Quotes of Note: Martin Luther—Master Pastor, Part 9

Note: You’re reading the final post in a nine-part blog mini-series sharing Quotes of Note derived from my Ph.D. dissertation: Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.  

Luther’s great lifelong terror was that he would not be accepted by God. His great lifelong pursuit was to find a way to earn God’s favor. Before coming to his convictions about salvation by faith alone though grace alone through Christ alone, to find peace with God Luther followed the methods common in the Medieval Church of his day.

Trying to Find Peace with God through Works

“I was a good monk, and I kept the rules of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work” (cited in Bainton, p. 45).

“When I was a monk I was unwilling to omit any of the prayers, but when I was busy with public lecturing and writing I often accumulated my appointed prayers for a whole week, or even two or three weeks. Then I would take a Saturday off, or shut myself in for as long as three days without food and drink, until I had said the prescribed prayers. This made my head split, and as a consequence I could not close my eyes for five nights, lay sick unto death, and went out of my senses” (LW, Vol. 54, p. 85).

“I almost fasted myself to death, for again and again I went for three days without taking a drop of water or a morsel of food. I was very serious about it” (LW, Vol. 54, pp. 339-340).

“Whatever good works a man might do to save himself, these Luther was resolved to perform” (Bainton, p. 45).

“While I was a monk, I no sooner felt assailed by any temptation than I cried out—‘I am lost!’ Immediately I had recourse to a thousand methods to stifle the cries of my conscience. I went everyday to confession, but that was of no use to me” (cited in D’Aubigne, 1950, p. 24).

Luther entered the monastery to find peace with God. Though driven there for rest for his soul, monastic life failed to ease his guilt. “Then, bowed down by sorrow, I tortured myself by the multitude of my thoughts. ‘Look,’ exclaimed I, ‘thou art still envious, impatient, passionate! It profiteth thee nothing, O wretched man, to have entered this sacred order’” (cited in D’Aubigne, 1950, p. 31).

Finding Peace with God through Christ Alone by Faith Alone through Grace Alone

If Luther could not find peace with God through human effort, what hope then did he or anyone else have? Luther found his hope in Christ alone.

“Now I should like to know whether your soul, tired of its own righteousness, is learning to be revived by and to trust in the righteousness of Christ. For in our age the temptation to presumption besets many, especially those who try with all their might to be just and good without knowing the righteousness of God, which is most bountifully and freely given us in Christ. They try to do good of themselves in order that they might stand before God clothed in their own virtues and merits. But this is impossible. While you were here, you were one who held this opinion, or rather error. So was I” (To George Spenlein, an Augustinian Friar) (LW, Vol. 48, p. 12).

“Hence it comes that faith alone makes righteous and fulfills the law . . .” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. xv).

“He who was without sin, for our sake became sin for us and so identified Himself with us as to participate in our alienation” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, pp. 75-77).

“You want to be an imaginary sinner and to regard Christ as an imaginary Saviour. You must accustom yourself to think that Christ is a real Saviour and that you are a real sinner. God does nothing for fun nor for show, and he is not joking when he sends his Son and delivers him up for us” (LSA, p. 12).

“This Epistle [Romans] is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. xiii).

“Then he begins to teach the right way by which men must be justified and saved, and says they are all sinners and without praise from God, but they must be justified, without merit, through faith in Christ, who has earned this for us by His blood, and has been made for us a mercyseat by God, Who forgives us all former sins, proving thereby that we were aided only by His righteousness, which He gives in faith . . . God certainly desires to save us not through our own righteousness, but through the righteousness and wisdom of someone else or by means of a righteousness which does not originate on earth, but comes down from heaven. So, then, we must teach a righteousness which in every way comes from without and is entirely foreign to us” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, pp. xix, 28-29).

“Very well, then, we know of ourselves that we are unrighteous; we also know that we are inclined to evil and that inwardly we are enemies of God. We believe therefore that we must be justified before God, but this we desire to achieve by our prayers, repentance and confession. We do not want Christ, for God can give us His righteousness even without Christ. To this the Apostle replies: Such a wicked demand God neither will nor can fulfill, for Christ is God; righteousness for justification is given only through faith in Jesus Christ” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. 77).

