text, in fact, suggests that

1 John was written after 2 John, for the heretics in 2 John were

itinerant preachers who were still considered part of the Church.42

Although this is subtle and capable of other interpretations, it seems

likely that 1 John was written some short time after 2 John.

In sum, we would date 1 John after the Jewish War broke out, but

before it was concluded. John must be given some amount of time to

know his audience and for the heretics to have left the congregation.

Hence, the epistle should probably be dated after 2 John. A date of c.

68-69 CE seems to be the best guess.

42 In this I am not suggesting that both epistles were sent to exactly

the same audience, but that there was a general consensus in 1 John

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that they were known in the region to have defected, while in 2 John

warns his readers of heretics who were still itinerating among the

Asia Minor congregations. Indeed, there is the possibility (as more

than one commentator has suggested) that 2 John was the tool which

unmasked these heretics, thereby producing the effect spoken of in 1

John 2.19!

The differences in thought [1 John to GJohn] seem more

significant to most scholars today. Law catalogs seven such

differences, three of which seem to be quite significant: (a) the

Gospel is christocentric while the epistle is theocentric; (b) the

atoning character of the death of Christ is much clearer in the epistle

than in the Gospel; and (c) the eschatology between the two seems to

be different: the Gospel tends toward a realized eschatology (in which

believers have passed out of judgment into life), while the epistle

imbibes in a more futuristic eschatology. These same points are

rehashed by Brown, who argues with some force that “the theological

differences listed above cannot be denied…”

It is our contention that not only can these differences be

explained on the hypothesis of the same author, but that they can

most easily be explained if one takes into account the following

factors: (a) a change in domicile for the author, rather than a (major)

change in audience; (b) the epistle was written at a later time, when a

futuristic eschatology would seem more appropriate; (c) the

adversaries had indeed changed, but this is due primarily to the

author’s better acquaintance with the audience, rather than to a

change in author; and (d) the emphasis on the atoning work of Christ

was due to the impact of the apostle Paul. Although much of this has

been argued (or at least hinted at) in our discussion of the Fourth

Gospel, an overarching reconstruction is still needed. We will deal

seriatim with Brown’s five arguments, all the while demonstrating an

alternative view which seems to fit the data equally as well, if not

better.

First, not much imagination is needed to come up with a reason

for the shift from christocentricity to theocentricity. Law takes one

approach, viz., diminishing the differences. Although it is true that the

Gospel has its theocentric moments and the epistles its christocentric

ones, the general impression is that there is indeed a difference in

emphasis between the two.18 If, however, the author is now

combating a new opponent in the epistle—one he did not encounter in

the Gospel—then the shift is understandable. In his Gospel his

opponent was “the Jews” and his objective was to prove that Jesus


1238

was the Christ, God in the flesh. In his epistle the opponent already

embraces a high Christology. They are not “Jews,” but, most likely,

second-generation (professing) Christians who have gone too far with

their Christology. By separating Christ from the flesh, they have

removed mortal man from God. John now reminds his audience that

only those who embrace the theanthropic person embrace God. In a

sense, we might say that in the Gospel John needed to show the

divine face of the Son; in the epistle, he needed to demonstrate the

‘human’ face of the Father. The change in opponent, then, readily

accounts for the shift from christocentricity to theocentricity.

Second, the atoning character of the death of Christ in the epistle

takes on Pauline proportions. “‘He is faithful and righteous to forgive

us our sins’ … has a more Pauline ring than any utterance of the

Fourth Gospel…”20 The very statements of Christ’s atoning work

(2.2) sounds very Pauline: “He is our propitiation” (ίλασµός) [21 The

cognate, ίλαστήριον, is used only twice in the NT, once by Paul

(Rom 3.25) and once by the author of Hebrews (9.5), whom we have

argued is an associate of Paul’s. Thus Paul is saying that God

displayed Jesus as the “mercy seat,” the place where propitiation was

accomplished. See N. S. L. Fryer, “The Meaning and Translation of

Hilasterion in Romans 3:25,” EvQ 59 (1987): 99-116, who concludes

the term is a neuter accusative substantive best translated “mercy

seat” or “propitiatory covering,” and D. P. Bailey, “Jesus As the

Mercy Seat: The Semantics and Theology of Paul’s Use of

Hilasterion in Romans 3:25” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge,

1999), who argues that this is a direct reference to the mercy seat

which covered the ark of the covenant.]. Further, God/Christ are

“righteous” (δίκαιος) throughout this epistle (1.9; 2.1; 3.7), and

usually in relation to the forgiveness of the Christian. This, again, is

quite Pauline. Such language would hardly be surprising if John had

moved to Ephesus (as ancient testimony universally suggests)

recently—i.e., between the writing of his Gospel and the epistle.

What is more remarkable than John’s picking up Paulinisms is that

commentators rarely ask why John would move to Ephesus if this had

been Paul’s special domain. Further, what catalyst would prompt him

to do so? We shall pursue this question under “Occasion,” but suffice

it to say that John’s more Pauline-like expressions in the epistle are

understandable if the author moved from Palestine to Ephesus

between the writing of the Gospel and the epistle. …

The immediate occasion for this epistle is that the false teachers

had left the church (2.19), but were harassing the church and enticing

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it from a position outside. John’s audience needed reassurance that

what they had embraced—viz., that Christ had come in the flesh—

was true. John assures his audience of this truth—as well as the truth

of the Gospel in general—on two grounds: (1) he was an eyewitness

to Christ (1.1-3), and (2) the Spirit bore witness to their spirit that

these things were true (2.20, 27). But the occasion was not just

polemical; John had an edificatory objective as well. Thus the almost

monotonous refrain “I have written to you in order that/because…”

The purpose statement in 5.13, on the analogy of John’s Gospel,

would seem to be the most encompassing one: “I have written these

things to you in order that you—that is, to those who believe in the

name of the Son of God—might know that you have eternal life.”

(excerpted from NET Bible Second Beta Edition Resource CD)

This writer: Short Intro to the Prologue of 1 John:

The adversaries of the main body of believers in I John had adopted a

false gospel and a Christianity that did not place them in the unity of

communion with the eternal life in the Father, the Son, and other

believers. They had divorced their beliefs from the onliness of God,

expressed in the Hebrew word yahad; Greek koinōnia and hen. It was an

alienated, estranged Christianity in the sense that these secessionist

shared many points of Christian profession with the historical group they

had left. This alienated group, naturally, did not see themselves as

lacking Christian saving faith. They firmly believed in their new non-

historical, fictional Christ whose death had little to no impact upon the

salvation of believers (cf. Governmental theory). The Apostle John

challenged the error of his adversaries in the opening Prologue of I John.

Jude 1:4 For certain men have secretly slipped in among you—men

who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to

describe—ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a

license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Dr. R. E. Brown: Prologue of I John:

I John 1:1-4: The Prologue

This is what we proclaim to you:

1 1What was from the beginning,

what we have heard,

what we have seen with our own eyes,


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what we looked at

and felt with our own hands –

our concern is about the word of life

( 2For this life was revealed

as we have seen and testify,

and we proclaim to you

this eternal life

which was in the Father’s presence

and was revealed to us.) – 3

what we have seen and heard

we proclaim in turn to you,

so that you may be joined in communion with us.

Yes, for the communion we have is with the Father

And with His Son, Jesus Christ.

4Indeed, we are writing this

so that our joy may be fulfilled.

GENERAL NOTE ON PROLOGUE

General note on the grammar of the Prologue. [I John] … The

reaction of virtually all translators has been captured by in the

observation made by Dodd (Epistles 2): “The sentence is not good

Greek, and it is only by paraphrase that it can be rendered into good

English.” Of course, the epistolary author may have had no interest in

the coherence achieved by following classical rules, and his own style

may have been more intelligible than “good Greek” to readers

familiar with Johannine religious idiom and its facility in

interchanging key words. Nevertheless, we who are not of the

Johannine Community must seek as best we can to translate his

composition into logic we can grasp by working with the basis rules

of “good Greek.” Here I shall discuss grammar, leaving the flow of

ideas to the COMMENT. Precisely because my translation does attempt

to smooth out some of the difficulties (without, I hope, becoming a

paraphrase, a literal rendering must be given in order to enable the

reader to understand the somewhat technical NOTES that follow:

1a What was from the beginning,

1b what we have heard,

1c what we have seen with our eyes,

1d what we looked at,

1e and what our hands felt

1f about the words [logos] of life [zōē]

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2a and the life was revealed

2b and we have seen and testify

2c and we proclaim to you

2d the eternal life

2e of the sort which [hētis] was toward [pros] the Father

I John 1:1f. our concern is about the word of life. Literally, “about

[peri] the word of life” – my paraphrase is an attempt to smooth out

the grammatical between this prepositional phrase and the four

substantive (“what”) clauses that precede it. Some translations make

them totally parallel as equal objects of the verb in 3b: “Our

proclamation is of what existed from the beginning, of what we have

heard, of what we have seen … of what we looked at and felt …

namely, of the word of life” (Moffatt, Goodspeed, TCNT). However,

the author would have been capable of saying that more

grammatically as we see from 2:7, which deals with the “what” and

the “about what” of writing: “I write to you … an old commandment

which you have had from the beginning: this old commandment is the

word which you already heard.” Only slightly less violence is done to

the Greek of v. 1f when the “about” phrase is made the objective

compliment of the verbs in the “what” clauses of v. 1b-e, as in

Weymouth’s translation: “What we once beheld and our hands

handled concerning the Word of Life.” Surely Bonsirven, Epîtres 67,

is correct when he objects that, while one may hear about the word of

life, it is more difficult to see about the word of life, and quite

impossible to feel with one’s hands about the word of life. I judge it

more likely that the prepositional phrase is an ungrammatical

interruption (indicated in my translation by a dash) introduced for

clarification and is not the object of any verb, whether in 1:3b or

1:1b-e. This is all the more likely since a similar ungrammatical

clarification interrupts the GJohn Prologue in 1:12c (“that is, those

who believe in his name”). So understood, the phrase is resumptive

and analytic of the “what” statements that precede it, as the author

stops to reflect that he is really talking about the life-giving word.

This leads us to a discussion of the meaning of logos, “word,” …

The second major problem in this line is the meaning of zōē,

“life,” suggested by its genitival relationship to logos. … In judgment

on these three meanings, perhaps we should avoid being too precise

about the implications of the genitive: If the one case can express all

three ideas, the author may never have thought out precisely what he

meant by using the genitive. For instance, if logos means “message,”


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the message that concerns life (objective genitive) may for that very

reason be life-giving (qualitative genitive).

I John 1:2a. For this life was revealed. Literally, “And the life …”

The initial kai, “and,” is typical Johannine Prologue style, and the

article is used with demonstrative force referring to a previously

mentioned noun (BDF 2521). In v. 2 then, we have a parenthetical

explanation of “life” mentioned in the last phrase of 1:1, a phrase that,

as we saw, was interruptive. If the GJohn Prologue featured the

becoming flesh of the Word, the I John Prologue speaks of the

revelation of life (zōē). Is it “life” rather than “word” that carries the

personal thrust in this Prologue? Among those who argue for a

personal rendering of zōē are Balz, de Ambroggi, Moffatt, Mussner,

and Rivera. The insight is vividly caught by Stott, Epistles 68, when

he says that “the word of life” is “the gospel of Christ.” While in the

GJohn Prologue zōē is not personal but something that comes to be

and is communicated in the Word (1:14), later in John 11:25 and 14:6

Jesus says, “I am the life.” In I John 5:20 Jesus will be identified as

“the true God and eternal life”; in Rev 1:18 he says, “I am the living

one”; and Ignatius, Eph. 7:2, calls Jesus “true life in death.”

The possibility that zōē is personified in Jesus in I John 1:1-2

increases when we study the verb used in the passive here:

phaneroun, “to reveal, manifest, show”; passive, “to be revealed,

become visible, appear.” Its span covers the making known of the

unknown and the making visible of the invisible. (The related adverb,

phanerōs, “openly,” occurs in John 7:10 as opposed to “in secret.”)

Of the 18 Johannine uses of the verb (9 in GJohn, 9 in I John, out of a

total of 49 NT uses), 11 are christological. In GJohn’s usage, three

times the risen Jesus is said to manifest himself to his disciples

(21:1,14); the passive is used once for the revelation of Jesus to Israel

at the beginning of the ministry (1:31), and once Jesus is challenged

to manifest himself to the world by going to Jerusalem (7:4). The

other four GJohn uses of phaneroun concern the manifestation of

impersonal realities (glory, works, and the divine name). In I John the

nonchristological uses involve the revelation of the love of God (4:9),

of what we believers shall be (3:2), and of the secessionist as not

belonging to the community (2:19). The one Johannine use of the

related adjective phaneros occurs in I John 3:10 for the revelation of

the children of God and of the devil. The clear christological uses of

phaneroun in 1 John involve the parousia of Christ (2:28) and the

manifestation of the Son of God in his earthly career to take away

sins and destroy the works of the devil (3:5,8). The latter uses favor

the thesis that the two revelation of life passages in I John 1:2 refer to

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the revelation of Jesus in his earthly career. If zōē is understood as

personified, the first of these passages, “This life was revealed as we

have seen and testify” (1:2ab), becomes a close parallel to the

statement in the GJohn Prologue: “The Word became flesh … and we

have seen his glory” (1:14). The second passage, “This eternal life

which was in the Father’s presence and was revealed to us” (I John

1:2def), echoes another GJohn Prologue statement: “The Word was in

God’s presence” (1:1). In the COMMENT I shall discuss why the

author of the epistolary Prologue may have chosen to personify “life”

rather than “word.” It is difficult to know how far one should press

the significance of the aorist tense of phaneroun in the affirmation,

“This life was revealed.” Some scholars (THLJ 25) think that the

aorist reflects the historical character of the revelation which occurred

at one specific time. An aorist appears in a similar statement, “He was

revealed in the flesh” (I Tim 3:16), and an aorist participle in I Pet

1:20: “He was destined before the foundation of the world but was

revealed at the end of time for your sake” (see also Barn. 14:5).

Nevertheless, a perfect tense appears in Heb 9:26 which does not

seem any less historical or punctiliar, “He has been revealed once for

all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”;

and we remind the reader again of Louw’s contention (“Verbal

Aspect”) that there is really no distinction between aorist and perfect

in representing the perfected past. We may note that these examples

of phaneroun applied to Jesus’ ministry by other NT writers

reinforces the case for seeing a similar meaning in “This life was

revealed.”

I John 1:2b. as we have heard and testify. Literally, “and we have

…”; the first verb (horan) is in the perfect tense, the second

(martyrein) is in the present. … The verbs may be related in line 2a

(whence the as in my translation) or to lines 2cde (“and we proclaim

…”) The choice really makes little difference in meaning; in both the

action of the two verbs is related to the revelation of life. The verb

horan was used in 1:1c, “What we have seen with our own eyes” –

evidently the “what” of that line can be considered equivalent to the

revelation of life in Jesus, which is the implicit object of the seeing in

this line. This confirms my thesis that the “what” of 1:1 is a

complexive term for the career of Jesus Christ on earth.

The verb martyrein, “to bear witness, testify,” and noun martyria,

“witness, testimony,” occur a total of 64 times in GJohn and the

Epistles (verb 43 times, noun 21). The 33 uses of the verb in GJohn

may be contrasted to a total of 2 uses in the three Synoptic Gospels, a


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contrast that indicates the extent to which the legal and trial

atmosphere dominates the Johannine thought (ABJ 29, 45, 227-280).

I John 1:2d. this eternal life. Of the 49 Johannine uses of zōē, “life”

(one-third of the NT uses), 23 are characterized by the adjective

aiōnios, “eternal” (17 in GJohn; 6 in 1 John). Indeed “life" is the only

noun modified by that adjective in Johannine Greek (cf. Rev 14:6,

“eternal gospel”). As I explained in ABJ 29, 507, for Johannine

dualism eternal life is qualitatively different from natural life

(psychē), for it is a life that death cannot destroy (John 11:26).

Duration (everlasting, or even without beginning) is not the primary

issue; it is a life from another eon (aiōn, whence aiōnios) or sphere.

Indeed, it is the life of God Himself; and since only the Son has come

down from that sphere and from God, he is the only who can

communicate that life. More simply, Jesus Christ is the eternal life (1

John 5:20). The normal Johannine Greek is zōē aiōnios without any

article …

I John 1:2e. which was in the Father’s presence. This is not the

ordinary relative pronoun (hos) but the more def. relative hostis, “of

the sort that,” which can govern a relative clause expressing a specific

quality. In the NT the masc. and fem. of hostis are virtually confined

to the nominative case, being replaced by hos in other cases; and so

the lines of distinction are blurred (BDF 643, 293

2, a blurring

contested by Brooke, Epistles 7). Nevertheless, in a parallel instance

in GJohn (8:53; ABJ 29, 359) hostis is used with precision; and so it

may be meant literally here where “life” is virtually personified, e.g.,

“such as it was in the Father’s presence.” The latter phrase is literally

“toward [pros] the Father,” a phrase I had to debate in discussing the

GJohn Prologue (1:1b) where the Word was “toward God” (ABJ 29,

4-5). It may Hebrew lipnê, “to the face of, before,” which is often

attitudinal and not simply spatial (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis, AB 1,

51). Although Greek pros can simply mean “with” (Mark 6:3; 9:19;

14:49; MGNTG 2, 467), here, besides presence with the Father, it has

the added connotation of relationship toward the Father, for the Son’s

life came from the Father (John 6:57). In my judgment this is the first

reference to preincarnational existence in the 1 John Prologue and

explains the use of eternal in the preceding line. The same expression

will be used in 1 John 2:1 to describe Jesus in the Father’s presence as

a Paraclete after his atoning death; and it will also be used of the

Christian, the child of God, in the divine presence (3:21; 5:14).

Let us consider some significant statistics pertinent to the gospel

use of patēr, “father,” for God: Mark 5 times; Luke 17; Matthew 40;

John 126. Some 23 times in GJohn Jesus speaks of God as “my

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Father,” a usage that never occurs in Mark, and only four times in

Luke. The other and more frequent use of the Johannine Jesus,

occurring nearly 65 times, is to speak of God as “the Father,” with an

article but without the clarifying possessive pronoun – a usage that

occurs 12 times in I John, and 3 times in II John, but only a total of 7

times in the three Synoptic Gospels (once in Mark 13:32). … The

frequency of “the Father” in Johannine theology is explicable in terms

of the very clear Johannine view of Jesus as “the Son” (ABJ 29, 408-

9; 29A, 654-55). As Loisy, Evangile-Epîtres 533, points out, for John

“God” is not simply a figure who acts paternally towards people; He

is metaphysically the source of life, which the Son transmits to those

who believe in him and who (alone) are God’s children (John 1:12-

13).

I John 2f. and was revealed to us. This is the same aorist form of

phaneroun that occurred in the first line of v. 2; there the subject was

“life,” while here it is “eternal life.” The possible connotation of

hostis discussed in the previous NOTE applies to this line as well. In

2c (“we proclaim to you”) the “we” was clearly distinct from a “you”;

and presumably the “us” here, like the “we” there, refers to the

Johannine School of tradition bearers, which was distinct from the

rest of the Johannine Community. The whole Community shared in

the revelation, of course, but the share came through the tradition-

bearers and, in turn, from the Beloved Disciple. Such is the

implication of “We proclaim in turn to you” (v. 3b below).

I John 3c. so that you may be joined in communion with us. Literally,

“have communion” (koinōnian echein), which may be stronger than

the simple verb “be in communion” (koinōnein) used in II John 11.

The noun koinōnia, which in the Johannine writings occurs only 4

times, all within the few verses of I John 1:3-7, is most important for

appreciating the self-understanding of the early Christians, especially

in the Pauline writings (which contain 13 of the 15 non-Johannine NT

uses). Yet the word is difficult to translate, e.g., “communion,

fellowship, partnership, community”: See J. Y. Campbell, “Koinōnia

and its Cognates in the New Testament,” JBL 51 (1932) 352-80 … S.

Brown, “Koinōnia as the Basis of New Testament Ecclesiology?”

One in Christ 12 (1976) 157-67. It involves both the dynamic esprit

de corps that brings people together and the togetherness that is

produced by that spirit. (Campbell points out that the parties are in

koinōnia because the have some reality in common). The equivalent

of koinōnia in GJohn is the reference to being “one” in

17:11,21,22,23; and as I suggested in AB 29A, 776-77, both

expressions, the epistolary “communion” (koinōnia) and the Gospel’s


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“one” (hen), may be attempts to render into Greek a notion like the

Hebrew yahad, “oneness, unity, community,” which is the self-

designation of the Qumran Community that produced the Dead Sea

Scrolls. …

I John 3d. Yes, for the communion we have. Literally , “and this

communion of ours, indeed” – a kai … de construction in which one

particle connects the clause to what precedes, while the other

emphasizes the noun … It occurs in John 6:51; 8:16,17; 15:27; and in

III John 12. The possessive adjective form hēmeteros, “ours,” used in

classical Greek for emphasis, is rare in the NT (8 times, including

here and I John 2:2); and its use both lends solemnity and helps to

identify the kind of communion about which the author is speaking.

I John 3de. Is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. In

Greek there is no copula “is,” but simply a juxtaposition of two or

more meta, “with,” phrases, continuing the meta phrase (“with us”) of

3c. The Latin Vulgate mistakenly makes this a part of the preceding

purpose clause: “and this communion of ours may be with the Father

… .” However, normally a subjunctive copula would not have been

omitted, and the de mentioned in the preceding NOTE indicates a shift

from the subjunctive - the communion of the Johannine School with

the Father and with Jesus already exists. The repetition of the

preposition suggests that, although a koinōnia is spoken of, this

communion does not produce a confusion of identities. In Johannine

thought the Father has a certain priority, e.g., “The Father is greater

than I” (John 14:28); “I have life because of the Father” (John 6:57).

Nevertheless, the intermediary role of Jesus between the Father and

the disciple (John 17:23: “I in them and you in me”; see 6:57) might

have led us to expect Jesus to be mentioned first: “with Jesus Christ,

the Son, and with the Father.” Perhaps the sequence used here reflects

a set Johannine phrase and word order, e.g., “the one true God and

Jesus Christ” (17:3).

This is the first instance in the Epistles of two key designations of

Jesus, “Son” (huios) and “Christ” (Christos), which we must discuss

in order. There are 79 instances of huios in the Johannine literature.

Of the 55 in GJohn, some have no theological significance, referring

to ordinary human relationship. In relation to God, however, only

Jesus is called huios, never the Christian (see Note below on 2:1a for

the use of “child, children”). Some 10 times in GJohn Jesus is

described as “the Son of God” or “His Son,” 4 of which are in his

own words (3:18; 5:25; 10:36; 11:4[?]). Another17 times GJohn uses

simply “the Son,” an absolute designation with the article. This

peculiar usage, which is found in only two Synoptic sayings (Mark

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13:32, and the “Johannine logion” of Matt 11:27 and Luke 10:22),

may have parable origins (see ABJ 29, 218-19). Of the 22 uses of

huios in I John and the 2 in II John, the form “the Son of God” (“His

Son”) occurs 17 times, and the absolute form, “the Son,” 7 times, a

frequency that is the opposite of what is found in GJohn. For the

theology of the relations between Father and Son, see ABJ 29, 407-8,

and 29A, 654-55; a key statement is John 10:30: “The Father and I

are one.”

