issue 124—february 2006 my great debt to john...

ISSUE 124—FEBRUARY 2006

… it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace … Hebrews 13:9

My Great Debt to John BunyanJohn G. Reisinger

John Bunyan, the seventeenth century tinker and thinker, made important con-tributions to Puritan theology that infl u-enced his contemporaries and have lasted until the present. His writings affected my understanding of the theology of the Bi-ble in two distinct areas. The fi rst was the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the second was the relationship of the law to the Christian’s conscience.

After God saved me, the fi rst book I read was Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Prog-ress. The man who gave it to me said,

“John, this is a great book, but you have to watch out for one thing. The writer does not believe in eternal security.” As I read the book, I agreed. It really sounded like Bunyan believed Christians could be saved and lost. Much later, I realized that

convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:5

This third principle has great im-portance for the development of the Christian life. We are to examine cer-tain matters of practice closely, and then we are free to come to our own conclusions—knowing that others may differ.

Individual Soul Liberty

Ironically, Baptists often set aside this principle, even though soul lib-erty is a critical component of Baptist polity. Individual soul liberty means that each individual Christian answers

master of his property, and he is free to deal with that property as he sees fi t. In verse fi ve, Paul develops the third guiding principle.

Third Principle: The Christian is to make up his or her own mind on issues.

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully

G RS O U N D O F

A EC

Thus far, in this series, we have ex-amined the fi rst four verses of Romans 14 and considered two of the twelve principles that shape the exercise of Christian liberty. The fi rst principle is that God accepts all believers with their many weaknesses and strengths; therefore, we also must accept them. The second principle states that God, not man, makes the Christian stand; Christians belong to Christ: he is the

Pilgrim was always safely under grace and was certain of making it to the Ce-lestial City. However, he did not always realize that truth. Even though Pilgrim was eternally secure, he still had to fi ght every battle and fi nally to win the war in persevering grace. The grace to persevere was guaranteed to him as one of the elect of God.

I remember, years later, discussing with the man who gave the book to me the difference between the biblical doc-trine of perseverance and the half-truth of eternal security, as most twentieth-century evangelicals understand it. He insisted that they were the same thing with a different name. Eventually, Bunyan helped this good brother to see that the contemporary

PRINCIPLES OF UNITY AMONG THE BRETHREN:Handling Christian Liberty with Maturity—

An Examination of Romans 14–Part 3David Seefried

Reisinger—Cont. on page 2

Seefried—Cont. on page 17

In This Issue

My Great Debt to John Bunyan

John G. Reisinger 1

Christian Liberty-Part 3David Seefried 1

Finding God’s Will Murray McLellan 3

Election is Sanctifi cationJohn G. Reisinger 5

Faith in FaithMike McInnis 7

February 2006 Issue 124

learned more about the relationship of law and grace than I did from all of the great theologians put together. One short article entitled “The Law and the Christian” opened up every-thing for me. This particular article was one of the last things that Bunyan wrote. It represents his mature and full-orbed theology on the subject of the Christian’s relationship to the law. One paragraph in that article sum-marizes Bunyan’s view of the law and its relationship to the believer. The emphasis in the following quotation is mine:

Wherefore whenever thou who believest in Jesus, dost hear the law in its thundering and lightning fi ts, as if it would burn up heaven and earth; then say thou, I AM FREED FROM THIS LAW, these thunderings have nothing to do with my soul; nay even this law, while it thus thunders and roareth, it doth allow and approve of my righ-teousness. I know that Hagar would sometimes be domineering and high, even in Sarah’s house and against her; but this she is not to be suffered to do, nay though Sarah herself be bar-ren; wherefore serve it (the law) also as Sarah served her, and EXPEL HER FROM THY HOUSE. My meaning is this, when this law with its thundering threatenings doth attempt to lay hold on thy CONSCIENCE, shut it out with a promise of GRACE; cry, the inn is took up already, the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and there is NO ROOM for the LAW. Indeed if it will be content with being my informer, and so lovingly leave off to JUDGE me; I will be content, it shall be in my sight, I will also delight in therein; but otherwise, I being now upright with-out it, and that too with that righteous-ness, with which this law speaks well of and approveth; I MAY NOT, WILL NOT, CANNOT, DARE NOT, make it my Saviour and Judge, NOR SUFFER IT TO SET UP ITS GOVERNMENT IN MY CONSCIENCE; for by so doing I FALL FROM GRACE, and Christ doth profi t me NOTHING.1

1 John Bunyan, The Whole Works Of

doctrine of eternal security and the biblical truth of the perseverance of the saints are not the same thing. The popular version of eternal security is expressed in the phrase “Once saved, always saved” and is applied to all who have made a profession of faith, regardless of either the presence or the lack of spiritual fruit in the life of the confessor. In this view, persever-ance is irrelevant to security. Bibli-cally, perseverance and security are two sides of one coin. Security hinges on the objective fact of Christ’s sub-stitutionary death for his people. Per-severance is God’s grace in action in the life of his people, and manifests itself in a subjective attitude against sin and toward holiness. There is no eternal security in sin! A person who professes to love and follow Christ, but whose affections and actions are indistinguishable from someone who rejects Christ has no right to consider heaven as his or her eternal home. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the classic work on the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

The second truth that Bunyan taught me was the biblical relation-ship between law and grace, especial-ly as the law relates to the Christian’s conscience. I know of no other writer, including Luther, who helped me as much as John Bunyan did in this area. I knew that Bunyan was in someway different from the other men of his generation, but I could never identify the reason for that difference. I often wondered how he could preach the gospel so freely and so powerfully and remain consistent with his strong Calvinism. I now realize it was be-cause of his view of the relationship of the law and the grace of God. Bun-yan, like his mentor Luther, knew how to separate and set the gospel free from the law and to tell sinners they were welcome to come to Christ to be saved.

In a two-page article by Bunyan, I Reisinger—Cont. on page 4

Reisinger—Cont. from page 1 Sound of Grace is a ministry of Grace Bi-ble Fellowship of Maryland. It is published 10 times a year. The subscription price is $10.00 per year. This is a paper unasham-edly committed to the truth of God’s sov-ereign grace and New Covenant Theology. We invite all who love these same truths to pray for us and help us fi nancially.

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Issue 124 February 2006

Finding God’s will is a crucial is-sue for his image-bearers, because all people have to make decisions every day. Believers, with their new hearts, want to honor the glorious Lord who, in incredible grace and mercy, has giv-en himself to save them. They want to glorify him in all that they do (1 Cor. 10:31); thus, they want their decisions to glorify God. How can a Christian know the will of God for his or her life? Everyone who wants to please God will ask this important question at various times. The answers offered are as varied as the circumstances that produce the inquiry.

Some explanations give the im-pression that God has hidden his will, and Christians must fi nd the right key to unlock this mystery, or else miss God’s best for their lives. As a boy, I used to play a game in which some-one who had hidden an object sat in a chair and told the searchers when they were getting warmer or colder. Some people seek the will of God in a simi-lar manner, assuming that the Holy Spirit will let them know whether they are close to or far away from God’s will.