“Hence Christ calls unbelief the only sin, when He says, in John 16, ‘The Spirit will rebuke the world for sin, because they believe not on me.’ For this reason, too, before good or bad works are done, which are the fruits, there must first be in the heart faith or unbelief, which is the root, the sap, the chief power of all sin” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. xvi).

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes all men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all His creatures; and this is the work of the Holy Ghost in faith. Hence a man is ready and glad, without compulsion, to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything in love and praise to God, who has shown him this grace; and thus is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fires (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. xvii).

“Righteousness, then, is such a faith and is called ‘God’s righteousness’ or ‘the righteousness that avails before God,’ because God gives it and counts it as righteousness for the sake of Christ, our Mediator, and makes a man give to every man what he owes him” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. xvii).

“The words ‘righteous’ and ‘righteousness of God’ struck my conscience like lightning. When I heard them I was exceedingly terrified. If God is righteous (I thought), he must punish. But when by God’s grace I pondered, in the tower and heated room of this building, over the words, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live’ (Rom. 1:17) and ‘the righteousness of God’ (Rom. 3:21), I soon came to the conclusion that if we, as righteous men, ought to live from faith and if the righteousness of God should contribute to the salvation of all who believe, then salvation won’t be our merit but God’s mercy. My spirit was thereby cheered. For it’s by the righteousness of God that we’re justified and saved through Christ. These words (which had before terrified me) became more pleasing to me. The Holy Spirit unveiled the Scriptures for me in this tower” (LW, Vol. 54, pp. 193-194).

“Another thunderbolt is Paul’s statement that the righteousness of God is manifested and avails ‘unto all and upon all them that believe’ in Christ, and that ‘there is no difference.’ Here again in the plainest words he divides the whole human race into two. To believers he gives the righteousness of God; to unbelievers he denies it . . . In Rom. 8, dividing the human race into two, ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit,’ as Christ does . . . . (Luther, The Bondage of the Will, pp. 290, 299).

“‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom we have access by faith . . .’ Since God now has justified us by faith, and not by works, we have peace with Him both in heart and conscience . . . .” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, pp. 87-88).

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:24). God does not justify us freely by His grace in such a way that He did not demand any atonement to be made (for our sins), for He gave Jesus Christ into death for us, in order that He might atone for our sins. So now he justifies freely by His grace those who have been redeemed by His Son” (Luther, Commentary on Romans, p. 78).

“At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, ‘In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith . . . Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. I also found in other terms an analogy” (LW, Vol. 34, p. 337).

Join the Conversation 

Which of today’s Quotes of Note impact your life and ministry the most?

Note: These quotes are derived from Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective: Martin Luther as a Case Study in Christian Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding. The entire 212-page dissertation is available in PDF form at the RPM Store. 

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sequel

Being in the Christmas spirit, yesterday I pondered It’s a Wonderful Life and whether George Bailey’s sacrifice was joyful or bitter.

Today, I ponder whether George’s end-of-the-movie transformation was temporary or lasting. 

Temporary or Lasting Transformation 

You know the story and the scene.

The angel Clarence shows George how his life impacted many. Despondent George decides to stick around.

He returns home joyfully looking for his family. Soon he finds that his wife has asked all his friends to come through for him.

Standing in front of the family Christmas tree, money pours in to replace the money stolen by old Mr. Potter. George is joyful.

Or, is he? Is he simply happy?

Is he a changed man? Or is he a man changed by circumstances?

The Sequel

I’ve often wondered (and even thought about trying to write it!) what It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sequel might be like.

Would George be able to sustain his new-found excitement about life?

I don’t want to be a Scrooge at Christmas, but I don’t believe George’s “change” would have been sustainable.

Yes, George did likely have an emotional change. And that’s not bad.

And, yes, George likely even had some thought-life change—a new perspective. And that’s not bad.

But did George have a heart change? And, was his heart changed by God—transformed, renewed, regenerated?

Not to get too theological here (well, why not?), but…

• Changing our external circumstances is not enough for lasting internal change.

• Changing our emotions is not enough for lasting internal change.

• Changing our mental perspective is not enough for lasting internal change.

Secular rational-emotive therapy can offer those sorts of short-term fixes.

In the sequel, I suspect (I’m writing it, so I can suspect whatever I want!) that George’s change would have been short-lived.

Happy for a while, but what happens the next time or the tenth time that Uncle Billy messes up? Can George, in his own power, continue to “manage his moods”?