De Jonge, “Use,” has made a significant study of the term “Christ”

in the Johannine Epistles where it occurs 11 times, as compared with

19 times in GJohn. Christos means “anointed “ and is a Greek

translation of the Aramaic or Hebrew word for Messiah (with John

1:41; 4:25 being the only NT instances of the transliterated Messias).

The use of the term as a title would have hailed Jesus as “the

Messiah” or “the Christ.” Eventually, however, the frequency of that

designation led to Christos becoming part of the combined name

“Jesus Christ,” which happens twice in GJohn (1:17; 17:3 – the latter

on Jesus’ own lips!) and 7 times in the Epistles. In 4 of these

epistolary instances “Jesus Christ” is combined with the designation

as God’s Son (here; I John 3:23; 5:20; II John 3). As background for

this development we may remember that “Messiah” was am

appropriate designation for the OT king who was anointed with oil,

and it became the designation par excellence for he awaited anointed

king who would be empowered by God to establish a perfect

kingdom for Israel, an anticipation that Christians thought was

realized in Jesus. Similarly the OT king could be thought of as God’s

son or representative (II Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7), and so Jesus as the

Messiah, or anointed king, could bear the same designation. In

Christian usage, however, both “Messiah” and “Son” took on a

coloration from the insight that in Jesus, God had made Himself

present on this earth, and so they became titles expressive of Jesus’

divinity. (In the Johannine Community divinity carried with it an

understanding of preexistence.) Thus, GJohn can express its whole

purpose in terms of these two interchangeable titles: “I have written

these things to you so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God (ABJ 29A, 1059-61). I and II John will insist that the

divine title “Christ” is inextricably tied to the human figure, Jesus (I

John 4:2-3).

I John 4b. so that our joy may be fulfilled. … The author writes as

part of that School which will have its joy fulfilled in and through

koinōnia with those members of the Johannine Community who

accept this writing. …


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The term chara, “joy,” occurs 9 times in GJohn and once in the

three Epistles. (The related verb chairein, “to rejoice,” occurs 9 times

in GJohn, 3 times in II John, once in III John.) Of the total 12

Johannine uses, half involve the passive of plēroun in the sense of joy

being fulfilled. This imagery is applied to John the Baptist (John

3:29), to Jesus (17:13), to the disciples (15:11; 16:24), and to the

writer (I John 1:4; II John 12). Of those 6 instances, 4 involve the

perfect passive participle peplērōmenos; and 3 of them have that

participle in a periphrastic construction which may be a Semitism

(MGNTG 4, 137) – the “so that our/your joy may be fulfilled” of

John 16:24; I John 1:4; and II John 12. It is noteworthy that in GJohn

all instances of “joy” but one are in the last Discourse (15:17; 16:20-

24; 17:13), where it is a future possibility opened up for Jesus’

followers by his victorious death and return. This possibility is

realized in the postresurrectional appearance of Jesus in John 20:20

where we are told, “At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced.”

Such evidence suggests that “joy,” like “peace” (see 14:27; 20:21),

designates an eschatological benefit received on becoming a believer

and entering the Johannine Community. The fulfillment of joy, then,

would be the growth and flowering of the gift received earlier – a

growth achieved through living in koinōnia with God, Christ, and

other Johannine belivers. (The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John,

Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 151-74)

COMMENT

As exemplified in GJohn and I John, it seems to be a uniquely

Johannine feature in the NT to begin major writings with a

theological Prologue.i However if, as I shall suggest, the I John

Prologue is a deliberate reflection on the GJohn Prologue, the

uniqueness belongs to GJohn. …

Nevertheless, the I John Prologue has had a significant function in

the history of winning for the Johannine corpus of writings their

authority as an eyewitness production. In the late second century, if I

John showed against Gnostic abuse that GJohn could be read in an

orthodox way, the “we have heard … seen with our eyes … looked at

and felt with our own hands” became the hallmark of apostolic

authorship. While not sharing that conclusion, I would contend that

the “what” clauses of the Prologue, though awkward grammatically,

i “The only NT rival as a Prologue might be Heb 1:1-4, but that is more closely

integrated to what follows than either Johannine Prologues.”

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have a rough eloquence and successfully hammer home the point that

the Christian proclamation involves intrinsically the ministry of Jesus

on this earth. Those clauses do not constitute a dispassionate

theological presentation but are rather an urgent manifesto called

forth by struggle. The crescendo of references to sensory experience

in 1:1 reflects defiant exasperation provoked by opposition over the

thrust of the Johannine Gospel. And so, while not an overture, the

Prologue sets the tone for I John in terms of a polemically exclusive

claim, namely, that the proclamation about Jesus made by the author

represents the authentic Gospel stemming from a true witness to

Jesus, and those who refuse to accept it have communion with neither

Father nor Son.

Let me illustrate this analysis by discussing three topics: (A) the

Flow of Ideas in the Prologue; (B) The Prologues Relation to the

GJohn Prologue; (C) the Rationale or “Why” of the Prologue.

A. Flow of Ideas

In the Notes I reached these conclusions: The “we” of v. 1

represent the Johannine School, i.e., the tradition-bearers and

interpreters of the larger Johannine Community who preserved a

witness of auditory, visual, and manual contact with Jesus, probably

stemming from the Beloved Disciple. The “what” in the string of

noun clauses in v. 1 is comprehensive of Jesus’ person, words, and

deeds “from the beginning” of his self-revelation to his disciples after

being pointed out by John the Baptist until his victory over death. The

proclamation of Jesus’ person and ministry is a message of life (1:1f),

for in Jesus an eternal life that had existed in and with God was

revealed on this earth (v. 2). Speaking as a representative of the “we,”

the author addresses this proclamation of Jesus’ ministry, this word of

life, to an audience of Johannine Christians whom he wishes to bind

in communion (koinōnia) with him; for he and the other tradition-

bearers already have communion with the Father and the Son through

the revelation of life they have received (v. 3). Communion among

the Johannine Christians (which, as we shall see, is threatened)

constitutes the author’s goal in writing and will fill out his joy (v. 4).

…

B. Relation of the I John Prologue to the GJohn Prologue


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Many commentators observe that a Prologue is an extraordinary

beginning for an epistle since it violates all the standards of letter

format. …

Dismissing, then, the purported epistolary character of the

Prologue (and of I John), I suggest that it is a reinterpretation of

GJohn Prologue, done in order to refute adversaries who are

distorting the meaning of the GJohn Prologue. In that way the

Prologue, is an essential part of I John, written to refute the same

adversaries who are distorting the meaning of the Johannine tradition

as a whole. …

Each Prologue begins with the theme of a divine reality which was

in the beginning; partway through the two Prologues (John 1:14; I

John 1:1e) the theme of life appears; in each there are double

interruptions that break the grammatical connections; in each the

theme of witness or testifying (martyrein) appears only in the paren-

thetical interruption; each Prologue deals with the visual reaction of a

“we” to the divine reality’s manifestation; and lastly each Prologue

refers to a participation with God brought about by the manifestation

of the divine reality. The passages in the GJohn Prologue that the I

John Prologue most closely echoes are 1:1 and 1:14.

Precisely because there is so much similarity between the two

Prologues, the differences are all the more startling. It is hardly

conceivable that the author who wrote the GJohn Prologue with its

careful staircase parallelism (ABJ 29, 19) and clear line of thought

would later write the more awkward I John Prologue. … Was he

someone who did not understand the GJohn Prologue? Was his

purpose a crude attempt to gain eyewitness authority for his work?

These frequently made suggestions fail to do justice to the flow of

ideas in the I John Prologue as diagnosed in the chart. Let me now

discuss a theory that makes the I John Prologue with its awkward and

careful flow of ideas intelligible.

C. The Rationale of the Prologue

In ABJ 29, 20-22 I suggested that the GJohn Prologue was

originally a hymn widely known in the Johannine tradition and that it

was prefaced to GJohn because it summarized well the main lines of

Johannine christology. Above (INTRODUCTION IV) the thesis was

proposed that I John is a response to a struggle with Johannine

adversaries who, although they believed that a divine preexistent

Word had become flesh, attributed little importance to what He had

done in the flesh. In their incarnational soteriology the very coming or

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sending of the Son of God, not his life or ministry or death, was what

brought salvation. For such adversaries the GJohn Prologue could

have been a perfect expression of their christology and their gospel: It

stressed the divine origins of the Word and how he brought light and

life into the world, but it said nothing about his early career and

death.i It offered a new status as children of God to all those who

recognized and accepted the Word come into the world.ii The

secessionist adversaries I have posited for I John might well have

made their slogan John 1:1,14,16 (the very verses that closest in

wording to the I John Prologue): “In the beginning was the Word; the

Word was in God’s presence … and the Word became flesh and made

his dwelling among us. And we looked at his glory … and of his

fullness we have all had a share.iii

If such was the case, how could the epistolary author correct his

adversaries’ (mis)use of the GJohn Prologue? He could not reject of

attack that Prologue because it was a prominent item of Johannine

tradition and, as a Johannine Christian, he himself accepted its

christology. But he could comment on the GJohn Prologue so as to

show that one can understand it properly only if one takes into

account the thrust of GJohn itself. Beginning in 1:19, GJohn is the

story of Jesus’ self-revelation in word and deed from the time of his

encounter with John the Baptist until the hour of his glorification in

passion, death, and resurrection. In this process of self-revelation

during an earthly career, it becomes clear that Jesus is the preexistent

Son of God who has come down from heaven. Logically the GJohn

Prologue placed that incarnation first, but such a highlighting of the

incarnation makes sense only if it is seen as a preface to the life and

death of Jesus which it presupposes – that is why the Prologue hymn

is prefaced to the gospel story which now follows it. The adversaries

of I John have ignored the presuppositions and thrust of the gospel

story and thus (in the epistolary author’s judgment) have distorted the

i “Contrast the emphasis on these features in Philip 2:8-9; Col 1:18b; and Eph 1:20.” ii “Later gnostics would contend that through faith people did not become God’s

children but recognized that they were already God’s children (see Introduction V

D1).” iii “It is too often thought that the GJohn Prologue was anti-docetic and that the

secessionist who were docetist could not have accepted it. In the Introduction above (V D2b and IV B3b) I have denied all aspects of that claim. If later the secessionist of I John became docetist, they would have reinterpreted the “became flesh” of John 1:14 as “”was manifest in the flesh” (footnote 252 above). Ptolemaeus and the Valentinian gnostics had no problem about interpreting in a gnostice manner the GJohn Prologue in general and 1:14 in particular (Iranaeus, Adv. haer. 1.8.5).”


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import of the GJohn Prologue. To demonstrate this he reshapes some

of the well known and significant phrases of the GJohn Prologue to

write his own Prologue reminding the reader of the presuppositions of

the gospel story. The awkwardness of the I John Prologue, then,

stems from an attempt to give familiar wording a different emphasis.

Well has Houlden (Epistles 48) remarked, “The incoherence of the

opening of I John is symbolic of the bewildering and perplexing

nature of the challenge.” Let us now see this line by line.

The GJohn Prologue started with “the beginning”; the epistolary

author reuses that expression in another meaning that is just as

authentically Johannine.i He would say that GJohn is correct: In the

beginning before creation there was a divine Word who ultimately

became flesh. But he would add that the only way this can be known

is from another beginning when the Son began to reveal himself to

disciples who could hear him, see him with their eyes, and tough him

with their own hands.ii It is said that in the procedure of Greek courts

an action had to be verified by two senses – I John supplies a third.

But even without that background, in v. 1 there is clearly a crescendo

of verbs to give emphasis to the reality of Jesus’ earthly career. The

GJohn Prologue reacted to the incarnation in v. 14 with the claim,

“We have looked at his glory”; the I John Prologue stresses that the

glory was of one who lived a life so real that it can further be claimed,

“We looked at (him) and felt with our own hands.” The GJohn

Prologue spoke of the experience of a “we” who were the whole

Johannine Community (see INTRODUCTION, footnote 218). The

epistolary author could concede that the whole Community does

share an eschatological existential encounter with the Word become

flesh. But this is possible only because there was a group who

encountered Jesus historically, and so he would maintain that the

“we” of the GJohn Prologue presupposed and included them. To

stress this he reuses the “we” to bring out the eyewitness roots of the

Community experience, and the “looking at” of GJohn 1:14. He

reinterprets the “Word” from the GJohn Prologue to mean the

message preached during his ministry by Jesus and afterwards by the

(Paraclete-inspired) witness-bearers of the Johannine School. The

secessionist may rhapsodize about a preexistent Word, but such a

Word can be known only because on this earth Jesus spoke an audible

“word.” The secessionist may rhapsodize about a life that the

i “John 2:11; 6:64; 15:27; 16:4.” ii “We may suspect that the secessionist adversaries would not have appreciated I

John’s stress on seeing and hearing in a sensory manner. …”

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preexistent Word brought to believers (John 1:4,12-13), but that is

possible only because God’s Son lived out on this earth a career

which revealed him to be the embodiment of the eternal life that was

in the Father’s presence. In a parenthetical interruption in the GJohn

Prologue (1:6-8) John the Baptist bears witness or testifies to a light

that was coming into the world. In v. 2, a parenthetical interruption in

the I John Prologue, the “we” bears witness or testifies to an eternal

life that has been revealed in the world. It is noteworthy the epistolary

author does not repeat the Word “was in the world” (as in John 1:10),

nor describe the Word as having come or having been sent (typical

GJohn terms) – although true, those images would not do justice to

what happened at the incarnation. Rather, I John states twice that the

life was revealed (to us), using the verb phaneroun that was first

employed in GJohn for the beginning of the public ministry. The

Baptist revealed Jesus to Israel (John 1:31) and Jesus revealed his

glory through the miraculous sign he performed at Cana (2:11; see

also 7:4; 9:3). … I John’s distinction in the Prologue is not

completely foreign to GJohn; for 20:29 distinguishes between those

who have seen and those who have not seen but still have believed,

while 17:6,20 distinguishes between those to whom Jesus directly

revealed (phaneroun) himself and those who would believe in him on

the word (logos) of the first group. Thus, even in the Johannine

Community where the role of the Paraclete in GJohn had earlier been

said about Jesus, so that the paraclete is to Jesus as Jesus is to the

Father. The epistolary author has the same mentality, but he

emphasizes the “we” instead of the Paraclete. In I John 3:31-32 Jesus

describes the “we” in the same language: “We have seen and testify

… what we have seen and heard, we proclaim in turn to you.” The

shift is intelligible if the secessionist were claiming that the Paraclete-

Spirit authenticated their teaching (as we may suspect from the order

in I John 4:1,6 to test the Spirits to distinguish “the Spirit of Truth,”

which is another name for the Paraclete in John 14:7; 15:26; and

16:13). The epistolary author refutes such a claim by pointing out the

lack of secessionist agreement with the human witnesses through

whom the Paraclete speaks, as indicated in John 15:26 where the

witness of the Paraclete is set side by side with the instruction: “You

too should bear witness because you to have been with me from the

beginning.” All of the Johannine background lies behind the author’s

statement, “What was from the beginning … what we have seen and

heard, we proclaim in turn to you.” …


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Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ2 he Son of

God. NET

2tn The genitive in the phrase tou' eujaggelivou *Ihsou'

Cristou' (tou euangeliou Ihsou Cristou, “the gospel of Jesus Christ”)

could be translated as either a subjective genitive (“the gospel which

Jesus brings [or proclaims]”) or an objective genitive (“the gospel about

Jesus Christ”). Either is grammatically possible. This is possibly an

instance of a plenary genitive (see ExSyn 119-21; M. Zerwick, Biblical

Greek, §§36-39). If so, an interplay between the two concepts is

intended: The gospel which Jesus proclaims is in fact the gospel about

himself. sn The first verse of Mark’s Gospel appears to function as a title: The

beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is not certain,

however, whether Mark intended it to refer to the entire Gospel, to the

ministry of John the Baptist, or through the use of the term beginning

(ajrchv, arch) to allude to Genesis 1:1 (in the Greek Bible, LXX). The

most likely option is that the statement as a whole is an allusion to Genesis 1:1 and that Mark is saying that with the “good news” of the

coming of Christ, God is commencing a “new beginning.”

Two suppositions by the author are noteworthy: the “we” is

already in communion with the Father and with His Son, Jesus

Christ,i and the “you” is yet to be joined in this communion. It is a

clear teaching of GJohn that Jesus brought the Father’s life to earth

and made possible a union with the Father, the Son, and the believer.

Like life, koinōnia, “communion,” has been brought from heaven to

earth, for there was a communion of the Father and the Son before the

incarnation and it is into that communion that the believers are

brought.ii The author does not need to prove this in I John, for the

secessionist claim such a communion for themselves (1:6; 2:6). The

author challenges that claim by a distinction suggesting that not all

who are the Johannine perspective possess union with God. The “we”

of the tradition-bearers possess it, and so do the more general “you”

when they are united to the “we.” This excludes the adversaries who

i “In the Note on 3de I showed that the designation “Jesus Christ,” attested in GJohn,

is related to evaluating Jesus as the Son of God. The usage here may be antisecessionist, since the adversaries will be accused of denying that Jesus (in his human career) is the Christ (I John 5:1).” ii “31 In GJohn this is expressed in terms of “being in” (einai en) or “abiding in”

(menien en) . See John 14:23 and ABJ 29, 511-12; 29A, 602-3.”

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“went out from us, not that they really belonged to us; for if they had

belonged to us, they would have remained with us” (2:19). …

This neuralgic difference between the author and the secessionist

about union with God may be reflected in his choice of the term

koinōnia, “communion,” which never appears in the GJohn.

Schnackenburg (Johannesbriefe 64) is right when he says that

koinōnia can serve as a nominal expression for what GJohn covers by

verbs of indwelling (footnote 31 above). However, would the

secessionist who gladly employed the verbs to express union with

God have been happy with this noun which in NT usage was more

frequently used for union among Christiansi than for union with

God? ii As I pointed out in the NOTE on v. 3c, it is a word with a

definite “ecclesiastical” tone that the author may wish to stress

against the secessionist. While the secessionist had a certain sense of

union among themselves, their theology of direct union with God

probably meant that they could not give to a union among themselves

the salvific value attributed to communion among believers in I John

1:3 where it becomes sina qua non of being united to God. Certainly

they did not accept I john’s interpretation of koinōnia, which involved

adhesion to the interpretation of what was seen and heard as

proclaimed by the Johannine School (of which the author was part).

… The goal of the whole revelatory process described in the

Prologue is not only communion but joy: We are writing this so that

our joy may be fulfilled.” Just as the epistolary author has modified

the GJohn tradition of a direct relation between the believers and the

Father/Son (by the introduction of communion with “us” to form a

triangular pattern), so he has modified the tradition about the joy that

binds Jesus and the believers: “I have said this to you that my joy may

be yours and your joy may be fulfilled.” The author has made this

also triangular by speaking of “our joy,” i.e., the joy of the Johannine

School when, with and through them, the believers are joined in

communion with the Father/Son. iii

Perhaps once again he could

i “See Acts 2:42; Philip 1:5; Gal 2:9; II Cor 8:4; 9:13; Rom 15:26; Philem 6; Heb

13:6.” ii “With the Holy Spirit in Philip 2:1; II Cor 13:13; with Christ in I Cor 1:9; 10:16

…” iii “… Bultmann, Epistles 14, however, is right when he recognizes that the author is

speaking of eschatological joy, which is the same as peace or life (ABJ 29A, 681). Compare John 10:10: “That they may have life and have to the full.” Moreover, since the joy comes from bringing the “you" into communion with the Father/Son (through communion with “us”), compare John 17:3: “Eternal life consists in this: that they know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ [Messiah], the one you sent.”


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justify this by resorting to the kind of tradition found in John 17

where Jesus distinguishes between his immediate disciples and “those

who believe in me through their word” (17:20) and where he prays

“that they may share my joy to the full” 17:13). For the author that

second generation of Johannine Christians could enter into this full

joy, but they could not bypass those who had seen, heard, and felt.

(The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 174-

87)

Dr. R. E. Brown: - Who then is the Liar?:

2:22 Who, then, who is the Liar?

None other than the person who that denies Jesus is the Christ.

Such is the Antichrist:

The person who denies the Father and the Son.

2:23 No person who denies the Son

possesses the Father either,

while the person who confesses the Son

possesses the Father as well.

I John 2:22b None other than. Literally ei mē means “unless” or “if

not.” An exact parallel of the rhetorical question followed by ei mē is

I John 5:5: “Who then is the conqueror of the world? None other than

…” See also I Cor 2:11; II Cor 2:2.

The person that denies that Jesus is the Christ. The literal Greek

construction

I John 2:22d the person who denies the Father and the Son. For the

peculiar Johannine tendency to use “the Father” and “the Son”

absolutely, without modifier, see the NOTES above on 1:2e and 1:3de.

Presumably “the Father” is put first to underline the heinousness of

the denial; in fact, however, the secessionist are never accused of

denying the Father separately from their christology. There is no

evidence that they separated the Father from the Creator, regarding

the latter as a demiurge …

Comments - Anointing as a Reassurance against Secessionist Lies (1

John 2:20-23)

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Hitherto the author’s attacks on boasts and claims (implicitly

against the secessionists) have concerned walking in darkness, not

keeping the commandments, not loving one’s brother, and pretending

to be sinless – ethical issues that gave the lie to perfectionists attitudes

of knowing God, being in communion with and abiding in Him (1:5-

2:11). Only in this subunit does it at last become clear that a

christological issue sparked the secession, something that we might

have guessed from GJohn which is so single-mindedly christological.

Since only one group of secessionist is involved (INTRODUCTION IV

B1), the ethical indifference to commandments, to how one walks,

and to sin must somehow be related to the denial “that Jesus is the

Christ.” In the NOTE on 2:22b I have argued that in this confession

“Jesus” means for the author the incarnate Word in his life and death,

while the secessionists would acknowledge primarily the preexistent

Word as the Christ, the Son of God, with the incarnation adding

nothing essential.i Their failure to appreciate the way he walked,

leads to their failure to appreciate the importance of the way in which

Christians must walk – that is how their christological and ethical

errors are connected.ii Even more disastrously, their failure to

appreciate the death of Jesus on the cross (his blood) makes them

misunderstand that we have become God’s children – not through the

incarnation alone but through the crucifixion. And so their denial of

Jesus (the incarnate Word) as the Christ or the Son is tantamount to a

denial of the fatherhood of God (2:22c-23). iii

In reference to the preexistent Word who is in the world (but

without any emphasis on his career or death) the GJohn prologue says

that those who believe in his name are those begotten by God (John

1:10-12). It is not obvious, then, from GJohn that the secessionist is

unfaithful to Johannine tradition, and understandably the epistolary

author fears that the secessionists may deceive his adherents (1 John

2:26). His first and main support against them is that his adherents

have been anointed with the Holy Spirit, a gift from Christ, when they

i “I suspect that, being Johannine Christians, the secessionist could say “Jesus is the

Christ” but with different emphasis – the Christ became Jesus. …” ii “Walking as Christ walked helped to make the author’s adherents “Christian”; the

failure to do so helped make the secessionists “Antichrists.”” iii “For the author denying the Son as equivalent to denying the Father is an

intellectual matter but one relative to Christian life itself. In 2:23ab, I followed the thesis that it may be related to “having” divine realities (God’s life, light, love, word, etc.) so that through them the believers “have” God within themselves.”


