Last time we took a look at biblical considerations. Now we can look at doctrinal considerations. So three things this evening, first of all, how much does man contributes to his salvation? And that’s looking at the history of doctrine. Secondly, I want to look at some doctrinal connections. And then thirdly, if there’s time, I want to look at the question of apostasy again. And if I can, I’m going to suggest or try to suggest what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is? What is the unforgivable sin? Those are the questions.
On the slide which is behind me, the Pelagian position, the Pelagius position was that salvation is entirely man’s own responsibility and that was followed by what we called semi-Pelagian position, it wasn’t called that then. That’s the idea that man takes the initiative and when he does God comes in and helps. The Remonstrant or the Armenians will say that grace comes in first, and for the Armenians, man must cooperate. The Lutherans reduced the amount that you can attribute to man again but there’s still a little bit, God comes, grace comes, but man can resist, can prevent the Holy Spirit. And then finally we come to the reform position which is the total inability of man, hundred percent of God’s grace.
I’m going to skip a few slides because I think this is well known enough, so I can press on with other material. Just one thing, it was Augustine who replied against Pelagians as you know and Augustine made a distinction between two types of grace, “The grace of regeneration” and “The grace of perseverance”. Augustine thought that the man could be justified. He grew that far, but if he wasn’t elect. He wouldn’t receive the second grace and therefore he could fall away. So Augustine although he rejected Pelagianism, I think you just have to say that by that time everything haven’t been worked out. So if you think of Augustine’s idea you have all the justified but there’s room in that big group for people who were not elect and therefore will become, at some point, they will lose the grace of justification.
On the next page, you’ll see a slide on Lutheran thinking and Luther had a paradoxical situation as I understand it. He thought the believers could fall away but he also thought that those who were elect could have complete subjective assurance. It’s strange in a way because if you think of reformed theology, reformed theology says that the elect are objectively completely secure but subjectively they may not be sure of it. So we have there for example a little thing that Luther wrote said about one of our text that we’ve been struggling, with Galatians 5:4, (there’s no point of me reading it).
Gal.5:4. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
Okay let’s takes us to the accounts of Dot(?) which are well known here. I think the Remonstrates or Armenians actually believe that people could have faith and fall away but when they formulated their articles, they left it as an open question, as a possibility. So in reply for that the accounts of Dot were formulated. We in English, we know its tulip. I don’t know if that’s beyond the English speaking world as well so it’s not very adequate but it’s usually known by the little name tulip. But it starts with man’s total inability, that’s the starting point but you expect nothing as it were for a man. Because of that, it looks to God, for everything in salvation. So the father who chooses the sheep chooses them unconditionally without reference to good or bad in them. And just as the father chooses the sheep by name so Jesus Christ makes redemption for them by name particularly knowing them so that then the Holy Spirit then works in the same people with the same sovereign power and completeness. As a great consistency in the accounts of Dots God saves, God chooses, God saves, and God keeps the same. And just to mentioning passing the next slide that open theism obviously is a fairly modern position but it’s undermines the security of the saints, the future is open and undecided.
Under the history of doctrine, the last point that I want to mention is the difference between the perseverance of the saints and what’s sometimes known as once saved, always saved or the free grace, free grace theology. There are several Americans who teach once saved always saved. I think the idea that they’re working with is that if you make a profession of faith, you just make that profession of faith and that seals you for eternity regardless of whatever happens after that. And these are two typical statements that you can, it’s a strange concept that you can at one moment in time, you can express your faith, then you can lose your faith and still be saved.
Practically speaking obviously, it’s a very dangerous distortion of the perseverance of the saints. We can say at least three things about it. First of all it doesn’t take the Bible’s teaching about the necessity of love and good works. The second thing is it overlooks the nature of saving faith. You know, faith without work is dead that doesn’t mean to say that we’re justified by faith plus the works that go with it. We’re justified through faith alone but when that is saving faith, we know that it then as it generates it works of love. And then thirdly, I think that this man’s teaching obviously overlooks the fact that many people make a hollow profession of faith.
