The old adage of the Lordship Salvation controversy maintained that "if Jesus is not Lord of all your life then He is not Lord at all in your life." This all-or-nothing, black-and-white mentality caused quite the stir among evangelicals of all persuasions, even to this very day. I was raised in this environment. When I heard pastors and preachers and Bible teachers tell me that, if Jesus is not Lord over every single compartment of my being then He is not my Lord at all, I began to wonder if anyone is truly saved. Believer after born-again believer would confess to each other in meetings and services regarding their various struggles; and I remember thinking to myself, "But I thought Jesus had to be Lord over your struggles / issues / failures, and if He was not, in fact, Lord over those issues then He is not Lord at all in your life." They taught us that.
What did "being Lord" mean? The implication was that all of those so-called struggles / issues / failures were to be "given over" to Jesus your Lord, and that He was ruling over those areas in your life to such a degree that you walk in perfect obedience to Christ, because He was "Lord" and, as your Lord, He deserved perfect obedience: a life without disobedience and failure. But I didn't actually know any believer who walked in absolute perfect obedience to the Lord. None among us, not even the pastor, was entirely sanctified. Yet they still called Jesus their "Lord." The inconsistencies were alarming, to say the least, the very least. Can Jesus still be Lord over my failures and inconsistencies?
JESUS IS LORD
Yes, in fact, Jesus is LORD, and you didn't make Him LORD, and you cannot make Him LORD. Jesus is LORD by His very nature, His essence, His eternal being. Jesus cannot not be LORD. You can say that Jesus is LORD and you can declare Him as your LORD by the inspiration and reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). You can believe in Jesus Christ as LORD over you (Rom. 10:9, 10). But Jesus is LORD regardless of any confession to that status from fallen human beings. Jesus is even LORD over unbelievers, whether or not they realize it, and they will acknowledge as much one day (Phil. 2:9, 10, 11); and He is LORD over demons, and they do realize it (cf. Luke 4:33, 34; 8:28; Acts 19:15; James 2:19)! You cannot make Jesus LORD. He simply is LORD. He was LORD, from all eternity past (Matt. 3:11; 10:40; 16:16; Mk. 1:38; Luke 12:49-51; John 1:1-3, 27, 30; 6:33, 38, 41, 50, 51, 57, 58, 62; 8:28, 38, 56-58; 16:26, 28; 17:3-5; Heb. 7:1-4; Rev. 1:8, 11), before He created the universe (John 1:1, 2, 3; Col. 1:15, 16, 17, 18). He is LORD now. He will be LORD for all eternity future. This reality of His Lordship has absolutely nothing to do with you and me "making Him Lord" over us. John MacArthur himself has stated: "Scripture never speaks of anyone 'making' Christ LORD except God Himself [Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:11]. The biblical mandate is not to 'make' Christ LORD but, rather, to bow to His Lordship."
THE VIA MEDIA
What if people on both sides of this issue came to an agreement? Lordship proponents are correct in stating that a born-again person cannot and will not live the rest of his or her days upon the earth in open, defiant, and blatant sin: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:2 NASB); "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). The goal of the sanctified believer is summed up by John: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin," i.e., so that you will not live your life in sin (1 John 2:1a NIV); but the reality of the sanctified believer is summed up also by John: "But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 John 2:1b NIV). The will of God for us is a wholly sanctified life (1 Thess. 4:3); and, yet, God also knows our frame (Ps. 103:14)--"For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot [always and perfectly] carry it out" (Rom. 7:18b).
"So I find this Law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being [renewed by grace through the Holy Spirit, cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Titus 3:5] I delight in God's Law; but I see another Law at work in me, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the Law of sin at work within me" (Rom. 7:21-23 NIV). This inner spiritual war is constant in the believer. Without doubt, some people may have more success than others, for any variety of reasons. The point with our failures is central in this: the believer despises his sin, he does not want to, nor delights in, sin, and he wishes to God that he could be freed entirely in this life from all inclination to sin. He is hopefully blissful that one day all sin will be eradicated within him! The person who has not been born again loves his sin, has no guilty conscience of sinning, and he does not long to be free from his sin. Such a one does not cry out: "What a miserable creature I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, He will, through Jesus Christ our LORD" (Rom. 7:24-25). That's the difference!
