Selected Reading

I read these this week and recommend them to you.

God

Credo Magazine’s latest issue is on the impassibility of God. I linked to one of the articles at Out of the Ordinary a couple of weeks ago. This week I read two more, and I endorse them both.

• What Is Impassibility?: Defining a forgotten attribute  
  “Christian theologians have acknowledged that it is easier to say what God is not than what he is. This has been called the Way of Negation. Impassibility in one of many such negations. Just as God is infinite—not finite, immortal—not subject to mortality, incomprehensible—beyond our ability to comprehend and immutable—not changeable, so also God is impassible. He is not subject to passions” —James Renihan
• Why I no longer believe in a passible God
  This article discusses the philosophical reasoning behind the movement away from a historic, orthodox view of God to relational theism or theistic personalism.
  
  “What is fascinating to note about our contemporary context is that the idea of God loving and hating, and saving and judging, is seen by most people today as not just contradictory – but as obviously contradictory. It seems like an unbearable tension that must be relieved by denying either God’s love or God’s impassibility. What was never seen as a contradiction is now seen as an obvious contradiction. We need to ask: ‘What is going on here? Why the drastic shift?’”—Craig A. Carter.

Atonement

Expiation and Propitiation 
“God, to the praise of His unsearchable wisdom, gave ancient Israel sacrifices to serve as theological tools, instructing His people about the remedy for sin and the need for reconciliation with God. After the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, the Apostles were enabled to discern in the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures how the system of sacrificial worship had been divinely ordained for the sake of unfolding the wonders of Christ and His accomplished work on the cross” - L. Michael Morales. 

Scripture

Can We Believe God’s Word Is True Because Our Parents Told Us? 
Yes, we can! “[O]ne reason to believe God’s word (but not the only reason) is because of the testimony of others we trust. And this particularly applies to parents (or grandparents)” —Michael Kruger.

Prayer

What to Pray for Your Search Committee
“If your church is seeking a new pastor, your search committee needs you to pray. They need you to stand against the evil forces at work to undermine their labors” - Christina Fox.

My church is searching for a pastor right now, so I needed this one.

Theological Term of the Week: Good Works

 

good works
The honorable conduct and virtous deeds that are the expected outworking of salvation as believers are united with Christ by faith and enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey God’s commands and participate in his work. They are not the grounds of our salvation, but the necessary fruit of saving faith.

From scripture:

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. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11–14 ESV)

• From The Belgic Confession, Article 24:

Our Sanctification and Good Works

We believe that this true faith, worked in man by the hearing of God’s Word and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a new man. It makes him live a new life and frees him from the slavery of sin. Therefore it is not true that this justifying faith makes man indifferent to living a good and holy life. On the contrary, without it no one would ever do anything out of love for God, but only out of self-love or fear of being condemned. It is therefore impossible for this holy faith to be inactive in man, for we do not speak of an empty faith but of what Scripture calls faith working through love (Gal 5:6). This faith induces man to apply himself to those works which God has commanded in His Word. These works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight of God, since they are all sanctified by His grace. Nevertheless, they do not count toward our justification. For through faith in Christ we are justified, even before we do any good works. Otherwise they could not be good any more than the fruit of a tree can be good unless the tree itself is good.

Therefore we do good works, but not for merit. For what could we merit? We are indebted to God, rather than He to us, for the good works we do, since it is He who is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). Let us keep in mind what is written: So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty (Luke 17:10).” Meanwhile we do not deny that God rewards good works, but it is by His grace that He crowns His gifts.

Furthermore, although we do good works, we do not base our salvation on them. We cannot do a single work that is not defiled by our flesh and does not deserve punishment. Even if we could show one good work, the remembrance of one sin is enough to make God reject it. We would then always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be constantly tormented, if they did not rely on the merit of the death and passion of our Saviour.

From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

Sanctification and good works are most intimately related. Just as the old life expresses itself in works of evil, so the new life, that originates in regeneration and is promoted and strengthened in sanctification, naturally manifests itself in good works. These may be called the fruits of sanctification, and as such come into consideration here.

