Mungu Hachakuacha Peke Yako

Nasi  twajua ya kuwa katika mambo yote Mungu hufanya kazi pamoja na wale wampendao katika kuwapa mema, yaani, wale walioitwa kwa kusudi lake. 29 Maana wale aliowajua tangu asili, aliwachagua tangu sili wapatanishwe na mfano wa mwana wake, ili yeye awe mwana wa kwanza miongoni mwa ndugu wengi; 30 na wale aliowachagua tangu asili, hao akawaita; na wale aliowaita, hao akawahesabia haki, hao akawatukuza. 31 Basi tuseme nnini juu ya hayo? Mungu akiwapo upande wetu, ni nani aliye juu yetu? 32 Yeye asiyemwachilia mwana wake mwenyewe bali alimtoa kwa ajili yetu sisi sote atakosaje kutukirimia na mambo yote pamoja naye?

Ukweli zingine hutusababisha kushangaa; Warumi 8:28-30 ulimshangaza Paulo. Yote yanatendeka kwa wema—Mungu hufanikisha, kwa sababu alikujua tangu asili, alikuchagua kwa utukufu wa Kristo, kakwita ukiwa mfu kwa uasi na dhambi. Akakutukuza polepole mpaka wakati wake wa kuja. Wakati utakapo badilishwa mwili kama wa Kristo uliofufuliwa.
Jambo hili karibu linamshangaze Paulo. Anasema, “Tusemeje basi kuhusu mambo haya?” N’naya sikia mambo mawili kwa maneno hayo kwa Paulo na kwetu sisi. N’nasikia, “ Ni vigumu kupata maneno kwa mambo haya makuu.” N’nadhani wakati Paulo asemapo, “Tuseme nini kuhusu mambo haya?” Jiba u lake ni: Ni lazima tuiseme tena kwa njia nyingine. Ni lazima tupate maneno tofauti ya kuisema tena. Haya ndiyo anayofanya na maneno, “Kama Mungu akiwa upande wetu, ni nani aliye juu yetu?” Maneno haya amekuwa akiyasema. Lakini ni sharti ayaseme kwa tafsiri  nyingine.
Na basi hata nasi ni lazima. Kama umewahi kushiriki injili tukufu na mtoto au mzazi ama rafiki mara nyingi, ni laima ufanye vile tena, linene tena kwa njia ingine. Ni lazima tuandike barua nyingine pepe, andika barua ingine kwa imla, tufundishe mafunzo mengine, tengeneza mabango mengine, andika shairi lingine na uimbe wimbo mwingine, mwambie babaa fulani mwenye afya mbovu, kando ya kitanda chake. “Basi tuseme nini kuhusu mambo haya?”  Tuyaseme  kwa njia ingine, mara na mara mpaka kifo kisha kwa milele yote. Hapatakoma kuwa njia inayostahili kuwa njia linguine la kueneza injili tukufu.

Mungu yu kwetu

Wakati huu Paulo asemaje katika mlango 31? Anasema “Kama Mungu akiwa upande wetu ni nani atakaye kuwa juu yetu ama atakaye tupinga?” Na lengo lake ni kujumlisha na yale yaliokuwa mbele: Mungu ni wetu, basi hakuna awezaye kutupinga. Mungu alitujua tangu asili, alitufanyia hatima ya kuwa wana tangu asili, akatuita toka kwa wafu, akatuita haki, na atendakazi ndani yetu kutoka kwa kiwango kimoja cha  utukufu hadi kingine mpaka siku ile kuu na wenye furaha, siku ya Kristo. Tutalisemaje tena? Tutasema, “Mungu ni wa upande wetu.”
O maneno haya mawili ni ya dhamani kiasi gani, “upande wetu.” Hakuna maneno mengine ulimwenguni ambyo ni ya kutisha kiasi ya, “Mungu yu kinyume chetu.” Kama ghadhabu kuu isio na kipimo ikiwa kinyume chetu, basi kufagiliwa au kuondolewa kabisa ulimwenguni itakuwa ni dhawabu tamu ya neema. Ndiposa wanaojaribu kutuhawishi kuwa kuondolewa ulimwenguni kabisa ndio maana ya hukumu, wala sio jehanamu, wameacha njia pakubwa. Kuondolewa kabisa ulimwenguni kwa sababu ya ghadhabu ya Mungu sio hukumu, ni ukombozi na msaada (ona Ufunuo 6:16). Hapana. Hakuna kuondolewa kabisa utakaotendekea mwanadamu tena. Milele tuaishi pamoja na Mungu akiwa kinyume chetu au akiwa wa  upande wetu. Na wote walio ndani ya Kristo watasema wakiwa karibu na (!) furaha isio na kifani, “Mungu ni  wa upande wetu.” Yu upande wetu.
Sasa basi hakuna hukumu ya adhabu juu yao walio katika Kristo Yesu (Warumi 8:1) Mungu yu kwa vyote, upande wetu wala kamwe hatakuwa kinyume yetu. Hakuna moja ya magonjwa yetu yatakuwa ni adhabu ya hukumu kwetu kutoka kwa hakimu asiyesamehe. Magari yetu yalio haribika au mashine zilizo haribika nazo sio ishara ya adhabu ya Mungu. Tofauti za ndoa sio ishara ya ghadhabu yake. Wala kazi tulizofutwa sio kichapo kwa sababu ya dhambi. Hapana watoto wsio na nidhamu ambao ni adhabu kwa hasira  ya Mungu. Tukiwa ndani ya Kristo. La. Mungu ni wa upande wetu wala sio kinyume yetu, kwa na katika mambo yote—yawe mepesi au machungu.

Ni nani aliye dhidi yetu?

