The New Calvinist Mega-Lie: Obedience and Truth are Separate
“Therefore, Christians don’t obey for the purpose of maintaining our just standard; it is a finished work by Christ that needs no further maintenance. We obey for other reasons….”
Have you ever noticed? The Scriptures NEVER call “obedience” works salvation. We are never told that people are trying to earn their way into heaven through “obedience.” Obedience, in the Scriptures, is ALWAYS associated with the truthful application of God’s word to our lives in how we think and what we do. It is the truthful application of our role in sanctification which is putting off the old self and putting on the new creature (Ephesians 4:20-24). In the Scriptures, truth is always assumed in obedience.
This is New Calvinism’s greatest deception, the idea that one can sincerely seek to apply God’s word to their lives in a truthful way, and at the same time do so to maintain a just standing before God without realizing they are doing so. This invokes a dependance on them, a don’t try sanctification at home mentality. Though they claim that obedience is motivated by fear within the evangelical community, their sanctification formula propagates an unfounded fear that obedience is nothing more than works salvation, in and of itself. The fact of the matter is that works salvation is always based on falsehood.
Unlike the Bible, New Calvinists don’t associate obedience with truth, a love for the truth, and faith. They separate the two, specifically by separating “law” and “gospel.” Law is obedience, whether practiced in truth or not, and gospel is truth. There are many examples of this, but here is the best one I have seen of late:
This is fundamentally no different than Islam! The Gospel offers us freedom from our sin-stained hearts and our obedience-stained garments and bids us rest in the finished work of Christ which is better than us being better!!!” (Jean F. Larroux, III, Green Grass of Grace Southwood blog).
Notice: obedience is obedience whether it is Christian or Islam. Truth isn’t the issue. But the apostle Paul clearly unites the two:
They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:19-24).
Obviously, Paul is calling on Christians to learn truth, and put off what we learn to put off, and put on what we learn that is to be put on. The Bible calls this “obedience” when it is done as biblically prescribed. If I tell my son to take the trash out to the curb, but instead he leaves it halfway down the driveway, that’s not obedience. Unless you’re a New Calvinist. With them, truthful obedience is neither here nor there because it is impossible for Christians to accomplish anyway:
The bad news is far worse than making mistakes or failing to live up to the legalistic standards of fundamentalism. It is that the best efforts of the best Christians, on the best days, in the best frame of heart and mind, with the best motives fall short of the true righteousness and holiness that God requires [notice that there is no distinction between this sentence and the one prior (legalistic standards verses true righteousness)]. Our best efforts cannot satisfy God’s justice. Yet the good news is that God has satisfied his own justice and reconciled us to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. God’s holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ (Michael Horton, Christless Christianity p. 91).
It is also extremely important here to notice the crux of New Calvinist error in this statement; specifically, the supposed need to maintain justification: “….the best motives fall short of the true righteousness and holiness that God requires…. Our best efforts cannot satisfy God’s justice.” But in sanctification, God no longer requires a just standard to maintain salvation, that has already been accomplished as a finished work. God no longer “requires” perfection that maintains our just standing. Therefore, Christians don’t obey for the purpose of maintaining our just standard/standing; it is a finished work by Christ that needs no further maintenance. We obey for other reasons—to glorify God, to experience the reality of our new birth, to show others the abundant life, and to destroy evil works, to name just a few. And also, our God-given love for the truth compels us to apply it to our lives.
Therefore, New Calvinism fuses what shouldn’t be fused and separates what shouldn’t be separated, turning orthodoxy completely upside down. They fuse justification and sanctification, and separate obedience from truth, while fictitiously calling obedience “law” (whether Christian or Islamic), and encapsulating truth in the “gospel” which is supposedly distinct from “law.” But what would we know about the gospel apart from Scripture? Christ said man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Wouldn’t that include the law? Paul told Timothy that we are fully equipped for every good work by ALL Scripture. Wouldn’t that also include the law?
