Sanctification

Chapter seven of Redemption Accomplished and Applied explains the doctrine of sanctification. Below are some of the quotes that really grabbed me.

There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery. There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin, the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent to sin. It is one thing for sin to live in us: it is another for us to live in sin. It is one thing for the enemy to occupy the capital; it is another for this defeated hosts to harass the garrisons of the kingdom. It is of paramount concern for the Christian and for the interests of his sanctification that he should know that sin does not have dominion over him, that the forces of redeeming, regenerative, and sanctifying grace have been brought to bear upon him in that which is central in his moral and spiritual being, that he is the habitation of God through the Spirit, and that Christ has been formed in him the hope of glory. This is equivalent to saying that he must reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ the Lord.

It is by grace that we are being saved as surely as by grace we have been saved. If we are not keenly sensitive to our own helplessness, then we can make the use of the means of sanctification the minister of self-righteousness and pride and thus defeat the end of sanctification. We must rely not upon the means of sanctification but upon the God of all grace. Self-confident moralism promotes pride, and sanctification promotes humility and contrition.

God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God's working in us, not the willing to the exclusion of the doing and not the doing to the exclusion of the willing, but both the willing and the doing. And this working of God is directed to the end of enabling us to will and to do that which is well pleasing to him.

Sanctification involves the concentration of thought, of interest, of heart, mind, will, and purpose upon the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and the engagement of our whole being with those means which God has instituted for the attainment of that destination. Sanctification is the sanctification of persons renewed after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The prospect it offers is to know even as we are known and to be holy as God is holy. Every one who has this hope in God purifies himself even as he is pure (1 John 3:3).

Adoption

Chapter six of Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied covers adoption. Below is the summarizing paragraph found at the end of the chapter.

But though the relation of Fatherhood differs, it is the same person who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ in the ineffable mystery of the trinity who is the Father of believers in the mystery of his adoptive grace. God the Father is not only the specific agent in the act of adoption; he also constitutes those who believe in Jesus' name his own children. Could anything disclose the marvel of adoption or certify the security of its tenure and privilege more effectively than the fact that the Father himself, on account of whom are all things and through whom are all things, who made the captain of salvation perfect through sufferings, becomes by deed of grace the Father of the many sons of whom he will bring to glory? And that is the reason why the captain of salvation himself is not ashamed to call them brethren and can exult with joy unspeakable, "Behold I and the children whom God hath given me" (Heb. 2:13).

Justification

Below is a collection of quotes from chapter five of Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Murray does a great job at starting from the ground up in building his definition of justification. This has been one of the most helpful pieces of writing I've read on this topic as it lays everything out clearly and concisely. Enjoy!

If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel, if the jubilee trumpet is to find its echo again in our hearts, our thinking must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God, of the reality and gravity of our guilt, and of the divine condemnation.

That justification does not mean to make holy or upright should be apparent from common use. When we justify a person we do not make that person good or upright. When a judge justifies an accused person he does not make that person an upright person. He simply declares that in his judgement the person is not guilty of the accusation but is upright in terms of the law relevant to the case. In a word, justification is simply a declaration or pronouncement respecting the relation of the person to the law which he, the judge, is required to administer. 

This is what is meant when we insist that justification is forensic. It has to do with a judgement given, declared, pronounced; it is judicial or juridical or forensic. The main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which justification involves and the kind of action involved in regeneration. Regeneration is an act of God in us; justification is a judgement of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge. The surgeon, when he removes an inward cancer, does something in us. That is not what a judge does; he gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. If we are innocent he declares accordingly... Justification means to declare or pronounce to be righteous.

In God's justification of sinner's there is no deviation from the rule that what is declared to be is presupposed to be. God's judgement is according to truth here as elsewhere. The peculiarity of God's action consists in this that he causes to be the righteous state or relation which is declared to be. We must remember that justification is always forensic or judicial. Therefore what God does in this case is that he constitutes the new and righteous judicial relation as well as declares this new relation to be. He constitutes the ungodly righteous, and consequently can declare them to be righteous. In the justification of sinners there is a constitutive act as well as a declarative. Or, if we will, we may say that the declarative act of God in the justification of the ungodly is constitutive. In this consists its incomparable character.

