Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 13 – Distinctives within the body of Christ
Mystery of Sin, Salvation, and Sanctification
[Bible references: Ps 38:39; Is 12:2; 25:9; Zephaniah 3:17; Matthew 26:28; Luke 24:47; John 3:16; 10:9; Acts 2:38; 4:12; Romans 5; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 15:2; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Tim 3:15]
How do we inherit sin?
There are two main views of how we inherit sin:
- According to ancestral sin, Adam and Eve alone bear the full responsibility and guilt for the sin in the Garden, but we inherit mortality, the tendency to sin, and alienation from God and other people. Expulsion from the Garden was to prevent the humans from being eternally separated from God.
- According to original sin, as Adam’s ancestors we inherit not only Adams’ sinful nature but his guilt as well. Expulsion from the garden was a punishment.
What did Jesus do to allow our relationship with him to be restored?[1]
By taking on human flesh the way that Jesus did and becoming fully human, he experienced all the temptations to sin that we face, but without succumbing to them. When he died on the cross as a perfect God-Man, he was able to overcome death and offer to restore our relationship with him. Different congregations have different ideas on how this transaction was able to actually work.
- God paid a ransom to free us. Once the ransom was paid, justice was satisfied, and God was able to free us. There is a dispute about whether the ransom was paid to God or to the Devil.[2]
- Christ is seen as the second Adam who is victorious where Adam failed and undoes what Adam did. The atonement of Christ has reversed the course of mankind from disobedience to obedience. Christ’s life recapitulated all the stages of human life and in doing so reversed the course of disobedience initiated by Adam.[3]
- Just as Adam’s sins were imputed to us (original sin), when Jesus died on the cross, his righteousness was imputed to us.[4]
- Christ suffered for everyone so that the Father could forgive the ones who repent and believe. Pardon and forgiveness cannot be brought to pass unless God’s righteous obligations as Moral Governor can be satisfied. Nor can it happen unless man is willing to repent and embrace the conditions of mercy. Man must identify himself in a committal of faith to the sufferings of Christ for his sins, as the only hope of his forgiveness and spiritual restoration from a state of ruin.[5]
What is the effect of sin on our bodies and on our world?
Despite the effects of sin, that we are image-bearers of God. This view creates a positive view of our bodies and is supportive of taking healthy care of our bodies and also the environment. However, there is a viewpoint originally developed by Greek philosophy that has continued to affect the church in many ways from the beginning is the idea that only spiritual things are good and physical things are bad.[6]
In regard to the body, this dualism leads to the view that sex is sinful and a general discomfort in talking about the body, preventing the church from counteracting the influence of the culture both within and outside the congregation. This dualism has led to many other errors as well, such as focusing on heaven as our final destination instead of a new creation, the need to deny oneself physical pleasure[7] in order to pursue the spiritual, and the neglect of our roles as stewards of our physical environment.
How are we saved from the consequences of our sins?
When the first people rebelled against God, they brought the penalty of death and eternal separation from God upon themselves. As descendants of those people, we inherited the corrupt nature that causes us to sin and therefore also brings the penalty of death and separation from God upon ourselves. Our salvation is only possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The gift of salvation can be received when we confess our sins, acknowledge Jesus’ death on our behalf and accept God’s forgiveness for our own sins.
That said, there are two explanations about how we are saved that depend on how we think we inherited sin.
- According to the doctrine of ancestral sin, salvation is a process of avoiding sin and becoming more like God,[8] a process which, for those who are baptized into Christ, will continue after our death and resurrection. God did not expel Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and away from the Tree of Life as a punishment, but out of compassion, so that we would not be like the fallen angels and become immortal in sin.
- According to the doctrine of original sin, Jesus’ death is considered to have paid the penalty for our sins. By receiving his forgiveness, we are legally justified before God, and he gives us his spirit so that we can begin the process of becoming more like him.
What is the role of grace in salvation?
In Reformed theology, God gives irresistible grace to those he chose before time began and gave them the will to respond to his call to repent so that they can be forgiven, and once forgiven, God will ensure that they will persevere in the faith.
In provisional theology all men are given a grace[9] that allows them free will to respond to God’s call to repent and be saved and also have God’s assurance that he will not let us go.[10]
In Arminian and Orthodox theology, it is by our free will that we accept God’s forgiveness and then also have the free will to abandon that faith later.
What does it mean to be saved by grace and yet have expectations to live righteously?
Some Christians think that once they are converted, that is they have received Christ’s gift of salvation, then they have done all they need to do. After that, some will either forget or neglect the entire process of being a disciple of Christ leaving the question of whether they were actually converted.
Some congregations believe that more than faith is required in order to receive salvation[11] and insist that salvation has not happened unless some specific things are done. The Orthodox tradition states that salvation is a process that begins with conversion but then continues with the process of becoming more like God. The Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions state that once we have been justified, then God can set us apart to be the type of people that he has intended us to be from the beginning.[12] In this condition, we can begin the process of growing in Christ, that is, becoming more like God.
