biblical worldviewing

I have already written recently on the total free-ness of grace (You received without paying; give without pay’ Matthew 10:8), and at the same time I was kind of commenting on the cheapness of Arminian grace. CH Spurgeon liked this subject, and he even wrote a mock-prayer of an Arminian who supposed himself to be the real arbiter of grace in his life. Well I really want to linger on Arminian grace for a while longer and put it into real, practical terms. I want to include two similar responses/objections to entirely free grace that stem from an Arminian attitude of grace. Here’s what two good brothers have said in response to my writings on the free-ness and effectual sufficiency of grace:

Brother 1: I think you try too hard to ignore the will that God gave us. Yes God is all-powerful and is ultimately in control of everything, but you can’t ignore the small will that God gave us. We make decisions everyday, whether good or evil or even sometimes neutral. And I’m not taking anything away from the fact that God gives us salvation and life and so forth. It’s just that you can’t look past our own freewill. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” I mean lets be real, you are the one ultimately choosing to be proud or humble.

Brother 2: Yes God’s Grace is free, but do you think that you get it without asking? Do you think that you don’t really have to be saved, that once you die he’ll just hand it to you and say “Way to live it up and be the worst you could be. I know you never wanted this or asked for it but here’s my free Grace!” That is just what you appear to be saying, not just here, but anytime I have talked with you. You say it has nothing to do with us, not even our asking. I agree that Grace is undeserved totally, but you asked to receive it, did you not?

Well why would Jesus die on the cross at all? Nobody asked him to–I mean, except for God. And except that he laid it down of his own accord (not of yours, or mine, or any man’s). Arminian grace would need for us to ask Jesus to die before he even died, or else what? Or else maybe… ‘God will just hand you his grace without you asking for it’? I intend to point out how the Arminian person can hold this belief of asked for, cheap grace in regard to God’s treatment of us with grace, but completely contradict it in the way they would agree that grace, a grace that is real, free and un-asked for is expected in regard to how a Christian must treat others.

—–

One day an Arminian, let’s call him JP, walks with his non-Christian friend, let’s call him RJ, after their class that they have together. RJ has been walking slowly, hands in his pockets and looking at his feet.

‘What’s wrong, dude?’ says JP in a jovial way, ‘Didn’t get what you wanted on that paper?’

‘I wish you’d shut up, JP,’ replied RJ through clenched teeth, ‘this time it’s something that no amount of your talking about your stupid God can fix.’

JP stopped walking, and asked with a genuine, honest concern, ‘Hey, come on now, seriously what’s up RJ?’
RJ walked on a little further, dug his hands in his pockets and spun around facing JP right in the face.

‘I found out this morning that my brother was in a car accident last night. He drowned, trapped in his truck, in the bottom of the river.’

‘…RJ, I’m so sorry,’

‘Stuff it, man! I know what you’re going to say, like you always do, that evil is everywhere because that’s what man chose to live with in this world, and that we could have been in paradise with God but because we blew it, we have to live with sin and death. Well you know what? I reject that fairy tale, man! What kind of sick God would torture us like this!?’

‘No, no no… you don’t get it… it’s not God’s fault things like this happen, he doesn’t ever want them to. In fact, God sent Jesus his only Son to fix what’s wrong with us, so we can be forgiven and be right again with God!’

‘Yeah, you’ve told me that before and I said I wasn’t interested. I wish you’d stop talking about Jesus and actually let yourself experience life, instead of hiding behind some fairy-tale. Don’t you know that the Bible was written by men who were trying to control the lower classes? I mean, how could you even believe that garbage? It’s like, scientifically proven wrong…–hu, I mean, really man! Now is NOT the time, for real, I’m not in the mood for this, you arrogant punk… you bleeding, arrogant, self-righteous, ignorant bible-beater.’

