A Christian More than a Conqueror and Yet in This Life Still a Beggar 1

The distinction between justification and sanctification

The great discovery, or we can better say rediscovery, of the Reformation was the message of justification by faith alone. Clearer than even the church father St. Augustine to whom the Reformers owed so much, they taught that not our own works, even not the works done in the power of the Holy Spirit, have any place in our justification before God. The only ground of the justification of the believer is the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Clearer than was done in the centuries before them, the Reformers distinguished (without separating them) the doctrines of justification and sanctification. Justification and sancti­fi­cation must not be confused. Justification is not a medical process by which the sinner is gradually healed as Augustine taught, but justification is the verdict that although a sinner, yea ungodly in himself, the believer is completely righteous in the sight of God.

In justification there are no degrees. The weakest believer is as much righteous in the sight of God as Abraham, the apostle Paul, Luther, Calvin, Bunyan or whatever saint you name. Let me give you a quotation of that good Protestant bishop J.C. Ryle: ‘I hold firmly that the justifi­cation of a believer is a finished, perfect and complete work; and the weakest saint though he may not know and feel it, is as completely justified as the strongest (…) I would go to the stake, God helping me, for the glorious truth, that in the matter of justification before God every believer is complete in Christ. Nothing can be added to his justification from the moment he believes and nothing taken away.’

Justification must be distinguished from sanctification. Justification brings us in the sphere of jurisprudence or law. Although in ourselves completely guilty, the Father pronounces us not guilty and graciously grants the right of eternal life on account of the merits of Christ. From the Father’s viewpoint we performed what Christ did for us, and in our place when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.

Justification is perfect. There are no degrees in justification, but there certainly are in sanctification. Sanctification means that we belong to Christ and live for Him. We can say that a Christian completely belongs to Christ. In that sense sanctification is no less perfect and definite than justification, but practically speaking we only live very imperfectly to the glory of God. Even our best and most godly works are stained with sin.

So in practical sanctification there are degrees. See the parable of the sewer. ‘But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.’ (Matthew 13:8), It is a fact then that the one Christian is more conformed to the image of Christ than another.

But even the believer who is as much conformed to Christ as is possible in this life, still remains a sinner. It is so aptly stated in answer 114 of the Heidelberg Catechism that ‘even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience, yet so that with a sincere resolution they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God.’ Both elements of the answer are important. I shall now expand on the first part.

A Christian realizes again and again that his walk is imperfect, yea very imperfect. Therefore the ultimate consolation of the Christian is not what he has done, does and hopes to do for Christ but what Christ did once and for all for him and in his place. The great puritan John Owen wrote two days before his death to his friend Charles Fleetwood: ‘I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather who hath loved me with an everlasting love; which is the whole ground of all my consolation.’ We hear in this sentence the words of the apostle Paul in Gal. 2:20: ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

When a Christian is in soul anguish seeing all the imperfections of his faith and of his living for God, he can still be triumphant. For he can say with Paul: ‘What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ (Romans 8:31-34)

 

The essence of the biblical and reformed message is that a Christian in this life is both a saint and a sinner

The essence of biblical and Reformed teaching is that a Christian is both a sinner and a saint; in Latin ‘simul justus ac peccator’ (an expression that Luther was fond to use). The imputation of the righteousness of Christ is a definite and all decisive fact. We are either completely just in the sight of God or completely unjust. Only those are just in the sight of God, who believe in Christ for life and salvation.

When we behave as the rich young ruler and have never come as a poor beggar to Christ, we are as much in a state of condemnation as anyone who lives a complete immoral life. By nature the whole world is in a state of condemnation. See Romans 3:19: ‘Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.’

In the light of eternity there are only two states: the state of justification and condemnation. Being once justified it is impossible to fall from the state of justification. Justification by faith alone and the final perseverance of the saints are closely connected.

See Canons of Dort, V, 6: ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from His own people even in their grievous falls; nor suffers them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit; nor does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.’

I again quote Romans 8. Having said that Christ died for us and intercedes for us, Paul finally says: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8:35-39)

Although justification is a one-time definite act, the power and consolation of the message of justification accompanies the Christian his whole life. When I come to speak on the teaching of “Victorious living” we will see that this aspect is neglected and even denied in this form of teaching. We must say that even certain forms of Post Reformation reformed teaching did not emphasize this element enough. There are forms of Calvinism in which we can detect an unhealthy form of triumphalism without denying that we are saved by grace alone with the only ground of our justification being the imputed righteousness of Christ. But, in practice the relevance of justification is more or less restricted to the beginning of the Christian life. All emphasis is put on what we must do for Christ. In practice, the bond between justification and sanctification is made too loose.