This fusing of what shouldn’t be fused and separating what shouldn’t be separated is the basis of their Gospel Contemplationism. Law (any effort to obey, whether according to the truth or not) is separate from gospel and impossible for us to obey perfectly in order to maintain a salvation that doesn’t need to be maintained to begin with. The formula? Contemplation on the truth that results in a “Christ formation” within totally depraved, dead jars of clay. Doubt that? reread Larroux’s quote; our hearts are sin stained as well as any obedience we may perform.
The truth: we are declared righteous and are righteous, though hindered by the flesh. Though our striving falls short of perfection, we know that can’t affect our righteous standing that has already been declared based on the finished work of Christ. And that cannot be revoked. As we strive, we also long for the day when we can obey our Lord perfectly without hindrance. So like Paul, we cry out, “who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Our striving creates that thirst, experiencing both the blessings of that truth and the failures that prevent the full experience. Peter states clearly that we are to strive for a “rich entry,“ not the beggarly entry that comes from let go and let God theology.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Paul,
I don’t know how you can post a statement like the following an have the temerity to say these people believe they have to maintain their justification. “Yet the good news is that God has satisfied his own justice and reconciled us to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. God’s holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ.” How do you find in that any need to maintain our justification?
It would be nice if you included some context for these statements. There are some statements that can be quite accurate if made in the proper context. The way you cite them there is no telling what they mean. Can our garments be stained by our attempts to obey man-made rules in order to gain God’s favor? Myriads do it all the time. That is no different from Islam. Multitudes are going about to establish their own righteousness that is contrary to God’s righteousness. It is true, is it not, that our best efforts cannot satisfy God’s justice? The good news is that we don’t have to satisfy God’s justice since he has satisfied his own justice in Christ.
The point is that if even the best Christian on his best day cannot produce a righteousness that will satisfy God’s justice, no one else will be able to produce such a righteousness either. That is why it is such good news that God has satisfied his own justice and produced a righteousness that we could never produce.
When Paul talked about the “things he counted as a gain” and later “counted as refuse” in terms of being right with God, what did he mean when he talked about “the righteousness which is in the law, and said he was blameless” if not his obedience to the law? Obviously, this was not an obedience that would please God, but was an obedience of sorts nonetheless.
Context means everything.
LikeLike
Randy,
No, no, I’m not saying that they are saying that WE have to maintain justification; in fact, that’s their point exactly. That’s why they say Jesus has to maintain it for us, otherwise, our efforts in sanctification point back to justification. You tell me: if justification doesn’t have to be maintained, what’s the point of DOUBLE imputation? Ie, the law has to be maintained/fulfilled in order to connect justification with glorification. Now granted, DI, like RRH, was borrowed by New Calvinism. What makes NC unique is COG, but DI and DI are important tenets that bolster it.
Thanks for the new word: “temerity.” noun : reckless boldness; rashness. I like. It’s probably true of me since I believe Horton is an antinomian heretic.
LikeLike
You really hit the nail on the head here! It just hit me how disappointing this doctrine truly is. I mean aside from how frustrating it as etc., I can remember being young and being in church, salvation was so simple. Recognize you’re a sinner ask for God’s forgiveness then get baptized and live the rest of your earthly life to honor/glorify God through obedience to His Word. Now it’s soooo messed up thanks so all these doctrines that are gaining momentum.
The simplicity of Christs work on the cross isn’t sufficient; when/why did man ever decide that the gospel needs a few embellishments? Calvinism, New Calvinism, GS etc. etc. just strive to distract from the Truth of the Gospel. Man has become spiritualy lazy to the point that it has produced a growing desire to shift blame and focus from what we as Christians need to be doing, to “the beauty of the cross” which evokes “true” obedience, where when we tell our kids to obey all we have to do is remind them of “the beauty of the cross” and they will fall in love and therefore “obey”.
