R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 122

Soli Deo Gloria: To God Alone Be the Glory

Soli Deo gloria is the motto that grew out of the Protestant Reformation and was used on every composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. He affixed the initials SDG at the bottom of each manuscript to communicate the idea that it is God and God alone who is to receive the glory for the wonders of His work of creation and of redemption. At the heart of the sixteenth-century controversy over salvation was the issue of grace.

It was not a question of man's need for grace. It was a question as to the extent of that need. The church had already condemned Pelagius, who had taught that grace facilitates salvation but is not absolutely necessary for it. Semi-Pelagianism since that time has always taught that without grace there is no salvation. But the grace that is considered in all semi-Pelagian and Arminian theories of salvation is not an efficacious grace. It is a grace that makes salvation possible, but not a grace that makes salvation certain.

In the parable of the sower we see that regarding salvation, God is the one who takes the initiative to bring salvation to pass. He is the sower. The seed that is sown is His seed, corresponding to His Word, and the harvest that results is His harvest. He harvests what He purposed to harvest when He initiated the whole process. God doesn't leave the harvest up to the vagaries of thorns and stones in the pathway. It is God and God alone who makes certain that a portion of His Word falls upon good ground. A critical error in interpreting this parable would be to assume that the good ground is the good disposition of fallen sinners, those sinners who make the right choice, responding positively to God's prevenient grace. The classical Reformed understanding of the good ground is that if the ground is receptive to the seed that is sown by God, it is God alone who prepares the ground for the germination of the seed.

The biggest question any semi-Pelagian or Arminian has to face at the practical level is this: Why did I choose to believe the gospel and commit my life to Christ when my neighbor, who heard the same gospel, chose to reject it? That question has been answered in many ways. We might speculate that the reason why one person chooses to respond positively to the gospel and to Christ, while another one doesn't, is because the person who responded positively was more intelligent than the other one. If that were the case, then God would still be the ultimate provider of salvation because the intelligence is His gift, and it could be explained that God did not give the same intelligence to the neighbor who rejected the gospel. But that explanation is obviously absurd.

The other possibility that one must consider is this: that the reason one person responds positively to the gospel and his neighbor does not is because the one who responded was a better person. That is, that person who made the right choice and the good choice did it because he was more righteous than his neighbor. In this case, the flesh not only availed something, it availed everything. This is the view that is held by the majority of evangelical Christians, namely, the reason why they are saved and others are not is that they made the right response to God's grace while the others made the wrong response.

We can talk here about not only the correct response as opposed to an erroneous response, but we can speak in terms of a good response rather than a bad response. If I am in the kingdom of God because I made the good response rather than the bad response, I have something of which to boast, namely the goodness by which I responded to the grace of God. I have never met an Arminian who would answer the question that I've just posed by saying, "Oh, the reason I'm a believer is because I'm better than my neighbor." They would be loath to say that. However, though they reject this implication, the logic of semi-Pelagianism requires this conclusion. If indeed in the final analysis the reason I'm a Christian and someone else is not is that I made the proper response to God's offer of salvation while somebody else rejected it, then by resistless logic I have indeed made the good response, and my neighbor has made the bad response.

What Reformed theology teaches is that it is true the believer makes the right response and the non-believer makes the wrong response. But the reason the believer makes the good response is because God in His sovereign election changes the disposition of the heart of the elect to effect a good response. I can take no credit for the response that I made for Christ. God not only initiated my salvation, He not only sowed the seed, but He made sure that that seed germinated in my heart by regenerating me by the power of the Holy Ghost. That regeneration is a necessary condition for the seed to take root and to flourish. That's why at the heart of Reformed theology the axiom resounds, namely, that regeneration precedes faith. It's that formula, that order of salvation that all semi-Pelagians reject. They hold to the idea that in their fallen condition of spiritual death, they exercise faith, and then are born again. In their view, they respond to the gospel before the Spirit has changed the disposition of their soul to bring them to faith. When that happens, the glory of God is shared. No semi-Pelagian can ever say with authenticity: "To God alone be the glory." For the semi-Pelagian, God may be gracious, but in addition to God's grace, my work of response is absolutely essential. Here grace is not effectual, and such grace, in the final analysis, is not really saving grace. In fact, salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Yes, I must believe. Yes, I must respond. Yes, I must receive Christ. But for me to say "yes" to any of those things, my heart must first be changed by the sovereign, effectual power of God the Holy Spirit. Soli Deo gloria.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

What Was at Stake in the Reformation?