Others emphasize the reading of circumstances as the means through which God reveals his will for indi-viduals’ lives. If a person runs down the hall, slips on a banana peel, and lands on a map of India that has fallen off the bulletin board – it is obviously a clear sign from the Lord to that per-son to set off as a foreign missionary. According to this approach, Jonah was right to board the ship for Tarshish so conveniently docked at Joppa (Jonah 1:1-3).

Some Christians follow a similar method, but they substitute the Bible for circumstances. They use the Scrip-ture as though it were an Ouija board to discern God’s will. Years ago, some Moravians would open their Bibles and, with no regard for the context of a particular passage, place a fi nger on a verse to discover God’s will for their lives.

Still others say that Christians must reach a level of spirituality in which they draw near to God until they begin to hear “a still small voice.” Thus, they teach that God leads his people unmistakably through inner impres-sions and impulses (albeit ones that never are contrary to the Bible, but that do go beyond the words actually written there). Once a Christian learns to recognize the still small voice of God’s Spirit, he or she will know for sure what job to seek, what school to attend, what woman or man to marry, and what decision to make in any given situation.

Some feel that they can be certain something is God’s will because they have peace about it. This manifests it-self in phrases such as this: “The Lord led me to do this or that.” I heard of one fellow who went to a girl and told her that the Lord gave him a word that she was to become his wife. Interest-ingly, the Lord had not given her the same word!

The striking similarity among these methods of discerning God’s will is that they all are subjective. Each indi-vidual must interpret whatever signs he or she fi nds. One diffi culty with this approach is that we often fi nd that for which we look. How can we dis-

tinguish between the peace that comes from discovering God’s will and the peace that confi rms our own will? How can we identify that still small voice in our heads – is it God’s voice or our voice? What rules do we follow for interpreting circumstances or the random passage of Scripture? These subjective attempts to discover God’s will and hear his voice often result in a life of confusion and indecision in which believers are tossed to and fro. On the other end of the spectrum, this subjectivity can lead to a misplaced, bold confi dence and all manner of things done in the name of God – even things that may dishonor the Lord, who has spoken clearly in his Word.

I think it is very signifi cant that there is no passage in the Bible telling us to fi nd God’s individual will for our lives. In addition, there is no passage telling us how to do this. The better question, it seems to me, is “How can I make good and God-honoring deci-sions?”

John Reisinger tells a story of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam comes home and sees his wife troubled. “I’m not sure what to make for supper. How can I know what God’s will is for me in this matter? I want to be led by God in everything.” How could Adam rightly respond? Could he not say, “Honey, fruit from any one of those trees is God’s will – all but one”? With the one exception, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all the rest were within the will of God for Adam and Eve to enjoy.

In the Bible, God provides every-

Finding God’s WillMurray McLellan

McLellan—Cont. on page 15

All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.


The fi nal sentence in that para-graph sums up the Christian’s rela-tionship to the law; it addresses set-ting up the government of the law in the conscience. My former theology had taught me that the goal in preach-ing was to enthrone the law of God in the conscience of a Christian. My fi rst reaction when I read Bunyan’s statement was to think it was a mis-print. The more I began to understand Paul’s doctrine of freedom from the law, the more I realized that Bunyan had stated it correctly. I then began to reread all of his works to peruse his references to the law and its proper use. That study was the greatest thing that ever happened to me apart from being converted! Bunyan taught me Paul’s theology of law and grace.

I suggest that you read Bunyan’s quotation very slowly and ask your-self how it makes you feel. If it makes you scratch your head and say, “What in the world did Bunyan mean?” then you do not understand law and grace as Bunyan did. If you say, “You will never hear me saying that! I believe that sanctifi cation is only possible as the law is pressed on the conscience,” then you understand, but reject, Bu-nyan’s view of law and grace. If you say, “Glory to God, I am free, and I owe it all to my Blessed Redeemer,” you may have the gospel of sovereign grace in your heart. I say may because it is also possible that you are an an-tinomian hiding behind the truth of sovereign grace. Our ability to argue correctly about law and grace does not prove that we are free from the law; proof lies in the effect that grace has in our lives.

Christ freed his people from the law in order that they may be mar-ried to him (Rom 7:1-4). It is impos-sible for a person who was married to

John Bunyan, Accurately Reprinted From The Author’s Own Editions, I, II, III, ed. John Offor (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), 2:388.

the law to be married to Christ until that person is set free from the fi rst husband, the law. Every truly free believer is married to Christ and con-sciously and gladly lives under the law, or lordship, of the new husband, Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit enables Christians to live as grateful bond slaves of sovereign grace. Our difference with law preachers is not whether Christians are under clear objective laws, but which laws must they obey. The question is not whether objective laws rather than mere feel-ings control a Christian’s conscience, but whose law rules in a Christian’s conscience—Moses’ or Christ’s. Do we send Christ’s sheep back to Moses and Sinai or do we insist that Christ has replaced Moses as lawgiver in exactly the same sense that he re-placed Aaron as priest? Would anyone send a believer back to Aaron to offer a sacrifi ce for him or her? If not, then why send a believer back to Moses for his or her rules for liv-ing to the glory of Christ.

Bunyan’s po-sition is echoed in Toplady’s great hymn, A Debtor to Mercy Alone:

A debtor to mercy alone, Of covenant mercies I sing;Nor fear, with thy righteousness on, My person and offering to bring.The terrors of law and of God With me can have nothing to do;My Saviour’s obedience and blood Hide all my transgressions from view.

Augustus Toplady (1740-1778), emphasis added

Toplady is rejoicing because his conscience has been forever delivered from the threat of condemnation. The law does not dwell in his conscience to accuse or to excuse. Toplady’s only plea or hope as he approaches God’s throne is the blood and righteousness of Christ.

Another hymn writer, John Newton, stated the same truth in Bunyanesque terms. One might think that both To-plady and Newton had just fi nished reading the paragraph from Bunyan’s article “The Law and the Christian”

when they wrote their hymns of Christian liberty. Hear the old slave trader exalt God’s grace:Let us love, and sing,

and wonder, Let us praise the Saviour’s name!

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder, He has quenched Mount Sinai’s fl ame;He has washed us with his blood, He has brought us nigh to God. John Newton (1774), emphasis added

Why are many preach-ers today so interested in keeping the fl ames of Sinai burning in the breast of a child of God? Why do

they delight in lashing the backs of Christ’s sheep

with the rod of Moses? What are they trying to accomplish? Surely, they must know that the law cannot motivate anyone to love and worship. How is it possible to miss the con-nection between the content of the preaching and the emotional attitude produced in the heart of the hearers? Take a closer look at the last hymn

Reisinger—Cont. from page 2

He brought me to the ban-queting house, and his banner over me was love.

Song 2:4 ESV

Reisinger–Cont. on page 6


Election is Sanctifi cationJohn G. Reisinger

Words are powerful tools that writers use to transmit information and to move their readers to ac-tion. Because words convey ideas and evoke images, it is important to have clear defi nitions for the terms we use. Biblical words carry the ad-ditional weight of revelation from God, intensifying the need for care-ful consideration of both defi nition and application.