HYPER GRACE
There are those people, however, who have taught that a person could go on consciously living in open, defiant, willing sin after becoming a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and to do so without the sting of conscience produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit--and perhaps even outright deny, reject, and despise Christ Jesus our LORD--and still be saved. This is not biblical grace, but a godless grace, and an abuse of grace. This heresy is what created Lordship doctrine. The believer loathes his sin. Here is an obvious problem with such an abuse of grace:
TESTING YOUR FAITH
There have been many sermons and much ink spilt in books regarding the believer "testing his faith," to "see if he is in the faith," as Paul writes to the believers at Corinth (2 Cor. 13:5a). "Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test" (2 Cor. 13:5b-6). This testing hearkens back to what Paul wrote in the third verse: "since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you" (2 Cor. 13:3). From the ministries of certain pastors, and Bible teachers, we need to be constantly testing our faith to see if we are really in Christ. What is the test? That you are perfectly obeying Jesus Christ: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15 NASB; cf. CSB, CEB, CJB, ERV, ESV, GW, HCSB, LEB, LSB, NABre, NCV, NET, NRSVue, RSV, TLV). Incidentally, the KJV, NKJV, and MEV offer, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (cf. also EHV, ISV, JUB, NIRV, NIV, NLT, RGT, WEB, WYC, YLT). What is the difference between the two readings?
If Jesus said "If you love Me [then] you will keep My commandments" then the action of keeping His commandments stems from one's love of the Savior--it is the natural outworking of a loving and redemptive relationship initiated by God Himself in Jesus Christ through the inward-working Holy Spirit. But if Jesus said "If you love Me [then] keep My commandments" then that is an imperative, a direct command, the action stemming from the command to obey and not directly from the loving relationship: you obey Him because He said so and you will then prove your love for Him, evincing (hopefully) true faith, by your perfect obedience. What's the problem? Obedience doesn't save you, and apparent obedience does not necessarily prove that you have been saved, either. Salvation is not about outward morality. A Mormon, who is not a regenerate Christian, could be far better at strict obedience but that does not prove or grant evidence that he has been and thus will be saved.
What did "being Lord" mean? The implication was that all of those so-called struggles / issues / failures were to be "given over" to Jesus your Lord, and that He was ruling over those areas in your life to such a degree that you walk in perfect obedience to Christ, because He was "Lord" and, as your Lord, He deserved perfect obedience: a life without disobedience and failure. But I didn't actually know any believer who walked in absolute perfect obedience to the Lord. None among us, not even the pastor, was entirely sanctified. Yet they still called Jesus their "Lord." The inconsistencies were alarming, to say the least, the very least. Can Jesus still be Lord over my failures and inconsistencies?
JESUS IS LORD
Yes, in fact, Jesus is LORD, and you didn't make Him LORD, and you cannot make Him LORD. Jesus is LORD by His very nature, His essence, His eternal being. Jesus cannot not be LORD. You can say that Jesus is LORD and you can declare Him as your LORD by the inspiration and reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). You can believe in Jesus Christ as LORD over you (Rom. 10:9, 10). But Jesus is LORD regardless of any confession to that status from fallen human beings. Jesus is even LORD over unbelievers, whether or not they realize it, and they will acknowledge as much one day (Phil. 2:9, 10, 11); and He is LORD over demons, and they do realize it (cf. Luke 4:33, 34; 8:28; Acts 19:15; James 2:19)! You cannot make Jesus LORD. He simply is LORD. He was LORD, from all eternity past (Matt. 3:11; 10:40; 16:16; Mk. 1:38; Luke 12:49-51; John 1:1-3, 27, 30; 6:33, 38, 41, 50, 51, 57, 58, 62; 8:28, 38, 56-58; 16:26, 28; 17:3-5; Heb. 7:1-4; Rev. 1:8, 11), before He created the universe (John 1:1, 2, 3; Col. 1:15, 16, 17, 18). He is LORD now. He will be LORD for all eternity future. This reality of His Lordship has absolutely nothing to do with you and me "making Him Lord" over us. John MacArthur himself has stated: "Scripture never speaks of anyone 'making' Christ LORD except God Himself [Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:11]. The biblical mandate is not to 'make' Christ LORD but, rather, to bow to His Lordship."
