By request, here’s the complete paper from July 2010 from which the Completed by the Spirit blog series was adapted. You’re welcome to download it and distribute it freely as long as you do not modify it:
Completed by the Spirit: New Covenant Sanctification in Paul (PDF, 240 kb)
This is the 21st part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
Given all that we’ve studied in this series, how do we apply what is shown to us about sanctification in Scripture?
How do we grow in holiness or counsel those who are combating sin by relying on the Holy Spirit and following imperatives grounded in the indicative of the gospel and the gift of the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us?
Our study has provided us two answers: one positive and one negative.
We do focus on the gospel.
We do not focus on the law.
When we set our eyes on Christ and look at His person and work, we behold more and more what it is that our union with Him has granted to us. Continue Reading…
This is the 20th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
As we noted from the writings of Thomas Schreiner in our previous installment, Paul doesn’t give us commands, or imperatives, in the form of laws, but rather as based in the indicative — that is, in our position in Christ. Paul exhorts us to be who we now are.
In addition to those previous examples, we can also look to Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and Colossians for imperatives grounded in the indicative.
Ephesians 4:1–3: [1] I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk,” (imperative), “in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, [2] with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, [3] eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” (indicative).
This is the 19th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
We certainly are given imperatives — commands — in the New Testament. Indeed, many imperatives are included in Paul’s epistles.
But it is vitally important to understand that Paul’s imperatives are not in the form of laws, but are imperatives that are dependent upon the indicative of the gospel.
Professor and theologian Thomas Schreiner explains:
Paul’s exhortations do not fall prey to legalism, for they are rooted in his gospel and the promises of God. Another way of saying this is that the imperative (God’s command) is rooted in the indicative (what God has done for believers in Christ). Believers are saved, redeemed, reconciled, and justified even now, and yet we have seen that each of these blessings is fundamentally escahatological. Believers are already redeemed, and yet they await final redemption. Justification belongs to believers by faith, and yet they await the hope of righteousness on the last day (Gal. 5:5). Believers would not need any ethical exhortations if they were already perfected. But in the interval between the “already” and the “not yet,” ethical exhortation is needed. If the priority of the indicative is lost, then the grace of the Pauline gospel is undermined. The imperative must always flow from the indicative. On the other hand, the indicative must must not swallow up the imperative so that the latter disappears. The imperatives do not compromise Paul’s gospel. They should not be construed as law opposed to gospel. The imperatives are part and parcel of the gospel as long as they are woven into the story line of the Pauline gospel and flow from the indicative of what God has accomplished for us in Christ.[1]
This is the 18th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
If sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, why do believers — who have received the Spirit — still need instruction and exhortation?
First, it is important to remember that believers are still imperfect this side of glory. As we have seen, the incarnate Christ as God-Man was the prototype of the believer given the Holy Spirit.
But unlike us, the incarnate Jesus’ communication with the Holy Spirit was perfect.
In Christ, the Spirit’s communication was complete. Continue Reading…
Pastor Chad Richard Bresson at the 2011 Bunyan Conference
At last week’s Earth Stove Society think tank, Chad Richard Bresson presented a paper entitled, “The Incarnation of the Abstract: New Covenant Theology and the Enfleshment of the Law.”
Chad asks the question, “What does the Priority of Jesus have to do with New Covenant ethics?” He lists five implications:
1. That the Law is a Person means the Law of the New Covenant is not encoded in external imperatives or principles.
2. The Law Incarnate has placed a Person, the Holy Spirit, within the believer as the law written on the heart. That’s the upshot of 2 Corinthians 3’s understanding of Jeremiah 31. The law written on the heart should not be identified in its typical form, but its Antitypical… a Person, living and breathing life into and through the New Covenant member. The entire law “category”, as it moves from Old Testament to New, lands on a person. The trajectory of the fulfillment of the law does not land on a new set of rules or principles, or even a summarized list of the law of Christ. The Law as a type has its end in Christ. The law as a type fades away into oblivion because all types do… it has become a person
3. Abrogation of the law and a denial of third use is a given. The law, like any other type of the Old Testament, has fulfilled its prophetic and revelatory role and is gone and done now that the AntiType has filled up its intended meaning to the fullest.