It is unfortunate that when we read the words holy or sanctify, we automatically think of moral purity. We forget that the biblical meaning of the word sanctify means to set apart, and does not always mean or imply moral purity. Under the Old Covenant, everything with which God associated himself or dedi-cated to his exclusive use automati-cally became holy. There were holy places, holy days, holy garments, holy rituals, and a host of other holy things. In Leviticus 27:14-17, the word sanctify is applied also to a fi eld or a house.

And when a man shall sanc-tify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. And if he that sanctifi ed it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fi fth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a fi eld of his pos-session, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fi fty shekels of silver. If he sanctify his fi eld from the year of jubilee, according to thy estima-tion it shall stand. (KJV)

Neither a building nor a piece of ground has an inherent moral char-acter; nor can they be made morally pure or impure. However, both can be considered holy by being dedi-cated to God for his exclusive use. The building where a Christian con-gregation meets is not an inherently holy place, nor is it ‘the church.’ Furthermore, to set aside one room within the building and refer to it as the sanctuary is contrary to New Testament teaching. The idea re-fl ects either a pagan mindset with special temple rooms used in the worship rites of various gods, or the Old Covenant system with the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. Under the New Covenant, the church (saved people) is the sanctuary where God dwells. The church is people—not bricks and mortar. The church, or sanctuary, walks out of the building when the congregation of Christians leaves after the service. However, this does not mean that we cannot dedicate a building for the specifi c and unique purpose of an assembly place to worship God. A building thus dedicated becomes holy in that it is set apart to a holy purpose.

Likewise, a farmer may dedi-cate a fi eld to God and may give everything grown in the fi eld to God. The fi eld is not made morally pure by the farmer’s action, but it is indeed ‘holy to the Lord’ in that it is set apart, sanctifi ed, for God’s use alone. The biblical writers do not confi ne this defi nition and ap-plication of sanctifi cation to the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul, in 1 Timothy 4:3-5, writes of food being “sanctifi ed [made holy] by the Word

of God and prayer.” In 1 Corinthians 7:14, he declares that an unbelieving wife or husband is sanctifi ed (made holy) by being married to a believer. This cannot mean that union to a believer makes the lost mate mor-ally pure, or we have two grounds on which fallen human beings may approach God.

In John 10:36, our Lord stated that he had “been sanctifi ed by the Father and sent into the world” (KJV). This has nothing to do with moral purity, but refers to being set apart for the work of redemption. In his high priestly prayer, our Lord said that he sanctifi ed himself: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself” (John 17:19 KJV). This cannot mean that he made himself morally pure, as if he had not always pos-sessed moral purity. We must under-stand it as setting apart.

We must clearly defi ne the words holy and sanctify. They mean sa-cred as opposed to secular. When people say, “Nothing is sacred any-more,” they mean nothing is treated as belonging exclusively to God anymore. Popular opinion does not acknowledge God as owning or pos-sessing anything, but sees man as the center of everything. The word holy in this context is the opposite of profane. The dictionary defi ni-tions of the words sacred and pro-fane establish this contrast.

Sacred \ adjective: Dedicated, set apart, exclusively appropriated to some person or some special purpose. Of things, places, per-sons and their offi ces: Set apart for or dedicated to some religious

Sanctifi cation—Cont. on page 8

February 2006 Issue 124in Sarah’s house and against her; but this she is not to be suffered to do, nay though Sarah herself be barren; wherefore serve it (the law) also as Sarah served her, and expel her from thy house.

Bunyan takes this from Paul’s alle-gory of the two covenants in Galatians 4:21-31. It is an example of Bunyan’s keen grasp and use of Scripture. Bun-yan is fully aware that he, like Paul, is speaking of expelling the law from a believer’s conscience. Bunyan specifi -cally refers to those times in a believ-er’s life when he or she feels barren in heart and recognizes no sensible fruits. He is talking about winter in the soul. Even in those times (and in a sense, especially in those times), we must not allow the law to accuse and condemn us. The law simply must not be allowed to terrorize the conscience of a child of God! Bunyan correctly hears Paul telling the Galatians to cast out the law from the conscience as the accuser and excuser, just as God told Abraham to cast Hagar (the Old Cov-enant) and Ishmael (the fruit of that covenant) out of his house. Bunyan leaves us in no doubt as to what he means by casting out the bondwoman (law):

My meaning is this, when this law with its thundering threatenings doth attempt to lay hold on thy conscience, shut it out with a promise of grace; cry, the inn is took up already, the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and there is no room for the law.

Is Bunyan saying that he is fi n-ished with the law in every sense? No, he is saying he is fi nished with the law in one absolute sense. When we allow the law to set up its government in the conscience, which is the goal of classical reformed preaching, then it necessarily functions as the offi cial accuser and excuser, or as the voice of God, in the conscience. Bunyan sees this unholy union as a clear contradic-tion of the gospel. Moses and the law

mentioned:

(1) When do we “love, and sing, and wonder” in true worship? Only when we are “praising the Savior’s name!” Only when Christ and his all-suffi cient sacrifi ce occupies our minds does the joy of the Lord fi ll us. We will never “love, and sing, and won-der” as long as we are occupied only with ourselves – our duty, our sins, and our inability to keep the law – as a means of quieting our consciences. If we look at anything other than Christ him-self and his righteous-ness, we will either despair because we do not measure up, or become self-righteous because we mistak-enly believe we are getting better at striv-ing to obey the law. The tragedy is that the more sincere we are in striving to obey enough to have assurance of accep-tance, the more miserable we will be.

(2) For what do we praise our Savior? We praise him because “He has hushed the law’s loud thunder, He has quenched Mount Sinai’s fl ame.” When we see ourselves as free from condemnation forever and feel that liberty in our conscience, we want to give our all to Christ. We want to see God’s people fi lled with holy zeal and worship. The issue in this discussion centers on the identity of that which will produce the desired effect: is it Moses and the law, or Christ and sov-ereign grace?

(3) When do we rejoice in assur-ance of salvation? We have the joy of the Lord in our hearts only as we know that we have been “brought nigh to God” by the blood of Christ. We come to assurance of justifi cation and experience the joy of entering into the very presence of God with

boldness only as we see the law of God completely satisfi ed forever by the blood of Christ.

I repeat; we cannot feel the power of the Savior’s love, be fi lled with the fruits of love and peace, and at the same time, be occupied with the law and ourselves. The law in the conscience can only fi ll a believer with doubt and fear. If the law, in any sense whatever, can make you feel good, then it has failed its primary purpose. God gave his law in order to

make those under it feel the misery of their sin (Rom. 6:20; Gal. 3:19). You simply cannot turn a God-ordained “ministry of death” into a “ministry of life” (2 Cor. 3:7-9). The law, as the ministry of death, can neither bless nor curse a believer under the New Covenant. If you allow the law, in Bunyan’s words, “to set up its government

in your conscience” and do not feel condemned, then you are a deceived hypocrite who does not understand the “holy, just, and good” law of God. If you set up the law in your conscience and do feel con-demned, then you do not understand the doctrine of justifi cation by faith. The law in a believer’s conscience acting as the accuser and excuser pro-duces a no-win situation, regardless of what attitude the believer has toward it. I say again, the “holy, just, and good” law of God can neither bless a believer – who would dare claim he or she has kept the law and earned its blessing – nor can that same law in any sense condemn a believer, since he or she is robed in the righteousness of Christ.

