Monthly Archives: May 2018

Sanctification: Monergistic or Synergistic?

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Article by John Hendryx (original source here)

“so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” – 1 Cor 1:29-31

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
– ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:12-13‬ ‭

There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that God works in us, and we work. (Phil 2:13). And it is certainly true that good works may be described as a cooperation of sorts, but (and here is the kicker) good works are not the same thing as sanctification.

Sanctification is something God does TO you, and IN you. He is conforming you to the image of Jesus. Good works are something WE do, but they are only the result of God’s work — part of the outworking of the sanctification of the Spirit. You do not sanctify yourself (even partly): That is the work of the Spirit and His work alone. Our working and obeying is not an effectual cause of our sanctification. We don’t make ourselves Holy. If sanctification were synergistic we would literally be contributing a portion of the grace and power which sanctifies us. This would mean we would (at least partly) sanctify ourselves, while the Holy Spirit does the rest.

Consider another work of the Spirit: regeneration, Reformed theologians all agree with the Bible that when the Spirit regenerates a sinner, the fruit of His regenerating work is faith in Christ (John 6:63, 65). The sinner does not cooperate in order to be regenerated. The work is monergistic which means he is utterly passive in regeneration under the Holy Spirit through the preaching of God’s word. His faith (and his willingness to believe) exists in him only after the Spirit disarms his hostility and renews his heart. We do not consider faith to be cooperating with regeneration but the fruit of the Spirit’s regeneration.. Likewise, for sanctification, the Spirit sanctifies a sinner, and the fruit of sanctification is good works, but the sinner does NOT cooperate with God IN ORDER TO BE sanctified. Good works flow from our union with Christ, and His sanctifying work in us, but do not contribute to it in any way, since sanctification is part of our salvation – Christ’s work.

So sanctification is monergistic.

Don’t get me wrong, we cooperate in the Christian life as our regenerate, sanctified hearts yeld to God working in us. Indeed we are obligated to cooperate with God working in us and do good works. We take very seriously the divine commands to obey to do good. But the good works themselves aren’t to be confused with sanctification. Sanctification is a work that precludes all good works. We work FROM our sanctification. We don’t’ work FOR our sanctification. We are passive in sanctification, but active in good works.

The Westminster Confession says it like this:

Q. 35. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness (Shorter Catechism).

Q. 75. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life (Larger Catechism).

…the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. Westminster Confession of Faith 14.2

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NOTE: Now I know Dr. Sproul and others have taught that sanctification is synergistic. But it is pretty clear that what they mean by this is that the Christian life is not passive and we DO obey and work. We are not quietists. But a careful reading will reveal that he does not mean that we sanctify ourselves.

Related Resources:

Is Sanctification Monergistic or Synergistic? A Reformed Survey by Kevin DeYoung
Is Sanctification “Synergistic”? by William Evans
Is Sanctification Synergistic? by Jim Mclarty

But You Are Rich

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Article by Julio Rodriguez (original source here)

Are you rich? I am not asking unbelievers but Christians. I ask because some Christians have either forgotten or adopted an unbiblical measure of what makes a person rich. This outcome is a consequence of a popular theology that has penetrated the Western church known by two names: word of faith or prosperity gospel. The doctrine essentially teaches God’s will for Christians always holds financial blessing and physical well-being. There is a dire need to purge this heretical teaching and false gospel everywhere it is proclaimed. Not only does it lead Christians into idolatry and spiritual malnourishment but also makes God a liar. I aim to shoot down this heretical doctrine with one verse and testimony in hope to redeem or remind Christians “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!” (1 Cor. 4:8).

Revelation 2:9

Kenneth Copeland, an adherer to the word of faith movement, said: “You get spiritually rich, and you’ll get financially rich!” In other words, once you become a Christian (spiritually rich) you will obtain an abundance of wealth (financially rich). Nowhere is Copeland’s doctrine found explicitly or implicitly in sacred Scripture. On the contrary, there is an abundance of explicit and implicit verses that attest to Christians living in persecution and poverty. For example: In Revelation 2:9, Jesus tells the Church of Smyrna, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)” Here we see Christians living (spiritually rich) all the while living in tribulation and poverty. From Genesis to Revelation, you will not find God saying, “You are poor and going through tribulation because you have not accepted Christ and believed in the promises of physical well-being and financial blessing.”