Maana yake ni, kuisema tena kwa njia tena ingine, “Ni nani aliye kinyume yetu?” Tungali katika mlango wa 31: “Kama Mungu ni wa upande wetu ni nani atakayetupinga?” Ambapo tuna mazoea yakusema, “Kweli?” Hiyo ina maana gani? Mlango 35 inasema kwamba kutakuwa na mateso na mahangaiko na kuuawa kwa upanga. Mlango 36 inasema kwamba waKristo wanauawa mchana kutwa, wanahesabiwa kama kondoo wa kuchinjwa. Paulo alisema hayo. Basi maana ya kusema, “Ni nani aliye kinyume yetu?” Ninafikiri ana maanisha hakuna atakayefaulu kutupinga.
Sheitani na wenye dhambi wanaweza kukufanya kuwa mgonjwa, waweza kuibagari lako, wanaweza kupanda mbegu ya uhasama katika ndoa yako au kukunyang’anya kazi au mtoto wako. Lakini mlango wa 28  unasema kwamba Mungu anatenda haya yote pamoja kwa ajili ya wema wako kama wampenda. Na kama yakitendeka hatimaye kwa wema wako, mitindo ya adui yanavunjiliwa mbali na lengo lake la kukupinga linageuzwa likawa la kuinua jina la Kristo, kutakasa nafsi, kuongeza imani, manufaa machungu. Kama mungu ni wa upande wako, hatakuzuia vitu hivi.Lakini anakuundia mema mahali naye adui anapopanga maovu (Mwanzo 50:20; 45:7). Mambo yalio kinyume chako anayaunda yakawa ya upande wako. Hakuna atakayefaulu kuwa hasimu wako.
Litakuwa na kishindo kikuu kiasi gani jambo hilikatika maisha yetu! Hatustahili kuwa kama ulimwengu kama mambo yakiwa hivi. Wengi ulimwenguni wanchagua njia ya maisha yao wenyewe kwasababu wanaogopa ugonjwa na wizi na ugaidi na ukosefu wa kazi na mengine mengi. Lakini kwa mfuasi wa Yesu, Bwana anasema, “Mataifa wanaytafuta haya yote. Ninyi tafteni kwanza ufalme kanza" (ona Mathayo 6:32-33). Mungu atawapeeni mahitaji yenu. Na kile mpotezach au kukosa katika huduma ya ufalme wa upendo na dabihu na mateso itakutendea kwa wema na kukurudia, katika njia mojawapo ya muundo wa Mungu, mara mia.
Kwa hivyo simama mbele ya hasimu wako na uinene injili, uwe Kankan, Guinea, au Istanbul, Uturuki, au Tentara, Indonesia, au Minneapolis, Minnesota. Na uyaseme maneno hayo kwa wale waliopanga hata kuondoa uhai wako: “Fanya yanayokulazimu kufanya, lakini hatimaye maneno yako yote na majeraha yako yote yatanoa imani yangu, yataongeza dhawabu yangu, na kunipeleka Paradiso pamoja na Yesu Kristo aliyefufka.” O tofauti ulioje kama tukiamini kuwa Mungu akiwa upande wetuhakuna atakaye simama kinyume chetu.

Makuu ya maana kule mbinguni

Na sasa tusemje kwa hiyo? Mtume Paulo ataongeza nini kwa jambo hilo? Atalisema bado kwa tena njia lingine. Katika mlango wa 32 kwamba sio tu ahadi kwamba hapana mahasimu bali tena ameahidi ukarimu kamilifu, kwa utele wake kutoka kwa Mungu; na yote hayo kwa msingi imara wa kifo cha mwanawe kwa ajili ya wenye dhambi. “Hakumzuia mwanawe mwenyewe, lakini alimtoa kwetu kwa ajili ya sisi sote, atakosaje pia pamoja naye kutupa—vote! Ukweli dhabiti wa Mbingu.

Mwanawe mwenyewe

Tafakari kwanza sehemu za maneno. Kwanza maneno “Mwana wake mwenyewe.” Yesu Kristo hakuwa mwanadamu ambaye Mungu alibuni na kumfanya awe wake duniani. Yesu Kristo ni Yule aliyekuwa tangu asili; kwa kweli alikuwepo, amekuwepo mileleyote, ambaye hakuumbwa, wa milele pamoja na Baba (Mungu), akiwa na umbo la kiungu na Baba ambaye kwake, ukamilifu wa Ufalme unadumu (Wakolosai 2:9) Kumbuka kutoka kwa Warum 8:3 kwamba Mungu alimtumia mwanawe mwenyewe kwa mfano wa mwili wenye dhambi.” Kwa tafsiri linguine Mwana alikuwepo kabla ya kuichukua mwili wa mwanadamu. Yeye siye tu nabii bali ni Mungu Mwana.
Na mlango wa 32 unapomwita Mwana “wake mwenyewe”, sababu ni kuwa hakuna wengine na kuwa ni yeye wa dhamana kuu kwake Baba. Yesu akiwa ulimwenguni Mungu alisema mara mbili, “Huyu ndiye Mwanangu nimpendaye” (Mathayo 3:7: 17:15). Katika Wakolosai 1:13 Paulo anamwita Mwana Mpendwa wa (Mungu). Yesu mwanyewe alitoa fumbo waliokodisha shamba la mizabibu nao watumishi wa Bwana walipigwa na ku uawa walipoenda kuchukua matunda. Kisha Yesu anasema kuwa alikuwa na mwingine bado ambaye ni Mwana mpendwa (Marko 12:6). Baba alikuwa tu na mwana mmoja ambaye alimpenda kwa dhati. KIsha akamtuma mwanawe huyo wa pekee
Nina wana wane. Hakuna upendo mwingine ufananao na ule kati ya baba na  mwana. Usinielewe vibaya. Nampenda mke wangu  na hata binti yangu vile vile. Kisha nampenda baba yangu na wenzangu kazini, hapa kanisani na hata wewe. Hivi simaanishi kwamba aina hizi za upendo hazina uzito kama upendo ule kati ya baba na mwana, bali upendo huu  wa baba na mwanawe ni tofauti. Zote hizo pia ni tofauti lakini niruhusu niseme tu kuhusu upendo huu: Hakuna upendo kama ule wa baba na mwanaye.
Maana ya mlango wa 32 ni kuwa upendo huu wa Mungu kwa mwanawe wa pekee ulikuwa kamakizuizi kikubwa kama mlima Everest uliosimama kati yake na wokovu wetu. Hapa kuna kizuizi kilicho kigumu kuondoa. Je, Mungu angeweza, angefanya kuushinda upendo wake mkuu, wa kutamanika, na wenye joto jingi na uzito mkuu kwa mwanawe ili apate kulawitiwa na kusalitiwa, kisha kukataliwa na kudhihakiwa, apigwe mijeledi, atemwe mate na kusulubuwa msalabani na kuchomwa mkuki kama mnyama anayechinjwa. Angefanya hivyo kweli? Je angemtoa mwana wake wa upendo? Kama hivyo hakuna kingine ambacho kingezuiwa kama akitaka kulitenda. Kama kizuizi kikuu zaidi kilishindwa katika ari  yake ya kutenda wema kwa watu wake, kila kizuizi hakika kitashindwa.
Je, alifaulu?  Jibu la Paulo ni ndio, kisha anaiangalia kwa mitazamo miwili, hali ya kuridhisha na kutoridhisha: ”Hakumzuia lakini alimtoa.” Kwa maneno haya, “hakumzuia,” tunasikia uzit wa hali hiyo ngumu na kizuizi. Mungu hakufurahia uchungu na dharau kwa mwana wake. Jambo hili lilikuwa lenye uchungu sana kwa Mwana wa Mungu akitendewa. Dhambi ilikuwa imefika kilele chake wakati huo. Asili yake ilifunuliwa—kwamba ni uvamizi dhidi ya Mungu. Dhambi zote—zilizo zetu—ni uvamizi dhidi ya Mungu. Kukataliwa kwa Mungu uvamizi wa haki yake na kweli na wema wake. Lakini Mungu hakumzuia Mwana wake hata kutendewa maovu haya.