Next time you tell your son to take out the trash, give him a reminder of “the beauty of the cross” and he’ll be singing the song “It’s like, fallen in love” all the way down the driveway……..
LikeLike
Paul,
The finished work of Christ does maintain our ju.stification until we are finally glorified. Certainly, you agree with that. It is not that he has to do anything more than he has done in terms of his sacrifice. He does, however, continue to apply his sacrifice by his works of intercession for believers. The Westminster Shorter Catechism stated it as follows, “How does Christ execute the office of a Priest? Christ executes the office of a priest in his once offering of himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and by his making continual intercession for us.” It is in his making continual intercession for us that he continues to apply the benefits of his finished work to us as believers. He continually presents his finished work before the Father’s throne. He is able to save completely those who come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for us.
I don’t understand that statement, “Our efforts in sanctification point back to justification.” Give me a quotation from them that illustrates what you are saying.
Can you tell me what aspect of the redemptive historical approach you dislike in particular.
LikeLike
Randy,
“The finished work of Christ does maintain our justification until we are finally glorified. Certainly, you agree with that.” As a matter of fact, NO, I don’t. When God justified us, he also glorified us: Romans 8:30. Past tense. Done deal. How does a “finished” work continue to work in order to maintain? I think this is God’s point by stating glorification in the past tense.
“It is not that he has to do anything more than he has done in terms of his sacrifice. He does, however, continue to apply his sacrifice by his works of intercession for believers.” So why do we have to be so careful about how we obey? (making sure we are “saturated” with the gospel first). Are you talking about a continued active obedience to replace any obedience we would perform? “Intercession” means a continual application of his sacrifice? Don’t think so: “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
As you know, I could care less about the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It’s not infallible and has no authority. I am completely indifferent to it. And “Intercession” IS NOT, “He continually presents his finished work before the Father’s throne.” Intercession does not maintain justification. NOTE: You cite Hebrews 7:25 this way: “He is able to save completely those who come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for US. “Us isn’t “us,” it’s “THEM”. Who’s “them”? Well, it’s not us in regard to justification.
LikeLike
Heather,
It isn’t that people have complicated the gospel unnecessarily, but that 20th Century evangelicalism has treated it so simplistically that any doctrine that requires any thought whatsoever is now though to be complex.
They have turned faith into a decision instead of a lifelong reliance on Christ. There has been virtually no teaching on such doctrines as election, effectual calling, foreknowledge, predestination, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, sanctification, adoption, perseverance, reconciliation, redemption, propitiation glorification, sealing, Christ’s priestly intercession for believers, etc. Yes, those doctrines are actually in the New Testament Scriptures, They are not invented by the New Calvinists or the Old Calvinists to confuse you. These are teachings God revealed to us ordinary believers because they are profitable for us.
If your concept of gospel truth is correct, the apostles and other N. T. writers spilled an ocean of unnecessary ink writing about the multifaceted doctrines of the Christian faith. If what you have suggested is all there is to it, they could have written that on a very small portion of a page and let it go at that.
The apostle Paul didn’t seem to share your view of the beauty of the cross, since he resolved to glory in nothing else.
LikeLike
Paul,
The only way you can maintain that we are already glorified is by accepting the Redemptive Historical understanding of that verse that you seem to loathe so much. It is quite true that we are glorified now because we are in union with him who is the glorified man in heaven. “We see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2). But this would fall into the already/ not yet category. While we are already gloried in Christ, we are not yet glorified in our experience. Certainly you recognize that the NT Scriptures speak of a future glorification of believers when Jesus returns.
The finished work doesn’t continue to go on. It only continues in its efficacy. It stands accomplished. What continues is our High Priest’s presentation of that finished work before the Father’s throne.
Hebrews is talking about the offering of the sacrifice itself.on the altar, not the presentation of that sacrifice in the Most Holy place. Hebrews 9:24 says Jesus now appears on the presence of God for us, not that he should offer himself often as those high priest offer sacrifice. What, then, is he doing there? He is presenting the sacrifice once offered before the Father’s throne. This he does as long as he lives. He ever lives to make intercession for us Heb 7:25. This is just basic biblical truth that is acknowledged by anyone who knows the Bible.