THE VIA MEDIA
What if people on both sides of this issue came to an agreement? Lordship proponents are correct in stating that a born-again person cannot and will not live the rest of his or her days upon the earth in open, defiant, and blatant sin: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:2 NASB); "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). The goal of the sanctified believer is summed up by John: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin," i.e., so that you will not live your life in sin (1 John 2:1a NIV); but the reality of the sanctified believer is summed up also by John: "But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 John 2:1b NIV). The will of God for us is a wholly sanctified life (1 Thess. 4:3); and, yet, God also knows our frame (Ps. 103:14)--"For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot [always and perfectly] carry it out" (Rom. 7:18b).
"So I find this Law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being [renewed by grace through the Holy Spirit, cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Titus 3:5] I delight in God's Law; but I see another Law at work in me, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the Law of sin at work within me" (Rom. 7:21-23 NIV). This inner spiritual war is constant in the believer. Without doubt, some people may have more success than others, for any variety of reasons. The point with our failures is central in this: the believer despises his sin, he does not want to, nor delights in, sin, and he wishes to God that he could be freed entirely in this life from all inclination to sin. He is hopefully blissful that one day all sin will be eradicated within him! The person who has not been born again loves his sin, has no guilty conscience of sinning, and he does not long to be free from his sin. Such a one does not cry out: "What a miserable creature I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, He will, through Jesus Christ our LORD" (Rom. 7:24-25). That's the difference!
HYPER GRACE
There are those people, however, who have taught that a person could go on consciously living in open, defiant, willing sin after becoming a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and to do so without the sting of conscience produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit--and perhaps even outright deny, reject, and despise Christ Jesus our LORD--and still be saved. This is not biblical grace, but a godless grace, and an abuse of grace. This heresy is what created Lordship doctrine. The believer loathes his sin. Here is an obvious problem with such an abuse of grace:
For if we go on sinning willfully [deliberately continuing in a life of sin: cf. 2 Thess. 2:10] after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.' It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:26-31 NASB).Someone who has been born again by the grace of God through the inner work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; Titus 3:5) loves His LORD and hates his sin. In fact, he cannot--and therefore will not--continue in a life of sin, because God's Seed [NASB] / Word [mine; cf. Luke 8:11; cf. "what God has said," GW] / New Life [ERV, ICB, NCV] / Life-giving Power [CEV, NLT] / God's very Nature [AMP, GNT, NIRV, RSV; cf. 2 Pet. 1:4] dwells within him" (1 John 3:9); "Those born from God don't practice sin because God's DNA remains in them. They can't [go on living in] sin because they are born from God" (CEB, The VOICE). Let me clarify: He cannot go on living in sin with a clear and good and healthy conscience (Acts 24:16; Rom. 9:1; 13:5; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:2; 5:11; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:1, 2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Titus 1:15; Heb. 9:9, 14; 10:22; 13:18; 1 Pet. 3:21, 16), or without his conscience stinging his newly-regenerate nature, and without the Holy Spirit convicting him of his sin (John 16:8, 9, 10, 11).