JP’s mouth seemed to dry out, and he suddenly became aware that he had been looking at RJ with a concentrated, almost verging on angry looking expression. He had been praying. He had been thinking with all inside of him how to use his words to point RJ to Jesus. Finally, he breathed out heavily and said,

‘RJ, listen for a second. I am not the issue, your brother is not the issue, evil is not the issue, and you are not even the issue, but listen, this is what is said in the scripture about a Living God who saves and is worthy of our worship…’

—–

The story is just a demonstration of the way we all know we are to show grace to each other. You could tell a thousand other stories, of parents and children, pastors and church members, husbands and wives… and situations where pain and offense is done, but where someone has acted in a gracious way to show mercy when the other had no intention of seeking it. What, are we to think that JP should wait for RJ to ask for him to be a loving friend? Or is JP to be gracious even when provoked not to be… to show mercy and love even when it is unasked for and undesired. The fact that JP shows mercy despite opposition is what makes it grace! JP doesn’t wait around for RJ to feel like accepting grace, because that would never happen… and if it ever did, it would no longer be grace for JP to show compassion, because it was asked for.

Don’t forget Romans 5. Not ony when we were weak, at the right time Christ died for us, but when we were sinners. When we were weak and sinners, and unable to ask. Arminian grace teaches rising up to the challenge to lay hold of a salvation that’s being held over our heads, the grasping of grants entitlement, where grace is a medium or helper for our wills. Biblical grace teaches us to be cast down, face to the ground, empty of any confidence in the flesh, completely dependant on grace.

Of course, Arminians explain this away with John 6.

• ‘The Father draws you, then you have to accept’ they will say.

John 6 does say that nobody can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. Then, would not salvation be dependant upon whom God has soveriegnly chosen to… draw?

• The Arminian would say ‘God draws everyone, but it’s still up to us because many people reject God’.

That theory falls apart as soon as you, well, finish reading the verse, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.’ John 6:44. Raise up on the last day is the definite term for salvation.

• The Arminian (who holds that the final acceptance of man is the key to salvation, and therefore must believe that God draws many if not all men worldwide, but some chose not to believe), would not confess to being a Universalist and say that all people on earth will be saved. The Arminian admits that there will be many who will not be saved. Then who, according to John 6. is Jesus raising up on the last day, not casting out?

All who the Father draws. Jesus says he will not lose one. There is no room in this picture that John 6 paints of salvation for Arminian grace. You cannot come to Jesus unless the Father draws you, and all the Father draws will be raised up. There is no group that the Father may draw and they reject his grace. That’s because grace is effectual. The decision is the Father’s, not ours.

This is the way we are when God shows us grace; it does not ‘come down’ to our final decision. Brother 1, I hope you notice that in your own words, you say at the start that everything is ‘ultimately’ in God’s control, yet you end the very same thought by saying that we are ‘ultimately’ choosing. How can both be ‘ultimately’ choosing? That doesns’t make any sense.

Brothers and sisters, let us believe in a God who’s grace is in the form of an effective, sufficient work of specific redemption, and not in the form of a blanket, open general feeling for mankind that may be effective or may not be effective.

This is the title of an amazing message by John Piper about comfort. I heard this message a few weeks ago and was so blessed I was holding back tears, sitting in the empty Intervarsity cubical of the University center second floor between classes. I got to thinking about this very same topic because Rachel’s blog was talking about asceticism.

The discussion on asceticism, in my mind, is that it has been preached wrongly in so many ways that are resembling of a works-based salvation, and simultaneously not preached correctly in such prosperity gospels that the health-wealth, name-it-claim-it preachers say. The one group becomes like a Hindu fakir in self-torment and the other like a New-Age hippie in wish fulfillment. Those are both extreme examples but like, I think the Bible offers the most complete, perfect and best attitude to have in comfort or affliction, and that the greatest enemy of ‘best’ is ‘pretty good’. That is to say, there are pretty good elements in the attitude of the Hindu fakir and the New-Age hippie. The fakir understands, like Plato did, that the flesh is impure and corrupted, while there must be a spiritual element to us that is so much more worthy of feeding and nourishing, even at the cost of denial of the flesh. The hippie realizes that humans are always going to be motivated by what they want to do, and that it is stupid to try and deny yourself what will give you your most ultimate joy. However, neither of them can be truly done in faith. Romans 14:23 says ‘For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.’ Not even that something must be done in faith to be pure, but it must totally proceed from faith. The difference is not doing things that you wanted to do anyway and slapping on some faith you have that it’s done the right way–but crucifying yourself, taking your cross up daily, and doing all things for God’s glory. Neither of those two extremes or the attitudes they encompass proceeds from faith, because the one is an attitude of self-torment to create a debt God owes, and the attitude encompassed by the other extreme is really the same! Health-wealth Gospel proceeds from an attitude of entitlement that there is a debt God owes!