We are living in the time between the first coming of Christ, where he conquered death and sin, and His second coming, when he will transform creation with a new heaven and earth, and we will have new resurrection bodies. In this in-between time, we still are living in corrupt bodies and in an earth corrupted by sin although we may have begun the process of being transformed more into the image of Christ. This does create some confusion.
Until the final resurrection we still sin and need to regularly be in an attitude of repentance, confessing our sin and turning back to God and acknowledging our need for God’s grace so that we can also be ready to give grace to others.
The Roman Catholics emphasize our need to not only confess our sins, but to do something tangible to express our repentance[13] and need to be purified more completely before we can appear before God. This requires a temporary stay in purgatory before we are allowed into heaven.
Viewing things in a more positive light, some congregations emphasize that while we may not actually free from sinning, that our hearts have been cleansed from sin by the grace of God.[14]
Since we are under grace, do the commandments still apply to us?
We are told that those who are born “of the Spirit” are not “under the law” because Jesus fulfilled the law. However, that does not mean that the law can be ignored. In fact, not only does the law provide guidance for us, but the expectations for our behavior are even more comprehensive. The New Testament explicitly tells us that:
- hating our brother is equivalent to murdering our brother.
- we should not hate our enemy but love them.
- looking at someone with lust is like committing adultery.
- if we are forced to go one mile, then we should go two miles.
Our motivation should not come from trying to obey the external law “written in stone” but rather from the internal desires “written in our hearts” to love – love God and to love one another. To give a few examples: we should be.
- Not driven to obey the Commandment to keep the Sabbath, but rather encouraged to live every day to God.
- Not driven to obey the command to tithe, but rather encouraged to be generous.
- Not driven to obey the command to not covet, but rather encouraged to promote the welfare of others.
- Not driven to obey commandments, but rather encouraged to express the fruits of the Spirit.
- Not driven to obey externally given commands, but rather encouraged to grow in our internal desire to love,
- Not driven to avoid doing wrong, but rather encouraged to delight in finding the best way to do what is right
However, the relationship of the church to the law has been a point of contention in many congregations causing many congregations to adopt a legalistic framework. There is a tendency to consider the laws we call the Ten Commandments to be unlike the other laws in the Old Testament – to be “moral laws” that still apply. The New Testament, however, has not separated out the “moral law” from the rest of the laws (sometimes called civil and ceremonial laws) in the Old Testament. Some consider the Law to be good as it guides us away from idolatry, but others view the law to be bad as we should rather be relying on grace instead of the law which is considered to be oppressive.
The Ten Commandments, as we call them, are not numbered in the original texts (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5) but in the Biblical text are referred to as the Decalogue, which means “ten words.”[15] This has resulted in a couple of different numbering schemes for the “ten words.” One of the variations is influenced by iconoclasm, which makes “You shall not make any graven images …” the second commandment.
[1] Soteriology is the study of how we are saved
[2] Theopedia “Ransom” Theopedia theopedia.com/ransom
[3] Theopedia “Recapitulation theory of atonement” Theopedia theopedia.com/recapitulation-theory-of-atonement
[4] Theopedia “Penal substitutionary atonement” Theopedia theopedia.com/penal-substitutionary-atonement
[5] Theopedia “Governmental theory of atonement” Theopedia theopedia.com/governmental-theory-of-atonement
[6] In Persia during the third century, Mani tried to synthesize all the known religions, including Gnosticism and Christianity into a religion known as Manichaeism. Gnostics think that there is a good spiritual world, and a bad physical world (aka Dualism).
[7] New Advent “Asceticism” New Advent newadvent.org/cathen/01767c.htm
[8] Theopedia “Theosis” Theopedia www.theopedia.com/theosis
[9] Prevenient grace means the grace of God that surrounds all, and is at work in all, even before we know or care about it.
[10] Spurgeon, C.H. “The Security of Believers – or, sheep who shall never perish” Spurgeon Gems spurgeongems.org given 5 Sept 1889 www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs2120.pdf
[11] Theopedia “Legalism” Theopedia theopedia.com/legalism
[12] Sanctification is the process of being set apart for God’s use.
[13] Catholic Encyclopedia “Penance” Catholic Encyclopedia catholic.com/encyclopedia/Penance
[14] Theopedia. “Wesleyan perfectionism” Theopedia www.theopedia.com/wesleyan-perfectionism. Wesleyan perfectionism, sometimes called entire sanctification, is a view held by John Wesley that taught that Christians could to some degree attain perfection in this life.
[15] Hale, Philip. “Numbering the Decalogue, Images, and Iconoclasm: A Historical and Theological Survey” Nebraska Lutherans for Confessional Study, July 25, 2013
Observe
Read John 3:16; 10:9; Acts 2:38. How can we be reconciled to God?
Dancing In The Kingdom 