TESTING YOUR FAITH
There have been many sermons and much ink spilt in books regarding the believer "testing his faith," to "see if he is in the faith," as Paul writes to the believers at Corinth (2 Cor. 13:5a). "Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test" (2 Cor. 13:5b-6). This testing hearkens back to what Paul wrote in the third verse: "since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you" (2 Cor. 13:3). From the ministries of certain pastors, and Bible teachers, we need to be constantly testing our faith to see if we are really in Christ. What is the test? That you are perfectly obeying Jesus Christ: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15 NASB; cf. CSB, CEB, CJB, ERV, ESV, GW, HCSB, LEB, LSB, NABre, NCV, NET, NRSVue, RSV, TLV). Incidentally, the KJV, NKJV, and MEV offer, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (cf. also EHV, ISV, JUB, NIRV, NIV, NLT, RGT, WEB, WYC, YLT). What is the difference between the two readings?
If Jesus said "If you love Me [then] you will keep My commandments" then the action of keeping His commandments stems from one's love of the Savior--it is the natural outworking of a loving and redemptive relationship initiated by God Himself in Jesus Christ through the inward-working Holy Spirit. But if Jesus said "If you love Me [then] keep My commandments" then that is an imperative, a direct command, the action stemming from the command to obey and not directly from the loving relationship: you obey Him because He said so and you will then prove your love for Him, evincing (hopefully) true faith, by your perfect obedience. What's the problem? Obedience doesn't save you, and apparent obedience does not necessarily prove that you have been saved, either. Salvation is not about outward morality. A Mormon, who is not a regenerate Christian, could be far better at strict obedience but that does not prove or grant evidence that he has been and thus will be saved.
Hint: no one, no other human being other than Jesus Christ Himself, is perfectly obedient. This is why Christ's
righteousness and His perfect obedience is imputed to us (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28; 2 Cor. 5:21).
righteousness and His perfect obedience is imputed to us (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28; 2 Cor. 5:21).
The problem of the competing translations of John 14:15 is seen by some as splitting hairs without any real effect. Allow me to probe: Do you know anyone on earth, whether past, present or future, who perfectly obeyed Jesus Christ his Savior? If not then did he not love Jesus? Was Jesus not his Savior and Lord? If you love Jesus, so we read, [then] keep His commands. But there is no imperative in the Greek text here to obey. The proper reading, then, is the first offering: "If you love Me [then] you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15 NASB). The ones loving Jesus are the ones keeping His commandments. Perfectly? No. But desiring to keep them perfectly? Yes, from a changed heart of love, but not merely from a command to prove his genuineness (cf. also "The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me," John 14:21, but no stated imperative; and "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word," John 14:23; not "If anyone loves Me, keep My word," an imperative; and "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love," John 15:10; not "If you keep My commandments, abide in My love," an imperative). Jesus is not saying "Prove it," as though by works, but telling of the natural, spiritual consequence of truly loving Him is evidenced in keeping His commandments, and obeying Him. Again, at John 14:15, there is no imperative, no actual and obvious command.
FUTURE JUSTIFICATION
Some Reformed thinkers, like John Piper, are known for suggesting that you can be sure of your future justification, that you will be saved and justified by God, by probing your own heart with regard to your obedience to Jesus. You can know that you have been, are now, and will be justified by examining your obedience to Jesus. But where in all of Scripture are we taught to look within ourselves to see whether we have been, are now, or will be justified by God? If I am to look at my perfect obedience to Jesus as sufficient evidence that I will be justified then I am doomed--and so is John Piper! Teaching people to look within themselves for evidence of future justification is a doctrine of demons.
My obedience did not bring about my reconciliation, regeneration, salvation, justification, sanctification or glorification. Not even an ounce!
This indicates, then, that our future justification is a settled matter from eternity past, from before the earth was formed by God and before we were created, and thus our comfort and security for future justification and salvation rests not in looking at our obedience but looking to Christ and the grace granted to us through faith. Faith is the key, not perfect obedience, not our works! Read this passage with me:
Do you realize how many times we offend the Lord throughout each day? I cannot imagine the number of times I think what I ought not to think, or say what I ought not to say, or behave as I ought not behave. Yes, there has been an enormous change in my heart and my mind, producing a changed manner of life (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). But, the more I learn of God, the more holy I see Him and the more unholy I see me. The reason we cannot look to our so-called obedience is because even our obedience is not entirely sanctified and perfected. We aim for perfection, yes (Heb. 12:14), but we fail to take hold of it. My goal in life, my comfort for future justification, cannot be found in my obedience (cf. Phil. 3:12, 13, 14); but to be found "in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9 NASB). Look to Christ Jesus! Look only to Christ Jesus!