4. Imperatives have a role to play in the New Covenant, but they cannot eclipse the Indicative, a Person, from whence they come. It’s not a matter of balance, as some have suggested. The New Testament doesn’t not speak of, explicitly or implicitly, a so-called balance between the Indicative and imperative. In fact, seeing the New Testament as having a heavy emphasis on the imperatives says more about the presuppositions of the interpreter than it does about proper hermeneutics.
5. An Incarnate Law does not mean that commands in the New Covenant are not important. It does not mean that obedience is not important. It simply means the grounds for the discussion have changed. Obedience to commands is the manifestation of the inward obedience-causing law written on the heart.
Chad has more at his blog, The Vossed World, including a link to his paper on Scribd.
This is the 14th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
In our last installment in this series, we noted that love is a God-given, Spirit-provided quality that impels actions in the believer and that it is that same Spirit-provided love that forms the outworking of the New Covenant ethic.
Love In Hard Places by D. A. Carson
We’ll continue and wrap up our look at love with a rather long quotation from D. A. Carson, in which he summarizes Paul’s view on love as it relates to those two loves – God and neighbor – which have their exposition in the two tables of the Old Covenant:
Similarly, Paul insists that what is fulfilled in one word, viz. Leviticus 19:18, the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is the entire second table of the Decalogue: love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8– 10). Despite arguments to the contrary, the double command to love is not some sort of deep principle from which all the other commandments of Scripture can be deduced; nor is it a hermeneutical grid to weed out the laws of the old covenant that no longer have to be obeyed while blessing those that are still operative; nor is it offered as a kind of reductionistic substitute for all the Old Testament laws. In some ways, the twin laws of love, love for God and love for neighbor, integrate all the other laws. They establish the proper motives for all the other imperatives, viz. loving God and loving one’s neighbor.
But the “fulfillment” language suggests something more. All the laws of the old revelation, indeed all the old covenant Scriptures, conspire to anticipate something more, to point to something beyond themselves. They point to the coming of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom; they point to a time when life properly lived in God’s universe can be summed up by obedience to the commandment to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength and by the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.[1]
This is the 12th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
If an external code is the antithesis of a life in the Spirit (as we noted in our last installment), what is the expression of a life in the Spirit? Love. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
That love, that love from God via the Holy Spirit given to dwell in us is, as Paul tells us, the fulfilling of the law:
[8] Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. [9] For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [10] Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8–10)
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2–3)
The Spirit-Filled Church: Finding Your Place in God’s Purpose
We recently noted an ongoing discussion about the effort we’re called to make in our sanctification. I believe Scripture tells us that although we can do things that look like sanctification, if those actions are done in the flesh they are simply behavior modification. It’s a change in the heart that is desired, not simply an outward change in actions.
I’m currently reading The Spirit-Filled Church: Finding Your Place in God’s Purpose, by Terry Virgo. Virgo takes this argument one step further, showing us that using the law for sanctification gives Satan the opportunity to heap condemnation on us. “The law always kills in the end,” Virgo notes.
This portion of The Spirit-Filled Church (available for pre-order at Amazon and via Amazon in the U.K. here or worldwide from the U.K here) outlines Virgo’s case. It’s in agreement with what we’re advocating in our current Completed by the Spirit series:
It is essential for us constantly to recognize our death to law. It is no longer the basis for our relationship with God and never will be. We are married to Christ and our fulfilment as Christians is bound up in our love relationship with him.
This is the ninth part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
As we saw in our previous three installments, there are three ways the man of Romans 7 may be identified.
1. Paul describes his experience as an unconverted Jew under the law, a view we saw explained in the previous installment.
2. Paul describes his experience, perhaps shortly after his conversion, as he sought sanctification through the law.
3. Paul describes his experience as a mature Christian.
But as we closed part 8, we asked, “Does it matter to us as an application of Romans 7 which of the three men Paul is describing?”
Whichever of the three views one might hold, two of the same conclusions can be drawn from Romans 7.