It is clear that the justification which is unto eternal life Paul regards as consisting in our being constituted righteous, in our receiving righteousness as a free gift, and this righteousness is none other than the righteousness of the one man Jesus Christ; it is righteousness of his obedience. Hence grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21). This is the truth that has been expressed as the imputation to us of the righteousness of Christ. Justification is therefore a constitutive act whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed to our account and we are accordingly accepted  as righteous in God's sight.

Justification is both a declarative and constitutive act of God's free grace. It is constitutive in order that it may be truly declarative. God must constitute the new relationship as well as declare it to be. The constitutive act consists in the imputation to us of the obedience and righteousness of Christ. The obedience of Christ must therefore be regarded as the ground of justification; it is the righteousness which God not only takes into account but reckons to our account when he justifies the ungodly.

Faith and Repentance

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

The sufficiency of his saviourhood rests upon the work he accomplished once for all when he died upon the cross and rose again in triumphant power. But it resides in the efficacy and perfection of his continued activity at the right hand of God. It is because he continues ever and has an unchangeable priesthood that he is able to save them that come unto him and to give them eternal life. When Christ is presented to lost men in the proclamation of the gospel, it is as Saviour he is presented, as one who ever continues to be the embodiment of the salvation he has once for all accomplished. It is the Saviour himself and therefore salvation full and perfect. There is no imperfection in the salvation offered and there is no restriction to its overture; it is full, free, and unrestricted. And this is the warrant of faith.

Repentance we must not think of as consisting merely in a change of mind in general; it is very particular and concrete. And since it is a change of mind with reference to sin, it is a change of mind with reference to particular sins, sins in all the particularity and individuality which belong to our sins. It is very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting the particular sins of other people and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness or our repentance in respect of our own sins, sins characterized by the aggravations which are peculiar to our own selves.

The broken spirit and contrite heart are abiding marks of the believing soul. As long as sin remains there must be the consciousness of it and this conviction or our own sinfulness will constrain self-abhorrence, confession, and the plea of forgiveness and cleansing. Christ's blood is the laver of initial cleansing but it is also the fountain to which the believer must continuously repair. It is at the cross of Christ that repentance has its beginning; it is at the cross of Christ that it must continue to pour out its heart in the tears of confession and contrition. The way of sanctification is the way of contrition for the sin of the past and of the present.

Regeneration

It is the glory of the gospel of God's grace that it provides for this incongruity. God's call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the gospel. God's grace reaches down to the lowest depths of need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that grace is the grace of regeneration...God effects a change which is radical and all-pervasive, a change which cannot be explained in terms of any combination, permutation, or accumulation of human resources, a change which is nothing less than a new creation by him who calls the things that be not as though they were, who spake it and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. This, in a word, is regeneration.

John Murray - Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

Effectual Calling

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

It is God the Father who is the specific agent in the effectual call. This aspect of Biblical teaching we are too liable to overlook. We think of the Father as the person of the trinity who planned salvation and as the specific agent in election. And we think properly when we do so. But we fail to discern other emphases of Scripture and we do dishonour to the Father when we think of him simply as planning salvation and redemption. The Father is not far removed from the effectuation of that which he designed in his eternal counsel and accomplished in the death of his Son; he comes into the most intimate relation to his people in the application of redemption by being the specific and
particular actor in the inception of such application.

