The Orthodox Doctrine of
Salvation
By Rev. D. Earl Cripe
We
want to conclude our search for the fourth beatitude today by reading
and commenting on some verses in the First Letter of St. John to the
Church. The first Scripture is from chapter 2, verses 28-29:
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we
may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye
know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth
righteousness is born of him.
In
these verses the Apostle tells us two very important things. The first
is that if we want to have confidence about the day when our works are
tried and we do not want to be ashamed of the way we have lived when we
stand before Him, then we must abide in Him. What does it mean to abide
in Him? The Apostle tells us very clearly. It means to think and act
righteously. We have spent a good deal of time on this fourth beatitude
telling you how that can be done and we will not review it at this time.
The
second thing he says here is crucially important, poorly treated by
teachers in my view, and generally not understood in the Church. He
tells us that to be born of God means to do righteousness. I can
already hear someone saying, ‘but you have told us repeatedly that good
works are not a part of being born again.’ Actually, I have never said
that. What I have said is, 'doing good works is not a part of being
justified.' We are justified, accordin to St. Paul in Romans 4, by
faith alone and without works. Well, is this passage then saying that
doing righteous works is the test of whether or not we have been
justified? No it is not saying that and this is where the pathway gets
narrower and steeper, the going gets tougher, and where caution is
needed to keep from going over the edge and onto the rocks below. What
St. John is talking about is sanctification. He is saying—listen now,
because this is all important—John is saying that you are not born of
God in your life (in your Christian walk, in other words in the
sanctification) if you are not living righteously.
Before moving on, it is wise I think to stop and review what we have
learned about the Great Salvation. The Great Salvation consists in
three parts: Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. Each of
these is a salvation. Justification is the salvation of the spirit.
Sanctification is the salvation of the soul or the life, and
Glorification is the salvation of the body. Salvation is past, present,
and future. Justification is a past salvation; we have been saved.
Sanctification is a present salvation; we are being saved.
Glorification is a future salvation; we will be saved. Each of these is
for a different purpose and deals with a different aspect of sin and our
need to be free from its consequences. Justification is judicial in
nature; we are saved from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is moral
and ethical in nature; we are saved from the power of sin. Glorification
is physical and social in nature; we will be saved from the presence of
sin. Each of these salvations is by faith and by grace and each
functions on the Gospel principle of death and new birth into a New
Creation. In Justification we repent (and that means to give up on
ourselves and on the old life we received from Adam). We come to the
Cross to die with Christ, realizing that only the Cross of Christ can
break the bondage of sin and only through the Cross of Christ is there
resurrection from death to new and eternal life. When we repent and
call out to God for salvation through Christ, we are baptized by the
Holy Ghost into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; and we
are born a second time, this time into a world where there is no sin and
no death. As the sixth chapter of Hebrews makes clear, justification is
a one-time-only matter. One new birth is all you get but one is all you
need. We are born again of the incorruptible sperm of God, says St.
Peter in chapter 1of his First letter, Verse 23, and that life continues
forever because it is the life of God.
Glorification is also a case of death, burial, resurrection, and new
life by being born of God and to God. Revelation 1:15 says the Jesus
Christ was the first begotten, or the first born, from the dead. His
resurrection from death was a matter of being born physically by the
power of God. Notice that Christ was the first begotten. I Corinthians
15:20-23 says,
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of
them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
All
of those who belong to Christ will be born again in physical immortality
at the Second Coming. We shall not belabor Glorification because it is
not the subject today but it is important, for the present discussion,
to see that Glorification is a matter of birth or of being born.
The Bible teaches, in John 5:24, Romans 5:8-10, I Cor. 3:14-15,
Ephesians 1:13-14, I Thessalonians 5:9-11, and I John 5:11-13, that a
man will be glorified because he has been justified and that, as
important as Sanctification is, it is not the determining factor in
Glorification. That determination has been eternally made by
Justification.
