I have become increasingly disturbed by the number of Christian authors and church leaders who express a muddled view of Biblical salvation. It is no wonder then, that the average person in the pew is confused as well. Semi-Pelagians will disagree with my Augustinian view of God’s sovereign role in the process. However, if we can agree to respectfully disagree on that issue, there remains a common need to be clear about the true plight of fallen humans and the real nature of sin.
Michael Wittmer’s book, Don’t Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough proposes to answer some of the controversial questions of our day. By way of explaining his approach to the issues the author says, “But the most basic question, the one which determines to a large extent how we answer the others, is whether people are good or bad.” I believe statements like this one of Wittmer’s are misleading.
There is a more basic question than Wittmer asks. Goodness and badness are relative terms needing a standard from which to evaluate behavior. Problems arise immediately when we attempt to determine how good is good, or how bad is bad. Yet even this argument is specious because the Bible teaches throughout that no one is good enough to merit salvation. Being good or bad is not basic, but secondary to the real issues at hand.
The question that really determines how we answer the others is whether people are alive or dead. The Fall recorded in Genesis is referred to as death: “in the day you eat… you will die.” (Genesis 2:17) The death intended here is not a cessation of existence, rather a separation from God. Paul says humans are dead in sin, but made alive in Christ. He also calls us strangers and aliens separated from the life of God. (Ephesians 2:12, 19; 4:18
Humans don’t cease to exist when they die; they change their state of being. Note that theologians speak of the fallen state. The rebellion of Adam brought about the severance of his communion with God; the new state of existence for humans became one of separation from the Creator. The death Adam suffered was passed on to all his offspring; as the Apostle Paul explains, we inherit death from Adam and life from Christ (1Corinthians 15:22)
Discussing sin as behavior or action misleads; sin is state of being. Sin is a near synonym for death; to be in sin is to be dead. Getting saved is not as much about changing behavior as changing affiliation. To ask if homosexuals can be truly Christian misses the point. If we are not saved by our actions we are not unsaved by them either. This is not to say that sin is acceptable, but rather it is irrelevant to this discussion. Can a regenerated person sin? Clearly, yes. Can a regenerated person continue habitually in what he/she knows to be sin? Probably not. Why not? Because the attitude of rebellion (no remorse/repentance) indicates lack of regeneration.
Wittmer continues his explanation: “Because we start life totally depraved, it is easy to see why we need the dramatic rescue of regeneration. And since Scripture says that the Holy Spirit uses truth to do this job, it logically follows that only those who know and rely upon the basic facts of the gospel can be saved.”
Again, Wittmer misleads. “Depraved” is a theologian’s word; it is not frequently used in Scripture to describe fallen humans. The word “depraved” comes directly from a Latin word meaning to make exceptionally crooked or bent.. The idea of being bent leaves open the option to correct by straightening. Yet the Bible presents no such option for our condition post-fall. Humans don’t need straightening, they need remaking.
The Scripture word for our condition is “dead.” A dead person can’t know anything; a dead person can’t be corrected or bent back to life. The only cure for death is regeneration, a word meaning rebirth, just as Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter three. Jesus told the Pharisee he had to be born a second time, from above to see or enter Kingdom. Jesus did not instruct his midnight pupil to study more to learn how to come to faith. In another place, in fact, Jesus told the friends of Nicodemus that they studied the Scriptures in vain, for He was revealed there not to them, but only to those of faith. (John 5:39-47) He implied that belief precedes saving knowledge.
Humans are not regenerated because they know something; they know something because they get regenerated. “There is no one that seeks after God…” (Romans 3:11) Scripture does not say that the Holy Spirit uses truth to regenerate us as Wittmer suggests. Scripture says that we cannot know or see or understand the truth until the Spirit regenerates us. Paul told the Corinthians that the carnal or natural (Greek: psychical) man can not understand the things of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14) We do not come to belief because we learn something we didn’t previously know; we learn things about God because we come to believe that He is and that He has previously sought, bought, and re-wrought us.
Salvation, in the final analysis, is a unilateral act of God saving human beings from death, i.e. separation from His presence eternally. Humans are born into this world “dead” because we are children of Adam. David said, “In sin my mother conceived me…” (Psalm 51:5) The only way to escape the fate of Adam’s curse (death) is to be reborn as a child of the Second Adam, Christ Jesus. Neither knowledge nor actions play any role whatsoever in the process of human rebirth through the Holy Spirit of God. We can not choose our spiritual birth parents any more than we can choose our physical parents. One is either in Adam or in Christ; either position is dictated by the sovereign will of God. (Romans 9)
All our bickering about behavior must be at the level of church discipline if corporate, or about fellowship with God if personal. Debating about certain sins as if they are relevant to salvation is to surrender the field to a faulty presumption. Let us have a healthy debate, but let us debate from right premises. The so-called post-moderns Wittmer cites in his book are really post- Christians because they are post-Biblical. A true reading of Scripture reveals that humans are not hell bound because they sin; they sin because they are hell bound. They are hell bound because they are dead. Our only meaningful offering to these lost ones is to make them aware that their Creator has provided an alternative. They must make the ancient choice: remain dead, or choose life through Christ. By God’s grace, through the gift of faith, the elect are enabled to choose life.
