In the last chapter, I deliberately avoided one issue, and
my conversations with Evangelicals have suggested that it is an issue which is
often very close to their hearts. Their demurral often goes like this: It is
These are questions which appear to have been rarely, if ever, asked by Christians of ancient times. They certainly seem not to have been asked by any of the biblical writers who, as we have seen, are inclined not to separate out faith, works, love etc., but to regard them as all part of an organic process. Nor did the biblical writers expend much effort on pinpointing the exact moments when people were “justified” or “saved”. For example, according to Paul (Rom. 4:3), it was in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham “believed [episteusen] God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”; yet the fact is that he had been God’s friend for many years already, since Genesis 12. James (2:23) agrees with Paul about Genesis 15:6, but also says that Abraham was “considered righteous” for his actions in Genesis 22, which appear to have happened several years later! No, Paul and James were not confused, or contradicting either themselves or each other: it was merely that they were living in an age when there was a healthier balance, and a greater respect, between the “Greek” and the “Jewish” tendencies in Christianity: between the rationalist and the experiential, the theoretical and the practical. They knew that faith is a journey, not an event: it involves many processes and experiences, and cannot always be reduced to a single explicit moment of conversion.
Take a look at these two statements from Paul:
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)
He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Tit. 3:5-7)
Notice how Paul himself routinely mixes together words such as “washed”/“washing”, “sanctified”, “justified”, “Spirit”, “saved”, “rebirth”, “renewal”, “grace”, “heirs”, “hope”. For him, they are co-inherent, all aspects of the fullness of God’s process of salvation: all part of the same journey, they need not be separated out – or even put in the “correct” order! In other words, Paul looks at salvation kata holon: “according to the whole”.
For the next 1500 years or so, Christian writers discussed salvation, largely, in the same vein. It was not until the later Middle Ages that Christians began to focus more upon the specifics of exactly how and in what order the various constituent aspects of the salvation process took place. And it was not until the Reformation that, as the great Anglican theologian Alister McGrath puts it, “a fundamental discontinuity was introduced into the western theological tradition where none had ever existed, or ever been contemplated, before”: [1] namely, Christian theologians began, for the first time ever, to systematically distinguish between “justification” and “sanctification” (i.e. between the initial moment of “being saved” and the long-term process of “growing in holiness”). Furthermore, the Renaissance, with its re-discovery of certain types of Greek thought, brought with it “a new emphasis upon individual consciousness, and a new awareness of human individuality. In the wake of this dawn of the individual consciousness came a new interest in the doctrine of justification – the question of how human beings, as individuals, could enter into a relationship with God.” [2]
In many ways all these new trends were good things. But, as Methodist theologian William Abraham warns us, they also may have led to
a turn away from an interest in
God himself toward an interest in personal salvation and experience of God… The
Reformers began by looking at God in
Regaining our “theocentric bearings” is not easy. How can we Christians put our “personal salvation and experience of God” in its proper context, so as to understand salvation as Paul did – as a multi-faceted thing encompassing justification, sanctification, renewal, rebirth, hope, mercy, inheritance and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – all combined together and granted to us in gracious love? And should we do so? After all, these ideas do not answer the very pertinent questions we asked in the first paragraph of this chapter!
Well, maybe they don’t, but perhaps they can remind us that there are other questions to ask which may better enlighten us. The early Christians knew that their relationship to God could not be separated from the relationship of the whole nation of Israel to God, but was a long on-going experience which stretched deep into the ancient history of their people, as a people. Salvation, they knew, was not just a product, but a process. And so it may help us to look deeper at what the Old Testament tells us about salvation.
Exodus
This is not an easy thing to do, because the Old Testament, unlike the New, does not contain many passages discussing the meaning of salvation in abstract theological terms. The Old Testament was written by Jews, and they wrote, as we have seen, in stories and images and allegories. And more than anything else, the principal image used to depict salvation is that of the journey, the road, the “Way”:
And a
highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on
it;
it will be for those who walk in
that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on
it.
No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get
up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk
there. (Is. 35:8-9)
Out of all the many salvific journeys in the history of
Israel, the greatest is of course Exodus. We discussed in Chapter Three the ways
in which the Old Testament is re
So: When in the course of that long story is Israel “saved”?
Which bit of the saga is it that re
It should be clear that we can give no clear-cut answers to
these questions. Exodus was a God-given process, a long and complex journey of
grace, full of untold riches, into which, out of love, He called all Israel. Because
He called
The Way of salvation
If Exodus is a “type” (typos)
of our own Christian salvation journey, then we can learn from this. It may be,
theoretic
In the New Testament we find ourselves presented with a variety of images of the Christian faith journey. Some of them follow a familiar evangelical template: the individual hears the Good News, recognises his sinfulness, repents and puts his faith in Jesus as his saviour, receives the Holy Spirit and is baptised (e.g. Acts 2:14-41, 3:11-4:4, 13:16-48, 16:13-15, 16:30-34 etc.). In case like these, it is relatively easy to identify who “is” or “is not” a Christian, or who “is saved” or “is not saved”, and when they “were saved”. However, other biblical accounts of faith journeys follow a variety of templates which are less clear-cut. We know when Paul “was saved” – but what about Peter? or “doubting” Thomas? or Joseph of Arimathea? or Nicodemus? Sometimes even the apostles were surprised by how the Holy Spirit acts – as in the case of Cornelius’s household in Caesarea Maritima (Acts 10:34-48), or the disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6).
