Friday, February 12, 2010

Simul Justus Et Peccator

For my post this week once again my focus will be on that aspect of divine truth that is of first importance--the gospel (1 Cor. 15:3-4), as I consider one of it's chief blessings. During this Valentine's Day weekend as our thoughts ponder the subject of love, generally on the horizontal plane, let us first and foremost look up and gaze upon that great love of God in granting salvation to utterly unworthy rebels such as you and I. One of the chief blessings of this great saving love as God applies it to our lives is that provision of clothing us "in an alien asbestos righteousness transparent to the glory of God that can take me (us) into the flame of that 6 trillion degree centigrade holiness and enjoy it instead of being consumed by it" (John Piper). I am afraid this will be one of my more long-winded posts, for which I apologize profusely in advance. I cannot help myself.

Are you familiar with the phrase, simul justus et peccator--Latin for: at the same time--simultaneously--righteous or just and a sinner? In this slogan from the 16th century Reformation is captured my dear readers of this blog the sweetness of the Gospel. At the very moment we by God's sovereign mercy are granted saving faith in the Savior and rest our confidence in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, and His perfect righteousness is imputed or credited to us by an act of forensic declaration, we are in and of ourselves sinners still. And while God the Holy Spirit now resides in us and begins from that moment to form a real righteousness within us through the work of progressive sanctification, that righteousness in this life is always an imperfect righteousness.

We are saints on the one hand because of the perfect righteousness of Christ, and on the other hand, we still sin-------though to be sure sin no longer reigns over us and we no longer live in it as those who pursue holiness. We are simul justus et peccator. And as such, and only because of such we can come before God with a pacified conscience. Folks, there is never a moment in this life when our fellowship with God does not rest ultimately upon the free forgiveness of sins and justifying rigtheousness--all because of grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. It is always Christ's virtue, not our own, that is the ground of our acceptance with the infinite/personal God.

At the heart of the Biblical gospel is the doctrine of justification. J. I. Packer in his introductory essay to the classic work "The Doctrine of Justification: An Outline of its History in the Church and of its Exposition from Scripture", by James Buchanan, expressed the following concerning the importance of the doctrine of justification:
...the doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. The doctrines of election, of effectual calling, regeneration, and repentance, of adoption, of prayer, of the church, the ministry, and the sacraments, have all to be interpreted and understood in the light of justification by faith. Thus, the Bible teaches that God elected men in eternity in order that in due time they might be justified through faith in Christ. He renews their hearts under the Word, and draws them to Christ by effectual calling, in order that he might justify them upon their believing. Their adoption as God's sons is consequent on their justification; indeed, it is no more than the positive aspect of God's justifying sentence. Their practice of prayer, of daily repentance, and of good works--their whole life of faith--springs from the knowledge of God's justifying grace. The church is to be thought of as the congregation of the faithful, the fellowship of justified sinners, and the preaching of the Word and ministry of the sacraments are to be understood as means of grace only in the sense that they are means through which God works the birth and growth of justifying faith. A right view of these things is not possible without a right understanding of justification; so that when justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then, as Luther said, the church itself falls. A society like the Church of Rome, which is committed by its official creed to pervert the doctrine of justification, has sentenced itself to a distorted understanding of salvation at every point. Nor can these distortions ever be corrected till the Roman doctrine of justification is put right. And something similar happens when Protestants let the thought of justification drop out of their minds: the true knowledge of salvation drops out with it, and cannot be restored till the truth of justification is back in its proper place. When Atlas falls, everything that rested on his shoulders comes crashing down too.

To help us think more clearly about this vital truth that is at the heart of the gospel I am including in this post a brief test for us. It consists of 10 pairs of statements concerning the Biblical teaching about justification. Read them through carefully and choose which statements reflect the teaching of Sacred Scripture. The answers are given below (but no peeking allowed).

1. (a) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by mercifully accounting him innocent or virtuous.
(b) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by actually making him into an innocent and virtuous person.

2. (a) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by placing Christ's goodness and virtue to his credit.
(b) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by putting Christ's goodness and virtue into his heart.

3. (a) God accepts the believer because of the righteousness found in Jesus Christ.
(b) God makes the believer acceptable by infusing Christ's righteousness into his life.

4. (a) If a person becomes "born again" (regenerate), he will achieve right standing with God on the basis of his new birth.
(b) If a person becomes "born again" he achieves right standing with God on the basis of Christ's work alone.

5. (a) We receive right standing with God by faith alone.
(b) We receive right standing with God by faith which has become active by love.

6. (a) We achieve right standing with God by having Christ live out his life of obedience in us.
(b) We receive right standing with God by accepting the fact that Christ obeyed the law perfectly for us.

7. (a) We achieve right standing with God by following Christ's example by the help of his enabling grace.
(b) We follow Christ's example because his death has given us right standing with God.

8. (a) God first pronounces that we are good in his sight, then gives us his Spirit to make us good.
(b) God sends his Spirit to make us good, and then he will pronounce that we are good.

