40 Questions About Salvation

Matthew Barrett

• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780825476396
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Théologie chrétienne

This newest contribution to the 40 Questions series continues the tradition of excellent research presented in clear, user-friendly writing. 40 Questions About Salvation makes sense of one of Christianity's most disputed doctrines, covering the most common and difficult questions about election, the order of salvation, and perseverance of the saints.This volume will help pastors, college and seminary students, and all Christians who want to grow in their understanding of what the Bible teaches about salvation. Each chapter is succinct and readable, with a bibliography of additional resources for those who wish to study further.

PART 1

Sin and the Need for Salvation

QUESTION 1

What Is Sin?

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

—Romans 3:10–12

Paul’s message is loud and clear: Every single person is a sinner, guilty before a holy God. No one is righteous, no, not even one. All of us like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way (Isa. 53:6). There can be no doubt about it: Sin is real, and each and every one of us is a rebel against God. That raises the most basic of questions, however: What is sin?

What Is Sin?

Sin Is a Failure to Obey God’s Moral Law

Man as lawbreaker captures the essence of sin. Sin “may be defined as lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state.”¹ Man’s disobedience of God’s moral law is a theme that runs from Genesis to Revelation. Beginning in Genesis, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest they die (Gen. 2:17). However, Adam and Eve chose to listen to the serpent rather than God, violating his covenant stipulation. As a result, Adam and Eve lost their original righteousness and moral innocence when they broke God’s command. Suddenly they were guilty before God for their disobedience and they were morally corrupt. As we will learn in Questions 2 and 3, Adam’s guilt and corruption would not be limited to himself but would be inherited by his progeny as well, since he acted as their representative (i.e., original sin). But here our focus is restricted to the act of sin (i.e., actual sin) so that we can identify its essential nature or character.

Satan’s deceptive and murderous ways (John 8:44), unfortunately, would not stop with Adam but can be seen once again with Adam’s first child, Cain. Cain and his brother Abel both made an offering to the Lord, but while Abel’s offering pleased the Lord, Cain’s did not (Heb. 11:4). Anger and jealousy consumed Cain, though the Lord warned him that if he did what was right he would be accepted. Yet, sin was crouching at Cain’s door and its desire was for him. Cain, God warned, must rule over it (Gen. 4:7). Like his father Adam, rather than obeying God and submitting to his moral instruction, Cain in his anger killed his brother Abel, so that his blood cried out to the Lord (4:8–10). As you can see, the first chapters of Genesis vividly (and painfully) demonstrate that sin is a violation of God’s moral commands.

Sin would characterize all of Adam’s children thereafter as well. In Genesis 6 we read that the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and filled with violence (6:11–12). The intentions of man’s heart were evil from youth (8:21), so God sent a flood to destroy the whole earth, with the exception of Noah and his family, whom God graciously spared. The corruption of man did not disappear after the flood, however. God’s just wrath was once again unleashed when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with sulfur and fire from heaven (19:23–29), for their sin was “very grave” (18:20).

The history of Israel is tainted by lawbreaking as well. One would think that God delivering his chosen people from an oppressive dictator like Pharaoh would result in steadfast obedience. And yet, even while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God himself, Israel had already rejected Yahweh as her God and instead crafted a golden calf to worship (Exod. 32). Israel defiled herself, turning against the commands of Yahweh, and exchanged the one true God for an idol made by the hands of men. Consequently, God’s righteous wrath, which burned hot that day, came down against his people, demonstrating his holiness and intolerance for sin.

Sin pervades the rest of the story line of Scripture as well. The history of Israel is one of perpetual disobedience. As God’s covenant people, under God’s covenant law, they were commanded to love the Lord their God with all their heart (Deut. 6:5). This is the greatest commandment they received. Yet, throughout the Old Testament Israel repeatedly failed to uphold this commandment. The book of Judges summarizes the OT: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (17:6b).