One Source

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied:

There is only one source from which we can derive a proper conception of Christ's atoning work. That source is the Bible. There is only one norm by which our interpretations and formulations are to be tested. That norm is the Bible. The temptation ever lurks near us to prove unfaithful to this one and only criterion. No temptation is more subtle and plausible than the tendency to construe the atonement in terms of our human experience and thus to make our experience the norm. It does not always appear in its undisguised form. But it is the same tendency that underlies the attempt to place upon the work of Christ an interpretation which brings it into closer approximation to human experience and accomplishment, the attempt to accommodate our interpretation and application of our Lord's suffering and obedience unto death to the measure or, at least, to the analogy of our experience. There are two directions in which we can do this. We can heighten the significance of our experience and doing to the measure of our Lord's or we can lower the significance of our Lord's experience and doing to the measure of ours. The bias and the final result are the same. We drag down the meaning of Christ's atoning work and we evacuate it of its unique and distinctive glory. This is wickedness of the deepest dye. What human experience can reproduce that which the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, alone endured and accomplished?

Lessons in Grammar

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

"In the atonement something was accomplished once for all, without any participation or contribution on our part. A work was perfected which antedates any and every recognition and response on the part of those who are its beneficiaries. Any curtailing of this fact in the interest of what is supposed to be a more ethical interpretation or in the interest of interpreting the atonement in terms of the ethical effects it is calculated to produce in us is to eviscerate the truth of the atonement. The atonement is objective to us, performed independently of us , and the subjective effects that accrue from it presuppose its accomplishment. The subjective effects exerted in our understanding and will can follow only as we recognize by faith the meaning of the objective fact." (emphasis mine)

Our friends at Dictionary.com can help us with a key definition from above:

e·vis·cer·ate [v. ih-vis-uh-reyt; adj. ih-vis-er-it, -uh-reyt]

verb (used with object), e·vis·cer·at·ed, e·vis·cer·at·ing.

1. to remove the entrails from; disembowel: to eviscerate a chicken.

2. to deprive of vital or essential parts: The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the leaders of the party.

3. Surgery . to remove the contents of (a body organ).

I chose to show the definition in its entirety because I think it's important to recognize what other context's this word could be used in. Needless to say it is a strong word choice. 

Anytime we make begin to make Christ's atonement subjective, anytime we give ourselves credit for making the choice for Christ, anytime we do anything to rob Christ of the glory he deserves in redeeming us, we disembowel his atoning work. How's that for a mental picture.

 

The Court Room

<sup>Romans 3:23-26:

23</sup> for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied:

Here not only are redemption and propitiation collocated but there is a combination of concepts bearing upon the intent and effect of Christ's work, and this shows how closely interrelated these various concepts are. This passage exemplifies and confirms what other considerations establish, namely, that redemption from the guilt of sin must be construed in juridicial terms analogous to those which must be applied to expiation, propitiation, and reconciliation. 


The atonement is one of those topics that make people uncomfortable when we get down to the nitty gritty. Some parts are more palatable then others; we like them better than the others. But Murray argues above that the different parts are so closely interwoven that we cannot separate them. They must be looked at altogether  to see the glory of Christ's work on the cross. Great teaching so far, really enjoying the book!

Counterintuitive

How's this for counter cultural?

The more we emphasize the inflexible demands of justice and holiness the more marvellous become the love of God and its provisions.

John Murray

This quote was in the context of the necessity for the atonement. As a person still in their 20's this quote strikes me as one that would offend a lot Christian young people today. God's love is paramount, for above any other attribute they'd say. Talk about holiness and justice and you would risk being labelled a legalist! God's love is clung to while all other attributes, like holiness and justice (righteousness) are left behind. But what Murray points to here is that God's love is truly appreciated when viewed alongside His holiness and justice. These attributes show just how undeserving His love is to sinners like us. Abandon these other attributes and His love begins to lose it meaning.

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

The final post for this installment of Reading the Classics with Challies concerns itself with the final chapter of Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. This final chapter is an explanation of the doctrine of glorification; the last link in the golden chain of salvation!

CHAPTER X - Glorification

"Glorification is the final phase of the application of redemption. It is that which brings to completion the process which begins in effectual calling. Indeed it is the completion of the whole process of redemption. For glorification means the attainment of the goal to which the elect of God were predestinated in the eternal purpose of the Father and it involves the consummation of the redemption secured and procured by the vicarious work of Christ." (174) That is most of the opening paragraph of this final phase of the odro salutis.

