Theological Term of the Week

the gospel
The good news of what God has accomplished through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• From scripture:
  

  Now I would remind you, brothers,  of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…. (I Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV)

• The Canons of Dordt, The Second Main Point of Doctrine:

  Article 1: The Punishment Which God’s Justice Requires

  God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice.

  Article 2: The Satisfaction Made by Christ

  Since, however, we ourselves cannot give this satisfaction or deliver ourselves from God’s anger, God in his boundless mercy has given us as a guarantee his only begotten Son, who was made to be sin and a curse for us, in our place, on the cross, in order that he might give satisfaction for us.

  Article 3: The Infinite Value of Christ’s Death

  This death of God’s Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.

  Article 4: Reasons for This Infinite Value

  This death is of such great value and worth for the reason that the person who suffered it is—as was necessary to be our Savior—not only a true and perfectly holy man, but also the only begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Another reason is that this death was accompanied by the experience of God’s anger and curse, which we by our sins had fully deserved.

  Article 5: The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All

  Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.

• From Charles Spurgeon in the sermon For Whom Is the Gospel Meant?, explaining the sanctifying influence of he gospel:

  When this Truth of God enters the soul, it breeds zealots, martyrs, confessors, missionaries, saints. If any Christians are in earnest and full of love to God and man, they are those who know what Grace has done for them. If any remain faithful under reproaches, joyful under losses and crosses—they are those who are conscious of their indebtedness to Divine Love. If any delight in God while they live and rest in Him as they die—they are the men who know that they are justified by faith in Jesus Christ who justifies the ungodly.

  All glory be to the Lord who lifts the beggar from the dunghill and sets him among princes, even the princes of His people! He takes the very cast-offs of the world and adopts them into His family and makes them heirs of God by Jesus Christ! The Lord grant us all to know the power of the Gospel upon our sinful selves! The Lord endear to us the name,work and Person of the Sinner’s Friend! May we never forget the hole of the pit from where we were drawn, nor the hand which rescued us, nor the undeserved kindness which moved that hand! From now on let us have more and more to say of Infinite Grace. “Free Grace and dying love.” Well does the old song say, “Ring those charming bells.” Free Grace and dying love—the sinner’s windows of hope! Our hearts exult in the very words! Glory be unto You, O Lord Jesus, ever full of compassion. Amen.

Learn more:

1. Monergism.com: What Is the Gospel?
   
2. Brian Schwertley: The Good News of the Salvation of Jesus Christ: A Gospel Primer
3. Jeffrey C. Nesbitt: A Gospel Summary
4. D. A. Carson: What Is the Gospel?—Revisited (pdf)
5. Southern Seminary:What Is the Gospel?
   

   What is the Gospel? from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

6. John Piper: What Is the Gospel? (video)
7. D. A. Carson: What Is the Gospel? (mp3 download)
8. Phil Johnson: The Heart of the Gospel (mp3 download)
   

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• Christ alone
• incarnation
• justification
• passive obedience of Christ
• propitiation
• reconciliation
• redemption
• resurrecton of Jesus
• substitutionary atonement

Related posts at this blog:

• Gospel List 1 
• Gospel List 2
• Gospel List 3

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

open theism
A movement emerging from within evangelicalism that denies the historic Christian view of God’s omniscience, teaching instead that God does not know the future exhaustively, since he cannot know for certain the choices and actions of free creatures until the choices are made and the actions are done in time; the future, then, is not certain, but “open,” for both God and his creatures; also called free will theism, open theology, or openness of God theology.

• Scripture that disproves open theism:
  

  16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
  in your book were written, every one of them,
  the days that were formed for me,
  when as yet there was none of them.

  17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
  How vast is the sum of them!
  18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
  I awake, and I am still with you. (Psalm 139:16-18 ESV)

  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…. (Ephesians 1:11 ESV)
  

• Belgic Confession, Article 13: 

  We believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will, in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement.

  Yet God is not the author of, nor can he be charged with, the sin that occurs. For his power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly.

  We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what he does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence we adore the just judgments of God, which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ’s disciples, so as to learn only what he shows us in his Word, without going beyond those limits.

  This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly Father. He watches over us with fatherly care, keeping all creatures under his control, so that not one of the hairs on our heads (for they are all numbered) nor even a little bird can fall to the ground without the will of our Father.

  In this thought we rest, knowing that he holds in check the devils and all our enemies, who cannot hurt us without his permission and will.

• From Their God Is Too Small by Bruce Ware:

  [T]he very greatness, goodness, and glory of God are undermined by the open view of God. While the open view tries to understand God as more “relational” and “really involved” in human affairs, the way it does so is by portraying God as less than he truly is. Of the open view we cannot help but say, “Their God is too small!”

