Not a Joint Effort

"Westminster Larger Catechism on salvation (i.e., justification, adoption and sanctification):

Q. 70. What is justification?

A. Justification is AN ACT OF GOD'S FREE GRACE unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.

Q. 74. What is adoption?

A. Adoption is AN ACT OF THE FREE GRACE OF GOD, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.

Q. 75 What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is A WORK OF GOD'S GRACE, whereby they whom God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.

Those who say sanctification is synergistic are saying this: Salvation is synergistic.

There is a confessional tradition that believes, teaches and confesses a synergistic view of salvation- Rome. Roman doctrine teaches that God and man work together (syn = together; ergon = work) for the salvation of sinners. God's grace initiates salvation, and the faithful believer cooperates with that grace.

In contrast, the Reformed confession of the Christian faith believes, teaches and confesses that salvation (i.e., justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification) is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone (see WLC, Q. 70, 74, 75).

All who are in union with Christ by grace through faith alone will produce effort (apply). But, good works (applying) are never instrumental in salvation, only evidential. It is not the case that one gets in by grace and stays in by cooperating with grace.

Lordship salvation proponents (which is my concern) hear us say sanctification is by grace alone through faith alone and they immediately accuse us of antinomianism. This is false.

It is true sanctification entails genuine effort on our part. I think WSC 35 or WLC 75 show this. However, my concern with Lordship salvation proponents is how they confuse and conflate faith with obedience and repentance and thus destroy the believer's assurance and end up making sanctification a joint effort. Believers are saved for good works (Eph. 2:10) but not through good works (applying). Faith, not good works (applying), is instrumental in salvation. I think WLC Q. 75 is clear that "applying" is the logical and necessary fruit and evidence of salvation (i.e., justification and sanctification).

It is important to distinguish between sanctification and its fruits. The genuine effort we apply toward sanctity is the result of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work in us (e.g., Philip. 2:12-13; 1 Cor. 15:10).

One of the most helpful books I have read over and over is Walter Marshall's book, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. To borrow his phrase, sanctification is a gospel mystery that comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Through our mystical union with Christ, we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to put to death the old man and to be made alive in the new man.

I really like how the Heidelberg Catechism frames the good works (applying) of believers:

Q. 86. Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?

A. Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings,a and that he may be praised by us;b also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith,c by the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.d

(a) Rom 6:13; Rom 12:1,2; 1 Pet 2:5,9,10; 1 Cor 6:20
(b) Matt 5:16; 1 Pet 2:12; 1 Pet 1:6,7
(c) 2 Pet 1:10; Matt 7:17; Gal 5:6,22,23
(d) 1 Pet 3:1,2; Rom 14:19

Q. 114. But can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments?
A. No: but even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience;a yet so, that with a sincere resolution they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God.b

(a) 1 John 1:8-10; Rom 7:14,15; Eccl 7:20; 1 Cor 13:9
(b) Rom 7:22; Ps 1:2; Jas 2:10

Q. 115. Why will God then have the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them?
A. First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to knowa our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin, and righteousness in Christ;b likewise, that we constantly endeavour and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us, in a life to come.c

(a) Rom 3:20; 1 John 1:9; Ps 32:5
(b) Matt 5:6; Rom 7:24,25

(c) 1 Cor 9:24; Phil 3:11-14"

                                               

                                  ~Dr. John Fonville, Paramount Church, Jacksonville, Florida

Being Accepted #Michael Horton

". . . being accepted before God is not a matter of what we have done or left undone, or we would all be lost. It is a matter of trusting in that which Christ has done, for he has finished

the work of our redemption, he has paid the ransom for our sins and satisfied the justice that our guilt required."  #MichaelHorton

Quote from: https://cccdiscover.com/a-funeral-sermon-for-my-friend-who-committed-suicide/?utm_content=buffer6252d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Thorns

^Thorns
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” ~Genesis 2

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹ Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”

And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
¹⁵ I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.

¹⁶ He said to the woman:

I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children in anguish.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.

¹⁷ And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.” ~Genesis 3

¹² Pilate asked them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the One you call the King of the Jews?”

¹³ Again they shouted, “Crucify Him!”

¹⁴ Then Pilate said to them, “Why? What has He done wrong?”

But they shouted, “Crucify Him!” all the more.

¹⁵ Then, willing to gratify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. And after having Jesus flogged, he handed Him over to be crucified.

¹⁶ Then the soldiers led Him away into the courtyard (that is, headquarters) and called the whole company together. ¹⁷ They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on Him. ¹⁸ And they began to salute Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ¹⁹ They kept hitting Him on the head with a reed and spitting on Him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying Him homage. ²⁰ When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple robe, put His clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him. ~Matthew 15

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us ~Galatians 3

Monergistic Grace in Sanctification

Monergistic Grace in Sanctification

The Reformed/Biblical View of Justification is that God monergistically saves the elect who have been bought by the life and death of Jesus Christ. However, there have been years of heated debate among those who hold that God, performs sanctification as a gift of God's free grace, and those who see it as more of a synergistic activity between the justified and the Holy Spirit.

The Reformed position is that God performs sanctification as a gift of God's free grace. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states:  "Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness (A. 35).

Paul affirms monergism in I Corinthians 15: 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, *yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me. Paul attributes his very work to God's doing.

And again in Philippians 2 Paul confirms: "13 For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose."

Those who have been bought and paid for by Christ alone can be assured that because of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, they will walk in newness of life until we meet Him in glory, by grace alone. Hebrews 12:2: "keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith..."