Or, what happens the next time or the tenth time that George sacrifices for others and they don’t reciprocate? Can George, in his own power, continue to maintain a new perspective on life?

George (and Me and You) Need a Transformation

Here comes some more theology.

George needs mind renewal flowing from regeneration—he needs to become a new person in Christ. By grace through faith, George needs to be born again, born from above.

His old ways of relating, thinking, choosing, doing, and feeling need to be crucified with Christ.

George needs a new, God-given, Spirit-engrafted, Christ-empowered nature. A new way of Christ-like relating, thinking, choosing, doing, and feeling needs to be resurrected with Christ.

That’s the only hope for lasting transformation and true joy.

Let me say it plainly. For George to truly change, George truly needs to be saved. By God. In Christ.

He can’t simply be “saved” by circumstances. Or new feelings. Or a new way of looking at life.

A Changed and Changing George

Saved by grace through faith, then George can begin the process of growth in grace—sanctification.

In the sequel (my sequel), George would seem to be “different” at first. But, little by little, the old George would seep out, come to the surface.

In despair, he would cry out to God again. But this time not simply to save him from his circumstances.

George would cry out that God would save him from His sins, including his self-centered motivations for sacrificing. And, most importantly, from his sin of unbelief and rejecting God in Christ and living on his own power for his own kingdom.

George would acknowledge that he was just as much in need of salvation as Mr. Potter!

And, saved and changed, George would need to cling to Christ to keep changing…to keep growing.

The movie would not “get boring” now with George never struggling again.

Not at all. The movie would “get exciting” now with George, like the Apostle Paul, saying:

“To this end [living for others for God’s glory] I labor, struggling with all his [Christ] energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Col. 1:29).

But I don’t want to spoil the whole sequel!

I think you get the picture about how the picture would go and flow.

George would be a truly transformed, new man in Christ. And, like the rest of us changed by Christ, on a daily (moment by moment) basis, George would by faith through grace need to put off the old man and put on the new man in Christ.

That’s a movie I’d like to see.

That’s a life that is truly wonderful.

Join the Conversation 

How would you write the sequel to It’s a Wonderful Life?

What sequel insChrist writing in your life since he saved you?

Applying Our Complete Salvation

Note: This is part four in a mini-series on the relationship between our salvation and our daily growth in Christ (sanctification). Read part one How We Grow in Grace, part two How to Disagree in an Agreeable Way, and part three How People Change.

Both/And/And/And

No, that’s not a typo. In How People Change, I emphasized the need for a both/and perspective where we highlight Gospel Indicatives (our salvation) and Gospel Imperatives (our sanctification). In today’s post, I will be emphasizing several aspects of our salvation.

I think some people who emphasize Gospel Indicatives seem to talk almost exclusively about justification. As amazing as the grace of justification is, it does not express the fullness of the Bible’s teaching on our salvation in Christ.

So in this post I want to express something of that fullness. I say “something” because no one blog post, no one book, not the entire ocean, could express the fullness of our glorious salvation. Still, I want to expand our thinking when we talk about Gospel Indicatives.

For a much fuller development of the following material, please see Soul Physicians where I devote eight chapters to these vital issues.

Our Complete Salvation and Our Daily Sanctification

The Bible calls us to apply our salvation to our daily life, to our progressive sanctification. Sanctification is our daily, ongoing growth in grace—becoming more and more like Christ so that our inner life increasingly reflects the inner life of Christ.

At times we mistakenly view ourselves only through the lens of depravity. This would be like a heart surgeon transplanting a perfectly healthy new heart into her patient, but then treating her patient as if he still has his old heart in his chest. To avoid this, let’s understand the comprehensive nature of biblical salvation and the implications for our daily growth in Christ.

Justification: New Pardon/Not Guilty—God the Forgiving Judge

Imagine the vilest offender. As cruel as Hitler, as depraved as Manson, as corrupt as Jack the Ripper. Desperately wicked. Self-deceived. Anti-social. Amoral. Mr. Mass Murderer. The day his trial begins, every major news network, cable news station, news magazine, and newspaper in the country, and hundreds around the world, join the coverage.

Shocking every reporter, every spectator, every member of the jury, and even his own legal team, Mr. Mass Murderer pleads guilty. Begs forgiveness. Asks for mercy.

