Loveland Protestant Reformed Church
709 East 57th
Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through
August)
Vol. 5, No. 9 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970) 667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Contents:
Justification
The
Gift of Discipleship
How Important is the Divinity of Jesus?
What is justification? Sadly, there are few today who even know what the word means, and fewer still who know the blessedness of the justified - this, though the doctrine of justification is a fundamental of the faith.
To understand what justification is, we should know first that its synonym is righteousness. To be justified and to be righteous are the very same thing.
Second, we should see that justification is a legal term. In justification we have to do with God as Judge (Heb. 4:13). Justification is the sentence of the supreme Judge, from whose sentence there is no appeal (Job 40:8).
Third, justification therefore involves one's legal status (state, estate), i.e., or one's standing before the law and before God (Ps. 130:3). That legal status or standing determines whether we will enjoy certain rights and privileges or be punished.
When sentence is passed by any judge there are only two possible "standings," guilty or innocent, unrighteous or righteous. In the justification of sinners God as Judge declares them innocent of any wrongdoing or crime (Num. 23:21, II Cor. 5:19).
The wonder of justification is that sinners are found innocent by God. Those who are justified have committed and do commit every sin, and commit their sins against the Judge Himself (Ps. 51:4, Rom. 5:18, 21)!
The sentence by which God justifies them is like the laws of the Medes and the Persians - it cannot be altered, for God does not change. Yet does God lie in passing such a sentence (Num. 23:19). His sentence is true and just.
That means that the sinner cannot possibly be justified and found innocent before God because of his own worthiness or works (Rom. 4:6). The cause (and there must be a cause) is the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ and His suffering and death.
Jesus stands as the substitute for those whom the Father gave him. His suffering and death are the punishment for their sins (Is. 53:5) and by His perfect obedience He makes restitution, "restoring that which He took not away" (Ps. 69:4).
Think of a thief who must atone for his crime, not only by being punished, but by repaying what was stolen. Someone must suffer the punishment for our crimes and repay to God the debt of God-glorifying obedience that we did not pay.
Christ does all this for His own. His obedience, suffering and death are "charged to their account," or as Scripture says, "imputed" (II Cor. 5:19) to them, so that they are before God as though they never had nor had committed any sin.
What a wonderful thing it is, then, to be justified! Nothing can compare with knowing that there is "no condemnation" for us with God. All other blessings and privileges and their enjoyment depend on this. As Paul says, "I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. R. Hanko
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24
A reader, calling attention to this powerful verse in Matthew, asked: "Our discipleship: is it 'conditional' or 'unconditional'? 'offered' or 'demanded'? a matter of 'decision' or 'election'?"
I remember that, as a young man, I heard a sermon on this passage by Rev. Herman Hoeksema. He began his sermon with these startling words: "Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have in this passage a three-fold prescription for going to hell."
He meant by those introductory words to impress upon us that the requirements of discipleship were so contrary to anything we want in life that none of us would ever agree to be a disciple of Jesus. To deny ourselves? Whoever in all the world wants to do that? To take up a cross? Every man who seeks followers makes lavish promises of what benefits will be the possession of those who follow him. But here is someone who says: "If you want to follow me, you will have to carry a cross!" Who would ever do that? Follow Christ? But the path He walked led to shame, rejection, crucifixion, and death. Can any of us really say that we would deliberately choose that path that Christ walked?
I mention these things deliberately because, in a way, the very impossibility of it all points also to the answer to the question.
The question, if I understand it correctly, means to ask whether we are offered the chance to become a disciple; whether discipleship is, therefore a matter of our decision; and whether discipleship is, as a result, conditional upon what we do. I.e., we decide we would like to accept Jesus' offer and so become a disciple of Jesus so that our discipleship is conditioned upon our actions.
Or is the matter rather that discipleship is a matter of sovereign election; an unconditional work of grace; and a demand of the gospel?
It ought to be apparent to anyone at the outset that, if the decision were ours to make, we would never, never make it. And we would never be or become a disciple of Christ.
Let it be clearly understood that every one who becomes a disciple of Jesus becomes one through a sovereign and irresistible work of grace. Only the elect of God ever become Christ's disciples, and the work is God's work in its entirety. He not only makes us disciples of Christ, but by His grace He also preserves us as disciples throughout all our life. If He did not, we would resign as quickly as possible!