(Okay we’re going to move on to the second section and those are simply doctrinal connections and I’ve got a slide here which suggests some of the main connections that the perseverance of the saints stands in.) So this anthropology in other words, it’s relevant to man’s condition. I think that one of the fundamental principles that we must not let go of is that God’s election is secret. We know that God has his elect but we cannot tell who they are. (We’ll come back to that in a moment.)
So first of all there is anthropology, man’s condition. Secondly, the covenant of grace is relevant to the perseverance of the saints. And then thirdly there is also God’s election of grace which is not the same as the covenant. As also, the doctrine of the trinity which comes to it and the perfect consistency between Father, Son and Spirit, and their power and sufficiency, everything is done. Just a word about man’s condition, anthropology, I think you probably know that it’s customary to speak about man in one of four conditions. Man was created with original righteousness. Then he fell, so there’s the original condition, that’s man’s fallen condition. Then when a man is saved, as his a condition of grace where the Holy Spirit is working in him. And finally, there’s a final condition which is either a condition of glory or utter misery, that’s the framework.
The adoption of the perseverance of the saints has to do with man in the state of grace and there are five things that we need to… If you look at Romans 6, 7 and 8, there are five things that you can say about man in the state of grace.
First of all, the reign of sin is ended.
Secondly, in dwelling sin remains.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit dwells in him.
Fourthly, because of that, there is an inner warfare or conflict and through that conflict God through Jesus Christ will give His children the victory. It’s not a battle that we face, defeating ultimately. This might go some way towards answering that question because when you have a believer, a child of God who is living the Christian life, we know that they very often fall into sin. There are times where it seems that sin have won the battle and I often think that many Christians, when they die they leave us in doubt, we’re left in doubt. Put it that way.
(I don’t know if the name of William Cooper means anything to you. William Cooper was an English Christian who wrote, he lived the same time as John Newton, and do those names mean anything to you?)
William Cooper wrote many hymns in the English language. For most of his life, he suffered from, probably you would say, manic depression, schizophrenia. He was mentally disturbed and for the last, probably 13 years of his life, he never went to church. He died feeling he wasn’t a believer at all. But he was ministered throughout that time by John Newton who simply went to his house and minister to him. And when John Newton preached to his funeral sermon, he preached about a Christian. John Newton is a slave master who has converted, you know of the hymn Amazing Grace.
I think what I would just say about man’s condition in the state of grace that the internal life of a Christian is extremely complicated and it’s very difficult to read it. You can look at one person and say, “that person is a strong Christian”, and you can look at another person and say, “I doubt whether that person is a Christian” but it could be the other way around. When you think about man, I think the main thing to remember with man is that for each one of us, there is in and off ourselves, there’s not much to encourage us.
The second doctrine that bears on the perseverance of saints is the doctrine of the covenant of grace. What is so important is that God deals with us in covenantal terms and His covenant is absolutely rock solid. Here’s a quotation from Francis 13(book).
If you look at the covenant with Abraham for example as a manifestation of the covenant of grace, you have all these statements, all these facts, which are biblical facts. For example it is always described as an everlasting covenant. God has raised His hand and sworn to keep His covenant.
Thirdly the covenant that God has made cannot be abrogated. Fourthly, we are told that the promises and the covenant God made to Abraham were actually made to Jesus Christ, that’s what Paul says.
So we would be quite justified in calling the Abrahamic covenant the Christian covenant. We know that covenant and all its promises have been confirmed in Christ. We know that the leaders today are in that covenant and we know that it has not yet been fulfilled but it will be fulfilled when Christ returns. When we’re considering the covenant, one of the most important and difficult question is probably, “Who are the covenant seed?” And even if you only look at the Genesis record, chapter 17, 18 and 22, if you only look at that, you still have three references for the seed of the covenant. It’s the whole halves of Abraham in solidarity. And within that, you have the seed of promise that is Isaac. And just looking ahead, it’s the difference between the whole and the seed of promise. It’s in that area that the adoption of apostasy comes.
If you think that the seed of Abraham, it’s the entire household, his 380 men each in his whole household, but within that household, God identifies the seed of promise through Isaac, “Your seed will be called.” And it’s in that difference between the whole, all of them and the seed of promise, the difference, attaches on adoption of apostasy. Or if you like, the apostates come from those who are not the seed of promise but they are the seed of Abraham.