Imagine the worldwide outrage as the judge responds, “Not guilty!”

“What a charade! Fool! He just said he was guilty. What is wrong with you? Have you gone mad? Retrial! Ethics probe! He must pay for his crimes.”

“His crimes have been paid for,” the judge retorts. “By my son. I have judged my son in place of Mr. Mass Murderer. They’ve exchanged places. My guiltless son, charged with nothing—his good standing I now transfer to Mr. Mass Murderer who is now free to go.”

You’ve not been watching The Twilight Zone. Not The Outer Limits. Not even reality TV. But reality. Spiritual reality. New Testament reality!

God our Judge justifies us, declaring us not guilty, forgiving us our trespasses, and reckoning His Son’s righteousness to our account, and our sin and guilt to His Son’s account. This is the amazing grace of justification.

How do people change? We must understand and apply our acceptance by God through grace by faith. For example, when Satan whispers his condemning lies into our ears, we need to remember the truth of Romans 8:1: “Therefore there is now no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” We are forgiven and accepted by God by grace through faith. Applying this one truth alone would cure so many spiritual struggles.

But here’s the problem, sometimes that’s exactly what we do. We apply the truth of justification alone. We say, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” But we are not just forgiven. To justification, God adds reconciliation.

Reconciliation: New Peace/Family—God Our Loving Father

Imagine that the spectators in the courtroom were to yell, “But he’s still evil through and through. A man like him can never change. He’s a danger to society. He must be locked up. Looked after.”

“He will live with me,” the judge replies. “Enjoying all the privileges my son enjoyed. I’ve adopted Mr. Mass Murderer into my family. He’s my adult son.”

God the Judge could have stopped at justification—forgiving us and then leaving us on our own. Left to our same old nurture we would return to our same old haunts—the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We would continue our maddening quest for relationship apart from God.

But God the Judge takes His legal robes off, replacing them with relaxed family attire and comfy slippers, inviting us into His home, into His family—reconciliation. Forgiveness (justification) as great as it is, would have been hollow had we remained separated from Father. The Judge becomes our adoptive Father, granting us access to His home and all the privileges of adult children—sons and daughters of God. This is the amazing grace of reconciliation.

How do people change? By applying the truth that God has already changed our relationship to Him from one of enemies to family!

Regeneration: New Person/Purity—Our All-Powerful Creator

The still insistent crowd in the gallery hollers, “That guarantees nothing. All your good intentions, all the love in the world, all the good nurture and best environment in the world does not guarantee that Mr. Mass Murderer will not continue his rampage.”

“I’m not finished. Hear me out,” the judge insists. “I’ve consulted the best medical, psychiatric, and psychological experts on the planet. Mr. Mass Murderer will receive a heart, brain, and soul transplant along with a DNA graft infusing into his very being my very nature.”

As the story of Mr. Mass Murderer correctly indicates, new nurture without new nature is insufficient to change us. What changes us? How do people change? God changes us. As new creations in Christ, we are already changed internally and we need to help one another to live out the new life already implanted within as we put off the old and put on the new.

The Judge of the criminal and the Father of the adult son becomes the Creator, Parent, Progenitor, Begetter, Life-giver of a newborn infant—regeneration. Like Father, like son. We are born again of incorruptible seed. Born from above to reflect the image of our Creator. We are reborn with a new nature—new soul, mind, will, spirit, emotions. Reborn with a renewed ability to relate (to God, others, and our self), think, choose, and feel in Christlike ways. We are reborn with a new heart—new capacities, disposition, inclinations, purity. The old dies. The new lives. This is the amazing grace of regeneration.

Redemption: New Power/Victory—God Our Invincible Champion

The shrill crowd is momentarily silenced. Totally stunned. Then a hand shoots up. “But that only means that he has a clean start. What about all his old acquaintances, his old habits? They will still come around clamoring for his attention, demanding his loyalty and affection.”

“Fair question,” the judge agrees. “We’ve thought of everything. I’ve jailed all his old acquaintances. His foes are defeated. Plus, we’ve infused his new heart, brain, soul, and DNA complex with core power to remain free from and victorious over these past tempters.”

This is the salvation grace of redemption. Freedom from the power of sin. Freedom from bondage and slavery to sin. We need victory. Resurrection power. The Judge of the criminal, the Father of the adult son, the Creator of the newborn infant, is also the Champion, Victor, Warrior, General, and King of the overcomer, of the empowered, freed, victorious soldier.

