Category Archives: Salvation

Personal salvation ‘a heresy’

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According to US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, belief in personal salvation is a ‘heresy’.  The grace of God, she is reported as saying, is given to the believing community, not to the individual Christian.

Of course, she may have been misreported.  It wouldn’t be the first time that the religious press has made someone out to be less orthodox than they really are.

Or possibly she just expressed herself badly.  Maybe she just meant to say that rampant individualism (a besetting problem in post-enlightenment liberalism as well as evangelicalism) is sub-biblical and sub-Christian. …

Notes on the doctrine of election

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What follows formed the basis of a couple of recent small group studies.  I should point out that the choice of topic was theirs, not mine!

Eph 1:3-14  is a good place to start: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.…

Divine sovereignty and human responsibility in Romans 9

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Romans 9 is one of the few places in Scripture where the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is acknowledged to be something of a problem to our finite, fallen understanding.  Douglas Moo (in the New Bible Commentary) has a helpful comment:-

‘Paul’s emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation raises certain objections, as he well knew from many years of preaching. Paul deals with two of these in this section. Is not God unfair to choose some and reject others (v14)?…

Blomberg on Wright on justification

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I’ve been posting, off and on, on Tom Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.  Haven’t finished yet.  Reviews have starting appearing, and I was particularly interested to read that of Craig Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary.  Blomberg writes:

Throughout his prolific writing career, Wright has increasingly centered his attention on the breadth of the gospel message being much more than how an individual attains salvation, defined as life in heaven after death.…

Bruce Milne on election

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Bruce Milne’s Know The Truth is a straightforward, uncomplicated handbook of Christian doctrine.

Milne defines ‘election’ as

that work of God’s grace whereby he chooses individuals and groups for a purpose or destiny in accordance with his will.

Examples form the Old Testament include Abraham, Gen 11:31-12:7, Israel, Ex 3:6-10, and the Messiah, Isa 42:1f.  In the New Testament Jesus is in a special sense the object of election, Lk 9:35; 1 Pet 2:4f.  Then, the church itself is referred to as ‘the elect’, Mt 22:14; Mk 13:20; Lk 18:8; 1 Pet 2:4f.…

Quotes on Election

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You begin at the wrong end if you first dispute about your election. Prove your conversion, and then never doubt your election. If your cannot yet prove it, set upon a present and thorough turning. Whatever God’s purposes be, which are secret, I am sure His promises are plain. How desperately do rebels argue! `If I am elected I shall be saved, do what I will. If not, I shall be damned, do what I can.’…

Reconciliation

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One of several images of salvation used in Scripture is that of reconciliation.

In this image, we leave the temple precincts, slave-markets and lawcourts, and come home to our family and friends.

Reconciliation is the answer to alienation, and to all who feel alienated reconciliation sounds like the good news that it is.

Reconciliation begins with a restored relationship with God, Rom 5:9-11 (note the parallel in this passage between reconciliation and justification).  The idea is closely linked with those of ‘adoption’ (Jn 1:12f; 1 Jn 3:1-10) and ‘access’ (Rom 5:1f; Eph 2:17f; 1 Pet 3:18; Heb 10:19-22).…

Redemption

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Whereas the imagery of propitiation is that of the temple court, the imagery of redemption is that of the market-place. The basic meaning of ‘to redeem’ is to buy or buy back, whether as a purchase or as a ransom. Strongly implied is the plight from which we needed to be ransomed.…

Propitiation

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How did the cross of Christ achieve its purpose?  In what ways did his death and resurrection usher in ‘the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2)?

Just as several pictures, or metaphors, are needed to fill out the meaning of ‘church’ (bride, temple, household, and so on), so several are required to illustrate the salvation that Christ achieved.  Chief among these are the terms ‘propitiation’, ‘redemption’, ‘justification’, and ‘reconciliation’.  It is important to realise that these images are complementary to one another, for underlying them all is ‘the truth that God in Christ has borne our sin and died our death to set us free from sin’. …

Lordship salvation

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For centuries, the watchword of Christians within the reformed and evangelical tradition has been justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  However, those same Christians have taught and practiced definite standards of moral behaviour.  Believing faith must and will be accompanied by true repentance.

What, then, is the relationship between salvation by grace and obedience to God’s moral law?  Can a person be a believer without being a disciple?  What must I do to be saved? …