Truth Before [denominational] Tribe

I am going to try to explain a complicated idea as simply as I can. It starts with the idea that eternal security (once saved, always saved) depends on the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. If God took out his wrath on Jesus and fulfilled justice by punishing Jesus rather than us for sin, then of course we should think we are eternally secure. Justice has been established, sins have been punished, and our sins cannot bring condemnation.

The problem with this is that the apostles say sin will be punished, even among Christians. The clearest place is Jesus’ letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3. These are real churches, all near Ephesus in Asia Minor, and all said to have been supervised by the apostle John in the late first century. There, the “deeds” or “works” (used 11 times in those 2 chapters) of the churches are threatened to be punished by:

1. the removal of the church’s candlestick, which is not clear but implies it won’t be a church anymore ( (Ephesus, cf. Rev. 1:20)
2. Jesus warring against them with the sword of his mouth (Pergamum)
3. a bed of oppression and death (Thyatira)
4. not walking with Jesus in white and having their name erased from the Book of Life (Sardis, and Jesus notes that only a few will escape this because Sardis is an unusually bad church: “even at Sardis” you have a few who have not defiled their garments)
5. being vomited out of Jesus mouth (Laodicea)

There are only 5 churches listed here because Smyrna and Philadelphia were faithful enough they received no warning.

Where Penal Substitution Gets It Right

I am not saying all teaching on penal substitution is wrong. In Galatians 3:13, Jesus became a curse for us by being hung on a tree. That is penal, and it is substitution.

The penal substitution, however, was to get us out from under the Old Covenant so we could obtain the justification offered in the New Covenant by faith. In Hebrews 9:15, Paul writes:

For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Hebrews carefully explains how we were extracted from the Old Covenant by Jesus’ death, then also explains how he instituted the New Covenant by his blood.

Through the rest of the epistles, as well as the Gospel and Acts, the apostles repeatedly emphasize that Jesus died to deliver us from sin, not just forgive us of our sins. For example, in Acts 2:40, Peter says to be “saved from this perverse generation,” and in 3:26 he says God sent Jesus “to bless you by turning all of you from your wickedness.” I could give you a lot of verses, but it is worth emphasizing Titus 2:11-15.

We like to quote John, the only apostle who says we have eternal life, but John says the ones who have the righteousness of Christ are those who are actually doing righteousness. He precedes this by saying “don’t be deceived” (1 Jn. 3:7).

Why These Things Aren’t Taught Everywhere

The Protestant Reformers–trying to understand the Bible after the Roman Catholic Church had forbidden it to Christians for centuries and tried to kill all those who would translate it into a readable language–did not get everything right. In the end, they failed to pass on the critical importance of good and evil (Isa. 5:20)  and God’s goal is to deliver us from wickedness (Acts 3:26) rather than to ignore wickedness.

The New Testament warns of death, condemnation, and destruction at the final judgment (Heb. 9:27) even to those who have believed in Jesus . Second Corinthians 5:10 tells us that our deeds, “whether good or bad,” will be brought up at the judgment seat of Christ (cf. Matt. 25:31-46, the Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats). Galatians 6:7-9 warns of corruption, as opposed to eternal life, for those who sow to the flesh. Ephesians 5:5-7 warns of wrath to Christians who live like the sons of disobedience. John 5:28-29 threatens a resurrection of condemnation to those who do evil.

Why Good Works Are Easy for Christians

Mind you, it is supposed to be easy, because we are God’s workmanship, to do good works (Eph. 2:10). Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). In Matthew 11:29, he says coming to him will produce “rest for your souls.”

It does take effort, we are supposed to “be diligent” (or “make every effort”) to make our calling and election sure by “doing these things” (2 Pet. 1:10, referring to the things in 2 Pet. 1:5-7) to gain an entrance into Jesus’ everlasting kingdom (v. 11). Paul agrees with Peter, telling us in Philippians 2:12-13  that we are to work out our salvation with “fear and trembling.” Despite the fear and trembling, the same passage tells us that this is possible because it is God who is working in us both to want to do and to do his will.

With this Peter agrees, saying that we are to fear the judgment throughout our sojourning on earth (1 Pet. 1:17).

There’s a writing from the second century that captures this contrast of fear and power extremely well. It is called The Shepherd of Hermas, and it is a tale of “the Messenger of Repentance” visiting Hermas and giving him visions, allegories (similitudes), and commandments. After giving him 12 commandments, Hermas and the Messenger have this conversation:

I [Hermas] say to him, “Sir, these commandments are great, and good, and glorious, and fitted to gladden the heart of the man who can perform them. But I do not know if these commandments can be kept by man, because they are exceeding hard.”

He answered and said to me, “If you lay it down as certain that they can be kept, then you will easily keep them, and they will not be hard. But if you come to imagine that they cannot be kept by man, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, If you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your house, since you have already determined for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by man.”

These things he said to me in tones of the deepest anger, so that I was confounded and exceedingly afraid of him, for his figure was altered so that a man could not endure his anger. But seeing me altogether agitated and confused, he began to speak to me in more gentle tones; and he said: “O fool, senseless and doubting, do you not perceive how great is the glory of God, and how strong and marvelous, in that he created the world for the sake of man, and subjected all creation to him, and gave him power to rule over everything under heaven? If, then, man is lord of the creatures of God, and rules over all, is he not able to be lord also of these commandments? For,” says he, “the man who has the Lord in his heart can also be lord of all, and of every one of these commandments. But to those who have the Lord only on their lips, but their hearts hardened, and who are far from the Lord, the commandments are hard and difficult. Put, therefore, ye who are empty and fickle in your faith, the Lord in your heart, and ye will know that there is nothing easier or sweeter, or more manageable, than these commandments. (Pastor of Hermas, Commandment 12th, ch. 4)

Doesn’t Everyone Sin?