Murray goes on the emphasize the relationship between glorification and death. "The redemption which Christ has secured for his people is redemption not only from sin but also from all its consequences ... Hence glorification has in view the destruction of death itself" (174-5). Furthermore, Murray expounds that glorification is "the complete and final redemption of the whole person when in the integrity of body and spirit the people of God will be conformed to the image of the risen, exalted, and glorified Redeemer, when the very body of their humiliation will be conformed to the body of Christ's glory (cf. Phil 3:21)" (175).

Murray further defines glorification with the following: " Glorification, then, is the instantaneous change that will take place for the whole company of the redeemed when Christ will come again the second time without sin unto salvation and will descend from heaven with the shout of triumph over the last enemy" (176).

For Murray, glorification will also reveal glory. "There will be a perfect coincidence of the revelation of the Father's glory, of the revelation of the glory of Christ, and of the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (177).

Murray finishes off the chapter with a supra-universal declaration. "Glorification has cosmic proportions" (181). Indeed, all things will be reconciled to God; all things will be made new.

This was truly a classic read; a must read for those who would understand the doctrines related to the order of salvation.

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Perseverance of the Saints

When I was a quasi-Arminian-semi-Pelagian, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or 'once saved always saved' as I referred to it, caused me no small amount of frustration. The clear Biblical teaching and simple logic that evidenced this great truth, and is an integral part of Murray's treatment of the order of salvation, was foreign to my way of thinking. As I look back on my ignorance, I can only be thankful that the Spirit of God helped me to see what I know consider the clearly obvious truth.

As with the rest of the book, Murray is concise and thorough in explaining and expounding this controversial doctrine. He begins like this: " In order to place the doctrine of perseverance in proper light we need to know what it is not. It does not mean that every one who professes faith in Christ and who is accepted as a believer in fellowship of the saints is secure for eternity and may entertain the assurance of eternal salvation." ((Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1984) The puritans would use an interesting term for those who professed Christ but were not regenerate; professors! In today's lingo we might call them 'posers'. Claiming one is a Christian and attending church does not assure on of eternal security. In fact, there is but crucial test according to Murray; "The crucial test of true faith is endurance to the end, abiding in Christ, and continuance in his word." (152)

According to Murray, this particular emphasis of Scripture should indicate two things: first, it provides one with the meaning of falling away, of apostasy; second it helps us appreciate the heights to which temporary faith may carry some. As to apostasy, the author writes, "It is possible to give all the outward signs of faith in Christ and obedience to him, to witness for a time a good confession and show great zeal for Christ and his kingdom and then lose all interest and become indifferent, if not hostile, to the claims of Christ and of his kingdom." (152)

Murray goes on to positively affirm what perseverance is. "The doctrine of perseverance is the doctrine that believers persevere; it cannot be too strongly stressed that it is the perseverance of the saints. And that means that the saints, those united to Christ by the effectual call of the Father and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will persevere unto the end. If they persevere, they endure, they continue. " (154) This should be a clarion wake up call to all believers, for the saints must "recognize that we may entertain the faith of our security in Christ only as we persevere in faith and holiness to the end." (155)

And though the doctrine comes with warnings, it also comes with great assurances: "The guarantee of infallible preservation is that the persons given to the Son are in the Son's hand and though given to the Son they are still mysteriously in the Father's hand. From the hand of neither can anyone snatch them. This is the heritage of those given by the Father." (160)

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

In chapter VII of Murray's classic work entitled Redemption Accomplished and Applied(Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1984), the author presents a study of sanctification. As clear and concise as ever, Murray considers this doctrinal issue under several headings; the presuppositions, the concern of sanctification, the agent of sanctification, and the means of sanctification. I have opted to focus on the concern of sanctification.

Murray ably defines exactly what sanctification is concerned with.

