Gospel Regeneration - Protestants' Priestcraft

Preachers love one, and loathe the other!

 

Preachers love one, and loathe the other!

Naturally! But when their hearers also love the same injurious lie, great indeed is the delusion! They very foolishly rest their eternal salvation (since regeneration involves one's eternal salvation...) in the hands of preachers, and some of them are only hirelings!

John 3
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Is it hard to understand this? Or is the truth too humbling for the high-minded preachers to swallow?

Supposing you were the dead Lazarus lying in the tomb, would you rather have Christ acted on you DIRECTLY, or would you rather have He acted on you INDIRECTLY through the activities of His apostles, to bring you out of death?

The former keeps the apostles properly in their place, while the latter deceitfully elevates them to be mediators!

John 11
43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

It was only AFTER Christ Himself had ALREADY raised Lazarus that He summoned His disciples to do something for living Lazarus, i.e. to set him free from the hindrances of the napkin and graveclothes on him! You remove hindrances from men ALREADY MADE ALIVE by Christ!

While Lazarus was dead, Christ did not ask His disciples to do ANYTHING! Christ knew the HARSH realities... the disciples are completely impotent of doing any spiritual good with regard to the dead! He didn't depend on the disciples as the indispensable mediators to get Lazarus out of his deadness!

Get the point? Is that toooooo hard to understand? Or is it an ADDICTION to a form of priestcraft!

See the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau#!/photo.php?fbid=10200367373042405&set=a.10200367372162383.1073742058.1097484914&type=1&theater

The CONTEXT of "justification by faith alone"

 

The CONTEXT of "justification by faith alone" is
How does a man, ALREADY freely justified by the grace of God,
experiences the blessedness of his justified state;

- is it by faith in Christ alone,
- or by keeping the ceremonial laws,
- or both? 

That's the question.
It WASN'T how a condemned man is justified by God, the righteous Judge.
To this question, there is ONLY ONE SOLITARY answer.
"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 3:24 KJV

Read Romans 4 - Apostle Paul marshalled Abraham to demonstrate this obvious truth.

God is the JUSTIFIER of the condemned;
- "freely by grace" is the METHOD of justifying the condemned;
- "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" is the ALONE BASIS/GROUND of justifying the condemned.

Faith in Christ justifies the believing ones - it's the just (those already freely justified by God) who shall live by faith in Christ. Apostle Paul set forth Abraham as a classic example, and proof.

Romans 4:9 ¶Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness."

(too many read this as "faith was reckoned to Abraham for justification"; they are addicted to sound bytes.)

Do you see the force of Paul's rhetorical question? He was dealing with the Judaizers who insisted on the works of observing ceremonial laws to experience their justified state, freely by God's grace alone based on the finished work of Christ alone.

In hermeneutics, the first three principal rules are:
1. Context.
2. Context.
3. Context.
Ignoring these basic rules, the popular justification-by-faith-alone had been turned into a pernicious heresy.

2Peter 2:
1¶But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

May our gracious Lord gives you understanding.

Amen. 

Peruse this article:
https://things-new-and-old.blogspot.com/2011/05/three-distinct-sets-of-contrast-in.html

WHEN were your guilt and sin fully imputed to Jesus?

 

#imputation
#greatexchange

Please look at the meme closely, and consider these few questions directly related to the magisterial statement by a theologian admired and revered by many. 

"Our guilt and sin were fully imputed to our Substitute, Jesus, who suffered the retributive justice in our stead."

Many Christians, I included, gladly assent to this statement of gospel truth even though not a few may be quite messed up at the same time. Please answer a few questions and you will discover why I say so.

1. WHEN were your guilt and sin fully imputed to Jesus, i.e. when did the imputation take place?

2. WHEN did Jesus, your Substitute, suffer the retributive justice in your stead?

3. How are the times in Q1 and Q2 related?

4. Even so, WHEN was Adam's sin imputed to you? (I assume that you believe the truth that Adam's sin was imputed to you!)

Thank you in advance.

Romans 5
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Christ is the Alone Substitute - 1689.11.3

 

#Christ_the_Alone_Substitute
#CoF1689_11_3

Christ is the Sole Ground and Basis of Justification before God; your faith is an effect of that.

1689.11.3
"Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of Himself in the blood of His cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf,(8); yet inasmuch as He was given by the Father for them, and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them,(9) their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.(10)  8. Heb 10:14; 1Pe 1:18-19; Isa 53:5-6.   9. Ro 8:32; 2Co 5:21.   10. Ro 3:26; Eph 1:6-7; 2:7.

1. Christ is the Substitute:
a. “by His obedience and death, did fully discharged…”
- "by His obedience": He lived the perfect and sinless life for His people; by His death, He suffered the just and holy wrath of God against the sins for His people.
- He lived the sinless life they are required to live, and died the death they deserve to die.

b. Justification before God requires perfect righteousness through the obedience and death of Christ.
- The righteousness needed for justification is by the active and passive obedience of Christ alone. Man's faith is NOT in the justification equation.
- “fully discharged… undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them….” Debt completely cleared.
- “… in their stead… in their behalf… in their stead…”

2. Christ’s made full satisfaction to God’s justice for all the elect:
a. Christ “made a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf.”
- Only the obedience and death of Christ can render a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice.

b. God Himself provided this Substitute for the justification of His people.
- “He was given by the Father for them…” The substitute is God’s provision.
- God accepts the substitutionary work (obedience and satisfaction) of Christ on behalf of His people.
- This acceptance is only by God’s free grace alone, everything in the justified being wholly excluded.

c. Justification of sinners magnifies both the exact justice and the rich grace of God
- Any departure from the precise way stated detracts and diminishes both. It dishonours the Triune God.

The Father GIVETH me... HATH GIVEN me

John 6:44 KJV — No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

"... hath sent... draw him... will raise him up..." Note the tenses. 

Drawn to Christ by the Father in the effectual call out of the native state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation in Christ, and drawn to Christ by the gospel call out of ignorance to faith in Christ are two separate and distinct matters. The former is the cause and makes possible the latter. The former relates to eternal salvation; the latter to temporal salvation.

John 6:37 KJV — All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

"... the Father GIVETH me..." (simple present tense)

The Father effectually calls and gives them to Christ; the effectually called are enabled to respond to the gospel call to come to Christ; everyone that comes to Christ through the gospel call, Christ will most certainly receive. The former relates to eternal salvation; the latter to temporal salvation.

The effectual call out of the native state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ requires these distinct and sovereign activities of God - justification, regeneration, and adoption - in that logical order but simultaneously at the effectual call; without these divine activities, a man is not in a state of grace and salvation. An elect is drawn to Christ when God effectually calls him; this drawing to Christ makes an elect wholly fit for eternal glory.

Total depravity and its effect is a biblical truth; it's another perspective of a natural man being spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, i.e. completely incapable of any spiritual activities, like coming to Christ. "Except a man be born again, he cannot..." The good news is God Himself freely and sovereignly draws him to Christ by His effectual call.

John 6:39 KJV — And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

"... He (the Father) hath given me..." (present perfect tense)

God the Father elected a people before the foundation of the world and has given them to Christ to redeem them; they were given to Him, and remain given to Him. Christ secured their eternal redemption through His substitutionary life and atoning death for them.