I want to try to form my view of Christian asceticism Biblically, so here are some foretastes pointing to Christ that help me see what the work of Jesus accomplished in this area!

Exodus 29:14 ‘But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.’

Leviticus 4:21 ‘And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.’

Hebrews 13:11 ‘For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.’

Don’t you love it how the Old Testament and Moses is like railroad track that the master engineer laid down in preparation of his greatest design? Sacrifices for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus takes that idea and is Crucified at Golgotha, outside of the city walls. Then the writer of Hebrews tells us the significance of that:

Hebrews 13:9-13 ‘Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.’

Our altar is the cross. The ones who serve the tent have no right to feast upon forgiveness at the altar of the cross, because they serve the tent–the same word used for our bodies and for the physical place in which God appeared to the Hebrews. Does this sound like something we should be serving? Those who serve the tent serve their bellies. They serve their passions, or they serve the house that Moses was rather than the Builder that Jesus is. When we have stopped being servants of the flesh, it’s because of grace. Verse 11 has a big ‘FOR’ in front of it, meaning it explains why. Why do they not have the right? Why do we have the right? The reason is: bodies of animals for sin offering were burned outside the camp (and not eaten). What else are these systems of believing you have favor with God other than trying to be nourished by your own flesh and exertion? Outside the camp is outside of comfort and security. This passage is re-telling the way in which the Lord has made it his designed plan for suffering to occur as a means of grace. This is how we can have a life of poverty that proceeds from faith, because it is the way in which the Lord has designed for you to feast on grace at this altar. This is also how we can find our greatest possible joy in life too, and have it proceed from faith! Going outside of the camp, moving away from comfort, to join with Jesus is by far our greatest joy.

An attitude that proceeds from faith becomes really simple when you understand the Living God as glorified perfection, the most intensely perfect, delightful, wonderful Builder that could ever be. Then you only have one purpose for doing anything; to join, to be nearer to such a one.

Not man-glorifying sentamentalism.

‘ …the conversion of a sinner being not owing to a man’s self determination, but to God’s determination, and eternal election, which is absolute, and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free will of man; as is evident from what has been said: and it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal election of saints to the faith and holiness, is also an election of them to eternal salvation; hence their appointment to salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will.’

‘We are dependent on God, not only for redemption itself but for our faith in the Redeemer; not only for the gift of His Son but for the Holy Ghost for our conversion.’

‘They who truly come to God for mercy, come as beggars, and not as creditors: they come for mere mercy, for sovereign grace, and not for anything that is due.’

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Earlier today I was having a discussion with someone who believes in a ‘higher power’ but not the Living God of the Bible, and they are a really good friend and I don’t think they would even mind me writing about it now. Something I tried to demonstrate to this person, though it was more than just myself talking to them and I don’t think it came out quite right, but this is what I tried to demonstrate:

‘You see, the Living God of the Bible is by definition the ultimate extremity of perfection and wholeness and goodness and justice, and basically just beyond the most concievable perception of the entirety of glory that is God. Now if such a God exists, then he is the way he has revealed himself to be in the Bible and is therefore at work, actively in control of this world and all of us, with complete authority. If you contend your belief in a ‘higher power’ that guides and helps you ‘when you need it’, then this is clearly not the God of the Bible. The perfect God of the Bible would look upon your imperfect god as a deplorable idol and no god at all. I mean, if we humans can even concieve of a God more perfect and praiseworthy than this ‘higher power’ that so many people believe in, then how could the ‘higher power’ ever be sufficient? How could this ‘higher power’ be sufficient if we can easily think of ways in which it is not sufficient at all? The reality is that God is the great I AM, Yahweh, the Living God, Lord of Hosts, and the perfect definition of God, and if you could taste that, experience that, drink that, then you wouldn’t want anything else ever. Why would you? Everything next to that glory could only be seen as “less, to nothing”. To want anything less than the best would be stupid.’

