Paul's Passing Thoughts

I continue to be amazed at how “Christian” leaders with national visibility are disgraced when they get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. What is amazing about this is for the most part their ministries are predicated on the idea that Christians are just “sinners saved by grace.” This is how it is stated: “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” That’s in the present tense, and that’s good news because humbleness hath no greater friend than a guy named Zero, as in, Zero Accountability.

Woe is me, “I can do nothing.” Christians shrink back in horror in regard to thinking that they would get credit for doing something good. Tullian Tchividjian once tweeted that he knows he is going to heaven because he couldn’t remember one good work that he had ever done. There is a lot of confusion on this point in regard to the authentic Reformed view of mortal sins versus venial sins. Luther taught that Christ performs all righteous works through us and these works are experienced subjectively. In other words, we really don’t know whether we are doing the work or Christ is doing the work. But, to think that we actually did the work, or were a part of it beyond the mere experience of it, is apart from justification by faith alone and is a mortal sin. But, if we ask forgiveness for doing the good work or “attend the good work with fear” just in case it was actually us doing it, that is only venial sin. Every time you hear Baptists say, It wasn’t me who did it! It was the Holy Spirit! –that’s the Lutheran in them.

This isn’t terribly difficult to understand. If you are standing in the rain, you are experiencing the rain, and anthropomorphically, you have the inner ability to experience the rain. But you can take no credit for the rain; it is being done to you instead of you doing the action to someone else. And just because the experience is in you, does not mean the good work of the rain is in you—you are only experiencing it. The human heart has the ability to experience good works, but not to perform them. The belief that the heart can generate a good work is not of faith and mortal sin. That’s Reformed metaphysics 101.

Take the homeschool icon Doug Phillips for example. It has come out, by his own admission, that he had a long-term inappropriate relationship with a woman that was not biblically sexual [enter pause here for laughter]. In his disgraceful fall, he actually presented himself as a righteous person who slipped up a little bit, but has such high standards that he voluntarily resigned from his immense gravy train to recalibrate his life. After all, everyone knows that a man can have a crush on a female that is just a friend, a “woman” right?

Well, as it turns out, it was the nanny, and a very young nanny, and he denies the nonsexual inappropriate behavior that she is claiming. Apparently, it was less inappropriate than she claims. Phillips denies her allegations, but refuses to specifically cite what the behavior was, that would be gossip [enter another pause here for more laughter]. Apparently, the nanny isn’t up with how this is all going down and is going to get everything on the record in court. And of course, he must be telling the truth because if it was as bad as the evil nanny tells; his wife wouldn’t be supporting him. In fact, in interviews sanctified as ungossip, they claim that God has used the evil nanny to make their marriage better than it has ever been! This is not funny at all; it is a classic example of an elitist throwing away a peasant that he is done using for his own pleasure.

But now my point: Phillips, in his glory days as a Christian icon routinely introduced himself as a “sinner.” Sooooo, what’s the big deal? He is a sinner acting like a sinner, but he can’t keep his job as a sinful leader among sinners? Gee whiz, even the apostle Paul said he was the “Chief of sinners,” and Phillips didn’t even penetrate! So, why can’t he keep his job? Perhaps lack of penetration, the “biblical” definition of sex, disqualified Philips from being a Chief among sinners.

Pardon the sarcasm, but the world is watching this mess play out time and time again while Christians chalk it up to… you got it… “We are all just sinners saved by grace.” “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Newsflash: for the most part, the who’s who of Evangelicals remain silent regarding these scandals other than to say…you got it…”We are all just sinners saved by grace.”

Got church mess? Got church deadness? Got church a mile wide and an inch deep? Go figure, we don’t even know who we are. The Bible never, never, never, never, never, identifies Christians as wicked in the present tense. Usually, Romans 7:24 is cited to make the case that Christians are still “wretched,” but the word actually means to persevere in the midst of affliction. I could point to many other Scriptures that are taken out of context in this way, but the fact is that the Bible refers to Christians as “righteous,” “holy,” “full of goodness,” and “able.”

So, who are we? Don’t you think that it would be a good idea if we knew? Evangelize if you will, but if you don’t know whether we are saints or sinners, good luck with that. But this brings me back to the strange silence of other leaders when one “falls from grace.” That is, other than…well…you know. For the most part, leaders do believe Christians only change positionally and not personally. I have documented the quotations en masse on this blog and will not belabor the point here.

But the fact is, most Christian leaders of our day believe that we should get rid of the whole, “living out our testimony” routine and have said so in no uncertain terms. The likes of Michael Horton have said that living by our testimony is an attempt to “be the gospel rather than preaching the gospel” which supposedly destroys the whole point of the gospel to begin with because, “it’s not our doing—it’s Christ’s doing and dying.” Notice that doing in sanctification is the same thing as doing in justification. James MacDonald stated that he has “resigned from fixing people” because they can’t be fixed. John MacArthur has stated that his ministry no longer requires people to “jump through hoops.” He has also suggested that Christians don’t apply the word of God to their lives; the Holy Spirit does the application for us. He then suggested that Christians therefore often obey unawares. And, we know when the Holy Spirit is obeying for us when the obedience is experienced as “always sweet, never bitter.”

This comes from Luther’s Simul iustus et peccator  – “At the same time righteous and a sinner.” Luther believed we are only saints positionally, and are still sinners personally. We don’t change, only our status changes. So, it’s not even like Facebook where a status change means a personal change. This is the reason for the silence. Like John Piper has stated, most Christians are not ready for the real Reformation gospel of  Simul iustus et peccator. We are all sinners, and nothing more or less should be expected. Away with all of this “behaviorism” and “moralism” in Christianity; viz, the idea that we do righteousness rather than righteousness being something that is done to us instead of by us.

Who are we? Are we saints or sinners? If my cat, Coaster, had a Facebook page, he could change his status because he just learned how to walk through a cat door. If a door is not shut completely, he can open it with his paw, but it took him awhile to figure out vertical swing versus horizontal swing. It’s the paw for normal doors, but you have to head-butt the cat door. So, is that our message? If we can do more than a cat without Jesus we are going to hell?

When we evangelize, which isn’t often to begin with, do we get a blank stare because the listener hasn’t been sovereignly illuminated, or do they just simply think we are stupid? It would be hard to tell because we don’t even know who we are.

paul