In the nineteenth century there was published a correspondence between dr. H.F. Kohlbrugge and mr. I. da Costa. Da Costa, a Christian Jew, accused Kohlbrugge of antinomian tendencies after Kohlbrugge preached he so called comma sermon in 1833 in the German town Elberfeld. This was the most famous sermon Kohlbrugge ever preached. The text of this sermon was Romans 7:l4: ‘For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ Preparing this sermon Kohlbrugge realized the function of the comma in our translation. Paul did not say. So far as I am fleshly I am sold under sin. No Paul said, I a believer, in myself am in all aspects of my life carnal, sold under sin. And it was this element that was stressed in the so called comma sermon.

Da Costa wrote Kohlbrugge that after having spoken about man’s sinfulness and the redemption through the blood of Christ he again went back to speaking about man’s sinfulness instead of emphasizing the life of thankfulness the Christian ought to live. Kohlbrugge replied in a somewhat bitter way, but we must say that the content of what he stated was write, namely that in the life of thankfulness we realise more and more our remaining sinfulness.

We find this clearly stated in answer 115 of the Heidelberg Catechism where we read that hat as long as we live we have to learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and so the more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ; second, that without ceasing we diligently ask God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we be renewed more and more after the image of God, until we attain the goal of perfection after this life. Kohlbrugge could not agree with Da Costa that the life of thankfulness could but for one moment separated from the realisation of our remaining sinfulness and of the blood of Christ as our only resting place.

Much more than in the writings of Da Costa we find an unhealthy triumphalism and activism in neocalvinism. It is certainly not a matter of coincidence that Kuyper who visited in 1874 in Brighton in England a conference of the holiness movement or movement of victorious living was deeply impressed. It is true: doctrinally Kuyper finally did not go along with this movement, but just as in this movement in neocalvinism the emphasis is laid on what a Christian does for Christ and not what Christ did for whom on Calvary and on what Christ sitting at the right hand sight of God still does for him.

Although doctrinally not agreeing with the doctrines of the movement of victorious living we are in practice not for removed from it when we take for granted that everyone in the congregation is saved unless he lives an disorderly life. Although faith is still acknowledge to be a gift of God, all emphasise fall on the fact that we have to show in our works that we are believers. When taken more or less for granted that everyone who comes to church and has confessed his faith is a true believer, the only thing that remains to be said is that you have to behave as Christian and so the gospel becomes a new law.

Neither the preaching of the law - not as rule of thankfulness but as a taskmaster to Christ to make us aware of our sin and misery - nor the element of self examination is given the place is ought to have in preaching when there such an attitude as I described. Although everyone who hears the Word must be called to repent and believe, we must never forget that the consolation of the gospel only belongs to sinners who again and again flee to Christ with the prayer: ‘have mercy upon me’. Isolating the life of thankfulness from the awareness of our remaining sinfulness and of the need we always have of the blood of Christ leads to legalism and transforms the gospel into a new law. A law that Christian full of self righteousness think they can fulfil, but also a law that depresses to true believer who can only be comforted with the gospel message: ‘Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29)

Let me recommend to you, in this context, the works of Kohlbrugge, the theologian I already mentioned. It is a pity that English translations of his work are rare and can be found only with great difficulty. You will find them in certain libraries. I can also recommend the works of Luther and especially his commentary on the Galatians. Luther is more clear in these things than certain Calvinists. I have noticed again and again that Calvi-nists with have that smell of activism and triumphalism do not see Luther as one of our spiritual fathers. But classical Calvinists although disagreeing with Luther on several points, still considered him especially in his view on the relationship between law and gospel as a guide to be trusted.

In the writings of several of the English Puritans of and also of the Scottish Marrow-men Luther is quoted more than once. I just point to the influence of Luther on John Bunyan. That is also a man whose writing I can recommend especially with respect to these things. I call your attention just for the title of one of his works A Defence of the Doctrine of Justifi­cation by Faith in Jesus Christ; Showing True Gospel Holiness Flows from Thence.

The Divine Initiative in Applying Grace 2 (end)

The content of regeneration

The Reformation was in the first place a rediscovery of the biblical gospel of free grace. For the Reformers the Scriptures were their final authority. Having said the Reformation can also be seen as an Augustinian revival. In Augustine the Reformers found a faithful guide with regard to the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit in renewing man.

By nature man is unable and unwilling to serve the living God with his whole heart. In regeneration men inward being is completely renewed by the Holy Spirit. Among the Reformed confessional standard the Canons of Dort speak not only explicitly but also quite extensive on the manner of regeneration.

The third and fourth canon deal with the total depravity of man and the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. They make clear that the fact the Holy Spirits works irresistibly does not mean that mean is renewed against his will. Just the reverse is the case in regeneration man is made able and willing to flee to Christ and to glorify and honour God.

