Commonplace Holiness Holiness woven into the fabric of life...

John Wesley: “Those Who Are Without”

John Wesley (1703 –1791)

John Wesley (1703 –1791)

I added some bold type to the following quote:

…I have no authority from the Word of God ‘to judge those that are without.’ Nor do I conceive that any man living has a right to sentence all the heathen and Mahometan world to damnation. It is far better to leave them to him that made them, and who is ‘the Father of the spirits of all flesh;’ who is the God of the Heathens as well as the Christians, and who hateth nothing that he hath made.

“Perhaps there may be some well-meaning persons who carry this farther still; who aver, that whatever change is wrought in men, whether in their hearts or lives, yet if they have not clear views of those capital doctrines, the fall of man, justification by faith, and of the atonement made by the death of Christ, and of his righteousness transferred to them, they can have no benefit from his death. I dare in no wise affirm this. Indeed I do not believe it. I believe the merciful God regards the lives and tempers of men more than their ideas. I believe he respects the goodness of the heart rather than the clearness of the head; and that if the heart of a man be filled (by the grace of God, and the power of his Spirit) with the humble, gentle, patient love of God and man, God will not cast him into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels because his ideas are not clear, or because his conceptions are confused. Without holiness, I own, ‘no man shall see the Lord;’ but I dare not add, ‘or clear ideas.’

— John Wesley, Sermon #125: “On Living Without God”

Comments (1) | Trackback

James Denney: Atonement and New Life

James Denney (1856-1917)

James Denney (1856-1917)

An interesting admission from a man who was a strong defender of the penal substitution theory of the atonement:

The demand that the Atonement shall be exhibited in vital relation to a new life in which sin is overcome… is entirely legitimate, and it touches a weak point in the traditional Protestant doctrine.  Dr. [Thomas] Chalmers tells us that he was brought up — such was the effect of the current orthodoxy upon him — in a certain distrust of good works.  Some were certainly wanted, but not as being themselves salvation, only, as he puts it, as tokens of justification.  It was a distinct stage in his religious progress when he realized that true justification sanctifies, and that the soul can and ought to abandon itself spontaneously and joyfully to do the good that it delights in…  An atonement that does not regenerate… is not an atonement in which men can be asked to believe.

James Denney (1856-1917), The Atonement and the Modern Mind [1903].

Comments (2) | Trackback

Michael J. Gorman: Transformational Justification

A quote from a book I read several years ago. This is from Michael J. Gorman, professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Here Dr. Gorman stresses the transformational character of justification by faith.

 


 

41UC6BlVLDL“For Paul, I would contend, justification means the establishment or restoration of right covenant relations, both ‘vertical’ or theological (toward God) and also, inseparably, ‘horizontal’ or social (toward others) — what Paul most frequently calls ‘pistis’ and ‘agape‘ — with the certain hope of ultimate vindication and glory, all understood in the light of, and experienced through, Christ and the Spirit.

“Or, as I have said more succinctly elsewhere:

Justification for Paul may be defined as follows: the establishment or restoration of right covenantal relations — fidelity to God and love for neighbor — with the certain hope of acquittal/vindication on the day of judgement.

“This is life indeed, both present and future, the goal of every Jew, the essential substance of the covenant, and the purpose of the divine gift of the Law and, for Paul, the purpose of the divine gifts of Christ and of the Spirit.

“The actual language of justification is drawn from four interlocking realms:

  • theological, referring to the divine character — God is just;
  • covenantal, referring to the moral obligations associated with a communal, covenant relationship with God — God requires justice;
  • legal, referring to juridical images of God as judge — God judges and pardons, and
  • eschatological, referring to future judgement and salvation — God will judge and grant approval and life (or condemnation and death) on the day of the Lord.

“The just/righteous are those who are, and who will be vindicated as being, in right covenant relationship with the just/righteous God of the covenant as that God’s distinctive people. In Christ, (or, better, in the Messiah), of course, that relationship is open to Jews and Gentiles alike.

“For Paul, then, justification is not merely or even primarily juridical or judicial — the image of the divine judge pronouncing pardon or acquittal. That is part, but only part, of the significance of justification. The judicial image must be understood within a wider covenental, relational, participatory, and transformative framework.”

— Michael J. Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology.

 


 

Dr. Gorman has written several excellent books on the Bible and Biblical theology. Here is the listing at Amazon: Michael J. Gorman.

 

No comments | Trackback

Charactorizing the Walk With God – Psalm 15:3-5

integrity_3So, the question Psalm 15 raises for us is this: Lord God, what is it like to be the kind of person who is fit to live in Your Presence from day to day? We are invited into a life in the presence of God. And, by the grace of God we are enabled to live lives pleasing to God. What are we told about this kind of life? It is a life of wholehearted devotion and a life of inner integrity.

I am reminded of a verse from the New Testament: “…if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 NRSV). Walking with God means continually walking in the light of God. There is a kind of honesty and openness and transparency to it. Our hearts are open to God and to others — insofar as that is possible for us.

Now, notice the qualities of the person who walks with God in this wholehearted devotion. (more…)

No comments | Trackback

To the Saints – Colossians 1:2

paul-iconIn the simple, stock opening with which this letter begins, we already gain insight into Paul’s sense of calling and vocation. We see his conception of who he is, and what he knows his task in life to be.

As he turns to the next part of his greeting — again nothing unusual here at all — he expresses his view of who the Colossian Christians are.

(Colossians 1:2)
τοῖς ἐν Κολοσσαῖς ἁγίοις καὶ πιστοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ, χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν.
“…to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (NASB).

They are: “saints (who are) in Colossae” and “faithful brothers in Christ.” (more…)

Comments (2) | Trackback