How do people change? Not through our own power but through tapping into Christ’ resurrection power.

We have been set free from the power of sin and death and united with the resurrection power of Christ. We have Christ’s resurrection power to be victorious over the world, the flesh, the Devil, sin, and death. We are new creations with a new nature: regeneration and redemption. God has implanted a new heart into the core of our being with new power to live godly lives.

These four salvation realities (justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption) about our newness in Christ are the foundation for our sanctification. How do people change? By applying justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption to our daily lives and relationships.

Join the Conversation

How would applying justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption change how we approach our sanctification?

Suicide, Salvation, and Eternal Security 

Ever since the publication of my book God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting, I receive many emails, phone calls, and questions about grief. One of the most difficult questions I hear is from family members who have lost a loved one to suicide. 

The question often sounds something like this.

“We are confident that our mother (or father, brother, sister, daughter, son) was a Christian by faith in Christ. Yet we have heard some say that if a believer commits suicide they lose their salvation. What does the Bible say?”

Shared Sorrow Is Endurable Sorrow

Any response to this question must first, of course, address the grief and agony of the surviving family members. The loss of a loved one is always a legitimate cause for great grief. Loss by suicide heaps even more grief and pain upon a family.

Christians, in particular, seem to struggle with “permission to grieve.” That was one reason I wrote God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: to help Christians struggling with any life loss to understand that the Bible encourages grief and provides a way toward growth and healing hope.

Any response must also include the encouragement for the family to cling to Christ and to the Body of Christ. No one should suffer grief alone. As I say in the book, “shared sorrow is endurable sorrow.”

Salvation and Eternal Security

Regarding the specific question concerning a loved one’s eternal security, my response, in summary, usually sounds something like the following.

There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that a believer in Christ can ever lose their salvation, their eternal security. The Apostle Paul is clear that there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Paul continues in that chapter to state that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, including death—by any means (Romans 8:28-39).

Jesus Himself guarantees us: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-30). Jesus died to save us from our sins—every sin, including suicide.

Doubt and Faith

Further, even doubt and loss of hope is not an evidence of loss of faith. In Mark 9:24, we read of the father of a sick child who said to Jesus, “I believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” The rest of the passage indicates that this father had faith, though like all of us, he struggled to overcome his doubts.

The Apostle Thomas doubted, yet his doubt was mingled with faith—saving faith, belief in Christ (John 21:24-29). The Apostle Paul himself honestly admitted that he despaired of life and felt the sentence of death (2 Corinthians 1:8-9), yet no one would question his saving faith and eternal security in Christ.

The “Unpardonable Sin”

Some ask whether suicide might be the “unpardonable sin.” The only unpardonable sin is to willfully and permanently reject God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ (John 3:36).

Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death atones for all the sins of his people—past, present, and future (Romans 3:25). Believers in Christ enjoy God’s enduring and complete forgiveness for all their sins (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

Join the Conversation

What additional biblical hope do you share with people concerning a Christian’s eternal security in Christ?

Our Father’s Full Provision

Too much Christian living is old covenant living. We consume ourselves with trying to become what we already are, when our present task is to be who we already are.

Too much Christian ministry is old covenant ministry. We minister to Christians as if they are still non-Christians. We counsel saints as if they are still unsaved. We disciple one another as if we are still under the old covenant of law and not the new covenant of grace through which we enjoy our new nurture and our new nature.

Our new covenant salvation in Christ implants within us a new nature and a new nurture. We are cleansed (new purity) and invited in (new family). Sanctification does not involve making myself a saint, but living out my sainthood. It does not involve making myself a child of God, but enjoying my new sonship. The key to our victory is our faith in our new identity. The following narrative speaks to the new you in Christ.

The Vilest Offender

Imagine the vilest offender. As cruel as Hitler, as depraved as Manson, as corrupt as Jack the Ripper. Desperately wicked. Self-deceived. Anti-social. Amoral. Mr. Mass Murderer. The day his trial begins, every major news network, cable news station, news magazine, and newspaper in the country, and hundreds around the world, join the coverage.

Shocking every reporter, every spectator, every member of the jury, and even his own legal team, Mr. Mass Murderer pleads guilty. Begs forgiveness. Asks for mercy.

