Sorry to butt in, but this is where I have been confused lately - the idea that "the Holy Spirit does the real work, but we cooperate". I was reading the Statement of Faith for a particular evangelical denomination (not saying which), that implied the same thing about salvation - it is by grace through faith, a work of the Holy Spirit, of which we can do nothing. But we respond in faith to the call of the Holy Spirit. (Say again????)
Somehow I get this vision in my mind of me as a kid, and my dad out mowing the lawn. He comes in and chews me out for not helping, and I say "But dad, I did help. Didn't you see me pushing the mower?"
This is why, IMO, it is SO very, very critical to not mix Law and Gospel, Sanctification with Justification (narrow sense, both). And yes, sadly (tragically) there are "Protestants" who have entirely turned their backs on the Reformation and as a result, do confuse these - ending up with a horrible, muddy, tangled MESS that in the end makes SELF the Savior (and Jesus but a helper) - creating either a 'terror of the conscience" (to use Luther and Calvin's expression) OR a little self-righteous, other-condemning Pharisee.
Justification.... Sanctification.... There are TWO DIFFERENT issue here: Justification and Sanctification (narrow sense, both).
Let me use this analogy:
FIRST: On January 23, 1988, I was born. I was GIVEN life - the miracle, the wonderful, mysterious GIFT of life (we might agree that actually happened about 9 months earlier, but let's proceed). At that point, I became alive. I became a human being - with all that means, biologically and spiritually, all that means in terms of God and me. GIFT. G.I.F.T. This purely, solely, only, exclusively by mercy since prior to that, I did NOTHING. I thought nothing. I willed nothing. I sought nothing. I desired nothing. NO good works. GIFT. G.I.F.T. Mercy. M.E.R.C.Y. On January 23, 1988 - I was removed from my mother (C-Section) - unbreathing, unconscience - I had NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. Gift. Mercy. No merits. No works. No will. Nothing in or from me. GIFT. MERCY. Someone ELSE is to be credited. Entirely. Wholly. Completely. MONERGISTIC. Life is mine - by grace, by mercy, from God, as a GIFT. I am a human being, with all that means - by grace, by mercy, from God, as a GIFT.
In the same way, God saved me (what Protestants mean here is justification - narrow sense, although admittedly they often use the rather broad term "salvation" here). God GAVE me spiritual life, God caused me to be born AGAIN, now not only with physical life but with spiritual life, now I am not only the child of my parents but a child of God. This CHANGES my relationship to God, as a result solely, only, exclusively because of God's mercy, grace, favor; solely, only, exclusively because of what CHRIST has done as THE Savior; solely, only, exclusively because God GAVE me the GIFT of faith in Christ as my Savior:
Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Sola Fide. We believe this is MONERGISTIC, because CHRIST
is the Savior - not me, not you, not the Pope, not Mary, not the RC Denomination, not now, not ever, not wholly, not partly. I'm NOT the Savior - in whole or in part - because the job is taken and He didn't blow it. What makes me a CHRISTIAN is that God's merciful, gracious GIFT of faith means I'm looking to CHRIST as THE Savior, not in the mirror. Trusting/relying wholly in CHRIST, not self. Looking to the Cross/Tomb, not in the mirror.
SECOND: Almost immediately after being born (well, maybe some months later, lol), my parents, my society called me to GROW. To mature. To become more loving, more caring, more righteous, more responsible, more ethical. THIS is a process (unlike my conception). THIS is synergistic (unlike conception). THIS is progressive. GROWING to be more God like. GROWING in the directions that my parents, my society, my God call me: "Thou shalt be HOLY just as the Lord God is holy." "Thou shalt be PERFECT just as your Father in Heaven is perfect." "LOVE in exactly the same way as Christ loved us on the Cross." High callings! I'm not "there" yet. I'm still GROWING (well, I'd LIKE to say always growing..... sometimes I'm not, sometimes I even retreat). And I do so in large part because of God's EMPOWERING, not due to some innate homo sapien ability. Yes..... in a few cases, the Bible also calls this "grace" but the CONTEXT tells us this is different, here it means "strength" or "empowering". It is still ours by mercy (we don't DESIRE anything from Him), but here it means strength. This growing up, this discipleship, this CHRISTIAN-walk is something a CHRISTIAN does, not something that makes one a Christian; it is the RESULT of justification not the cause. My being nice to my neighbor is not what causes me to have physical life, having physical life enables me to be nice to my neighbor. What I do as a growing, maturing, developing man is not what makes me a homo sapien nor worthy of being given life.
It is NOT a case of SELF somehow taping into the "gas" God gives in order to slowly "save" self in a SYNERGISTIC process - almost never complete in one lifetime and so (as in Hinduism) more time is supplied to finish the job, salvation being a JOINT EFFORT: Jesus doing what He can (perhaps) but it's insuffient, inadequate, He fails as a Savior - so we come to the rescue to help save Him from being a failure by supplying what He could not: Jesus does what He could (but it's inadequate, a failure) so WE help Him but adding the really important part, the part that actually results in our salvation (albeit we won't get the job done before we die - thus the RCC now gives us Purgatory). In the view of Protestants, too many are confusing DIFFERENT ISSUES: man and God, law and gospel, sancatification and justification - leading to the Christless, Crossless, Bloodless, merciless religion we hear; nearly indistingishable from Judaism and Islam, all boasting of SELF. Yes, they might say we get HELP - A point Jews and Muslims ALWAYS point out, always stress. But God HELPING us gain life is not the same as God
GIVING us life. What I see is actually not a blending or confusing or entangling different issues, but the actual ABANDONMENT - entirely - of grace, mercy, Christ, the Cross, the Blood, in spite of such talk. The Gospel has simply been .... abandoned. What is left is just the growing part, the walk part, the maturing part. Christ AS SAVIOR has been lost (the key point of CHRISTianity!), all that is left is the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu point of getting closer to heaven each day by what WE do - with the HELP of God. Too often, Christians IMO essentially abandon our faith and embrace a variant of Judaism or Islam or Hinduism. As several taught me in a certain denomination, "Jesus opened the gate to heaven but you gotta get yourself through it" and "God helps those who help themselves." IMO, that's not Christianity. That's the horrible, tragic result of blending, confusing, mixing, entangling DIFFERENT things: Law and Gospel, Sanctification and Justification, self and Jesus.
When these two DIFFERENT aspects are confused, entangled, mixed up, blended - we end up with the MESS we too often see in Christianity (and all too often in modern forms of "Protestantism" - as ironic as that is since this is the very point rejected by the Reformation)
My half cent.
Pax
- Josiah
