Reconciling Your 'Wants' with God's 'Oughts' -by John Piper

[The following article recently appeared on the Crosswalk website. This excellent article by John Piper is both convicting and encouraging, and so I was eager to post it here as well.]

If your "want to" does not conform to God's "ought to," what can you do to have peace? I see at least five possible strategies.

1. You can avoid thinking about the "ought to." This is the most common strategy in the world. Most people simply do not devote energy to pondering what they should be doing that they are not doing. It's easier to just keep the radio on.

2. You can reinterpret the "ought to" so that it sounds just like your "want to." This is a little more sophisticated and so not as common. It usually takes a college education to do this with credibility, and a seminary degree to do it with finesse.

3. You can muster the willpower to do a form of the "ought to" even though you don't have the heart of the "want to." This generally looks pretty good, and is often mistaken as virtue, even by those who do it. In fact, there is a whole worldview that says doing "ought to's" without "want to" is the essence of virtue. The problem with this is that Paul said, "God loves a cheerful giver," which puts the merely "ought-to givers" in a precarious position.

4. You can feel proper remorse that the "want to" is very small and weak - like a mustard seed - and then, if it lies within you, do the "ought to" by the exertion of will, while repenting that the "want to" is weak, and praying that the "want to" will soon be restored. Perhaps it will even be restored in doing the "ought to." This is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy hides one of the two contradictory impulses. Virtue confesses them both in the hope of grace.

5. You can seek, by the means of grace, to have God give the "want to" so that when the time comes to do the "ought to," you will "want to." Ultimately, the "want to" is a gift of God. "The mind of the flesh is hostile to God . . . it is not able to submit to the law of God" (Romans 8:7). "The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God . . . because they are spiritually appraised" (1 Corinthians 2:14). "Perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25).

The Biblical doctrine of original sin boils down to this (to borrow from St. Augustine): We are free to do what we like, but we are not free to like what we ought to like. "Through the one man's disobedience [Adam] the many were made sinners" (Romans 5:19). This is who we are. And yet we know from our own soul and from the Bible that we are accountable for the corruption of our bad "want to's."

Indeed, the better you become, the more you feel ashamed of being bad and not just doing bad. As N.P. Williams said, "The ordinary man may feel ashamed of doing wrong: but the saint, endowed with a superior refinement of moral sensibility, and keener powers of introspection, is ashamed of being the kind of man who is liable to do wrong" (First Things, #87, Nov. 1998, p. 24).
God's free and sovereign heart-changing work is our only hope. Therefore we must pray for a new heart. We must pray for the "want to" - "Incline my heart to Your testimonies" (Psalm 119:36). He has promised to do it: "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes" (Ezekiel 36:27). This is the new covenant bought by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 8:8-13; 9:15).

Meditation on the Right Purpose for Reading Scripture

As a reading teacher for Loachapoka Jr. High, one of the content standards that I must cover includes guiding students in "setting purposes for reading". Successful students understand that there are different purposes we must have for reading different kinds of texts. For example, students should read novels, plays, short stories, or poems for enjoyment or entertainment while they should read textbooks, newspapers, magazines, and reference books for information. But any given text may also have a more specific purpose applied to it as well. For instance, an author of a novel may wish his or her reader to identify with the development of the main character of the novel. If the student reads the novel constantly looking for some other type of information, he or she may fail to comprehend the entire point of the novel and he or she will be much less likely to remember anything from the novel.