The Amazing Grace of Justification

Imagine the worldwide outrage as the judge responds, “Not guilty!”

“What a charade! Fool! He just said he was guilty. What is wrong with you? Have you gone mad? Retrial! Ethics probe! He must pay for his crimes.”

“His crimes have been paid for,” the judge retorts. “By my son. I have judged my son in place of Mr. Mass Murderer. They’ve exchanged places. My guiltless son, charged with nothing—his good standing I now transfer to Mr. Mass Murderer who is now free to go.”

The Amazing Grace of Reconciliation

“But he’s still evil through and through. A man like him can never change. He’s a danger to society. He must be locked up. Looked after.”

“He will live with me,” the judge replies. “Enjoying all the privileges my son enjoyed. I’ve adopted Mr. Mass Murderer into my family. He’s my adult son.”

The Amazing Grace of Regeneration

“That guarantees nothing. All your good intentions, all the love in the world, all the good nurture and best environment in the world does not guarantee that Mr. Mass Murderer will not continue his rampage.”

“I’m not finished. Hear me out,” the judge insists. “I’ve consulted the best medical, psychiatric, and psychological experts on the planet. Mr. Mass Murderer will receive a heart, brain, and soul transplant along with a DNA graft infusing into his very being my very nature.”

The Amazing Grace of Redemption

Momentarily silenced. Totally stunned. Then a hand shoots up. “But that only means that he has a clean start. What about all his old acquaintances, his old habits? They will still come around clamoring for his attention, demanding his loyalty and affection.”

“Fair question,” the judge agrees. “We’ve thought of everything. I’ve jailed all his old acquaintances. His foes are defeated. Plus, we’ve infused his new heart, brain, soul, and DNA complex with core power to remain free from and victorious over these past tempters.”

Living Out Our Complete Salvation

You’ve not been watching The Twilight Zone. Not The Outer Limits. Not even reality TV. But reality. Spiritual reality.

God our Judge justifies us, declaring us not guilty, forgiving us our trespasses, and reckoning his Son’s righteousness to our account. The amazing grace of justification.

However, God the Judge could have stopped here—forgiving us and then leaving us on our own. Left to our same old nurture we would return to our old haunts—the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We would continue our maddening quest for relationship apart from God.

But God the Judge takes his legal robes off, replacing them with relaxed family attire and comfy slippers, inviting us into his home, into his family—reconciliation. Forgiveness (justification) as great as it is, would have been hollow had we remained separated from Father. The Judge becomes our adoptive Father, granting us access to his home and all the privileges of adult children. The amazing grace of reconciliation.

Justification and reconciliation combine to form the first perfection of the new covenant—our new nurture. However, as the story of Mr. Mass Murderer correctly indicates, new nurture without new nature is insufficient to change us.

The Judge of the criminal and the Father of the adult son becomes the Creator, Parent, Progenitor, Begetter, Life-giver of a newborn infant—regeneration. Like Father, like son. Born again of incorruptible seed. Born from above to reflect the image of the Creator. Born with a new nature—new soul, mind, will, spirit, emotions. Born with a new heart—new capacities, disposition, inclinations, purity. The old dies. The new lives. The amazing grace of regeneration.

As amazing as all this is, we still need one more salvation grace—redemption. Freedom from the power of sin. Freedom from bondage and slavery to sin. We need victory. Resurrection power. The Judge of the criminal, the Father of the adult son, the Creator of the newborn infant, is also the Champion, Victor, Warrior, General, and King of the overcomer, of the empowered, freed, victorious soldier. Set free from the power of sin and death, united with the resurrection power of Christ. Victorious over the world, the flesh, the Devil, sin, and death. The amazing grace of redemption.

Join the Conversation

In your life and ministry, are you living out the amazing grace of our complete salvation in Christ: justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption?

Note: This post is excerpted from Soul Physicians.

A Conversation about Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 9: The Pluralism Question

Welcome: You’re reading Part 11 of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

Salvation without Christ and Spiritual Formation without the Indwelling Spirit

In the pluralism question, Brian asks, “How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?” His preferred approach envisions evangelism ceasing to be a matter of saving souls and ceasing to be a proclamation of the superiority of Christianity (p. 216).