This deliverance from the power of sin secured by union with Christ and from the defilement of sin secured by regeneration does not eliminate all sin from the heart and life of the believer. There is still indwelling sin (cf. Rom. 6:20; 7:14-25; 1 John 1:8; 2:1). The believer is not yet so conformed to the image of Christ that he is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Sanctification is concerned precisely with this fact and it has as its aim the elimination of all sin and complete conformation to the image of God's own Son, to be holy as the Lord is holy. (143, emphasis mine)

If we take this idea seriously, as we should, we must recognize that our entire sanctification "...will not be realized until the body of our humiliation will be transformed into the likeness of the body of Christ's glory..." (144) Murray, through his handling of the subject, implores us to take seriously the gravity of this doctrine. This is evidenced by his few points.

Murray states that we must appreciate the gravity of that with which sanctification concerns itself.We do so, according to Murray, by viewing a few things:

1. All sin in the believer is the contradiction of God's holiness; "But the sin which resides in the believer and which he commits is of such character that it deserves the wrath of God and the fatherly displeasure of God is evoked by this sin. Remaining indwelling sin is therefore the contradiction of all that he is as a regenerate person and son of God. It is the contradiction of God himself, after whose image he has been recreated." (144)
2. The presence of sin in the believer involves conflict in his heart and life; "The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love for God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more concious will he be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more poignant willbe his detestation of it." (145)
3. There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery; "It is one thing for sin to live in us; it is another for us to live in sin." (145)

Realizing that, for the believer, Christ has been formed in him and he is the habitation of God is "...equivalent to saying that he must reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Christ Jesus his Lord." (146)

Murray sums this section up succinctly, "It is the concern of sanctification that sin be more mortified and holiness ingenerated and cultivated." (146)

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Moving along the order of salvation, in chapter VI of part II of Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1984), Murray arrives at the doctrines concerning adoption. Adoption is an incredible doctrine; the best chapter of theological writing I have enjoyed is more than likely J. I. Packer's chapter on adoption in his book Knowing God. I recall reading that section in awe and wonder of God's grace. Murray's chapter on the adoption of the regenerated is another excellent piece of writing on this topic.

After defining adoption, one of Murray's clear goals for the chapter is to differentiate and distinguish adoption from both regeneration and justification. For the record, Murray defines adoption as follows: "By adoption the redeemed become sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; they are introduced into and given the privileges of God's family." (132)

As to the relationship between adoption, justification, and regeneration, Murray makes some fascinating claims. "Adoption, like justification, is a judicial act. In other words, it is the bestowal of a status, or a standing, not the generating within us of a new nature or character. It concerns a relationship and not the attitude or disposition which enables us to recognize and cultivate that relationship." (133) So, adoption is clearly not regeneration; however, they are closely related. "When God adopts men and women into his family he insures that not only may they have the rights and privileges of his sons and daughters but also the nature or disposition consonant with such a status." (133) Thus we see that regeneration is the prerequisite of adoption.

Murray touches upon the great gloriousness of this doctrine in the following excerpt: "Adoption, as the term clearly implies, is an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God himself. This is surely the apex of grace and privilege. We would not dare to conceive of such grace far less to claim it apart from God's own revelation and assurance. It staggers imagination because of its amazing condescension and love" (134)

When J. I. Packer was asked to define the gospel as precisely and concisely as possible he suggested propitiation through adoption was the best he could do; he clearly holds the doctrine of adoption in high regard. As does Murray. As should we.

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

In CHAPTER V of the second part of John Murray's classic work entitled Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Murray covers the next link the the golden chain of salvation: justification.

I was very interested in reading this chapter as the past month had me reading two John Piper books on justification; Counted Righteous in Christ and The Future of Justification. This chapter did not disappoint.

One thing that has surprised me as I have learned more about justification is the lack of interest in this doctrine on the part of believers (including myself, or especially myself) and the lack of teaching on this doctrine on the part of leaders. Murray discusses why he believes this is the case.