HOLY BUT HOW HOLY?
We cannot end without addressing holiness of heart and life. Sin will have no dominion over the born-again believer (Rom. 6:14). This will be my conclusion. Any cursory read through the Book of 1 John might frighten the staunchest among us. "If you know that He [Jesus] is righteous [then] you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him" (1 John 2:28). Do I practice righteousness? Yes. Perfect righteousness? No. Am I "born of Him"? Yes. How so? Pastor Douglas Sean O'Donnell rightly states that, "if someone professes to be a child of Heaven but lives like the offspring of Hell, his Christianity is a charade." I am hoping that all of us can agree with that statement. "What we struggle with, however, is grasping how holy we need to be to receive the assurance of our salvation."1 Now we're getting to the heart of the matter. This is what I was referring to in the introduction. The preaching was about Lordship, and our perfect obedience, but none of us were perfectly obedient. Therefore, none of us had, by these measures, made Jesus LORD of our lives, and our professions of faith rang hollow.
Are we not prisoners, then, still bound by sin? No! We are not ruled or governed by these struggles even if we at times fall into these struggles. But there is a reason we call them struggles or battles: because we are fighting against them, repenting of them, and repenting and repenting and repenting; fighting against them, and fighting and fighting and fighting, but not wallowing delightfully in them without a care. There are times that our struggles with sin are so heavy, so painful to bear, that we nearly despair knowing that our sin nailed Jesus to the Cross. That is the difference between the regenerate saint-sinner and the unregenerate sinner. We fight. They don't fight. We hate sin. They love sin. We long to be holy. They long to be unholy. We want to be like Christ. They want to do whatever they want to do. We look forward to the Day when we will be just like Christ Jesus (1 John 3:2). They live only for the day--the day of sin. Because we look forward to this Day, of finally being like Jesus (1 John 3:2), we work toward living pure lives with pure motives and a pure heart (1 John 3:3). We do so imperfectly--but we do so.
Oh, what wretches we are, and we know it every day! "What miserable creatures we are! Who will rescue us from this body of death? Thanks be to God, He will, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24-25). Pastor O'Donnell comforts us: "Though we have confidence ... of our salvation on the Day of His Coming [1 John 2:28] because we have 'a personal, obedient, abiding relationship' with Jesus [he is quoting Dr. Daniel Akin's commentary on 1 John], we are not Christ but only Christlike. We might have halos on our heads but they are often dull and broken [and crooked]. We might not walk in sin but we do fall into it [daily]."3 But you see, my friends, that this is precisely why God has to impute the righteousness of Jesus to our spiritual account: we have none of our own (Phil. 3:9)--not even after regeneration. God the Father grants us the absolute righteousness of God the Son, Jesus Christ our LORD, by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 1 Cor. 1:30 NIV). So look not to your obedience for assurance. Look to Christ Jesus by faith. He is your future justification (1 Cor. 1:30)!
__________
1 Douglas Sean O'Donnell, 1-3 John, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2015), 96.
2 Ibid. I rearranged the structure (punctuation, etc.) after "Either we struggle with a particular sin" so that what follows would be visually easier to read, easier to grasp, easier to follow.
3 Ibid.
FUTURE JUSTIFICATION
Some Reformed thinkers, like John Piper, are known for suggesting that you can be sure of your future justification, that you will be saved and justified by God, by probing your own heart with regard to your obedience to Jesus. You can know that you have been, are now, and will be justified by examining your obedience to Jesus. But where in all of Scripture are we taught to look within ourselves to see whether we have been, are now, or will be justified by God? If I am to look at my perfect obedience to Jesus as sufficient evidence that I will be justified then I am doomed--and so is John Piper! Teaching people to look within themselves for evidence of future justification is a doctrine of demons.
