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Three Tenses of Salvation

October 1, 2010 By Randy Olds 2 Comments

Portions of Ben Witherington III’s book The Indelible Image that I am currently reading are very reminiscent of N.T. Wrights book After You Believe: Why Christian  Character Matters that I read early last Spring. In particular is the emphasis on the positions that Paul really believed that our ultimate salvation was not necessarily dependent upon our initial salvation.

While neither author takes a Pelagian view with any hint toward a works-based salvation and both insist that salvation is “by grace through faith”, both insist that Paul really believed that we could make a shipwreck of our faith and eventually be lost through apostasy. While I can’t remember off the top of my head exactly what Wright wrote and my copy of his book is not readily at hand, I do have Witherington’s book handy and one quote stands out.

There is, of course, a soteriological reason why Paul speaks as he does about righteousness. It is because for Paul, salvation has three tenses to it: I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved to the uttermost when Christ returns and I am fully conformed to His image. Although initial salvation certainly comes on the basis of grace through faith and without doing works of any kind (which explains how God can set right the ungodly’ the sinner, even his enemy without them doing anything to merit this), there can be no doubt that working out ones salvation involves deeds, not just beliefs or trust in God. Ben Witherington III, The Indelible Image, p. 227

It seems to me that both Witherington and Wright are attempting to put more and more distance between themselves and the Augustinian model of soteriology, which in my mind is greatly flawed (along with a lot of other Augustinian theology).

I am not asserting that either Witherington or Wright are getting ready to move over to the Easter Orthodox Church, but what they are saying about Paul’s soteriology reminds me somewhat of what I have studied on Eastern Orthodox soteriology. The following is from an Eastern Orthodox study Bible that I found sometime back and made note of:

“Justification by faith is dynamic, not static. For Orthodox Christians faith is living, dynamic, continuous–never static or merely point-in-time. Faith is not something a Christian exercises only at one critical moment, expecting it to cover all of the rest of his life. True faith is not just a decision, it’s a way of life.

This is why the modern evangelical Protestant question, “Are you saved?” gives pause to an Orthodox believer. As the subject of salvation is addressed in Scripture the Orthodox Christian would see it in at least three aspects: (a) I have been saved,being joined to Christ in baptism; ( b) I am being saved, growing in the sacramental life of the Church; and (c) I will be saved, by the mercy of God at the Last Judgment.”

I find myself wondering if perhaps we aren’t starting to gain back some of Paul’s thoughts about salvation and ethics that were skewered by Augustine and then lost in the East-West Schism of 1054. And although I have no plans to go out and join the Eastern Orthodox Church (I think that the whole iconoclasm thing would weird me out), I think that their soteriological views are much more in line with Pauline thought than what a good deal of Western Christianity is. I also like the Eastern Orthodox views on Theosis, which, although not quite the same as Wesley’s Entire Sanctification, are very close.

Filed Under: Conversion, Entire Sanctification, John Wesley, Justification, N.T. Wright, Salvation, sanctification, soteriology, The Church, theology

Partakers of The Divine Nature

October 27, 2009 By Randy Olds Leave a Comment

I was going to write tonight about the process of sanctification and what part that we as followers of Christ we have to play in it. You know, prayer, studying God’s Word, service to our fellow Christians, the sacraments, etc. As I was driving to work, I was thinking about various scriptures relating to this, and somehow 2 Peter 1:4 came to mind.

“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” NKJV

I’ve actually spent a lot of time studying 2 Peter 1:3-11 over the last few months, especially verses 5-7;

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Holman CSB

It seems that this passage indicates in an orderly, logical way how we proceed through the process of sanctification, with faith leading to goodness and so on until we get to the zenith in our walk with God and that being love. Godly agape love as is found in verse 11.

But I digress. As I got to studying verse 4 again, I tried to focus on the “partakers of the divine nature” portion of it. What exactly does that mean?

The word partaker (Gr. Koinónos) actually means “companion” or “sharer”. I like the Thayers Lexicon entry for koinōnos; “To be a partner of the one doing something.” Using the following verses in context, it would appear that by only by partaking of the divine nature that was provided to us by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit can we add to our faith the additional elements that will eventually result in having the love of God perfected in us. (1 John 2:5) But as I continued to study this verse, it seemed that it went a little deeper still.