Further, the letters of Paul again and again suggest that, just as in the case of the Old Covenant, the label of “saved” can in some sense be justly applied to all those who identify themselves with Christ through baptism and membership of the visible ekklesia. The entirety of the Roman Christian congregation is addressed as members of the “one body” (Rom. 12:4-5), “loved by God and called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7). The members of the church in Corinth, jointly, are “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27), “God’s temple” wherein dwells God’s Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 2 Cor. 6:16), “sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy” (1 Cor. 1:2). The Ephesians are “saints…, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:1), the Colossians “holy and faithful brothers in Christ” (Col. 1:2). There is no attempt by Paul to separate out those individuals who have a “true saving faith” from the rest of their communities. Indeed, he says:
All of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death… in order that… we too may live a new life. (Rom. 6:3-4, my emphasis)
We were all baptised by one Spirit into one body… and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Cor. 12:13, my emphasis)
All of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ… If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:27,29, my emphasis)
Notice all the “alls” in these verses! They warn us against being too confident in declaring who “is” or “is not” a Christian. The apostle Paul was generous in his assessment of how “saved” were the people he was writing to – whilst at the same time strongly condemning their lack of faith! Those same Corinthians who “despised the church of God” (1 Cor. 11:22), “sinned against the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27-30), and were “led astray” from Christ (2 Cor. 11:3) – were “sanctified” (1 Cor. 1:2), “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27), drinking of the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:23)! Those same Galatians who were “foolish” and “bewitched” (Gal. 3:1) and turned “to a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6) – had clothed themselves with Christ (Gal. 3:27) and were “heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29)! [4]
How do we reconcile these apparent contradictions? [5] How can someone be “saved” and yet at the same time “astray”, “faithful” and at the same time “bewitched”? Here is yet another “biblical tension” [6] which we will never quite solve, but need to accept in its fullness: “both/and” rather than “either/or”. And we can come to terms with it by refocussing our vision, not just upon trying to identify the precise mechanism whereby an individual becomes a Christian, but upon the entirety of the Christian journey, as a journey. For what matters most is not necessarily how that journey begins, nor the order in which events take place along the way – but the way the road is heading. The Way is Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6); being in Christ is a journey. And so
by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope (Gal. 5:5)
confident that
he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 1:6)
The great Augustine of Hippo puts it well:
This renewal does not take place in the single moment of conversion itself… It is one thing to be free from fever, and another to grow strong again from the infirmity which the fever produced; and one thing again to pluck out of the body a weapon thrust into it, and another to heal the wound thereby made by a prosperous cure; so the first cure is to remove the cause of infirmity, and this is wrought by the forgiving of all sins; but the second cure is to heal the infirmity itself, and this takes place gradually by making progress in the renewal of that image. [7]
Confidence, perseverance and hope
How then do we await “the righteousness for which we hope” (Gal. 5:5)? Can we rest on our laurels, secure in the knowledge that whatever we do we will remain right with God? Scripture gives us both reasons to be confident and reasons to be cautious. On the one hand we can be confident in God’s promise, as Paul says:
If God is for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave himself up for
You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. (Eph. 1:13-14)
May God himself, the God of
peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body
be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who c
On the other hand, Paul and the writer to the Hebrews make it clear that it is perfectly within our capability, though “saved”, to reject our salvation:
I give you this instruction… so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. (1 Tim. 1:18-19)
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? (Heb. 2:1-3)
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again. (Heb. 6:4-6)
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire. (Heb. 10:26-27)
as does Peter:
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. For if would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (2 Pet. 2:20-21)
Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. (2 Pet. 3:17)
Jude, wisely, appeals to the Exodus typos to explain why:
I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe [pisteusantas]. (Jude 1:5)
It is worth examining carefully exactly what Jude is referring to here. We, like the “people out of Egypt”, are journeying to our Promised Land, led by our new Moses who is Christ. It is God’s grace alone which takes us there, but it is entirely within God’s right to destroy us (cf. Jude 1:5) if we rebel, as He did to many of the Exodus Jews (e.g. Num. 14:21-23).
Finally, our Lord Himself is clear that there are many ways in which we, believers though we may be, can fall away from our salvation:
“The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe [pisteusantes] and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe [pisteuousin] for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” (Lk. 8:11-14, cf. Mk. 4:14-19)
In this parable, it is perhaps possible for us to interpret those along the path and those among thorns as representing people who never had faith in the first place. However, those on the rock undoubtedly believe: they have pistis, but then lose it and “wither” (Lk. 8:6) – just like the unfruitful branches of the vine:
“I am the true vine, and my
Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit…
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it
must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit… If
anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and
withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (Jn.