9. (a) Christ's finished work outside of us and his intercession at God's right hand gives us favor in the sight of God.
(b) It is the indwelling Christ that gives us favor in God's sight.

10. (a) Only by faith in the doing and dying of Christ can we satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.
(b) By the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, we can satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.


Answers: 1 a; 2 a; 3 a; 4 b; 5 a; 6 b; 7 b; 8 a; 9 a; 10 a.

The answers given above reflect the Evangelical, and what we believe to be the Biblical teaching on this great and vital truth. The alternative statements reflect a summary of the understanding of Roman Catholicism on this doctrine. They are obviously not the same. Do we understand the difference? Does it matter? Why?

"For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Rom. 3:28).

"And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6).

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14 Comments:

Anonymous EJK said...

Bruce, thank you for guarding, protecting, and proclaiming the true gospel, the biblical gospel.
Thank you for "guarding the good deposit entrusted to you."

2 Timothy 1:8-14
"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, ... but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, NOT BECAUSE OF OUR WORKS BUT BECAUSE OF HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, ...which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,....

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that HE IS ABLE TO GUARD until that Day WHAT HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED TO ME.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. BY THE HOLY SPIRIT who dwells within us, GUARD THE GOOD DEPOSIT ENTRUSTED TO YOU."

February 15, 2010 at 6:04 AM  
Blogger Petros said...

Bruce, I want to read this later... I just checked in quickly, but must take the children to school.
Will read and comment later hopefully... looks good.

Thanks, PETER

February 16, 2010 at 8:37 AM  
Blogger Petros said...

Bruce, I took the test. It seems to me that in a few of these questions, both "A" and "B" are correct. I wonder if the apostles themselves would understand the nuances here... after all, they were fishermen, not philologists!

February 16, 2010 at 10:37 PM  
Blogger Bruce said...

Hey Peter, thanks for your comments. Always appreciate your candor. I would be interested to know which questions you think reflect equally correct answers, and why you think so.

February 16, 2010 at 11:44 PM  
Blogger Petros said...

OK Bruce, thanks. I regret my "candor" at times-- I never want it to be unkind. That expression about the disciples being fishermen and not philologists was one I picked up some time ago when a bunch of us were looking at the Lord's supper in John 6. When I a student at Wheaton College there was a time when some of us were was beginning to embrace the "ancient faith" of the Church. We became interested in Catholocism and Orthodoxy at that time. I have many friends who (I am convinced) know, love, and serve the Lord in truth, and who are members of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. One of them is even a priest in North Carolina with a thriving congregation of young families. He used to be an Evangelical missionary in Nepal!

I just give you this in order to explain my reaction sometimes on these issues. I honestly do wonder if we split hairs when we talk of being "declared" righteous but not actually "being" righteous. I want to look at this more carefully.

I don't know a single Catholic who would say that they could be saved apart from the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The crucifix is always front and center, as you know-- and it is His work that saves. I know that this isn't always conveyed to the catholic laity as it ought to be... Shame on the teaching office of the R.C. Church!

My apologies... I have gone over 4 sentences!

Bruce, I deeply respect you, and maybe I need to understand some of these things in a more careful way. And, again, I never want to be unkind, or flippant.

Forgive me please!

February 17, 2010 at 8:29 AM  
Blogger Bruce said...

No apologies or forgiveness needed bro! I did not interpret your comments as unkind or disrespectful in any way, just honest. I appreciate that.

These are very important issues and I would like to discuss them further. I am however pressed for time at the moment. It would be really helpful though in the meantime if you could share specifically why you are thinking that some of the questions have multiple correct answers.

As far as 4 lines are concerned, I think Tim was referring to the responses to his blog yesterday, not in general (although I could be wrong------haven't yet discussed it with him). I think for some strange reason he doesn't like hearing too much from any one person in a given day.

February 17, 2010 at 9:20 AM  
Blogger Tim Shorey said...

Hey guys,
This is worth a face to face conversation among those interested I think. It takes up way more space than this forum is made for...

But to chime in briefly on this matter I know how it can seem like a case of overly fine semantics when talking about such issues as "righteousness declared" and "righteousness practiced or imputed righteousness" and "infused righteousness", but I think--and the Protestant Reformers, on the one hand, and the magesterial (authoritative) Catholic framers of the Council of Trent on the other saw the issues as far more than semantics.

They realized that the different words led to different gospels; hence they saw the concerns as being of life and death. That's why the Reformers were willing to die for these things, and the Catholics were willing to anathemetize those who differed from them.

I believe that there are true believers in Christ who are still in the Catholic church but I believe that the only way that can happen is if they are living, perhaps unwittingly, in denial of Catholic doctrine and decrees.

Trent as well as the most recently RC endorsed Catholic Catechism show that official papal and conciliar theology of Rome is in direct contradiction to salvation by grace alone through faith alone based on the finished work of Christ alone.

As best I can see, Catholics faithful to papal and conciliar theology must believe in salvation by faith in Christ and personal merit gained through works.

