Ordination Paper One
Eric M. White
Imagine that a breakthrough in material science led to an easy and affordable construction method that eliminated the possibility of structural fires. There’d be no immediate effect on our fire departments. After a few decades, once most buildings have been replaced with fireproof models, the need for fire departments and firefighters would significantly lessen. Eventually, there’d be no need for such services at all. We only need rescue workers insomuch as we have circumstances from which we need to be rescued. Jesus is the Savior, and He came because all humanity has something from which we need saved.
Humanity was not created in need of a savior; Adam and Eve were made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). In God’s image, humanity was without defect, having committed no sin and bearing no sinful nature. In Genesis 1:28, God blesses Adam and Eve, and in verse 31, God reflects on all that he has made and declares it good. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden, experiencing perfect communion with God and living in bliss, yet they are soon deceived.
In Genesis 2:15-17, God places Adam in charge of the garden, instructing him to tend to it and eat from any tree in it, excepting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 2:17, God gives Adam this command: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” In Genesis 3, Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempts Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by challenging the authority and trustworthiness of God.
Satan ensures Eve that she will not certainly die if she eats of the tree, but will become like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. The cunningness of the serpent is this: his words distort truth just enough that the wisdom of God seems foolish. Why would Eve not want to become like God? Yet as in every case of God’s law, His intention is the protection and benefit of His people. What Adam and Eve fail to see is that they were crafted flawlessly in the image of God. Pride in assuming they could attain something greater than God had already given; ignorance in heeding a word contrary to God’s; lust in desiring what was forbidden, these are the practices that led to the fall of man. Adam and Eve ate the fruit God forbade.
The consequences of this original sin of Adam and Eve have rippled throughout human history, its toll incalculable. This first sin of the first man and woman supplanted sinful nature into humanity, such that no one since has been born righteous nor has anyone achieved any righteousness of their own (Rom. 3:10, 3:23). King David of Israel, having contemplated the word of God and nature of man, reflects on his own sinfulness saying, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). The Apostle Paul makes the same case in Romans 5:14, stating that death for all came through one man, Adam. Paul’s words point to the origin and perpetuity of sin, but also demonstrate sin’s direst consequence: death.
When God instructs Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he tells Adam plainly, “you will die.” Paul confirms the death result of sin in Romans 6:23. The result of original sin includes but transcends physical death. In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul writes, “But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives” (1 Tim. 5:6). While contextual in purpose, this verse clearly illustrates the spiritual reality of sin. How can one be dead while alive in the most common sense of the word? While the flesh is alive, spiritual death reigns. God is life. Sin separates man from God. The prophet Isaiah makes this point in Isaiah 59:2: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.”
Not only has every person, except Jesus Christ, committed singular acts of rebellion against God, but we’re also subject to a sinful nature which rules over us outside of Christ. Reconsider the words of King David in Psalm 51:5 that he was sinful even before his birth. Paul emphasizes the sinful nature in Romans 5:12-14. In it, he says that Adam brought sin into the world, and because sin entered the world, so did death. Every person suffers death because everyone is guilty of sin. According to this passage, even those who did not have the law of Moses were guilty of sin, because it is in our very nature.
In Romans 7, Paul refers to himself as a slave to sin. This is the effect of sinful nature: by no amount of effort, righteous act, or commitment to obedience can any one of us break free from the bondage of sin. Because our nature is that of sin, it cannot by itself become anything other than sinful.
At the end of Genesis 2, before the fall and while Adam and Eve are enjoying freedom, bliss, and communion with God in the Garden of Eden, we read, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” In Genesis 3:10, after the fall, we find the original couple hiding from God in shame of their nakedness. Their sin has been laid bare before God, and the once perfect union between man and God is severed by sin, the guilty conscience, and resulting shame. Evil was introduced to mankind by the wayward stride of man’s free will, and because of it, man’s free will is now bent toward evil.
Sin’s consequences of physical death and separation from God in this life are tragic, but the full consequence of sin is eternal. In Matthew 25, part of a powerful final discourse from Jesus to his disciples before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus provides a poignant portrayal of the final judgment of man. When Jesus judges the world, he will separate all people into two groups whom he calls sheep and goats. The sheep and goats are judged on the basis of their works, how well they lived in fulfillment of Jesus’ commands. The sheep go on to enjoy eternal life with God while the goats, those who failed to do as Jesus commanded, will go on to eternal punishment. Throughout Scripture, this punishment, Hell, is referred to as a lake of fire and the second death (Rev. 20:14-15). Conscious torment is the condition of those in the lake of fire, and they shall exist in eternal and perpetual separation from God.
It is striking that Jesus bases his judgment in Matthew 25 on what the sheep and goats have done. If humanity is judged on the basis of righteousness, how can any be found worthy? As Paul says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” For this reason, man unalterably needs the savior, Jesus. Without the intervention of a savior, we would all be destined to the lake of fire and the second death.