In thinking of how to teach these concepts to my students at the beginning of last week, my thoughts turned to the Word of God. And as I began to think about the right purpose for reading Scripture, I began to meditate on the following words of Jesus recorded for us in the Gospel of John:

You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (John 5:39-40 HCSB)

In these two verses, Jesus imparts some crucial information on how we are to read the Holy Bible. First, we are to understand that Jesus Himself is the subject of all Scripture. Second, we are to understand that our attitude in approaching Scripture must be that of a willingness to come to Jesus and receive eternal life. Wanting only to receive eternal life itself is not enough. The passage above is a reprimand to those religious individuals who thought that they could gain eternal life through an intellectual process of poring over the Scriptures. But something- the absolutely critical thing- was lacking in their studies. These religious individuals lacked humility. The people reprimanded in the above verses were full of Scripture knowledge, but they were also full of pride. As Jesus began to challenge peoples' understanding of Scripture- by helping others in ways that religious people thought were against Scripture (i.e. healing on the Sabbath) and by proclaiming Himself to be equal to God (see John 5:18)- the experts in the Scripture pridefully turned away from Him. Jesus declared that these hard-hearted individuals would actually lose out on the the eternal life that they so earnestly desired. What these people lacked- and what we so often lack when we approach the Bible- is a focus on Jesus Christ- on who He is and what He has done. The right purpose for reading Scripture must be to come to Jesus Christ for the life that only He can give. And this approach toward Christ through Scripture must be done with humility rather than pride- we must be willing to accept the message of who Jesus is and what He has done as it is presented in Scripture, even if this message challenges our previously-held beliefs for-

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6 NIV)

I implore you, dear reader- whoever you are who might happen to be reading this post- think back on the last time that you read Scripture or heard it preached. Did you read or hear the Scripture humbly seeking to come to Jesus and receive eternal life from Him- either receiving this life for the first time or seeking to grow in this life and in knowledge of Him- or did you read or hear the Scripture with some other purpose? Your purpose in reading Scripture could make all the difference in your eternity.

Sidenote: "maki"

Introduction
At the outset of this post, I would like to emphasize that this is NOT the beginning of the "mini-series" that I mentioned in my last post.
->But if you read in the comment threads of the previous two posts, you should realize that comments left by an individual called Maki require some formal response.
->Maki has asserted- basically- that all Arminians are outside the true, biblical Christian faith and are thus in a spiritually dead condition and bound for Hell. He has furthermore asserted that any Calvinist who even admits the possibility that an Arminian could be a brother in Christ is likewise unsaved and unregenerate.
->How does Maki reach these unusual conclusions?

Examination
1. First, Maki wrongly and unreasonably imputes to anyone from an Arminian tradition all of the logical consequences of their beliefs rather than taking their beliefs themselves at face value. For I would agree that logically the Arminian position would yield the belief that individual salvation is somehow dependent upon a human work- as Maki asserts- and thus Arminianism logically leads to rank heresies such as Open Theism, and this is why we oppose Arminianism so vigorously. But every Arminian with whom I have ever spoken firmly denies that salvation is in any way dependent upon any human work and they affirm that God receives all glory in our salvation. So what can we conclude from the realization that the facts of Arminianism seem to point in one direction, while the beliefs of actual Arminians seem to point in the opposite direction? Well, in the words of Stan Reeves, an elder of my congregation, Grace Heritage Church, "people aren't logically consistent, so we can't assume that they always see the implications of what they believe." When the Lord saves us from our sins, He does not turn us into the Vulcans from Star Trek- we do not immediately see all of the logical inconsistencies of our beliefs or in the traditions handed down to us, we still must have our minds "renewed" (cf. Eph. 4:23).

2. But Maki argues that "God gives the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ upon regeneration" and by this, he means to indicate that all the doctrines of soteriology, including unconditional election and limited atonement, are supernaturally and perfectly communicated to a person when they are "born again". In order to make this claim, Maki abuses the text of II Corinthians 4:3-6.
->This passage reads:

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (NKJV)

As Nathan White pointed out in the comment thread of my last post, Maki's "misunderstanding [of this passage] lies in what exactly is being veiled, and what exactly is being revealed to those who believe". These verses do NOT declare that God reveals every facet of systematic soteriology to every believer upon their "regeneration", but, as Nathan points out, what IS being supernaturally revealed is the deity of Christ. This fact is directly indicated by verse 4, which speaks of the "light of the gospel [that is, the "Good News"] of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". This "light" is the same as the "knowledge" proclaimed in verse 6. This supernaturally-imparted knowledge is the revelation that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ- the anointed one of God, who fulfills all Old Testament prophesy- and that He is divine- as the "image of God".
->Just compare II Corinthians 4:3-6 to the Gospel account of Matthew 16:15-17-