… When we speak of good works in connection with sanctification, we do not refer to works that are perfect, that answer perfectly to the requirements of the divine moral law, and that are of such inherent worth as to entitle one to the reward of eternal life under the conditions of the covenant of works. We do mean, however, works that are essentially different in moral quality from the actions of the unregenerate, and that are the expressions of a new and holy nature, as the principle from which they spring. These are works which God not only approves, but in a certain sense also rewards. The following are the characteristics of works that are spiritually good: (1) They are the fruits of a regenerate heart, since without this no one can have the disposition (to obey God) and the motive (to glorify God) that is required, Matt. 12:33; 7:17,18. (2) They are not only in external conformity with the law of God, but are also done in conscious obedience to the revealed will of God, that is, because they are required by God. They spring from the principle of love to God and from the desire to do His will, Deut. 6:2; I Sam. 15:22; Isa. 1:12; 29:13; Matt. 15:9. (3) Whatever their proximate aim may be, their final aim is not the welfare of man, but the glory of God, which is the highest conceivable aim of man’s life, I Cor. 10:31; Rom. 12:1; Col. 3:17,23.

Learn more:

1. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Works
2. Got Questions: What does it mean that good works are the result of salvation?
3. 1689 London Baptist Confession: Chapter 16: Of Good Works
4. David R. Helm: Why Good Works Are Crucial for the Christian Life
5. Walter Marshall: True Saving Faith Always Produces Good Works
6. William Webster: The Relationship of Faith to Works

Related terms:

• assurance
• faith alone
• justification
• legalism
• lordship salvation
• non-lordship salvation
• perseverance of the saints
• progressive sanctification
• salvation

Filed under Salvation

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Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the previous theological terms.

God's Light Beams In

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV).

You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘You can’t get something from nothing.’ It’s true, at least it’s true for us. We can’t get something from nothing. 

But according to the Bible, God can. In the Genesis story of the creation of the universe, on the first day of creation, God commanded, “Let there be light,” and there was light. As he spoke, something came from nothing. What had not existed began to exist. There was only darkness and emptiness until God called out the light, and in response to his call the light came. 

Second Corinthians 4:6 begins with a reminder of this mysterious first day creative act of God to help us understand his work in human hearts. God’s work within our hearts is an act of creation, too. 

The creation of the universe began when God called physical light out. When he re-creates human hearts, he shines spiritual light in. God’s powerful call for physical light to shine out of darkness was the dawning of creation, and his powerful beam of spiritual light into dark human hearts is the dawning of new creation. When he shines his light in, the God who created the world in the beginning is creating once again.

The spiritual light God shines into hearts is “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Christ.” It’s an illuminating light, a divine light focusing on the incarnate Son of God and showing him as he truly is. 

Jesus is the exact image of God. He shares his nature; he shares all of his perfections. And as he lived his life here on earth, as he died, and as he rose again, he revealed God to us. He displayed the beauty and magnificence—or the glory—of God. 

And as God’s re-creative light beams into our hearts, we begin to understand this. God’s light within us spotlights Jesus, and shows us that all of God’s glorious being shines bright “in the face of Christ.”

I remember the first time I caught a glimpse the glory of God in Christ. I was just a little girl—young enough to still be standing on a pew during a sermon. The sermon I heard was about Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, and I understood enough to know that what he accomplished there was something wonderful. I knew it was exactly what I needed. In my childlike way, I saw the goodness, love, mercy, grace, and wisdom of God on display as Jesus was crucified. This experience made such an impression on me that it is one of my first clear childhood memories. I didn’t know it then, but this was the beginning of new creation in my heart. I saw the glory of Christ and the glory of the cross because “God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in my heart to give me the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” 

Not every believer remembers or knows when they first began to see Christ’s glory. Some have known it as far back as they can remember. For others, the light dawns slowly, and their understanding of who Christ is grows gradually. 

But if you believe, you have seen the glory of Christ. And if you have seen the glory of Christ, it is because God has shined his light in to show him to you. And you have become, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, new creation.

God’s new creation work has begun in every believer, and he will continue this work until we receive our glorified—or new creation—bodies in the new heavens and the new earth. Then we will see him face to face in all his glory. 

And then we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

I am thankful that God’s incarnate Son revealed his glory, and thankful for God’s spiritual light beaming in to show me his glory in Christ’s face. I am thankful for his new creation power. 

I look forward to the day when I see Christ with my physical eyes, in my resurrection body, face to face, as he really is, in all his glory.