Alimpeana

Badala yake ”alimpeana.” Usikose kupata hili. Karibu kila kitu ulimwenguni kilicho cha dhamana na umuhimu kinakutanika hapa wakati huu usio wenye matukio yasio na kifani. Upendo wa kiungu kwa mwanadamu, na chuki cha kiungu kwa dhambi, zinakutana hapa. Hekima isio na  mwisho na nguvu zinakutana hapa. Uhuru timilifu na wa kiungu na uzito wa milele kwa mwanadamu wa kujitolea hesabu na matendo ya kibinadamu yanakutana hapa. Hekima isiyo na mwisho na nguvu zinapatana hapa— Mungu alipomtoa mwana wake mwenyewe ili afe.
Biblia yasema Yuda alimsaliti (Marko 3:19), naye Pilato alimpeana (Marko 15:15) na Herode na Wayahudi na mataifa walimtoa (Matendo 4:27-28), na sisi tulimtoa (1Wakorintho 15:3; Wagalatia 1:4; 1Petro 2:24). Inasema hata kuwa Yesu alijitoa (Yohana 10:17; 19:30). Lakini Paulo anasema jambo la muhimu hapa katika mlango wa 32. Katika, nyuma ya, chini ya na kupitia yote haya ukombozi wa mwanadamu, Mingu alikuwa anamtoa mwana wake ili afe. “Mtu huyu alipotolewa kwa shauri la Mungu lililokusudiwa na kujua kwake tangu zamani, ninyi mkamsulubisha msalabani kwa mikono ya watu wabaya, wakamwua” (Matendo 2:23). Katika Yuda, Pilato, Herode, vikundivya Wayahudi, askari wa mataifa na dhambi zetu, na unyenyekevu wa kusadiki kwa Yesu, Mungu alimtoa Mwana wake. Hakuna kikuu zaidi ya hiki kimewahi kutendeka.

Kama haya ni kweli, kisha?

Tusemeje kuhusu haya? Tutasema, “Makuu ya maana mbinguni ni mazito!” Kama kweli Mungu alimtoa Mwana wake, basi . . . nini? Jibu:   Basi pamoja naye atatukirimia na mambo yote. Kama Mungu hakumzuia Mwana wake mwenyewe, hatatuzuia chochote kizuri. Ni ununuzi wa mwisho na utimilizaji wa  Zaburi 84:11, “Hatatunyima kilicho chema waendao kwa ukamilifu.” Hii ahadi katika msingi wa 1 Wakorintho 3:21-23, “Basi mtu yeyote na asijifie mwanadamu. Kwa maana vyote ni vyenu; kwamba  ni Paulo au Apolo, au Kefa; dunia, au uzima, au mauti; au vile vilivyopo sasa, au vile vitakavyokuwepo; vyote ni vyenu; nanyi ni wa Kristo, na Kristo ni wa Mungu.” Huu ndio muhuri wa ahadi ya Waefeso 1:3, “Atukuzwe Mungu, Baba ya Bwana wetu Yesu Kristo, aliyetubarikikwa baraka zote za rohoni katika ulimwengu wa roho ndani yake Kristo.” Huu ndio kuweka salama ahadi zake Yesu kwa maneno, “Msisumbuke basi mkisema, “Tule nini? Au Tunywe nini? Au Tuvae nini?”…Kwasababu Baba yenu wa Mbinguni anajua yakuwa ni mnahitaji hayo yote. Bali utafuteni kwanza ufalme wake, na haki yake na hayo yote mtazidishiwa” (Mathayo 6:31-33).
Kwa maana hakumzuia Mwana wake mwenyewe, bali alimtoa kwa ajili yetu, kwa hakika ya nidhamu yote, atatukirimia yote naye. Kweli? Yote? Je na mateso au fadhaiko au hukumu au njaa au dhiki au uchi au upanga” (Warumi 8:35)?  Jibu ni matamshi haya ya ya ajabu ya John Flavel kutoka miaka 350 iliyopita:

Hakumzuia Mwanawe mwenyewe, bali alimtoa kwetu sote; Atakosaje kutukirimia mambo yote pamoja naye?” (Warumi 8:32). Itawezekanaje kwamba mungu atunyime, baada ya haya, mambo ya roho au kimwili sisi watu wake? Atawezaje kukosa kuwaita moja kwa moja, awafanye haki bure, awatakase kabisa na kuwatukuza milele? Atakosaje kuwavisha, kuwalisha kisha awalinde na kuwakomboa? Kwa kweli hangemzuia mwanawe mwenyewe kichapo kimoja, mchipuko mmoja, kilio kimoja, hali moja ya fedheha, haitafikiriwa kuwa angeweza, baada ya haya, kutunyima aukuzuia watu wake, ambao kwa ajili yao mateso hayo yakaja, rehema zozote, faraja zozote, fursa yoyote, ya roho au mwili, ambayo ni zuri kwao.

Kila wakati Mungu anatutendea mema. Kama unaamini kwamba alimtoa mwana wake kwa sababu yako, basi hivi ndivyo unavyoamini. Maisha yote ya uKristo ni matunda ya imani hiyo. Mtazame Kristo. Tazamia upendo wa Mungu. Ishi kwa upendo. Usiogope tena.

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The Dignity of Those with Dementia

Right, that’s absolutely right. The God-given dignity of every human being — as created in God’s image and destined for final accountability before the living God, unlike all the other creatures — that dignity is foundational to our thinking about how families or caregivers care for aging parents, or for that matter, any person whose mental capacities are diminished for whatever reason.
Let me just share a few foundational and application thoughts about the dignity of those with diminished powers of thought and self-awareness.