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 16:15-17, NKJV)

As in the II Corinthians passage, specific knowledge is here declared to be given by God and this knowledge is, again, that Jesus is the Christ and that He is divine- "the Son of the living God".
->Trying to read the knowledge of "limited atonement" into II Corinthians 4:3-6 is just that- reading into the text a concept that is not present in the text itself nor demanded by the immediate context.

3. Based upon these first two faulty premises- that Arminians in particular and people in general carry all their beliefs to their logical conclusions and that perfect soteriological knowledge is supernaturally imparted to the elect upon regeneration- Maki procedes to conclude that Arminians are not Christians at all. Then, assuming all Arminians to be unsaved, Maki asserts that anyone who would admit the possibility that an Arminian could be saved is themself unregenerate.
->How does Maki substantiate this leap in logic?
->Maki abuses the text of II John 9-11.
->This passage reads:

Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
->If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. (NKJV)

Maki takes this passage to mean that anyone who would call any Arminian a Christian is sharing in the evil deeds of an unregenerate person and is thus proven to be unregenerate as well.
->But Nathan pointed out how faulty Maki's use of this passage is as well, commenting,

"Maki,
Your quotation of 2 John 9, which seems to be your ‘life verse’, is sadly taken out of context. Who is John referring to when he commands us not to share in the evil deeds? Look two verses back: For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. [II John 7]
->Interesting enough, the extent of the atonement, and the origin of faith is not mentioned here or anywhere else in scripture as a primary doctrine. John is actually commanding us to refrain from associating with those who deny Jesus as the Christ (ie: the doctrine of Christ)."

Conclusion
As the brief examination above is meant to illustrate, Maki is a highly unreliable guide when it comes to the Holy Word of God. I would like to also add that Maki is associated with a group that hosts the "Heterodoxy Hall of Shame", which labels ministers of the Gospel such as Charles Spurgeon as "unregenerate God-haters". For these reasons, Maki is permanently banned from posting comments on this blog.

Preview: "Heresy?"

In the comment thread of my last post, a blogger called "maki" asked- or, rather, asserted in the form of questions-

My question is this, since salvation and faith is in no way obtained by a man's own efforts, then would you conclude that Arminians (or anyone else for that matter) who profess that their faith was a prerequisite for salvation (i.e. regeneration), are all actually in fact lost people (i.e. unregenerate)?
->If someone professes a faith that is contrary to the faith given to God's elect upon regeneration, doesn't it follow then that this person must not have true faith, and is therefore unregenerate?

With this statement, by direct implication, "maki" would have us to understand that Arminianism is heresy and that all Arminians- as Arminians- are actually heretics outside of the Faith.

In the first post of my next planned mini-series, which I hope to title "I Call it Heresy!", I plan to make the case that a certain new theological system that is currently popular in some corners of the blogosphere is actually a heresy that is directly contrary to the Gospel call. In this upcoming post, I plan to give a defense for my use of the word "heresy" in regards to this 'new theological system' and I also plan to briefly explain why I usually would NOT refer to theological positions such as Arminianism as heresy- nor would I usually refer to someone as a heretic simply because they come from an Arminian tradition- even though I DO believe Arminianism to be seriously in error on some major issues concerning God's grace.

Anyway-
I thought that this "preview" might interest some of you and give you something to think on in regards to the Good News of our Lord.

God bless!

The Case for the Preservation of the Saints- Part Five: That Our Preservation is a Trinitarian Work

I would like to conclude this mini-series on the preservation of the saints by examining the underlying theology behind the teaching that all who are brought into a state of saving grace will be preserved in that state eternally (which teaching I continue to insist is necessitated by the phrase eternal life itself).

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 NASB)

For salvation is entirely the work of God, depending in no way upon sinful Man.