15:1-2,4-6)
Jesus says, “Remain in me.” One cannot remain in Jesus unless one is in Him in the first place. Jesus is clear: it is quite possible for a man to be in Christ and then fail to remain; such souls are “thrown into the fire and burned”. [8]
Both Old and New Testaments, therefore, make it clear that our hope of entering our Promised Land entails and demands perseverance:
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. (Rom. 11:22)
Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore… I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:12-14)
Now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. (Col. 1:22-23)
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession. (1 Tim. 6:12)
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (Heb. 3:14)
Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised… We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. (Heb. 10:35-36,39)
What can this mean for us as individuals? In my own case, my faith is far from firm, my perseverance weak, and my confidence often in tatters. I frequently do not “fight the good fight” or “press on towards the goal”, but get lost in the byways of my own selfishness. Can I be sure of my own eventual salvation? Or might I also, as the Bible says I might, be “cut off” (Rom. 11:22), “destroyed” (Jude 1:5), or “thrown into the fire and burned” (Jn. 15:1-2,4-6)?
If I am seeking unequivocal personal assurance of my own individual salvation, I will not find it in Scripture. This is not because Scripture does not say what is necessary for me to be fit for Heaven; on the contrary, the Bible, as we have seen, says a lot on the subject. But the Bible cannot give me unequivocal assurance of my own personal situation for the simple reason that it is only God, not man, who can look into the depths of my heart and judge whether I have, and hold to, a true, God-given, grace-filled faith, “expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6), “established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Col 1:23). When Jesus was asked, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” His reply was not an easy one:
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to… There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Lk. 13:24,30, cf. Matt.7:13-14, 19:30, 20:16)
And Jesus makes it clear that even those of us who believe we have faith in Him may some day need to be disabused of that notion:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform miracles?’ Then I will tell you plainly, ‘I never you knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:21-23)
And so, for all of us, a certain amount of “fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) is perhaps unavoidable, indeed advisable! Even that great predestinarian John Calvin was able to admit that
when we say that faith must be certain and secure, we certainly speak not of an assurance which is never affected by doubt, nor a security which anxiety never assails; we rather maintain that believers have a perpetual struggle with their own distrust, and are thus far from thinking that their consciences possess a placid quiet, uninterrupted by perturbation. On the other hand, whatever be the mode in which they are assailed, we deny that they fall off and abandon that sure confidence which they have formed in the mercy of God. [9]
Note Calvin’s emphasis: We can have sure confidence in the mercy of God. This does not mean
that we are incapable of deceiving ourselves as to the nature of our own
personal response to that mercy. For the problem is twofold: On the one hand, the
more “doubt” or “anxiety” I feel about whether my faith is firm enough, or my perseverance
strong enough, or my confidence sure enough, the more I feel obliged, even
subconsciously, either to do something myself to ameliorate either my faith, or
my love, or my works, in order to earn God’s favour – and the more I therefore undermine
God’s grace. On the other hand, the more indelibly assured I feel of my righteousness
before God, the more I can f
One of the best summaries, I think, of Christian destiny, is found in the words of Paul:
We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Rom. 8:23-25)
We should not be despondent at the idea that we are called to “hope”, even to “groan inwardly”. Christian hope is a far more profound thing that just “I wish” or “wouldn’t it be nice if…”. [10] Hope is linked to faith, and to love (1 Cor. 13:13), and thereby to all those interlinked concepts which we looked at in the last chapter: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love (cf. 2 Pet. 1:5-7), truth, obedience (cf. 1 Jn. 2:3-5). We hope for what we do not yet have. That we do not yet have it is of no consequence to one who is on a journey of faith and love, for
we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears… Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Cor. 13:9-10,12)
and,
what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself. (1 Jn. 3:2-3)
Let us, therefore, be content to journey in hope, and hope patiently. This is not “doubt” or “anxiety”, but faith – for “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). This is the testimony of Scripture.
Mercy
Jesus told this parable to those who were “confident of their own righteousness” (Lk. 18:9):
Two men went up to the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about
himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers,
adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a
tenth of all I get.”
But the tax collector stood at a
distance. He would not even look up into heaven, but beat his breast and said,
“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
I tell you that this man, rather
than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Lk. 18:10-14)
Note that Luke does not say that Jesus told this parable to those who “believed that their salvation depended upon their good works”: neither of the characters in this story actually makes that mistake. The Pharisee’s fault is not that he is expecting to be able to buy favour with God by his good works; indeed, he knows full well that his good works are not his own doing but God’s gracious gift – and rightly he thanks God for his own virtuous deeds. However, he is unaware that his confidence in his own righteousness in God’s eyes has trashed his humility. He makes the mistake of thinking that he knows God’s mind, of thinking that he knows himself indelibly “justified before God”. The tax collector, by contrast, has as little faith as he has virtue. But what justifies him before God is the fact that he does not presume upon his own righteousness in God’s eyes: he knows that his salvation depends upon the mercy of God alone, not upon either his own deeds or his self-generated faith. He understands grace: therefore he looks to God, and not to himself.