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began their Christian life (2:20a, 27a,e). i The Paraclete/Spirit who

guides along the way of all truth (John 16:3) gives all of them

knowledge about Christ. The author never denies that His adversaries

were once anointed. If that argument were possible, his silence is

most curious since it would have been an excellent polemic point.

Rather, if anointing was received when one became a Christian, the

secessionists as former members of the Community necessarily would

have been anointed. This is consonant with their obvious claim to

possess the Spirit (1 Joh 4:1). In that case how does anointing (with

the Spirit) guarantee a correct knowledge of Christ for the author’s

adherents if anointing did not protect the secessionist from diabolic

deceit? Hidden beneath the oratory in 2:20,27 about the effectiveness

of the anointing as a teacher of the Christian is the author’s

presupposition that the Spirit will confirm the Johannine School’s

interpretation of the Gospel because the Spirit inspired that

interpretation. In other words the author assumes the criterion that he

will make explicit in 4:6: “Anyone who has knowledge of God listens

to us … That is how we can know the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit

of Deceit.” Dodd, Epistles 54, phrases this well: “He writes with

authority just because he is confident that he expresses the Corporate

convictions of the Church, which will be recognized as such by all

humble and sincere believers.” ii

In 2:20b the author says to his adherents, “All of you have

knowledge.” He is clearly contrasting his adherents (the “you”) with

the secessionists of whom he has just said, “None of them belongs to

us”; and his stress on knowledge contradicts their claim to know God

(2:4). Probably the secessionist maintained that they were the only

ones to have such knowledge, charging that those who did not join

them were ignorant and immature. If such propaganda was making

the author’s adherents uncertain of themselves, he is now assuring

them that they know the truth (2:21) and possess the Father and the

Son (2:23). …

i “In the long NOTE on 2:20a, in discussing four disputed points about “the chrisma

from the Holy One,” I concluded that the chrisma probably means anointing and not simply ointment, that the anointing may have been physical and was probably associated with entrance into the Community, that the anointing was symbolic of the gift of the Spirit, and that the Holy One who was the source of the anointing was Christ.” ii “Dodd continues, “It is to him and to others like him that we owe it that the faith

emerged from the stage of fluidity with new forms of thought and expression adapted to its wider environment, but with its Gospel intact.””

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The covenant setting of the author’s language, if it goes back to

the Johannine Community patterns of conversion, initiation, or

baptism (or all three), helps to explain the wording of the

christological confessions in 2:22-23. If the author and the seces-

sionist disagree about the meaning of “Jesus” (incarnate Word or

preexistent Word) in the confession, “Jesus is the Christ” (2:22c),

why does he not phrase the christological statement more exactly in

order to exclude the secessionist interpretation, e.g., “The Word-

became-flesh is the Christ”? The answer is that, since he and the

secessionist are arguing about the right interpretation of the Johannine

tradition and since he is claiming to represent what was from the

beginning, he has to remain faithful to confessions that his readers

would remember from their conversion/initiation/baptism. From John

20:31 one may guess that an entrance into the Community, Johannine

Christians confessed, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”; and so his

references in 2:22-23 concern those who deny that Jesus is the Christ

or deny the Son. Since his readers were anointed (with the Spirit)

when they first made that confession, such anointing should keep

them faithful to the true christology implicit in the Johannine

understanding of the confession. This is particularly necessary in “the

last hour.” If the secessionist are the fulfillment of the apocalyptic

expectation of the great apostasy and deceit of the last times, the

continuance of those who make a true christological confession

fulfills the tradition that connects a confession of or by Jesus with the

last judgment (Matt 10:32-33; Rev 3:5; Rom:9-10). (The Anchor

Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 368-71)

This writer: Summary John’s Epistles and Intro?:

The short, but terse, Letter of 2 John to the “elect lady” contains this

warning against false teachers: “But now I ask you, lady (not as if I were

writing a new commandment to you, but the one we have had from the

beginning), that we love one another. (Now this is love: that we walk

according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you

have heard from the beginning; thus you should walk in it. For many

deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus

as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the

antichrist! Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked

for, but receive a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not

remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who

remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone


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comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into

your house and do not give him any greeting, because the person who

gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds” (2 John 1:5-11). It is thus

demonstrated, in the primitive church, that teachers had gone out with a

false gospel which “separated” the Son from the Father (seemingly a

early form of adoptionism or dynamic Monarchianism, but certainly not

a matured Gnosticism that suggested a mythic “divine seed” in all men

that may be sparked by secret knowledge. Paul had to contend with a

form of this in his Epistle to the Colossians). These same teachers and

their followers would not confess that Jesus is the Christ. Their error was

not in the predicate of the confession statement, rather it was who the

man Jesus was, i.e., Jesus come in the flesh (viz., the virgin birth) from

the Father. This being a major contradiction to the “intended” meaning in

the GJohn Prologue. The Letter of 1 John was to assure the remaining

church that Jesus Christ had been granted eternal life by the Father to

give to those who would believe that He came from the Father. The

following verses paint the picture of the immutable “eternal life” (zōēn

aiōnion) of God, the “fullness” (pleroma), received at the moment of

salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Heb 2:11 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy

all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them

brothers and sisters, NET

John 20:31 But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus

is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life

in his name. NET

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true

God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. NET

1 John 3:23 Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the

name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us

the commandment. 3:24 And the person who keeps his

commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we

know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us. NET

John 15:12 My commandment is this—to love one another just as I

have loved you. NET

John 16:27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved

me and have believed that I came from God. 16:28 I came from the

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Father and entered into the world, but in turn, I am leaving the world

and going back to the Father.” NET

John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they

follow me. 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish;

no one will snatch them from my hand. 10:29 My Father, who has

given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them

from my Father’s hand. 10:30 The Father and I are one.” NET

John 15:26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from

the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will

testify about me, NET

What may be stated, so far, is that the Christology of the those who

“went out” from the Johannine church in Asia Minor, after the death of

both Paul and Peter, was a contemporary opinion that denied the writings

and teachings of the Apostles John, Peter, and Paul – that the Father and

Son are one. They denied Jesus incarnate, “begotten by God” and born in

the flesh. They would confess only a preincarnate Son of God.

Furthermore, based on this false assumption - that Jesus became Christ at

His baptism by John the Baptist - their conceptions of the Christian life,

after being “begotten by God,” were radically different than that of the

main body they had separated from. Several commentators infer that this

group of secessionists were the more well to do “young Turks” who

asserted that lifestyle did not matter after being “born from above.” To

this point, the main thrust of the author’s argument is pointed. Because

they misused the authority of Scripture, they deemed their Christian

brothers in error and themselves the more enlightened. The determining

behavior – combined with promoting sinful lifestyles – that proved this

group was unregenerate, was the fact that they did not love their

Christian brothers when they left and sent out false teachers to recruit

others to join them in their unbelief. The author asserts they did not have

eternal life because, “Everyone who has been begotten by God does not

act sinfully because God’s seed abides in him.”

There is one great, paramount condemning sin of the unsaved that is

not redeemed, all other sins by believers are forgiven. Because all sin has

been redeemed by grace in the blood of Christ, and does not, and will not

ever condemn a believer. Thereby a believer may confidently boast in the

Lord Jesus Christ and his God who saved him, declaring openly, without

reservation: Who is the master of my judgment? “Who will bring any

charge against God’s elect [me]? It is God who justifies [me]. Who is the

one who will condemn [me]? Christ is the one who died [for me] (and


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more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who

also is interceding for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”

(Rom 8:33-35) (brackets mine). Christ, who is at the right hand of God,

immediately advocates the believer’s sin before the accuser of all

believers – Satan – and pleads His substitution sufficient for that sin. Not

until all believers are removed from this earth will Satan be released

from accusing believers day and night before God. Unconfessed sins by a

believer will ever and always certainly effect communion with God, but

never, never is the union broken between God and a believer. The

Apostle Paul directed the following response to the inherent charge, that

up to this very day, is consistently leveled at God’s salvation by grace:

“And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”?—as

some who slander us allege that we say. (Their condemnation is

deserved!)” (Rom 3:8).

To make evil seem good is the standard method of deceit: “the

serpent said to the woman, ‘Surely you will not die’” (Gen 3:4ff). Almost

universally, a heart rending, sentimental, tear-filled request for forgive-

ness appears saintly, but of itself, falls far short of confession to an

adjustment that needs to be made, or a request for help in avoiding sinful

behavior. Herein is the root, the core, the heart of darkness that sustains

the Rectoral or Governmental theory and the Negative gospel that would

demand the insulting requests that are sent to God day and night by those

professing to be Christians. To be free of deception and unbelief, the

primary observation to be maintained by those who would dare to preach

God’s gospel of grace to the unsaved, is here emphatically stated:

No one who belongs to this world need ever ask Jesus to die again.

Forgiveness is secured for the unsaved, but not saving faith in

forgiveness.

No one who does not belong to this world need ever insult God’s grace

and His Son’s death by asking for forgiveness.

Forgiveness is secured for the saved, but not confession and adjustment.

One may well note, the distinction between a singular and plural

reference to sin. The unsaved are guilty of the condemning sin of

unbelief. To ask for forgiveness from God is unbelief. The unsaved are

not required and cannot confess their sins because their personal sins are

redeemed but not forgiven. Nor may the unsaved - to receive salvation -

ask for forgiveness which is the absolute opposite of believing that all

their sins have been paid for by the Savior, Jesus Christ. The saved do

not have the burden to ask for forgiveness - the saved have the burden to

confess forgiven sins of the flesh; the old nature that yet remains an

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adversary along with the world, and the devil. Which encompasses the

combined worldly environment of the cosmos diabolicus. Jesus said of

those who believed in Him, “If you belonged to the world, the world

would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the

world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates

you” (John 15:18). If anyone belongs to this world, that person belongs

to Satan. The author of 1 John declares, “The one who practices sin is of

the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this

purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil”

(1 John 3:8).

Dr. R. E. Brown: The Abiding Seed:

1 John 3:9b because God’s seed abides in him. Literally, “his

sperma abides in him,” …

(A) Sperma means offspring. In John 8:33,37 there is a debate

whether the Jews are the sperma of Abraham, while in 7:42 the

tradition is cited that the Messiah is supposed to from the sperma of

David. Thus in three of four Johannine uses sperma means

“offspring.” … But Christians are never called the sperma of God,

even though in the argument in Rom 9:6-9 they are called both the

promised sperma (offspring) of Abraham and ‘the children [pl.

teknon] of God.” Since the Johannine writers think of Christians as

those begotten by God, there would be less objection than there was

in the instance of Christ to their being considered God’s offspring.

But would the term sperma be used for that idea, since sperma as

“offspring” always seems to mean physical descendants for John

(7:42; 8:33, 37)? The pl. of teknon would be the more normal

Johannine terminology for God’s offspring. The most, then, that one

can say for this interpretation of 3:9b is that it does not lack all

possibility.

(B) Sperma means male generating seed. In this case “his seed”

would surely be God’s seed. (Theoretically “his” might refer to the

one begotten by God, but even then he would have received the seed

from God.) The “in him” would refer to the Christian. Some balk at

the crude anthropomorphism involved when speaking of God’s

sperm; but the imagery is no more difficult than that of God begetting

Christians. What spiritual reality is symbolized by “God’s seed”?

There is no agreement among the commentators. … (The RSV

renders “his seed” as “God’s nature.”) Undoubtedly, in Johannine

thought the one begotten by God has both a new life and a new nature


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in the sense of now being from above rather than from below.

However, would not the basic meaning of sperma suggest that we

think of the agent of life rather than life itself, and correspondingly of

that which causes us to be from above? Some of the Greek Fathers

(Severus of Antioch, Didymus the Blind, Maximus the Confessor)

spoke of the sperma as an interior force by which the soul ceases to

be oriented towards sin, and it is a form of this interpretation that

Bonsirven and Charue share. The medieval theologians thought the

author meant grace, and they enunciated the principle that grace and

sin cannot be in the soul at the same time. In this they are articulating

a NT insight in the language of later theology. Closer to the mentality

of the NT period are the theories that sperma represents God’s word

or the Holy Spirit. Commentators usually decide for one or the other.

… Du Preez, “Sperma” 107, has a formula that covers almost every

theory: The sperma is “that new life born of God, given in Christ,

communicated by the Spirit, and realized in practice by the

proclaimed word.” Cautioned that we should not be too narrow in our

interpretation, I think it nevertheless useful to examine the arguments

for giving it a more precise meaning.

(1) God’s word: “because God’s seed [word] abides in him [the

Christian begotten by God].” … Certainly the word of God or of

Christ is an active force in Johannine thought, making the disciples

clean (John 15:3) and abiding in the Christian (15:7; 1 John 2:14, 24).

And since opposition to the devil is in the context here, it may be

noted that the GJohn passage on the devil (8:44) stresses the role of

truth and is preceded by an appeal to abide in Jesus (8:31-32).

However, nothing in Johannine literature associates the word with the

begetting of the Christian even though that is found elsewhere in the

NT, e.g., “He brought us forth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:18); “You

have been born anew, not of perishable seed [spora] but of

imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet

1:23). In the NT the word of God is called spora (or sporos in Luke

8:11) but never sperma; … The oft-cited passage in 1 Cor 4:15, “I

have begotten you through the gospel,” is not apropos, since Paul, not

God, is the begetting agent. Certainly there is ample biblical evidence

for wisdom, revelation, or truth as a principle fortifying people

against sin, … Overall, however, the evidence is not very strong that

the epistolary author thought of the word of God as a seed that both

begets the Christians and abides in them so that they cannot be

sinners.

(2) Holy Spirit: “because God’s seed [Spirit] abides in him [the

Christian begotten by God].” This view (as the primary interpretation)

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has been held in Reformation times by Calvin and Beza, and in

modern times by Balz, {etc}. … Since I have frequently stressed the

New Covenant setting of 1 John, the promise in the New Covenant

passage in Ezekiel (36:26-27) is worth remembering: “A new heart

will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you … and I will put my

spirit within you.” The Spirit is clearly a factor in begetting in John

3:5 – the kind of passage the author may be presuming when, without

explanation, he relates divine begetting with God’s abiding seed in 1

John 3:9. The risen Jesus breathing forth the Spirit upon His disciples

who are now His brothers in John 20:17, 22 (see ABJ 29A, 1015-16)

could also be invoked. As for the element of abiding, the

Spirit/Paraclete was given by Jesus “to be with you forever” (14:16);

and if in 1 John 2:27 the anointing is with the Spirit, that anointing

abides in the Christian. Also in 1 John 3:24 and 4:13 divine abiding is

associated with the Spirit. If we are told here the Christian cannot be a

sinner, the Spirit/Paraclete is presented as the great opponent of sin,

convicting the world on this subject (John 16:8-9). … Yet overall I

think the evidence favors identifying God’s seed with the Spirit rather

than with His word. But in the long run the exact identification is not

so important, so long as we recognize that the author is talking about

a divine agency for begetting God’s children, which not only brings

us into being but also remains and keeps us His children.

1 John 3:9d has been begotten by God. This is the perfect passive

tense of gennan, “to beget, give birth to,” or “[passive] to be begotten

/born,” followed by the prepositional phrase “from him [autos].”

Grammatically there is no way to know whether autos refers to Christ

as did the three uses of autos in 2:28, or is being used after the

preceding reference to Christ (2:29a – in the verbal form “he is”) to

change the agency to God. A third possibility is that autos refers

imprecisely to both Christ and God the Father (Vincent Cernuda). …

The attention that the epistolary author gives to the phrase “begotten

by God” makes it reasonably certain that the secessionists were using

it, but the suggestion that he borrowed it is from them is quite

unnecessary. John 3:5 makes it more likely that divine begetting was

part of the language of admission to the Johannine Community and

thus a heritage common to both the author’s adherents and the seces-

sionists. What secessionist interpretation of divine begetting is the

author refuting? Since he never attacks a claim that the Christians are

children of God before birth, I deem it unlikely that the secessionist

had moved into the full Gnostic myth. What the author does criticize

is the failure to draw the proper implications of being begotten by


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God. This becomes apparent when we put together the statements of 1

John on divine begetting:

2:29 Everyone who acts justly has been begotten by God

3:9 Everyone who has been begotten by God does not act sinfully

He cannot be a sinner because he has been begotten by God

4:7 Everyone who loves has been begotten by God

5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begot-

ten by God

5:5 All that is begotten by God conquers the world

5:18 No one who has been begotten by God commits sin

The one begotten by God is protected … the Evil One cannot

touch Him

The statement in 5:1 indicates that right belief is a necessary

condition for being begotten by God; so presumably the author would

deny that the secessionists are thus begotten. The rest of the

statements show that divine begetting not only brings the gift of life

but manifests itself in a way of life, especially in acting justly (and

not sinfully) and in manifesting love. … If one judges a persons

humanity not simply on his having been begotten by human parents

but on his living in a human manner, the same may be said of a

person’s relationship to a God. De la Potterie, La vérité 2, 604ff.,

makes this valid point; but with his usual predilection for the theory

of exact Johannine theological grammar, he would argue that the 6

Johannine uses of gennan in the aorist tense refer to receiving the

divine word which begets, while the 11 uses of in the perfect tense

indicate continuance and express the idea of belonging to God as His

child. … No matter how one modifies or relativizes the 1 John claims

to sinlessness and impeccability, the truth in those claims comes from

the divine principle that begot Christians and that remains active in

them. … No matter what the author thought, the wording of his

affirmations about sinlessness and impeccability is not sufficiently

nuanced. In struggling to understand this, Augustine (In Epistolam

4.8; SC 75, 234) perceptively stressed the relationship of the divine

principle(3:6: abiding in Christ; 3:9a: being begotten by God; 3:9b:

having God’s seed abiding in one) and the claimed power against sin:

“To the extent that the Christian remains in Christ, to that extent he

does not sin.” Others have phrased the idea less succinctly, but this

approach runs through commentators of various times and places. The

Greek church fathers thought of the seed of God as an interior force

by which the soul, no longer oriented toward sin, allows itself to be

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led by a dynamism that makes it incapable of choosing evil. A

modern writer (La Rondelle, Perfection 232) states, “John bases the

impossibility of sinning not in the Christian as such, but in the

transforming and keeping presence of God’s Seed, i.e., in the Christus

praesens who is ‘greater than he who is in the world’ (4,4).”

According to Prunet, Morale 92, the author believes that the new

nature given by divine begetting produces a new humanity incapable

of sin. To the extent that the principle of life is active, but only to that

extent, sin is impossible. One may debate about the precise way in

which GJohn has portrayed divine begetting as operative, but for 1

John “having been begotten’ means more than a terminated divine

creative activity of the past. Whether the seed is the Word of God or

His Holy Spirit (Note on 2:9b), it remains active after it has brought

the child of God into being. In John 6:44 Jesus says, “No one can

come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”; the drawing

towards Jesus continues after one has first come to him.

One is forced, then, to understand the claims to sinlessness and

impeccability in 1 John 3:6,9 in light of the statements on status in

3:1,2. We are God’s children already and there is a freedom from sin

attached to that state. Jesus had issued the challenge, “If you really

are Abraham’s children, you would do works worthy of Abraham”

(John 8:9). The epistolary author has his own variation on that theme,

“You really are God’s children, and so you must do works worthy of

God, and not sin which is the work of the devil.” But in this last hour

he recognizes that we are not yet all that we shall be, and so there is a

growth in God’s children. The divine seed abides and continues to

transform the child of God into the image of God’s Son which is the

image of God Himself, until at the final revelation we are like God

Himself. The more that this divine seed transforms the Christian, the

more impossible it is for the Christian to sin. I have insisted

throughout that the author is attacking a static understanding of divine

begetting that is held by the secessionists, for whom divine childhood

is a once-for-all gift and not a life that has to express itself in the

behavior of the Christian. A further corollary for the author is that this

life not only expresses itself in action but also grows, and increasing

sinlessness is a mark of that growth. At the beginning of their

Christian existence believer’s choose to come to the light rather than

to the darkness (John 3:19-21). But walking toward the light and

away from darkness is an ongoing movement, until finally we come

to the God who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all (1

John 1:5).


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Their [the secessionist] attitude toward sin constitutes the Iniquity

because by finding sin inconsequential they are supposing that God

(who dwells in the Christian) can be manifested publicly in evil

actions. The characteristic of the Antichrist as the distorted mirror-

image of Christ is to make evil seem good, and that is a function of

the Iniquity [lawlessness] as well. Sin as the Iniquity opposed to Jesus

who was revealed to Israel as the Lamb of God who takes away the

sin of the world (John 1:29). In GJohn the singular noun referred to

the basic sin of refusing to believe in the light, but the plural noun of

1 John 3:5 (“Christ was revealed to take away sins”) directs the

opposition to all types of evil that turn people away from the light

(see John 3:20). There was nothing sinful in Christ, and there can be

nothing sinful in the Christian (1 John 3:6).

The author was saying in 3:6 that the person who commits sin is

not a Christian, but he phrases this in terms of never having seen

Christ. He has been talking about a future in which Christians will see

God as He is, but in Johannine thought true believer’s have already

seen God in Christ. “Whomever has seen me has seen the Father,”

says Jesus (John 14:9). Thus the judgment that the epistolary author

passes here is tantamount to denying his adversaries the true Christian

experience of God. This writing began with the author laying claim to

the Johannine tradition about Jesus, “What we have seen with our

own eyes” (1:1c); and now he is excluding the secessionist from all

share in such tradition.

The second hostile judgment (3:6c) adds “nor come to know him”

to the charge of never having seen him. In John 16:3 Jesus judged

“the Jews” in the same way, “They never knew the Father nor me.” In

1 John 2:5 the author denied a (secessionist) claim to know God

which was not based on keeping the commandments; here he denies

knowledge of Christ to those who sin. Clearly there is no halfway

house between the Johannine Community who know both Christ and

the Father (1 John 2:14bd) and the secessionist who know neither.