My obedience did not bring about my reconciliation, regeneration, salvation, justification, sanctification or glorification. Not even an ounce!
- And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Rom. 5:11);
- But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7);
- But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life (Rom. 6:22); But by His doing [that of the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who became [for] us wisdom from God, and [our] righteousness [which is Christ's righteousness imputed to us: cf. Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28], and [our] sanctification, and [our] redemption (1 Cor. 1:30);
- For those whom He foreknew [foreordained unto the election of salvation: past action], He also predestined [past action] to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called [past action]; and these whom He called, He also justified [past action]; and these whom He justified, He also glorified [past action] (Rom. 8:29, 30).
This indicates, then, that our future justification is a settled matter from eternity past, from before the earth was formed by God and before we were created, and thus our comfort and security for future justification and salvation rests not in looking at our obedience but looking to Christ and the grace granted to us through faith. Faith is the key, not perfect obedience, not our works! Read this passage with me:
It is clear, then, that God's [covenant] promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based on obedience to God's Law but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith. So if you claim that God's promise is for those who obey God's Law and think they are "good enough" in God's sight then you are saying that faith is useless; and, in that case, the promise is also meaningless. But the Law brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the Law is to have no Law to break!) So that's why faith is the key! God's promise [of salvation] is given to us as a free gift; and we are certain to receive it whether or not we follow Jewish customs if we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe (Rom. 4:13-16 NLT 1996).We are not to look at our good works, nor at our perfect obedience, but to our faith in Christ for comfort of future justification! The question we should always be asking is: "Am I still trusting Christ Jesus to save me--to be my righteousness, my holiness, and my redemption (1 Cor. 1:30)? The unregenerate cannot answer yes. Even this faith in Christ Jesus is not something I did--not even close! I had no faith, no interest in Christ, no inclination to be reconciled to God (1 Cor. 2:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). Faith is the natural result of being regenerated by the grace of God through the activity of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration produces faith. While I was dead in my sin I could not believe (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). But while I was dead in my sin, unregenerated, God regenerated me (Eph. 2:5)! That regeneration produced faith within me. The reason I could not believe is because I was dead (Rom. 8:5, 6, 7, 8; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). The reason why I believed, therefore, is because God raised me up (Eph. 2:5, 6; cf. Eph. 1:20 with Eph. 2:6). Peter confesses the same: "To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours" (2 Pet. 1:1 NIV). Faith is the gift of God in salvation (Eph. 2:5, 8, 9).
Do you realize how many times we offend the Lord throughout each day? I cannot imagine the number of times I think what I ought not to think, or say what I ought not to say, or behave as I ought not behave. Yes, there has been an enormous change in my heart and my mind, producing a changed manner of life (Rom. 6:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). But, the more I learn of God, the more holy I see Him and the more unholy I see me. The reason we cannot look to our so-called obedience is because even our obedience is not entirely sanctified and perfected. We aim for perfection, yes (Heb. 12:14), but we fail to take hold of it. My goal in life, my comfort for future justification, cannot be found in my obedience (cf. Phil. 3:12, 13, 14); but to be found "in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9 NASB). Look to Christ Jesus! Look only to Christ Jesus!
HOLY BUT HOW HOLY?
We cannot end without addressing holiness of heart and life. Sin will have no dominion over the born-again believer (Rom. 6:14). This will be my conclusion. Any cursory read through the Book of 1 John might frighten the staunchest among us. "If you know that He [Jesus] is righteous [then] you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him" (1 John 2:28). Do I practice righteousness? Yes. Perfect righteousness? No. Am I "born of Him"? Yes. How so? Pastor Douglas Sean O'Donnell rightly states that, "if someone professes to be a child of Heaven but lives like the offspring of Hell, his Christianity is a charade." I am hoping that all of us can agree with that statement. "What we struggle with, however, is grasping how holy we need to be to receive the assurance of our salvation."1 Now we're getting to the heart of the matter. This is what I was referring to in the introduction. The preaching was about Lordship, and our perfect obedience, but none of us were perfectly obedient. Therefore, none of us had, by these measures, made Jesus LORD of our lives, and our professions of faith rang hollow.