No act reflects the sinfulness of man more than the crucifixion of Christ himself. The sinfulness Paul speaks of in Romans 3 is put on full display when Jesus, the Son of God, was nailed to the cross by wicked men (Acts 2:23). It is tempting to think that if we were there we would have acted differently. Yet, many of those who put Jesus on the cross were the religious leaders in Israel. Though they looked clean on the outside, on the inside they were “full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matt. 23:25–26). Many of the religious leaders were hypocrites, full of lawlessness, like whitewashed tombs, “which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27–28). They transgressed the commandments of God for the sake of their traditions (Matt. 15:2–3).²

The words of Jesus in Matthew 23 are important, for they demonstrate that sin, or lawlessness, is not merely a disobedient act but is a corruption of the heart. In other words, external behavior is the outflow of one’s internal disposition.³ This much was evident in Cain’s murder of Abel. While Cain’s murder was a sin, his actions stemmed from the anger within his heart (Gen. 4:7). Jesus makes such a point in his Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:22). The Heidelberg Catechism reiterates the words of Jesus precisely: “By forbidding murder God teaches us that he hates the root of murder: envy, hatred, anger, vindictiveness. In God’s sight all such are murder” (A. 106). Therefore, sin is not only a violation of God’s moral law in one’s external behavior, but it is first and foremost a violation of God’s moral law in one’s internal attitude and desires. ⁴

The internal nature of sin is a reminder that sin not only is rooted in one’s internal motivations and desires—whereby the sinner fails to conform to what God has commanded—but sin is first and foremost due to our corrupt moral nature (see Questions 2 and 3). Our nature (that which is our very essence) does not escape the grip of sin. In short, we are sinners by nature. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:3, we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Or as David acknowledges, we were “brought forth in iniquity” and we were conceived in sin (Ps. 51:5). In the end, when we rebelliously break God’s moral law (Rom. 1:18–23; 2:23; 1 John 3:4), such an action is ultimately rooted in who we are as children of Adam in a post-Fall world. Most fundamentally, this means that sin does not first and foremost have to do with the bad things we do, but with our inherent condition as those in solidarity with Adam. Our sinful actions stem from our sinful condition.⁵ Our wicked decisions reflect our polluted identity.

Sin Is a Failure to Live in Covenant with God

This second point is a helpful qualification to the first point for this reason: Sin is not an impersonal violation of law but most fundamentally a violation against God himself. Remember, it is God’s law that has been transgressed. Given that God is our covenant Lord, we can describe sin as covenant unfaithfulness. Ultimately, sin is not just a rupture in our covenantal relations with others but is most importantly a rupture in our covenantal relation with God (Ps. 51:4). Sin’s offense is first vertical, then horizontal.

In the Old Testament God entered into a covenant relationship with his chosen people. As seen already, however, Israel’s entire history was one of covenant infidelity. Though God’s covenant was made with Abraham and confirmed with the patriarchs (Gen. 15:1–21; 17:1–14; 22:15–18; 26:24; 28:13–15; 35:9–12), and while God later covenanted with Israel through Moses (Exod. 6:2–8) and then Joshua (Josh. 24:1–27), nevertheless, Israel failed to keep the covenant God made with her at Sinai, despite the fact that God even sent prophets to warn them of the punishment that would result. Unquestionably, Israel’s covenantal treachery was characterized by her habitual attitude of ingratitude toward God, her Savior and Redeemer.⁶

But God, in his great mercy and grace, spoke through his prophets of a day to come when he would establish a new covenant (Heb. 1:1–4). In this new covenant God would put his law within and write it on the heart. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” he promised through Jeremiah (Jer. 31:33). In the new covenant all would know the Lord, for he promised to forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more (31:34). Furthermore, God would give his people a new heart and a new spirit. He even promised to put his Spirit within, causing his people to walk in his statutes (Ezek. 36:26–27). Of course, this new covenant was accomplished through the blood of Jesus Christ, the great high priest (Heb. 8–10), and applied by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–41; cf. Joel 2:28–32). New covenant believers, therefore, have been cleansed of all their uncleanness and idolatry (Ezek. 36:25). What great news: While man failed to live in covenant with God, God himself established a new covenant so that his redeemed people now live in communion with their Creator and Savior.

Sin Is Unbelief

So far we have looked at sin as the breaking of God’s law and as covenant unfaithfulness, which really are the essence of sin. But describing sin as unbelief takes us deeper still into the inner chambers of the heart where we see the root reason and cause of man’s transgressions. At the center of Adam and Eve’s first sin is unbelief, a failure to trust in God.

In Scripture unbelief is a central motif when describing sin. ...