His mind is enlightened so that he heartily approves with the way of salvation revealed in the gospel. He desires are cleansed so that God as revealed in Christ becomes his chief joy and desire. His will that was first rebellious is made new. By the working of the Holy Spirit man is transformed. He does not serve the Lord against his will, but with his whole heart. Regeneration is the same thing as effectual calling.

By nature man can at best serve the Lord outwardly just as the rich young ruler and as the apostle Paul before his conversion. The maximum natural man can achieve that he is blameless with regard of the righteousness that is in the law, whereby the law is only taken in its outward sense. The Lord commands us not just to serve him outwardly but with all whole heart. Children can obey commands of their parents just because they love them but for the commands themselves. For example they go to a shop in obedience to a command of their parents although they preferred other activities.

When we are made new by the Holy Spirit in regeneration we not only begin to love God but also his commandments. The image of God is restored in us. We began to desire what God desires and to hate what God hates. William Cowper aptly stated the reality in a hymn from which I quote three stanzas:

How long beneath the law I lay,

In bondage and distress!

I toiled the precept to obey,

But toiled without success.

Then to abstain from outward sin

Was more than I could do;

Now, if I feel its power within,

I feel I hate it too.

Then, all my servile works were done

A righteousness to raise;

Now, freely chosen in the Son,

I freely choose his ways.

The total transformation brought about by regeneration

In regeneration the outward call of the gospel that reaches our ears transforms our heart by the inward working of the Holy Spirit. The fathers of Dort described this change in the following words. ‘It is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this work decla-res; so that all in whose heart God works in this marvellous manner are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also man himself is rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace received.’

Being effectually called we hear the voice of the good Shepard with joy and gladness. We begin to know his voice as the voice of our Master. We listen again how the fathers of Dordt made clear how we can know that we are regenerated by the powerful operation of Holy Spirit. They testified: ‘The manner of this opera-tion cannot be fully comprehended by believers in this life. Nevertheless, they are satisfied to know and experience that by this grace of God they are enabled to believe with the heart and to love their Saviour.’

By nature man willingly serves the sinful desires of the flesh. His will is directed to sin. In regeneration the will that was bound is made free. Man, who first willingly lived a life of sin, begins to live for God. The opening of the ten commandments ‘I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage’ is very significant in this respect.
A Christian is translated from the power of sin and darkness into the realm of light and grace. Therefore God’s commandments are longer grievous for him. A Christian is made free to serve to Lord. Serving the living Lord by faith in Jesus Christ is real freedom.

The desires of a Christian are essentially different form the desires of a natural man. Our hearts are set on Christ and on the things of above. Things we once hated, we begin to love and things we once loved, we begin to hate and despise. At the same time we must say that the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man begun in regeneration is a lifelong struggle. Until our death we have a sinful nature. We never can serve the Lord is this life as we really desire to do.

A Christian is not longer what he once was, but he is at the same time not yet what he once will become. A Christian has a delight in the law of God, because the Holy Spirit dwells in him. For that reason he abhors himself because of the remainders of indwelling sin. In the power of the Holy Spirit we learn to fight against our sinful nature and the desires of our sinful flesh. That is the reason that a Christian longs to be with Christ and expects the second coming of his Lord. William Cowper testified:

But when this lisping, stammering tongue

Lies silent in the grave,

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song,

I’ll sing thy power to save.

The Divine Initiative in Applying Grace 1

Introduction

When the gospel is preached that must be done with the command to repent and believe. The aim of the presentation of the gospel is always that listeners may be won for Christ, that they learn to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. All who hear the gospel are commanded to repent and believe. They are held responsible.

Their responsibility is not founded upon their ability, but upon their duty. God as Creator has the right to ask obedience from his creatures and especially from man whom he made in his image. The fact that man has lost the image of God in the fall does not alter that fact. The gospel itself is because of its glorious message worthy of all acceptation. The greatest sin is the sin of unbelief.

Does the command of repent and believe presuppose that man has the ability and inclination to accept the message of the gospel? The biblical answer is: no. Man by nature is dead in tres-passes and sins. Man needs the gospel not because he is free, but because he is bound.

Man needs the gospel not because he is bound and can release himself, but because he is bound and he cannot release himself. The gospel is the message that ‘God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).’ (Ephesians 2, 4-5).

 

The person of the Holy Spirit

How is this mighty change in man brought about? How is a man changed from an enemy of God into a friend? To answer this question we must direct our attention to the third person in the Holy Trinity, namely the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without believing the doctrine of Trinity and without knowing the triune God we cannot be saved.

Each of the persons of the Trinity plays his own part in the salvation of the sinner. The Father elected his church before the foundation of the world. He is the origin of our salvation. The Son purchased the salvation of his church by his blood. He is the our Surety and our only Mediator. The Spirit applies the salvation foreordained by the Father and purchased by Christ to our hearts. He makes sinners alive with Christ. The triune God is the God of complete salvation.

