Paul's Passing Thoughts

See the problem? This is the crux; the fusion of justification and sanctification requiring a sanctification by faith alone. Works in sanctification is the same as works in justification. It’s maintaining your justification in sanctification by “resting.” Unfortunately, these anti-gospel ideas brought applause from the audience. We truly live in perilous times.

I have always enjoyed the comedy of the tremendously gifted Tim Hawkins and never made it a point to find out what he believes about the gospel. If a good comedian who doesn’t need smut to make people laugh sticks to comedy, what he believes about the gospel is between him and God.

But if he is going to use his act to spread a false gospel, that is a whole other matter, and unfortunately, that’s the case. Frankly, I don’t care if Hawkins has to be like most in our day that chase after every wind of doctrine as long as he keeps it to himself; but unfortunately, he doesn’t. In the following video he promotes the New Calvinist progressive justification that dominates the present-day church. Hawkins makes several statements while presenting the gospel in the following clip (end of post) that are blatant scriptural contradictions.

Hawkins presented the gospel to a Christian audience in the clear stated context of sanctification, or worded another way: our Christian walk. He began by saying that God always works first in our lives; i.e., everything we do is first initiated by God. Of course, that’s not true. Throughout the Bible God states that he will act if we do certain things first. In New Calvinist circles, the following is in vogue: teaching that Christians do works that they are unaware are in the Bible because it is Christ doing the work and not us. Even John Macarthur has been teaching this recently.

Hawkins followed by saying that being a Christian means resting in what Christ has done, and he prefaced several like remarks with, “that’s the gospel.” Is that true? Our Christian walk is resting in what Jesus has done, and that’s the gospel? Many citations from the Bible that refute this notion could be stated—here are a few:

1Thessalonians 4:9 – Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

Romans 12:10 – Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

1Peter 1:5 – For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This “rest” concept can certainly be applied to justification, but like all New Calvinists Hawkins applies it to sanctification as well. Christians not knowing the difference is a huge problem in our day. After promoting the idea that Christians should rest in their Christian walk, Hawkins verbalized the familiar New Calvinist truism that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. No, our sins were imputed to Christ, and the Father’s righteousness was imputed to us. That’s the gospel, that’s biblical double imputation, not the New Calvinist’s version of double imputation where Christ’s obedience is imputed to our sanctification as part of the atonement.

Then Hawkins espoused the all-familiar New Calvinist “Jesus didn’t come so you can get your act together and be a good person—the gospel and Christianity is not about behavior modification.”  Really, do I have to cite Scripture references to refute this idea? Is that where we are at in all of this? Such statements are not rejected out of hand by Christians in our day? And why isn’t Christianity supposedly about behavior modification IN SANCTIFICATION? Because that would be the same as behavior modification IN JUSTIFICATION. See the problem? This is the crux; the fusion of justification and sanctification requiring a sanctification by faith alone. Works in sanctification is the same as works in justification. It’s maintaining your justification in sanctification by “resting.” Unfortunately, these anti-gospel ideas brought applause from the audience. We truly live in perilous times.

But where Hawkins drives the New Calvinist spear through the heart of the true gospel is in the following statement:

It’s about life transformation. He didn’t come to make bad people good he came to make dead people alive….You’re living by the law—you’re living by works and it’s killing you.

This is a fundamental rejection of the law’s relationship to the gospel. It makes the relationship of the law to justification the same as its relationship to sanctification. This must necessarily exclude works of the law in sanctification. Such exclusion of the law in sanctification shows us what one really believes about justification: it’s not a finished work and needs to be maintained by OUR passivity in sanctification which is supposedly not a work—regardless of its REQUIRMENT to maintain the continued imputation of Christ’s works to our sanctification in order to maintain justification. Many New Calvinists refer to this as the “saving works” (note the plural rather than the singular act of going to the cross) of Christ. James and the apostle Paul warn that this is grievous error and a false gospel. It shows this comedian’s basic lack of understanding in regard to the gospel.

The gospel is a call to those under the law to be born again under grace. Those under the law are enslaved to sin, provoked to sin by the law, and will be judged by the law. Those under grace are no longer in bondage to sin, are now provoked to righteousness by the law, and will not be judged by the law. Hawkins, like all New Calvinists, insists that we not live by the very law that provokes us to righteousness or more specifically, love.

In his New Calvinist ignorance of the true gospel, Hawkins continued his treatise by adding the idea that God uses the law to “crush US” and show us our continual need for a savior….to which I will add, IN SANCTIFICATION. Hence, justification is perpetual. Hawkins then stated that Christ came to “fulfill the law FOR US” in sanctification. Not true. When Christ said in His Sermon on the Mount that He came to fulfill the law, how He intends to do that is clarified by the apostle Paul:

Romans 8:1-4 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

1 John 3:8-9 – Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Like all New Calvinists Hawkins defines Christians as unregenerate, as those unable to keep the law, and even if we could keep it, the standard is the same as before we were “released from the law (ROM 7:6)” as a standard for justification: perfection. Therefore, per New Calvinism, Christians are still under the law (and therefore defined as biblically unregenerate) because the old man that must meet the perfection of the law’s standard for those not under grace is still alive (ROM 7:1-3). They did not die with Christ and the penalty for all sin that died also with Christ. Instead of perfection being the GOAL in sanctification, it is the STANDARD for progressive justification; therefore, Christ must keep the law for us in sanctification. Again, this reveals what is really believed about justification by Calvinists: it’s an UNFINISHED work.

Hawkins completed his treatise by promoting the New Calvinist way to have assurance of salvation; i.e. look at what Christ states about our position in the Bible and not our behavior. Really? Again, do I have to give biblical citations here? Is our state really that bad to where I would have to point out biblical citations to refute this idea?

New Calvinists continually point to the agreed upon train wreck that is American Christianity and claim to have the cure in authentic Calvinism. But wait a minute here: they have had majority control of the House for ten years now—something isn’t adding up.

Like the blood lollipops with a knife blade as a stick that Eskimos use to kill wolves, the New Calvinists tell us to keep licking. It’s a trick that works so well on wolves that they are now using it on the sheep. They present the law to Christians in the exact same way that it is to be presented to the unregenerate. That’s why we supposedly need the gospel of the cross every day. Therefore, Tim Hawkins is no longer funny. Though his comedy is a wonderful work in Jesus’ name—he uses it to propagate works of anomia.

paul