Let us return to the quotation from Bunyan and look at several parts of it in more detail.

I know that Hagar would some-times be domineering and high, even




lowing the Lord to the death. You might say his faith in his faith failed him.

The scripture says “their faith is counted for righteousness” when speaking of true believers. Their faith in all cases is not the amount or degree in which they were able to have confi dence in what they believed. Rather the object of their confi dence is that which is counted as their righteousness. Simply put, that which is the righteousness of the Lord’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi cation, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). The true believer is not necessarily confi dent in his abil-ity to believe but he is certain of the suitability of the one in whom he be-lieves. Paul said, “for I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12) and testifi ed that he believed him able to keep him to the very end. When the Lord said to the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of his garment, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matt 9:22) she was comforted by the one she believed in rather than the fact that she had believed. The same is true of Bar-timaeus, the lepers, and all of those who the Lord was pleased to heal.

This understanding is vital for a proper understanding of how a true believer is to be assured of his salvation before the Lord. It is a common practice among those who have faith in their faith to be as-sured by being reminded that they have believed, made a decision for Christ, or joined the church. In fact, I well remember being assured by such well-meaning folks when I was being convinced of my sinful condition and lost estate. I was told that since I joined the church when I

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifi eth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:5.

Quite often, we hear some speak of saving faith as if the activity of faith on the part of man has the power to minister salvation unto him. In fact, this concept has been taught so openly and copiously for so long that many people assume that they play a major role in their own deliverance. I have heard salva-tion described as God doing his part in supplying the means of redemp-tion and man doing ‘his part’ by believing it. Nothing could be more erroneous than to consider that the justifi cation of lost sinners is in any way dependent on them.

When I was growing up it was quite common to hear people stand up in a church meeting and give their testimony by recounting the moment when they believed. The teaching was quite prevalent that a person thus ‘believing’ should never doubt it again, because after all, once a man believed he was saved at that very moment and could never again be lost. Thus men were cajoled and entreated to “get right with God”, “give their heart to the Lord”, or “let the Lord into their heart”. All of this could supposedly be accomplished by simply believ-ing the gospel since God had done everything else. Thus, man was presented as a sovereign making a choice to allow the Lord to save him. When a man had made this momentous decision, from that time on he was encouraged to have faith in his faith.

Now such a ‘gospel’ sits well with religious men and righteous men but it is of no use to the man

who fi nds himself in a lost and undone condition. He hears the preacher say believe, but he realizes in himself no ability to do so. He hears men talk of faith but it sounds like a foreign language to him be-cause he has discovered himself to be a sinner incapable of believing anything else. He knows if he must bring anything of value to the Lord he is without hope. But Oh! When that same sinner hears that Jesus Christ has accomplished everything necessary to bring wicked men such as himself into the very presence of God, he fi nds himself strangely drawn to this Savior. By a miracle of the gift of faith being bestowed upon him by God, he expects no other deliverance than that which is in Christ. In fact he cannot look away because the gaze of the Savior causes his own eyes to be glued to that blood stained cross on which he hung and he beholds a beauty in him which he is unable to escape.

The publican who smote upon his breast and cried out for mercy was such a man. Now we do not read that the publican went away from the temple with a cheerful heart nor a happy countenance but we do read that he went down to his house justifi ed. The Lord Jesus asked his disciples if they would also go away when he beheld the multitudes departing, but Peter said “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69). Yet Peter was in for some tough times as he was “sifted as wheat” denying the Lord and being plunged in the blackness of despair. He had little consolation then in all his proud boasts of fol-

FAITH IN FAITHMike McInnis

McInnis–Cont. on page 19

February 2006 Issue 1241. We are sanctifi ed in regeneration

and conversion in that we are called out from the world and separated unto Jesus Christ as his particular possession.

2. We are in the process of becom-ing sanctifi ed in that we are be-ing made more holy in our life as we “grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

3. We shall be totally sanctifi ed at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when every vestige of sin will be removed.

We may summarize these aspects as: (1) having been saved from the penalty of sin, (2) being saved from the power of sin, and (3) fi nally will be saved from the presence of sin.

Dr. S. Lewis Johnson insisted that we should begin any discussion of sanctifi cation with the truth of God’s eternal election. The elect of God were sanctifi ed, set apart, in Christ in eternity past by virtue of their having been chosen unto salvation in him. Several texts help us understand this. First, look at 1 Corinthians 1:2:

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sancti-fi ed in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. (KJV)

When was the church collectively sanctifi ed in Christ Jesus? Individually and experientially, we were set apart at conversion, but collectively the church was set apart in electing grace in eternity past. The Father gave us to the Son, as Christ’s property, before the Son came into the world. He came into time as the Great Shepherd of a known fl ock entrusted to him by the Father. We are sanctifi ed, not because we were called to be saints, but we were called to be saints because we had been sanctifi ed in Christ Jesus in eternity past.

Election does not save the elect, but it does make certain that all of the elect will be saved. Being chosen as a sheep does not put a person into the sheepfold, but it guarantees that the Shepherd will fi nd that person and bring him or her safely into the sheep-fold. Look at another passage with me:

For by one offering he hath per-fected forever them that are sancti-fi ed. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:14-18 KJV)

God sanctifi ed the elect in eternity when, in his sovereign purpose, he placed them into the covenant and gave them to the Shepherd. The Shep-herd then sanctifi ed them by legally purchasing them and paying for them by shedding his own blood. He sanc-tifi ed each of the elect individually when he found them and brought them into the fold. Each sheep received the Holy Spirit, and he, as the Vicar of Christ, began to sanctify each one, day by day. The Great Shepherd will return one day and complete his sanc-tifying work as described in Ephesians 5:25-27. All of this began in a sanctifi -cation that took place before we were born.

We all rejoice in that great fi ve-link chain of sovereign grace in Ro-mans 8:28-30. (1) The foreknown (fore-loved) ones, all of them and only them, are also (2) predestinated, therefore are certain to be conformed into the image of Christ. Those pre-destinated ones, all of them and only them, are certain of being (3) effectu-ally called by the gospel and the Holy Spirit. All called persons, without ex-

purpose; made holy by associa-tion with a god or other object of worship; consecrated, hallowed. Sacred book, one of those in which the law and teaching of a religion are embodied.

Profane \ adjective: Not per-taining or devoted to what is sacred or biblical, esp. in history, literature: secular, lay, common; civil as dist. from ecclesiastical. Characterized by disregard or contempt of sacred things; ir-reverent, blasphemous; impious, irreligious, wicked.

The word holy refers to either a thing or a person. It can mean either moral purity or setting apart for reli-gious purposes. Here is the diction-ary defi nition.