But It gets worse for Copeland: Not only does Jesus know that his chosen are in tribulation and poverty but he also tells them in the next verse “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you (Christians) into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death,”(Revelation 2:10). As former word of faith preacher John Samson said, “This doctrine of the word of faith cannot stand up to biblical scrutiny and biblical context.”

For Christians who follow the teaching of the word of faith movement or prosperity gospel, how do you reconcile Revelation 2:9 consistently? You cannot! One must begin mental gymnastics and twist Scripture in order to fit the heretical teaching consistently. For those who are not yet convinced by Scripture, here is some historical context that magnifies the Church of Smyrna’s exhaustive tribulation and poverty. Continue reading →

The Freedom of the Regulative Principle

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Article: The Freedom of the Regulative Principle by Kevin DeYoung (original source here)

Even though I grew up in a Reformed church, until seminary I was one of the multitude of Christians who had never heard of the regulative principle. It’s not been at the core of my identity. But over the years I’ve come to appreciate the regulative principle more and more.

Simply put, the regulative principle states that “the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will” (WCF 21.1). In other words, corporate worship should be comprised of those elements we can show to be appropriate from the Bible. The regulative principles says, “Let’s worship God as he wants to be worshiped.” At its worst, this principle leads to constant friction and suspicion between believers. Christians beat each other up trying to discern exactly where the offering should go in the service or precisely which kinds of instruments have scriptural warrant. When we expect the New Testament to give a levitical lay out of the one liturgy that pleases God, we are asking the Bible a question it didn’t mean to answer. It is possible for the regulative principle to become a religion unto itself.

But the heart of the regulative principle is not about restriction. It is about freedom.

1. Freedom from cultural captivity. When corporate worship is largely left to our own designs we quickly find ourselves scrambling to keep up with the latest trends. The most important qualities become creativity, relevance, and newness. But of course, over time (not much time these days), what was fresh grows stale. We have to retool in order to capture the next demographic. Or learn to be content with settling in as a Boomer church or Gen X church.

2. Freedom from constant battles over preferences. The regulative principles does not completely eliminate the role of opinion and preference. Even within a conservative Reformed framework, worship leaders may disagree about musical style, transitions, volume, tempo, and many other factors. Conflict over preferences will remain even with the regulative principle. But it should be mitigated. I remember years ago at a different church sitting in a worship planning session where people were really good at coming up with new ideas for the worship service. Too good in fact. We opened one service with the theme song from Cheers. Another service on Labor Day had people come up in their work outfits and talk about what they do. Everyone had an idea that seemed meaningful to them. The regulative principle wouldn’t have solved all our problems, but it would have been a nice strainer to catch some well-intentioned, but goofy ideas.

3. Freedom of conscience. Coming out of the Catholic church with its host of extra biblical rituals, newly established Protestant churches had to figure out how to worship in their own way. Some were comfortable keeping many of the elements of the Catholic Mass. Others associated those elements with a false religious system. They didn’t want to go back to the mess of rites they left behind, even if by themselves some rites didn’t seem all that harmful.

This was the dynamic that made the regulative principle so important. Reformed Christians said in effect, “We don’t want to ask our church members to do anything that would violate their consciences.” Maybe bowing here or a kiss there could be justified by some in their hearts, but what about those who found it idolatrous? Should they be asked to do something as an act of worship that Scripture never commands and their consciences won’t allow? This doesn’t mean Christians will like every song or appreciate every musical choice. But at least with the regulative principle we can come to worship knowing that nothing will be asked of us except that which can be shown to be true according to the Word of God.

4. Freedom to be cross cultural. It’s unfortunate most people probably think worship according to the regulative principle is the hardest to transport to other cultures. And this may be true if the regulative principle is mistakenly seen to dictate style as well as substance. But at its best, the regulative principle means we have simple services with singing, praying, reading, preaching, and sacraments–the kinds of services whose basic outline can “work” anywhere in the world.

5. Freedom to focus on the center. Usually when talking about corporate worship I don’t even bring up the regulative principle. It is unknown to many and scary to others. So I try to get at the same big idea from a different angle. I’ll say something like this: “What do we know they did in their Christian worship services in the Bible? We know they sang the Bible. We know that preached the Bible. We know they prayed the Bible. We know they read the Bible. We know they saw the Bible in the sacraments. We don’t see dramas or pet blessings or liturgical dance numbers. So why wouldn’t we want to focus on everything we know they did in their services? Why try to improve on the elements we know were pleasing to God and practiced in the early church?” In other words, the regulative principle gives us the freedom to unapologetically to go back to basics. And stay there.