This is where we must look: to God’s mercy, and not to our own salvation. As C. S. Lewis puts it:
Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him… Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will find it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and your favourite wishes every day and death of your body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. [11]
We are saved if, like the tax collector at the Temple, we are humble enough to pray, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Lk. 18:13). For then we will be trusting neither in what we think to be our good works nor in what we perceive to be our faith, but in God’s mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is a generosity which is not only undeserved but unexpected. For God’s free gift of salvation to be truly merciful, we cannot be completely sure of how and when and where it will manifest itself. Mercy does not come to those who are 100% certain of receiving it – for then, by definition, it is not mercy but obligation. Reformed theologian R. C. Sproul explains:
It is impossible for anyone, anywhere, anytime to deserve grace. Grace by definition is undeserved… God is never obligated to be merciful. Mercy and grace must be voluntary or they are no longer mercy and grace. [12]
There is a corollary of this of course, and that is that God’s mercy to one person may appear to us, proud and foolish as we are, as favouritism. Such jealousy bedevils us all, for we often do not have the wisdom to see the relation between justice and mercy the way God does. All the more reason for us not to presume upon God’s mercy, or to try to second-guess the degree of God’s mercy for someone else. And all the more reason for us to seek the kind of humility that the tax collector at the Temple had. Otherwise, God’s kindest answer to us may be, as it was to the workers in the vineyard:
“My friend, I am not being unjust to you… Take your earnings and go… Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be envious because I am generous?” (Matt. 20:13-15, NJB)
Our responsibility, then, is to wait with humility, continuing in faith (Col. 1:23), patiently and hopefully (Rom. 8:24-25), confident in God’s love (Heb. 3:14), but not presumptuous of His mercy. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 18:14. cf. Matt. 23:12).
But how hard this is! How hard it is to love God more than my own salvation! For the more I am concerned about whether or not my salvation is assured, whether by the quality of my deeds or the sureness of my faith, the less I trust God to save me in His own way and in His own time – and therefore the less I allow Him to be merciful. Like Paul, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out… What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:18,24) Thankfully, Paul reminds me of the answer: “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25)
No, I cannot be completely certain of whether I will persevere to eternal life. Have I put to death the misdeeds of my body (Rom. 8:13)? Do I keep God’s commands (1 Cor. 7:19)? Do I love my brother (1 Jn. 3:15)? Have I fed the hungry, invited in the stranger, clothed the vagrant, tended to the sick and imprisoned (Matt. 25:42-46)? Have I added to my faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love (2 Pet. 1:5-9)? Can my faith move mountains (Matt. 17:20), or uproot trees (Lk. 17:6)? If not, then perhaps it is, as yet, smaller than a mustard seed, and my journey of pistis, my Exodus, has yet a long way to go. Like the tax collector, what will benefit me most is to stop pretending I know God’s mind, and to learn humility and un-self-consciousness before Him. For:
Is God unjust? Not at all! For he
says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I
have compassion.”
It does
not, therefore, depend upon man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Rom.
9:14-16)
It depends on God’s
mercy. That truly is the Good News!
Be ye perfect
So, what will my life be like if I depend on God’s mercy, “fight the good fight” (1 Tim. 6:12) and “press on towards the goal” (Phil. 3:14)? The Biblical promise is that my faith will grow, and with my faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love, truth, and obedience to the commands of Christ – not from myself but by God’s grace and by God’s mercy.
But how much? And how far? How much faith, how much goodness,
how much love does God want to bring about in me? Jesus is clear: “Be perfect… as
your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). As a command, that sounds like a
t
The promises of God give that which the precepts exact, and fulfil what the law commands; so that all is of God alone, both the precepts and their fulfilment. He alone commands; He alone also fulfils. [13]
And C. S. Lewis echoes him:
The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command… If we let him… He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into… a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. [14]
This is the good news which the rich young man failed to
understand, and which we too can so often forget: “With man this is impossible,
but not with God” (Mk. 10:27). To be told to sell everything he had and give it
to the poor must have seemed, to that poor fellow, like such bad news! We Christians also often read
those words of our Lord with horror and, like the young man, squirm and wriggle
and “interpret” our way out of them as best we can. And so it will often be,
for without God’s grace, “who then can be saved?” (Matt. 19:25, Lk. 18:26) But what
we must
So exactly how and when and where will God make us perfect? Scripture does not give us a full blueprint, but a series of glimpses – often expressed in language rich with imagery:
For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor. 3:11-15)
This image from Paul describes the process and means whereby we Christians will be purified, as if by fire, to prepare us spotless, not merely “credited with righteousness” but fully perfected and without sin, for the wedding feast of the Lamb. [15]
John uses a different image, not of fire, but of washing. Of us he prophesies:
“These are they who have come out
of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,
they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in
his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the centre of the
throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of
living water.