Holy \ adjective: Kept or re-garded as inviolate from ordinary use, and set apart for religious use or observance; consecrated, dedicated, sacred. Dedicated or devoted to. Free from sin and evil, morally and spiritually per-fect and unsullied. Of persons: Specially belonging to, commis-sioned by, or devoted to God. Of things: Pertaining to God or the Divine Persons; having their origin or sanction from God, or partaking of a Divine quality or character. Conformed to the will of God, entirely devoted to God; of godly character and life; sanc-tifi ed, saintly; sinless.

(All dictionary defi nitions from the Oxford Universal Dic-tionary, 2nd edition.)

Sometimes translators use the word hallowed for holy. Our Lord taught us to pray, “Hallowed be Thy name.” That surely cannot mean to “make God morally pure.” It means that we think about and use God’s name differently than we would any other name.

Most standard theology books discuss three aspects of sanctifi ca-tion (being made holy):

Sanctification—Cont. from page 5

Sanctifi cation–Cont. on page 19


A Single Passion is a collection of 10 new songs based upon and inspired by John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life. While a single song cannot fully capture the depth of the message that Piper

so fully conveys in each chapter of his book, the lyrics on A Single Passion were written with the intention of delivering some small measure of the book’s message.

Dr. John Piper writes, “God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.” That is the theme of Piper’s book and of this recording which it inspired; we are created for one purpose, for one passion, and our lives are wasted until we embrace that passion.

Song Titles: Begin Again, The Source of Happiness, A Single Passion, Everything and More, The Myth of Safety, Forgive Me, Weary Child, Ray of Light, Dying in Their Sleep, and Better Than Life.

For lyrics, sound samples, and further information regarding A Single Passion, please visit www.patrickmoseley.com.The material on this CD has not been endorsed by John Piper and Desiring God Ministries. To learn more about the book, please visit www.desiringgod.org.

John Bunyan on the Sabbath by John G. Reisinger

B o o k l e t o r d e r i n g i n f o r m a t i o n i s o n p a g e 1 0B o o k l e t o r d e r i n g i n f o r m a t i o n i s o n p a g e 1 0

New Covenant Media is pleased to present this updated and newly bound version of John Bunyan on the Sabbath. John G. Reisinger explores the relationship between law and grace—specifically the relationship of the New Covenant saint to the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath.In exploring a treatise on this topic by John Bunyan, he shows that: “Bunyan proves beyond question the following: (1) the seventh-day Sabbath was not given to Adam; it was first made known to Israel at Siani. (2) The seventh-day Sabbath is not a moral command-ment; it is a ceremonial commandment. (3) The seventh-day Sabbath was given only to the nation of Israel; never to the Gentiles.”If you struggle with understanding how to keep the Sabbath, this booklet will be of great help. 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, 22 pages

A Single Passion Music and lyrics byPatrick Moseley

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simply “cannot, may not, dare not” occupy the same throne as the Lord Christ occupies. There is no room for the law to act as a judge by accusing and threatening in the conscience of a New Covenant believer. The law may inform the mind, but it cannot set up its government (power to pun-ish and reward) in the conscience of a Christian. To allow this is to “fall from grace” and to forsake Christ for Moses. Again, Bunyan is clear as to his meaning:

Indeed if it [the law] will be con-tent with being my informer, and so lovingly leave off to judge me; I will be content, it shall be in my sight, I will delight in it therein; but otherwise, I being now upright without it, and that too with that righteousness, with which this law speaks well of and approveth; I may not, will not, can-not, dare not, make it my Saviour and Judge, nor suffer it to set up its government in my conscience; for by so doing I fall from grace, and Christ doth profi t me nothing.

My friend, can you shout “Amen” to what Bunyan wrote? Do you be-lieve his statement is antinomianism? If that quote causes you problems, you do not understand the biblical relationship between law and grace, and you have not grasped the New Covenant joy of liberty of conscience. I say again; if the law of God can make you, as a blood-bought child

of God, feel either good or bad, you have misunderstood either the true use of the law or the personal application of sovereign grace. If you can honestly examine yourself with the law and feel good, you are a self-righteous legalist. If you examine yourself and feel guilty, doubting your salvation, then you do not understand and believe the truth of justifi cation.

I want to repeat one sentence from Bunyan again. This statement started my search of the texts of Scripture that address conscience (Heb 9:9, 14; 10:1-4; Gal 2:4, 5). Those Scriptures informed my understanding of the the-ology of the New Covenant.

I may not, will not, cannot, dare not, make it my Saviour and Judge, nor suffer it to set up its government in my conscience; for by so doing I fall from grace, and Christ doth profi t me noth-ing.

I remember showing that state-ment to a prominent Reformed Baptist preacher. He said, “I do not understand what Bunyan meant by using language like that.” How could he understand that statement when the thrust and goal of his ministry was to set up the law’s government in the conscience of the Christian? Sometime after the above conversation, this man gave me a series of taped messages on the sub-ject of mortifying sin. The title of one sermon was, “Load Your Conscience with Guilt; Desire Deliverance.” That is the very thing Bunyan said that he

“may not, cannot, dare not” do! If Bun-yan was correct, then that preacher had

“fallen from grace” as a means of grow-ing in true holiness.

If Bunyan were living today, one of his favorite hymns would undoubtedly be Philip Bliss’ “Free from the Law, O Happy Condition.” This hymn express-es exactly what Bunyan labors to show in many places in his works. Consider the words to that hymn, and remember that Bliss was writing about justifi ca-tion before God.

Free from the law, O happy condi-tion, Jesus hath bled, and there is remis-sion;Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Grace hath redeemed us once for all. Now we are free, there’s no con-demnation, Jesus provides a perfect salvation;

“Come unto Me!” O hear His sweet call, Come, and He saves us once for all.CHORUS:Once for all, O sinner, receive it, Once for all, O brother, believe it;Cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)

Again, if you have diffi culty with that hymn, then you need to grasp and feel the power of the doctrine of jus-tifi cation by faith in your conscience. If your response is to imagine preach-ing a series of messages on Exodus 20 to the people who sing that hymn in order to put the fear of God into




them, you are probably a hopeless and unhappy legalist who envies simple believers the true liberty of the gospel. You must label as antinomian those who subscribe to Paul’s theology of law and grace, just as the Judaizers in Galatia hated the gospel of grace that Paul had preached to the Gentiles. Legalists lack heart-felt assurance, and are miserable souls who struggle to fi nd peace of conscience by striving hard to keep the law. What they need is a heavy dose of Jesus Christ’s blood and righteousness in their souls! If you fi t this description, I would urge you to read the fi rst seventy pages of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book entitled Assurance, Romans, Chapter Five.2 You need to follow Bunyan’s advice and learn how to shut the law out of your conscience and to put the promise of grace on the throne of your heart.

The person who has heard the sweet call of the gospel of grace must have a joyous sense of God’s great love and abundant mercy in his or her heart and life. One who has seen Sinai’s blaze forever ex-tinguished and has heard the loud thunder silenced will be occupied with adoring and worshipping the one who did it. Law and grace, in a covenantal sense, cannot dwell in the same conscience. Nor can the sure fruits of each – namely fear in the one case, and grateful love in the other – fi ll the same heart. The objective laws of God in the mind as an informer or teacher, and the law in the conscience as an accuser

2 Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Assurance: Romans, Chapter Five (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2003).

and excuser are two entirely differ-ent things. Neither a legalist nor an antinomian can see the clear dif-ference between the holy, just, and good law of God as an informer in the mind and thus a Christian’s true friend, and an accuser and excuser in the conscience and thus a friend turned into an enemy by the power of sin (1 Cor. 15:56). Bunyan, fol-lowing Paul and Luther, saw the distinction clearly. I am grateful that God was pleased to use Bunyan to make me see that same truth.