For further study: 
Book: The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall: PDF: https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/GospelMystery.pdf

Blog: Sanctification Is A Work Of God’s Grace: Resources On Sanctification by R Scott Clark: https://heidelblog.net/2016/07/sanctification-is-a-work-of-gods-grace-resources-on-sanctification/

Podcast: Sanctification with Gary Edwards | Theology Gals | Episode 21: Coleen Sharp's interview with Gary Edwards: http://biblethumpingwingnut.com/2017/07/03/theology-gals-sanctification/

Dear Younger Self....Love, Gay

Dear Younger Self....Love, Gay

Impatience and trigger-finger decisions will be a great downfall for you. You have to realize that is your nature because of your lack of nurture, but that can’t be an excuse; it’s just a fact. Start young fighting against these two trouble-makers. Against all odds, you will not have the despicable trait of blaming everyone else for your errors. This is a good thing. Taking responsibility for following your nature will be a blessing that you won’t even recognize until much later in life. This will make you stronger, and you will need a lot of strength to overcome the obstacles that will be coming at you from the right and the left; from the east and the west. Face them and maintain your integrity, because it is more precious than gold.

I appreciate Gay's frankness with her younger self, and her sense of personal responsibility for attitudes and choices made.

As younger women, we can learn from these words of wisdom and from Gay's testimony. As daughters of God, those accepted in the Beloved, bought by the precious life of Jesus and set apart by the Spirit, we can lean on Him for wisdom and understanding. By His grace we can commit our ways to Him and ask Him for self-control, temperance and patience. The choices that we make, have repercussions, but we have a loving Father who sets our feet upon a rock and leads us in the way everlasting. ...All for the glory of Jesus our Savior. 

Legal Preaching #RScottClark

If the gospel is not the primary purpose of preaching, it turns people back to the Law for their acceptance with God. 

Learn more about Attraction of Legal Preaching by R Scott Clark: Read: https://heidelblog.net/2013/07/the-attraction-of-legal-preaching/ (Blog) or 

Listen" http://www.agradio.org/podcast/attraction-legal-preaching-r-scott-clark.

For more on the Law/Gospel distinction go to: https://www.thinkingfellows.com/blog/2017/9/8/the-necessary-distinction-between-law-and-gospel

Wisdom

Nancy Guthrie, in her book The Wisdom of God writes, "Wisdom from God is not a mysterious thing that is revealed to us in a secret experience of the heart. It is revealed to us in a Bible experience in which our minds are renewed and our hearts are cleansed."

It is God Himself, Who sent His One and Only Son to sacrifice Himself for us, and sent His Spirit to open our minds and hearts to His Word. And He uses His Word to wash our minds and cleanse our ways. He changes our hearts, molds our desires and spurs us on to Christ-honoring love for God and neighbor. He guides us and enables us to walk in His ways...
and His wisdom, so that we can resist and flee from temptation.

Today as you spend time meditating on His Word, fix your eyes on Jesus, Who is "God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (I Cor. 1:30).

Free

Free

We only have a "free will" to sin, by nature, and that "free will" is nothing but bondage (Romans 7:14,15). We have no ability or freedom to do what is pleasing to God apart from Christ (John 8:36; Philippians 2:13).

Romans 7:14 ,15  For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 

John 8:36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Jesus came into the world to deliver His people from bondage and the consequences of sin. He lived a perfectly holy life in our place, sufferred and died the death we deserve, was burried and rose again, as proof of the Father's satisfaction of His sacrifice, then He sent the Holy Spirit to enable us to change the course of our lives, believing, repenting, living for His glory with new hearts and new, sanctified wills.  None of this would be possible apart from the gospel, the will of the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

See also:
The Bondage of the Will: Martin Luther
http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/4913/7643/2893/botw.pdf

and
The Bondage and Liberation of the Will: John Calvin
https://revches-a8679.firebaseapp.com/aa917/the-bondage-and-liberation-of-the-will-a-defence-of-the-orthodox-doctrine-of-human-choice-against-pighius-texts-and-studies-in-reformation-and-post-reformation-thought-by-john-calvin-080102076X.pdf

Dear Younger Self....Love, Cindy S.

This week’s Titus 2 wisdom comes to us from Cindy S. 
Her advice to her younger self would be:

1.  Keep, Christ as the center of your home and family

2. Make your home a sanctuary away from the world so that when your husband/children enter it, they feel peace and comfort from the pressures of a godless world

3. Except for cases of an immediate and pressing need, ensure that your primary ministry is to your husband and family. I remember making four course meals for new moms over a period of 6 months, (2-3 meals a week) only to serve my own family waffles!

4. Always desire to show the love of Christ to your husband/children as a witness of the gospel to them and to others...remember, someone is always watching!

5.  Always remember that you are in different times and seasons as your family grows and that God has you where He wants you for a reason

6.  If you say "yes" to one thing, you are necessarily saying "no" to everything else, therefore be careful what you commit to...be a good steward of your time and resources

7.  No matter your trials, live your life keeping your eyes focused on the eternal! God is sanctifying you!

8.  Seek to glorify God in all things...even toilet scrubbing!! Do all things to His glory as an act of worship

9.  Live your life so as to leave a testimony of a life dedicated to Christ. I always ask myself, "how do I want my children to remember me?"

10.  Always have a heart of thanksgiving and gratitude

11. Be watchful and waiting for our Lord's return, and live in light of it

I love Cindy's heart for Biblical priorities. I have given very similar counsel to friends and clients, myself. Recognize that your family is your primary ministry. And seek to live in accordance with the grace you have been given. That is the key. When we intentionally remember the great love that the Father has bestowed upon us through Jesus the Son, it fills our hearts and is evidenced in love for others. He lived, died, was buried and rose again for us, and lives to make intercession for us. What good news to spur us on to live and love well.

Let's remember to make the main thing the main thing, and His wisdom to be our own in our relationships with family, church, community and the world we live in, with the gospel in mind.... All for the glory of Jesus. Solus Christus.