Travis Seitler: Web Designer

I’ve been observing as Adrian Warnock continues his God-killed-Jesus series, and so I was delighted to see The Daily Duck: Thoughts on Adrian’s Sermon, a response from the waterfowl who first called Godbloggers to the carpet on this issue. The Duck made some really good points, especially as to how justification and sanctification work out. I’ve included a (rather lengthy) quote from his post, and my own comment is included afterward:

Adrian used the phrase “if you break one Commandment, you break them all”. Apparently God has a zero tolerance policy where sin is concerned. One strike and you’re out. It is the proverbial “no win” situation. Except, that is, if you accept Christ, then it becomes a no lose situation.

To me this sounds like the proverbial “gift horse”, the one that you shouldn’t look in the mouth. Yet I can’t help but look it in the mouth, because of that other proverb about gifts: “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is”. I would say that this guilt-free promise of salvation is the quintessential “too good to be true” idea. Yet who am I to pooh-pooh such an offer. This isn’t a TV ad, it is supposedly coming from God himself. What do I have to lose, right?

[snip]

But if I were to argue against Adrian’s position above, derived from Romans 8, that only a turn to Christ in the spirit will bring salvation, from a Biblical standpoint, I would invoke Matthew 31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

If good works held no influence on salvation, then this passage makes no sense. Clearly Jesus is telling his followers here to look for him “in the flesh”, not in the spirit. Those of his followers who looked to him but not to the opportunities to help their fellow man, even if it means taking their eyes off of him, will not be saved. Jesus is not making a distinction between the spirit and the flesh, but is saying that the two are one.

Well met! I like how you think, Mister Duck!

As to the “break one, break ‘em all” bit, that comes straight out of the Epistle of James, chapter 2:

“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”

And while we Christians love to play Scriptural soundbites, doing so usually requires ignoring the context (ironically, Adrian just posted something along these lines). In this particular passage, James is saying that it does no good to say you’re righteous because you follow your “pet commandments” if you’re ignoring the parts of the Law you don’t think are worth your time and effort. (In this particular case, James’ audience thought they were pretty tight with God because they were obeying Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” — only problem was, they only did that if their neighbor was filthy-stinkin’ rich.)

James isn’t saying that the same degree of eternal punishment awaits the serial shoplifter and the serial rapist. He’s saying that neither one can claim to be a Law-abiding citizen, and neither one respects the Lawgiver.

And that, perhaps, ties into your frustration with the “get-out-of-Hell-free card” mindset. People who have been saved from God’s wrath and set free from the power of sin will at times still sin; the difference is that they love the Lawgiver, and the Lawgiver Himself has established an unbreakable covenant that He will purify them of all unlawfullness — not just as a matter of propitiation (transferring their guilt to Jesus Christ), but He will really and truly conform them into Righteous people.

But the question must be asked, “is righteousness primarily adherence to an external code, or your motive(s) for adhering to that code?” A person can begrudgingly obey when there’s no conceivable alternative (much like your postmortem dangling-over-the-pit-of-Hell illustration), but that doesn’t mean they find any beauty or delight in who or what they’re obeying. The Scriptures draw a distinction between the two, and call one “righteousness” and the other “legalism.” The external Law is good, but ineffective on its own. Only when our hearts are rewired to obey the Law because of our love for the Lawgiver will we be considered righteous by Jesus’, James’ and Paul’s standard.