Do Protestants and Roman Catholics really believe different things regarding salvation? Watch as R.C. Sproul explains how real differences exist and that what was at stake in the Reformation was the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This Reformation Month, watch a short video every day on the history and insights of the Protestant Reformation. And don't forget that for this month only, you can request your free digital download of R.C. Sproul’s video teaching series Luther and the Reformation plus the ebook edition of The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols.

Offer ends 10/31/19.

Transcript

The Reformers were saying that we are justified by faith and by faith alone—that faith is the sole instrumental cause for our justification meaning that the way we receive all the benefits of Jesus work is through putting our trust in Him and in Him alone. Now in contrast to that, the Roman communion taught as they did at Trent, that faith is a necessary condition for salvation, but you can have that true faith and still not be justified. So you have radically different views of salvation, and those two views cannot be reconciled. One of them is the gospel. One of them is not. And so what was at stake in the Reformation was the gospel of Jesus Christ. And though Rome made many fine affirmations of traditional truths of the Christian faith, by anathematizing the gospel, in my mind, they stopped being a legitimate church.

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, October 2019

The October issue of Tabletalk features young people addressing older people and older people addressing young people regarding various aspects of life. Scripture is filled with admonitions for both older believers and younger Christians, such as the call for young people to respect their elders and the call for elders not to look down on the young (1 Tim. 4:12; 5:1–2). However, because of differences in age and in life experience, younger people frequently fail to heed the wisdom of older people and older people sometimes struggle to understand younger people. This issue of Tabletalk seeks to help believers overcome these hurdles by featuring older people writing to younger people and younger people writing to older people on a number of different subjects pertaining to the Christian life.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month's issue. You can also purchase the issue or subscribe to get the print issue every month.

The Divorce Generations by Burk Parsons
Be Patient with Us as We Learn by Joe Holland
Be Patient and Pray by Don Bailey
Mentor Us by Nicholas T. Batzig
Just Do Something by Gene Edward Veith
Take Sin Seriously by Geoffrey Thomas
Be Present with Us by Jason Helopoulos
Participate in Your Church by Larry G. Mininger
Become a Grown-Up by Jerry O’Neill
Show Us How to Be a Family by Adriel Sanchez

Read the Entire Issue

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What Is Imputed Righteousness?

When God counts someone righteous on the basis of faith, it’s not because of anything they’ve done. It’s because they’ve been covered by the righteousness of Christ. From one of our live Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul helps us understand the doctrine of imputation.

To get real-time answers to your biblical and theological questions, just Ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

What Does ‘Ex Nihilo’ Mean?

Until the Enlightenment, the most firmly established article of Christian faith in the secular world was that of creation. It had been established not only by revelation but also by reason, not only by religion but also by science. To medieval philosophers, the idea of something coming from nothing was absurd, unscientific, and illogical. If something exists, it must either have the power of being in itself or it must come from something that has the power of being in itself. Otherwise, nothing at all could exist. This point is important because atheists and secularists in recent centuries have focused their attention on creation. If they can undermine our certainty that we live in a created universe, they can undermine any argument for the existence of God. If you do away with creation, you do away with the Creator.

The classic Christian doctrine of creation is creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). The writer who most thoroughly developed this concept was Augustine. He said God spoke the universe into being out of nothing. God did not take eternally preexisting matter or substance and reshape or reconfigure it into the present world. His creative activity is not like that of human artists.