So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. (Romans 9:16 NASB)

And our salvation, both in coming to Christ in faith and in being preserved in Christ eternally, is based wholly upon the character of God. And each Person of the Trinity works to ensure that all persons chosen by God for salvation will be saved eternally.

The topic of the work of the Trinity in our salvation has been examined masterfully by Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega ministries- a ministry devoted to Christian apologetics and theology- in his article, "Eternal Security: Based in the Tri-Unity of God."

In this article, Dr. White examines the words of Jesus recorded in John chaper 6, verses 37-39:

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. (NASB)

Concerning these verses, White makes the following exegetical comments:

Jesus presents the complete sovereignty of God in salvation. All that the Father gives to Jesus - everyone - will come to Him. The operative factor in answering the question of why some come and others, presented with the same opportunity, do not, is simply the nature of the Father’s choice. The Father "gives" persons to the Son - a gift of love, to be sure. When the Father gives to the Son a person, that person will come to Christ (as the one avenue to the Father). There is no question that if a person is so given to Christ (or, to use the terminology of verse 44, is so "drawn" by the Father) that he/she will come to Christ. This is the "Godward" side of salvation - absolute certainty and security. Yet, He says that they will "come to Me” which speaks of the human response - not that the human can change the decision of God - but that the response is there all the same. Man is not pictured simply as a “thing” that is bounced around like a ball, but rather a vastly important person who comes to Christ for salvation, all as the result of the gracious working of God in his/her life.
->Jesus continues by stating that when one is so given to Him by the Father, and comes to Him, that one is secure in their relationship with Him He will never cast them out, The aorist subjunctive of strong denial makes it clear that rejection of one who seeks refuge in Christ is a complete and total impossibility. What words to a sinners heart! Those who come to Christ will find Him a loving Lord who will never cast out those who trust in Him!
->Why will the Lord never cast out those who come to Him? Verse 38 continues the thought with the explanation - the Son has come to do the will of the Father. And what is the will of the Father? That “of all which He has given Me from Him I lose nothing hut raise it up at the last day.” Can we doubt that Christ will do what He promises? Will the Lord Jesus ever fail to do the Father’s will? Here is eternal security beyond dispute. But note that again all is pre-eminently balanced - the security of the person is based on two things - the will of the Father that none he lost, and secondly, the fact that those who are not lost are those who are given to the Son by the Father Himself. So, in reality, there is security in the Father (He gives us to Christ) and security in the Son (He always does the Father’s will).
->The realization of the co-operation and interaction of the Father and the Son in the salvation of each individual Christian is an awesome thing! It is self-evident why so many soteriological systems cannot deal with eternal security - it is based on the understanding that salvation is completely the work of God! Man is the object of salvation, the object of God’s sovereign grace. The gospel is the message of grace, and grace is something given totally on the basis of God’s desire to give it. Such is terribly damaging to man’s “self-esteem” and to any concept of our being able to save ourselves or even to “help God along” in our being made righteous. We must realize that we come to God wholly unworthy of His love and grace, totally incapable of effecting even the beginning of His work in our hearts.
->Once we rest ourselves in God’s provision of salvation, however, we see that our position in Him is one that is based upon the sovereign act of the Father in giving us to the Son, and in the eternal obedience of the Son to the Father in effecting our salvation! Can we possibly picture a more secure situation than this? I think not! But wait, there is more...

Dr. White next turns to examine the role of the Holy Spirit in securing the preservation of the saints, appealing to the text of Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13-14:

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation--in Him when you believed--were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory. (HCSB)

Of this passage, White notes:

We find the fact that the Holy Spirit is described in two important ways relevant to our eternal security. First, we are said to he “sealed” by the Holy Spirit of promise. This term was used in secular documents to refer to the act of placing a seal upon one’s possessions to mark them as one’s own. In this case, the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is God’s way of sealing that person as His own. The believer is shown to he God’s “own property” - His possession.
->Paralleled with this is the phrase “who is the down-payment of our inheritance.." Both phrases speak of the same fact. Here the Spirit is described by the Greek term arrabon- a term used in secular documents to refer to guarantee money. The giving of an arrabon contracted the giver to finish the process of payment. In our context, this would refer to the fact that the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life is the guarantee on the part of God the Father of completing the work which He has begun in that life (Philippians 1:6). Both phrases are then tied together by the paralleling of “promise" and “inheritance.” These terms are used by Paul of the completion of God’s work of salvation in our lives in the end time.
->Hence, we see that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is God’s way of “this person is mine - I have begun of salvation in his/her life, and by placing My Spirit in this life. I am telling all that this person belongs to Me, and I will finish the work I have begun!”
->We learn from other discussions of the role of the Spirit in the believer’s life (e.g., Romans 8) that the Spirit empowers and sanctifies the believer as well. So it is clear that each of the Divine Persons is vitally involved in the work of salvation. The Father sovereignly and unilaterally chooses us for salvation. He gives us to the Son, who, in obedience to the Father’s will, saves those who are joined to Him by the Father, and raises us up to eternal life. The Spirit of God is placed in our lives to empower and seal us as God’s own possession. Salvation, then, is of God - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Since salvation is of God, and is God’s work, its eternal character is simply the reflection of the nature of its author - God Himself.

Dr. White closes out his article with the following sentence, which I would also like to use to end this post and this mini-series:

Each of the three Persons [of the Trinity] is intimately involved in bringing about the salvation of the elect, and that salvation is eternal and secure.

Glory to God alone!

The Case for the Preservation of the Saints- Part Four: What of Those Who Do "Fall Away"?

In my last post I argued that in Hebrews chapter 6, when it is written "if they fall away" in verse 6, that a hypothetical situation is being presented that, in fact, by God's grace, never actually occurs. In other words, no one who has truly become a partaker of the Holy Spirit (cf. Heb. 6:4)- whose indwelling in our lives guarantees that we will remain sealed in Christ (cf. I Cor. 1:21-22)- not one of these will ever actually "crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Heb. 6:6b).

But someone will point to an experience that they have had that seems to contradict the teaching that no one who has been granted eternal life will ever truly "fall away". For many of us sadly know someone who professed faith in Christ, and who even seemed to take great joy in the things of God, and yet later came to repudiate his or her belief.

But the Scripture specifically addresses the subject of how we should understand our experience of seeing people who claimed to be Christians later turn to skepticism or other various forms of unbelief. For I John 2:19 declares,

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (NIV)

In this verse, the fact that someone turns their back on the Church is taken as proof that they had never really come to belong in the Church- by faith- to begin with. And it is easy for someone to come into the Church without faith, for when someone hears about the peace and love found in the Gospel- if the benefits of the Gospel are presented well- then it is only natural that that person would want to profit from these benefits. But when the harsher reality of the life of faith becomes evident- namely, that "all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (II Tim. 3:12 HCSB)- then many are shown to have no true, enduring faith in the Lord.

And this is the reality that Jesus indicated in His parable of the soils, when He spoke of the seed that fell on the rocky ground:

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root in themselves; they are short-lived. And when affliction or persecution comes because of the word, they stumble immediately.(Mark 4:16-17 HCSB)

These 'rocky-ground hearers' receive the preaching of the Word with joy, but since "they have no root in themselves"- they have no true faith- they end up fruitless and dead. These 'rocky-ground hearers' may deceive others for a time and they may even be self-deceived for, as the prophet Jeremiah declared,

The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV)

What is even more frightening is the fact that since the 'rocky-ground hearers' do NOT really "want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus," they may avoid persecution for their entire lives- and even do great, seemingly spiritual works- and then face judgment before Christ as self-deceived unbelievers. As Jesus warned,

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

And so it becomes clear why James, the brother of our Lord, can confidently instruct us to

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (James 1:2-3 NIV)

Trials or persecutions that come into our lives reveal who we really are. For those who are making a show of faith, but have no real heart for God, persecutions reveal unbelief. But for those with true faith in Christ, trials test our faith and develop perseverance. There is no chance that trials will cause the faithful to lose our faith- and thus our eternal security- otherwise the command to consider trials to be pure joy would be nonsense and the promise that "the testing of [our] faith develops perseverance" would be in doubt.