I do not want anyone to think that I am suggesting that John Bu-nyan, if he were alive today, would follow New Covenant Theology, of which I am an advocate. Frankly, I do not know where he would be; nor does anyone else. I am claiming only two things:

(1) In the area of the relationship of the law to a believer’s conscience, John Bunyan believed exactly what I believe. He is my teacher. I believe Bunyan said what he meant and meant what he said:

My meaning is this, when this law with its thundering threaten-ings doth attempt to lay hold on thy CONSCIENCE, shut it out with a promise of GRACE; cry, the inn is took up already, the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and there is NO ROOM for the LAW. Indeed if it will be content with being my informer, and so lovingly leave off to JUDGE me; I will be content, it shall be in my sight, I will also delight in therein; but otherwise, I being now upright without it, and that too with that righteousness, with which this law speaks well of and approveth; I MAY NOT, WILL NOT, CANNOT, DARE NOT, make it my Saviour and Judge,

NOR SUFFER IT TO SET UP ITS GOVERNMENT IN MY CON-SCIENCE; for by so doing I FALL FROM GRACE, and Christ doth profi t me NOTHING.”

(2) The above quote, and the ar-ticle from which it is taken represent Bunyan’s mature views. His article on the law and the Christian, as well as his treatise on the Sabbath, is among his last writings.3

Our Lord taught that no person can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). Jesus presented this teaching in the context of money, but the principle applies to every situation. Bunyan understood how this precept func-tions with respect to a believer’s relationship to law and grace. When the law of Moses reigns supreme in the conscience, the believer loves it and despises grace (falls from grace, in Bunyan’s words). When the grace of Jesus Christ occupies the seat of honor, the law takes its proper place as a servant of grace (it functions to inform, in Bunyan’s words). In the age of the New Covenant, the standard of righteousness by which God judges people is Jesus Christ. If our righteousness does not match his, no amount of law keeping on our part will make up the differ-ence. God is satisfi ed with nothing less than the righteousness of Jesus Christ; our consciences must follow suit.

3 See our booklet John Bunyan on the Sabbath (Frederick, MD: New Covenant Media, 2006).

All of the Sound of Grace audio and video is now available on CDs or DVDs in addition to the cassette and VHS tapes. If you would like a free catalog of the available materials, please call or write.

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Issue 124 February 2006 row we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profi t’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomor-row. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).

God’s sovereign will (or his de-cretive or secret will) is his predeter-mined plan for everything that hap-pens in the universe. God has a perfect plan for all of history and nothing can frustrate his sovereign purpose (Psalm 115:3; Isa. 46:9-11; Dan. 4:35; Rom. 11:36; Eph. 1:11). We see part of God’s sovereign will only as it unfolds in time. In this sense of the term, no one has ever been out of the will of God. This gives me great comfort. It is this knowledge that allows me to trust promises such as Romans 8:28.

Was Pilate outside the will of God? No and yes. No, if you mean God’s sovereign will or purposes, but yes, if you are referring to God’s revealed moral will. At fi rst glance, this kind of ambiguity may lead us to suppose that God has contradictory wills. A closer look, however, proves the opposite. God’s revealed moral will refers to his statements about what constitutes right and holy living. We need this kind of revelation because we are fall-en creatures who do not know what pleases God unless he tells us. God’s hidden will is tied to his omniscience. He knows how and when his image-bearers will freely act according to their fallen natures and will disobey his revealed will, and he determines to use even their disobedience to further his purposes.

In Acts 2:23-24, Peter clearly re-vealed that the cross was the eternal purpose of God. “Him, [Jesus of Naz-areth] being delivered by the deter-

Paul recognized this. When there were no clear biblical directives, Paul made his decisions based on the best information at hand. In addition, he did not qualify such decisions by say-ing that God had directed him to it. He used phrases such as “we thought it good to be left in Athens alone …” (1 Thess. 3:1); “I considered it neces-sary to send to you Epaphroditus …” (Phil. 2:25); and “I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time …” (1 Cor. 16:12).

Paul also recognized and rejoiced in God’s sovereign will that no one

could thwart. As God’s sovereign will unfolded, Paul would adapt his plans with an obedient heart that sought God’s glory in everything he did. That is why he qualifi ed his state-ments and desires with the following: “For I do not wish to see you now on the way; but I hope

to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits” (1 Cor. 16:7). And “…mak-ing request if, by some means, now at last I may fi nd a way in the will of God to come to you… I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now) … (Rom. 1:10, 13). For Paul, the will of God was the limiting factor in everything. He did not demand things from God. He was not self-willed. In the last passage cited above, Paul had been trying to get to Rome, but to this point, he had been hindered. Hindrances are not always evidence that our purposes are wrong, nor are cooperation and ease indications that we are doing what is right.

We, too, need to recognize God’s sovereign will. The Apostle James sets forth this idea in his epistle, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomor-

thing his people need to make wise and good decisions. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profi table for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17; see also Psalm 19:7-11 for testimony on the suffi ciency of the Scriptures). Paul tells Timothy where to turn to gain wisdom and to discern what is true: he (and we) must study the Scriptures (2 Tim. 2:15). Paul’s use of the word study means that some things in the Scripture may not be explicit. Most people like black and white. They like to be told ex-actly what to do. Freedom scares some people, be-cause freedom means responsibil-ity. God’s people carry a responsi-bility before God for their choices. It is crucial for New Covenant believers to know how to read Scripture, and to know what laws are binding on them in Christ.1

The Word of God often contains clear general mandates with no spe-cifi c details. Should Christians give? The answer is an unqualifi ed yes. However, each person must determine both the amount to give and where to direct that giving. Each individual is responsible for his or her choices.

1 For more information on the differences between the Old and New Covenants, see the author’s article “Is there a Difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant Holiness?” Sound of Grace 118 (June 2005): 3, 13-14, 18 and 119 (July/August 2005):1, 15-16, 19. Also available on-line at www.idscanada.org in the “reading room.”

McLellan—Cont. from page 3


February 2006 Issue 124we can identify the will of God for our lives in some objective way. There-fore, God’s will (moral) can be known (i.e. Eph. 5:10, 15-17; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18). He has revealed it; therefore, we are obligated to know it. We may investigate God’s will and check our fi ndings against the objective state-ments of Scripture.

Moses explained this concept to the Israelites as he bade them fare-well before they entered the Promised Land. He reminded them of the faith-fulness of God during their forty years of wandering, and of the covenant that God had made with their ancestors at Horeb. Lest this new generation think that God’s will, revealed at Sinai, was limited in some way to a dif-ferent time and place, Moses frames his words in terms of a covenant “with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he [God] had made with them at Horeb” (Deut. 29:1, ESV). He concludes the terms of this covenant renewal with these words: “For this command-ment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deut. 30:11-14, ESV).