Think of Michelangelo, who sculpted magnificent statues from stone. Michelangelo believed that he did not create a statue but released the figure from its stone prison. It is inconceivable that his statues could have created themselves without the work of a master sculptor. Michelangelo’s genius was his unique ability to reshape a block of stone into a magnificent figure. But he had to start with some substance or material. Similarly, Rembrandt had to begin with his canvas and paints. His inventive brilliance was in working with materials already at his disposal. We call this creativity, but no one in this world has the power or ability to create something out of nothing. Only God can do that.

When we assert creation ex nihilo, the obvious question is, How could God possibly do such a thing? It almost sounds like magic, where God is the magician who pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But in the act of creation, there were no trick mirrors, no rabbits, no hats, and not even a magic wand. Every effect must have a cause. There are different kinds of causes. Aristotle, for example, differentiated between several kinds, using the example of a sculpture: its material cause (out of which something comes) is the block of stone; its instrumental cause (the means by which the effect is brought to pass) is the chisel and hammer, instruments the sculptor uses to bring about the effect; its formal cause (the idea to which the effect must correspond) is the sketch used as the image is shaped; its final cause (the purpose for which it is made) is to beautify a building, fulfill a commission, or some other reason. Aristotle also distinguished between efficient and sufficient causes: the efficient cause is the sculptor, who actually brings about the sculpture; the sufficient cause is the power needed to bring the effect into being.

Creation had neither a material nor an instrumental cause. There was a formal cause, a final cause, an efficient cause, and a sufficient cause. The formal cause was God’s idea and plan to create the world, not out of necessity or His own need, but according to His own purpose. The final cause was God’s purpose, a plan He executed initially by the actual work of creation. The final cause was God’s ultimate glory and our well-being (which also redounds to His glory). God was both the efficient cause and the sufficient cause because He alone had the power to bring something out of nothing.

By what means did God accomplish the feat of creation ex nihilo? By His speech. Augustine called this the divine imperative or fiat. God spoke the words “Let there be” (Gen. 1:3, 6, 14)—meaning “There must be”—and things appeared. In the film Anna and the King of Siam, the king frequently says, “So let it be said; so let it be done.” That is an imperial command that cannot be countermanded. In creation, there was no block of stone or mass of unstructured matter, but only the command of God, who alone had the power to make things happen simply by uttering a command. It was the power of His word that created.

By the power of His word and His sovereign, efficacious will, God can make things happen simply by decree. We see this demonstrated to some degree when at Jesus’ command the Sea of Galilee stopped raging and the wind ceased blowing. Jesus said: “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4:39), and it was still. In response, the disciples’ fear increased rather than decreased. Terrified of Jesus, they cried out, “Who then is this?” (Mark 4:41). They had never met someone with an authority so transcendent, holy, and majestic that even the winds and the sea obeyed him.

Jesus also displayed this power when raising Lazarus from the dead . After being dead for four days, Lazarus, in the language of the King James Version, “stinketh” (John 11:39) . That description underscored the fact that Lazarus was indeed dead, and that his body had begun to decay . When raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus stood outside the tomb and cried out, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43) . At the verbal command of the incarnate Christ, Lazarus’ heart immediately began to pulsate and to pump blood throughout his vessels, oxygen began to flow, brain waves were initiated, and Lazarus woke up and came out of the tomb a living man.

In the book of Romans, Paul speaks of the uniqueness of God, who alone can bring something out of nothing and life out of death (Rom. 4:17). Paul tells us that the energizing power of God’s Word is that which raises us from spiritual death and translates us from the kingdom of dark- ness into the kingdom of light. God can assure His church that His Word will not return to Him void because it contains His power (Isa . 55:11) . We stand in awe that our Creator formed the entire vast universe out of nothing by the sheer command of His voice.