Because God loves mankind, knowing that man would sin and would be unable to save himself, God planned from the beginning to offer a path to salvation. John 1 begins, “In the beginning was the Word…” The Word in this context refers to Jesus, showing that Jesus was a person of the Trinity from the beginning. He was not created as a response to the sin of man, but was with God in the beginning. As Paul states in his letter to the believers at Ephesus, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph. 1:4). From the beginning, God planned to offer himself in the person of Christ as an atonement offering for sin.
Atonement, reparation for wrongdoing, is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. The origin of atonement in Scripture predates the Mosaic law. In Genesis 3:21, after Adam and Eve sin and in shame realize their nakedness, God makes them clothing from animal skins. This is the first Scriptural instance of physical death. The life of an innocent animal is taken to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. The innocent takes the place of the guilty. This trend continues throughout the Old Testament with the Mosaic law and command to sacrifice animals with neither blemish nor defect to atone for the sins of the Israelites (Lev. 1:3-5).
Although animal sacrifices in the Old Testament have purpose, they are inadequate to fully atone for the sin of man. Hebrews 10 says the law can “never perfect the worshippers by the same sacrifices year after year (Heb. 10:1b). Verses 3-4 of the same chapter say, “But in the sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The effects of animal sacrifices are temporary; man needs an eternal and irrevocable atonement. Jesus Christ is that atonement. God provides the atonement to redeem man, glorify himself, and meet the demands of His righteous judgment.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.” Just as the life of an innocent animal was taken to cover the shame of guilty Adam and Eve, the life of the perfect righteous Son of God was offered to atone for the sins of guilty humanity, redeeming man from the guilt of sin. Isaiah 53 prophetically describes Jesus’ suffering for our sake, yet Isaiah 54 portrays the glory of God in redeeming his people. God humbled himself by taking on the appearance of a man and suffering death on a cross, yet God exalted Jesus, giving him a name that is above all other names (Phil. 2:8-11). Jesus is glorified, for his work alone could satisfy the judgment of God. Jesus’ sacrifice did not change God’s mind about our sin, but alters our status concerning sin.
Christ paid the price for our sins. 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.” To propitiate is to regain the favor of God. In our sin, we had no propitiation and no hope of propitiation. Nothing we could say or do could make us right with God. Jesus is the substitutionary propitiation, meaning he personally makes us right with God by paying the just penalty of our sins.
Jesus died once to atone for the sins of many (Heb. 9:28), yet we do not automatically receive the atonement he offers, nor can we work to earn his atonement. It is freely given, but must be accepted and received. Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, and Romans 3:28, among other verses of Scripture state that Godly works produce neither salvation nor righteousness. Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and Godly works are the product and indicator of saving faith in Jesus. Those in Christ are fully justified. Justification is a broad and powerful concept describing the condition of those in Christ through faith. The justified are guiltless in the sight of God, held blameless of wrongdoing. The sinful are under the just wrath of God, owing a penalty for their wrongdoing. Jesus pays the penalty as the substitutionary sacrifice, and so the wrath of God is satisfied.
As John 3:16, perhaps the hallmark verse of Scripture, states that belief in Jesus is the qualifier for salvation. Yet from the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry, we find due emphasis placed on repentance and baptism. The ministry of John the Baptist in Matthew 3 is a call to the people to repent of their sins and be baptized. Repentance means to change one’s mind. When John the Baptist calls people to repent, he is calling them to change their minds about sin. Unless one has resolved that he has a problem of sin that he cannot solve, he will not call on Jesus. For what person who has not acknowledged he has sin from which he needs saving thinks he needs a savior?
Repentance is the sinner’s first step toward salvation. John the Baptist was sent ahead of Christ to make straight the way for the Lord. He came preaching a message of repentance. Those seeking Christ must change their minds about sin, acknowledging both its presence in their life and their inability to deal with it (Mark 1:1-4). Repentance is both a changing of the mind about sin and a turning away from sin.
John preached a baptism of repentance. A ritual of water submersion originated with the cleansing rites of the Jews. In Leviticus 16, God commanded the priests to cleanse themselves from impurities, primarily through water submersion, before doing their priestly work. Later, Jewish teachers instructed that Jewish proselytes, Gentiles in the process of converting to Judaism, would be submerged in water to symbolize their conversion. In this way, baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. The change signified by baptism is repentance of sins, acceptance of Christ, and submission to his Lordship, that one has died to self and risen with Christ.
Baptism is important enough to Jesus that even he, though perfect, submitted himself to be baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-17). In so doing, Jesus models obedience to the Father for us. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commands believers to baptize others along with making disciples and teaching them to obey what Jesus commands. Repentance is a prerequisite for acceptance of Christ as savior. Baptism is a Scripturally commanded outward indicator of the inward commitment to and change from Christ. Repentance, the profession of faith, and baptism together initiate and signify the profound results of justification.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul discusses these results. First, the justified believer is forgiven of sins. Verse 19 says, “That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.” In God’s forgiveness of our sins through Christ, he no longer counts our trespasses against us. The prophet Isaiah portrays the coming salvation of God’s people in Isaiah 1:18, “‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” Again in 2 Corinthians 5, this time in verse 21, Paul states that God made Jesus, who never sinned, to become sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness. Jesus, taking the penalty of our sin, justifies us wholly before God and in fact, becomes our righteousness.