Sanctification is also a case of death, burial, and resurrection by new
birth to new life. But unlike Justification and Glorification, it is an
ongoing process that lasts as long as we are in this world. In the
early church we see the common practice of water baptism. It was not a
testimony, as has often been held, about the mystical baptism of the
Holy Ghost and the new birth that resulted from Justification. It was,
rather, a testimony by the new born child of God that he was committing
his life to Christ and His Kingdom by dying to himself and to the old
world. It did not answer to the baptism of the Red Sea, as in I
Corinthians 10:2, but the baptism of the River Jordan. He would get out
of the bareness of the wilderness by dying with Christ, by being washed
clean by obedience to the word of God of which the water was a type, of
being resurrected with Christ in his life and of living the new life in
the New Creation. We talked extensively about that last time.
But
does the Bible really use the terms born, new birth, begotten of God,
and new life in connection with Sanctification and the living of
the Christian life? Yes it does, and we will look at that now. In
Galatians chapter four, verse 19, St. Paul says to the Galatian
Christians: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you.” Here the birth process is long and
painful and is specifically about Sanctification and Christian living.
It is death with Christ, resurrection with Christ, and new birth, but it
is not instantaneous as in Justification was and Glorification will be.
This does not imply a work of the flesh or something we have to put
together ourselves. Hebrews 10:14 tells us that by the sacrifice of
Christ a perfect provision has been made for our Sanctification. The
provision of the Cross is long since finished. But the whole purpose of
that Hebrews argument is to get the people to realize that and to take
advantage of the provision.
In
Romans 8:28-29 we read:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
This
passage also is to the Church about Sanctification and is telling us
that to be born of God in this context is to be conformed
to the image of Christ.
Each
of these passages deserves commentary and this could be an extremely
long and very fruitful discussion but we pledged to complete our
comments on the fourth beatitude in this chapter so we will move on to
the confusing and troubling passage in I John 3. Reading from verse 2
thru verse 10:
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the
transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to
take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him,
neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he
that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from
the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
Let
us imagine that we stood in a plane and drew an imaginary straight line
reaching far across the valley to the distant purple hills. One right
side of that line is the Kingdom of God and on the left side is the
kingdom of the devil, the god of this world and the prince of darkness.
My mission takes me across that valley. I have no choice; I have to
go. If I stay to the right of the line I am in the Kingdom of God. But
to the extent that I stray across that line to the left I am walking
outside the Kingdom of God. Revelation 22:14-15, tells us that there
are gates to the Kingdom of God and that there are guards who watch and
will not let us bring in anything that contaminates. There is nothing
but purity and perfection in the Kingdom of God. Verse 8 of I
John 3 tells us that the plan of God is to rid our lives of sin with its
bondage and its deleterious effects. “For this purpose the Son of
God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
Christ has done that. A perfect provision has been made for our
Sanctification. By the Blood of Christ our lives have been sprinkled
and made fit for holy service in His righteous Kingdom. The way is open
to us. We are washed with pure water. This is not referring to daily
washing, which we need, but to the washing that Christ has done for
us. “And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that
were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance,” says Hebrews 9:15, speaking of
Sanctification. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, even as he is pure.” On the other hand, whosoever commits
sin transgresses the law of God because sin is the transgression of
the law; and we know that the Incarnate God came into this world to
take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. That is the provision
that Christ has made for our Sanctification. Those who disdain that
provision and who commit sin have not seen Christ and do not know Him.
