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Brainy Seal sent me a newsletter which contains an article on Justification.
I responded, and a few mails were exchanged. Names of real men have been altered.
On Dec 17, 2009, at 5:54 AM, Brainy Seal wrote:
Dear Friends of TCS,
I've attached the latest CS newsletter. Inside:
Article on Justification by Stevie Fernez
Feel free to pass it on!
Brainy Seal
Dean of the CS
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Wed, December 16, 2009 10:01:45 PM
Hi Brainy, thanks for the newsletter.
"Why is free justification by faith alone so vitally important? " begins the article on Justification by Stevie Fernez
We have corresponded before...
IF the justification of the guilty condemned criminal before God is by faith (the act of believing in Jesus Christ), THEN...
- it is NO LONGER free justification. It is no longer free justification because it is conditioned upon faith, man's act of believing. It is conditioned upon something man must do.
- it is IMPLIED that a guilty condemned spiritually dead criminal (an un-justified man is under the condemnation of death) is able to believe in order to be justified before God.
- It is IMPLIED that a guilty condemned dead sinner is already regenerated by God (having ability to believe, in order to be justified by God), i.e. regeneration precedes justification!
- It is IMPLIED that a sinner who is under the condemnation of death (being un-justified) is AT THE SAME TIME/SIMULTANEOUSLY already regenerated, and is able to believe in order to be justified by God!
It is like a condemned criminal that is FREED first, and then upon his act of believing his freedom, that the Supreme Court declares him not guilty, but innocent. What lawlessness and insanity!
No, free justification is by God's free grace through the righteousness of Christ alone, and nothing on the part of man, not even his believing.
In free justification, God freely pardons all the sin of a guilty sinner under the condemnation of death, and accepts him as righteous by imputing to him the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. This is free justification unto LIFE, thus providing divine warrant for the Spirit of God to regenerate. This is FREE justification indeed - conditioned upon NOTHING in man.
A justification is that conditioned upon the believing act of man is NO LONGER free justification. If it requires man's act of believing, then it is no longer of free grace! To say otherwise is to abuse, and to confuse, the word 'free' - the word is emptied of its meaning.
This free justification is to be experienced, and evidenced by faith in Christ, and works of righteousness. This is made possible through the gospel ministry.
Sin, the transgression of God's law, brought condemnation unto death.
Acts of sin EVIDENCE that state of condemnation, they do not bring a man into a state of condemnation. Sins do bring the experiences of guilt and condemnation.
Righteousness, obedience to the law of God, alone brings justification unto life.
Acts of righteousness, like faith, EVIDENCE the justification unto life that has taken place by free grace. They do not instrumentally obtain justification unto life.
Faith is one of the many graces found in a justified man... and that grace of faith worked in them by the Holy Spirit ENABLES a justified man to believe the gospel.
Take a look at the thoughts in the follow short articles in my blog at http://things-new-and-old.
"THEREFORE AS the Arminians..., EVEN SO the Calvinists..."
"By faith alone' vs. 'Not by faith alone."
"Saved by grace through faith – whose faith?"
your friend in the far east,
sing
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On Dec 17, 2009, at 3:32 PM, Brainy Seal wrote:
Your argument is with the clear statements of Scripture, not with me.
You allow your logic (not biblical logic) to overturn Scripture.
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Thu, December 17, 2009 12:39:24 AM
Hi Brainy,
Which clear statements of Scripture say that free justification before God is by faith, man's act of believing? The Scriptures does say that free justification is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, his faithfulness that secured the righteousness needed for justification unto life.
It is funny you dismissed logic just like that when it doesn't suit you.
When your logic insists that regeneration must precede faith (the act of believing), it is affirmed as biblical. When the same logic insists that justification unto life must precede faith (the act of believing), it is denounced as unbiblical!
Without justification unto life, how could the condemnation of death be reversed? Without the condemnation of death removed by God the Father based on the finished work of God the Son, where is the ground for regeneration by God the Spirit, the new birth with eternal life?
The Scriptures plainly declares that God justifies the ungodly, those under the condemnation of death, imputing to him the righteousness of Jesus Christ unto JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE.
Such a one then have life to believe... and in believing his FAITH justifies him, vindicates him, declares him, evidences his justified state by the free grace of God.
Confused men insist that God justifies the believing!
Scriptures declares that believing vindicates, demonstrates, certifies the justified states of a man by the free grace of God through the righteousness of God. Similarly, the good works. "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."
Breathing justifies that a man is a living man; believing justifies that a man is a justified man. Breathing testifies that a man is a living man; believing vindicates that a man possesses eternal life, that he has the justification unto life!
your friend in the far east,
sing
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On December 17, 2009 10:31:15 PM GMT+08:00 Brainy Seal wrote:
Your flaw is that you think that "ungodly" means "unbelieving."
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December 18, 2009 10:33:20 AM GMT+08:00
Brainy Seal,
With all due respect, you are quite mistaken about the flaw you have imagined!
The 'ungodly' that stands in need of justification by God the Judge is necessarily one that is still UN-justified, i.e. under the condemnation of death, dead in trespasses and sin, and one who is in enmity against God by nature. The ungodly is far more than unbelieving!
God's children may often be shamefully "unbelieving", but they are not the "ungodly."
They are God's children, and are saints in status. Believing will justify God's children that they have the justification of life.
Your wee flaw is that you don't see your own plain inconsistency and irrationality.
Justification of life to remove the condemnation of death must PRECEDE faith is as logical as regeneration to newness of life must precede faith.
Your wee flaw is that you cannot differentiate the various distinct aspects of justification:
- justification decreed before time
- justification accomplished at the cross
- justification applied at effectual call
- justification experienced at faith
- justification vindicated in glorification.
sing
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p/s
Here is the statement from 1689.11.1 - doctrinal statement of the Old School Baptists:
"Those whom God effectually calleth, He also FREELY justifieth,(1) not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous;(2) not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone;(3) not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in His death for their whole and sole righteousness,(4) they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.(5)"
1. God also FREELY justifies:
- NOT BY infusing righteousness into them
- NOT FOR anything wrought in them, or done by them
- NOT BY imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness
(Man's act of believing is PLAINLY excluded in his justification by God's free grace. Faith is a grace wrought in them, and believing is something done by them - both are emphatically excluded in their justification. Absolutely nothing is required of man in his free justification by God. That is what the Old School Baptists had believed, and stated. Now the new school Baptists insist otherwise - that believing is required in free justification. They are guilty of double talk - free justification conditioned upon their faith. Justification that is conditioned upon some acts of man is no longer FREE justification. Let God be true, but every man a liar!)
2. He also FREELY justifies:
- BUT BY pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous
- BUT FOR Christ's sake alone
- BUT BY imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in His death for their whole and sole righteousness.
3. The justified receive and rest on Christ and His righteousness by faith:
- God's act of freely justifying those guilty and under the condemnation of death is DISTINCT FROM and PRIOR TO their act of receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness by faith.
- A benefactor's act of freely crediting a $1b into your account is DISTINCT and PRIOR to your believing the good news of that free and gracious act, and going to the bank to draw on that gift.
- It is SCANDALOUS and SHAMELESS to insist that it was conditioned upon your believing that the gift was credited to your account!
Only those justified by God, delivered from the just condemnation of death, and regenerated, are able to exercise faith. The grace of faith is found in those that are already justified and regenerated, not in those that are still under the condemnation of death that needed to be justified by God.
"The reason why any are justified is not because they have faith; but the reason why they have faith is because they are justified." - from the Circular Letter issued by the Philadelphia Baptist Association, October 4, 1785. The 1689 BCoF was the doctrinal statement of PBA.