In the last post I talked about James 4:6, and how just because it appears like grace is the effect of humility, this is impossible under any sensible definition of grace. I also mentioned 1 John 4:19 as an example of how grace is always the cause; and the work of God is always the cause for any righteousness on our part. Today’s verse is a continuation of this principle, but it is stated negatively, and very clearly:

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Hebrews 3:16-17

Right now I wish I could just stop writing and assume that anyone who read that would go ‘ohhh amen’, but I would hate for anyone to miss what I have missed for so long, but now see because of grace! It’s obvious in the language of this verse! God’s presence and favor are the cause of righteousness and the removal of that favor is the cause of rebellion. Let me try and break down what I’m seeing here:

• Rebellion and wretchedness is our default setting and only inclination.
• Grace is the only thing that can alter this inclination towards actual righteousness.
• God is sovereign over the grace he meters out.

I’m going to try really hard now not to sound like I’m coming to a hasty conclusion. The context of this passage is Hebrews 3, where the main theme is belonging to the House of God, a phrase which had much significance to the Hebrews addressed, who had believed circumcision and works had made them securely part of God’s House. The writer has made a claim in verse 6 that has probably shaken up a few Jews, ‘And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.’ This verse alone is huge for theology of justification by faith. The writer of Hebrews is having a little bit of a back-and-forth conversation. The objector is purely rhetorical, not present, not vocal, but is clearly heard from between the lines. Paraphrase (I wish I knew Greek):

Hebrew objector: Surely we make ourselves part of the House of God by our righteous living.
writer of Hebrews: Who was God provoked with in the wilderness?
Hebrew objector: The ones who caused God anger by their disobedience.
writer of Hebrews: Was it not those who then sinned, whose bodies then fell in the wilderness?

The writer is describing the outcome here! He is telling the objector that it was because of God’s provocation against them that they both sinned and ended up falling in the wilderness. The same goes for verse 18, ‘And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?’ It’s all a question of what we want to understand as the cause and as the effect. If you want to make an excuse for God cursing a group of people, then the simplest thing to do is blame it on the people’s actions. If you want to see it as I believe the writer of Hebrews does, in which grace is not determined by man but by God, then you will read that those who were disobedient were disobedient because God had already swore they would not enter his rest. Was God provoked by that generation’s actions? Or was God provoked by his purpose of showing his holiness in wrath upon that which he himself had caused? Was God really sorry he made man on earth in Genesis 6? Even still, verse 8 of Genesis 6 speaks of Noah, ‘But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.’ Was that random for God to find? Or was Noah already favored by God for God to find any favor… or are we to think that if Noah had been wicked, God would have destroyed him along with everyone else, and Jesus would never have completed his work? Consider Genesis 20:17-19. In this passage we have the Living God speaking to himself out loud and declaring that he will now do a work, but hide his purpose from Abraham, to later display his holiness to Abraham. God does this and many things for the purpose of showing himself holy, even in his wrath. So he creates situations where that may be known! The largest example of this is the Universe and the way God created it all, chose to make evil run it’s course, but then show his glory in the work of Jesus. It’s not based upon us! We are not the point! God does not wait and see if we have the capacity to be obedient, but he intercedes. He works. His grace is in the form of work.

The unbreakable, airtight example of this, of course, is Romans 9:10-13, in a passage that happens to be talking about belonging to the House of Israel as well:

And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad–in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call– she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

So it is evident that the cause is always the same for grace. The cause is the same here as it is in Hebrews 3, as it is in James 4:6, 1 John 4:19, and extremely so in Ephesians 1: God’s purpose. Everything else is effect, and I mean everything.