The ABCs of the Protestant False Gospel: Law; Romans 3:21, Life; Galatians 3:21, and Curse; Galatians 3:10
The American church isn’t impressive? Maybe a false gospel is the problem.
A challenge to all pastors; this Sunday, pass out a slip of paper to all your congregants with this question: “Christ obeyed the law perfectly so that we could be saved, true? Or false?” I am willing to bet all slips will be returned with, “true.” If we don’t even know the gospel, how can we communicate it to those who don’t?
A. According to the Reformation gospel, salvation/justification is predicated on a perfect keeping of the law. Hence, Christ’s death and perfect obedience both are needed to secure salvation. This means justification must progress through the Christian life to glorification via the same way we originally obtained it: by faith alone.* This contradicts a justification that is APART from the law.
Romans 3:21, 28
The Calvin Institutes: 3.14.1-21
B. The Protestant gospel therefore propagates a law that can give life; who keeps it is not relevant. A fulfilled law paves the way for salvation. This completely contradicts Pauline apostolic doctrine (see Galatians, particularly 3:21).
C. This means we are all under a curse because we are still under law. Again, who keeps the law is not relevant—we are still UNDER it as justification’s standard for righteousness (Galatians 3:10-14). In the book of Romans, the very definitions of the lost versus the saved are, “under grace” and “under law” (Romans 6:14,15). If the perfect keeping of the law by Christ brings life, life is not imparted separate from the law, and we are still under the law, and therefore under a curse.
Christ became that curse for us and eradicated the law as a standard for our justification (Romans 10:4). Christ is the end of the law “FOR righteousness” (ie., justification) to everyone who believes. Those still under the law will be judged by the law at the great white throne judgment, but the law has NOTHING to say about a righteous standing to those who are under grace (Romans 3:19). Christ didn’t fulfill the law for our justification, he paid the price for its penalty. By that one act we are saved, not that plus multiple acts of obedience (Hebrews 10:12, 14).†
*Like the Catholicism that it came from, perpetual forgiveness of sins to remain saved is efficacious and can only be found in the institutional church, and administered by elders (or priests) and the sacraments.
The Calvin Institutes: 4.1.20-22
Timothy J. Wengert: A Contemporary Translation of Luther’s Small Catechism; Augsburg Fortress PUB 1994, pp.35,49
† This gargantuan problem hasn’t been lost on many Reformed thinkers. New Covenant Theology was created in an attempt to reconcile this problem. It posits the idea that Christ FULFILLD the law by His perfect obedience and replaced it with the “law of Christ.” Depending on the type of camp in this theology, certain parts of the Old Testament law were abrogated, and replaced with new laws that Christ ushered in. Others teach that the law was replaced with the single “law of love.”
However, the results are exactly the same: some law is still the standard for our justification, and the role of the law (or some form of it) remains the same in pre-salvation and post-salvation resulting in antinomianism. The Reformed definition of antinomianism follows:
The law is NOT the standard for justification (the Reformed disagree, but believe Christ keeps it/kept it/fulfilled it/ for us).
The Biblical definition of antinomianism follows:
The role of the law does not change in regard to justification and sanctification.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
And sorry about the “anonymous” moniker. I meant to sign in as “freegracefull”
LikeLike
“If I died to sin I must hve died to law as well”
I’m gonna rethink that statement so don’t take it as what I believe… have to chew on that one for a while…
LikeLike
Reading the comments here and they are good ones–in the middle of a situation and will respond later to all.
LikeLike
Romans 6:14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Again, The law brings out sin that is still in me. But if I am no longer under the law but under grace, sin has no more power to master me.
I am not “set free” from the law to do my own will, I am set free to do the will of God without fear of any condemnation
I stand on the fact of Christ dying for my sins – faith for justification- freedom from the penalty of sin.
I stand also on the fact of having died WITH Christ in His death to sin- faith for freedom from the power of sin in my life, which makes progressive sanctification possible.
As my substitute, Jesus paid the penalty of sin.
As my representative, He took me with Him to the cross and in the sight of God, every believer died with Christ.
Romans 6:
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
What kind of salvation would we have if God simply saved us from the penalty of our sins and then let us “get on with life” and deal with the POWER of sin on our own?
No! We are freed from the penalty AND power of sin through his death. It does both for us. Calvary is as much the foundation of Sancitification as it is Justification. The cross and the resurrection are inescapable bcause everything was accomplished there.