Recalling John 3:16, those who are justified in Christ are given eternal life. Whereas the destination of those apart from Christ is eternal separation from God, the destination of those in Christ is eternity with God. This is the blessed hope of those in Christ, that we will die but once, leaving our earthly flesh, but not face the second spiritual death (Rev. 2:11, John 8:24). Rather, the dead in Christ will be resurrected unto eternal life with Christ (1 Cor. 15:50-58).
The fruit of justification is not just in the eternal sense, but also the temporal. Justification results in regeneration or rebirth. Jesus first explains rebirth when discussing with Nicodemus how to access the Kingdom of God. Jesus says that a man must be born again to inherit God’s Kingdom (John 3:3). Jesus clarifies that we are all born once of flesh; this is our physical birth. But to inherit God’s Kingdom we must also be born of the spirit; this is our regeneration or rebirth. Paul expounds on this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, saying, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here.” Whereas we once were spiritually dead in sin, what was dead has been brought to life in Christ.
In the beginning of His Gospel, John writes, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). The reborn, those made spiritually alive in Christ, have been adopted into sonship with God. The broken relationship with the Father has been completely restored. With adoption into the family of God comes many benefits, but perhaps chief among them is peace with God for his children (Rom. 5:1).
The prevalence of justification as a central focus of Christianity has caused perverted forms of the doctrine to gain some traction. Universalism and works righteousness are the most common today, and even had some footing in the time of Paul’s ministry. Universalism is the belief that all mankind is saved by the grace of God, regardless of a person’s independent decision regarding Christ as savior. It’s certainly a feel-good theology to believe that all people will enjoy eternal bliss with God after the resurrection, but there are a few critical errors based on Scripture.
The error in understanding is derived from misinterpreting a couple key verses, namely 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9 which express God’s desire that all people should be saved. In universalism, these verses are mixed with the human desire to see no person perish while other verses that help clarify Peter and Paul’s words are completely ignored. Throughout the New Testament, emphasis is put on the requirement that people make a conscious choice to accept Christ and acknowledge his Lordship in order to be saved (John 1:12, John 3:16, Rom. 10:9, 1 John 1:9). To correct the misunderstanding of universalism, we must reconcile the nature of grace with the free will of man.
God does offer grace to all people, and God does desire that all people should be saved. God’s desire that all people should be saved, however, does not suggest that all people will choose to accept the free gift of grace that God offers. To accept Christ is to accept grace. To not accept, or to deny, Christ, is to reject grace.
Another common perversion of the doctrine of grace is that of works righteousness. This false doctrine became a problem in early Christianity, as Paul often writes against it. Works righteousness is the idea that a person can and should do enough good works to earn grace or forgiveness. The idea stems, apart from Jewish tradition, from the misinterpretation or misapplication of a few key verses. Recall Matthew 25, in which we see works as the basis for Jesus separating the sheep and the goats. The question is not of the importance of good works, but on the ability of good works alone to yield salvation for the worker.
Scripture makes it clear that good works are inadequate to secure salvation or earn grace. In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul writes, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Again in Romans 11:6, Paul says, “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” Works cannot produce grace; however, works are the evidence and fruit of grace.
James 2:14-26 discusses the relation of works and faith. In it, James says that faith without works is dead, and the works are the demonstration of faith. Thus Scripture makes it clear that faith and grace produce good works. Good works do not produce salvation.
As a disciple of Jesus, I have been saved by grace through faith, for I have acknowledged my need for a savior and welcomed Jesus as such. I encountered Jesus as savior at young age. I don’t remember the specific day or time. For me, it was a gradual progression of understanding leading to a moment of profound surrender which fostered my salvation. I was raised in a Lutheran church with an understanding of my own sin. I knew the Jesus narrative, that he died on a cross and rose again to take away the sins of the world. But for much of my childhood, my relationship to Jesus was that of religiosity. It didn’t transcend the routine to become a personal and empowering transformation. In my early teen years, while involved with local church’s youth group, I realized that going through religious motions was not enough, that Jesus died for me personally, and that in response, I needed to make a personal commitment to the Lordship of Jesus.
The same grace that I accepted as a free gift from God is available to any who would believe and confess that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. We were created by God to have a relationship with him. Humanity has a problem of sin that separates us from righteous God. The wrath of God is directed toward the sinful, and they will be judged accordingly. God, not desiring that any should perish, offered Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, perfect in righteousness, to die on a Cross, paying the just penalty of our sin. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, conquering death and hell for us. Because of the work of Jesus, any who repent of sin, turn to Jesus, believe and confess that he is Lord, and surrender their lives to him, receive the eternal gift of salvation. Jesus Christ is Savior.
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