Post by Josh Parsley on Oct 16, 2006 18:57:34 GMT -5
JUSTIFICATION BY SANCTIFICATION
By Robert Wurtz II
In these perilous days of backslidings and false converts, it seems natural that a host of prophets would arising crying loud and sparing not. So much of the goings on in the Church today seems to be off course and many have taken their hands to the wheel to try to steer this thing back into the way. It was so in the former days and it is so today.
What is the strategy in preaching? To bring a person out of their slumber by causing them to question their salvation. This seems like the right approach, because after all many are deceived into thinking they are saved when they are not. Some folk live pretty good lives, so sometimes the topics used to 'expose' a persons' lost condition can become very questionable. Such as it was in the olden times. Almost anything in the world could become sin at the turn of a phrase, and in so doing from the most 'spiritual' to the lowest sinner everyone in the building was implicated.
Honestly, there are probably few preachers in the world today that could stand up to the examination of a John Wesley or a Charles G. Finney. Their concept of 'sin' was so much more strict than ours is today that I have often wondered how many would even be considered 'saved'. Add to this the varying concepts of Entire Sanctification and there is a recipe in place for great awe and amazement.
Imagine if you will that many of us today are under the influence of certain concepts that these and other men have forged. What do I hear missing? I hear utterly missing a biblical concept of justification by faith. What I am hearing increasingly is justification by sanctification. In fairness I do not believe that this was the position of Wesley. I believe he had a solid teaching on justification by faith. He had a strong teaching on holiness, but it was balanced with true justification by faith.
Truth is TRUTH no matter what that truth may be. If I am zealous for truth I must understand that taking away from the scriptures is just as dangerous and sinful than adding to. I am not the more spiritual because I strip the scriptures of the doctrine of justification by faith and replace it with justification by sanctification.
By now some of you may be wondering what I am referring to? It happenes that my great great grandmother was a Methodist street preacher. Her name was Amy Anne Vansel. I am told that she would stand on the street corners of Cole Camp Missouri and preach to the people as her husband stood with her. She was holiness to the core. I am told that none ever saw her ankles or her wrists. She was a woman of extreme modesty. The young girls would not wear pants (yes pants) in her presence. When she spoke it cut to the quick and she need not raise her voice.
In time she attended a Pentecostal meeting and became a Pentecostal as it were. She had children and grand children that served the Lord and some became ministers themselves. At some point in the history of my maternal family a view originated that a person could not be saved unless they lived a life of sinless perfection. For them, their salvation was on the line at every moment of the day. They could go from child of God to child of the devil in the blink of an eye. I have to ask myself, is this even possible?
Understand also that their view of 'sin' is wildly different than many. In the 60's TV was sin and so was makeup (yes, cosmetics). Smoking is sin, drinking is sin, and so is about everything else. You may say, that sounds like a bunch of legalism? Have you not read Wesley and Finney? They would had sure frowned on salting your food and sweet foods. I have a feeling they my family had toned things down a bit. Ask yourself, what would Finney say about TV or going to the movie house? Just asking.
What happened you ask? The whole of the meaning of Christianity was changed from having a relationship with Christ to living a strict and perfect life. They had no real concept of adoption. God does not rebuke and chasten His children He relegates them to the Devil just as soon as they sin (in their view). I am not exaggerating. There are many today who simply do not believe they can 'live it'. They think that one sin means they are lost and they can't handle the pressure. They just hope to hold out till their death bed and confess all their sins there. That way they can block God out of their mind along with the torment of always wondering where they stand.
Certainly some are just rebellious. But are they all? For some it is an excuse, but for them all? What about those who survived? What about those who are still trying to serve God? Some have had to make drastic changes in their theology. They had to 'relearn' some things. They had to learn that having been saved and receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit they were children of God. They had to learn to walk in humility. They had to rely on God's grace to strengthen them to life a life that is well pleasing to God.
Another thing I have beheld under the sun (as Solomon might say) and it is that of a people who so desired to be perfection that they would not openly repent of any of their sins. Their sins are not 'sins' they are 'lapses in judgment' or some other thing; because after all, "I'm in perfection and my salvation is on the line." What a dangerous belief! Folk become mean spirited and don't even know it. They become unChristlike and wist it not. All the while maintaining an inward belief that they are 'perfect'. What a wonder? It has happened to me I suppose. Yet, it is my sincere hope and prayer that I never again become so wrapped up in perfection that I refuse to admit of my own sin when and if it arises. I pray I am never blinded by my own intense desire to view myself as 'perfect'.
And this is the danger of Justification By Sanctification. That we would become a people who either did not believe we could live the life or who REFUSED to admit of our sin when we sin. What is the more dangerous point? Some of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life were made when I 'thought' I was walking in perfection. Why? Because I had convinced myself that I could do no wrong. My conscience was clear so I could make inspired decisions, right? What deception! I have since learned that my objective has to be to walk with God in relationship with Him. He is my FATHER and I am a son. When I act out or do something that does not please Him, I admit it. I don't act like it didn't happen or make an excuse. When I am wrong, I admit it. If my doctrine is wrong, I change it. When I 'think' I stand, I take heed lest I fall.