The third reference of the seed is Jesus Christ, the one. I’m going to jump on slide to the eternal council or God’s covenant redemption, as it is sometimes called.
The perseverance of the saints is always connected with the elect. There’s enough evidence in the New Testament to allow us to speak about the trinity forming a covenant in eternity for the salvation of the elect. We know that the bible speaks about the father choosing the sheep and giving them to the Son. We know that the bible talks about the Father commissioning the Son to die for the sheep and the Son is agreeing to that. We know that the Father has covenanted the kingdom to His Son. This language is the language of covenant in eternity.
Okay there are certain things that we can say about the election of God. We know that God’s election of grace is eternal and unchangeably, it cannot be altered. We also know that the covenant of the election of grace operates as a principle within the covenant; you have this in Romans 9. When the bible speaks about predestination, it’s telling you that God has already determined the end.
(I’m going to cut the lecture short, all the other slides really bring together the fact that the Father, Son and Spirit are involved in salvation and the three persons of the trinity acting perfect unity and consistency and there is no lack of power or grace or sufficiency in them. And I’ll just leave these slides at that.)
(I just want to take one minute out.) I want to come to these questions: What is apostasy? What is the unforgivable sin? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
(Question from audience)
Yes, he chooses people out of His love but His choice is also sovereign. We mustn’t be afraid. I think of saying that because it’s found for example in Romans chapter 9. Do I need to say more about Romans 9?
We got two more questions; I’ll take them. If we ask the question, what is the covenant of grace?
(Question from the audience)
If you go to the bible, you will find that there are, let’s just say for the moment, five divine covenants, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the New Covenant. If you notice about those 5 covenants, they spam history. Each one is made the critical moment and they all have the same main promise, “I will be your God, you will be my people”. If you like, as a biblical excerpts moving towards systematic theology, you have to make a decision. Take the covenant of Abraham for example, that is said to be everlasting. So by definition, it’s still going on today and then jumping right through history and cutting it very short, we know that we are in the new covenant. And so we have to ask the question. “Is the believer today in two covenants?” And we could press that a bit further and say, “What about the mosaic covenant? That still applies? So are we under three covenants? Or are we really saying that’s one covenant under development? And then even when we go back to Abraham, we can still say was the covenant in existence before Abraham. And we can trace it right back actually to the creation, we can go all the way back.
It’s interesting if you look at 1 Samuel, the relationship between David and Jonathan for example, you’ll find that they made the covenant three times. The first time was when David and Jonathan met and they left one another. The second time was when Saul tries to kill David and the relationship was under threat. And I think the third time is more or less when Jonathan knows that he’s going to die, and he’s thinking to the future. That’s a very inaccurate summary, but the point I’m making is that it is normal for man to remake covenants when circumstances develop.
(I think it’s a bit of digression so I won’t pursue it any further and less, there’s another question over here.)
(One of the audience clarifying something) We don’t know who God elects. How could you explain word of Apostle Paul when he is says, “Knowing your election”? Do we have the same spiritual discernment with Apostle Paul, to say who is elected and who is not?
I think if I can just say about this, in Timothy Paul says the Lord knows those who are His and I don’t think that even Paul the apostle claim to know all the elect. One thing you’ll notice about Paul is whenever he address the church, he address the church on the assumption that they were all believers. So for example, when he addresses the Corinthians, he addresses the whole church with all those everywhere who call upon the name of the Lord, all the saints. So there’s presumption that the saints belong to God. But I think in the case of the Thessalonians, the context is telling you that Paul believes they’re elect because of the fruits of faith, the way in which they receive the word of God in tribulation with joy. There are the marks of the elect among them I think that’s all I would say.