Some profound philosophical questions flow from the concept of creation ex nihilo. Although there was no preexistent material out of which God ordered the universe, it is not as if there was absolutely nothing. Ex nihilo means that there was no substantive or physical reality, but obviously there was always God Himself and His spiritual reality. We learn in Scripture never to identify the universe or any part of it with God Himself. To confuse the Creator and the creature is to fall into pantheism, which obscures the clear distinction between creature and Creator. Yet we hear from the Apostle Paul, citing Greek poets, that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). For our very existence we are utterly dependent on the sustaining power of God. That which He creates, God holds in existence. We depend on Him not only for the original act of creation but also for existence from moment to moment. There is no life apart from Him.

When we say that our being is in God, we raise the question of whether the stuff of the universe is an extension of God’s being, somehow a part of Him. This gives rise to forms of pantheism. It is difficult to understand how God, who is infinite in His being, can permeate everything and yet allow something to exist that is completely distinct from His own being. We do, in some sense, owe our existence to His very being, but that does not deify us in any way. There is a distinction between self-existence and creaturely existence, and we are never to think of ourselves as little gods or sparks of the infinite. We do not exist on our own power but depend every second on the being of God for our existence. We are not God, and how we exist under the influence of His creative power is something that no one can explain. Of this we can be certain: unless that power of being is over us and prior to us, nothing could possibly be.

This excerpt is adapted from Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul. In Truths We Confess, now thoroughly revised and available in a single, accessible volume, Dr. Sproul introduces readers to this remarkable confession, explaining its insights and applying them to modern life. Preorder the hardcover book today.

The Crusades

In this brief clip from his teaching series A Survey of Church History, W. Robert Godfrey examines how the Crusades marked a radical break from how earlier Christians thought about the relationship between church and state. Watch this entire message for free.

Transcript

The Crusades are a radical break with anything that it happened in Christian history until that point. Up until that point, Christians had gone to war but Christians had always gone to war in support of the state to pursue some political objective. They may have felt that their state was a Christian state and that therefore in going to war for the state, they were doing something that was good in the eyes of God but they had never gone to war for the church. They had always in fact believe that part of the separation of church and state was that the state was given power by God to protect the nation and to promote peace whereas the church had a spiritual mission on earth. But with the coming of the crusading ideal in Europe, that idea began to change and Christians began to think that it was legitimate to use force to advance the church and the cause of Christ not just to protect and to defend the state.

Watch Our 2019 London Conference Live Online

Today, we are gathering for The Light of the World, our 2019 London Conference. Each session will be livestreamed on Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel. The first session begins today at 7:15 p.m. BST (2:15 p.m. ET).

Please help the teaching from this conference reach more people by sharing the sessions as you see them appear on social media. And be sure to join the conversation by following #ligcon on Twitter and Instagram.

Late next week, each session from the 2019 London Conference conference will be available to watch on Ligonier.org and the Ligonier app.

Recovering the Priority of Personal Holiness

“If the Word does not dwell with power in us,” wrote Puritan John Owen, “it will not pass with power from us” (The Works of John Owen, vol. 16, p. 76.). This godly minister personified this truth in his personal life and public ministry more than three centuries ago. For years he carried the message of Jesus Christ into the trenches of a culture as chaotic as our own while simultaneously dealing with the death of his wife and all eleven of his children. John Owen was no ivory tower theologian, but rather a zealous pastor who worked to the brink of exhaustion to further the work of the Reformers. He is remembered for shining gospel light into the spiritually dark arenas of politics and academia. And his love of Scripture was clearly and forcefully articulated from the variety of pulpits into which God called him.

Yet what gave John Owen success in ministry was not so much his oratory skill, nor his evangelistic zeal, nor even his love for the people he shepherded. John Owen was used mightily by God in all these ways because he was a man characterized by personal holiness. And in an age when the church is emulating the world, where it is no longer distinguishable from our pleasure-oriented culture, the example of John Owen shines like a beacon on a stormy night.