The failure to know is not ignorance but is culpable, reflecting a

decision to turn away from the light, a decision embodied in going

out from the Community (2:19). Part of the expectation of the New

Covenant was that all God’s people would know the Lord from the

least to the greatest and that God would forgive their sins (Jer 31

[38]:34). The secessionist are excluded on both scores. …

In John 16:8 the task of the Paraclete is to prove the world wrong

about sin, justice (dikaiosynē), and judgment. The theme of judgment

is implied in 1 John 2:28, and the themes of acting justly (doing

dikaiosynē) and acting sinfully (doing sins) are explicit in 2:29 and

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3:4. The epistolary author is playing the role of the Paraclete in

proving the secessionist wrong about sin, justice and judgment. What

was originally a task of defending the Johannine Community against

outsiders (“the Jews”) has now become a task of defending the

author’s adherents against their former brethren. (pp 427-28)

(The Anchor Bible - The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 427-

28; pp 408-11; pp 384-87; pp 430-31)

Dr. Lewis Chafer: - Empty: Vol 6 p 45

Dr. R. E. Brown: Catechesis Baptismal Hymns

In formulating the thesis that baptismal hymns influenced 1 Peter,

Boismard compared in detail this unit of 1 John with 1 Peter 1 and

Titus 2-3. … Clearly there is a remarkable number of similarities. …

However, the similarities are more of ideas than of wording. For

example, even in the remarkable idea of begetting through divine

seed shared by 1 John and 1 Peter, two different words for seed

(sperma, spora) are used. A less demanding hypothesis would

recognize would recognize that the similarities between the two

works are neither accidental nor the result of direct copying but are

best explained if these works (and Titus as well) represent

exhortations drawn from a common body of ideas. The most plausible

locus for such a body of ideas would be the process of entrance into

the Christian community. In such an entrance one might well wish to

emphasize: God’s love and mercy in begetting us as His children; that

this was accomplished through the appearance of Jesus Christ; that

there is still a future to be unveiled for which we should hope; that

Christ who was sinless took away sin; that we are challenged to be

holy and pure as He was; and that love of brother was His basic

demand.

The evidence adduced by Boismard’s comparisons strengthens the

case I have been making throughout the commentary that the author

is reminding his readers of the Johannine theology proclaimed to

them and accepted by them when they became Christians. When the

author speaks of “the beginning,” he means the beginning of the

revelation of Jesus to His followers during the ministry, but for his

readers this means the beginning of their contact with the tradition

that came with conversion/initiation/baptism. While the Johannine

theological proclamation had its peculiarities, it shared many features

with other Christian baptismal proclamations, whence the parallels


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just discussed. The secessionist also had heard the Johannine

conversion/initiation/baptismal proclamation; but, in the author’s

judgment, their subsequent stance distorted it. They had shown that

despite their baptism they were children of the devil and not children

of God. (The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown,

pp 432-34)

Dr. R. E. Brown: Conclusion of I John

18a We know that no one who has ben begotten by God commits

sin;

18b rather, the one begotten by God is protected,

18c and so the Evil One cannot touch him.

19a We know that it is to God we belong,

19b while the whole world lies in the grasp of the Evil One.

20a We know, finally, that the Son of God has come

20b and has given us insight to know the One who is true.

20c And we are in the One who is true,

10d for we are in His Son, Jesus Christ.

20e He is the true God and eternal life.

21 LITTLE CHILDREN, guard yourselves against idols.

The Known Privileges of Christians and a Warning to Safeguard

Them (5:18-21)

Solemnly the author now proclaims three times, “We know.”

Although he has insisted throughout the need to confess one’s belief

(2:23; 4:2,15), he ends his missive with assurance based on

knowledge. He exemplifies his own contention that the best defense

against secessionist teaching is the principle: “All you have

knowledge … you do know the truth … you have no need for anyone

to teach you” (2:20,21,27). In fact, everything he says in 5:18-20 has

already been said earlier in I John. Nevertheless, he does not mean

“We know” simply in the sense of “we have already seen.” Nor

would I agree with Brooke, Epistles 148, that the knowledge is

intuitive, flowing from the nature of God and of divine life. He is

referring once again to what has been known from “the beginning” of

Christian experience, what was part of the catechesis learned as the

readers entered the Community, what was part of the teaching

associated with having an anointing from the Holy One. Particularly

noteworthy are the three privileges of Christian existence that “We

know,” namely, the privilege of having been begotten by God (v. 18),

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of belonging to God (v. 19), and of knowing the true God (20). Early

in I John the author challenged the secessionist on these very

privileges (11:6; 2:4,6); he concludes by insisting that his own

adherents can be sure of them and also of their respective effects:

sinlessness, freedom from the Evil One, indwelling in God and His

Son.

The first “We know” (v. 18) relates sinlessness to the status of the

Christian as one begotten by God who is protected from the Evil One.

It virtually repeats 3:9a, “No one who has been begotten by God acts

sinfully,” with an added touch from 4:4: “He who is in you is greater

than he who is in the world.” Christian sinlessness is not of a

preexistent soul that has been trapped in a material world through

accident of birth, but a status given to the Christian by God through

Jesus. Some who argue for different writers in I John find

confirmation in the contrast in vv. 16-17 which make provision for

brothers who sin and v. 18 which says a Christian brother does not

commit sin. However, this is just more of the single author’s complex

view of Christian life that has been continued throughout I John and

was discussed in detail on pp. 430-32 [above, this writer]. Against the

secessionists’ view of once-for-all perfectionism (which logically

causes them to deny sin) the author has insisted that Christian’s do sin

but the blood of Christ supplies forgiveness (1:8-2:2). But that

pastoral assurance does not reflect his vision of what true Christian

life is. In this eschatological period God is preparing a sinless

generation of believers; and where the vitality of divine begetting is

allowed to manifest himself, it rules out sin, i as affirmed in 3:6, 8-9.

In those passages sin was shown to be the realm of the devil, the final

Iniquity of the last time, while sinlessness was the mark of being on

God’s side. And so it is quite logical that here the author associates

freedom from sin with protection from the Evil One. In a sense, then,

Christians have a twofold confidence: if they sin, the prayers of

brothers of brothers and sisters will give them life; but the very fact of

divine begetting should eventually lead them not to sin at all. ii

i “Some would stress the force of the perfect in 5:18a (“No one who has been

begotten”) : The begetting work took place in the past but is exercising its continuing force in keeping the Christian free from sin. But the aorist (“the one begotten”) is used in 5:18b and may also refer to the Christian, and so the dependence on the exact connotation is dubious. Nevertheless, on the basis of 5:19 which refers to our belong to God, it is clear that the sinlessness of the Christian is traced to continuing divine activity.” ii “In the NOTE on 5:18b I argued against the thesis that “the one begotten by God”

is Christ; but those who opt for such an interpretation see a third reason for


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The second “We know” (v. 19) distinguishes between the

Johannine Christians who belong to God and the whole world, which

lies in the grasp of the Evil One, thus rephrasing the distinction in

4:4-5 between those who belong to God and those who belong to the

world. Some think that 5:19 says no more than 5:18, i but it makes

clear that the efforts of the Evil One against the Johannine Christians

in 5:18 are not a matter of personal temptation. A dualism between

the world and the realm of God is involved. The Evil One is the

Prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) who, although he was

said to have no hold on Jesus, is now feared to be gaining a hold on

members of the Community through the secession. In 5:19 it also

becomes clearer that the sin in mind in 5:18a (also in 5:16c) is

primarily that of the secessionist children of the devil with their

doctrinal and moral faults: They have gone out into the world (4:1d)

and belong to the world (4:5a). The true believers in Jesus do not

belong to this world (John 17:16), for “the world” described in John

16:8-11 is one that refuses to believe in Jesus. The secessionist by

denying that Jesus is the Christ (I John 2:22) have added themselves

to it. In discussing the dualism in 4:1-6 (p. 487), we saw its proximity

to the dualism of the Dead Sea Scroll community. Similarly under the

influence of the spirits of truth and iniquity: “All the sons of iniquity

are under the rule of the angel of darkness.”

The third “We know” (v. 20) reminds us of the role of the Son of

God in all this: He is the one who has been able to give insight to

know the one true God because he himself is true God. We are not in

the grasp of the Evil One only because “we belong to God” (5:19a),

but also because “we are in His Son, Jesus Christ (5:20d). I John

contrasts dependencies in terms of “belonging to” (being from) God

and the devil (3:8-10); it also contrasts spheres of activity in terms of

“lying in the grasp of the Evil One” and “being in God and His Son.”

The idea that the Son has “given us insight [dianoia] to know” is

comparable to 2:27e: “His [Christ’s] anointing teaches you about all

things.” There is an interesting mutuality expressed in ch. 5 of I John:

God has testified on behalf of His Son (5:9), while the Son has given

confidence: Christ himself protects the Christian. In my judgment the ongoing role of Christ is more that of a Paraclete for sinners than of a protector for the sinless. In John 17:12,15 Jesus has kept his own safe while he has been with them, but he turns the protective role over to God when he leaves the earth.” i “There is a parallelism between 5:18 and 5:19, but it should be carefully analyzed,

for it favors reading 18b as a reference to the Christian (rather than to Christ). Lines 18b and 19a refer to the protected status of the Christian as begotten by and belonging to God; lines 18c and 19b refer to the machinations of the Evil One.”

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insight to know the Father (5:20). The author is quite far from a

Platonic view where human beings must ascend to heaven to know

the real or the true; rather we know because the Son has descended.

The moment of the giving of the dianoia or revelatory insight is

surely the moment when the author’s readers became Christians, i and

5:20 echoes in several ways covenantal vocabulary and imagery. God

is referred to as “the One who is true,” even as ΄ĕmet, “truth, fidelity,”

is the primary attribute of the covenanting God of the OT; but now in

Johannine dualism the truth of God sets Him off against the Evil One

who is a liar (John 8:44; I John 2:22). As we have seen before (pp.

279-80), knowing God is a motif fulfilling the promise of Jeremiah

about a renewed covenant where “they shall know me from the least

to the greatest” (Jer 31:33-34). And this is not taught knowledge but

flows from intimacy. ii The word dianoia (which Bultmann regards as

a sign that another writer is involved) reflects covenant background;

for frequently in the LXX it translates lĕb, “heart,” e.g., in the

Jeremiah passage: “I shall put my laws into their dianoia." iii

In the

covenant picture of the NT Jesus plays a major role alongside God, to

the point that I John 5:20e dares to call him “the true God and eternal

life.” Many commentators point out that surely the author does not

yet mean what Nicaea means by “true God of true God,” even though

the reference in 5:20 to both Father and Son as “true” may have led to

that formula (see p. 228 above). THLJ 130 states: “It does not mean

to say that Christ and God are one and the same being, but that in

Christ we have to do with God.” That may be an insufficient

evaluation of Johannine christology where the terms “God” and

“true” are equally applicable to Father and Son, for we know God

when we Jesus Christ. The difference between Father and Son is that,

while Jesus Christ is the life (John 1:4), he “has life because of the

i “In I Pet 1:13, a passage often related to baptismal preaching, those who have

received the good news foretold by the prophets are told “to gird up” their dianoia; and II Pet 3:1 says that the letter is written to rouse their sincere dianoia. This may mean that for Christians dianoia is the faculty of knowledge enlightened by

revelation. Alfaro, “Cognito Dei” 88-90, argues that dianoia is a faculty.” ii “Such covenant background makes intelligible why the epistolary author shifts

from knowing the One who is true (20b) to being in the One who is true (20c). Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel (37:26-37) stress the indwelling of the divine gift (Law or spirit) in the renewed covenant.” iii “The demand for a new standard of moral behavior in the OT covenant passages

suggests that the I John statement that the Son “has given us insight to know the One who is true” involves a way of life as well as an understanding of Jesus as the true God. It involves the ethical and christological elements that have been a key to the struggle between the author and the secessionist.”


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Father” (John 6:57) - Jesus may be God but he is not the Father. The

fact that both GJohn (20:28) and I John end by confessing Jesus as

God shows just how important this was in Johannine thought – and

not simply in an abstract way, for in each case the confession of Jesus

as God is followed by a mention of the (eternal) life that such belief

brings to his followers. i

Verse 21 is the negative counterpart of the three positive

affirmations in 5:18-20. The covenant background shows that there is

a connection between “the true God” of 5:20 and the “idols” of 5:21

when the latter is understood in terms of the secession (see Note on

5:21, evaluating the many theories). The covenanted people of Israel

were warned many times against leaving the one true God to go after

idols, and against abandoning His commandments for the permissive

life of the worshippers of the false gods of the surrounding nations. In

the author’s judgment, the secessionist are trying to seduce his

adherents to leave the covenanted Community and its understanding

of the God who was revealed in Jesus Christ come in the flesh, and to

adopt a false life-style in which commandments are not important and

sin is not a source of worry. This is the contemporary form of going

after idols, for the secessionists themselves have become “idols.”

(The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 637-

41)

Conclusion

This writer: Summary Argument

At this juncture in the final disclosure of evidence against the

counterfeit Governmental theory of atonement, I will introduce the

following argument: It is only prima facie, at first glance, that the

accusation from the Arminian view of salvation - which supposes the

high moral ground to censor the gospel of God’s grace as lewd and

vulgar on a charge of antinomianism – assumes the position of the

Apostle John against the secessionist in the Epistle of 1 John. There is a

great distinction to be made, a turn-about that needs to be defined. The

i “Although the author has attacked the secessionist for an overly high christology,

namely, the contention that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh (4:2), he does not refute them by a low christology. For the author the Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is true God. The final statements in I John 5:20 are almost a rearrangement of John 17:3: “Eternal life consists in this: that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, the one whom you sent.”

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Arminian rationally comes to the same humanistic conclusion as the

unsaved secessionist, namely, that a secure salvation means no penalty

for sin. In this the Arminian and his Negative gospel is proven to be of

the same mind as the secessionist, not the Apostle John. Unlike either

John or the secessionist, the Arminian Christian dogmatically maintains a

fear of the day of judgment to motivate his moral conduct above that of

the Apostle John and the secessionist he condemned, who both had a

confidence in the day of judgment.

John does not take issue with the secessionist view of eternal life and

a secured salvation, rather that they have never seen or known God,

because they have assumed a mistaken view of Jesus Christ that validates

their new religion of antinomian Christianity. This counterfeit view,

makes Christ “the Word become incarnate” at His baptism by John the

Baptist. The birth (the Word become flesh), life, and death of Christ had

no value in the secessionist view of Christianity.

The turn-about has become pointed again at the Arminian who

believes salvation by Christ as EXEMPLUM is in continued faith; the anti-

substitutionary religion of humanistic salvation that elevates personal

behavior above a Savior. In this view, in agreement with the libertine

secessionist, the death of Christ has no completed and personal

redeeming value. It matters little in the distinctions of ethics and morality

- the Arminian and the Johannine secessionist are self-exempted from

obligation to Christ for securing their salvation by His death and

resurrection. In the formula “Jesus is the Christ” the secessionist error

was in their conception of Jesus from the Gospel of John which, like

Mark, does not mention the “divine begetting” of Christ. Whereas, the

Arminian has adopted a man-made theory that gives little value to the

death of Jesus who was Christ and the “divine begetting” of each

Christian who has received eternal life from the Word of Christ whose

words are spirit and life.

The Apostle John would accuse today’s followers of the Negative

gospel as “less” Christian than the secessionists, whom he declared to be

“children of the devil.” At least the secessionist believed that eternal life

was real and that it was an eternal possession. The Apostle John would

agree that salvation in Christ is for faith. The secessionist would say,

salvation in Christ the Word become Incarnate is because of faith. The

Arminian maintains that salvation by [EXEMPLUM] Christ is in continued

faith.

To be well noted, as this polemic exists in the forefront of today’s

Christianity, that the acceptance or rejection of eternal life as a doctrine,

is not the criteria for a false Christianity. The defining equivalent

religious humanism - shared by the primitive and contemporary - is that


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the secessionist antinomian Christianity and the Arminian anti-

substitutionary EXEMPLUM Christianity focus on extreme ends of the

same obsession - what is external not internal. One would focus on the

dove that descended on Christ for salvation. The other would focus on

His ministry as revealed in the Synoptic Gospels for salvation. Neither,

primitive nor contemporary idolatry, claim salvation in the value of His

birth, death, and resurrection. Together they deny the revelation that life

proceeds from the Father in the “divine begetting” that brought about the

birth of Jesus. Together they deny the value of the death of Jesus as

Christ who came to manifest the Father. The Father who is the source of

eternal life. Without the possession of eternal life God cannot manifest

Himself through a Christian in this world. For this reason, the Arminian

and the secessionist have separated the Son from the Father. Thereby,

both views are proven imitations of Christianity and the Arminian

remains to proliferate a false gospel about who Christ was and is today.

And by default, who and what a Christian is and will be tomorrow.

The gift of “eternal life,” as John has argued in this Epistle to

Christians, changes one from the inside into the “likeness” of eternal life

to become perfected in love. Faith working through love in the moment

of salvation and continuing in the love for Christian family.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear,

because fear has to do with punishment.45 The one who fears

punishment has not been perfected in love. 4:19 We love because He

loved us first. NET

45sn The entire phrase fear has to do with punishment may be

understood in two slightly different ways: (1) “fear has its own

punishment” or (2) “fear has to do with [includes] punishment.” These

are not far apart, however, and the real key to understanding the

expression lies in the meaning of the word “punishment” (kovlasi",

kolasis). While it may refer to torture or torment (BDAG 555 s.v. 1) there

are numerous Koine references involving eternal punishment (2 Macc

4:38; T. Reu. 5:5; T. Gad 7:5) and this is also the use in the only other NT

reference, Matt 25:46. In the present context, where the author has

mentioned having confidence in the day of judgment, it seems virtually

certain that eternal punishment (or fear of it) is what is meant here. The

(only) alternative to perfected love, which results in confidence at the day

of judgment, is fear, which has to do with the punishment one is afraid of

receiving at the judgment. As 4:18b states, “the one who fears

[punishment] has not been perfected in love. It is often assumed by

interpreters that the opposite to perfected love (which casts out fear) is imperfect love (which still has fear and therefore no assurance). This is

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possible, but it is not likely, because the author nowhere mentions

‘imperfect’ love, and for him the opposite of ‘perfected’ love appears to

be not imperfect love but hate (cf. 4:20). In other words, in the

antithetical (‘either/or’) categories in which the author presents his

arguments, one is either a genuine believer, who becomes ‘perfected’ in

love as he resides in love and in a mutually indwelling relationship with

God (cf. 4:16b), or one is not a genuine believer at all, but one who (like the opponents) hates his brother, is a liar, and does not know God at all.

This individual should well fear judgment and eternal punishment

because in the author’s view that is precisely where such a person is

headed.

As assumed by the Arminian, the fear of punishment is not the high

moral ground, rather, it is yet another deception in the standard method

to make evil seem good. The “individual should well fear judgment and

eternal punishment” because: (1) It makes no difference if one holds to

the 2,000 year old opinion that Christ was not God born in the flesh until

His baptism by John the Baptist. Which demotes Christ in the

eschatological value of His Person in His unique birth and denies the

saving value of His death and resurrection. (2) It makes no difference

that one holds the 450 year old subjective Governmental theory of

atonement, conceived by Grotius, which is an “opinion” that eternal life

– salvation and forgiveness – is mutable and that punishment awaits

those who fail. This mutability denies the immutable source of eternal

life, God the Father and, the immutable source of forgiveness, God the

Son. Which demotes Christ to an EXEMPLUM that died simply to free a

benevolent Father to forgive. (3) Just as wrongly, one may believe in the

1,300 year old opinion that the false prophet Muhammad supercedes the

Son of God who revealed Himself, through the virgin birth, as the Son of

Man, Jesus Christ who died on the cross for “the sins of the whole

world.” Which demotes the Father to a level of foolishness for planning,

predicting, and effecting a unique birth and death for Christ His Son.

What was the underlying error in the secessionist view of “Jesus as

the Word who became incarnate”? Was it not in the denial that “the

Word became flesh”? In their interpretation, they had separated the man-

Jesus from His Father who had had “begotten” Him in the virgin birth

and, thereby had censored the value of His life and death. If one does not

have the Father, he does not have the Son. If one denies eternal life is in

Christ, if one denies the death and resurrection of Christ secures forever

eternal life for the one who believes in Christ for salvation - he does not

have the Son nor the Father. The onliness of God is primary.

Ecumenical brotherhood in one God, without the Son and the Holy

Spirit, is apostate nonsense and makes God the Father a liar because of


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the words spoken by Jesus. When “many disciples departed” Jesus was

speaking of His body as the bread of life, He said, “But there are some

of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had already known from the

beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who

would betray him.) So Jesus added, “Because of this I told you that no

one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come” (John

6:64-65). Beyond any supranatural speculation, there is a very practical

sense to this “allowing,” in that the Father need recognize that the

believer has a proper conception of who He is as well as Jesus His Son to

whom He is One. The plurality of One revealed in the NT by Jesus who

claimed to be the great “I AM THAT I AM.” The same Old Testament I

AM as in, “Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. 6:5 You

must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being,

and all your strength” (sn Verses 4-5 constitute the Shema (after the first

word [Heb.], “hear”), widely regarded as the very heart of Jewish

confession and faith. When Jesus was asked what was the greatest

commandment of all, he quoted this text (Matt 22:37-38)” (Deu 6:4-5

NET). In the final public words of Jesus, He said, “But Jesus shouted out,

“The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who

sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me” (John

12:44-45).

As constructed by someone who professed to know Him, how might

the Rectoral or Governmental theory of atonement - epitomized in the

portrayal of God the Father as the one-eyed, half blind Ruler in the fable

of Zaleucus - be an appropriate representation of God? As the Apostle

clearly states in his Epistle - only the children of God can see or know

God. In 1 John the high point and culmination of John’s argument

against the secessionist is in verse 5:12, that resolves into the stated

purpose for this letter in 5:13:

1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been

fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child

fathered by him. 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of

God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. 5:3 For

this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his

commandments do not weigh us down, 5:4 because everyone who has

been fathered by God conquers the world.

TESTIMONY ABOUT THE SON

This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith.

5:5 Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the

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one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 5:6 Jesus Christ is the

one who came by water and blood—not by the water only, but by the

water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because

the Spirit is the truth. 5:7 For there are three that testify, 5:8 the Spirit

and the water and the blood, and these three are in agreement.

5:9 If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is

greater, because this is the testimony of God that he has testified

concerning his Son. 5:10 (The one who believes in the Son of God

has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has

made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that

God has testified concerning his Son.) 5:11 And this is the testimony:

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 5:12 The one

who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the

Son of God does not have this eternal life.

ASSURANCE OF ETERNAL LIFE

5:13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the

Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. NET

The witness of Scripture to eternal life:

Mtw 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No

one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father

except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.

NET


that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 17:3

Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ, whom you sent. NET

Acts 5:32 And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy

Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” NET

Titus 1:16 But here is why I [Paul] was treated with mercy: so that in

me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience,

as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal

life.


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Heb 2:11 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy

all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them

brothers and sisters, NET

The witness to eternal life by God the Son:

John 3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one

who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.

5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also

the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. 5:22 Furthermore, the

Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the

Son, 5:23 so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the

Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the

Father who sent him.

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and

believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be

condemned, but has crossed over from death to life. 5:25 I tell you the

solemn truth, a time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will

hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26

For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son

to have life in himself, 5:27 and he has granted the Son authority to

execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all

who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out—the

ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life,

and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting

in condemnation.