But praise be to God that we, like the Apostle Paul, can be "confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6 NKJV).

The Case for the Preservation of the Saints- Part Three: An Objection Raised

As should be clear from my last post, I believe that the teachings of Christ Jesus directly indicate that those who come to true faith in Him will never, in fact, lose their right standing before God.

But someone will point to a “problem passage” such as Hebrews 6:4-8, which reads:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. (NKJV)

Does this teaching contradict that of Jesus in John 6:44-47? Not at all. For the Word of God here declares the glory of Christ’s atonement of sinners by introducing a hypothetical situation- the texts says “if they fall away.” By this statement we cannot then infer that this is something that in fact ever does happen. As the Word makes clear in the verse following the passage mentioned above:

But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. (Hebrews 6:9-20 NKJV)

By this verse, the author of Hebrews tells us that he was speaking in a peculiar manner, and that he was confident of those things which actually accompany salvation in the lives of his believing readers. This phrase, “though we speak in this manner,” at the end of this passage along with the word “if” at the beginning of the problematic portion indicate to me that the Bible is, in fact, utilizing a hypothetical situation contrary to that which ever actually occurs in order to make a significant point– that of teaching gratitude. As Charles Spurgeon illustrated in his sermon, Final Perseverance:

The chemist tells us, that if there were no oxygen mixed with the air, animals would die. Do you suppose that there will be no oxygen, and therefore we shall die? No, he only teaches you the great wisdom of God, in having mixed the gases in their proper proportions. Says one of the old astronomers, "There is great wisdom in God, that he has put the sun exactly at a right distance—not so far away that we should be frozen to death, and not so near that we should be scorched." He says, "If the sun were a million miles nearer to us we should be scorched to death." Does the man suppose that the sun will be a million miles nearer, and, therefore, we shall be scorched to death? He says, "If the sun were a million miles farther off we should be frozen to death." Does he mean that the sun will be a million miles farther off, and therefore we shall be frozen to death? Not at all. Yet it is quite a rational way of speaking, to show us how grateful we should be to God. So says the Apostle. Christian! if thou shouldst fall away, thou couldst never be renewed unto repentance. Thank thy Lord, then, that he keeps thee. [Emphasis added.]

The Case for the Preservation of the Saints- Part Two: The Teachings of Christ

In the clearest terms possible, our Lord Himself has taught that all who come to faith in Him will, in fact, persevere in their faith, saying,

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, `AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. (John 6:44-47 NASB)

In this passage, the Lord Jesus gives two doctrines that directly support the idea that a person who is “saved” cannot be “unsaved:”

1. Jesus teaches that He will raise up (resurrect) all who come to faith in Him. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." As He teaches elsewhere:

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (John 11:25b NKJV)

Jesus said, “I will raise him up on the last day” and “he shall live.” The certain connection of a person’s coming to faith to their eventual resurrection- based upon the drawing of the Father- ensures that a person who comes to true faith in Christ will never lose their salvation.

2. Jesus teaches that those who believe are given eternal life at the time of their belief. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." As He teaches elsewhere:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)

That the life we possess when we come to Jesus in faith is everlasting- or eternal- should indicate to us that we cannot lose it. If we could lose eternal life, then it would not really be eternal.

The Case for the Preservation of the Saints- Part One: Introduction and Statement of Faith

Can a person who has truly come to faith in Christ- who has been justified in the sight of God and has been brought into a state of salvation- can such a person ever fall away from the faith and thus lose their salvation?
->Christians have asked this question for centuries- some ask it for academic reasons, others because they realize the frailty of their own hearts and are concerned that they may one day lose their salvation, and some because they know of some one (perhaps a friend or loved one) who once claimed to be a believer and later rejected the Christian faith.
->In answering the question of whether someone can ever lose their salvation, Christians must turn- as in all things- to God’s Holy Word, the Bible, for,

The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, (The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith).