And God will wipe away every tear
from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:14-17)
In these passages, both Paul and John echo the prophets Malachi and Zechariah, whose descriptions of the process of purification combine both these images, fire and washing:
He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness. (Mal. 3:2-3)
“This third
I will bring into the fire;
I will
refine them like silver
and test
them like gold.
They will
call on my name
and I will
answer them;
I will say,
‘They are my people,’
and they
will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” (Zech. 13:9)
Of the New Jerusalem, John writes: “Nothing impure will ever
enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful” (Rev. 21:27),
for our Lord is “making everything new” (Rev. 21:5)! This is why our purification
is a necessary part of the process of salvation. We too sh
When will this happen? Well, it has of course begun; as any Christian knows, the painful but necessary process of being cleansed of our sinfulness begins when Christ enters our life. For most of us – certainly myself included – our purification from sin will not be completed by the time we depart this world; but it must be finished for us to enter the heavenly Kingdom. And so Scripture also hints that this purification continues after our death. Let us see how.
The earliest Jewish belief is that the dead pass into a state called Sheol – often translated into Greek as Hades, and into English as “the grave” [16] – in the earliest texts depicted as little more than a shadowy dead-end destination:
What man
can live and never see death?
Who can
deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? (Ps. 89:48, RSV)
Later, however, the Jews develop the idea that it may be possible for the faithful to be released from Sheol:
You will not abandon me to Sheol,
you cannot
allow your faithful servant to see the abyss. (Ps. 16:10, NJB)
God will
ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will
receive me. (Ps. 49:15, RSV)
The rabbis realised that this release from death could only happen if sinners in Sheol were cleansed of their sins in preparation for meeting God. And so the Mishnah expounds Zechariah and Malachi’s visions of final cleansing, to suggest that it is precisely through such purification that the dead may be released from Sheol:
There are three classes; one for everlasting life, another for shame and everlasting contempt [Dan. 12:2] – who are accounted wholly wicked, and a third class who go down to Gehenna, [17] where they scream and again come up and receive healing, as it is written: And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; and they shall call on my name and I will be their God [Zech. 13:9]. [18]
Paul and John must have known this Jewish interpretation of Scripture well, and it must have been an amazing revelation for them to realise that it is precisely because of Christ that this salvation can take place, that the dead can pass through Sheol to Heaven – through shadowy death to eternal life with God. The Christian vision of Sheol, then, is radically different from the ancient Jewish: Sheol is not a dead-end where the dead will linger for ever, nor even just a quiet waiting-room for the Resurrection, but part of our journey towards and preparation for Heaven. In Christ, Sheol turns out to be not a destination, but part of the “Way” (Is. 35:8); not a product, but a process. Sheol, in the Christian vision, is full of the “refiner’s fire” and the “launderer’s soap” (Mal. 3:2). Jesus, in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:23-35) uses the image of the “prison” into which the wicked servant is thrown “until he should pay back all he owed” (Matt. 18:34). Peter echoes Jesus, referring to the “prison” from which Jesus releases former sinners after His death (1 Pet. 3:19-20). And both Paul (Phil. 2:10-11) and John (Rev. 5:13) make it clear that even those in Sheol (“under the earth”) can pass from there to redemption in Christ: the prison can be opened, by Jesus Christ.
Here is how our old friend Origen of Alexandria (c. 184-254 A.D.) describes the process of our final purification:
He who is saved, therefore, is saved through fire so that if he has, by chance, any lead mixed in himself, the fire may melt it away and separate it, that all may be made good gold because “the gold of that land” which the saints are to have is said “to be good” [cf. Gen. 2:12]… All, therefore, must come to the fire; all must come to the melting furnace, “for the Lord sits and melts down and purifies the sons of Juda” [cf. Mal. 3:3]. [19]
Wisely though, Origen issues a little disclaimer: “It would take too long to explain everything in order. It is sufficient to glance over a few things.” [20] That is probably sensible advice when discussing a matter which takes place beyond our visible world: biblical images and allegories, as we have seen in Chapter Three, are often the best ways to describe the unseen things of God’s world. Christians have over the centuries used a variety of these biblical images (“fire”, “soap”, “tribulation”, “grave”, “prison”) to denote our final purification. [21] The term normally used in the West, “purgatory”, is a relatively modern one. Whether one likes the word or not, C. S. Lewis explains the necessity of the concept particularly well:
Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy.”? Should we not reply, “With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know” – “Even so, sir.” [22]
In a sense, “purgatory” (or whatever one calls it) is the whole point of Christianity: the process of our sanctification and restoration to the divine likeness. This process does not begin only when we enter the afterlife, but when Christ first calls us. And if our journey of sanctification, our Exodus, our Way, is not completed by the time we die, then who would deny God’s right to complete our perfection after our death?
Will you be washed in the blood of the Lamb (cf. Rev. 7:14)? Will God refine you like gold and silver (cf. Mal. 3:3)? Will God ransom your soul from the power of Sheol (cf. Ps. 49:15)? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then the chances are that you believe in something very similar to what the Catholic Church calls purgatory. What you choose to call it is of course up to you!