Remember that this is talking about Sanctification now and how we live
our lives. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth
righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” In the Church,
and in the Christian life, those who understand and believe that
provision of the Cross live righteous lives. Those who are not living
righteous lives are walking to the left of the line. They are in the
world following after the things of the devil. Oh, but they are. Do
not let anyone fool you about that. In Sanctification, righteousness is
a practical matter. Only those who do righteousness are righteous. The
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us eternally in Justification and
because of that we will be glorified, but there is no imputed
righteousness in Sanctification. Luther was dead wrong about vicarious
obedience. Christ has made the provision for us and He will do it with
us and through us but He will not do it for us. If you want a righteous
man's reward, if you do not want to be ashamed in the Day of Judgment,
then you had best die to the old ways and become alive to the new,
righteous life in Christ because that is the only way you are going to
get it.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in
him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
There
is no sin in Christ and there is no sin in His righteous Kingdom.
Therefore those who live by faith, in grace, under the power and
guidance of the Holy Ghost, do not sin. They cannot! How can they?
Can Christ sin? Can we take junk through the gates into the Kingdom of
God? Does this mean then that there are Christians who do not sin? No,
it means that Christians do not sin when they are walking in the Spirit,
in grace, and by faith. Sadly, that there is a major deficiency of
expository teaching on this subject so that most Christian people are
hopelessly confused about it. I am sorry for that. But I tell you
plainly that Christ has made a perfect provision for our
Sanctification. We can and we should take advantage of that. When we
do and to the extent that we do, we walk in the righteousness of Christ
and do not sin. To the extent that we sin, and we do, we are outside
the gates of the Kingdom and losing our lives in the satanic kingdom of
darkness. In our daily walk, we do not know Him and He does not know
us. You cannot walk in the Spirit and sin, unless you think that Christ
can sin and that the Holy Ghost can sin. But St. John tells us plainly
that it is not true. “…for his seed, [that is Christ, by the
Holy Ghost ] remaineth in him: and he [the man in question]
cannot sin, because he is born of God [in his life and in his walk.]”
One of the really pathetic teachings that has come out of this
passage is that the man who is born of God does not walk in a course
of sin. Some of the modern translations (that are not translations
at all but transliterations of modernistic and non-Christian linguists)
have changed this passage to say that. That is all the same as saying,
‘Christ is not righteous all of the time, but He is righteous most of
the time.’ It is the same as saying God will accept things that are not
perfectly righteous. That is useless and misleading nonsense. Let us
use some practical illustrations here. When a spirit filled man of God,
properly appointed to the office of preacher by his elders in the
biblical ways, stands up in the pulpit and teaches truth to us from the
Bible, is he sinning? When a mother kneels beside her bed at night and
prays for her wayward son, is she sinning? You may yes, to some extent,
because her prayers are not perfect. Ah, but if you read and understand
Romans 8:26-27, you will discover that her prayers are perfect! On the
other hand, if a man who is a preacher—elected by the people for his
looks, his oratory, and his entertainment abilities—stands up and
teaches topically from the Bible that men should not commit adultery and
then he goes straightaway out and commits adultery himself, is he
righteous and walking in righteousness? You see, this thing is not as
illusive as it sounds once we get our thinking straight.
There
is no cheating here, so forget it. It is not a gray world. It is a
black and white world. You are either on the right or the left side of
the line in your life daily. The provision is there for us to walk on
the right side of the line in the Kingdom of God and in righteousness.
If we do not, we are working for the devil, walking in darkness and in
unrighteousness. There is no such thing in the Gospel as a partly
righteous work. Either our works are done in Christ, by the Holy
Ghost, and they are acceptable to God because they are the righteousness
of Christ in us; or they are done outside of Christ and in the flesh and
the destination of those works is the fire. “In this the children of
God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
In Sanctification, righteousness is a very practical matter. If you
want to have it in your life, start with your brother and go from
there. If you try to go around your brother and start somewhere else
you have just crossed the line out of the Kingdom.
This
puts the weathervane on the roof of our building concerning the fourth
beatitude. Why a weathervane? Because righteous men move the way the
Wind of the Spirit blows them. And so you see, there is much to be
learned and much to do if we want to be filled with righteousness and
have the blessings that Christ promised. All that we have talked about,
and more, is comprehended in Christ’s terse little statement:
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.”
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