God’s Image

First, we can hardly be reminded too often or go to deep into the staggering truth of Genesis 1:27: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

“You need to go to nursing homes and remember these people are on the brink of glory and power.”

Then you add the additional truth that even after the fall into sin this great reality of image bearing is still true about all of the people we deal with and should affect our behavior. James 3:9 says, “With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”
You see how James thinks that that fact should alter the way we use our tongues and talk about people. Every human being, everywhere in the world — of every race, every ethnicity, class, male and female, rich and poor, sick and well — is utterly distinct from all the other kinds of creatures on earth. Then, 1 Peter 2:17 says (amazingly), “honor all” — meaning, honor all human beings. And the honor clearly does not flow from moral worthiness. They’re not. A lot of them are wicked like Nero. It goes on to say, “Honor the Emperor.” They’re wicked.
The honor is not flowing from their unique moral condition but from their unique standing in the image of God, different from all other creatures. That applies to an 80-pound, arthritic, diapered, drooling, glazed-eyed human being that we love, lying in bed and praying for death in the nursing home, or in the jungle hut.

Future Glory

Now, a second observation needs to be remembered — namely, that in God’s way of dealing with the world, he has elevated weakness to a place of extraordinary importance. “The weakness of God is stronger than the power of man,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:25. Meaning, when Christ died in weakness and dishonor, he accomplished the greatest thing in the world.
Then Paul refers to his own weakness in 2 Corinthians 12 as the best pathway for honoring the all-sufficiency of Christ in his life. Then he brings this weakness in connection with the dying process, and relates it to the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:43. He says, “It [the human body] is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

“I will never assume that anyone that is still breathing cannot in some way be reached at his innermost being.”

In other words, Paul is telling us that the weak, inglorious, demented shadow of a once-strong Christian in front of us is on the brink of glory and power. You need to go to nursing homes and think that way. These people are on the brink of glory and power.
We must keep this continuity in mind between diminished powers of human beings here, and the spectacular powers they will have in the resurrection. This is so important. If we lose a sense of that continuity, we will assume that we are becoming less human rather than being on the brink of being gloriously superhuman.
If the question is raised (because I did mention the word Christian), what about the unbeliever in the nursing home? The answer is, we never give up praying that they too might participate in that glorious destiny.
This is what they could be. We’re not God; we do not determine anyone’s destiny. We treat people — we speak to people — on earth in the prayer, in the witness, in the hope of redemption and glory.

The Mystery

Which leads to one more thing — the mystery of personhood in the presence of dementia. Science cannot answer the question that relates to the soul that God himself created in connection to the body. The relationship is profound beyond all human comprehension. No one knows the precise connection between the demented mind and the real human person within.
My grandfather, just before he died, was curled up like a fetus, wearing a diaper and looking like a corpse. He was uncommunicative for weeks and had slow belabored breathing. But when my father bent over his head and prayed (almost at the top of his voice), my grandfather — almost with his whole body — gave a deep, guttural, unmistakable amen when my father finished.
That was the last we heard of him. We hadn’t heard anything for weeks. I will never assume that any human being that is still breathing cannot in some way be reached at his innermost being. I don’t know. I just won’t assume it.

No Accidents

The last thing I would say is that the encroachment of dementia in the lives of those we love is a gift to us. It tests our love as never before.

“Even after the fall this great reality of image bearing is still true about all of the people we deal with.”

One of the manifestations of dementia is that every moment is real to the failing person but the connection of the moment is lost. As I was driving my father in his last days to his brother’s funeral (a brother he loved dearly), he asked me every two minutes in that twenty-minute drive where we were going. In every single one of those questions, he really wanted to know. If he was really there, he was really curious in that moment about where we were going.
The real test and the real question for me was, Would I patiently, graciously — as if for the first time on the tenth time — answer him with grace and interest, engaging the person who was there in that moment? Such challenges of love are no accident. They are no accident.
God didn’t dream that into my life for nothing. That was a painful gift to me and a test. We all will have them, so let us be full of grace as we give ourselves to care for those who have become too weak physically or mentally to care for themselves. God’s priorities for efficiency in this world are not ours.

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How to Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens; but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The two questions I want to try to answer today are: (1) What does it mean to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? and (2) How do we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Our focus will be on the book of Acts and on Luke’s intention as he wrote it.

1. What Is Receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit?

One of the most widely used books in contemporary charismatic renewal is The Holy Spirit and You by Dennis and Rita Bennet, an Episcopal priest and his wife. On pages 64–65 the question is posed, “What if I don’t speak in tongues? Can I receive the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues?” Answer:

“It comes with the package!” Speaking in tongues is not the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but it is what happens when and as you are baptized in the Spirit and it becomes an important resource to help you continue, as Paul says, to . . . “keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). You don’t have to speak in tongues in order to be saved. You don’t have to speak in tongues in order to have the Holy Spirit in you. You don’t have to speak in tongues to have times of feeling filled with the Holy Spirit, but if you want the free and full outpouring that is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you must expect it to happen as in Scripture. . . . If you want to understand the New Testament you need the same experience that all its writers had.

On page 20 they sum up the classical two-stage Pentecostal teaching:

The first experience of the Christian life, salvation, is the incoming of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, to give us new life, God’s life, eternal life. The second experience, is the receiving, or making welcome of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus can cause Him to pour out this new life from our spirits, to baptize our souls and bodies and then our world around, with his refreshing and renewing power. (p. 275)

They call this “the scriptural pattern of the ‘doctrine of baptisms.’”

Tongues and Baptism in the Spirit in Acts

I have two things to say about this, one negative and one positive. I’ll take the negative first so I can end with the positive. The negative thing is that I think the Bennets are probably wrong in making tongues a necessary part of the baptism in the Spirit.
Let’s walk with them through the book of Acts to see where they get their evidence. It begins in Acts 1:5 where Jesus says to his disciples, “John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then in verse 8 he says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses.” The fulfillment of these two promises came on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:2–4 says, “And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributed and resting on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
The next time tongues is mentioned in Acts is when Peter went to preach at Cornelius’s house in Acts 10:44–46. “While Peter was still saying this the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.”
The only other place tongues is referred to in Acts is 19:6. Paul finds in Ephesus some disciples of John the Baptist who had never heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul explains to them that John pointed people forward to Jesus, and so verse 5 says, “On hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” There is one other instance in chapter 8 where the apostles go to Samaria and lay their hands on some believers so that they can receive the Holy Spirit. Tongues is not mentioned, but since the language is the same as at Cornelius’s house (fallen 8:16; fell 10:44), it’s likely the Samaritans spoke in tongues, too.
Pentecostals argue that since baptism in the Spirit happened these four times with speaking in tongues, we should regard this as normative. First, the word of the gospel is received by faith. Christ comes into your life by the Spirit. Then, you are baptized in water. And, generally, following water-baptism at some later point, you pray for the baptism in the Spirit and are overwhelmed with a new fullness and freedom and power accompanied by speaking in tongues.