Put more bluntly [continues pastor O'Donnell], we wonder, "Are we Christians if we habitually sin?" My initial answer was "no." The language seems clear and strong. The habitual sinner is not a believer. Period. Upon further reflection, however, my answer is now "yes." I say this because every Christian habitually sins (cf. 1 John 1:8); that is, we continue to sin in one of two ways. Either we struggle with a particular sin: e.g., an addiction to alcohol, pornography, food, work, shopping, gambling, video games, or (fill in the blank); or we struggle with a variety of sins that we weekly succumb to: an immoral thought one day, greed the next, anxiety after that [even anxiety is a despicable sin: Matt. 6:25-34; Phil. 4:6-7], followed by unrighteous anger, then an obscene joke, then hating our parents, then gossip, then gluttony, then deceit, then vanity, then idolatry--or whatever your sin looks like. We are saints (1 Cor. 1:2), yet sinners (1 Tim. 1:15: Paul uses the present tense, "I am the foremost" or "chief" of sinners, ESV, KJV). Those who think they have obtained angelic purity now are deluded [Phil. 3:12, 13, 14]. While we are freed from the dominion of sin [Rom. 6:14], we are not freed from the corruption of sin.2Are we, then, given license to sin? Of course not! We must look for ways of conquering what trips us up spiritually, pray for help, seek biblical, or brotherly or sisterly, or pastoral counsel. Whatever our struggles, and they differ between each one of us, we are still called daily to press on and to press in to Jesus, to repent, and to keep pressing toward holiness of heart and life. We don't give up. We fall, we get up, we carry on; we fall again, we get up again, we carry on again: fall, get up, carry on. We do this every single day until we are present with Christ our King.
Are we not prisoners, then, still bound by sin? No! We are not ruled or governed by these struggles even if we at times fall into these struggles. But there is a reason we call them struggles or battles: because we are fighting against them, repenting of them, and repenting and repenting and repenting; fighting against them, and fighting and fighting and fighting, but not wallowing delightfully in them without a care. There are times that our struggles with sin are so heavy, so painful to bear, that we nearly despair knowing that our sin nailed Jesus to the Cross. That is the difference between the regenerate saint-sinner and the unregenerate sinner. We fight. They don't fight. We hate sin. They love sin. We long to be holy. They long to be unholy. We want to be like Christ. They want to do whatever they want to do. We look forward to the Day when we will be just like Christ Jesus (1 John 3:2). They live only for the day--the day of sin. Because we look forward to this Day, of finally being like Jesus (1 John 3:2), we work toward living pure lives with pure motives and a pure heart (1 John 3:3). We do so imperfectly--but we do so.
Oh, what wretches we are, and we know it every day! "What miserable creatures we are! Who will rescue us from this body of death? Thanks be to God, He will, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24-25). Pastor O'Donnell comforts us: "Though we have confidence ... of our salvation on the Day of His Coming [1 John 2:28] because we have 'a personal, obedient, abiding relationship' with Jesus [he is quoting Dr. Daniel Akin's commentary on 1 John], we are not Christ but only Christlike. We might have halos on our heads but they are often dull and broken [and crooked]. We might not walk in sin but we do fall into it [daily]."3 But you see, my friends, that this is precisely why God has to impute the righteousness of Jesus to our spiritual account: we have none of our own (Phil. 3:9)--not even after regeneration. God the Father grants us the absolute righteousness of God the Son, Jesus Christ our LORD, by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 1 Cor. 1:30 NIV). So look not to your obedience for assurance. Look to Christ Jesus by faith. He is your future justification (1 Cor. 1:30)!
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1 Douglas Sean O'Donnell, 1-3 John, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2015), 96.
2 Ibid. I rearranged the structure (punctuation, etc.) after "Either we struggle with a particular sin" so that what follows would be visually easier to read, easier to grasp, easier to follow.
3 Ibid.
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