500 Years

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1:4-6

This Halloween will be the 500th anniversary of the great protestant Reformation, which of course had its beginnings before the actual date of October 31, 1517.

I thought I would write a few posts to honor the memory of the Reformers who went before, and to affirm the great doctrine of the founders of the Reformation. Some of my favorite sites and podcasts are doing tributes to the Reformation as well, and I especially recommend The White Horse Inn. Their series is also complete with "man on the street" interviews of various Protestants at local churches throughout the country. It is shocking, appalling, and altogether unsurprising, that self-professing Protestants know virtually nothing about the faith they claim to hold.

Perhaps the best way forward for me is to offer a simple apologetic for why I am compelled to believe as the Reformers did.

I start with Soli Deo Gloria, a latin phrase meaning, "Glory to God alone." The typical Protestant today doesn't really believe this idea. They might say it, in dutiful conformity to pastoral or group pressure, but they don't really believe it.

To illustrate, I will share a story of one of my brightest students. He was giving his testimony in class, and effectively persuaded his classmates that the brightest among us must, of course, accept Christianity, because after long study and careful deliberation, it is obvious that Christianity makes the most sense and is the most ethically noble system. In short, if you were to ask the young man why he was a Christian and others are not, the answer would be something along the lines of his moral courage and wisdom. There was not the faintest hint of humility in the presentation.

You could enrich the illustration by putting it thus: Imagine identical twins, raised by the same Christian parents, both with superior intellect, in the same Christian school, same moral exemplars, etc. And now imagine one commits to Christ and the other commits to a totally godless life, even to the point of ridiculing his twin without mercy. Why is the one a Christian and the other is not?

Here I want to caution you! How you answer this simple scenario will tell you much about whether or not you affirm Soli Deo Gloria. And if salvation is dependent even in some small measure upon mankind, then God is less glorious in salvation. Will He share His glory in His most glorious act with any person outside the Triune community? Is it that He cannot secure the salvation of His elect without their help? Is He impotent? Can He only save the wise and brave among us, those whose faith as a quality in them is sufficiently strong?

In my theological past, I used to say that God does the bit that we cannot do. I used to affirm that faith is a self-originating quality, in blatant defiance of Ephesians 2:8. What I didn't see at the time is that this nonsense turned salvation into something about which I could claim a share of glory. I was saying that I was a Christian and others with similar intelligence and teaching were not because of something that glimmered more brightly in me. I was like my former student.

Or an even simpler way of putting this: When someone asks you why you are a Christian, do you lead with self-assuring and self-promoting pronouns. Do you say, "I came to believe...," or "I saw the truth...," or "I finally found the courage to believe...," or "I follow Jesus' example," or "It makes the most sense," etc. Or do you say, in reverence, in tremulous gratitude, "God gloriously gave this underserving and helpless sinner everything!"

I know now that God chose me while I was busily choosing everything else but Him. I know that my pathetic faith is not why I am saved. I don't put faith in my faith to keep me securely saved. I am saved by the object of my faith, the glorious Jesus Christ, and my faith is one of the many gifts of that total salvation that flows from the objective source. If my faith is a self-originating quality, then of course I must presumably keep it alive, and keep its quality of a sufficient depth or strength as to maintain a hold on what Christ has done. But what if my faith shrinks to a mustard seed, what if it fluctuates, so that I must always pray, "I believe Lord; help my unbelief?" If my salvation is in any measure dependent on my subjective hold on it, then it is in some measure dependent on me, and I am hopelessly unstable. But catch this, if that is true, then God's plan of salvation rests upon the tentative hope that mankind will rise to the challenge of belief. God is made a desperate actor, passionately taking the stage for the stirring penultimate monologue, hoping to stir the faith response in each of us that is our lone contribution to salvation, which is the true climax of the story, giving us the ultimate glory.

If, on the other hand, my faith is a part of the objective package of salvation granted to me by Christ, then no matter how small it becomes, I will never lose it. Put simply, I will never be able to do anything other than trust in the all sufficient person and work of Jesus.

I believe the claim is true! How glorious it is that Christ has given me all of His righteousness, and any unrighteousness in me is already forgiven because of the cross! It is truly finished! I deserved damnation and instead He gave me every good gift, including the gift of faith. And no matter how weak my faith is at various times, it is a comfort beyond words that I am assured not by the relative strength of my subjective faith, but by the objective place from which my faith originates and on which it always rests. I am assured that, in all my damnable imperfection, His perfection has become mine, and more that He will make me actually perfect in the end.

That is the singular glory of salvation! Christ has not merely initiated salvation; He has fully accomplished it. What Jesus did is not merely a necessary work; it is an all sufficient work. Soli Deo Gloria!