By Robert Wurtz II
In these perilous days of backslidings and false converts, it seems natural that a host of prophets would arising crying loud and sparing not. So much of the goings on in the Church today seems to be off course and many have taken their hands to the wheel to try to steer this thing back into the way. It was so in the former days and it is so today.
What is the strategy in preaching? To bring a person out of their slumber by causing them to question their salvation. This seems like the right approach, because after all many are deceived into thinking they are saved when they are not. Some folk live pretty good lives, so sometimes the topics used to 'expose' a persons' lost condition can become very questionable. Such as it was in the olden times. Almost anything in the world could become sin at the turn of a phrase, and in so doing from the most 'spiritual' to the lowest sinner everyone in the building was implicated.
Honestly, there are probably few preachers in the world today that could stand up to the examination of a John Wesley or a Charles G. Finney. Their concept of 'sin' was so much more strict than ours is today that I have often wondered how many would even be considered 'saved'. Add to this the varying concepts of Entire Sanctification and there is a recipe in place for great awe and amazement.
Imagine if you will that many of us today are under the influence of certain concepts that these and other men have forged. What do I hear missing? I hear utterly missing a biblical concept of justification by faith. What I am hearing increasingly is justification by sanctification. In fairness I do not believe that this was the position of Wesley. I believe he had a solid teaching on justification by faith. He had a strong teaching on holiness, but it was balanced with true justification by faith.
Truth is TRUTH no matter what that truth may be. If I am zealous for truth I must understand that taking away from the scriptures is just as dangerous and sinful than adding to. I am not the more spiritual because I strip the scriptures of the doctrine of justification by faith and replace it with justification by sanctification.
By now some of you may be wondering what I am referring to? It happenes that my great great grandmother was a Methodist street preacher. Her name was Amy Anne Vansel. I am told that she would stand on the street corners of Cole Camp Missouri and preach to the people as her husband stood with her. She was holiness to the core. I am told that none ever saw her ankles or her wrists. She was a woman of extreme modesty. The young girls would not wear pants (yes pants) in her presence. When she spoke it cut to the quick and she need not raise her voice.
In time she attended a Pentecostal meeting and became a Pentecostal as it were. She had children and grand children that served the Lord and some became ministers themselves. At some point in the history of my maternal family a view originated that a person could not be saved unless they lived a life of sinless perfection. For them, their salvation was on the line at every moment of the day. They could go from child of God to child of the devil in the blink of an eye. I have to ask myself, is this even possible?
Understand also that their view of 'sin' is wildly different than many. In the 60's TV was sin and so was makeup (yes, cosmetics). Smoking is sin, drinking is sin, and so is about everything else. You may say, that sounds like a bunch of legalism? Have you not read Wesley and Finney? They would had sure frowned on salting your food and sweet foods. I have a feeling they my family had toned things down a bit. Ask yourself, what would Finney say about TV or going to the movie house? Just asking.
What happened you ask? The whole of the meaning of Christianity was changed from having a relationship with Christ to living a strict and perfect life. They had no real concept of adoption. God does not rebuke and chasten His children He relegates them to the Devil just as soon as they sin (in their view). I am not exaggerating. There are many today who simply do not believe they can 'live it'. They think that one sin means they are lost and they can't handle the pressure. They just hope to hold out till their death bed and confess all their sins there. That way they can block God out of their mind along with the torment of always wondering where they stand.
Certainly some are just rebellious. But are they all? For some it is an excuse, but for them all? What about those who survived? What about those who are still trying to serve God? Some have had to make drastic changes in their theology. They had to 'relearn' some things. They had to learn that having been saved and receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit they were children of God. They had to learn to walk in humility. They had to rely on God's grace to strengthen them to life a life that is well pleasing to God.
Another thing I have beheld under the sun (as Solomon might say) and it is that of a people who so desired to be perfection that they would not openly repent of any of their sins. Their sins are not 'sins' they are 'lapses in judgment' or some other thing; because after all, "I'm in perfection and my salvation is on the line." What a dangerous belief! Folk become mean spirited and don't even know it. They become unChristlike and wist it not. All the while maintaining an inward belief that they are 'perfect'. What a wonder? It has happened to me I suppose. Yet, it is my sincere hope and prayer that I never again become so wrapped up in perfection that I refuse to admit of my own sin when and if it arises. I pray I am never blinded by my own intense desire to view myself as 'perfect'.
And this is the danger of Justification By Sanctification. That we would become a people who either did not believe we could live the life or who REFUSED to admit of our sin when we sin. What is the more dangerous point? Some of the worst decisions I have ever made in my life were made when I 'thought' I was walking in perfection. Why? Because I had convinced myself that I could do no wrong. My conscience was clear so I could make inspired decisions, right? What deception! I have since learned that my objective has to be to walk with God in relationship with Him. He is my FATHER and I am a son. When I act out or do something that does not please Him, I admit it. I don't act like it didn't happen or make an excuse. When I am wrong, I admit it. If my doctrine is wrong, I change it. When I 'think' I stand, I take heed lest I fall.