How?
Through faith. Before you throw a fit, hear me out, because I am not talking about the “new calvinist” version of faith where we sit with outstretched arms and wait for Christ’s obedience to “manifest” itself to us.
Christ’s victory over sin is my victory over sin through faith. If I believe it true that I died to sin with Christ, if I truly begin to see this by faith, then I open the door to letting the Holy Spirit bring me freedom from sin’s enslavement- which is progressive sactfication, the cooperation of me and the Spirit in my daily walk. But the building block is faith, not the law.
The Holy Spirit occupies me with Christ through the Scripture, as I by faith see my death with Him to sin is true, the very righteousness that the law demanded will be produced in my life by the Holy Spirit with my cooperation. As a matter of fact it is a righteousness that goes beyond what the law demanded because Christ accomplished much more than the law demanded. His death gives us power over sin, not just freedom from its consequences.
The person living thus by faith does not even have to be told any law. He does not need a list of “do’s an “dont’s”. He lives by the “law of the Spirit of life”. This is Christian freedom.
Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[
Romans 8:
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Of course progressive sanctification requires the believer’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit, but the basis or starting point of our sanctification is our death with Christ to sin on the cross- this is appropriated by faith. Not the law.
What am I missing?
LikeLike
FG and Lydia,
Wish I had time to address this right now, but it will have to wait. However, I will throw in something here: “I am set free to do the will of God.” Not really, you are set free from the bondage of sin, enslaved to righteousness, but free to sin. No unbeliever sins perfectly and no believer obeys perfectly for that reason. In both cases, it’s the direction and not the perfection. ALL people live in a righteousness/sin paradigm with freedom/slavery positions. When you are born again, the positions switch resulting in a change of direction.
https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2013/07/22/romans-106-9-righteousness-faith-life-and-law/faith-and-rom-6/
LikeLike
freegraceful, My answer to Romans is always: keep reading. :o) Paul is building an argument for what appears to be a context of Roman believers who are made up of proselytes, Gentiles and Jews concerning corporate election. Can you imagine explaining the dichotomy of Jew/Gentile to new believers?
However, I am still perplexed over the place and specifics of the law as it relates to Gentile believers.
LikeLike
The biggest problem in Christianity, which Paul, Susan, and John Immel discussed at the ttanc conference, is the whole Platonist approach to Christianity. Sin has power over us gets translated to mean that we can’t help but sin…our choice is wholly subverted by a power outside of us. In which case it is hard to build an argument for the culpability of man in sin. If man cannot help it, man is reduced to nothing more than an instinctual animal. His sin is his existence. And if his sin doesn’t include his will, neither can his salvation. Man is conspicuously absent from the equation. This is the evil gnostic neo reformed view of total depravity and election.
Man has choice whether to sin or not whether saved or unsaved. There is no physiological difference between the saved and unsaved in this regard. The difference is, by what moral standard is God declaring mans actions sinful? For the unsaved, he is judged by the Law, which is a standard OUTSIDE of man, and as such, man can never ultimately be reconciled to it. Because man’s self is perpetually removed from the Law, the Law is only absolute and perfectly fulfilled when man is put to death. Man can DO good, but it offers him nothing because the absolute standard of good is wholly removed from him. Every attempt of man to obey the law only drives him further from it because it simply serves to reveal the perfection of the Law WITHOUT him. Man cannot be saved by an absolute Law of morality outside of him. His death is the only way he can be reconciled to it.
Enter Christ. Fulfilling the Laws demand for death, He dies. And his resurrection reinstates man as the new standard of moral truth. Man can now do good because he once again IS good. The only “sin” is not a violation of the Law any longer but a violation of SELF (himself, other people, God). Hence the “law” is now reduced to the two commandments to love God and others. ALL the law and prophets can be summed up by: man is good.
LikeLike
“Sin has power over us gets translated to mean that we can’t help but sin…our choice is wholly subverted by a power outside of us. In which case it is hard to build an argument for the culpability of man in sin. If man cannot help it, man is reduced to nothing more than an instinctual animal. His sin is his existence. And if his sin doesn’t include his will, neither can his salvation. Man is conspicuously absent from the equation. This is the evil gnostic neo reformed view of total depravity and election.”
yes! And one hears this in non Calvinist churches all the time. We can’t help but sin, sin, sin. It gets so old and totally blasphemes the cross/resurrection.
