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NASB | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. [Luke 6:47-49] |
Subject: What is perfected for all time? |
Bible Note: "This is not sarcasm, bro, but where do you see that we are DECLARED to be anything? Can you show me a verse in the NASB from the NT that says that God DECLARES us as anything?" I don't know why you are limiting us to the NASB, as if that is how the authors wrote it, but here goes. Paul in Romans 4 compares our justification to that of Abraham and David: 'What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT."' --Romans 4:1-8 The two aspects of justification toward humans are mentioned here. First, our faith is CREDITED as righteousness. Notice that this does not say that our faith makes us righteous, but that because of Christ's sinless life and substitutionary death, God counts our faith as righteousness. "Counting" and "crediting" our faith as being something else does not entail a transformation of us ourselves into righteous beings. The other side of our justification is noted in David's quote. Our sins are not counted against us. We suddenly do not become sinless, but rather our sins are not counted against us. Again, this would be injustice on God's part if it weren't for the role of Jesus Christ. This is why classical Protestantism holds to a doctrine of "imputed" righteousness rather than the Roman Catholic doctrine of "infused" or "inherent" righteousness. While Protestants hold that we are regenerated (born again with a new nature), there is no passage in the New Testament that insists that we are already righteous in our own right, meaning that now apart from Christ we are able to stand before the infinitely holy God of the universe on our own. There is a disturbing bit of theology that arises as well if we say that God makes us instantaneously righteous at our justification, because the doctrine of justification is a two-way street. Not only are we credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ, but also Christ on the Cross was "credited" with every single last sin of His people. If we insist that justification makes us righteous by nature, then the opposite must necessarily be true, that on the Cross God the Son became a sinner in nature as well! The idea that Jesus became some kind of super-demonic being on the Cross may not cause some of the "big-wigs" on TBN to flinch, but it is in reality a monstrous notion to think that the second Person of the Trinity even for a brief span of hours became unholy and sinful in His very nature. But just like in algebra, what happens to one side of the equation has to happen on the other. One other observation I would like to make regarding our natures. If we are truly righteous in our own right now, then Jesus' work as our Great High Priest would be done. No more unrighteousness means no more need for a priest to come before God on our behalf. And, while Jesus did sit down at the right hand of God, indicating that His sacrificial work was indeed "once for all," the New Testament also clearly indicates that his ministry of intercession for us is an ongoing one (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) and that He is continuously our Advocate before the Father (1 John 2:1). If God already sees us as righteous on our own, such activities on Jesus' part become unnecessary. You use the apple analogy to demonstrate something growing into what it already is. I do not find that to be the Biblical model of sanctification. We are not simply growing from a baby apple to a big daddy apple. We are being constantly transformed (i.e. changing from one thing to another) and renewed (Romans 12:1-2). We are definitely in the process of change from one state to another, but it is quite evident to me that the Holy Spirit is active within us making those changes rather than our own "spiritual DNA" just manifesting itself over time. --Joe! |