A Call to the Laity: The New Birth is the Infusion of God’s Word
Other than the use of a few facts in the commission of first-degree premediated falsehood, the Protestant Reformation did not get one thing right. The Protestant Reformation is plenary falsehood. This post is about the Reformation’s most grievous falsehood; the denial of the new birth as defined by the Bible.
John Piper once stated that the Reformation’s cardinal argument with Rome was the issue of “infused grace.” He is absolutely correct in that self-condemnation. The Protestant Reformation, as constantly stated by the Neo-Calvinists of our day, was all about an objective gospel that remains completely outside of us. What they call the “Objective Gospel.” This is Martin Luther’s “alien righteousness.”
Fundamentally, the objection was grounded in Augustine’s Neo-Platonism that disallowed the fusion of goodness with evil matter, but this post is not about that aspect.
If there is ever an escape from the present Protestant Dark Age, it will be the result of the laity’s collective study of God’s word to the exclusion of Protestant caste scholarship. The laity must recognize that we are God’s elect, and once again seize our rightful calling in the prevention of losing full reward. Our present day represents the Corinthian problem once again in which philosopher kings subjugate the gifts assigned to God’s offspring.
After more than 500 years of making every verse in the Bible about justification, there is much work to be done for the glory of God and His truth. One place where study is much needed regards the word, “seed.” Before one is born again, the law (God’s word) judges and condemns, but the new birth makes the same word a living seed that is infused within the believer. This is what the Bible teaches.
Seed theology, so to speak if I may, is a deep and vast continuity throughout the Bible and an element of the new birth. There is a link between the one seed, Christ, and Him as “the word,” and how the truth of Scripture is life to the believer as opposed to death and condemnation.
James 1:21 – Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you (NIV).
Got that? The word of God, also called a “seed” that is planted and gives life (see the parable of the sower etc.), is planted IN US. Is there a more glaring contradiction as set against the Reformation’s Objective Gospel? Also, in the Bible, “saved” doesn’t always mean the salvation of the soul. And, it NEVER means a progressive saving of the soul. In sanctification, the believer can still make life or death decisions by saying yes or no to proper or improper desires. There is also a saving of the body that saves us from the weakness of the flesh (redemption). At any rate, the point here is that the life giving word of God is In US via the new birth.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” (NIV).
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, (NIV).
In these verses, growth/nourishment from the word of God refers to the putting on of the new man (Eph 4:24) who is already a new man. The new creature grows up in newness, not some striving to finally achieve a state of newness. This is a true progressive holiness that is already holy, not progressive justification posing as progressive sanctification. Sanctification does not flow from a “legal declaration,” it flows from a state of being defined by an infusion of God’s life-giving word.
Well, there you have it; the vast seed doctrine of the Bible. This post is meant to point you in that direction. Get busy and obey your calling and teach me a few things about it. That’s how this all works.
Strive for your full reward and be transformed by the renewing of your mind with God’s word. This is your “reasonable” (literally, “logical”) service.
paul
Protestant and Catholic Progressive Justification
Both Protestantism and Catholicism hold to progressive justification. This is the idea that salvation is a process, and not a onetime completed event that redirects the believer to focus on representing God’s characteristics in life. Salvation is a gift, life is a reward. Protestantism and Catholicism both make salvation the reward for persevering in church orthodoxy.
With Protestantism and Catholicism, salvation cannot be finished, nor an individual matter between people and God, or the church would have no cause to be supported as an institutional industrial complex. In order for their massive institutions to be supported financially, they must claim God’s authority in overseeing the salvation of humanity.
Protestants claim that the Reformation was necessary because of the issue of “infused grace.” Luther and Calvin believed that all righteousness remains outside of the “believer.” The new birth, as defined by Protestantism, is a mere ability to perceive “truth” while doing no good work. Mortal sin (unforgivable) results if one thinks any person can do a good work. Venial sin (forgivable) results if it is believed that any person, whether saved or unsaved, can do no good work. Venial sin can be forgiven by the “means of grace” found only in the church.
Catholicism believes that the new birth enables the individual to cooperate with the church in finishing salvation. The individual is infused with God’s righteousness and can do good works. Mortal sin is sin committed by those outside of the church. Venial sin can be forgiven through the means of grace found in the church whether Protestant or Catholic. However, in Catholicism, the person actually grows in righteousness. In the end, Purgatory finishes the process, and in fact, makes the person perfect enough to obtain eternal life and enter into heaven. Only members of the Catholic church qualify to enter Purgatory.
Church doctrine is therefore the essence of sin because sin is a master that seeks to control humanity through condemnation (Genesis 4:7). If “believers” still need salvation, they are not free to love without fear of condemnation.
In truth, salvation is finished, and yes, we do “move on to something else” where sin is the exception and not the rule. We are not under law and its demands, but rather under grace and free to fulfill the law through love. The motive of the true believer is love—not law-keeping in regard to orthodoxy.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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