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them

you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify

about me, 5:40 but you are not willing to come to me so that you may

have life.

6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the

one who comes to me I will never send away. 6:38 For I have come

down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who

sent me. 6:39 Now this is the will of the one who sent me—that I

should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise

them all up at the last day. 6:40 For this is the will of my Father—for

everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal

life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by

God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.

6:46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from

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God—he has seen the Father.) 6:47 I tell you the solemn truth, the

one who believes has eternal life. 6:48 I am the bread of life.

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone

eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for

the life of the world is my flesh.”

6:57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the

Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me. 6:58

This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread

your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread

will live forever.”

8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again, “I am the light of the world. The

one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the

light of life.”

8:51 I tell you the solemn truth, if anyone obeys my teaching, he will

never see death.”134 NET

134tn Grk “he will never see death forever.” The Greek negative here is

emphatic.

sn Those who keep Jesus’ words will not see death because they have

already passed from death to life (cf. 5:24). In Johannine theology eternal

life begins in the present rather than in the world to come.

Appeal to the Jurist for the Final Argument

This writer:

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has

given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is

true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.53 NET

sn The modern reader may wonder what all this has to do with idolatry.

In the author’s mind, to follow the secessionist opponents with their false

Christology would amount to idolatry, since it would involve worshiping

a false god instead of the true God, Jesus Christ. Thus guard yourselves

from idols means for the readers to guard themselves against the

opponents and their teaching.

The charge of idolatry, posited by John in his “primitive” arguments

against a false gospel - was valid. This is not a matter of opinion, but

surely a matter of divine revelation in the Oracles of Truth. If one

believes the words that came from the lips of Jesus (rhēma Christou) -


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that the saved individual has immediately “passed from death to life” and

“he will never see death forever” - a great contradiction between the

Positive and Negative gospels is disclosed.

One doctrine has not been broached, namely, the great teachings in

the NT regarding positional and experiential sanctification after

salvation. To which this question may be directed: How does one

become worthy in the eyes of God? One most certainly cannot become

worthy to be saved, only afterwards is it possible for God to make the

believer worthy in the merit of Christ. As all the major teachings or

principles in the Word of God are interrelated, one may not separate a

doctrine from others without great harm and violence against other

principles. In this final argument, it has been stated, disclosed, and

asserted that the Negative gospel has separated the Son from the Father,

who is the source of eternal life that is given to a believer who trusts in

Jesus Christ His Son for salvation.

The onliness of God has been presented and disclosed as condemning

evidence against the idolatry of a contemporary anti-substitutional

religious humanism. The forty divine changes have been presented as

proof of the validity of the gospel of the grace of God. The twelve works

of God in salvation have been given as evidence of the security of a

believer’s standing and position before God. The denials and assertions

of the Governmental theory have been presented and disproved time and

again. The Governmental theory itself has been produced for

examination by the jurist. A list of formal indictments have been entered

as the framework and justification for the proceedings in this

prosecution. The question left to be answered is: How may one become

worthy in the eyes of God?

The unworthiness of man may be: (1) denied, as it is omitted in the

Governmental theory, (2) eradicated, either at the moment of belief or

some future time as the indefensible notions of “perfectionism,” held by

the secessionist in 1 John, would suggest, or (3) divinely compensated

for as the gospel of the grace of God plainly declares in the forty effects

of grace. Because of the nature i of man; man’s pride will ever be

offended by the claims of salvation as a work of God’s grace bought in

the surrogate blood and death of Christ for unworthy men.

It would appear, the secessionist in the above disclosure were not

troubled by any notions of personal unworthiness, before or after

salvation. Their gospel would claim “perfectionism” despite personal

i 9. natural state of humankind: the natural and original condition of humankind, as

distinguished from a state of grace Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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sins. In this counterfeit conception, the sin nature was neither admitted

to, denied, nor eradicated. Personal sins were divinely compensated for

by a forgiving God who had made them worthy because they believed in

a Christ who became incarnate at His baptism by the Holy Spirit. This

was not a Jesus Christ who was born and died a substitutionary death and

was resurrected to be the Righteous One of God for all believers who are

in the Body of Christ (en Christō). In the final analysis of this conception

– undeniably, man becomes worthy just as he is. Yet in the secessionist

gospel man acquires worthiness only by a false assumption and the

denial of the value of the death of Christ. The end result of their gospel

was - they were not saved and never received eternal life.

In the Arminian view man becomes worthy by self-reformation, yes,

but how may it be claimed he has become essentially different than “just

as he is?” What essential difference exists between the beggarly and

bountiful, the unsightly and beautiful, the cowardly and courageous, the

diseased Job and his healthy condemning friends, Abel and Cain, fallen

Adam and any of his progeny? The Apostle Paul would say this: “For we

would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who

recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by

themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without

understanding [unintelligent]. … For it is not the person who commends

himself who is approved, but the person the Lord commends” (2 Cor

10:12, 18). Be there eight or eight thousand, no matter which door of

personal worthiness is entered, one remains in the ark of humanity

descended from Noah and his sons - there is no divine change, no real

new beginning. There remains only one door, one way, one name,

whereby one may enter into the new beginning of imputed and imparted

worthiness in eternal life – by the free gift of grace offered through faith

in Jesus as the Savior and redeemer of unworthy men. Paul addressed the

conflicting “gospels” of another Jesus and a different Spirit, that

abounded during his ministry: “But I am afraid that just as the serpent

deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a

sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims

another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a

different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the

one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!” (2 Cor 11:3-4). Jesus

would proclaim and commend Himself to the unsaved: “At that time

Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you

have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them

to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things

have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son

except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and


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anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him. Come to me, all you who

are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you

and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you

will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is

not hard to carry” (Mtw 11:25-30).

The Arminian claim to a probationary salvation through continued

faith is not to be found in the New Testament. Fear of punishment is not

the moral high ground and, heaven is most certainly not a reward for

good people. Whereas the gospel of the grace of God, that saves sinful

people eternally, is clearly declared in God’s Word. As the evidence

presented here has proven, the Negative gospel is false on every point of

contention and denial. The saved individual, in a most real sense, has

been given eternal life, and is joined eternally to all three Persons of the

Godhead. For this reason, in the most critical sense, the Negative gospel -

which in truth is “another gospel” that denies the power of salvation as a

work of God in a theory that separates the Son from the Father who is the

source of eternal life - must be found guilty on all charges entered against

it. Based on matters of fact and matters of law, this is for you the unique

jurist to decide.


that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 17:3

Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ, whom you sent. 17:21 that they will all be one, just as

you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us,

so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:10 Everything I

have belongs to you, and everything you have belongs to me, and I

have been glorified by them. 17:11 I am no longer in the world, but

they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep

them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be

one just as we are one. NET

1 Cor 3:22ff Everything belongs to you, 3:23 and you belong to

Christ, and Christ belongs to God. NET

The Sons of Disobedience Who Do Not Obey the Gospel are in Adam

And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in

which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path,

according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit

that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of

us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh,

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indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature

children of wrath even as the rest… But God, being rich in mercy,

because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we

were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by

grace you are saved!— and he raised us up with him and seated us

with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the

coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us

in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is

not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that

no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in

Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may

do them.” 256

The Sons of Obedience Who Have Obeyed the Positive Gospel are in

Christ

“I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live worthily of

the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and

gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making

every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There

is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope

of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father

of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of

the gift of Christ. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he

captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” Now what is the meaning

of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions,

namely, the earth? He, the very one who descended, is also the one

who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things. It was

he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists,

and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of

ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to

the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—a

mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature. So we

are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and

carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who

craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. But practicing the truth in

love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. From

him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every

supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body grows in

love. 257


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Closing Summary Statement by the Prosecution

This writer:

This concludes the public appeal for Grace. From that which has been

presented, from the entirety of this paper, the unique jurist may choose a

black or white stone to place on the Positive or Negative gospel. To

choose no stone, or the wrong stone, is to follow the path of God’s

preordained fate for all men who are born in Adam. Christ declared He

came not to bring peace, but to turn daughter against mother and son

against father. In the face of the overwhelming sad reality of an evil

world system, a cosmos diablocus – it is populism, the ordinary, that

drives religious humanism. It is the extraordinary, the mighty power and

wisdom of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead to the heights of

heaven as the Head of a new heavenly race of men in the Body of Christ

- that drives His Christianity. Based upon this information, one must

discern the difference and decide between the following to be saved from

an inherited alliance with Satan, the originator of evil rebellion and

personal sins of disobedience. The final question - What is salvation for

the Sons of Obedience?

Is it infinite endless salvation and transformation in life by a work of

grace by God for man, as the Positive gospel of the grace of God

declares, where salvation in Christ is for faith?

Is it limited and probationary salvation determined after death by a work

of man for God, as the Negative gospel derived from the Rectoral or

Governmental theory of atonement which is limited to the forgiveness of

personal sins declares, where salvation by Christ is in continued faith?

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you he who hears my word and

believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into

judgment, but has passed from death to life” NASB

Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to

light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive

forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by

faith in me.” NET

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Rom 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism

into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead

through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. NET

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. 8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus

has set you free from the law of sin and death. NET

2 Cor 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what

is old has passed away—look, what is new has come! NET

Father,

Son,

Spirit

Adam

New

Creation in in


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Appendix

Decision

“Winken, Blinken, and Nod,

Went to sea in a wooden shoe.

Floating on a dewy mist,

They sailed into a crystal light sea.” 258

Where is the crystal path to the past?

How does it go from there to here?

Prediction based on bias and wish,

Warms a motive well.

When consequence shapes circumstance,

Experience breathes a chill.

Decision, reluctant to leave a cozy bed,

Invents another wish instead. 259


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Author and Editor’s Afterword

(1) The Mosaic Law had to be abolished to temporarily reduce the Jew to

the alien estate of the Gentile

(2) Christ could not abolish the Law until He fulfilled the Law and He

could not be the object of Gentile faith until after His death, burial, and

resurrection

(3) Peter and Cornelius = Jonah and the Gentile Ninevah in type, The

anti-type is that Christ had to die 3 days before going to Gentiles

(4) The one command to obey the gospel applies to both Jew and Gentile

(5) Eternal Life and the Book of Life = eternal security of salvation

Sociology - culture

(1) Ideas -

(2) Norms – shoulds, rules, etc.

(3) Things – material culture, productions, changes often

Technology – norms and productions, cell phones

Ideologies - norms and ideas, public or home school Ralph Linton fish

and water

Culture Shock

Ethno Centricism

Cultural Relativity

Subculture


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The Author and Editor’s Warrant and Restrictions

The fundamental assertions upon which this writer’s biblical warrant

and witness for the argument of the saving grace of God are detailed in

the citations below:

THE ARMINIAN VIEW OF SECURITY

“Though but little reference has been made in this work to one of

them, three systems of theology have flourished which offer their varying

contentions in the field of Soteriology. These systems are Socinianism,

Arminianism, and Calvinism. Socinianism and Calvinism are as far

removed the one from the other as midnight and noontime. Socinianism

in its day denied almost every feature of Christian doctrine, while

Calvinism adheres rigidly to the revelation God has given. It is

Calvinism which seeks to honor God - Father, Son, and Spirit – by its

views respecting depravity, human guilt, and human helplessness, and

these in the light of divine sovereignty, divine supremacy, and the

sufficiency of divine grace. On the other hand, Arminianism sustains an

intermediate ground between the rationalism of Socinianism and the

determined Biblical character of Calvinism. A certain group of

Arminians have leaned towards Socinianism and were these advocates

consistent, they, like the Socinians, would deny the work of Christ and

much of the Holy Spirit. The more conservative Arminians – such as

Arminius himself – though inconsistent with themselves and steeped

with Socinian rationalism in their approach to every soteriological truth,

do evince a degree of amenability to the Word of God and the doctrines

which that Word exhibits.

There are truths, such as the lost estate of man through sin and the

need of salvation, that are common to Arminians and Calvinist alike. On

the ground of these common beliefs a degree of united effort in

evangelism has been possible between the representatives of these two

systems. The real controversy between the two, however, has not been

abandoned, nor could it be. It will be found that in the case of each major

theme related to Soteriology the Arminian position is weak and

inaccurate and to that extent misleading. The instructed preacher and

teacher will contend for the precise meaning of the Scriptures. What may

be passed over in the interests of harmony in united Christian service

cannot as easily be passed over when a worthy declaration of truth is

called for. Along with this, it should be pointed out – and history will

verify the assertion – that sustained, extended, unprejudiced study of the

Sacred Text must and, therefore, does lead to the Calvinistic position. It


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is conceivable hypothetically that both Arminianism and Calvinism are

wrong, but it is wholly impossible for both to be right. The Bible offers

no contradictions. If one system is right, the other is wrong. There is no

compromise possible. Through extended study uncounted multitudes

have turned from Arminianism to Calvinism; but history offers few, if

any examples of an opposite movement. …

In respect to the truth of eternal security, it will be noted, as of other

major doctrines, that it is impossible to be in agreement with all sincere

men. In light of the disagreement which obtains, the student can do no

more than to be amenable to the Word of God. The two claims – that the

Christian is secure and that he is insecure – present a complete

contradiction and no middle ground of compromise could possibly be

found.

While the doctrine of security may not represent the most important

difference which exists between these two theological systems, neither

the claim respecting security nor the claim respecting insecurity can be

maintained apart from the effort to harmonize each with the whole body

of soteriological truth. Bitterness between the advocates of these

divergent systems could hardly be avoided when there is no way of

reconciliation between them; and this controversy is greatly stimulated

by the immeasurable importance of the question. The issue that is

paramount is whether the saving work of Christ on the cross includes the

safekeeping of the one who trusts Him, or not. This is the central and

precise issue in the controversy. Either Christ did enough by His death

concerning the believer’s sins that it can be said that “there is therefore

now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (though it is not

said that there is no chastisement), or He did not. Again, either Christ did

enough by His death and resurrection in fulfilling the sweet savor type,

that it can be said that the believer possesses eternal life and the perfect

standing of the Son of God, being in Him, or He did not. If there is no

sufficient ground for the removal of condemnation and no sufficient

ground for the impartation of eternal life and the imputing of Christ’s

merit, then the most vital teachings of the New Testament are rendered

void. It is these so-compelling features of truth which are conspicuous by

their absence from Arminian writings. Arminian theologians are a

product of the limited teachings which are presented in their schools

from generation to generation, and therefore the deeper realities are not

known by them. To know these realities is to embrace them, for they

constitute the warp and woof of the Pauline gospel.” i…

i Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 273-75

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“To base the Christian’s continuance in the saved state upon his daily

life is to demand of him that which no Christian ever experienced in this

world – sinless perfection. Holding over Christians the requirement of

sinlessness as the hope of security – as Arminians do – is to call forth

that peculiar form of carelessness or discouragement which is the

reaction of every serious person when confronted with an impossibility.

All of this becomes another approach to the same misunderstanding that

is the curse of that form of rationalism which cannot comprehend the

gospel of divine grace. Such a rationalism plans it so that good people

may be saved, be kept saved because of their personal qualities, and be

received into heaven on their merit. The gospel of divine grace plans it so

that bad people – which wording describes every person on earth – may

be saved, be kept saved as they were saved through the saving work and

merit of Christ, and be received into heaven, not as specimens of human

perfection, but as objects of infinite grace. Arminianism, with its

emphasis upon human experience, human merit, and human reason,

apparently has little or no comprehension of the revelation that salvation

is by grace alone, through faith. … Salvation through Christ is the

essence of Christianity, while salvation through personal worthiness is no

better than any pagan philosophy, and it is of this notion, so foreign to

the New Testament revelation, that Arminianism partakes.” i

i Ibid., Vol 3, p 288-89


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Duplicate: Manifesto of Perfect Obedience

Dear reader, I would ask that

you lay aside all you have heard

about sin and religion and

understand this guiding

principle of perfection – God

has brought man back to Eden

in order that man may be

perfected and be with Him

always. The sovereignty of God

and man’s free will has been

designed to meet in one place.

The law is an instrument of God.

Faith is perfect obedience. In

Grace and Innocence, God has

only one command that

guarantees the perfection of

mankind by the exercise of his

God given free will. In this age

of Grace we may accept the offer of the upward redeeming obedience of

belief to release us from the downward condemning disobedience of the

forbidden fruit of Eden. Salvation began in the loving heart of God

before He first created an angel or a man with free will. God never acts

on the legal fiction of perfect foresight. He acts upon the reality of events

in His creation. Salvation is not a response to sin. Salvation is love that

responds only to faith. Sin is not a demand that God can forgive. Sin and

death is the result of the inherent defect of evil in a created free moral

self, that may, in a god-like manner, choose self and independence from

God. The Creator, the great I AM, has the freedom of a perfect

conscience. He may only perfectly choose Himself. Holiness is God’s

nature. Perdition is God’s just answer to an independent self will.

Salvation is God’s perfect solution. His problem is self created by His

loving desire to share His presence and infinite life with a creation of His


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design. His solution was to create a salvation that satisfies His judgment

upon the evil in the men that He loves. In the death of a willing perfect

Substitute, His infinite love is liberated to be satisfied by His unlimited

gifts of grace to justified men. If you believe in God, you must believe in

the Substitute - the Son that always did the will of His Father - in order

to receive the salvation that He has created for all men. The lessons

whereby man may comprehend the terms of salvation are not fiction, they

were formed in historical fact. This is a uniquely created period in

history when the foolish choice of 260

a self-defeating obligation to a

system of Kingdom law is removed from Israel and made once again to

be a temptation for men to turn from the grace of God. The mountain was

not deadly until the nation of Israel unwisely accepted the offer of the

Mosaic law from an undemanding God of grace. By the power of grace

they were taken out of Egypt. By the power of grace they will be gathered

by angels from the four corners of the world at the second Advent of

Christ. The Jews foolishly rejected their Messiah at His first Advent. God

revealed His solution for the evil in mankind by the death and the power

of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our ascended Savoir and Advocate

for our sins. His solution became manifest in reality. Gentiles have never

been offered the temporary covering of law. Christ did not die to give the

Jewish Kingdom law to Gentiles. Christ died to remove the covering of

law from the Jew. The Jew has been stripped and stands naked with the

Gentile. Jew and Gentile alike are now condemned by God and placed

together “under sin.” The new and only law is to obey the gospel. Both

may now become the children of promise conceived in Abrahamic faith,

“understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham and the

scripture foretelling that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “ All the

nations will be blessed in you.” 261

Christ, the Head of the New Creation,

was the first to choose to be born, and, in a god-like manner, unsaved

men may choose to be born. By the power of grace through faith is one

born from above. The salvation of each man is the perfecting of his free

will by free choice. The choice to be joined to the ascended body of

perfection in the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ, the unique God-man,

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the Righteous One. Faith in the sufficiency of God’s Savoir is perfect

obedience to the new law of life given to unsaved men. The flaming

sword of the seraphim guarding the gate to the tree of life in the garden

of Paradise is the old law that defends the righteousness of God. The new

law of life satisfies God’s righteousness and the gate to Paradise is open

to all. The truth of Jesus Christ is the power of the gospel of grace. It is

the new law of Christ that gives eternal life and judges the old law guilty.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (the law) and the Sabbath (the law) was

made for men. Salvation [to rest] was made by Christ for men to become

like Christ. God’s new law is the instrument by which the spirits of

justified men are made perfect. The written will of God is to obey the

gospel by believing in the Son that He sent, not self assumed effort in the

law of sin and death. The old law is the forbidden fruit that kills in this

age. The old law is the self righteous enticement “to be as god” is

blameless by personal effort to be blameless. To reject the imputed

righteousness of Christ is to stand, god-like, in the place of God for

salvation. To deny that Christ was “made sin,” that God did not impute

the sins of the world onto Christ, is to make the precious blood of Christ

into the fiction of icor that ran in the veins of pagan gods. The cleansing

from personal sin by a supposed future forgiveness is the damnation, not

salvation, offered by a well dressed Satan. In all this world of

complications, only saving faith can make you perfect forever in the eyes

of God. The privilege we have been given to be born into this opportunity

is beyond estimation. The New Testament belongs to God and his

children for their instruction, not to differing theologies of religion, and

God most certainly offers a secured salvation in the new creation

through Jesus Christ. Who might offer an unsecured salvation? Please,

do not reject a written guarantee to be clothed by God in the righteous

skins of Christ in the garden of Paradise for the freedom of futility to

dress in the rich robes that appeal to the senses and the pride of an

evolved religion.

God’s positive single law for the unsaved in this age is to follow His

command - obey the gospel. The only unredeemed sin is the greatest sin

of all time, unbelief in the redeemer - Jesus Christ. Condemned sinner


1300

are we all for no one ever chose to be born. Saint we become by the gift

of choice to be born from above. The Son of God chose to be born a man

so that He could die in the place of every man, woman, and

unaccountable child in order that fallen mankind may have a choice. The

first step is to recognize the abnormal estate into which one is born. The

challenge water presents to a fish … Peter said, “Where else would we

go Master, only you have the words of eternal life.” God said, “This is

my Son – Listen to him.” Man’s unregenerate free will is not perfected

by predestination. Man’s free will is not perfected by a false future

existence in heaven that he earned. Man’s natural free will is not

perfected after he is born from above. It is perfected as the final act of

the believing obedient unregenerate man when he is redeemed. Man is

saved from the “flesh and blood” of himself. A spiritually dead self,

degenerated by the first act of disobedience that caused the spirit of

Adam to die ...

By the grace of God a man is born from above, and instantly, beyond

experiencing, that man becomes a child of God and is no longer in

Adam, in the “flesh,” or sarkikos, and of this earth, but pneumatikos -

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dead, buried, and resurrected sinless and righteous in Christ by the

Spirit of God. Thereby, becoming a new citizen of heaven. He has been

delivered by the Alpha and the Omega and he has escaped from a

doomed world of condemned men sentenced to everlasting destruction.

He has conquered the world. He has ascended through Jesus Christ by

the undeserved grace of salvation. And so it goes … “Do not be amazed

... you must be born from above.” 262

Eph 2:1 And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2:2

in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path,

according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that

is now energizing the sons of disobedience, 2:3 among whom all of us

also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging

the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of

wrath even as the rest…

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which

he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us

alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— 2:6 and he raised

us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ

Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his

grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are

saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

2:9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast. 2:10 For we are his

workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that

God prepared beforehand so we may do them. NET

1 Pet 1:13 Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully

sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to

you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1:14 Like obedient children, do not

comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, 1:15

but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of

your conduct, 1:16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am

holy.” 1:17 And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges

according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary

residence here in reverence. 1:18 You know that from your empty way of

life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable

things like silver or gold, 1:19 but by precious blood like that of an

unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. 1:20 He was foreknown

before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times


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for your sake. 1:21 Through him you now trust in God, who raised him

from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

1:22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show

sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

1:23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from


2:4 So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and

priceless in God’s sight, 2:5 you yourselves, as living stones, are built up

as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual

sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6 For it says

in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless

cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.”