Let's consider whether we have allowed contemporary culture to infiltrate our minds and hearts. Have we inverted Christ’s desire that the church be in the world by bringing the world into the church instead? If we take an honest look, perhaps we’ll discover that we are contributing to this trend. Rather than relying solely on the sufficiency of God’s Word, are we employing counselors in our churches who apply worldly methods of psychological analysis to address felt needs? Have we adopted worldly means to reach the seekers who sit skeptically in the back pews rather than offering them the truths of the Gospel and the Christian life? Faithful teaching of God’s Word is vanishing. Are we among the number that have replaced preaching with elaborate drama productions aimed at entertaining? In terms of covenantal relationships, the rate of divorce and remarriage reflects societal statistics. Where do we stand on this issue? The church has become tolerant of all kinds of biblical compromise, casting aside principles that Owen and his contemporaries would have given their lives to protect and defend.

Unlike Owen, we are in danger of falling prey to the belief that without entertainment and other-worldly concessions, no one will want what Jesus offers. Let's not forget the exchange, in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel, between Jesus and the rich young ruler when Jesus told the man the realities of true discipleship. As the rich man realized that personal sacrifice is required to live in God’s kingdom, he walked away. What did Jesus do? He did not do what many churches do today: run after the man in an effort to make the Gospel more appealing. No, Jesus let him go, because the only terms on which anyone can truly follow Christ are God’s terms.

Owen engaged the culture without capitulating to it because his chief desire was to reflect God's purity in his life and ministry. He remained faithful in his preaching to the truths of Scripture — even in the face of life-threatening persecution — because of his commitment to holiness. People flocked to hear Owen preach because he reflected God’s character. Owen wrote, as noted in Peter Toon's book God's Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen: “I hope I may own in sincerity that my heart's desire unto God, and the chief design of my life … are, that mortification and universal holiness may be promoted in my own life and in the hearts and ways of others, to the glory of God, so that the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be adorned in all things” (p. 56).

I fear that personal holiness is not a priority within the church — even among its leaders — as it was in the days of the Puritans. Many ministers are often nowadays more concerned with visual growth and success than with cultivating personal purity. That was certainly not the case with John Owen. Rather than devoting much time to developing innovative amusements for the worship hour, Owen made private communion with God a top priority. He understood why the apostle Paul wrote: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2). The Word of God is the means employed by the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ, so if preaching and evangelism are to be effective, private communion with God in His Word must be more important than discovering the latest ministry technique. Owen wrote that “whatever else be done in churches, if the pastors of them, or those who are so esteemed, are not exemplary in gospel obedience and holiness, religion will not be carried on and improved among the people” (Works, vol. 16, p. 88).

Yet holiness isn’t just a necessity for ministers. If the church is to recover its distinctiveness, holiness is a requirement for each individual member. Hebrews 12:14 says,“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Unless we recover this emphasis on holiness, how will the world look in and be able to see the Jesus we profess? Evangelistic efforts will ring hollow if such efforts are not accompanied by personal purity.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

$5 Friday: Assurance, Contentment, & the Holy Spirit

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as assurance, the atonement, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Calvin, contentment, the Holy Spirit, and more.

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m. — 11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

Discovering Deuteronomy, A New Teaching Series from W. Robert Godfrey

Many Christians are surprised to learn that Deuteronomy is one of the most frequently quoted books in the New Testament. Why did Jesus and the Apostles teach from it so often, and what can you gain from reading it today?

In this new video teaching series, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey connects the land, laws, and leaders of Deuteronomy to the Christian life. At first glance, this ancient book may seem irrelevant. But take a closer look, and you’ll discover how it points to the Savior and helps prepare your heart for Him.

This teaching series is available now for purchase on DVD or CD, as a digital download, or as a Ligonier Connect course. A corresponding study guide is also available.

Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for the six-part Ligonier teaching series A Survey of Church History. His many books include God's Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, An Unexpected Journey, Learning to Love the Psalms, and Saving the Reformation.