It is my belief that the Bible teaches that a person who truly comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will never, in fact, lose their salvation. In the words of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (the confession to which my congregation, Grace Heritage Church, adheres),

Those whom God hath accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, whence he still begets and nourisheth in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality; and though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened upon; notwithstanding, through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them, yet he is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, they being engraven upon the palm of his hands, and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity. (John 10:28,29; Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 John 2:19; Psalms 89:31,32; 1 Corinthians 11:32; Malachi 3:6)

This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with him, the oath of God, the abiding of his Spirit, and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof. (Romans 8:30; Romans 9:11,16; Romans 5:9,10; John 14:19; Hebrews 6:17,18; 1 John 3:9; Jeremiah 32:40)

And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. (Matthew 26:70,72,74; Isaiah 64:5,9; Ephesians 4:30; Psalms 51:10,12; Psalms 32:3,4; 2 Samuel 12:14; Luke 22:32,61,62)

Free Will - A Slave

Recently, my good friend Nathan White has begun publishing a series of blogposts in which he is displaying the entire text of the sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled "Free Will- A Slave".
->This is a great exegetical sermon on the text of John 5:40 ("And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life") in which Spurgeon proves that this verse indicates the exact opposite of what the Arminians claim that it proves.
->An early highlight of this sermon is Spurgeon's quote of Martin Luther, "If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the free-will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright."
->I encourage all readers of this post to read Spurgeon's sermon and to see for yourselves that "[i]t has already been proved beyond all controversy that 'free-will' is nonsense."

The Bondage of the Will and the Gospel Call (Part Two)

"[W]e may apply our wills to grace, or turn away from it."
[The Roman Catholic apologist Erasmus, quoted in Oswald Bayer, “Martin Luther,” The Reformation Theologians, Carter Lindberg, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002).]

The above quote would probably seem completely non-controversial in many 'evangelical' circles of thought. Statements such as the one above abound in churches throughout the land- I myself heard a preacher at a church I was visiting last Sunday make this statement almost word-for-word in a brief sidenote he gave during his sermon- but is the above statement true? I would assert, on the authority of the biblical texts mentioned in my last post, that the quote at the head of this post is false.
->The question here is whether the will of every individual human being after the Fall of Man into sin is in bondage to Man's innate evil desires or whether people retain some capacity by which they may freely desire to choose the good that is in Christ. Simply put, is the will of Man naturally in bondage to sin, or do people possess a natural faculty of the mind that may be called 'free-will?'
->In defining 'free-will' Erasmus, who is quoted above, wrote:

“[B]y free choice [which is here used interchangeably with the term 'free-will']... we mean a power of the human will by which a man can apply himself to the things which lead to eternal salvation, or turn away from them.”[The Roman Catholic apologist Erasmus, quoted in Oswald Bayer, “Martin Luther,” The Reformation Theologians, Carter Lindberg, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002).]

But please note how the Reformer, Martin Luther, responded to Erasmus' idea of 'free-will':

Luther opposed this thesis as sharply as possible. The turn to salvation, faith, is in no way a human work but rather is God’s work alone, the completion of which- precisely because God is omnipotent- no one can hinder. God is not only willing to keep what he promises, but he is also able to do it. If salvation were not entirely and solely in God’s hands, I would- even if only in the slightest bit- have to have a say in and to cooperate in my salvation. Thus I would, on this single point alone, certainly the Archimedean point, have to fend for myself. Then uncertainty would enter which would enter which would destroy the certainty of salvation, and thereby also deny the radical nature of sin. [Oswald Bayer, “Martin Luther,” The Reformation Theologians, Carter Lindberg, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002).]

Our salvation is, as Charles Spurgeon wrote, All of Grace. As the Word of God also declares:

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift-- not from works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, HCSB)

To the glory of God alone.