Tongues Are Not Necessary to Being Baptized in the Spirit

There are five reasons why I am not as confident as the Pentecostals are that speaking in tongues is a necessary part of being baptized in the Spirit.
1. It is not taught anywhere in the New Testament. It seems risky to me to say, since it happened this way four times it must happen this way all the time.
2. What Jesus does teach in Acts 1:5 and 8 is that the experience of baptism in the Spirit will bring power to witness into the Christian life. In the terminology of Acts we could say, what a powerless Christian needs is a baptism in the Holy Spirit. And that’s a lot of us!
3. Acts records at least nine other conversion stories, but never again mentions a two-step sequence with tongues (8:36; 9:17–19; 13:12, 48; 14:1; 16:14; 17:4, 34). This shows how difficult it is to establish a norm from the way things happened back then.
4. It could be that there were special circumstances in Jerusalem, Samaria, Cornelius’s house, and Ephesus that made speaking in tongues especially helpful in communicating the truth that the Holy Spirit was creating a new unified body of Jew and Samaritan and Gentile.
5. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:30 that “not all speak in tongues” and the words he uses are for general tongues speaking, not merely for a special “gift of tongues” used in church. He seems to have in view the person who feels ostracized without tongues and says (verse 16), “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body.” Paul responds, “Not everybody speaks in tongues!”
For these five reasons I cannot say with the Pentecostals that no Christian has been baptized in the Holy Spirit unless he has spoken in tongues. It seems to me that Luke leaves wide open the possibility that the Holy Spirit might fall upon a person with revolutionizing power over sin and power for witnessing and power in worship and yet not with tongues. To say this person is not the beneficiary of Jesus’s promise to baptize us in the Holy Spirit goes beyond Scripture. “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit . . . and you shall receive power” (Acts 1:5, 8). That is the biblical sign. (Whether or not a Christian should seek to speak in tongues is another issue that we are working on in the evening. See 1 Corinthians 14:5, 18, 39.)

Stressing the Experience of Baptism in the Spirit

Now the positive thing I want to say about the moderate Pentecostal teaching (represented by the Bennets) is that it is right to stress the experiential reality of receiving the Spirit. When you read the New Testament honestly, you can’t help but get the impression of a big difference from a lot of contemporary Christian experience. For them the Holy Spirit was a fact of experience. For many Christians today it is a fact of doctrine.
Surely the Charismatic renewal has something to teach us here. In sacramental churches the gift of the Holy Spirit is virtually equated with the event of water baptism. In Protestant evangelicalism it is equated with a subconscious work of God in regeneration which you only know you have because the Bible says you do if you believe. It is easy to imagine a spiritual counselor saying to a new convert today, “Don’t expect to notice any difference. Just believe you have received the Spirit.” But that is far from what we see in the New Testament. The Pentecostals are right to stress the experience of being baptized in the Spirit.

Four Reasons Why It Is Right to Do So

Here are four reasons from Acts:
1. Terminology — The very term “baptized in the Holy Spirit” (1:5; 11:16) implies an immersion in the life of the Spirit. “John immersed in water; you will be immersed in the Spirit.” If the Spirit overwhelms you like a baptism, you can’t imagine him merely sneaking in quietly while you are asleep and taking up inconspicuous residence. That may be the way it starts (Paul may have this early movement in mind in 1 Corinthians 12:13), but if it ends there, Jesus and Luke would not call it a baptism in the Spirit.
2. Power, Boldness, and Confidence — Jesus says in Acts 1:5 and 8 that baptism in the Spirit means, “You shall receive power . . . and you shall be my witnesses.” This is an experience of boldness and confidence and victory over sin. A Christian without power is a Christian who needs a baptism in the Holy Spirit. I am aware that in 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul says that baptism in the Spirit is an act of God by which we become a part of the body of Christ at conversion, so that in his terminology all genuine converts have been baptized in the Spirit.
But we have done wrong in limiting Paul’s understanding of the baptism in the Holy Spirit to this initial, subconscious divine act in conversion and then forcing all of Luke’s theology in Acts into that little mold. There is no reason to think that even for Paul the baptism in the Holy Spirit was limited to the initial moment of conversion. And for sure in the book of Acts the baptism in the Holy Spirit is more than a subconscious divine act of regeneration — it is a conscious experience of power (Acts 1:8).
3. The Testimony of Acts — In fact the third reason I think so is that, when you take your concordance and look up every text in Acts where the Holy Spirit works in believers, it is never subconscious. In Acts the Holy Spirit is not a silent influence but an experienced power. Believers experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They didn’t just believe it happened because an apostle said so.
4. The Consequence of Faith — The fourth reason we should stress the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit is that in Acts the apostles teach that it is a consequence of faith not a subconscious cause of faith. As a convinced Calvinist, I believe with all my heart that the grace of God precedes and enables saving faith. We do not initiate our salvation by believing. God initiates it by enabling us to believe (Ephesians 2:8–9; 2 Timothy 2:25; John 1:13).
But this regenerating work of God’s Spirit is not the limit of what Peter means by baptism in the Spirit. In Acts 11:15–17 Peter reports how the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius just as on the disciples at Pentecost. “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should withstand God?”
Notice that the gift of the Spirit, or baptism in the Spirit, is preceded by faith. The NASB correctly says in verse 17 that God gave the Holy Spirit after they believed. So the baptism of the Spirit (verse 16) or the receiving of the gift of the Spirit (verse 17) cannot be the same as the work of God before faith which enables faith (which Luke speaks of in 2:39; 5:31; 16:14; 11:18; 15:10; 14:27). The baptism in the Spirit is an experience of the Spirit given after faith to faith.