As I say--this will require further conversation face to face, but I do think I've needed to insert these few thoughts for now...

February 17, 2010 at 9:31 AM  
Blogger Petros said...

Thank you both...

You are both well-versed in the important and sometimes "fine" distinctions. I know words and ideas have serious implications for this discussion. I just want to be sure, for myself, that the Catholic Church is saying what we say they are saying, and understand the implications for myself.

I've been too careless in this area, and need to lay this discussion to rest once and for all, by doing the study and asking God to make it perfectly clear.

I don't want to be the reason this discussion gets opened up again. You are both very busy--

What I want now is a very practical holiness in my own life, and in the lives of my wife and children.

I know this isn't an "ivory tower" discussion... and I don't want to write it off as such, but sometimes it feels like it.

Why don't I try to crystallize my understanding of the root differences by looking at some books I have on my shelf right now.

February 17, 2010 at 11:55 AM  
Anonymous EJK said...

Just reading all the back and forth dialoguing has encouraged me.

Peter I am encouraged by your willingness to learn and be taught.

Bruce I appreciate your godly responses to Peter's questions. I appreciate that it was not a highly charged reaction. Your response in itself is teaching me! Thanks!

Tim, your concise simple to the point response was just right for the moment, in order to have a continuing dialogue separate from this dialogue.

For my own edification I would love to be a part of the continued conversation.

February 17, 2010 at 12:38 PM  
Blogger Bruce said...

Peter, I think what your are expressing is an important and excellent idea to gain clarity on this issue.

I don't have the time at the moment, but later today I will follow up with some resources that I would recommend. I don't know what you have in your library, but I will mention several that will carefully, thoroughly, and fairly explain the agreements and differences between the Evangelical and Roman Catholic views.

February 17, 2010 at 12:44 PM  
Blogger Petros said...

Thanks Bruce. I look forward to it, and I will give my attention to the resources you suggest, (along with two books I have which I have been meaning to read). This thing keeps surfacing so I need to get it clear.

February 17, 2010 at 2:05 PM  
Blogger Bruce said...

Peter, a little later than I anticipated, by here are several resources that will be helpful to you as you think through these issues. There are many excellent treatments of these issues available, but I am limiting it to a few that I think would be the best place to begin.

These first two are authored by R.C.Sproul, who in his usual careful, accurate handling of Biblical doctrine explains the gospel and justification with clarity, making clear what is at stake in the differences between the Evangelical and Roman Catholic views. I would start with these two.

1. Getting the Gospel Right: The Tie That Binds Evangelicals Together

2. Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification


The following book is in my judgement the best overall comprehensive evaluation of Roman Catholicism in print that I am aware of. It is careful, accurate, and irenic in tone. I should point out that my recommendation is with some qualification when it deals with issues of practical cooperation, but that said it presents a thorough analysis of the issues and demonstrates clearly the incompatibility of much of Roman Catholic doctrine with Biblical revelation.

3. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences, by Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie


All of the above books are available in the TFC bookstore.

Peter, while I'm at it let me recommend 2 audio resources that you may want to avail yourself of also:

1. Roman Catholic Tradition: It's Roots and Evolution - 16 messages -William Webster

Here is a link to them:
http://www.christiantruth.com/audiolectures.php

2. Putting the Reformation Solas in Perspective - 4 messages - Douglas Jones

Here are the titles of the 4 messages:

Part 1: Scripture
1. Sola, Solo, or Prima Scriptura?
2. Evaluating Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox Objections to Sola Scriptura

Part 2: Justification
3. Hellenistic or Covenantal Justification?
4. Evaluating Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox Objections to Justification

Here is a link to them:

http://www.canonpress.org/shop/item.asp?itemid=826

You mentioned about asking God to make things perfectly clear for you. I will be praying to that end.

I do believe that, along with an open Bible, you will find all of the above very enlightening and helpful as you think these things through.

Looking forward to talking further with you. See you soon.

February 18, 2010 at 1:05 AM  
Blogger Petros said...

Wow.. thanks for the resources. I'd like to come into the book store this week and get a start.

I knew of a Bill Webster who was connected with the school in South Carolina where I met my wife. He was doing some writing then, I wonder if it is the same man?

I also have 2 books which may argue for the similarities rather than the differences. One by Mark Noll, formerly of Wheaton, now at Notre Dame, "Is the Reformation Over?" And another "Catholics and Evangelicals" by Peter Toon, a conservative Anglican who just recently went to be (I believe!) with the Lord.

February 18, 2010 at 9:54 AM  
Anonymous EJK said...

Bruce, thanks for all the recommendations that you gave to Peter.

I just finished another book, so I am ready for another. I happen to have Sproul's "GETTING THE GOSPEL RIGHT", so I am going to start reading it today.

I take to heart, Bruce, your recommendation to read all resources with an "open Bible".
I was reminded of this passage:

I Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

And I was reminded of this passage that describes you:

Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

February 18, 2010 at 12:37 PM  

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