Rather than converting people from their fallen condition of sinful human depravity, in Brian’s thinking, salvation involves inviting unconverted people “into lifelong spiritual formation as disciples of Jesus” in an uncoverted community dedicated “to teaching the most excellent way of love, whatever the new disciple’s religious affiliation or lack thereof” (p. 216).

To arrive at this novel interpretation of salvation (salvation without conversion from sin) and spiritual formation (spiritual formation without Spirit-empowered progressive sanctification through the all-sufficient Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God), Brian spends seven pages reinterpreting John 14:6. Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me.”

Brian has Christ saying in this verse, “Look at me, my life, my way, my deeds, my character.” And what has that character been? “One of exclusion, rejection, constriction, elitism, favoritism, and condemnation? Of course not! Jesus’s way has been compassion, healing, acceptance, forgiveness, inclusion, and love” (pp. 222-223). Rather than being a statement of faith in Christ as the exclusive way to salvation, for Brian, John 14:6 becomes a statement of universal salvation apart from faith in Christ.

Knowing the Father through the Son, Reflecting the Son through the Spirit

Brian acts as if it is the most unloving act in the world to dare to share Christ with a person of another religion, and thus to claim that their way does not lead to God. He holds Christ up as the model (as we all should). So, let’s consider what Christ has to say to those who try to relate to the Father apart from the Son.

When the Pharisees tried to have a relationship with the Father apart from the Son, Jesus dared to speak exclusive truth. He dared to tell them point blank, “You will die in your sin” (John 8:21). Why? “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24). Sounds totally exclusive to me. Jesus continues. “I have much to say in judgment of you” (John 8:25). Sounds rather…judgmental.

“To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples’” (John 8:31). Sounds rather exclusive. He then informs them that it is truth that will set them free (John 8:32). Free from what? Slavery to sin (John 8:33-36). And only the Son can set one free from sin’s enslavement (John 8:36).

Jesus is not nearly finished. His words become increasingly exclusive. Those who do not believe in Him get the message, though they disagree with it. “‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested” (John 8:41). Did Jesus back down and clarify that they had misunderstood His message? Not in the least. He intensifies his proclamation of exclusive salvation. “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him” (John 8:44).

Clearly, we can know the Father only through the Son. Clearly, knowing and personally accepting and appropriating the truth of Christ’s life, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection are essential to salvation.

The Divine Counselor—The Ultimate Biblical Counselor and Spiritual Director

It’s equally true that truth is essential for spiritual formation in Christ. In the same narrative where Brian wants to make Jesus’ words about being the truth simply a statement of a good moral example, Jesus repeatedly links the Spirit to truth. Because of Christ’s great love for us, He does not leave us orphaned. He prays to the Father Who gives us another Counselor to be with us forever.

And Who is this Counselor? The Spirit of truth (John 14:17). What is the truth that leads both to salvation and to sanctification? “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). If I truly love and care about a person of another religion who does not know Christ, and if I long for that person to know the love of Christ now and forever, then unmistakably Christ calls me to share the truth of exclusive salvation in Christ with my friend.

And if I long for my newly saved friend to grow in grace, then I will want to teach my friend about the work of the Spirit—the Divine Counselor. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things” (John 14:26). I will mentor my newly saved friend in the progressive sanctification process of abiding in Christ—exclusively in Christ (John 15:1-8).

The Divine Counselor focuses on truth—the truth of Christ’s exclusivity. “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26). And if I love my spiritual friend, what will I do? “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27).

The Spirit of truth, “convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin” (John 16:8). And what is the core sin, the core guilt for which we remain in our sins? “In regard to sin, because men do not believe in me” (John 16:9). Could anything be clearer? Jesus is the only Way to salvation and to spiritual formation. Speaking the truth in love is the only means of evangelism and discipleship. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). All truth about what? About Christ. “He will bring glory to me” (John 16:14).

If the goal of my life is to glorify Christ, and if the passion of my loving heart is to see others enter into new life with Christ and abundant life in Christ, then I will speak the truth of Christ’s exclusivity. There’s nothing unloving about the truth. There’s nothing loving about hiding the truth of salvation and sanctification in Christ alone.

The Rest of the Story

In my next post, I respond to Brian’s answer to the what-do-we-do-now question. He asks, “How can we translate our quest into action?”

Join the Conversation

How should we relate in truth and love to those who do not know Christ?