  Think about it. Here we have a God who has to wait, in so many, many cases, to see what we will do before he can decide his own course of action. While this is a very natural way to think of human choice and action, does this rightly apply to the God of the Bible? The true and living God of the Bible proclaims, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa. 46:9b-10). Surely such a majestic God stands high and exalted and far above the proposed God of the open view. The Bible’s abundant prophecies, most of which involve innumerable future free human choices and actions, should be enough by themselves to indicate that the true God does not have to wait to see what we do before he makes up his mind. If God doesn’t know what we will do before we do it, how could Christ, for example, warn Peter that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny him three times (John 13:38)? Was this a good guess on Jesus’ part? Hardly! Recall that just a few verses earlier in John 13 Jesus had told the disciples that he would begin telling them things before they take place so that when they occur, “you may believe that I am he” (John 13:19). God knows in advance what we will do, and he can, when he wishes, declare it to us as evidence of his very deity. The open view brings God down, pure and simple. It tries to give more significance to human choice and action at the expense of the very greatness and glory of God. The God of open theism is too small, simply because he is less than the majestic, fully knowing, altogether wise God of the Bible.
  

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What Is Open Theism? (A good simple explanation, especially the first 3 paragraphs. I have quibbles with the last paragraph.)
2. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: What are the basic tenets of open theism?
3. Gary Gilley: Open Theism, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
4. Martyn McGeown: Closing the Door on Open Theism
5. Ligon Duncan: The Openness of God Controversy
6. John Frame: Open Theism and Divine Foreknowledge 
7. John Piper: Answering Greg Boyd’s Openness of God Texts
8. Al Mohler: Problems with Open Theism (mp3)
9. James White and John Sanders: Open Theism Debate (You Tube video)
   

Related terms:

• anthropomorphism
• anthropopathism
• decree(s) of God
• decretive will
  
• eternality
• immutability
• omniscience
• sovereignty of God
• theodicy

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

perfectionism
The Wesleyan teaching that after the new birth, there may be a distinct second transforming work of grace in which “God roots all sinful motivation out of a Christian’s heart, so that the whole of his mental and emotional energy is henceforth channeled into love for God and others: love that is … free from any contrary or competing affection whatsoever”;1  also called entire sanctification. 

• Scripture used to support the doctrine of entire sanctification:
  

  No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

  8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

  9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s  seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (1 John 3: 6, 8, 9 ESV)

• Scripture that disproves the doctrine of entire sanctification:

  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8 ESV)

• From The Confession of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church, which teaches the doctrine of entire sanctification:

  Article XI—Sanctification and Christian Perfection

  We believe sanctification is the work of God’s grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God’s will, and to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

  Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one’s neighbor as one’s self. Through faith in Jesus Christ this gracious gift may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God.

  We believe this experience does not deliver us from the infirmities, ignorance, and mistakes common to man, nor from the possibilities of further sin. The Christian must continue on guard against spiritual pride and seek to gain victory over every temptation to sin. He must respond wholly to the will of God so that sin will lose its power over him; and the world, the flesh, and the devil are put under his feet. Thus he rules over these enemies with watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit.

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, which, of course, teached against entire santification:

  CHAPTER XIII.

  Of Sanctification.

  
  

  I. They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them; the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened, in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

  II. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life: there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

  III. In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome: and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

• From Keeping in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer:

  [T]he practical implications [of this doctrine] are unedifying. Dilemmas arise, admitting of no satisfactory resolution. The prime dilemma is that just indicated: How are Christians who believe sin to have been rooted out of them to be realistic about their own continuing sinfulness? Wesley’s teaching inevitably requires them not to be. Then a further dilemma arises: Should such Christians testify to their blessing? And if so, how? Not to testify would rob God of glory and men of help that the witness might bring them and would moreover be a cowardly evasion of possible trouble; but to testify in the way Wesley envisages (“I feel no sin, but all love. I pray, rejoice, give thanks without ceasing. And I have as clear an inward witness that I am fully renewed as that I am justified.”) would seem to lock them unavoidably into smugness of a rather unlovely kind.

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: The Heresy of Perfectionism
2. GotQuestions.org: Is entire sanctification/sinless perfection possible in this life?
3. John Hendryx: Can a Man Achieve Sinlessness?
4. Jay Wetger: A Critique of the Higher Life Movement
5. Wayne Grudem: The Doctrine of Sanctification: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (audio) 

Related terms:

• regeneration
• sanctification
  

Filed under Defective Theology

1From Keeping In Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer.

This term was suggested by Kim of The Upward Call. Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.