“Them” is “those who come to God by him.” If you have come to God by him, then you are part of the “Them.”
Intercession is clearly linked to our salvation in this verse. He is able to save completely because he ever lives to make intercession.
LikeLike
Randy,
Just read through Hebrews again. Christ’s intercession for us is in regard to personal spiritual needs and perseverance, NOT an ongoing work to keep us justified. Justification does not have to be maintained. Throughout Hebrews, the writer continually emphasizes that it is a once and for all, and once for all time, finished work.
LikeLike
BTW, I don’t cite the WSC as an authority, but because it so succinctly states biblical truth. There are a number of places in which I would disagree with its statements. If I regarded it as an authority, I could not disregard anything it said.
LikeLike
Randy-Let me clarify:
“beauty of the cross” has been stated by many NC and GS propagaters in an effort to conjure up emotions to facilitate obedience because obeying out of a sense of duty or guilt or simply because we’re told to is therefore works salvation. Once again this group of people have taken a great statement and twisted it into meaning something to facilitate an emotional response. It’s no longer just a simple observation but it’s being used by Piper and the like.
Take for instance “let go and let God” before I got into all this it simply meant, stop trying to control everything and allow God to work in your life. Now the GS and NC group have changed this into meaning “Stop trying to obey, God obeys and does everything for you”.
I don’t want to instigate a back-and-forth but I just responded so I could clarify…
LikeLike
Paul,
I agree that justification is an accomplished reality. That is not the issue. The issue is that I remain justified because the lamb once slain now stands in the center of the throne. His sacrifice stands as an eternally efficacious one. His finished work continues to stand present in heaven. This is why the apostle Paul used the perfect tense when he wrote, “we preach Christ crucified.” The tense speaks of a work that was accomplished in the past with results continuing into the present. It happened once, but we will never outlast its results.
I have probably studied the book of Hebrews more than you ever will. What kind of personal spiritual needs do we have that are not related to our salvation? How can you deny that his intercessory work relates to salvation when the text states, “HE IS ABLE TO SAVE THOSE WHO COME TO GOD BY HIM, SEEING HE GOES ON LIVING TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR THEM”? If it is for our perseverance, what is he praying that we will persevere in?
It is not that he has to keep on doing something to keep us justified. It is rather that he continues to present what he has already done for our justification. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one, and he is the propitiation for our sins. That isn’t past, it is present. I stand justified before God today because Jesus stands before him as the one who has been crucified in my place.
LikeLike
Heather,
Let me clarify–I don’t believe in “let go and let God” theology either. I didn’t believe it before NC and I don’t believe it now. We clearly have a responsibility to be active in the process of sanctification.
What disturbed me about your statement was your seeming advocacy for mindless Christianity. Salvation is about more than you making a decision and getting baptized. To accuse those who are engaged in the hard task of biblical exegesis and who are grappling with the important issues that affect the entirety the Christian life of complicating Christianity betrays a lack of understanding on your part of what Christianity is.
LikeLike
Paul,
Just so you know, the book of Hebrews doesn’t talk about justification at all. Neither the term nor the concept occurs once in the book. For that reason, the writer of the book could not have emphasized over and over again that it is a one time finished work. He never even mentions salvation in terms of justification. You might want to read my book on Hebrews. It could help clear up a lot of things for you. It is available free of charge at http://www.new-covenant-theology.org. The title is In These Last Days.
LikeLike
Randy,
Then these refer to what exactly?
Hebrews 1:3
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 2:2
For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
Hebrews 2:9
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:17
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 7:27
He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Hebrews 8:12
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 9:12
he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:15
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews 9:22
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 9:26
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:28
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 10:2
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
Hebrews 10:12
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Hebrews 10:18
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
LikeLike