(If that’s sufficient, I’d like to try to suggest some help with the sin unto death. If I could ask you to first of all look at 1 John chapter 5, it’s probably worth looking at in your bible.)(If we could red 1 John 26)
I think the first thing that I would say about that verse is that whatever the sin was, the church was able to identify it. The thing is they being told “Don’t pray to that!” So they have to know when do we pray, I think the question came from over here, when do we pray and when do we not pray? The first thing I’d like to observe about that is you get the same kind of language in Jeremiah 7:16. It says that, “Do not pray for these people nor lift up a cry or prayer for them or meeting into session to me for I will not hear you”. So the situation in Jeremiah is that Judah has run out in God’s patience. He has sent his prophets time and time and time again, and they wouldn’t hear it. And interestingly, in that text that I have given you on that slide, I think it is in Isaiah 22:14. (There’s probably no need to look at it) but there again you have this concept of not praying because they have sinned and there will be no forgiveness until their death. In Isaiah 22:14, we read this, “It was revealed in m hearing by the Lord of hosts, surely for this inequity, and there will be no atonement”.
So I think if you draw these things together and we are not to pray because God is not going to hear because there is no forgiveness. What is it that God won’t forgive? I think the answer is in Numbers chapter 15 verses 30 and 31. In Numbers chapter 15:30 and 31 we read this, “The person who does anything, in Hebrews with a high hand, whether he is a native born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord”. Now this is exactly the same concept and language as in Hebrews. He has insulted with the spirit of grace. (We’ll come back to that.) And he shall be cut off from among the people because he has despised the word of the Lord and he has broken His commandment. That person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall remain on him.
If you pull all this together you’ll have this Idea that God will not forgive when a person, it’s not sinning ignorantly, but it’s sinning in knowledge of His word. With a high hand that means both publicly and defiantly. It’s as if this man is shaking his fist in the fact of God and he is despising his word and he’s insulting the Lord. That’s the kind of language we’ve got, no forgiveness. (If you, I won’t do anymore now because I think time is running out) But if you look at the language of Hebrews 10, you’ll find that all of these languages coming in to Hebrews 10, you’ve sinned knowingly, defiantly. You’ve insulted not the Lord now but the spirit of grace.
Just finally, the other text I put up there is Matthew 12, “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. If we think about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it’s actually the same kind of language that we’ve just seen in Numbers chapter 15, about reviling or blaspheming the Lord. You have brought reproach on the Lord. It’s the same kind of language.
(Question Raised)
Is there a division between sinning willfully and arrogantly and sinning willfully and not arrogantly?
It’s a good question because it is possible to sin without knowing you sinned but most of our sin involves willfulness. And it maybe, and this comes into blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, maybe that this is sin committed as it were at the end of the line.
Let’s think about the Holy Spirit for a moment, just for a moment. In John 16:7, the Lord Jesus says to His disciple, “I have to go, and I will send the Holy Spirit”. So Christ is leaving and the Spirit will be sent. He says to the disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away the advocate will not come to you”. The Lord Jesus is obviously speaking about Pentecost but we know from the Old Testament, Psalm 51 for example, that the Holy Spirit had been among God’s people long ago. So I think what we’re looking at here is that Christ is anticipating Pentecost and He’s saying to them, “If you deal with the Holy Spirit then as you’re dealing with me now, there’ll be no further help for you”. So I don’t think that Christ was actually saying, “You are now committing this sin” because of what they said about the Holy Spirit in him. He said, “One day if you do this again, it will be too late for you.” That’s what’s going on.
Just to make it short as I can this evening, just to say this. They blasphemed and crucified Christ and after that they could be forgiven. But if then when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, they reviled Him as well then there was no forgiveness. That’s the position. It’s historical development, I’ll leave it like that, it’s just I’m trying to suggest things that might help you thinking in understanding this issue.
(I’ll stop there, and if you got time for questions, I’ll take them.)
(Audience asking Question) May we say that the Lord is saving people only then will those people will come to him and confess their sin?) (Sorry ma’am I can’t hear it clearly…. J
I’m not sure I can answer that question simply on the floor. I’m sorry. I wonder if I could just say as I close, when I went to my room just now.
I had an email, and I like to read the email to you and see what you would do to this email. This is an email I received today,
Dear Peter,
I have come to believe that I am an apostolate. (Hebrews 6: 4-6 and Hebrews 10:26-31) So there is no hope of me being saved and no point in coming to the church. I am sorry.
Thank you again for all the time you have given me.
I have that today. What do you do with someone who believes he’s apostolate? How difficult is it to minister to that.
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