"This is the reason why the grand article of justification does not ring the bells in the innermost depths of our spirit. And this is the reason why the gospel of justification is to such an extent a meaningless sound in the world and in the church of the twentieth century. We are not imbued with the profound sense of the reality of God, of his majesty and holiness. And sin, if reckoned with at all, is little more than a misfortune or maladjustment." (117, emphasis mine)

Murray's reasoning is as follows: We are sinners, and as sinners we are against God and He is against us; His perfection unavoidably recoils with righteous indignation; and this is His wrath which is poured out against all unrighteousness. This issue of our sin and God's wrath is not considered with the seriousness it should be. "Far too frequently we fail to entertain the gravity of this fact. Hence the reality of our sin and the reality of the wrath of God upon us for our sin do not come into our reckoning." (117) And this causes us to downplay, minimize, alter, ignore, or even deny the wondrous and beautiful doctrine of justification.

For Murray, there is but one solution:

"If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel, if the jubilee trumpet is to find its echo again in our hearts, our thinking must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God, of the reality and gravity of our guilt, and of the divine condemnation. It is then and only then that our thinking and feeling will be rehabilitated to an understanding of God's grace in the justification of the ungodly." (118)

Murray continues to expound on this doctrine in the rest of the chapter. But this explanation of why justification does not produce grand and great gratitude in our churches was what captured my thoughts and stirred my heart. I pray that I would grow in my understanding, and thus also grow in my gratefulness, of this wonderful doctrine. For the bottom line is this; though we are ungodly and sinful beings on whom the wrath of God should and could justly fall, instead we are considered and declared, by God, righteous in Christ by faith, with the very righteousness of God. Glory!

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Faith and Repentance

Wayne Grudem defines conversion as a willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation. By that definition one can see that true conversion includes both repentance and faith; one repents of sin and trusts in Christ.

In chapter four of Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1984), author John Murray discusses faith an repentance as the next step in the 'order of salvation'. Faith and repentance, sandwiched between regeneration and justification, is a product of that very life-changing, life-altering, and life-giving process called regeneration. Being born again naturally, and yet inevitably, leads to conversion. "Regeneration is inseparable from its effects and one of the effects is faith. Without regeneration it is morally and spiritually impossible for a person to believe in Christ, but when a person is regenerated it is morally and spiritually impossible for that person not to believe...Regeneration is the renewing of the heart and mind, and the renewed heart and mind must act according to their nature." (106)

Murray discusses faith first. He begins writing, "Regeneration is the act of God and God alone. But faith is not the act of God; it is not God who believes in Christ for salvation, it is the sinner. It is by God's grace that a person is able to believe but faith is an activity on the part of the person and him alone. In faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation." (106) According to Murray, faith is defined as "a whole-souled movement of self-commitment to Christ for salvation from sin and its consequences." (107) This 'whole-souled self-commitment' has warrant due to the universal offer of the Gospel and the all-sufficiency and suitability of the Saviour (107-110). The nature of faith is such that it includes knowledge, conviction, and trust
(110-113).

Murray moves on to repentance and begins by appealing to the unity of conversion in that, despite dealing with the concepts separately, faith and repentance are inseparable. "The question has been discussed; which is prior, faith or repentance? It is an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance." (113) He continues, "It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith." (113) Murray goes on, as he did with faith, to define repentance: "Repentance consists essentially in change of heart and mind and will." (114) Furthermore. Murray adds that the change of heart and mind and will principally respects four things: "it is a change of mind respecting God, respecting ourselves, respecting sin, and respecting righteousness." (114)

Grudem's definition of repentance: a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ. He adds that repentance includes intellectual understanding that sin is wrong, an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding sin (including a heartfelt sorrow for sin and fear that one has offended a holy God), and personal decision to turn from sin and seek forgiveness from God. The joined concepts of faith and repentance, which constitute conversion, are powerful reminders of God's efficacious grace in our lives and understanding them is clearly integral to begin to fully appreciate the ordo salutis.

