Skip to content

Tag: justification

Published on Leave a comment on I'm baptised into Christ, Christ is fed into me

It's important to rightly relate these truths - 'I am in Christ' and 'Christ is in me' (see this older post and this one).

If I put "Christ in me" first then I fall for a Catholic doctrine of infusion.  God infuses His grace into me so that I begin to live the righteous life.  Eventually I might be declared righteous.  If a person gives priority to "Christ in me" they may have Personalised the grace which God gives (which is an improvement on the Catholic doctrine) but we're still travelling along the same route.

The gospel is "I in Christ" - that is, through a gracious marriage union with Christ I immediately have His name.  Therefore righteousness is a status instantly imputed to me as a gift in Jesus. The rest of my life involves a communion with Jesus in which I gradually exhibit more and more of His nature.  But that is not my hope.  My hope is not me living Christ's life (by His power within me).  My hope is Christ living my life (with me hidden in Him).

This morning I was reflecting on the nature of the sacraments and how they teach this fundamental truth.  I am baptised into Christ.  This is the beginning and foundation of my Christian life - I in Christ.  But regularly I am fed by Christ and take Him into myself - Christ in me.

To put it in Passover terms, I am saved once and for all by the Lamb's blood applied externally - I'm hidden in the Lamb.  But I am nourished for the journey out of Egypt by the Lamb's flesh - the Lamb in me.

And incidentally this is the basis of the Christian sexual ethic too.  The once-for-all one-flesh union first, the regular one-flesh communion afterwards - the two utterly united and the former given absolute priority.

Mix them up and you get into all sorts of trouble, in all areas of life!

.

3

Published on 3 Comments on I’m baptised into Christ, Christ is fed into me

It's important to rightly relate these truths - 'I am in Christ' and 'Christ is in me' (see this older post and this one).

If I put "Christ in me" first then I fall for a Catholic doctrine of infusion.  God infuses His grace into me so that I begin to live the righteous life.  Eventually I might be declared righteous.  If a person gives priority to "Christ in me" they may have Personalised the grace which God gives (which is an improvement on the Catholic doctrine) but we're still travelling along the same route.

The gospel is "I in Christ" - that is, through a gracious marriage union with Christ I immediately have His name.  Therefore righteousness is a status instantly imputed to me as a gift in Jesus. The rest of my life involves a communion with Jesus in which I gradually exhibit more and more of His nature.  But that is not my hope.  My hope is not me living Christ's life (by His power within me).  My hope is Christ living my life (with me hidden in Him).

This morning I was reflecting on the nature of the sacraments and how they teach this fundamental truth.  I am baptised into Christ.  This is the beginning and foundation of my Christian life - I in Christ.  But regularly I am fed by Christ and take Him into myself - Christ in me.

To put it in Passover terms, I am saved once and for all by the Lamb's blood applied externally - I'm hidden in the Lamb.  But I am nourished for the journey out of Egypt by the Lamb's flesh - the Lamb in me.

And incidentally this is the basis of the Christian sexual ethic too.  The once-for-all one-flesh union first, the regular one-flesh communion afterwards - the two utterly united and the former given absolute priority.

Mix them up and you get into all sorts of trouble, in all areas of life!

.

7

Published on 7 Comments on Why does faith save?

Why is it that faith saves?  What's so special about faith that it brings such benefits?

Because here's how the whole deal is usually set up:

First we insist that God does not save us by our works.  No sir, we believe in 'justification by faith alone.'  Therefore it's not that God is armed with a clipboard and some binoculars waiting for an external moral act in order to flick the 'justification' switch.  How ridiculous.  No, no.  Instead we imagine God (with clipboard and brain scanner) eagerly seeking for a certain mental act within us.  And then He'll zap righteousness into our account.

Yeah.  That's much more reformed...

But honestly, for many, that is the doctrine of justification by faith alone in a nut-shell.

Yet for the thoughtful who've been reared on such teaching it raises big questions.  Like, why faith?  Is it just that 'faith' keeps us humble and God simply wants to remind everyone who's Boss?  In which case why give us Christ's righteousness at all?  Why not just leave us in a sort of righteousness limbo forever - that'd keep us humble right?  And what's the link between this act of mental assent and that imputation of saving stuff??  It all seems so arbitrary.

And it would be completely arbitrary so long as we keep Christ out of the discussion.  But once Jesus is central - and by that I mean the Person of Jesus (not just the Provider of a Perfect Righteousness) - then things start to fall into place.

Because faith is receiving Jesus Himself (John 1:10-12).  He gives Himself to the world in life and death, He pledges Himself to us (marriage style) in the gospel.  When we hear the gospel rightly we are swept off our feet by such a proposal and find ourselves saying "Yes."   That is faith.  And by faith we are united to Christ.  In that union we have our salvation because salvation is all in Jesus.

So there's nothing at all arbitrary about the connection between faith and salvation.  Because there's nothing arbitrary about the link between a marriage vow and marriage union. Once we are united to Christ by faith, then of course we instantly have His name, His wealth, His family connections.  Of course then instantly we have the righteousness of Christ imputed.  But it's not an impersonal imputation in response to an impersonal faith!

Justification by faith does not mean "being zapped because of mental assent."  But we'll never get that unless we put union with Christ at the centre.

.

Published on Leave a comment on I in Christ, Christ in me

You who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ  (Gal 3:27)

I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you  (Gal 4:19)

Christ put on me

Christ formed in me

.

Christ surrounding me

Christ birthed in me

.

Christ already

Christ progressing

.

Christ: My status

Christ: My stature

.

I in Christ

Christ in me

.

Twitter widget by Rimon Habib - BuddyPress Expert Developer