Paul quotes Moses, with some modifi cation, as he explains to the church at Rome that God’s will for righteousness is bound up in Jesus Christ: “But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heav-en?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the

mined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucifi ed, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” God determines and no one can thwart his hand. God uses even the evil plans of his enemies to work out his good pleasure – to their condemnation and his glory.

The early church recognized this and rejoiced in it. We hear them pray in Acts 4:27-28, “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pi-late, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.” God controls all the events of history and at the same time, holds people respon-sible for the decisions and choices they make. Again, this is not a con-tradictory statement. God controls the actions of sinful creatures, sometimes by changing their hearts so that they want and are able to obey his revealed will, and sometimes by simply leav-ing them alone, to do exactly what they want to do, and by not preventing them from disobeying him. No one ever disobeys God against his or her own will; that is why God holds each individual responsible. They can plead neither coercion nor ignorance.

When we look at Pilate’s involve-ment in the crucifi xion, we ask if his action was part of the decree of God. We also ask if he was guilty and re-sponsible for what he did. The biblical answer to both questions is clearly yes.

God’s revealed will, given in the Bible, teaches people how they ought to believe and live. God’s revealed moral will is Scripture. It expresses how things ought to be. God holds us accountable for knowing his revealed will for our lives. This assumes that

dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’” (Rom. 10:6-9).

Both Moses and Paul understand that God’s will is not so obscure and mysterious that no one can expect to fi nd it apart from some extraordi-nary means. God has not hidden his will in heaven, so that we must rely on a mystical experience whereby we travel to heaven to procure the knowledge of it. He has not located it in some distant geographic loca-

tion on the earth where someone has had a vision, so that those who desire to learn about God’s will must make a pilgrimage to visit the enlightened soul. He has not cloaked it in the dark-ness of the underworld, so that his people must mimic Odysseus or Ae-neas and make a journey to the land of the dead to consult the dead for advice on how live. God has proclaimed his will clearly and simply: under the Old Covenant, he made his will known through the words of the law; under the New Covenant, he has made his will known through Jesus Christ. God’s revealed will comes in objec-tive form, in spoken words, and in subjective form, in a heart that desires to obey what God has said.

People go astray when, instead of following God’s revealed will, they




to God alone, and no other person should come between that soul and God. Our souls do not belong to any-one but the Lord. This concept lies behind Romans 14:5-6: “Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.” Paul places these words in the center of a discussion about choices that each Christian makes regarding what he or she allows or does not allow; these are practical matters where we see our Christianity worked out in our daily lives. God leaves decisions on Christian liberty to each individual; to negate that freedom before God is to go against the biblically established principle of individual soul liberty.

Sadly, we remember the suicides that occurred in South America un-der the leadership of a bogus pastor named Jim Jones. The people who killed themselves at Jones’ command had turned their souls over to him; he made all the decisions for them—even to the point of deciding it would be best for each one in the camp to drink poison. We shudder at such occur-rences, yet in Baptist churches, we demonstrate the same mentality when we put other Christians under our au-thority and tell them what to do and not to do.

Paul, in these two verses, ad-dresses the observance of days and food. These continue to be relevant questions for many believers around the world. In Romania, the infl uence of Seventh-day Adventists prompted tremendous discussion about the proper day of worship. Some Baptists were proposing that Christians were disobedient to the commands of God if they did not worship on Saturday. “Observe Saturday as the day of wor-ship or you are heretics!” was the cry.

When Paul deals with this problem, he fi rmly states that it is the duty of each Christian to make up his own mind on such items. Neither side can declare the other as heretics on matters that are convictions, and are not aspects of biblical theology.

Make Up Your Own Mind

Verse 5 contains the cure for ma-nipulation: “Let each be fully con-vinced in his own mind.” This echoes the concept of “work out your own salvation”; words that point us to get busy working on our own souls, not the souls of others. Day after day we are bombarded with new ideas, new twists on old doctrines and new fads that sweep through the churches. Our generation lives in an age marked by a well-developed art of persuasion. Christians sometimes succumb to manipulative forces that cause them to swerve off course in their Christian journey. Paul’s admonition encourages us to decide for ourselves in areas that pertain to working out our salvation. If we blindly follow the ideas of oth-ers, we may fall into deep trouble.

The consequences of making up our own minds may seem danger-ous to some, but those who doubt the practicality of such an approach might be surprised at its results. A person with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God usually acquires solid biblical knowledge and convictions. For too long, the model of the church has been a pastor who studies and preaches, and a congregation who sits and listens. This is hardly the biblical model. All Christians are responsible to emulate the Bereans. The Bereans “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to fi nd out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Christians cannot make up their minds simply based on what they feel or hear. Christians must be bibli-cally oriented, having discovered the

truth of God’s Word for themselves. The writers of Scripture assume that Christians will search out truth and then form their lifestyles according to that truth. James Montgomery Boice wrote:

Notice that verse 5 does not say, “Let everyone do what he or she feels is right, because after all, the person is convinced in his or her own mind.” He does not say the per-son involved is convinced and there-fore should not be challenged, but rather that he should be convinced. This means that Paul is willing to treat each believer as a responsible, thinking person, not merely one to be led about docilely by a self-styled “stronger” believer. Therefore, we have a responsibility, each one of us, to search out these matters for ourselves.1

The process of letting “each be ful-ly convinced in his own mind” forms the basis for all authentic convictions. Too often, Christians are content to skip the work required to become fully convinced in their own minds and to live by the conclusions of oth-ers. Laziness, lack of study, and the willingness to be led by others leads to a Christianity that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Pseudo-leadership in the pulpit assumes the privilege of dictating the behavior of the sheep. True biblical leadership will demand that the people of God seek their own convictions from Scripture. True lead-ership relies on the ability of God to develop the life of a Christian. Such leadership takes seriously the words “God is able” (v. 4).

The Wisdom of Individual Soul Liberty

The fi rst thing such an approach to liberty offers is the opportunity for the people of God to act biblically. We have already discussed this, but it

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: The New Humanity (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1991), 4: 1744.

Seefried—Cont. from page 1

Seefried—Cont. on page 18


bears repeating: we must remember that when leadership removes this liberty, they provoke the people of God to act unbiblically, causing them to miss the commandment to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).

Secondly, when individuals work out their own convictions, those con-victions truly become their own. Sec-ond-hand convictions are never a per-son’s own: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” Our churches contain many people with second-hand convictions.

Thirdly, when people develop their own convictions, they avoid the trap of group-imposed rules. We all know that large organizations require order, but we can maintain such order with-out imposing strictures on everyone’s behavior. Christians who follow group-imposed rules and second-hand convictions may confuse those ideas with doctrinal purity. People who just accept the rules dictated by the leader-ship or by the group become unable to distinguish between important theo-logical issues and issues of personal convictions.

