Romans 8:29-30
Is any human activity
involved in the predestination to glorification for any one of God's elect? If
yes, please elaborate.
Sing F Lau
Please note that it
is taken for granted that the object acted upon by each divine activity stated embraces the complete number of God's elect in every instant.
So many spout from
the right side of their mouths that salvation is by grace alone, and
straightway repudiate it in the next breath from the left side of their mouths
that the SAME salvation is ALSO, in addition to grace, conditioned upon many
other things - e.g. the gospel ministry, faith in Christ, continuing in a life
of holiness, etc. So their assertion that it is by grace alone is just a hollow
lie, a religious shibboleth! It is no longer by grace alone!
Why such confusion?
Is it by grace alone, or is it not? What do they mean by 'alone'? Is it alone
or is it not?
If it is by grace
alone, then what are the biblical roles and functions of those most important
things appointed by God, i.e. the gospel ministry, faith in Christ, continuing
in a life of holiness, etc.? They are for the temporal salvation of His children, the elect whom He has freely bestowed eternal salvation when they were dead in trespasses and sins.
Romans 8:28-29 speak of eternal salvation through the monergistic divine activities of God alone.
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Tom Sellier
Why such confusion?
In America, it is square at the feet of the preachers. "Mat 13:25 "But
while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat,
and went away." The tares today are those who have mixed their gospel
message with works, when,, as Paul said that is not really a gospel. Am I my
brother's keeper? All of mankind said no, but God promised to keep those who come
to Him through Christ by faith. The tares are those who say one must keep the
sabbath day or speak in tongues to be saved or belong to a particular church or
follow a particular set of rules blah blah blah. God knows those who are His
and we wait for His return. I will know you are my brother in Christ by your
love for my brother. You are my brother Sing F Lau.
Sing F Lau
VERY MANY of God's
children - whether they be die-hard Arminians or cocksure Calvinists, and many
between them - insist that their activities are involved in the
predestination-to-glorification (i.e., ETERNAL SALVATION) of sinners. They
vehemently insist that those "whom God justified," He justified them
ONLY through their act of believing ALONE, and that faith can come by the
preaching/hearing the gospel alone.
They don't seem to realise that this view is so full of irreconcilable contradictions and blasphemies!
Can you think of
some? Let us hear them.
Sing F Lau
Many blurt
mindlessly, 'faith, my act of believing in Christ, is the instrument of my
salvation...'
But what do they
mean by this religious shibboleth? In what sense is your act of believing in
Christ the instrument of your salvation? What is the real and exact relation
between the instrument and the salvation?
Is faith, the act of
believing, the instrument to obtain, to appropriate for yourself the salvation?
Is it, before your act of believing you are not saved by God, but through your
act of believing then God saved you?
If that's what folks
means, doesn't this mean that a man WITHOUT salvation, I.E. still dead in trespasses
and sins by, is able to exercise faith in Christ in order to be given or
obtain/appropriate salvation?
How could faith, the
act of believing in Christ, which is a fruit and effect and consequence and
product of salvation, which is already bestowed by God's free and sovereign
grace, be the instrument at the same time, to obtain or appropriate that SAME
salvation? Isn't this monumental nonsense and contrary to all common sense?
There can be no
possibility of faith in Christ apart from the salvation already BESTOWED by
God's free and sovereign grace! Faith in Christ is an activity of the eternal
life already bestowed by God's free grace!
Are you still
thinking and inquiring? So, what exactly does an instrument do?
Let me give an
example. What does an instrument like a voltmeter do? Does it in any way help
to produce voltage in the circuit? Or does the voltmeter EVIDENCES the presence
of voltage in the circuit?
Just what does faith
(act of believing in Christ) do? What is its exact function?
I suggest that faith
in Jesus Christ is the instrument to EVIDENCE, MANIFEST, DEMONSTRATE,
VINDICATE, TESTIFY... that eternal salvation by God's free grace has taken
place - i.e justification, regeneration, adoption, and bestowal of the Spirit
of adoption (in that order and number) to dwell in the heart - HAVE TAKEN PLACE
by God's free grace.
Faith in Christ
certifies and vindicates and demonstrate and verifies the justified state of
the believer in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ justifies EVIDENTIALLY that the
believer has been justified by the free grace of God, the justification spoken
of in Rom 8 passage, the justification that is applied to every elect of God,
without exception, at God's appointed and approved time for each elect.
Faith in Jesus
Christ is also the means appointed by God for a child of God to EXPERIENCE the
blessedness of his salvation already bestowed by the free and sovereign grace
of God, when he was still dead in trespasses and sins.
This aspect of
justification, i.e. evidential justification by faith, is NOT experience by
every child of God. Why?
- Some of God's
children don't have the ABILITY to hear, infants who died in infancy, mentally
challenged, deaf, etc.
- Others do not have
the OPPORTUNITY to hear: in each generation, since the world began until now,
the gospel has not been brought to EVERY child (elect that have been
regenerated)...
- Many of God's
children have never had THE true gospel preached to them... and they have
enough common sense to reject those fables!
Just some thoughts.
Sing F Lau
"Justification
is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners,[286] in which he pardoneth all
their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the
perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone." 1689.11.1
The points are
actually very simple. Distinction is the essence of sound theology.
1. God's free grace
act of justification is a DISTINCT and SEPARATE and PRIOR from the justified's
act of receiving it by faith alone.... See More
2. God's free grace
act of justification is TOTALLY independent of man's faith:
- 'not for anything
wrought in them', faith is most certainly a grace wrought in them.
- 'not for anything
done by them' , faith, the act of believing in Christ is most certainly an act
done by them.
- a man that needed
to be justified by God is a man in his unjustified state, under the
condemnation of death. Such a man is incapable of faith! So, justification by
God must be totally independent of faith, OTHERWISE NO ONE, NO, NOT ONE, can
ever be justified. This is simple enough.
It is only a
justified man who is capable of faith. That is why the OLD SCHOOL theologians
put it thus:
"The reason why
any are justified IS NOT because they have faith; but the reason why they have
faith IS because they are justified."
NOW SCHOOL
theologians and their followers insist on the opposite!
"Faith, thus
receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument
of justification,' THAT IS, faith is the alone instrument of EVIDENTIAL and
EXPERIENTIAL justification, to manifest and experience the justification that
has taken place by God's free grace.
The justification of
a condemned man by the free grace act of God, and the justification of a
believer by his faith are TWO VERY DISTINCT and SEPARATE ACTS.
It is when confused
men mix and join them together that we have all this confusion, messing
MONERGISM into SYNERGISM!
The Confessions are clear... because they have a clear distinction between justification of the UNGODLY by God's free grace, and the justification of the believer by his faith.