Receiving the Spirit Is a Life-Changing Experience

This is why Paul can say in Acts 19:2 when he meets the confused disciples of John the Baptist, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” What would a contemporary Protestant evangelical say in response to that question? I think we would say something like, “I thought we automatically received the Holy Spirit when we believed. I don’t understand how you can even ask the question.” How could Paul ask that question? He could ask it, I think, because receiving the Holy Spirit is a real experience. There are marks of it in your life. And the best way to test the faith of these so-called disciples is to ask them about their experience of the Spirit.
This is no different than what Paul said in Romans 8:14, “All who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God” (see 2 Corinthians 13:5 and 1 John 3:24; 4:12–13). I sometimes fear that we have so redefined conversion in terms of human decisions and have so removed any necessity of the experience of God’s Spirit, that many people think they are saved when in fact they only have Christian ideas in their head not spiritual power in their heart.
So you see, the real issue the Charismatics raise for us is not the issue of tongues. In itself that is relatively unimportant. The really valuable contribution of the Charismatic renewal is their relentless emphasis on the truth that receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is a real, life-changing experience. Christianity is not merely an array of glorious ideas. It is not merely the performance of rituals and sacraments. It is the life-changing experience of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord of the universe.

Two Things That Characterize This Experience

We could talk for hours about what that experience is. In fact, most of my messages are just that — descriptions of the experience of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. But I’ll mention two things from the book of Acts — things that mark the experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit or of receiving the gift of the Spirit.
1. A Heart of Praise — One is a heart of praise. In Acts 10:46 the disciples knew the Holy Spirit had fallen because “they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling (or magnifying) God.” Speaking in tongues is one particular way of releasing the heart of praise. It may be present or may not. But one thing is sure: The heart in which the Holy Spirit has been poured out will stop magnifying self and start magnifying God. Heartfelt praise and worship is the mark of a real experience of the Holy Spirit.
2. Obedience — The other mark I’ll mention is obedience. In Acts 5:29 Peter and the apostles say to the Sadducees who had arrested them, “We must obey God rather than men.” Then in verse 32 he says, “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God gave to those who are obeying him.” (“Gave” is past tense; “obey” is present, ongoing tense.)
It is inevitable that when the object of your heart’s worship changes, your obedience changes. When Jesus baptizes you in the Holy Spirit, and infuses you with a new sense of the glory of God, you have a new desire and a new power (1:8) to obey. Whether or not you speak in tongues, these two things will be your experience if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit — a new desire to magnify God in worship and a powerful disposition to obey God in everyday life.

2. How to Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

I close by pointing you to Peter’s instructions for how to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38–41.
1. The word of God must be heard. Peter has preached that in God’s plan Jesus was crucified, raised, and exalted as Lord over all the universe and that forgiveness of sin and spiritual renewal can be had from him. The Word has been heard.
2. The sovereign God must call men and women to himself, or they will never come. Verse 39 says, “The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone to whom the Lord our God calls to him.” No one comes to faith in Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44, 65). The preached Word is heard with conviction and power only when the effectual call of God lays hold on the hearers.
3. We must “receive the word.” Verse 41: “So those who received his word were baptized.” Receiving the Word means that it becomes part of you so that you trust the Christ it presents. You trust his provision for your forgiveness. You trust his path for your life. You trust his power to help you obey. And you trust his promises for your future. And that radical commitment to Christ always involves repentance — a turning away from your own self-wrought provisions and paths and powers and promises. And when you really turn to Christ for new paths and new power, you open yourself to the Holy Spirit, because it is by his Spirit that Christ guides and empowers.
5. We must give an open expression of faith in the act of water baptism in obedience to Jesus Christ. Baptism was the universal experience of all Christians in the New Testament. There were no unbaptized Christians after Pentecost. Christ had commanded it (Matthew 28:18–20) and the church practiced it. So we do today.
Therefore, I invite you to experience the greatest thing in the world: Repent, trust Christ, open yourself to the power of his Spirit, be baptized in his name, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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Those Whom He Justified He Also Glorified

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

At the close of this series let me remind you again that the wonderful confidence that tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword and slaughter and all the groaning from our unredeemed bodies and the all the frustrations of our imperfect spirits — the wonderful, deep confidence that all this will work together for our good is built on the massive foundation of God’s sovereign work of salvation described in Romans 8:29–30. The reason I have preached these messages is to make you strong and happy in God when you lose your health and your spouse and your child and your job and your friend and your dream.

The promise of the Lord proves true;
   He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
For who is God but the Lord?
   And who is a rock, except our God?

Four Questions

We see the final extent of the Rock in the last phrase of verse 30: “Those whom he justified, he also glorified.” We have time, perhaps, to ask four questions:

1. What happens when God glorifies a human being?
2. Who are the ones God will glorify?
3. How is this a fulfillment of the New Covenant which Jesus certified with his blood?
4. What happens when believers try to hold on to the certainty of glorification while rejecting the sovereignty of grace?

1. What happens when God glorifies a human being?

So, lets look at the first question: What happens when God glorifies a human being?

Sharing in the Glory of Jesus

First, he gives them a share of his own glory and the glory of his Son.

“When God glorifies his children, he gives us a share in his glory.”

If we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:17)

Notice: “Glorified with him!” When God glorifies his children, he does to them something like what he did to Jesus when he exalted him to his right hand above every rule and authority. He gives us a share in that glory.

Through Christ we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. (1 Peter 5:1)

When God glorifies a human being, he grants to that person the privilege of beholding his infinite beauty and becoming like him as much as a creature can. We will not see him the way you see a parade on television. We will see him the way you see a hurricane when you fly into the eye of the storm. “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

Receiving a New and Glorious Body

More specifically, when God glorifies a person, he gives that person a new and glorious body.
The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:21–23)
When Paul refers in verse 21 to the “freedom of the glory of the children of God,” he means the freedom from groaning that comes from the glory of our new bodies. For now we groan awaiting the redemption of our bodies. But then our bodies will be glorious, like the resurrected body of Jesus.

Our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20–21)
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. (1 Corinthians 15:42–43)

No more pain. No more frustration with weakness and weariness. No more disability or wheel chairs or crutches or braces or allergies or addictions or diseases. Everyone strong. Everyone radiant with the beauty of Christ (see Romans 8:29).