Mercy and faith
So, to whom is this promise of purification made? Have we got any closer to answering the questions of the first paragraph of this chapter? In brief, who is saved, and how can we tell? God’s answer, again, is:
“I will
have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does
not, therefore, depend upon man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Rom.
9:14-16)
We must leave the judgment in God’s hands. At the end of the day, and at the end of time, only God knows what is in a man’s heart – otherwise His judgment cannot be truly merciful! Only God knows whether a man’s faith has come “simply with words, [or] also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). Only God knows whether a man’s good deeds are those “God prepared in advance for [him] to do” (Eph. 2:10), or the result of self-reliant will-power and effort. Given that we cannot see into a man’s heart, let us leave it to God. Scripture is brutally clear about the dangers of attempting to judge what is in a man’s heart:
“Do not judge, or you too will be
judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of
sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own
eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’
when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the
plank out of your own eye.” (Matt. 7:1-5)
Who are you to judge someone
else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls…
Why do you judge your brother? …
For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat… So then, each of us will give
an account of himself to God.
Therefore let us stop passing
judgment on one another. (Rom. 14:4,10,12-13)
Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it… There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbour? (Ja. 4:11-12)
If we truly believe in salvation by grace, and if we truly believe in a merciful God, then we will not try too hard to predict God’s intentions for someone else, or even for ourselves, for we will know that such matters are no one’s prerogative other than the Lord’s. One man may appear to be the foulest sinner, full of profanity and hatred of God; and yet God may have plans for him of which we know nothing: he may be saved, though he, and we, do not yet know it. Another may appear full of Christian faith, and yet may rebel at the last hurdle. We simply do not know: that is the nature of grace; that is the definition of mercy. “‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2 Tim. 2:19), and Scripture is clear that we may not know the Lord’s mind until “‘the end of the age’” (Matt. 13:39-40). Until then, it is the gift of God that both the weeds and the wheat should “both grow together” (Matt. 13:30) in the kingdom of heaven. To proclaim with too much confidence that someone “is saved” may be an innocent and well-meaning mistake; but to proclaim with too much confidence that someone “is not saved”, though perhaps no more mistaken, has the added problem of making us, in Jesus’s words above, “hypocrites”. As that great Evangelical preacher George Watson explains well:
With regard to our judgment of others, we may safely say there has never lived a Christian that did not, at some time, have to repent for judging his fellows too harshly. And, on the other hand, there never has lived a Christian that ever had to repent of being too loving, compassionate, or charitable. [23]
And so, let us proclaim the Good News as best as we can, and
let us pray for others, and for ourselves, without presuming to know God’s mind
on matters which belong in His domain. [24] The Spirit will blow “wherever it pleases” (Jn. 3:8). What matters for us is
not just the eventual product of our salvation, but the process of learning to “love
the LORD your God with
Imaginary differences?
Have we solved the differences between Protestants and Catholics regarding how we are made right with God? Well, perhaps not entirely. If we want to very subtle about it, we can quote Evangelical scholar Anthony Lane:
For the Reformers the cause of our justification is the external or “alien” righteousness of Christ reckoned or imputed to us. In other words, we remain sinful in ourselves but the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to our account. For [the Catholic ecumenical Council of] Trent, by contrast, we are reckoned righteous not because of our works but because of the righteousness of Christ which is infused or poured into us, the righteousness which the Holy Spirit implants in our hearts. For the Reformers we are accepted because of the work of Christ on the cross; for Trent it is because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. [25]
Or, in the words of the great Catholic theologian Hans Küng:
Protestants speak of a declaration of justice and Catholics of a making just. But Protestants speak of a declaring just which includes a making just; and Catholics of a making just which supposes a declaring just. Is it not time to stop arguing about imaginary differences? [26]
Is this a genuine doctrinal conflict, or merely evidence of
the biblical tensions we have already spoken about? I suggest the latter – for
if we see our salvation as a process rather than a once-and-for-all fixed
product, this tension becomes insignificant. For if we are on our spiritual journey,
looking humbly to God rather than ourselves, recognising God’s mercy, and “eagerly
await[ing] through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope” (Gal. 5:5),
then it matters little in what order, either chronologically or causally, the
various ingredients of our salvation occur. Both the imputation and the
infusion of righteousness, both the work of Christ on the cross and the work of
the Holy Spirit in our hearts, are essential aspects of the same Exodus
journey, and by the time we meet our Lord face-to-face these distinctions will
no longer matter. “Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what
we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Rom. 8:24-25). This is faith.