This is clearly taught in the whole of Scripture where repeatedly Scripture emphasizes that the whole of salvation is God's work -- and discipleship belongs to salvation!
We have an interesting illustration of this in one of the clearest pictures of discipleship in all Scripture. I refer to Mark 15:21. There we are told that Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus' cross behind Christ to Calvary. But he was compelled to carry it, the text says.
But this same truth is clear from the context in which these words of Jesus are found.
First of all, after his amazing confession (given to him by grace), Peter is lifted up in pride. When Jesus begins to describe the suffering that awaits him, Peter attempts to dissuade the Lord. Peter thinks he knows better than the Lord the road the Lord ought to take to His kingdom.
The Lord brushes Peter's foolishness aside with a sharp reprimand in which He informs Peter that Peter's remarks are part of Satan's temptation.
And so, we have this text. The way Christ must walk is not an easy way. It is a way of suffering, and being killed. But, to be a disciple of Christ is to come after Him, and that way for every disciple is equally a way of suffering and death.
In other words, Jesus is not explaining the conditions of discipleship which a man must fulfill to become a disciple. Who in all the world would ever do what Jesus says? But Jesus is correcting a serious impression on the part of Peter and the disciples, that the way of discipleship was a way which would lead to glory, riches and fame in an earthly kingdom.
In the second place, it ought not to escape us that the text itself says, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples . . . ." These men were disciples already, made such by sovereign grace. Now they had to learn an important lesson about what discipleship would cost. Hence these words.
There is more here. But we will save that for our next article. Prof. Herman Hanko
How Important is the Divinity of Jesus?
A reader has asked: "Regarding Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, and those who do not believe Jesus is God. Surely they have no Savior, though they say they are Christian, and 'born again.' There are also many in the established denominations, i.e., Church of England, Methodist, who also deny Jesus' deity. I have a reply from both church headquarters, saying they allow a wise range of interpretation concerning Jesus' deity - as long as He is acknowledged as Lord. Is this proper?"
We do not believe that it is right to allow a "wide range of interpretation concerning Jesus' deity." Indeed, we believe that there is only one correct interpretation of what Scripture says about Jesus, that is, that He is the only-begotten Son, equal to the Father in all things and One God with the Father.
We do not, however, intend to show that He is God. That we have done in previous issues (available on request). Instead we wish to show why this truth is so important and why there is no room for error.
First, then, Scripture teaches that the truth concerning Jesus is a fundamental of our faith that cannot be denied without destroying the whole of Christianity. That is implicit in Jesus' reply to Peter's confession that He was the Son of God (Matt. 16:18). Without this truth the church has no foundation and will be overcome and destroyed by the powers of darkness, as many churches are today.
The same truth is taught in II John 9. There the Word not only shows that to hold to the doctrine of Christ is to have God, but indicates how important this doctrine of Christ is. Those who do not have it are not even to be received into our houses. We have nothing in common with them.
It is on the basis of that passage that we reject the claims of the cults and of the apostate churches that deny the divinity of Jesus to be Christians and churches. To be a Christian is to hold the doctrine of Christ. Understand, the doctrine of Christ is not the doctrine that Christ teaches so much as the doctrine concerning Christ.
Second, there is no salvation possible if Jesus is not God.One who is a mere man cannot deliver us from the power of the devil, destroy death, give us an everlasting righteousness, and bring us to heaven. Nor can the voice of a mere man call us out of darkness into light.
If Jesus is not God there is no lasting value in His teaching, no atonement in His death, no resurrection from the dead, no effectual intercession with the Father. Nothing.
The great Fourth Century defender of this truth, the church father Athanasius, saw this clearly. He said: "And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son."
We see it too in Matthew 16:16. There, Peter in his confession connects the truth that Jesus is the Son of God with the truth that He is the Christ, i.e., the one appointed by the Father to be the Prophet, Priest and King of His people (cf. also Is. 43:10-12, I Tim. 1:1, Tit. 1:3, 2:10, 3:4, Jude 25, etc.). Let us then, who believe, abide in the doctrine of Christ. And let those know who deny it, that they in unbelief deny the living God Himself as He makes Himself known through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rev. Ronald Hanko
Last Modified, 17-Apr-1999