Receiving the Inward Beauty of Holiness

When God glorifies his children, he gives them inward beauty called holiness. This begins as a process in this life (called sanctification) and culminates when we come into the presence of Christ at death or at his second coming.
I think the reason that Paul omitted sanctification from his chain in Romans 8:29–30 — the reason he did not say, “Those whom he justified he also sanctified, and those whom he sanctified he also glorified” — is that Paul is thinking of glorification in a way that includes sanctification. So glorification is the work of God by which he makes his children both spiritually and physically glorious. It begins now as a process of becoming holy, and it ends at the resurrection when we receive our new and glorious bodies.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, and are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:16–17)

Paul clearly says that glorification has begun within as we give our attention to Christ. The biblical maxim is not, “Seeing is believing,” but, “Seeing is becoming.”
Look to Christ with a steady gaze and you will become like him from one degree of glory to another. Your inner nature will be renewed every day — that’s the process! And all the adversities of life will be preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison — that’s the consummation.
In sum then, when God glorifies us, he shares his own glory with us, he gives us a new and glorious body, and he imparts the inward beauty of holiness partially in this life and fully when we come into the presence of the Lord.

2. Who are the ones God will glorify?

The answer is plain from the text: “those whom he foreknew he predestined, and those whom he predestined he called, and those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified he glorified.” Have you got a good grip yet on what this chain means? It means that no one who is foreknown fails to be predestined. And no one who is predestined fails to be effectually called. And no one who is called fails to be justified. And no one who is justified fails to be glorified.
The point of the chain is certainty and confidence and assurance and security. The point is that God does not just offer salvation, but that he saves! “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Those whom he has predestined are saved! It is as good as finished — that’s why even the future work of God in glorifying his people is put in the past tense in verse 30: those whom he justified he also glorified.
The glorification of God’s predestined, called, and justified people is absolutely certain. None can be lost. The chain is unbroken, because the links have been forged in the furnace of God’s eternal purpose. All those branches and distortions of the Christian faith that deny the reality of eternal security and deny the possibility of the full assurance of salvation shatter on the rock of Romans 8:30. For it is as plain as anything in Scripture that the justified will be glorified.
The answer, then, to the second question is that all who are effectually called, that is, all who have been quickened and enabled to believe, and have therefore heard the word of acquittal (justification) will be glorified. It is done in the mind of God.

3. How is this a fulfillment of the New Covenant which Jesus certified with his blood?

When Jesus said at the Last Supper, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25), or, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24), what was he referring to? He was referring to a promise made by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel that God would one day make a new covenant with his people that would be better than the old covenant made at Mount Sinai.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31–34)
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

“God doesn’t make our salvation sure by separating it from obedience, but by guaranteeing our obedience.”

So the reason the new covenant is better (Hebrews 8:6) than the old is that the new covenant contains a pledge from God not only to give blessing to those who obey but also to cause the obedience! “I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” God does not make our salvation sure by separating it from obedience, but by guaranteeing our obedience.
The eternal security that is so clearly taught in the last phrase of Romans 8:30 (“whom he justified he also glorified”) is not based on the fact that obedience is unnecessary for salvation, so that you can feel secure if you don’t have it. Oh, no! Obedience is necessary: “He is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him . . . Strive for . . . the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 5:9; 12:14). Eternal security is based on the new covenant oath of God that he will cause the obedience that he requires in those whom he has called and justified.
If someone — say a Jehovah’s Witness — asks you how you know you are going to heaven when you die (which is the same as how you know all things work together for good), I hope that after this series you will not be content to answer, “I know that I am going to heaven because I prayed one time and asked Jesus to come into my heart.” Instead, I hope that we will answer something like this: I know that I am going to heaven because God chose me for his own and predestined me for glory. He has born witness of this in my life by calling me effectually out of rebellion and unbelief and by giving me the declaration of acquittal in his Word. I am justified — my sin went onto Christ, his righteousness went onto me.
And now my confidence rests in the covenant oath of God that he will cause me to walk in his will. He who did not spare his Son but gave him up for me, will he not work in me that which is pleasing in his sight (Romans 8:32)? By his Spirit he will cause me to fulfill the just requirement of the law (Romans 8:4), sin will not have dominion over me for I am now under the rule of sovereign grace (Romans 6:14), and that grace will reign through righteousness unto eternal life (Romans 5:21).
The Father planned it ages ago. The Son purchased it centuries ago. The Spirit is causing it today in my heart. It is he who is at work in me to will and to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). And he who began in me this work will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). It is as sure as the oath and power of the sovereign God. And therefore I know that I am going to heaven, for those whom he justified he also glorified.

4. What happens when believers try to hold on to the certainty of glorification while rejecting the sovereignty of grace?

I ask this question because the answer is a present reality all around us, and it is tragic. I want to save you from it and I want to enlist you in the opposition to it.
Let me try to answer the question by contrasting two different theologies. We will describe the one theology as “Sovereign grace — trusting saint.” And we will describe the other theology as “Assisting grace — sovereign saint.” Let’s look at six differences and similarities between these two theologies.

Definitions

What I mean by “sovereign grace — trusting saint” is that grace is a sovereign power that accomplishes all of salvation by overcoming the resistance of our will and making us love and trust Jesus Christ.
On the other hand what I mean by “assisting grace — sovereign saint” is a theology which says that God’s role in conversion is to give some conviction and some enlightenment but not to overcome all resistance and not to call effectually, but to leave the final vote with the self-determining power of the individual. God assists. He gets the ball rolling. But the saint is sovereign in that conversion is decisively — not wholly, perhaps not even mainly — but decisively his own work. God gives general assistance to people and then lets them cast the deciding vote.
So what distinguishes one person above another is not the work of God but the personal wisdom or courage or virtue or whatever that causes one person to embrace Christ while others who had the same assistance don’t.

The Word of Acquittal

Both of these two theologies agree that by faith a person hears the word of acquittal and is thus justified.

The Connection Between Justification and Glorification

Both of these theologies agree that those whom God justified he will also most surely bring to final glory. In other words both theologies believe in eternal security for the justified believer. No one who has come to faith in Christ and the enjoyment of justification can ever be lost.

The Process of Sanctification

But what about the process of sanctification that connects the initial event of justification and the final experience of glorification? Well, the theology of “sovereign grace — trusting saint” says that this process is a work of God just as much as conversion was a work of God.
“He who began a good work in you will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). “God is the one who is at work in you both to will and to do his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Sanctification is the work of God overcoming my own remaining bent to sinning.
But the theology of “assisting grace — sovereign saint” did not give God the right to overcome resistance in conversion and so does not give him that right in sanctification either. God assisted with some conviction of sin and some enlightenment, but he did not transgress the sovereign territory of human self-determination. Therefore, this is his role in sanctification as well. He can assist with nudges and reminders and the like, but the final and decisive cause of progressive holiness is the self-determining power of the human will.
In the one theology God decisively causes me to walk in his statutes. And in the other theology he suggests that I walk in his statutes but I provide the decisive urge from my self-determining power.