It began to dawn on me that this was another verse validating Wesley’s concept of Christian Perfection that I touched upon in my post yesterday. It turns out that I was more right about this than I initially thought.

The concept of entire sanctification is foreign to most Protestants. Even among most congregationists in the Methodist church where Christian perfection used to be preached on a regular basis (albeit many years ago), the idea is not discussed much. Most Protestants don’t even know the difference between justification and sanctification and mostly think of sanctification as a one-time thing that happens at salvation. And the concept of Christian perfection, or entire sanctification would throw the average Protestant into a tizzy. However the idea of entire sanctification is apparently as old as the Christian Church itself.

The Catholic Church calls the doctrine of entire sanctification Theosis, and it is well known among Catholic and Orthodox theologians and clergy. It is also known as divinization or deification. One of the key verses supporting the doctrine of theosis turns out to be the same verse in 2 Peter that I have been studying over. Go figure.

I think that most Protestants would find the Orthodox view of Theosis quite unnerving, perhaps bordering on Eastern Mysticism or even Gnosticism. It’s not all that, and I think that the Protestants might benefit from studying this doctrine a little closer, although they perhaps should take baby steps and try to read and digest John Wesley’s A Plain Account of Christian Perfection first.

I read a very excellent essay Becoming Like God: An Evangelical Doctrine of Theosis by Bethel University Professor Robert Rakestraw. He traces the development of this doctrine from Paul through the early Church Fathers and into today’s theologians. I like what he said toward the end of his essay in his critique of the doctrine. “Why”, he asks, “use terminology that, at first glance at least, will alienate those unfamiliar with this line of thinking in Christian theology, and thus miss what might be of benefit to them? Some may reply, however, that the shock value of the terms may be just what is needed to awaken lethargic or defeated Christians to the truth of their union with Christ.”

I find the Wesleyan view of Christian perfection and this newly discovered (for me, anyway) related doctrine of theosis a fascinating study and find myself attracted to it. I feel that the typical Protestant idea of Christianity is lacking in many areas and think that the reason that there is such a downward trend in church attendance in America is more than likely due to the lack of zeal that so many people see in today’s Christians. I have also read that there are a large number of Christians that are converting to Orthodoxy. It is obvious to me that many Christians are looking for something more than what they are being offered in their average Protestant church.

Why are we seeking just to be “good Christians” rather than seeking to be “partakers of the Divine nature” and striving for Christian excellence in all that we do? Why is “good enough” good enough? Why aren’t we seeking to “be therefore perfect as [our] Father in Heaven is perfect“? Matthew 5:48

As Wesley points out in his treatise on Christian perfection, very few people will ever achieve this state during their natural lives, but it should be the bar that we all aim for. I like what C.S. Lewis had to say on the subject in Mere Christianity:

“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. He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creatures, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to Him perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what he said.”

In his book, “In the Light of Christ”, Basil Krivocheine reflects the thoughts of Symeon;

“While remaining a spiritually conscious state and clearly felt by the one who receives it, divinization will always remain an awesome mystery, surpassing all human understanding and unobserved by most people. Indeed, the ones who are granted it are rare, although all the baptized are called to it. It is their fault if they deprive themselves of it.” pp 389-390

One of the more “shocking” quotes that I ran across several times while studying this concept was from St. Athanasius of Alexandria. He said, “God became man so that man might become god.” Although the second “god” is lowercase in this statement, many Protestants that I know might get quite upset by such a statement. But isn’t that what the New Testament says in so many words?

As is often the case, the study of this verse took me much further down the rabbit hole than I anticipated. However, I like what I found down there. Wesley’s concept of Christian perfection, both in his life and in his teachings is one of the things that drew me to Methodism. I likewise find the expanded view of this as found in the doctrine of theosis to be of value, even if it isn’t necessarily the Methodist view and might make a few of the Christians that I know a little nervous. I suppose that a final thought on the subject might be:

Why settle for “good enough” when Christ has offered us the best?

.

