Paul's Passing Thoughts

Video link: https://youtu.be/Yj9_RKwTY4g

“So, the record of debt that is mounting against you every day because you sin every day. The record of debt that is cancelled mounting against you every day is canceled. How? By being nailed to the cross. Now you know as well as I, nails in wood forgive no sin, so what does he mean? He means they went through a hand into the cross; they went through a foot into the cross, and whose was it, mine? Should have been. It was the Son of God, which is why mine can be canceled if I trust him. That’s the gospel. It’s the glorious gospel that we should be telling everybody in the twin cities. “

This is pretty much the Protestant gospel per Martin Luther and John Calvin. What’s missing? The new birth that changes our relationship to the law, or the Bible if you will. Note that Piper states, “That’s the gospel.” Actually, it is only half of the gospel and the half presented isn’t true either. Christ didn’t die to be an ongoing substitute for our sin, He died to end sin. He didn’t die once to be an ongoing covering (atonement for sin), He died to end sin once and for all. Christ doesn’t take away our sin as far as the East is from the West daily, He did that once and for all time.

Let’s think about this. The record of debt, according to Piper, and frankly, Protestant orthodoxy as well, IS cancelled even though the debt is mounting daily because we sin daily. Notice Piper’s tense swapping in the same context: sin is mounting (present continuance), while being cancelled (simple past). The long and the short of it is this: Jesus’s death is newly applied to present sin daily. This should clarify what is meant by, “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.”

Conspicuously absent is the resurrection which according to Protestantism merely confirms that Jesus kept the law perfect enough to obtain righteousness that is then perpetually imputed to our sanctification IF we live by faith alone. This is the Protestant doctrine of Double Imputation.

So, this changes the new birth into a church sacrament instead of a miraculous work of the Spirit that changes a person’s state of being once and for all time. And of course, this is a sacrament that can only be obtained where sacraments are found: in a temple, and in this case, the church.

Fellowship alone will not support church infrastructure; wisdom for loving others is not incentive enough either. Eternal salvation found only in the church is the big seller.