Argo, I agree totally with what you are saying. I think we can safely say the law is written on our hearts. Again, I go back to “why” the Holy Spirit and where does the Holy Spirit dwell? In believers if they are believers. Where does the Holy Spirit fit into all of this? I constantly think of 1 John and how it is explained there. The whole sin thing can be summed up in “walking in the light” or walking in the darkness. We get off track when trying to explain dual natures and the fact we cannot be sinless. Our corrupt bodies are a consequence of sin. Chocking weeds in my garden are a consequence of sin, etc. Those are consequences I will wrestle with for the rest of my life. Am I loving God and others? Is my heart pure?
I think your points are great but I am not convinced of penal substitution if that is where you were going. I believe the Cross/resurrection (and I believe it is dangerous to separate them as so many do) was a victory over evil. Or even a “ransom” for sin.
As Gentiles, how does the law of Moses affect us?
LikeLike
Lydia,
Hmm…penal substitution. No. I don’t accept that either. But your point is taken. How is Jesus able, as a man, to be exempt from the standard of the Law so that He serves as the sacrifice for sin (mans rejection of himself as the moral standard in favor of an external “law” of good and evil)? I have an answer, but it’s too long for a comment.
I will just say that I don’t consider it penal substitution. I consider it God’s act of mercy (the Law is also a wonderful act of mercy because it allows for the fulfillment of it through Christ). The law doesn’t demand the death of man as punishment for sins (plural). The law demands the death of man because man is, in light of an absolute truth outside of him, utterly irrelevant. The law is only absolute if it does NOT have to be realized in the context of man. Man thus living represents a perpetual affront to the perfection of the law by his existence. Jesus dies in service to this notion (absolute God and absolute man “pass away” in deference to the absolute truth of the law; Jesus as God in flesh is a BRILLIANT tactical move of God’s over the Devil, and one that Satan likely never expected…for the law not only demands man’s life, but God’s, if the law is truly absolute). When Jesus is raised, death is defeated…that is, the death the law demands is satisfied. Jesus, the second Adam, re-establishes man as the source of his own absolute moral truth.
So, it isn’t punishment. It is a necessary sacrifice (the animals used in Torah law weren’t “punished” for sin…they atoned) by God’s mercy to save man from universal death in service to a law man asked for when he listened to Satan in the garden.
Satan fed man Platonism, and man has been gobbling it up and killing himself in service to it ever since. Christians reject this Platonism when they accept Christ…it’s just too bad so many don’t know it. No other religion does. That’s why I am a Christian. If it weren’t for Christ I’d be a Jew. But the law with Christ is much more rational than the law without.
LikeLike
Thanks for the great comments all. I really want to read through them carefully before i respond. Sorry for some of my testy replies as I seem to be short on patience this week. The comments are necessary challenges.
LikeLike
“Sin has power over us gets translated to mean that we can’t help but sin…our choice is wholly subverted by a power outside of us. In which case it is hard to build an argument for the culpability of man in sin. If man cannot help it, man is reduced to nothing more than an instinctual animal. His sin is his existence. And if his sin doesn’t include his will, neither can his salvation. Man is conspicuously absent from the equation. This is the evil gnostic neo reformed view of total depravity and election.”
Argo. This is right on. I believe this and you stated it well.
I am far from denying the role and necessity of holiness in the life of a believer. Dead faith is dead faith, it produces no works.
Screw the notion “let go and let God” I just hope no one here believes I am saying this.
I do a terrible job getting my points across, don’t have a real good command of the English language.
I guess my argument is when we obey a command, it is out of faith, not out of duty. Faith IS obeying God’s commands. So the Christian life of progressive sanctification is not a list of “dos” and don’ts”. It is faith working obedience in me through the Holy Spirit. If everyone agrees that we as Christians have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, then we serve in the “new way” of which Paul speaks, counting ourselves as dead to sin in Christ (this is faith!) and acting upon this faith. “The law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Sorry for my feeble attempts.
LikeLike
Free grace, LOL
Your command of the English language is fine. Your “attempts” are not feeble. You state your points well.
You are a welcome voice. The only feeble attempts at ideas come from people who think they speak directly for God. Who think agreeing with them is a prerequisite for apprehending “real” truth. Who claim revelation over reason and then explicitly proclaim that only THEY have God’s revelation.
I think you, like me, spent a lot of time with people who told you you were too stupid/depraved to understand anything of truth.
You may get a heated response or two, but you won’t be told that here.
LikeLike