Filed Under: Entire Sanctification

Being Remade in God’s Image

October 26, 2009 By Randy Olds Leave a Comment

It was a really great worship service at Church this morning. Our Church launched the kickoff of a new contemporary service called “The Well” in the newly renovated Chapel to run concurrently with the traditional Methodist service that takes place in the larger main sanctuary. The Chapel is much smaller, only seating about 250 people or so, but it was a packed house and the service was a huge blessing for my wife and I.

Our Teaching Pastor led the service, and although the message was primarily on how Christ’s generosity should reflect within us in our walk with God, he touched on a subject that I’ve spent a pretty fair amount of time studying lately. The scripture reading was from Galatians 5:16-24 and our pastor focused on how the Holy Spirit working within us is what allows us to be remade in God’s image.

Although our pastor didn’t hit on it in his sermon, Galatians 5:17 is one of the many verses that I feel confirms the doctrine of the total depravity of man. Although the Catholic Church doesn’t agree with total depravity, almost all of the Protestant theologians support this doctrine that was developed by Augustine in response to Pelagianism. From my own experience, I know that before I allowed Christ into my life and the Holy Spirit began His work in my heart, I was “…full of evil, and madness was in my heart…” (Ecclesiastes 9:3).

Before the Fall of Man, God had created us in His image. Sin brought depravity, and now it takes the presence of Christ living within us through the power of the Holy Spirit to reshape us back to the likeness of God’s image. I now believe that “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother did conceive me.” (Psalms 51:5)

For many, many years I was “always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7) Holman CSB. I knew the Bible, I knew about theology, I attended church at times, I knew about God, but I never knew God. The idea of “having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” was just a catch phrase; it had no real meaning to me. I thought the term was just something that the holy-rollers used, and that it was not a real thing that you could acquire. It was only after years of fruitless attempts to remake myself that I finally surrendered and pleaded for God to remake me.

That was when the miracle occurred.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes; “God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form.” Lewis is referring to the incarnation, and this statement follows his famous Trilemma, but I have discovered that this statement is also true for each and every person who accepts Jesus Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior. God lands within the enemy-occupied territory that is our human flesh. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within us (1 Corinthians 6:19) and begins to remake us back into the image of God.

I have a very good friend who I’ve known for many years who just recently accepted Christ and is amazed at what is going on in his life. He is surprised at how he no longer wants to do many of the sinful things that used to be just the normal way of life for him. He is also astounded in the change that he has witnessed in me, especially since he had known me for many years before I accepted Christ and had seen me at my depraved worst. I told him that it sometimes feels like I have been invaded by some alien presence because of the fundamental paradigm shift that has occurred within me. In many ways that statement is correct, but the alien presence is in actuality the Holy Spirit’s presence within me, and He is the One who is affecting the change.

It is a mysterious thing. As Paul said in Colossians 1:26-27 “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

During his sermon, our pastor briefly touched on the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian Perfection. Although some Wesleyans have drifted away from this idea, holding that it is perhaps unattainable to one degree or another, I personally draw great strength from this belief held by John Wesley. This idea of perfection was not unique to Wesley as it is addressed often in the Bible, most notably by John. 1st John is perhaps my favorite book in the Bible. John says in 1 John 2:3-6;

“This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” without keeping His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him: the one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.” (Holman CSB)

I am intensely aware of the miraculous change that has occurred within me in the relatively short time since I accepted Christ. Perhaps because of the sheer number of years that I struggled against the flesh and continually lost, it is apparent that nothing in me could have affected this change. It can be nothing but the presence of Christ living within me through the power of the Holy Spirit that has affected the change, not me. I often wonder how close to the image of God I will become if I am allowed to walk with Him for the same measure of years that I didn’t walk with Him.

As I continue to strive to “walk just as He walked” as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I seek nothing less than to be completely remade by Him into the image of my Father in Heaven. I don’t know how close to “Christian perfection” that He will bring me before I go to see Him in Heaven, but I pray that it is as close as possible. I try day by day to not let anything that I do to hinder the Holy Spirit as He continues to reshape and mold me into a “vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21) NKJV

Filed Under: Christian Living, Entire Sanctification, John Wesley, The Holy Spirit