For Whom We Do Things

The heart of a personalized ap-proach to our convictions is the ques-tion: for whom do we do what we do? We constantly need to ask, “From where do my convictions come?” The answers to these two questions determine the identity of those before whom we live out our convictions. The Lord takes vital interest in the answer to this question, as we see in Paul’s further comments:

He who observes the day, ob-serves it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord

he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:6–8

Six times in these verses, Paul repeats the phrase “to the Lord.” The text emphasizes that we should do all that we do unto the Lord. This is only right, since the Lord is our sov-ereign. To follow the convictions of other men is to border on idolatry. God forbids us to bow down and serve any other gods; when we conduct ourselves according to the dictates of men, we are serving them and not the Lord. Is that not idolatry? The stakes are high, underscoring the im-portance of the questions, “Why am I doing this?” and, “For whom am I doing this?” If the answer to the fi rst is because someone told me to, then we have missed biblical obedience. If the answer to the second is that we do what we do for men, then we are close to idolatry.

In these few verses, Paul estab-lishes the principle that it is accept-able either to observe a day or not to observe a day. Eating is fi ne, and not eating is fi ne. May I comment blunt-ly? God really does not care whether we eat and drink or do not eat and drink, just as long as we have bibli-cally-based convictions and partake or refrain unto him. To many people, this is an unacceptable position. “How can both be right before the Lord?” some would ask. I do not know—but that is the biblical fact plainly stated in the text. The tenet that both sides of such questions are right irritates and exas-perates some people. Many Christians

dislike holding ideas in tension and desire a fi rm conclusion on one side or the other. Yet God says that both positions are okay, as long as both are done unto the Lord.

Third Principle Restated

These verses teach that two differ-ent people with two different opinions on a subject can both, at the same time, please the Lord in what they are doing, as long as they do it as unto the Lord and with thanksgiving. This should eliminate the push in churches to produce clones. Observation of this biblical principle allows for both the weak and the strong to live together in harmony. This is true Christian liberty. If Christians would listen to and obey these verses, most debates and divi-sions in churches would disappear. So many church problems have their roots in the failure to follow this bibli-cal teaching.

God is not concerned whether one observes a day or not, or whether one eats certain food or not. God does not care, as long as it is done unto him and with thanksgiving. Remember the rationale for the second principle; we belong to the Lord, not to men. Chris-tians who understand this fi nd a world of liberty opening before them.

We understand from these verses that we are to make up our own minds. Everything we do, we must do as unto the Lord, and not unto men. According to the text, we belong to the Lord, body, soul, and spirit. The meaning of the Lordship of Christ is that Jesus Christ is our master and we are his servants. Because Christ has purchased us with his blood, we are his, and he is our Lord. Tinkering with the property of the Lord can be dan-gerous, and we should avoid anything that smacks of such activity. Ω

Seefried—Cont. from page 17

Legalism is self-righteousness. It is the belief that God is satisfied with our attempt to obey a moral code.

Erwin W. Lutzer


begin searching for God’s individual detailed plan of their lives. God does have a detailed plan for our lives, but that is his secret, sovereign will. He does not hold us accountable for that which he has hidden from us. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our chil-dren forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).

How then are we to approach open doors? An open door is simply an op-portunity to do something. A believer is not morally obligated (nor is it usually physically possible) to take advantage of every opportunity. Paul left Troas despite an open door for the preaching of the gospel (2 Cor. 2:12-13). We must evaluate every open door. An opportunity does not imply that God is leading in a certain direc-tion. Remember the ship conveniently waiting for Jonah. In addition, we re-member from Romans 1:13 that hin-drances are not always evidence that our purposes are wrong. The truth is, we could make a wise and good deci-sion and the roof could cave in!

The great joy of the believer is the knowledge that every believer is led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 14; Gal. 5:16-25). As we review our lives since the time when the Holy Spirit regenerated us, we can see how the


ception, and only them, will also be (4) justifi ed, and lastly, all of those, and only those, who are justifi ed will also be (5) glorifi ed.

What is the missing link in this chain that stretches from eternity to eternity? Do you fi nd it strange that the Apostle leaves out the word sanctifi cation? Has Paul forgotten the idea of sanctifi cation and perse-verance? I think Paul deliberately left out sanctifi cation for at least two reasons. First, in his argument, ulti-mate sanctifi cation equals glorifi ca-tion and is an accomplished fact in the mind and purpose of God. Sec-ond, the last four links in the chain grow out of and are connected to the fi rst link. The elect are “predesti-nated to be conformed to the image of Christ” because they have been foreknown or “set apart” in electing love. Their calling and justifi cation are means by which they travel the pathway of conformity to Christ’s image, and their glorifi cation com-pletes the transformation. Election is sanctifi cation! Ω

Spirit of God has sovereignly led us. What a joy to know that even if we have sinned against the re-vealed will of God, we can obey his will now and confess our sins. Part of his revealed will is that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous-ness (1 John 1:9; 2:1). We do not have to mope, believing we have forever missed God’s best will and plan for our lives. Our God is able to work all things together for good to those who love him, to those who are the called according to his purpose! Praise God that the Spirit has granted us new hearts, so that we are motivated to love God and to study his Word that we might know his revealed will, and so live for his glory in all things (1 Cor. 10:31).

There is no short cut to wise decision making. As we study the Word, the Spirit will mature us (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18). In the Scrip-ture, God has given us everything we need to please him. We do not have to rely on subjective means to fi nd his will and live responsibly in it. Our responsibility is to be in-formed by the Scripture and to be faithful to God’s words revealed therein. Ω

Sanctification—Cont. from page 8

was ten, then everything was alright between me and the Lord. But such is no consolation to the true seeker of Christ. He knows himself to be false and full of deceit, able to be deceived and unable to present any-thing of value to the Lord. He can fi nd no solace in the soothing words of men nor can he fi nd comfort in formulas for believing. But as the

Lord is pleased to give him a clear view of the glory which surrounds the Redeemer of sinners, he fi nds sweet solace and assurance in the suffi ciency of this Savior.

A true believer might fi nd him-self from time to time with little comfort as to his own election, but he is never without the confi dence that Jesus Christ is the only Re-

McInnis—Cont. from page 7 deemer. As he hears the gospel, his heart is encouraged. When the Sav-ior is exalted he is thrilled. He may walk in a measure of darkness but he knows who is the Light. “And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:21-22). Ω

It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust him to be my Saviour.

C.H. Spurgeon

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The Truck Collision

Driving along a highway, you are stopped by an accident. A truck driver lies in the wreckage. Half a dozen men from passing cars place themselves shoulder to shoulder to try to lift the bum-per. They tug and they pull until you see the veins standing out in ther necks, but they cannot free the man. Still they keep straining at the impossible task. Finally, a wrecker drives up and is placed in position to hoist the weight of the disabled truck. But the only available spot for the wrecker to attach its hoist is that bumper at which the men are tugging. If the wrecker is to do its work, the men must get out of the way. If they persist in monopolizing that place, the wrecker cannot get in to do its work. There is no moral charge against these men; their strength is simply insuffi cient for the task.

The law must be abolished in order to let grace do the job the law cannot do.

Donald Grey Barnhouse, Let Me Illustrate (Fleming H Rev-ell, Grand Rapids, 1967) 203

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Eph 2:8-9 ESV

issue 124—february 2006 my great debt to john...

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