Journeys and signs
There is a careful balance to strike here, between the events and the journey. Getting the balance right can help us to see the unity, in Christ, of these two aspects of our faith. Our long slow road to Heaven is as important as the special milestones we pass on the way there. Let us recall for a moment what we said in Chapter One of this book about “signs” and “wisdom”, process and product, Jew and Greek, Peter and Paul; and about how Christ brings these apparent opposites together. Paul, for example, had a spectacular and famous moment of conversion: “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground [27] and heard a voice,” and was left blind (Acts 9:3-8) – a clear, complete, once and for all transformation entirely appropriate to the “apostle to the Gentiles”. Peter’s conversion, on the other hand, was a long, gradual and winding path – as one might expect for someone following in the footsteps of Abraham, Jacob and Moses. Jesus called him, and he followed (Matt. 4:18-20, Mk. 1:16-18), but with no great fanfare. He made many mistakes, got many things wrong, and betrayed his faith more than once – but Jesus kept him on, because He had chosen him, by grace. One would not have expected great things from Peter, and one early Christian account tells us that during the Neronian persecutions of c. 64-68 A.D. he was persuaded to flee Rome in disguise rather than face death there; yet, upon seeing a vision of Jesus, he turned back, to die willingly for his Lord and His Church (Jn. 21:18-19). [28]
Both these scenarios are authentic
God is present in the long slow journeys. But sometimes we don’t even notice He’s there. And so there is one final image of the process of salvation which I would like to mention: the road to Emmaus. Please read Luke 24:13-35 in your own Bible now. This journey to Emmaus is an image of our own Christian journey. Sometimes we are so caught up in the immediate events (including the immediate spiritual events) of our lives that when Jesus comes walking quietly along beside us we don’t even know He’s there. He asks us awkward questions, prods us a bit – but we still don’t recognise Him. Even when He opens the Bible for us and explains everything, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” (Lk. 24:27) we still don’t quite get His meaning. But then He sits down with us, takes bread, gives thanks, breaks the bread and gives it to us: “signs” rather than “wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:22). Only then do we truly recognise Him – and this action of His makes us realise, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Lk. 24:32) The signs make us recognise the wisdom which He has been trying to impart to us all along.
Christ c
BIBLICAL SUMMARY of
Chapter Eight
Salvation is a multi-faceted
journey.
Is. 35:8-10, Rom. 4:3, 1 Cor. 6:11, Tit. 3:5-7, Ja. 2:23
Exodus is a typos of our salvation journey: we are
on a “way”.
Jn. 14:6; Acts 9:2, 18:25, 22:4, 24:14; 1 Cor. 10:1-11, Gal.
5:5, Phil. 1:6
We are called by grace.
Ex. 3:10-4:31, Deut. 9:4-6, Lk.
4:18-21
God strikes at the Evil One.
Ex. 7-12, Jn. 12:31, Heb. 2:14-15,
1 Jn. 3:8; Rev. 12:9, 20:10
The Passover lamb is slain and
eaten.
Ex. 12, Matt. 26:26-28, Mk. 14:22-24;
Lk. 9:31, 22:19-20; Jn. 1:29, 1 Cor. 11:24-25
We are baptised.
Ex. 14, Acts 2:38, 1 Cor. 10:2, 1
Pet. 3:21
We are given bread from Heaven and living
water.
Ex. 16-17; Jn. 4:13-14, 6:35-59,
7:37-38
We are given the Law and the Spirit.
Ex. 19:1, Lev. 23:15-21, Acts 2
Some salvation
journeys are quite conventional...
Acts 2:14-41, 3:11-4:4, 9:3-8, 13:16-48, 16:13-15, 16:30-34
... others less so.
Matt. 4:18-20, Mk. 1:16-18, Jn. 21:18-19,
Acts 10:34-48, 19:1-6
“All” members of the
Church are saved...
Rom. 1:7, 6:3-4, 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 1:2, 3:16-17, 12:13, 12:13, 12:27;
2 Cor. 6:16, Gal. 3:27-29, Eph. 1:1,
Col. 1:2
... even though in rebellion.
1 Cor. 11:22, 11:27-30; 2 Cor. 11:3;
Gal. 1:6, 3:1
We can be confident
in our salvation...
Rom. 8:31-39, Eph. 1:13-14, 1 Thess. 5:24
... though we may reject and lose it.
Mk. 4:14-19, Lk. 8:6-14, Jn.
15:1-6, 1 Tim. 1:18-19, Heb. 2:1-3, 6:4-6, 10:26-31;
2 Pet. 2:20-21, 3:17; Jude
1:5
Therefore we require
perseverance.
Rom. 11:22, 1 Cor. 9:24-27, Phil. 3:12-14, Col. 1:22-23, 1
Tim. 6:12; Heb. 3:14, 10:35-39
We cannot achieve absolute
assurance of our individual salvation...
Matt.7:13-23, 19:30, 20:16; Lk. 13:24-30, Phil. 2:12
... but we can have sure hope...
Rom. 8:23-25, 1 Cor. 13:9-13, Heb.
11:1, 1 Jn. 3:2-3
... in the mercy of God.
Matt. 20:13-15, Lk. 18:9-14; Rom.
7:18-25, 9:14-16
We must be perfect...
Matt. 5:48, Mk. 10:27
... and will be made so...
