mgpcpastor's blog

Last week I posted links to articles dealing with issues of gospel preaching, antinomianism and legalism. Since then Michael Bird has provided his thoughts on the issue. In addition, Dane Ortlund provides a gracious summary.
John McLean teaches at the Presbyterian Theological Center in Sydney, and this timely essay on what it is to be  forgiven by God and how that forgiveness produces a life which seeks to live in obedience to God was published in the Presbyterian Pulse a few days ago.
Here it is in its entirety.
Does grace undermine goodness?
Christians are meant to be good, right? Everyone knows that. The great accusation against us is that we are hypocrites; we say one thing but do something else. And the claims hurt because it can be true, and we know it shouldn’t be that way. Some of Jesus’ most biting words were against hypocrites (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16; 23:13-15, 23-29).
So we recognise that there should be a match between Christian profession and action. The Bible is full of law and instructions about how to live, being a Christian means following those.
But is it that clear? Are Christians expected to live up to God’s standards? Ever heard someone respond that the church is not full of hypocrites, there is always room for more? It’s a bit like the line that only good people go to heaven. Those comments make a point – that Christianity is based on what we do. One simple explanation of the gospel is that it is about what God has done not what we do. The message of the gospel is that God saves sinners, so we are justified by Christ’s work not by our own righteousness. That message is at the very heart of the Protestant understanding of the gospel and is very clear in the Westminster Confession, which says that God “freely justifies” sinners “by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone … by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them” (WCF 11.1). All that the believer does is just that – believe. The open, empty hands of faith receive God’s gift of a new status which is entirely independent of how we live. Martin Luther spoke of the “alien righteousness” that God gave, that it is not intrinsic to the believer but comes from outside. That is part of the great news of the gospel.
The doctrine of justification by faith leaves a question: what about Christian living? If our acceptance by God and our eternal security rests on Christ’s work entirely, then does it matter how we live? It seems that the doctrine of justification by faith is a problem for Christian ethics, since ethics is about how we should live well and the doctrine of justification by faith says we can’t live well but it doesn’t matter.
That’s been a question asked many times. In the Reformation the obvious criticism of the Protestant doctrine of justification was that it encouraged sin. Catholic critics could point out that their view of faith active through love which in God’s grace led to a process of being made righteous was a far more moral approach than the idea that God simply counted us as righteous. It looks as if Paul faced the same kind of criticism when people accused him of teaching “Let us do evil that good may result” (Rom 3:8). Preaching that focuses on justification by faith is often accused of undermining morality.
There have been people who take the Protestant view to an extreme and say something like ‘It doesn’t matter if Christians sin’, or at least that God’s law doesn’t matter for Christians. They have been called “antinomians” (people who are against the law). However mainstream Protestant thought has not fallen into the trap of antinomianism and the Westminster Confession is very clear that antinomianism is wrong. So how can we believe that we are justified by faith and still think that how we live matters? There are important insights we need to keep in mind to see the connection.
Justification is a great truth of the gospel, but it is not the full extent of salvation. God’s work of redemption does not end with people being accepted by him and given a new status. He also renews us so that we live for him. Titus 2:14 expresses it: Jesus give himself “to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good”.
The goal of Christ coming is that there will be a people who are forgiven and accepted and also purified and eager to do good.
In Reformed theology the work of renewal has been called “sanctification” (making us holy). That may not be the best term, since the Bible sometimes talks about us being made holy in the same way that we are justified (e.g. Rom. 15:16; 1Cor. 6:11; Heb. 10:10). However the term has tended to stick, and there certainly are parts of the New Testament in which holiness refers to our changed lives and actions (Rom. 6:19; Eph. 4:24; Heb. 12:14). Whatever word you use, the idea is very important – God justifies us and he renews us.
The Westminster Confession says that God provides “a new heart, and a new spirit”. It goes on to give a complex description of how our union with Christ transforms us through the indwelling Word and Spirit saying that believers “are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them” (WCF 13.1).
Colossian 3 shows the intricate connections between what God has done for us in Christ and what he is now doing in us. Paul begins by reminding us that our status and future are wrapped up with Jesus because we share in what he has done. He traces out Christ’s path of death, resurrection, ascension, rule and return. All these events happen outside of us. And most occurred before we even existed. In them God’s triumphed over evil and sin and established his kingdom, putting an end to the old age of evil. But Paul says that we have died with Christ and have been raised with him and our life is hidden now with him while we wait for him to appear, then we will share fully in his glory (Col 3:1-4). The reality of being a Christian means that Christ shares himself with us by his Spirit, so those events in Christ’s life now define our lives. At the deepest imaginable level we find ourselves caught up in what has happened to him and sharing in what he achieved: we are now dead to sin and evil, victorious over it and destined for glory. Because our identity and future are in Christ, then we have to live a certain way now – we have to get rid of the old ways of living which are part of the age which is under God’s judgment and live as our new self (Col 3:5-9). We have a new self in Christ which God is renewing (Col 3:10). Paul calls us to put on that new self, to live out our new identity (Col 3:11-13). This transforming, or sanctifying, aspect of redemption is based on our justification by Christ and needs to be set alongside justification to start to give a full picture of God’s work.
There are further connections between justification and sanctification. Knowing that we are accepted by God gives us confidence that we can live his way. If our acceptance depended on our living, then we would be under constant fear of failure (which would lead to certain failure).
However, Christians live as children welcomed by our Father on the basis of Christ’s work, and that welcome gives us the freedom to live for him. We see the same dynamic in family life: often children who feel they have to earn their parents’ love act out while children who know they are loved by their parents are content and balanced. The spiritual pattern is the same: godliness flourishes when we know that we live in God’s grace.
The truth of justification by faith assures us that though we are far from all we should be, God delights in our efforts to please him. He produces those efforts in us by his Spirit and he accepts them as offerings given in Christ. In Philippians Paul describes both his life and the gifts of the Philippians as sacrifices offered up to God (Phil 2:17; 4:18). In the Old Testament offerings had to be pure and unblemished. Can Paul think of his own life with its faults as unblemished offering?
Surely the Philippians’ gift, though generous, was given with some mixed motives. How can Paul treat it as unblemished? The reason is that their lives and service were given to God in Christ. Like them in Christ we are already accepted by God.
Justification by faith does not undermine Christian living and encourage hypocrisy. In fact when you understand it properly it is the basis for serving God faithfully. Genuine Christian ethics begins with justification by faith. John Calvin was right when he wrote that justification is “the main hinge on which religion turns”.