The Certainty of Sanctification

Therefore, the theology of “assisting grace — sovereign saint” can only treat sanctification as possible but not certain. Sanctification is left it in the hands of the self-determining saint and God is denied the right to overcome the saint’s rebellion. So there is no assurance that the saint’s self-determined will, will in fact have holy inclinations.
Since God does not cause the saint to will and to do his good pleasure, there is no guarantee that the saint will progress in holiness. So in this theology there is no certainty that a Christian converted will live a holy life. He provided the decisive impulse for his own conversion. It now remains to be seen whether he will use his self-determining power to be holy.
On the other hand the theology of “sovereign grace — trusting saint” says that sanctification is absolutely certain for all those who are called, because God himself has sworn by the “blood of the eternal covenant” that he will work in us that which is pleasing in his sight (Hebrews 13:20–21), and write his laws on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10 = Jeremiah 31:33), and put his Spirit within us and “cause us to walk in his statutes and be careful to observes his ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27). “He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 1:8–9; 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14).
In the one theology a life of holiness is uncertain after conversion because holiness is finally a work of man. In the other theology a life of holiness is certain after conversion because it is finally the work of God — a God whose covenant oath is to work in us what is pleasing in his sight.

Holiness and Glorification

Now we are prepared to see the terrible result of the theology of “assisting grace — sovereign saint.” Since real holiness is uncertain in the Christian convert, but glorification is certain, therefore, holiness is not the necessary path to glory. If glory is assured to you on the basis of your initial act of faith, but sanctification is not guaranteed, then the only way you can maintain assurance is to believe that holiness is not necessary for final salvation.
And that is in fact what thousands of professing Christians believe today. They cling to the doctrine of eternal security but reject the sovereignty of grace which guarantees holiness of life, and therefore they reject the necessity of holiness and imperil their souls. For the Scripture says that there is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14; see also Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:10).
If that holiness is not the work of God, if it is not secured for the believer by the covenant oath of God to work in us what is pleasing in his sight, then there is no security.
What I am trying to point out is that many people want the skyscraper promise of Romans 8:28, many want the precious reality of eternal security. But they don’t want it on God’s terms. They want their security and their sovereignty. They want God to step in at the end of their lives with sovereign power and give them glory, but they do not want him to step in now with his sovereign grace and make them holy.

“If only the road of obedience leads to glory, then the sovereign grace of God will keep us on that road.”

Oh how many unregenerate people are at ease in Zion thinking that they are secure without holiness! Why? Because for generations teachers and pastors have been saying that you can have the security of glorification without the necessity of holiness.
And they have been saying this because they have rejected the biblical teaching of sovereign grace, which alone explains how the New Testament on the one hand can give the eternal security of glory, and yet on the other hand make that glory dependent on practical holiness. If God’s grace is sovereign, it not only fulfills promises of glory, it also fulfills the practical conditions of those promises.
If only the road of obedience leads to glory, then the sovereign grace of God will infallibly keep his people on the road that they may get the promised glory. Those whom he justified, he also sanctified and therefore glorified.
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever and ever.

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What Is Christian Hedonism?

What Is Christian Hedonism?

My shortest summary of Christian Hedonism is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure — pleasure in him.
By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy, you cannot love man or please God.

The Difference Between Worldly and Christian Hedonism

Some people are inclined to believe that Christians are supposed to seek God’s will as opposed to pursuing their own pleasure. But what makes biblical morality different than worldly hedonism is not that biblical morality is disinterested and duty-driven, but that it is interested in vastly greater and purer things. Christian Hedonism is biblical morality because it recognizes that obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness. Here are some examples of this from the Bible:
Luke 6:35 says, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.” It is clear when Jesus says “expect nothing in return” that we should not be motivated by worldly aggrandizement, but we are given strength to suffer loss by the promise of a future reward.
Again, in Luke 14:12–14: “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor . . . and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” That is, don’t do good deeds for worldly advantage; rather, do them for spiritual, heavenly benefits.

Should Duty Be Our Main Motivation?

But some will say, “No, no. These texts only describe what reward will result if you act disinterestedly. They do not teach us to actually seek the reward.”
Two answers to this objection:
1) It would be foolish to say, “If you take this pill, I’ll give you a nickel,” if you expect the desire for the nickel to ruin the pill. But Jesus was not foolish. He would not offer blessing to those who obey him and then hold it against us if these blessings motivated our obedience.
2) Even more importantly, there are texts that not only commend that we do good in the hope of future blessing, but command it.
Luke 12:33 says, “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.” The connection here between alms and having eternal treasure in heaven is not a chance result — it is the explicit purpose: “Make it your aim to have treasure in heaven, and the way to do this is to sell your possessions and give alms.”
And again, Luke 16:9 says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal habitations.” Luke does not say that the result of using possessions properly is to receive eternal habitations. He says, “Make it your aim to secure an eternal habitation by the way you use your possessions.”
Therefore, a resounding NO to the belief that morality should be inspired more by duty than delight.

Don’t Be Too Easily Satisfied

Hebrews 11:6 teaches, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” You cannot please God if you do not come to him looking for reward. Therefore, faith that pleases God is the hedonistic pursuit of God.
As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied. The problem is being satisfied too easily. We believe that everyone who longs for satisfaction should no longer seek it from money or power or lust, but should come glut their soul-hunger on the grace of God. We will bend all our effort, by the Holy Spirit, to persuade people

• that they can be happier in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35);

• that they should count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus their Lord (Philippians 3:8);

• that the aim of all of Jesus’s commandments is that their joy be full (John 15:11);

• that if they delight themselves in the Lord he will give them the desire of their heart (Psalm 37:4);

• that there is great gain in godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6);

• and that the joy of the Lord is their strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

We will not try to motivate anyone with appeals to mere duty. We will tell them that in God’s presence is full and lasting joy (Psalm 16:11) and our only duty is to come to him, seeking this pleasure.
(Adapted from John Piper’s article, Christian Hedonism: Forgive the Label, But Don’t Miss the Truth.)

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