Zech. 13:9, Mal. 3:2-3, 1 Cor.
3:11-15; Rev. 7:14-17, 19:8, 21:5, 21:27
... so that we may pass through Sheol to Heaven.
Ps. 16:10, 49:15, 89:48; Matt.
18:23-35, Phil. 2:10-11, 1 Pet. 3:19-20, Rev. 5:13
Do not judge.
Matt. 7:1-5, 13:24-43; Jn. 3:8, Rom. 14:4-13, 2 Tim. 2:19,
Ja. 4:11-12
Signs and Wisdom
Lk. 24:13-35, 1 Cor. 1:22
[1] Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian
Doctrine of Justification (CUP, Cambridge, 2005), p. 217
[2] Alister E. McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction
(Basil Blackwell, Oxford), 1989, p. 68
[3] William J. Abraham, “Trinitarian
Theology & the Quest for Ecumenical Orthodoxy: A Response to Patrick Henry
Reardon”, in Reclaiming the Great
Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics & Orthodox in Dialogue, ed. James S.
Cutsinger (InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 1997), p. 116
[4] For more on this topic, see
Derrick Olliff, “All in the Family”, on beatenbrains.blogspot.co
[5] It is quite beyond the scope of
this volume to deal with the question of verses such as these: Jn. 12:32, Rom.
5:18, 8:32, 11:32, 14:11; 1 Cor. 15:22, 2 Cor. 5:14, Eph. 1:10, Phil. 2:10, 1
Tim. 2:6. Tit. 2:11.
[6] Anthony N. S. Lane, Justification by Faith in
Catholic-Protestant Dialogue (T&T Clark, London, 2002), pp. 132-135
[7] Augustine, On the Trinity XIV.17.23, in Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. 1,
vol. 3, ed. Phillip Schaff (CCEL, Grand Rapids), on www.ccel.org
[8] See also e.g. Matt. 6:15, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Eph. 5:5, 1 Tim. 5:8, Heb.
12:14-15; Rev. 21:8, 22:19
[9] John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion III.2.17, trans. H.
Beveridge (CCEL, Grand Rapids), on www.ccel.org
[10] cf. Peter Kreeft, Fundamentals
of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics (Ignatius, San Francisco,
1988), p. 177
[11] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Fount, Glasgow, 1988), pp. 188-189
[12] R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Tyndale House, Wheaton, 1985), p. 166
[13] Martin Luther, “Concerning
Christian Liberty” II, trans. R. S. Grignon, on www.iclnet.org
[14] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Fount, Glasgow, 1988), p.172
[15] cf. Is. 6:6-7
[16] See also Gen. 37:35, Num.
16:30-33, Ezek. 32:17-21, Is. 14:9.
[17] Gehenna, a word which Jewish tradition often uses to refer to the
“fiery” aspects of Sheol, is sometimes translated as “Hell”, e.g. Matt. 5:29, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15,
23:33; Mk. 9:43-48, Lk. 12:5.
[18] Tractate Sanhedrin XIII.3, trans. Herbert Danby (SPCK, London,
1919), on www.toseftaonline.com
[19] Origen, Homily on Exodus VI:4, in Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, trans.
Ronald E. Heine (Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, 2002), on books.google.co.uk
[20] Origen, Homily on Exodus VI:4, in Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, trans.
Ronald E. Heine (Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, 2002), on books.google.co.uk
[21] Tertullian (c. 155-240 A.D.), for example, calls it Hades [Tertullian, A Treatise
on the Soul LVIII, in Ante-Nicene
Fathers, vol. 3, ed. Phillip Schaff (T&T Clark, Edinburgh), on
www.ccel.org]. Lactantius (c. 250-325
A.D.) calls it “fire” [Lactantius, The
Divine Institutes VII:XXI, in Ante-Nicene
Fathers, vol. 7, ed. Phillip Schaff (T&T Clark, Edinburgh), on www.ccel.org].
[22] C. S. Lewis, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm (Fount, London, 1977), p. 110
[23] George D. Watson, A Pot of Oil, p. 37; on www.enterhisrest.org
[24] For some wonderful
deuterocanonical advice, see Sir. 3:17-23.
[25] Anthony N. S. Lane, Justification by Faith in
Catholic-Protestant Dialogue (T&T Clark, London, 2002), p. 25
[26] Hans Küng, Justification (Burns & Oates, London, 1981), p. 221
[27] though, pace Caravaggio, probably not from his horse…
[28] The Acts of Peter XXXV, from The
Apocryphal New Testament, trans. M.R. James (
Finding myself floundering in the water and in constant peril that my next time of going under would be the last, I willingly accepted the hands of those who reached from the life boat and pulled me in.
ReplyDeleteI lay exhausted and cold. They wrapped me in a blanket.
I began to be aware of my hunger. They feed me attentively.
Slowly I found my feet again and, as I was able, helped to pull others aboard and care for them. The journey was far from complete; we had not yet reached land. But the food and water aboard seemed sufficient and the lifeboat strong and trustworthy.