2:7 So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe,

the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, 2:8 and

a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they

disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 2:9 But you are a chosen

race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you

may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into

his marvelous light. 2:10 You once were not a people, but now you are

God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received

mercy. NET

Original discussion of Perfect Obedience

Introduction

The gospel is written down, without the need of an intermediary, for

anyone who cares to read God’s word, and God will most certainly give

loving assistance to anyone’s efforts. The local Negative gospel and the

spoken, televised, broadcasted merchandisers of the gospel in “the power

of the air” is the Christological problem, dear reader, not the Bible. The

internet filth and virus is the problem, not your computer. The very

center verse of the Bible says, “Don’t put your trust in men.” “Knock and

the door will be opened.” My undeniable witness is - one must desire to

work at knowledge. I had desire long before I had faith - not conduct or

behavior - to know the truth about Christ. In spite of my negative

reaction to religious people and incomprehensible slogans about

Christianity, I am blessed with instantaneous unconditional salvation

because I strove persistently to know Jesus and I found that to know Him

is to love Him and to love Him is to be changed and saved eternally. I

obeyed the gospel and I was saved. I found Jesus Christ my Savior in the

Bible. I found grace for my sinning soul. Christ, the great I AM, is the

cosmic junk man who advertised and bought everything and anything

1303

that was drivable long before it was brought smoking, back-firing, and

scrapping the ground into the kingdom of His love, no questions asked.

This is my Christ. A true Christian is a true witness to the salvific

obedience required by the gospel. Who is your Savior?

All men today are under one positive law until they are saved by faith

in the power of Christ alone. At the moment of saving faith one is no

longer a natural man under the condemnation of unfulfilled law, one

becomes a new born child in the heavenly house of the family, the

Church, loved and protected by God the Father Creator of all things. For

these reasons, man is perfectly guilty by self condemnation. He is

responsible for his unregenerate free will that never conformed to the

perfect will of God. The cart and the horse may be incorrectly

configured. One may desire and search for sunken treasure in all the

wrong places. Man has the freedom of futility, but only one choice - to

obey the gospel which is to believe in Jesus. “This is my Son – listen to

Him,” was spoken by God the Father at the transfiguration on the

mountain. This harkens (listen and pay attention, archaici) back to

Deuteronomy, where anyone who did not listen to the promised prophet

would be held responsible.

Discussion

The sovereignty of God in salvation intersects man’s free will at the

new point established by Christ, the point where present positional and

future actual perfection begins. The Ichthyus, the fish, is the intersection

of two curved lines. Christ is God-man. Man becomes like God. The

sovereignty of God always meets the free will of man at one point.

Where faith meets law. Where the will of man freely joins the will of

God. There is freedom and life in obedience and futility and death in

disobedience. Evil is a defect not an effect.

Prior to this point, desire and striving by the man is required to reach

to, to become filled with conviction, to turn to Christ from all other

confidences. This could be while receiving a true gospel presentation, as

rare as they are, or it may be an accumulation of knowledge, or self

study, but however gained, one need must, unequivocally, have a correct

understanding of the value of the death of Christ to have saving faith.

The aforementioned cannot be overstressed. This effort is not without

assistance from God for many obvious reasons – God’s Word, God’s

children who witness the truth, the place and time one is born, the

i Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved.


1304

circumstances and consequences of one’s life. Nevertheless, His

assistance is most certainly not an act of coercion, quite the contrary is

true. His purpose is by faith, which is obedience, to perfect His natural

sinfully fallen degenerated man that His Son died for. Which,

simultaneously ensures that man will obtain spiritual perfection. To have

saving faith in Christ is an accomplishment of the unsaved individual. No

other future accomplishments or merit is conceivable, as he is no longer a

spiritually dead natural man subject to the law and merit, he has died

with Christ and fulfilled the one law that would condemn him. He is

regenerated. He is a new man. Any reward subsequent to the moment of

salvation is only possible by the awesome grace of God in the standard

operating procedure of the biblical grace reward system, “saved unto

good works before the foundation of the world.” Thus, all believer’s are

not only a glory from age to age to Our Lord because He has ensured

their eventual spiritual perfection, but also, first and foremost, as His

fallen creatures, they are His “just men made perfect through faith.” A

sinner becomes saint by perfect obedience to God’s perfect will. This is

not predestination nor unlimited free will defined by religion at either

extreme end of established thought. It is neither supralapsarian high

Calvinist nor extralapsarian Arminian. No matter how useful to

theorizers, neither I or anyone one else knows the order of God’s

decrees. I have the Bible and the Holy Spirit for noumenon and the world

for the observation of phenomena. This conclusion is based on the Lapse,

or the Fall, and on the teachings of the doctrine of Complete Satisfaction,

which gives recognition to the very first act of the eternal union of God’s

grace and man in perfect conformance to the will of God. The first baby

step into the imatatio Christos. The angels are witness to the Father’s joy

in heaven. Christ learned obedience. Christ on earth always did His

Father’s will. Christ was impeccable.

God may not choose against His nature. He possesses the freedom of

perfect conscience. Man as creature, like God the creator, may choose

himself - over God. This is sin. Man’s totally fallen free will had only

the freedom of futility, until God provided His Son for man to choose as

the one condition of salvation. Salvation is God’s redemption towards

sin, God’s reconciliation towards man, and God’s propitiation towards

God. This is salvation as defined in the Word of God. The conclusion of

perfect obedience that perfects man’s free will, without dependence upon

a speculative order of God’s decrees, is lapsarian in that the fall of man is

the point from which man is given a choice by God through which the

finished work of Christ avails grace to work its miraculous changes upon

the ex-convict freed from the law of sin and death.

1305

To reaffirm the above, and for the benefit of those not familiar with

the teachings of NT grace … This saving faith establishes regeneration

of the natural man and eternal salvation in Christ. Until faith is put in

Christ, Christ cannot cause salvation. NT Salvation is a state of being,

not a verb. Forgiveness is a verb and was secured by an act of voluntary

death two thousand years ago. Forgiveness is the reconciled position of

every living unbeliever that makes salvation possible. To state what is

patent – without the subjective atonement and Complete Satisfaction in

the sin bearing death of Christ there would be no salvation. This is in

direct contrast to, and inconceivable within, the Christ rejection of

unlimited free will and the objective limited atonement in the death of

Christ in a Kingdom which allows for the magnanimous leniency in a

God of love offended Rectorally and Governmentally to forgive sin

committed in faith by wicked guilt ridden properly penitent slaves

dragging the sin and stink of an old dead body into heaven for

redemption that is offered by Arminian self salvation ideologues. Which,

no matter its acceptance, is pure ancient historical sacrificial

humanism.263

God is sovereign in that He provided the choice of Christ, the

knowledge of Christ in His Word, and also provides the change of state,

born from above, which gives one the ability “to see the Kingdom of

God.” The choice and the salvation is all the work of God, yes, but keep

in mind - the effect on the natural man and his free will is such that once

obedience is given to the positive law of perfection, the natural man is

regenerated from the fallen state inherited from Adam. Thus, the new

man in Christ. To obey the positive law, to obey the gospel, is to obtain

the benefit that is already bought by the blood of Christ, and available by

grace to all men. No other part or parcel than the obedience of complete

trust is taken by the believer into salvation. The believer while changed

forever, retains the fallen nature inherited from Adam. Faith is the

channel and grace is the means by which all of the spiritual benefits are

given. This is an eternal change of state, which is salvation. Salvation is

the effect of saving faith caused by Christ.

It is stated by Jesus, in John 12:32, “And when I am lifted up from

the earth (the end result of being “lifted up”, ascended and seated in

heaven), will draw all people to myself.” This moment sets into action

the ministry of the Holy Spirit, at which time “every believer the moment

that he believes in Christ, is regenerated, baptized, indwelt, and sealed

for all eternity, and has a duty and privilege of continually being filled

for life and daily service.” 264

It is God’s purpose to perfect man’s free

will by his obedience to the one law given to the unsaved in this age.

Upon meeting the demands of this one law the individual is translated to


1306

the Kingdom of the Son of His love, “Where I am, my servant will be

too,” and that individual is no longer a condemned natural man, but is a

momentary ex-convict that becomes a blameless new born child of God

for all eternity.

1307

Bibliography

Excerpts and references are from:

Systematic Theology

Lewis Sperry Chafer, D.D., Litt. D., Th.D

Copyright © 1948, 1976 by Dallas Theological Seminary

Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI

ISBN 0-8254-2340-6

Salvation

Originally published: New York: C. C. Cook, 1917

Published in 1991 by Kregel Publications

ISBN 0-8254-2348-1

He That Is Spiritual

Copyright © 1918 by Lewis Sperry Chafer

Revised edition copyright © 1967 by Zondervan

ISBN 0-310-22341-5

True Evangelism

Originally published: 1919

Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI

ISBN: 0-8254-2384-7

Major Bible Themes

Revised by John F. Walvoord

Copyright © First edition 1926, 1953 by Dallas Theological Seminary

Copyright © Revised edition 1974 by Dallas Theological Seminary

Zondervon Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI

ISBN 0-310-22390-3

Basic Theology

Dr. Charles C. Ryrie

Copyright © 1986,1999 by Charles C. Ryrie

Moody Bible Press, Chicago

ISBN 0-8024-2734-0

The Scofield ® Reference Bible

Dr. C.I. Scofield, D.D.

Copyright © 1909, 1917, 1937, 1945, 1996

Oxford University Press, NY


1308

Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Encarta Encyclopedia 2006

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All

rights reserved.

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary - Romans 1-8

John MacArthur

Copyright © 1991 by the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago

ISBN 0-8024-0767-6

NET Bible - New English Translation - Second Beta Edition

Copyright © 1996-2003 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.

All Rights Reserved Version 3.902

www.netbible.com

The Anchor Bible –The Epistles of John

Translated with Introduction, Notes, and Commentary

By Raymond E. Brown, S.S.

Copyright © 1982 by Doubleday & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Printed in United States of America

First Edition

ISBN 0-385-05686-9

The Spirit World

Reverend Clarence Larkin

Copyright © 1921 by Rev. Clarence Larkin

All Rights Reserved

For sale by Rev. Clarence Larkin Estate

P.O. Box 334, Glendale, Pa. 19038

1309

Cuts

Power

1849 – exousia - all in John (authority) ☺

1411 – dunamis – (miraculous power) Acts 1:8; 6:8, 10:38; Rom 1:4

most all of Romans

☺ ability abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of)

miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.

1410 – dunamai - (to be able) Rom 16:25

2904 – kratos – (vigor, great) Eph 1:19 -

– better known as theft (cf. State of California vs. Enron). This writer

was witness to the power industry before, during, and after the Public

Service Commission mandated “reserve power,” which was a benefit to

the citizenry, was turned into a “commodity.” This commodity was then

manipulated for maximum profit by LLC’s created separate from those

who owned the power plants. By comparison, Victor Frankenstein was

horrified when he saw “the dull yellow eye of the creature open.”:

Major Bible Themes Chapter 40

B. THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST. Previous discussion of the

baptism of the Holy Spirit brought out the New Testament revelation of

the church joined together and formed into the body of Christ by the

baptism of the Spirit, as declared in 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For by one

Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,

whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one

Spirit.” Three major truths are presented in this figure: (1) the church is a

self-developing body; (2) members of the body are given special gifts

and are appointed to special service; (3) the body is a living union or an

organism.

1. As a self-developing body, the church is presented in Ephesians

4:11-16 as comprising individuals who have spiritual gifts. Hence some

are apostles, others are prophets, evangelists, or pastors and teachers. The

central truth is that believers are not only exhorted to serve God in

various capacities, but they are equipped to do a particular work to which

God has called them. A believer fulfills his proper service when he


1310

fulfills the particular role in the body of Christ which is assigned to him

and shares in perfecting the body of Christ (Eph 4:13).

2. Members of the body of Christ are appointed to a specific service

in keeping with their gifts. Just as in the human body different members

have different functions, so it is in the body of Christ. It is most

important that each believer examine himself soberly to see what gifts

God has given him and then use these gifts to the glory of God.

Important gifts are mentioned in Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:28.

Every believer has some gifts, and believers may have more than one.

The spiritual gifts, while sometimes related to natural abilities, are not to

be confused with them. For instance, while a person may have the gift of

teaching naturally, only God can give the gift of teaching spiritual things.

Spiritual gifts are not secured by seeking, but rather by the Holy

Spirit apportioning gifts “to every man severally as he will” (1 Cor

12:11). In the apostolic church some gifts were given which continue

throughout the present age; others were sign gifts which apparently

ceased after the first generation of Christians. Every gift, however, is

subject to regulation by the Word of God, is not a proper basis for pride,

and is a great responsibility for which each believer will have to give an

account.

While local churches may develop extensive organizations, the work

of God is done primarily through the church as an organism, directed by

Christ the Head in keeping with the capacities of each individual

member. While it is not uncommon for a believer in Christ to be required

to do some thing sin areas where he may not be especially gifted,

obviously his highest function is to perform the task for which he has

been placed in the body of Christ. As he presents his body to the Lord as

a living sacrifice, he can know God’s perfect will (Rom 12:1-2).

3. The body is a living organism united eternally to Christ. The unity

of the body comprising Jews and Gentiles and people of various races

and cultures is set forth in Ephesians 1:23; 2:15-16; 3:6; 4:12-16; 5:30.

The church as the body of Christ has a marvelous unity in which the

division between Jew and Gentile is ignored, and Gentile and Jews have

equal privilege and grace. The body of Christ contrasts sharply with the

relationship of God to Israel and Gentiles in the Old Testament and is a

unique situation limited to the present age. Members of the body,

according to Ephesians 3, share in the wonderful truth hidden from Old

Testament prophets but revealed in the New that Gentiles are fellow heirs

and of the same body partakers of the same promise in Christ by the

Gospel as the Jews (Eph 3:6). The unity of the body emphasized in

Ephesians 4:4-7 is an eternal unity which is the basis of Christian

1311

fellowship and service in the present age and the ground for eternal

fellowship in the ages to come.

C. CHRIST AS THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE CHURCH AS THE BRIDE. Of

the seven figures of Christ and the church, only the figure of the

Bridegroom and the bride prophetic significance. In contrast with Israel,

who is the unfaithful wife of Jehovah, the church is pictured in the New

Testament as the virgin bride awaiting the coming of her Bridegroom (2

Cor 11:2). Christ as the Bridegroom is introduced as early as John 3:29

by John the Baptist.

The major revelation, however, is given in Ephesians 5:25-33 to

illustrate the proper relationship between husbands and wives in Christ.

Here the threefold work of Christ is revealed: (a) in His death, “Christ

also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (v. 25); (b) Christ is

engaged in the present work “that he might sanctify and cleanse it with

the washing of water by the word” (v. 26); (c) “that he might present it to

himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;

but that it should be holy and without blemish” (v. 27). In dying on the

cross Christ fulfilled the oriental symbolism of paying the dowry or

necessary price to secure His wife. In the present age, by the washing of

water, the application of the Word of God, and sanctification to the

believer, Christ is preparing and cleansing His bride for her future

relationship. At the end of the age at the rapture of the church, the

Bridegroom will come for His bride and take her to heaven. There He

will present her as the church which reflects His own glory, perfect,

without blemish, spot or wrinkle, a holy bride suitable for a holy

Bridegroom. The wedding feast which follows, probably fulfilled in the

spiritual fellowship of the millennial kingdom, is one in which all other

saints join in celebrating the marriage of Christ and His church. This

marriage feast is announced in Revelation 19:7-8 at the very time that

Christ is about to come to earth to set up His kingdom.


1312

Eternal Life Verses

Key Verse

Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of

this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book [tree] of 4

life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this

book [of eternal life].

4

(22:19) Eternal life, Summary of the teaching:

(1) The life is called “eternal” because it was from the eternity

which is past unto eternity which is to come - it is the life of God

revealed in Jesus Christ, who is God (John 1:4, 5:26; 1 John 1:1, 2).

(2) This life of God, which was revealed in Christ, is imparted in a

new birth by the Holy Spirit, acting upon the word of God, to every

believer on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:3-15). (3) The life thus

imparted is not a new life except in the sense of human possession; it

is still “that which was from the beginning.” But the recipient is a

“new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). (4) The life of God which is in

the believer is an unsevered part of that which eternally was, and

eternally is, in Christ Jesus – one life, in Him and in the believer –

Vine and branches; Head and members (1 Cor 6:17; Gal 2:20; Col

1:27; 3:3, 4; 1 John 5:11, 12; John 15:1-5; 1 Cor 2:12-14).” (Old

Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1353)

The seed of the “gospel of the grace of God” designed explicitly for

man’s faith is revealed in Genesis chapter 3. Here God’s promise of a

redeemer, formed from the seed of the woman, who will defeat the

“serpent” is foretold in verse 3:15. It is revealed that Adam believed God

when he named his wife Eve, or “life-giver” in verse 20.

A tree, fountains of water, light, and life are all biblical signs pointing

to God’s “eternal life” of salvation that is given by grace to the New

Testament believer. One may wish to consider the fact, the outstanding

fact, that in the garden of Eden God indicated that Adam and Eve might

“eat” of the tree of life after they had sinned; but only after they had

believed God’s promise and He had “shed blood” and made “coats of

skin” to clothe them in these garments that literally (God had shed the

first blood) and symbolically (for we readers today) typify His

righteousness where Jesus Christ is the antitype revealed in this

1313

historical act of God. Accordingly, Adam and Eve were then sent forth

from the garden with their fallen sin nature into a fallen creation, yes, but

with an assured salvation as the “way” to the tree of life was “kept” by

God’s Cherubims or “living creatures” (Ezk 1:5).

Gen 3:21-24 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make

coats of skins, and clothed them. And the LORD God said, Behold, the

man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he

put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live

forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,

to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man;

and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming

sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Once again, these angelic beings reappear on the mercy-seat to

witness the “sprinkled blood” that prefigures and typifies the shed blood

of Christ for the salvation of men. Only the blood of Christ may

“vindicate” God’s holiness. A holiness that man cannot achieve, since

man may not “put forth his hand” and eat of the tree of eternal life. This

principle is summarized by the final declaration of Christ to the churches

in Revelation 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith

unto the churches; To him that overcometh [through faith in the promises

of Christ, John 5:5] will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the

paradise of God.”

Mtw 7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to

life, and there are few who find it.

18:8 If9 your hand or your foot causes you to sin,10 cut it off and throw

it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have11

two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 18:9 And if your

eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to

enter into life [now] with one eye than to have12 two eyes and be thrown

into fiery hell [later].13

19:16 Now20 someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good

thing must I do to gain eternal life?” 19:17 He said to him, “Why do you

ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you

want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”


1314

19:25 The32 disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and

said, “Then who can be saved?”33 19:26 Jesus34 looked at them and

replied, “This is impossible for mere humans,35 but for God all things

are possible.”

19:29 And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or

mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as

much43 and will inherit eternal life.

25:46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous

into eternal life.”

Luke 10:25 Now83 an expert in religious law84 stood up to test Jesus,85

saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”86

12:15 Then36 he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from37 all

types of greed,38 because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of

his possessions.”

John 1:4 In him was life,8 and the life was the light of mankind.9






sn An allusion to Ps 36:9, which gives significant OT background: “For

with you is the fountain of life; In your light we see light.” In later

Judaism, Bar 4:2 expresses a similar idea. Life, especially eternal life,

will become one of the major themes of John’s Gospel.

3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”35 3:16

For this is the way36 God loved the world: He gave his one and only37

Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish38 but have

eternal life.39

3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who

rejects69 the Son will not see [eternal] life, but God’s wrath70

remains71 on him.

1315

4:14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will

never be thirsty again,35 but the water that I will give him will become in

him a fountain36 of water springing up37 to eternal life.”

4:36 The one who reaps receives pay85 and gathers fruit for eternal life,

so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.

5:24 “I tell you the solemn truth,45 the one who hears46 my message47

and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be

condemned,48 but has crossed over from death to life.

5:39 You study the scriptures thoroughly67 because you think in them

you possess eternal life,68 and it is these same scriptures69 that testify

about me, 5:40 but you are not willing to come to me so that you may

have life.

6:27 Do not work for the food that disappears,42 but for the food that

remains to eternal life—the food43 which the Son of Man will give to

you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.”44

6:28 So then they said to him, “What must we do to accomplish the

deeds45 God requires?”46 6:29 Jesus replied,47 “This is the deed48 God

requires49—to believe in the one whom he50 sent.” 6:30 So they said to

him, “Then what miraculous sign will you perform, so that we may see it

and believe you? What will you do? 6:31 Our ancestors51 ate the manna

in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven

to eat.’”52

6:32 Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth,53 it is not Moses

who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you

the true bread from heaven. 6:33 For the bread of God is the one who54

comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 6:34 So they said

to him, “Sir,55 give us this bread all the time!”

6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to

me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be

thirsty.56 6:36 But I told you57 that you have seen me58 and still do not

believe. 6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and

the one who comes to me I will never send away.59 6:38 For I have

come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one

who sent me. 6:39 Now this is the will of the one who sent me—that I

should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them

all up60 at the last day. 6:40 For this is the will of my Father—for

everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life,

and I will raise him up61 at the last day.”62


1316

6:47 I tell you the solemn truth,71 the one who believes72 has eternal

life.73 6:48 I am the bread of life.74 6:49 Your ancestors75 ate the

manna in the wilderness, and they died. 6:50 This76 is the bread that has

come down from heaven, so that a person77 may eat from it and not die.

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats

from this bread he will live forever. The bread78 that I will give for the

life of the world is my flesh.”

6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth,82 unless you eat the

flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,83 you have no life84 in

yourselves. 6:54 The one who eats85 my flesh and drinks my blood has

eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.86 6:55 For my flesh is

true87 food, and my blood is true88 drink. 6:56 The one who eats89 my

flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.90 6:57 Just as the

living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who

consumes91 me will live because of me. 6:58 This92 is the bread that

came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors93 ate, but

then later died.94 The one who eats95 this bread will live forever.”

6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You

have the words of eternal life.

8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again,19 “I am the light of the world.20 The

one who follows me will never21 walk in darkness, but will have the

light of life.”

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill23 and destroy; I have come

so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.24

10:28 I give67 them eternal life, and they will never perish;68 no one

will snatch69 them from my hand.

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who

believes in me will live49 even if he dies, 11:26 and the one who lives

and believes in me will never die.50 Do you believe this?”

12:25 The one who loves his life50 destroys51 it, and the one who hates

his life in this world guards52 it for eternal life.

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life.107 Thus the

things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.”108

1317

14:6 Jesus replied,13 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.14 No one

comes to the Father except through me.

17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity,5 so that he

may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.6 17:3 Now this7 is

eternal life8—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,9

whom you sent.

20:31 But these59 are recorded60 so that you may believe61 that Jesus is

the Christ,62 the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in

his name.63

Acts 2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of joy with your presence.’54

3:15 You killed41 the Originator4 2 of life, whom God raised43 from the

dead. To this fact we are witnesses!44

5:20 “Go and stand in the temple courts44 and proclaim45 to the people

all the words of this life.”

