Loveland Protestant Reformed Church

709 East 57th Street; Loveland, CO 80538

Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)

Vol. 6, No. 4 Pastor: Rev. Garry Eriks Phone: (970) 667-9481

Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org

Content:

The Election of the Church
Conditional Promises (1)
Are Scripture's Commands Superfluous?

The Election of the Church

This reminds us that election is not arbitrary and random but purposeful. The Biblical picture of the church as a building or house is very useful here. As a builder chooses his materials, so God has chosen each person to fit into a place in that spiritual building (Eph. 2:20-22, I Pet. 2:5) and in the body of Christ.

No more than would a builder does God attempt to build a house without first designing it. It is the will of God, not the will of men that determines who shall have a place in that house and what place they shall have. No more than the stones and timbers of a building can determine whether and what place they shall have in a building, do men's wills determine whether and what place they shall have in God's house.

Not only that, but He has also predetermined all the circumstances of a person's life. Thus each of us, according to election, is shaped and formed to fit the exact place God has prepared for us (Jer. 1:5).

God does not go out and gather the materials for His house as He happens to find them. Rather, having carefully planned His spiritual house, He also from eternity "orders in" the materials from which He will build that house.

Likewise, because that the house must be built firm and sure, to last for all ages, He has also chosen Christ as the foundation and cornerstone of that house (I Pet. 2:6). All the house is formed and fitted to Him.

He is glorified when all the elect has been gathered. Then that spiritual house will be the dwelling place of God Himself (Eph.2:22). All its glory and beauty will be of Him. He will be not only the designer and builder of the house, but the inhabitant.

But there is more. This election of the church both commands and guarantees the unity of the church (Jn. 10:16, Eph. 1:9-10). We are all chosen IN HIM, that is, in Christ, and that makes us one in Him (Eph. 1:4). That is the reason Paul does not tell us to have unity in Ephesians 4:3, but to keep it. The unity is implicit in our being chosen in Christ, and then also gathered in Him.

Not only that, election also guarantees the holiness of the church (Eph. 1:4). WE are chosen that we might be (not because we are) holy. That holiness is necessary because the church is to be the dwelling place of God. God by His Spirit will not dwell in the midst of filth and unholiness.

That great work of gathering and building the church is not finished. Her final glories belong to those things that are still unseen. What we see is not what will be. What shall be shall show forth the praises of Him who calls us out of darkness into marvelous light, and shall stand as an eternal monument to His power, wisdom, and grace. Rev. Ron Hanko

Conditional Promises (1)

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Jeremiah 7:6-7.

We are interested in only one aspect of this passage from Jeremiah - its conditional character. It is to this conditional structure of the verse that a question sent to us refers: "Are the promises of God always conditional? A brother I am in correspondence with recently wrote to me quoting Jer. 7:6-7 as proof that God makes conditional promises. . . . [This passage] calls to obedience with attached promises of blessing. The question is, are the promised blessings conditional on obedience?"

By no means is it true that all the promises of God which are mentioned in Scripture are, in the form in which they appear, made conditional on obedience. It is true that conditional sentences are much used in Scripture, and many times they are indeed used in connection with the promises of God. This passage from Jeremiah is by no means an isolated case. One can find them again and again.

But to conclude from the use of conditional sentences to the theological proposition that "promised blessings are conditional on obedience" is wrong.

I want to make three points in connection with this question: 1) The promise of God is never conditional because of what the promise of God is. 2) In the Reformed creeds the word "condition" is condemned because it was used by the Arminians to teach a salvation dependent upon the will of man. 3) Answer the question: Why does Scripture use conditional sentences in connection with the promise of God?

Perhaps our answer to these questions will take a few articles in the Newsletter, but the questions are sufficiently important that a bit of time in treating them will not hurt.

First of all then, what is the promise of God?

We must answer this question from a two-fold point of view. We must ask the question, first of all: What is the promise of God from a formal point of view? And, secondly: What is the promise of God from a material point of view, i.e., from the viewpoint of its contents?

We have the answer to the first question in Hebrews 6:13-18: "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us...."

This is a beautiful and important passage, and we must notice the following about it. In the first place, the promise of God is described as an oath. It is an oath which God swears.

In the second place, from God's point of view it was not necessary to swear an oath, because what God had determined to do for His people was determined in His counsel which is immutable, and which, therefore, guarantees that what God has determined to do He will certainly do.

In the third place, however, God adds to His counsel an oath because he knows the weakness of our faith, and He is willing to show more abundantly unto the heirs of His counsel this immutability. And the result is that we have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us.

In the fourth place, that oath which he swears is somewhat different from oaths which we swear. When we swear an oath we swear by God Who is higher than we are, Who knows the sincerity of our hearts and the truth of what we swear, and Who will certainly destroy all perjurers.

But God could not swear by anyone higher because there is none higher than Himself. And so He swears by Himself as the Highest One.

In the fifth place, by swearing by Himself He states: as truly as I am God, so surely will I do what I have promised; and, indeed, if my promises fail, it is only because I am not God.

Now that is the promise of God from a formal point of view. Is it conceivable that that promise of God be conditioned on our obedience? Then it is no longer an oath which God swears by Himself, but an oath which He swears contingent upon what we do.

And then we no longer have a strong consolation, we who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us! Prof. H. Hanko

Are Scripture's Commands Superfluous?

Our question for this issue is quite lengthy, but very important. One reader points out: "A further problem with predestination where God does not allow man any part in his salvation - it is all dealt with by God - is where Jesus says in Matthew 6:29-30, 'If they right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ... for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.' Here Jesus is saying and repeating that man can and should do things which will prevent him from going to hell. If God does not allow men the choice or freedom to take steps, however drastic, to avoid damnation, all the foregoing would appear to be superfluous."

The question, of course, could be raised in connection with any of Scripture's demands and often is raised in connection with the command to repent and believe. Are these commands superfluous in light of God's sovereignty in salvation and His eternal purpose? Does predestination destroy the urgency of Scripture's commands?

We believe that God has sovereignly and eternally chosen some and not others to salvation, and that by the power of His Holy Spirit He graciously and irresistibly grants salvation to those who are chosen and withholds it from the rest (Rom. 8:30). But why then does He command repentance, faith, and the drastic sort of self-denial proposed in Matthew 6:29-30? Why command anything of those who are not chosen, if there is no "chance" that they be saved?

First, as far as they are concerned, that God continues to command obedience and faith of them is by way of His maintaining His own justice and judgments. The fact that a person renders himself incapable of keeping the law does not mean that the demands of the law should be relaxed or removed. Sinful, rebellious man can only be punished if God maintains His demands. To take them away would be to destroy all possibility of man's being punished for his wickedness (Rom. 1:17-20).

Second, those same demands, including the demands of the gospel, are the means God uses to harden the ungodly (Rom. 9:17-21, II Cor. 2:14-16) and so brings to pass His purpose with them. That is not easy teaching but is nevertheless a testimony to the sovereignty of God.

Third (and parallel to the previous reason), those same demands are the means God uses to bring His elect people to repentance, to faith, and to holiness, including the self-denial demanded by Matthew 6. The command is the grace to those whom God has chosen. In the same way those commands also warn them and keep them from falling into sin and falling away.

Finally, those commands are given that those who have received grace and salvation may know how to serve God and to be thankful for His great salvation. In obedience we show first that we are saved, and then also that we appreciate and are grateful for salvation received.
Rev. Ronald Hanko