Living like Jesus is not enough, as Wittmer’s title suggests. Living in Jesus is the necessary and sufficient cause to warrant confidence of salvation. This condition is brought about by the effective work of the Holy Spirit and creates a state of being: being in Christ, as the Scripture puts it. It is not initiated by nor sustained by anything any human can do; “not by works, lest any one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9) The question is not about doing, but about being.
Michael Wittmer’s book, Don’t Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough proposes to answer some of the controversial questions of our day. By way of explaining his approach to the issues the author says, “But the most basic question, the one which determines to a large extent how we answer the others, is whether people are good or bad.” I believe statements like this one of Wittmer’s are misleading.
There is a more basic question than Wittmer asks. Goodness and badness are relative terms needing a standard from which to evaluate behavior. Problems arise immediately when we attempt to determine how good is good, or how bad is bad. Yet even this argument is specious because the Bible teaches throughout that no one is good enough to merit salvation. Being good or bad is not basic, but secondary to the real issues at hand.
The question that really determines how we answer the others is whether people are alive or dead. The Fall recorded in Genesis is referred to as death: “in the day you eat… you will die.” (Genesis 2:17) The death intended here is not a cessation of existence, rather a separation from God. Paul says humans are dead in sin, but made alive in Christ. He also calls us strangers and aliens separated from the life of God. (Ephesians 2:12, 19; 4:18
Humans don’t cease to exist when they die; they change their state of being. Note that theologians speak of the fallen state. The rebellion of Adam brought about the severance of his communion with God; the new state of existence for humans became one of separation from the Creator. The death Adam suffered was passed on to all his offspring; as the Apostle Paul explains, we inherit death from Adam and life from Christ (1Corinthians 15:22)
Discussing sin as behavior or action misleads; sin is state of being. Sin is a near synonym for death; to be in sin is to be dead. Getting saved is not as much about changing behavior as changing affiliation. To ask if homosexuals can be truly Christian misses the point. If we are not saved by our actions we are not unsaved by them either. This is not to say that sin is acceptable, but rather it is irrelevant to this discussion. Can a regenerated person sin? Clearly, yes. Can a regenerated person continue habitually in what he/she knows to be sin? Probably not. Why not? Because the attitude of rebellion (no remorse/repentance) indicates lack of regeneration.
Wittmer continues his explanation: “Because we start life totally depraved, it is easy to see why we need the dramatic rescue of regeneration. And since Scripture says that the Holy Spirit uses truth to do this job, it logically follows that only those who know and rely upon the basic facts of the gospel can be saved.”
Again, Wittmer misleads. “Depraved” is a theologian’s word; it is not frequently used in Scripture to describe fallen humans. The word “depraved” comes directly from a Latin word meaning to make exceptionally crooked or bent.. The idea of being bent leaves open the option to correct by straightening. Yet the Bible presents no such option for our condition post-fall. Humans don’t need straightening, they need remaking.
The Scripture word for our condition is “dead.” A dead person can’t know anything; a dead person can’t be corrected or bent back to life. The only cure for death is regeneration, a word meaning rebirth, just as Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter three. Jesus told the Pharisee he had to be born a second time, from above to see or enter Kingdom. Jesus did not instruct his midnight pupil to study more to learn how to come to faith. In another place, in fact, Jesus told the friends of Nicodemus that they studied the Scriptures in vain, for He was revealed there not to them, but only to those of faith. (John 5:39-47) He implied that belief precedes saving knowledge.
Humans are not regenerated because they know something; they know something because they get regenerated. “There is no one that seeks after God…” (Romans 3:11) Scripture does not say that the Holy Spirit uses truth to regenerate us as Wittmer suggests. Scripture says that we cannot know or see or understand the truth until the Spirit regenerates us. Paul told the Corinthians that the carnal or natural (Greek: psychical) man can not understand the things of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14) We do not come to belief because we learn something we didn’t previously know; we learn things about God because we come to believe that He is and that He has previously sought, bought, and re-wrought us.
Salvation, in the final analysis, is a unilateral act of God saving human beings from death, i.e. separation from His presence eternally. Humans are born into this world “dead” because we are children of Adam. David said, “In sin my mother conceived me…” (Psalm 51:5) The only way to escape the fate of Adam’s curse (death) is to be reborn as a child of the Second Adam, Christ Jesus. Neither knowledge nor actions play any role whatsoever in the process of human rebirth through the Holy Spirit of God. We can not choose our spiritual birth parents any more than we can choose our physical parents. One is either in Adam or in Christ; either position is dictated by the sovereign will of God. (Romans 9)
All our bickering about behavior must be at the level of church discipline if corporate, or about fellowship with God if personal. Debating about certain sins as if they are relevant to salvation is to surrender the field to a faulty presumption. Let us have a healthy debate, but let us debate from right premises. The so-called post-moderns Wittmer cites in his book are really post- Christians because they are post-Biblical. A true reading of Scripture reveals that humans are not hell bound because they sin; they sin because they are hell bound. They are hell bound because they are dead. Our only meaningful offering to these lost ones is to make them aware that their Creator has provided an alternative. They must make the ancient choice: remain dead, or choose life through Christ. By God’s grace, through the gift of faith, the elect are enabled to choose life.
Living like Jesus is not enough, as Wittmer’s title suggests. Living in Jesus is the necessary and sufficient cause to warrant confidence of salvation. This condition is brought about by the effective work of the Holy Spirit and creates a state of being: being in Christ, as the Scripture puts it. It is not initiated by nor sustained by anything any human can do; “not by works, lest any one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9) The question is not about doing, but about being.
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