11:18 When they heard this,35 they ceased their objections36 and

praised37 God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance38 that

leads to life even to the Gentiles.”39

13:46 Both Paul and Barnabas replied courageously,171 “It was

necessary to speak the word of God172 to you first. Since you reject it

and do not consider yourselves worthy173 of eternal life, we174 are

turning to the Gentiles.175 13:47 For this176 is what the Lord has

commanded us: ‘I have appointed177 you to be a light178 for the

Gentiles, to bring salvation179 to the ends of the earth.’”180 13:48

When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice181 and praise182 the

word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed for eternal life183

believed.

Rom 2:7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek

glory and honor and immortality, 2:8 but17 wrath and anger to those who

live in selfish ambition18 and do not obey the truth but follow19

unrighteousness.


1318

5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through

the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled,

will we be saved by his life? 5:11 Not11 only this, but we also rejoice12

in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now

received this reconciliation.

The Amplification of Justification

5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death

through sin, and so death spread to all people13 because14 all sinned—

5:13 for before the law was given,15 sin was in the world, but there is no

accounting for sin16 when there is no law. 5:14 Yet death reigned from

Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that

Adam (who is a type17 of the coming one) transgressed.18 5:15 But the

gracious gift is not like the transgression.19 For if the many died through

the transgression of the one man,20 how much more did the grace of God

and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the

many! 5:16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned.21 For judgment,

resulting from the one transgression,22 led to condemnation, but23 the

gracious gift from the many failures24 led to justification. 5:17 For if, by

the transgression of the one man,25 death reigned through the one, how

much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift

of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

5:18 Consequently,26 just as condemnation27 for all people28 came29

through one transgression,30 so too through the one righteous act31

came righteousness leading to life32 for all people. 5:19 For just as

through the disobedience of the one man33 many34 were made sinners,

so also through the obedience of one man35 many36 will be made

righteous. 5:20 Now the law came in37 so that the transgression38 may

increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so

that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through

righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death,

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of

the Father, so we too may live a new life.1

6:22 But now, freed21 from sin and enslaved to God, you have your

benefit22 leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 6:23 For

the payoff23 of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ

Jesus our Lord.

8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit2 in Christ Jesus has set you3 free

from the law of sin and death.

1319

8:6 For the outlook6 of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is

life and peace,

8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but8 the

Spirit is your life9 because of righteousness.

2 Cor 2:15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who

are being saved and among those who are perishing— 2:16 to the latter

an odor26 from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to

life. And who is adequate for these things?27

4:10 always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus,20 so that the

life of Jesus may also be made visible21 in our body. 4:11 For we who

are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so

that the life of Jesus may also be made visible22 in our mortal body.23

4:12 As a result,24 death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.25

5:4 For we groan while we are in this tent,7 since we are weighed

down,8 because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that

what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ,59 and it is no longer I who

live, but Christ lives in me. So60 the life I now live in the body,61 I live

because of the faithfulness of the Son of God,62 who loved me and gave

himself for me.

6:7 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool.12 For a person13

will reap what he sows, 6:8 because the person who sows to his own

flesh14 will reap corruption15 from the flesh,16 but the one who sows to

the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding,26 being alienated

from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the

hardness of their hearts.

Phil 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God

without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in

which you shine as lights in the world16 2:16 by holding on to17 the

word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that

I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.


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4:3 Yes, I say also to you, true companion,2 help them. They have

struggled together in the gospel ministry3 along with me and Clement

and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

Col 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious47 riches of

this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of

glory.

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you

have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:4 When Christ

(who is your1 life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with

him.

1 Tim 1:16 But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that20 in me as

the worst,21 Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an

example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life.

4:8 For “physical exercise10 has some value, but godliness is valuable in

every way. It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.”

6:12 Compete well16 for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you

were called for and made your good confession17 for18 in the presence

of many witnesses.

6:19 In this way they will save up29 a treasure for themselves as a firm

foundation30 for the future and so lay hold of31 what is truly life.

2 Tim 1:1 From Paul,1 an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, to

further the promise2 of life in Christ Jesus,

1:10 but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ

Jesus. He17 has broken the power of death and brought life and

immortality to light through the gospel!

Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised

before the ages began.4

3:7 And so,5 since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs

with the confident expectation of eternal life.”6

1321

Heb 7:3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, he has

neither beginning of days nor end of life but is like the son of God, and

he remains a priest for all time.

7:16 who has become a priest not by a legal regulation about physical

descent20 but by the power of an indestructible life.

1 Pet 3:7 Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with

consideration as the weaker partners11 and show them honor as fellow

heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers.12

2 Pet 1:3 I can pray this because his divine power12 has bestowed on us

everything necessary13 for life and godliness through the rich

knowledge14 of the one who called15 us by16 his own glory and

excellence.

1 John 1:1 This is what we proclaim to you:1 what was from the

beginning,2 what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what

we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of

life— 1:2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and

announce3 to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was

revealed to us).4

2:25 Now this52 is the promise that he53 himself made to54 us: eternal

life.55

3:14 We know that47 we have crossed over48 from death to life49

because50 we love our fellow Christians.51 The one who does not love

remains in death.52 3:15 Everyone who hates his fellow Christian53 is a

murderer,54 and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing55 in

him.

5:11 And this is the testimony: God25 has given us eternal life,26 and

this life is in his Son. 5:12 The one who has the Son27 has this28

eternal29 life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have

this30 eternal31 life.

Assurance of Eternal Life

5:13 I have written these things32 to you who believe33 in the name of

the Son of God so that34 you may know that you have eternal life.

5:16 If38 anyone sees his fellow Christian39 committing a sin not

resulting in death,40 he should ask, and God41 will grant42 life to the


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person who commits a sin not resulting in death.43 There is a sin

resulting in death.44 I do not say that he should ask about that.

5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us

insight to know51 him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his

Son Jesus Christ. This one52 is the true God and eternal life.

Jude 1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most

holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit,89 1:21 maintain90 yourselves in

the love of God, while anticipating91 the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ

that brings eternal life.92

Rev 2:7 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to

the churches. To the one who conquers,20 I will permit21 him to eat

from the tree of life that is22 in the paradise of God.’23

2:10 Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is

about to have some of you thrown32 into prison so you may be tested,33

and you will experience suffering34 for ten days. Remain faithful even to

the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself.35

3:5 The one who conquers18 will be dressed like them19 in white

clothing,20 and I will never21 erase22 his name from the book of life,

but23 will declare24 his name before my Father and before his angels.

13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast,26

everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the

world27 in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.28

17:8 The beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the

abyss21 and then go to destruction. The22 inhabitants of the earth—all

those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the

foundation of the world—will be astounded when they see that23 the

beast was, and is not, but is to come.

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the

throne. Then33 books were opened, and another book was opened—the

book of life.34 So35 the dead were judged by what was written in the

books, according to their deeds.36

20:15 If40 anyone’s name41 was not found written in the book of life,

that person42 was thrown into the lake of fire.

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21:6 He also said to me, “It is done!12 I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water13

free of charge14 from the spring of the water of life.

21:27 but66 nothing ritually unclean67 will ever enter into it, nor anyone

who does what is detestable68 or practices falsehood,69 but only those

whose names70 are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22:1 Then1 the angel2 showed me the river of the water of life—water as

clear as crystal—pouring out3 from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

22:2 flowing down the middle of the city’s4 main street.5 On each side6

of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds7 of fruit, yielding its

fruit every month of the year.8 Its leaves are for the healing of the

nations.

22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access32

to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who

hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who

wants it take the water of life free of charge.

22:19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of

prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life37 and in the

holy city that are described in this book.


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Rom 3:11 there is no one who understands,

there is no one who seeks God.

1 Cor 2:14 The unbeliever9 does not receive the things of the Spirit of

God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them,

because they are spiritually discerned.

Dr. C. I Scofield writes in the Preface of his Old Scofield Study System:

The Central Theme of the Bible is Christ. It is this manifestation of Jesus

Christ, his Person as “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16), his

sacrificial death, and his resurrection, which constitute the Gospel. Unto

this all preceding Scripture leads, from this all following Scripture

proceeds. The Gospel is preached in the Acts and explained in the

Epistles. Christ, Son of God, Son of man, Son of Abraham, Son of

David, thus binds the many books into one Book. Seed of woman (Gen.

3:15) he is the ultimate destroyer of Satan and his works; Seed of

Abraham he is the world blesser; Seed of David he is Israel’s King,

“Desire of all Nations.” Exalted to the right hand of God “he is head over

all to the Church, which is his body,” while to Israel and the nations the

promise of his return form the one and only rational expectation that

humanity will yet fulfill itself. Meanwhile the Church looks momentarily

for the fulfillment of his special promise: “I will come again and receive

you unto myself” (John 14:1-3). To him the Holy Spirit throughout this

Gospel age bears testimony. The last book of all, the Consummation

book, is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1). – (p. vi)

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Faith - Habakkuk 2:4 AMP

4 Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him, but

the [rigidly] just and the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall alive

by his faith and in his faithfulness. [Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11.]

a There is a curious passage in the Talmud [the body of Jewish civil land

religious law] which says that Moses gave six hundred injunctions to the

Israelites. As these commands might prove too numerous to commit to

memory. David brought them down to eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah

reduced these eleven to six in [his] chapter 33:15. Micah (6:8) further

reduced them to three; and Isaiah (56:1) once more brought them down

to two. These two Amos (5:4) reduced to one. However, lest it might be

supposed from this that God could be found only in the fulfillment of the

law, Habakkuk (2:4 KJV) said, “The just shall live by his faith” (William

H. Saulez, The Romance of the Hebrew Language)

Hebrews 11:39 Scofield p 1302

1(11:39) The essence of faith consists in receiving what God has

revealed, and may be defined as that trust in the God of the Scriptures

and in Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, which receives Him as Savior

and Lord [God], and impels to loving obedience and good works (John

1:12; Jas 2:14-26). The particular uses of faith give rise to its secondary

definitions: (1) For salvation, faith is personal trust, apart from

meritorious works, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as delivered for our offences

and raised again for our justification (Rom 4:5, 23-25). (2) As used in

prayer, faith is the “confidence that we have in him, that if we ask

anything according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14, 15). (3) As

used in reference to unseen things of which Scripture speaks, faith “gives

substance” to them, so that we act upon the conviction of their reality

(Heb 11:1-3). (4) As a working principle in life, the uses of faith are

illustrated in Heb. 11:1-39.

The Security of the Believer

John 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and

no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. Rom 4:21 He was fully

convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. 4:22 So

indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. 4:23 But the

statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s


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sake, 4:24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who

believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 4:25 He was

given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of

our justification. 8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God

is for us, who can be against us? 8:38 For I am convinced that neither

death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are

present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor

anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord. 14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on

another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will

stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Eph 3:20 Now to him who

by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that

we ask or think, Phil 3:21 who will transform these humble bodies of

ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by

which he is able to subject all things to himself. 2 Tim 1:12 Because of

this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know the

one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect

what has been entrusted to me until that day. Heb 7:25 So he is able to

save completely those who come to God through him, because he always

lives to intercede for them. Jude 1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep

you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish

before his glorious presence,

Heb 10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come

but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those

who come to worship. 10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased

to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for

all and so have no further consciousness of sin? 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 10:4 For the

blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. 10:5 So when he

came into the world, he [Christ] said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared

for me.

10:6 “Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in.

10:7 “Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come—it is written of me in

the scroll of the book—to do your will, O God.’”

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10:8 When he says above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt

offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take delight

in them” (which are offered according to the law), 10:9 then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first

to establish the second. 10:10 By his will we have been made holy

through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. NET

Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by

faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:2

through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace

in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. 5:3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering

produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance, character, and character,

hope. 5:5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has

been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given

to us.

5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for

the ungodly. 5:7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to

die.) 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we

were still sinners, Christ died for us. 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be

saved through him from God’s wrath. 5:10 For if while we were

enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,

how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 5:11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this

reconciliation.

The Amplification of Justification

5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all

sinned— 5:13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but

there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 5:14 Yet death

reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin

in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one)

transgressed. 5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man,

how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the


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one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 5:16 And the gift is not

like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one

transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 5:17 For if, by the transgression

of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will

those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of

righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! 5:18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through

one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came

righteousness leading to life for all people. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also

through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous. 5:20

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as

sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness

to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. NET

Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our

LORD Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. KJV

Rev 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus,1 write the following:2

“This is the solemn pronouncement of3 the one who has a firm grasp on4

the seven stars in his right hand5—the one who walks among the seven

golden6 lampstands:

“To24 the angel of the church in Smyrna write the following:25

“This is the solemn pronouncement of26 the one who is the first and the

last, the one who was dead, but27 came to life:

“To37 the angel of the church in Pergamum write the following:38

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“This is the solemn pronouncement of39 the one who has the sharp

double-edged sword:40

2:18 “To59 the angel of the church in Thyatira write the following:60

“This is the solemn pronouncement of61 the Son of God, the one who

has eyes like a fiery flame62 and whose feet are like polished bronze:63

3:1 “To1 the angel of the church in Sardis write the following:2

“This is the solemn pronouncement of3 the one who holds4 the seven

spirits of God and the seven stars:

3:7 “To25 the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following:26

“This is the solemn pronouncement of27 the Holy One, the True One,

who holds the key of David, who opens doors28 no one can shut, and

shuts doors29 no one can open:

3:14 “To51 the angel of the church in Laodicea write the following:52

“This is the solemn pronouncement of53 the Amen, the faithful and true

witness, the originator54 of God’s creation:

Vol 1, decrees, p239

It is revealed that the perfect manhood of Christ was wholly subject to

the will of His Father. It is written of Him that, “when he cometh into the

world, he saith, … Lo, I come … to do thy will, O God” (Heb 10:5-7; cf.

Ps 40:6-8). There could be no perfect humanity or creaturehood which is

not completely subject to the will of God; and the first step in salvation

on the part of those for whom redemption is provided is that they shall

obey the gospel (Acts 5:32; 2 Thess 1:8; Heb 5:9; 1 Pet 4:7). With this

provision in view there is no need that any should be lost who desire to

be saved.

Rom 2:12-13 is law=obey the gospel? Ref. Chafer Vol 1 page,

predestination and gospel preaching. In v. 16 Paul ends the chapter with

My Gospel. The chapter opens with the condemnation of moralizers.


1330

Deduction, in logic, a process of reasoning in which reasons are given in

support of a claim. The reasons, or justifications, are called the premises

of the claim, and the claim they purport to justify is called the

conclusion. In a correct, or valid, deduction the premises support the

conclusion in such a way that it would be impossible for the premises to

be true and for the conclusion to be false. In this, deduction differs

sharply from induction, a process of drawing a conclusion in which the

truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion.

The actual truth or falsity of the premises and the conclusion is not at

issue in determining whether an argument is a valid deduction. In the

following argument, for instance, two premises are offered in support of

a conclusion:

All the planets in our solar system are equipped with an atmosphere.

Pluto is a planet in our solar system.

Therefore, Pluto is equipped with an atmosphere.

One of the premises in this argument is in fact false, and so is the

conclusion. But the argument is still deductively valid: If the premises

were true, the conclusion would have to be true as well.


rights reserved.

For instance, consider the English sentence “Every event has a cause.” It

can mean either that one cause brings about every event, wherein A

causes B, C, D, and so on, or that individual events each have their own,

possibly different, cause, wherein X causes Y, Z causes W, and so on.

The problem is that the structure of the English language does not tell us

which one of the two readings is the correct one. This has important

logical consequences. If the first reading is what is intended by the

sentence, it follows that there is something akin to what some

philosophers have called the primary cause, but if the second reading is

what is intended, then there may well be no primary cause.

Written in a formalized language, two unambiguous sentences remove

the ambiguity of the sentence, “Every event has a cause.” The first

possibility is represented by the sentence , which can be read as "there is

a thing x, such that, for every y, x causes y." This would correspond with

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the first interpretation mentioned above. The second possible meaning is

represented by , which can be read as "for every thing y, there is a thing x

such that x causes y." This would correspond with the second

interpretation mentioned above.

Written in a formalized language, two unambiguous sentences remove

the ambiguity of the sentence, “Every event has a cause.” The first

possibility is represented by the sentence , which can be read as

"there is a thing x, such that, for every y, x causes y." This would

correspond with the first interpretation mentioned above. The second

possible meaning is represented by , which can be read as "for

every thing y, there is a thing x such that x causes y." This would

correspond with the second interpretation mentioned above.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved.

One may quite honestly resist the idea of divine Providence and find the

overall scope of the concept repugnant. I would say, okay, but who of the

many that find Providence repugnant can say why? Who of the many

have honestly meditated upon the broad ramifications of the concept?

Much as a play written on paper is a two dimensional representation, the

play does not manifest itself rightly until performed before an audience -

until it enters time and three dimensional reality. God does not act on the

legal fiction of foresight. To duplicate the reality on paper and by the re-

performance of a previously filmed segment of life would not be be a

“play.” One may not write, in the strictest sense, a play from a home

movie of a family vacation. A play is a creative act that enters reality.

May the creature deny the Lord and Master Creator His creative

expression? By what “rule” may He be denied? In Providence the awards

do not go to best actors.


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Instrumentalism, in American philosophy, variety of pragmatism

developed at the University of Chicago by John Dewey and his

colleagues. Thought is considered by instrumentalists a method of

meeting difficulties, particularly such difficulties as arise when

immediate, unreflective experience is interrupted by the failure of

habitual or instinctive modes of reaction to cope with a new situation.

According to the doctrine, thinking consists of the formulation of plans

or patterns of both overt action and unexpressed responses or ideas; in

each case, the goals of thought are a wider experience and a successful

resolution of problems. In this view, ideas and knowledge are exclusively

functional processes; that is, they are of significance only as they are

instrumental in the development of experience. The realistic and

experimental emphasis of instrumentalism has had a far-reaching effect

on American thought; Dewey and his followers applied it with

conspicuous success in such fields as education and psychology.


rights reserved.

It may readily be observed that the dynamic, or force, that causes the

effect is either self or Christ. The above “truth tables” may be formed

and used in many ways to clarify assumptions and vague notions,

because “by” and “for” are both prepositions with better than twenty

distinctions. Salvation and Christ are both nouns. Unsecured salvation is

to be saved from incremental sin by God’s forgiveness after water

baptism or saving faith. Whereas, secured salvation is to be saved from

unbelief and all the sin attached to it by the baptism of the Holy Spirit

immediately upon saving faith. Whereby, it appears, there are two

different Christ that died. One Christ saves partially and forgives later,

the other Christ saves completely. To be observed is the smooth rhetoric

of the semantically misleading, “by Christ” as opposed to the distinct

“faith for Christ” that must change to “in Christ.” One would say, “I have

an unsecured faith in a future state (effect, salvation) spatial relationship

to Christ because of self.” The other would say, “I have a secure faith in

an instantaneous state (effect, salvation) because of Christ.” Also, the

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differences between the “logical statements of faith” that are drawn from

the differing set of dynamics are helpful. The simple truth, you cannot

know what you have not been taught, or learned to understand holds true.

Man does not choose to be born into a fallen world of sin. Man has only

the freedom of futility without Christ. Man without Christ is doomed.

God loved fallen humanity. God is man’s Savoir. God in the Person of

Jesus Christ chose to be born. He offers man that same choice. It is

man’s only choice. Peter said, “Where else would we go Master, only

you have eternal life.” God the Father said, “This is my Son – Listen to

him.” Man’s unregenerate free will is not perfected by predestination.

Man’s free will is not perfected by a false future existence in heaven that

he earned. Man’s natural free will is not perfected after he is born again.

It is perfected as the final act of the believing obedient natural man. Man

is saved from himself. A fallen self which was created by the sin of the

first man, Adam. Immediately, thereupon, he is born again and receives

eternal salvation in Christ, the Last Adam. The federal Head of a new

creation of men. In the NT, all believers whether immature or mature,

carnal or spiritual, are never referred to as sarkikos, or natural after

saving faith. They are regenerated and justified saints with a new nature

that does battle with the old, the NT antitype of the two loaves of

leavened bread of OT type, and Paul’s testimony of an inner struggle in

Romans chapter 7. God’s positive single law for the unsaved in this age

is to follow this instruction - obey the gospel. The new sin of this age is

the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ as Savior. The lie of this age is to

believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and not as our temporarily ascended

Advocate and Intercessor for our continued secure salvation. Condemned

sinner are we all for no one ever chose to be born. Saint we become by

the gift of choice to be born from above. Jesus Christ chose to be born so

that He could suffer retribution and die in the place of every man,

woman, and unaccountable child in order that fallen mankind may have a

choice.

1 5 Now this is the gospel

that we heard from Christ

and declare to you:

God is light

and in Him there is no darkness at all.

6

IF WE BOAST, “We are in communion with Him,”

while continuing to walk in darkness,


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we are liars

and we do not act in truth.

7

BUT IF we walk in the light

as He Himself is in light,

we are joined in communion with one another;

and the blood of Jesus, His Son,

cleanses us from all sin.

8 IF WE BOAST, “We are free from the guilt of sin,”

we deceive ourselves;

and the truth is not in us.

9 BUT IF we confess our sins,

He who is reliable and just

will forgive us our sins

and cleanse us from all wrong doing.

10

IF WE BOAST, “We have not sinned,”

we make Him a liar;

and His word is not in us.

2 1 (My Little Children, I am writing this to keep you from sin.)

But if anyone does sin,

we have a Paraclete in the Father’s presence,

Jesus Christ, the one who is just;

2 and he himself is an atonement for our sins,

and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

“The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thy

heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down from

above:) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and

in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; that, if thou shalt

confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart

that God hast raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth

confession is made unto salvation” (Rom 10:6-10) KJV

“made unto salvation”

1. to: used to indicate that something is said, given, or done to

somebody the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah

and they said unto God

1335

2. until: used to indicate that something continues until a particular

time faithful unto death Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P)

1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved

11tnGrk “believes to righteousness.” 12tn Grk “confesses to

salvation.” NET

(illustrative of misleading contemporary dictionary definitions of KJV

language, that in many verses, is the source of an “unsecured”

reading of righteousness, faith, and salvation, this writer)

Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness11

and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.12 NET 10

for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and

with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. NASB 10

for with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on

Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and

with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his

faith) and confirms (his) salvation. AMP

Salvation is God’s redemption towards sin, God’s reconciliation

towards man, and God’s propitiation towards God. This is the cross

of Christ. This is what He bought with His blood. Christ crucified

canceled sin, guilt, and judgment. Sin, righteousness, and judgment is the gospel of good news to be preached to all the world. Man is

guilty only of unbelief. Obey the gospel and escape judgment. Obey

and believe on Jesus Christ as Savior to set you free from sin and death. Only believe and receive God’s Holy Spirit and you are

blameless and free forever.