We live by repentance, confession, and forgiveness. The Bible calls this “walking in the light” (John 3:19-21; Eph. 5:8-13; and especially 1 John 1:7-2:2). The only way, even as God’s workmanship, to make it to the end is to gain forgiveness regularly along the way (Heb. 4:16). It is simply true that the best way to become righteous is to acknowledge your unrighteousness to God every day (1 Jn. 1:7-2:2). Even the man known as “James the Just,” to Jew and Christian alike, wrote, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).

Nonetheless, Paul tells us that if we want to be rewarded with eternal life at the judgment, we must “patiently continue to do good” (Rom. 2:6-7). I would call this “plugging along.” Paul calls it “not growing weary in doing good” in Galatians 6:9 and says it is the only way to reap eternal life.

Why Do I Write About Judgment So Much

I apologize for having to write these things over and over, but the Reformers’ not-quite-right theology is being advertised every day in song and sermon. This ongoing war against the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), requires an ongoing war in return. Jude, in fact, tells us to “contend earnestly” for that faith. Even Peter, after telling us to be diligent to make our calling and election sure by “doing these things,” says that he will remind us of these things and make every effort to get us to remember them even after his death (2 Peter 1:10-15).

Martin Luther had to dismiss Hebrews and James to maintain his theology, saying that James was “a right straw-y epistle” (rechte strohern Epistel) and that both Hebrew and James had nothing of the nature of the Gospel about them. John Calvin had to turn James 2:24’s “justified by works and not by faith alone” into “justified by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone,” which is not a faithful paraphrase.

The fact is that James 2:24’s “not by faith only” is the only occurrence of “faith only” or “faith alone” in the Bible, but we have decided nonetheless to make “salvation by faith alone” a mantra.

I Had To Mull Over These Passages for Years

I puzzled over the passages I covered above for years, from 1986 through about 1992, not knowing what to do with those passages, especially with “not by faith alone” being the only occurrence of “faith alone” in the Bible. I knew that Ephesians 2:8-9 is correctly understood as “faith alone,” because he eliminated all works so that no human could boast, but it is still not right to twist and try to eliminate James 2:24.

The early Christians, who wrote at a time that all the apostles’ churches were united (yes, even Peter’s and Paul’s churches) helped me find what I was missing, though it took time for me to get it.

The only way into the life of Christ, into justification and innocence, into receiving the Holy Spirit and becoming a new creation, into being God’s workmanship, a work he accomplished by his grace/favor towards us, is by faith and faith alone. Even God cannot require righteousness from a mere human (with exceptions like Job, Noah, and Daniel–Ezek. 14:14). He tried that for 1500 years, not to prove to himself that we were too weak in our flesh to be righteous, but to prove to us who inherit the New Covenant that we cannot inherit the kingdom of God in our own strength.

Note: I borrowed that from an anonymous and very early, possibly first-century, author, who wrote: “This was not that he at all delighted in our sins, but that he simply endured them; nor that he approved the time of working iniquity which then was, but that he sought to form a mind conscious of righteousness, so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able (“Epistle to Diognetus,” ch. 9).

I learned from the difference between our past-tense salvation from sin by faith alone and the future-tense salvation from wrath at the final judgment by works. This difference is mentioned in Romans 5:9-10. It is not discussed directly elsewhere that I know of, but it underlies everything in the New Testament. Faith is “vs.” works in our minds because we don’t understand the faith that saved us in the past tense, making us doers of good works, would lead to us being justified by our works at the judgment.

Because we could not attain to the kingdom of God in our own power, God offered us a way into something new by faith and faith alone. By faith we “are having been saved” (Eph. 2:8, past tense) from being dead in our sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1) by being “made alive in Christ” (Eph. 2:5) and becoming “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Eph. 2:10). There is nothing in Ephesians 2 about going to heaven. It is all about being re-created in Christ Jesus, saved (past tense) from death in our sins by being reconciled with God so that me have his favor releasing us from sin’s dominion (Rom. 6:14) and training us in godliness (Tit. 2:11-12) so that we are “zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:13-14).

There is a past-tense salvation by faith apart from works that changed us into spiritual people that can do good works. If we want a future-tense entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11), we will need to faithfully do the good works that he has equipped us to do by being born again (Eph. 2:10), by the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and by the exhortation of the saints (Heb. 3:12-13; 10:24-25), even though we know this will require regular repentance, confession, and forgiveness along the way (Heb. 4:16; 1 Jn. 1:7-2:2). Otherwise, and don’t be deceived about this, we will have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ (Eph. 5:5-7) nor will he have the righteousness of Christ attributed to us (1 Jn. 3:7).

Notice that I did not add the “don’t be deceived” to those verses, Paul and John put them in there.

So, saints, work out your salvation with fear and trembling because in due season you will reap eternal life if you do not lose heart in doing good (Php. 2:12; Gal. 6:8-9).