We believe in the triune God and in the godhead and personality of the Holy Spirit, because God has revealed himself so in his Word. But what is the experimental and practical value of these doctrines? Do they have any experimental and practical value? Certainly.

We believe in the godhead of Jesus Christ. For only because the Lord Jesus is of the same essence of the Father, he could bear the weight of the anger of God against sin. Every true Christian knows in his life of the burning question: ‘How can I be right with God?’ All true Christians have found rest in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is more than a man and than a creature, yea he is God to be praised forever, God revealed in the flesh.

Every true Christian knows by experience that he could not come to Christ in his own strength. So he learns the truth of the fact that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but the Divine Person who opens our hearts and works faith in it. A Christian knows himself as a brand plucked out the fire.

 

The example of Augustine

The mighty change wrought in man when the Holy Spirit unites him to Christ is called in the Scriptures new birth or regeneration. In church history we have a great example of such a mighty change in the church father Augustine. It is not without reason that I call your attention to Augustine.

I completely agree with John Owen when he states in his Pneumatologia, or A Discour­se concer­ning the Holy Spirit: ‘for I must say, that, in my judgment, there is none among the ancient or modern divines unto this day, who, either in the declarations of their own experiences, or their directions unto others, have equalled, much less outgone him, in an accurate search and observation of all the secret actings of the Spirit of God on the minds and souls of men, both towards and in their recovery or conversion.’ In the sixth chapter of the third book of A Discour­se concer­ning the Holy Spirit Owen gives an ample reproduction of the conversion of Augustine as related by Augustine himself in his Confessiones.

When he was nineteen Augustine left the Christian Church. The Church could not give answers to his intellectual questions with regard to the relation between God and evil, between the Old Testament and the New and about the character of several biblical stories especially in the Old Testament. He joined the cult of the Manicheans, but in the course of years he found out that also the Manicheans could not give rational answers to his searching questions.

Just as the Catholic Church they finally expected to accept things on authority. That was one of the reasons that Augustine again began to attend the services of the Christian Church. In the Christian Church Augustine had already in his youth heard about the Scriptures and their final authority. Augustine was not about thirty and lived in Milan. In Milan he heard the bishop Ambrosius preach. He was deeply impressed by the way Ambrosius expounded the Scriptures and especially the Old Testament.

In the seventh chapter of his Confessiones Augustine relates how his intellectual reservations against the message of the Scriptures disappeared. He became fully persuaded of the divine content of the message of the Scriptures. But there was yet another and still greater problem.

Augustine did not want to change his worldly lifestyle. He realised that he did not live to the glory of God. In a certain sense he wanted to be converted, but at the same time he did not want that he was converted that very day, because he could not part with his sins. He tells us that he wanted to be converted tomorrow, but the next day the situation was exactly the same. It was always tomorrow and not today.

Augustine confesses honestly that this meant that he did not want really to be converted. When conversion to God was really his deepest desire, that would be a sign that he was converted already. Augustine realised that the problem was that to live for God was not his chief desire and felt that he could not change himself. Only God can change our inward being. As a bishop Augustine taught that we have to pray: ‘O God, give me what Thou commands me and than command me what Thou will.’ Realising our helplessness and inability to change ourselves we have to ask that the Lord in his sovereign power and might makes us a new man.

In the eight chapter of the Confessiones Augustine has told us in a moving way how that mighty change was effected in his own life. In the garden of a villa he was discussing with his friend Alypius their unwillingness to make a real choice and how they until that day had again and again delayed their conversion to God.

‘I flung myself down, how, I know not, under a certain fig-tree, giving free course to my tears, and the streams of mine eyes gushed out, an acceptable sacrifice unto Thee. And, not indeed in these words, yet to this effect, spoke I much unto Thee, “But Thou, O Lord, how long?” “How long, Lord? Wilt Thou be angry for ever? Oh, remember not against us former iniquities;” for I felt that I was enthralled by them. I sent up these sorrowful cries, “how long, how long? Tomorrow, and tomorrow? Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?” I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo, I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighbouring house, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; take up and read.” Immediately my countenance was changed, and I began most earnestly to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So, restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it no other way than as a command to me from Heaven to open the book, and to read the first chapter I should light upon. For I had heard of Antony, that, accidentally coming in whilst the gospel was being read, he received the admonition as if what was read were addressed to him, “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me.” And by such oracle was he forthwith converted unto Thee. So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell, “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” No further would I read, nor did I need; for instantly, as the sentence ended, by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart, all the gloom of doubt vanished away.’

As every Christian before him and after him Augustine recognizes in the portrait of the prodigal son his own portrait. In first instance this son did not want to stay at home. He found the presence of his father unbearable. But when he finally came back the presence of his father became his chief joy. Not because his father was changed, but he was changed himself. For a Christian it is good to be near unto God.