Luke 18:9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident

that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. 18:10

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the

other a tax collector. 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about

himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people:

extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers—or even like this tax

collector. 18:12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even

look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful

[“be thou propitiated” R.V.] to me, sinner that I am!’ 18:14 I tell you


1336

that this man went down to his home justified rather than the

Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he

who humbles himself will be exalted.” NET (brackets mine)

1337


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Endnotes

1 Rev 2:7 NET 2 1 John 3:23 NET 3 1 John 5:4-5 NET 4 Revelation 2:11ff NET 5 Reference tc (translation comment) at Rom. 16:25, page 2092, NET Bible

2nd Beta Edition which is too extended to include here. 6 Rev 2:7 NET 7 1 John 3:23 NET 8 1 John 5:4-5 NET 9 Revelation 2:11ff NET 10 1 Corinthians 15:22 NET 11 Ephesians 5:11 NET 12 John 3:36 NET 13 Rom 5:18-21 NET (verse omission mine) 14 Luke 15:10 NET 15 Ibid., Vol 2, pp 176-84, cited in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer,

Vol 3, pp 147-153 16 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p 362 17 1 Cor 15:47-50 NET (verse omission mine) 18 Salvation: God’s Marvelous Work of Grace, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp 79-80 19 The Biblical Studies Foundation, Winter 2001, www.bible.org 20 Major Bible Themes, revised by Dr. John Walvoord, pp 126-28 21 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 308 22 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 237-38 23 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, P 224 24 Ibid., Vol 4, pp 239-40 25 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, pp 168-232ff 26 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 226-27, 228-29 27 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 430 28 2 Pet 3:7, 10 KJV 29 Rev 20:11-15 NET 30 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 5, pp 363-65 31 Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 32 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 150 33 The Holy Spirit and Prayer, Ray C. Stedman, Copyright ©1995

Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church, requests for

permission – Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA.

94306-3695

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34 Vol 1, pp viii-ix, xiii-xxxviii 35 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 5, pp 372-379 36 John 14:19ff, 20ff 37 Col 2:8 NET (brackets mine, this writer) NET 38 Rom 4:2-5 NET (verse omission mine) 39 Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All

rights reserved. 40 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, pp 1201, 88 41 Ibid., p1241 42 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer , Vol 7, p 186 43 Ibid., Vol 7, p 227 44 Ibid., Vol 7, p 142 45 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 335 46 Morning and Evening Devotions, Dr. C. H. Spurgeon, p 501 47 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 279 48 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 308-09 49 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 306 50 The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, R. E. Brown, p 570 and pp 594-

95 51 Major Bible Themes, Dr. Lewis Chafer, revised by Dr. John Walvoord 52 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 178-79 53 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 356 54 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1328 55 Ibid., p 1319 56 Salvation, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, pp 45-52 57 Ibid., p 1017 58 Ibid., p 1016 59 Ibid., p 1226-27 60 Ibid., p. 989-90 61 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, pp 293-94 62 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 80 63 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p 1089-90 64 So That You May Believe: A study of the Gospel of John – Lesson 19,

Robert L. Deffinbaugh, Th. M., NET Bible 2nd Beta Edition Resource CD 65 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 82; 21 66 - P. 157, The Last Things: Hope for This World and the Next, cited in Heaven, Randy Alcorn, pp 112-13 67 So That You may Believe: A Study of the Gospel of John – Lesson 19, Dr.

Robert L. Deffinbaugh, Th. M., NET Bible 2nd Beta Edition Resource CD 68 Liner notes – Listen to Our Hearts Vol. 1, EMI Christian Music

Publishing 69 Ibid., p 1148 70 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1211


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71 Ibid., p 1242 72 Major Bible Themes, Dr. Lewis Chafer, revised by Dr. John Walvoord, p

280 73 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, pp 1280-811 74 Systematic Theology,Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 23, 26-27 75 NET Bible 2nd Beta Edition Resource CD 76 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 154-55 77 Isaiah 44:10; 30:8; 40:13; 29:16; 29:15; 41:21; 28:15; 29:8; 44:20; 41:24;

32:5-7 78 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 130 79 Systematic Theology,Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 120-125 80 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 131 81 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 127-30 82 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 131-35 83 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 55 84 Cited by R. W. Dale, The Atonement, 4th ed., p 3 85 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 48-49 86 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 340-41 87 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8, Dr. John

MacArthur, p 506, 508-09 88 Ibid., Vol 3, p 58-59 89 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1044 90 Ibid., p 1226 91 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 342, 344 92 Ibid., Vol 7, pp 85-88 93 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p 1326 94 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, pp 248-49 95 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, 28-29, 35 96 Ephesians: Introduction, Argument, and Outline, Daniel B. Wallace,

Ph.D., NET 2nd Beta Edition Resource CD 97 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 47 98 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 126 99 Ibid., Vol 3, p 49 100 Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley, Barnes and

Nobles ed., p 78 101 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, pp 110, 148, 1038, 1300 102 Major Bible Themes, Dr. Lewis Chafer, revised by Dr. John Walvoord,

pp 184-85 103 Ibid., pp 60-61 104 Ibid., pp 63-64 105 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, pp 355-57 106 Salvation: God’s Marvelous Work of Grace, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp 37-

39

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107 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 274-75 108 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 51-52 109 Ibid., Vol 4, p 174-75 110 Ibid., Vol 7, 107-08 111 Romans 5:8-10 NET 112 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 198 113 Studies in Theology, B. B. Warfield, pp.283-97 cited in Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 160-64 114 Morning and Evening Devotions, Dr. C. H. Spurgeon, p 538, Morning -

Sept. 25 115 True Evangelism, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp 27-28 116 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, pp 319-22 117 The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Dr. John F. Walvoord, p 149-51 – cited in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, p 121 118 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, p 121 119 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, pp 30-31 120 Ibid., Vol 2, p 37 121 The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, IV, 2695 – cited in

Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p 37-38 122 He That Is Spiritual, Lewis Sperry Chafer, p 102 123 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1350 124 Major Bible Themes, Dr. Lewis Chafer – revised by Dr. John Walvoord,

pp 161-63 125 Ibid., pp 172-73 126 Ibid., pp 174-87 127 Ibid., pp 274-78 128 Ibid., pp 291-295 129 Rev 2:7 NET 130 Acts 26:13-19 NET 131 20tn Or “Like Adam”; or “Like [sinful] men.” The MT reads <d*a*K=

(ke’adam, “like Adam” or “as [sinful] men”); however, the editors of BHS

suggest this reflects an orthographic confusion of <d*a*B= (be’adam, “at

Adam”), as suggested by the locative adverb <v* (sham, “there”) in the

following line. However, <v* sometimes functions in a nonlocative sense

similar to the deictic particle hN}h! (hinneh, “Behold!”). The singular noun

<d*a* (’adam) has been taken in several different ways: (1) proper name: “like Adam” (<d*a*K=), (2) collective singular: “like [sinful] men”

(<d*a*K=), (3) proper location: “at Adam,” referring to a city in the Jordan

Valley (Josh 3:16), emending comparative K= (kaf) to locative B= (bet,

“at”): “at Adam” (<d*a*B=). BDB 9 s.v. <d*a* 2 suggests the collective

sense, referring to sinful men (Num 5:6; 1 Kgs 8:46; 2 Chr 6:36; Jer 10:14;

Job 31:33; Hos 6:7). The English translations are divided: “like Adam”

(NASB, NIV, KJV margin, RSV margin, TEV margin), “at Adam” (RSV,


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TEV, CEV), and “like men” (KJV).

21tn The verb rb^u* (’avar) refers here to breaking a covenant and carries

the nuance “to overstep, transgress” (BDB 717 s.v. rb^u* 1.i). 132 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 16 133 Ibid., Vol 5, p 195-96 134 Easton’s Bible Dictionary, shareware 135 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 207-08 136 He That Is Spirtual, Dr. Lewis Chafer, p 19 137 Bible Correspondence Course, Dr. C. I. Scofield, pp 428-30 – cited in

Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 152 138 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 152-53 139 2. K. L. Gentry “The Great Option: A Study of the Lordship

Controversy,” Baptist Reformation Review 5 (Spring 1976) 5: 52. 140 Arthur W. Pink, Present Day Evangelism (Swengel, Pa.: Bible Truth

Depot, n.d.), 14-15. 141 See Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life (Chicago: Moody, 1969), 169-81 and So Great Salvation (Chicago: Moody, 1997) 142 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p 1195 143 NET study note 117, Luke 24:47 144 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, p 34 145 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Vol 2, p 301 146 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8, Dr. John

MacArthur, p 294 147

Deduction, in logic, a process of reasoning in which reasons are given

in support of a claim. The reasons, or justifications, are called the premises

of the claim, and the claim they purport to justify is called the conclusion. In

a correct, or valid, deduction the premises support the conclusion in such a

way that it would be impossible for the premises to be true and for the

conclusion to be false. In this, deduction differs sharply from induction, a

process of drawing a conclusion in which the truth of the premises does not

guarantee the truth of the conclusion.

The actual truth or falsity of the premises and the conclusion is not at issue

in determining whether an argument is a valid deduction. In the following

argument, for instance, two premises are offered in support of a conclusion:

All the planets in our solar system are equipped with an atmosphere.

Pluto is a planet in our solar system.

Therefore, Pluto is equipped with an atmosphere.

One of the premises in this argument is in fact false, and so is the conclusion.

But the argument is still deductively valid: If the premises were true, the

conclusion would have to be true as well.

1343

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved. 148 Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved. 149 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 255 150 Ibid., pp 120-26, quoted in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol

2, pp. 170-72 151 Ibid., pp 172-173 152 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p. 166 153 Christian Doctrine of Sin, Muller - cited by Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine

of Man, p. 185 – Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p. 166 154 1 John 3:2 NET 155 Romans 8:28-34 NET 156 Phil 3:18-21 NET 157 Psalm 45:8-15 NET (paraphrase from KJV mine, this author) 158 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p 294 159 Titus 3:5-7 NET 160 1 Cor 3:20ff NET 161 Hegel argued that this dialectical logic applies to all knowledge,

including science and history. Hegel believed this development occurs by a

dialectical process—that is, a process through which conflicting ideas

become resolved—which consists of a series of stages that occur in triads

(sets of three). Each triad involves (1) an initial state (or thesis), which might

be an idea or a movement; (2) its opposite state (or antithesis); and (3) a higher state, or synthesis, that combines elements from the two opposites

into a new and superior arrangement. The synthesis then becomes the thesis

of the next triad in an unending progress toward the ideal.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved. 162 Galatians 3:17-25 NET 163 Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All

rights reserved. 164 NET Bible translation note 15, on Genesis 1:3 165 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 162-63 166 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 344 167 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 273. Where he discusses the doctrine of the Trinity. 168 The first occurrence of the word grace in the Bible. 169 Shakespeare’s Macbeth 170 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 249 171 Ibid. 172 1 Cor 10:3-4 NET 173 The Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p 1189


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174 Major Bible Themes, revised by Dr. John Walvoord, pp 108-13 175 The Christian Doctrine of Sin, Dr. Julius Müller (Vol 1, pp. 412-17) 176 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 329 177 “There is a very real human love, but all Christian love, according to Scriptures, is distinctly a manifestation of divine love through the human

heart. A statement of this is found in Romans 5:5, “because the love of God

is shed abroad [lit. gushes forth] in our hearts by [produced, or caused by]

the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.” This is not the working of the

human affection; it is rather the direct manifestation of the “love of God”

passing through the heart of the believer out from the indwelling Spirit. It is

the realization of the last petition of the High Priestly prayer of our Lord:

“That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them” (John 17:26).

It is simply God’s love working in and through the believer. It could not be

humanly produced, or even successfully imitated and it of necessity, goes

out to the objects of divine affection and grace, rather than to the objects of

human desire. A human heart cannot produce divine love, but it can experience it. To have a heart that feels the compassion of God is to drink of

the wine of heaven. (He that is Spiritual, Dr. Lewis Chafer, p 48) 178 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, p 1326 179 Ibid., p 1297-98 180 2 Cor 5:20-21 NET 181 John 14:20 NET 182 In 1882 the German mathematician Ferdinand Lindemann proved that p

is a transcendental number—that is, it is not the root of any polynomial

equation with rational coefficients (for example, ?x3 - ?x2 - 21x + 17 = 0).

Consequently, Lindemann was able to demonstrate that it is impossible to

square the circle (construct a square whose area equals that of a given circle) using algebra or a ruler and compass because the area of a square can always

be expressed as a polynomial equation with rational coefficients. 183 Paraphrased from the John Ankorberg Show (Creator and the Cosmos,

Dr. Hugh Ross). 184 Easton’s Bible Dictionary, Providence - The mode of God's providential

government is altogether unexplained. We only know that it is a fact that

God does govern all his creatures and all their actions; that this government

is universal (Ps. 103:17-19), particular (Matt. 10:29-31), efficacious (Ps.

33:11; Job 23:13), embraces events apparently contingent (Prov. 16:9, 33;

19:21; 21:1), is consistent with his own perfection (2 Tim. 2:13), and to his

own glory (Rom. 9:17; 11:36). 185 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 222 186 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C.I. Scofield, p 1327 187 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 250 188 Confessions, Saint Augustine 189 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p. 166

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190 Christian Doctrine of Sin, Muller - cited by Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine

of Man, p. 185 – Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p. 166 191 Israel choose law Exodus 19:3-8 192 Gal 3:7-8 , paraphrase of NET, this writer 193 John 3:7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all14 be born

from above.’8 NET

8sn Or born again. The Greek word a[nwqen (anwqen) can mean both

“again” and “from above,” giving rise to Nicodemus’ misunderstanding

about a second physical birth (v. 4).

Whatever Nicodemus understood, it is clear that the point is this: He

misunderstood Jesus’ words. He over-literalized them, and thought Jesus

was talking about repeated physical birth, when he was in fact referring to

new spiritual birth. 194 this writer 195 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 5, p 249 196 John 3:4 KJV 197 The Pauline ecclesiology secured in the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is

ignored by Catholic, Methodist, and Arminian styled theologies based in self

salvation. Which, in this writer’s opinion, bears witness to the historical truth of theocratic Inquisitions, murderous prosecutions, and acrimonious

denominational divisions of a “dead” religious humanism. 198 Rev 19:11-16 KJV 199 2 Sam 22:16-17 NET 200 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, pp 1328-29 201 International Standard Bible, I, 321, 1915 edition. Cited in Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 27 202 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, pp 26-27 203 Old Scofield Study System, Dr. C. I. Scofield, pp 1325, 1297 204 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 194 205 Acts 17:16-34 NET (verse omission and bold highlights mine) 206 Rev 2:7 NET 207 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 340-354 208 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 355-57 209 Ephesians 5:6-14 ff NET 210 Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, Finis Jennings Dake, p164 211 Major Bible Themes, Dr. Lewis Chafer, revised by Dr. John Walvoord, p

280 212 Ibid., p 207 213 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 319 214 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 288-89, 312 215 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Herman Bavinck, Vol 2 ,

1093 cited in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 149 216 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 150


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217 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 7, p 77 218 Ibid., Vol 219 Ibid., Vol 3, pp144-45 220 Ibid., Vol 7, p 153 221 Instrumentalism, in American philosophy, variety of pragmatism

developed at the University of Chicago by John Dewey and his colleagues.

Thought is considered by instrumentalists a method of meeting difficulties,

particularly such difficulties as arise when immediate, unreflective

experience is interrupted by the failure of habitual or instinctive modes of

reaction to cope with a new situation. According to the doctrine, thinking

consists of the formulation of plans or patterns of both overt action and

unexpressed responses or ideas; in each case, the goals of thought are a

wider experience and a successful resolution of problems. In this view, ideas

and knowledge are exclusively functional processes; that is, they are of

significance only as they are instrumental in the development of experience.

The realistic and experimental emphasis of instrumentalism has had a far-reaching effect on American thought; Dewey and his followers applied it

with conspicuous success in such fields as education and psychology. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved. 222 Modern Theories of Atonement, Princeton Review 1903 cited in

Systematic Theology, Dr, Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 159 223 Ibid., Vol 4, pp 153-54 224 Ibid., Vol 4. pp 159-60 225 Modern Theories of Atonement, Princeton Review 1903 cited in

Systematic Theology, Dr, Lewis Chafer, Vol 4, p 158 226 New Testament Theology, Frank Stagg, pp 135-36 cited in Basic

Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 333 227 New Testament Faith for Today, Amos N. Wilder, p 134 cited in Ibid. 228 The Temple, Its Ministry and Service, Alfred Edershiem, pp 13-14 cited

in Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 330 229 The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, see Colin Brown, ed., cited in Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Rhyrie, p 331 230 Ibid., Vol 2, pp 176-84, cited in Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer,

Vol 3, pp 147-153 231 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 2, p 362 232 Ibid., Vol 3, pp 337-38 233 Dictionary ex·em·plum [ig zémpləm] (plural ex·em·pla [ig zémplə]) n

1. illustrative story: a brief story told to illustrate a moral point or support an

argument 2. example: an example or illustration (literary)

[Late 19th century. < Latin (see example)]

Thesaurus exempt (adj)

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excused, exempted, excepted, released, off the hook (informal), relieved, not

liable, discharged, let off, immune, freed antonym: required Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved. 234 Studies in Theology, B. B. Warfield, pp.283-97 cited in Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 160-64 235 an·ti·no·mi·an·ism [ànti nṓmee ə nìzzəm] n

1. Christian doubting the force of laws: in Christian doctrine, the belief that

Christians are not bound by established moral laws, but should rely on faith

and divine grace for salvation

2. flexible concept of morality: the belief that it is impossible to apply a

universal moral code because it will have a different meaning for different

people Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved. 236 Major Bible Themes, Chafer/ Walvoord revised, p 10 237 The reader is directed to Dr. Chafer’s book regarding the daily life of

faith and reliance on the indwelling Holy Spirit, He That Is Spiritual, Copyright 1918 by Lewis Sperry Chafer, revised edition copyright 1967 by

Zondervan ISBN 0-310-22341-5 238 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, pp 364-70 239 Morning and Evening Devotions, Charles Spurgeon, p 613 240 Morning and Evening Devotions, Charles Spurgeon, p 356 241 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, pp 68-70 242 The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, p 483 243 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, p 37 244 Basic Theology, Dr. Charles Ryrie, p 57 245 Classic Baptism, 2nd ed., Dr. James W. Dale, p354 cited in - Systematic

Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, pp 139 246 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 6, pp 112-13 247 (cited by Miley, Theology, Vol 2, p 161. quoted in Systematic Theology,

Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 3, p 146) 248 True Evangelism, Dr. Lewis Chafer, pp 44-45 249 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, pp 203-04 250 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8, Dr. John

MacArthur, p 144 251 The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, pp 628-29 252 Here I begin the final argument against the Governmental theory. As all

the major doctrines of substitutionary expiation have been disclosed and

asserted, the last remaining error to be disclosed and evidenced is the

combination of blood redemption and the impartation of eternal life. Dr. R. E. Brown in his Introduction to 1 John, writes: “If I am right in diagnosing

the point of difference between the secessionist and the epistolary author to


1348

be the salvific value of Jesus’ career in the flesh and the degree to which that

career was part of his identity as the Christ, inevitably the attitude towards

his death will be crucial. The author offers a formulation that, when negated,

indicates the secessionist position: They were content with the notion that Jesus came by/in water, whereas the author insists “not in water only, but in

water and in blood” (1 John 5:6). 172

(172 This passage fluctuates in its use of “in” and “by,” reminding us that

“come in the flesh” does not have the same force as “come in the water.” In

the former, “in” means “into the sphere of”; in the latter, “in” means “by

means of, through.”)

[this writer – Immediately prior to this verse the ones who “conquer the

world” are identified as the ones who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

The importance of verse 5:6, that Dr. Brown stresses as an insight into the

secessionist view, may best be found in the AMP translation: “This is He

Who came by (with) water and blood [His baptism and His death], Jesus

Christ (the Messiah) – not by (in) the water only, but by (in) the water and the blood. And it is the [holy] Spirit Who bears witness, because the [Holy]

Spirit is the Truth.”] )

… “Christ came in water” could mean that the incarnation of the preexistent

Christ took place in relation to the baptism of Jesus. Could such an

interpretation have been derived from the kind of Johannine tradition known

to us in the GJohn? Readers of GJohn have usually interpreted “the Word

became flesh” to mean that the incarnation took place at the conception of

Jesus. However, while the conception is a theme of Matthew and Luke, it is

never mentioned by GJohn. … Against the secessionist the author (1 John

5:6) insists: “not in water only, but in water and in blood.” If this implies that

an insistence on the death of Christ corrects the secessionist error, we must ask whether the presumed secessionist lack of interest in the death of Christ

could have sprung from their interpretation of the tradition represented by

GJohn. That Gospel speaks of the “hour” of Jesus (under which rubric it

portrays the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus) as his return to the

Father and the manifestation of his glory (13:1; 17:1; 12:23-24). Three times

in GJohn (3:13; 18:28; 12:32) Jesus looks ahead to his death as a “lifting up”

– an interesting contrast to the three predictions of the passion and suffering

in the Synoptic tradition (ABJ 29, 145-46). … T. Forestell phrases well the

peculiarity of the Johannine outlook on Jesus’ death: “The cross of Christ in

Jn is evaluated precisely in terms of revelation in harmony with the theology

of the entire gospel, rather than in terms of vicarious expiatory sacrifice for sin.” Thus, clearly there are elements in the tradition of GJohn that might

have led the secessionist to deemphasize the crucifixion as a salvific

“coming” and to regard it simply as a continuation of that revelation of the

glory of the preexistent which began through the Baptist’s baptizing with

1349

water (1:14,31). (The Anchor Bible – The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown,

pp 77-79) 253 In many ways, then, high christology was an identity factor in the

Johannine Community over against Jews and various Christian groups.

Theologically, it was the cornerstone of Johannine soteriology: If Jesus had

not come forth from God, he could not have brought eternal life, which was

God’s own life, and Christian’s would not be God’s children (3:13,16; 6:57;

1:12-13). With such importance given to christology historically and

theologically, it is not surprising, then, that if there was to be an internal

dispute in the Johannine Community, it would be over this subject, and there

would be little tolerance for deviation. The schism from Judaism over

christology made less unthinkable a further inner-Johannine schism. (The

Anchor Bible - The Epistles of John, Dr. R. E. Brown, p 74-75) 254 (System of Biblical Theology, I, 25 - cited in Systematic Theology, Dr.

Lewis Chafer, Vol 1, p 261 255 NET Bible Resource CD - The Gospel of John: Introduction and

Commentary, W. Hall Harris III, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament

Studies- Dallas Theological Seminary 256 Ephesians 2:1-6 verse numbering omitted, bold highlights mine NET 257 Ephesians 4:1-16 verse numbering omitted NET 258 A nursery rhyme 259 This writer 260 Israel choose law Exodus 19:3-8 261 Gal 3:7-8 , paraphrase of NET, this writer 262 John 3 263 Systematic Theology, Dr. Lewis Chafer, Vol Theories of atonement 264 ref. sub-section – quote by Dr. Merrill Unger, baptism of the Holy Spirit

The Gonzo Journalism of Grace Book 3 - The Tribunal

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