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

One of the biggest hurdles I had with reformed theology in general, and Calvinism in particular, revolved around the fact that I wanted to participate in my own salvation. I was 'OK' with my role being minuscule and even secondary, but I wanted a part to play in my redemption and in my being 'born again'. I used to think that this desire was acceptable, intelligent, and even noble. As I look back on the years of wrestling with this concept, I realize that it was pride alone which fueled the need to believe that I was participating in a significant way in my regeneration. But now I can say, "Salvation is from the Lord." And I say it without reservation. However, not too long ago, a chapter like the one on Regeneration by Murray in Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1984)would have caused no small amount of consternation.

Murray brings this issue to the forefront in an interesting way. He begins by presenting a problem to the reader:

An effectual call, however, must carry along with it the appropriate response on the part of the person called. It is God who calls but it is not God who answers the call; it is the person to whom the call is addressed. And this response must enlist the exercise of the heart and mind and will of the person concerned. It is at this point that we are compelled to ask the question: how can a person who is dead in trespasses and sins, whose mind is enmity against God, and who cannot do that which is well-pleasing to God answer a call to the fellowship of Christ?...And how can a person whose heart is depraved and whose mind is enmity against God embrace him who is the supreme manifestation of the glory of God? (95)

Murray 'rolls up his sleeves' and begins the serious work with the answer to that question: "The answer to this question is that the believing and loving response which the calling requires is a moral and spiritual impossibility on the part of one who is dead in trespasses and sin." (95) Murray, in his style that I am beginning to appreciate more and more, makes his position clear stating, "The fact is that there is a complete incongruity between the glory and virtue to which sinners are called, on the one hand, and the moral and spiritual condition of the called, on the other." (95) Murray furthers the discussion with another question: "How is this incongruity to be resolved and the impossibility overcome?" (95)

The answer to this questions strikes at the heart of the dilemma I struggled with when I wanted to believe that I participated in a primary manner in my own salvation.

It is the glory of the gospel of God's grace that it provides for this incongruity. God's call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the gospel. God's grace reaches down to the lowest depths of our need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that grace is the grace of regeneration. (96)

Murray goes on, adding,

God effects a change which is radical and all-pervasive, a change which cannot be explained in terms of any combination, permutation, or accumulation of human resources, a change which is nothing less than a new creation by him who calls the things that be not as though they were, who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. This, in a word, is regeneration. (96)

This, in another word, is glorious. What once sounded to me ridiculous and ignorant, now sounds to me like God's wonderful and beautiful, logical and necessary, grace.

Murray goes on to sum up my sentiments nicely:

It has often been said that we are passive in regeneration. This is a true and proper statement. For it is simply the precipitate of what our Lord has taught us here. We may not like it. We mat recoil against it. It may not fit into our way of thinking and it may not accord with the time-worn expressions which are the coin of our evangelism. But if we recoil against it, we do well to remember that this recoil is recoil against Christ. And what shall we answer when we appear before him whose truth we rejected and with whose gospel we tampered? But blessed be God that the gospel of Christ is one of sovereign, efficacious, irresistible regeneration. If it were not the case that in regeneration we are passive, the subjects of an action of which God alone is the agent, there would be no gospel at all. For unless God by sovereign, operative grace had turned our enmity to love and our disbelief to faith we would never yield the response of faith and love. (99-100)

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Wayne Grudem defines effective calling as "an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith."

This effective calling is the topic of the current chapter under consideration as I am "Reading the Classics with Challies." The chapter comes from John Murray's timeless piece entitled Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

In this chapter Murray discusses the following:

• the universal call
• the effectual call
• the author of the call
• the nature of the call
• the pattern of the call
• the priority of the call

In discussing the authorship of the call, Murray declares: "We do not call ourselves, we do not set ourselves apart by sovereign volition any more than we regenerate, justify, or adopt ourselves. Calling is an act of God and God alone." (89)

There are some things in the "golden chain of salvation" that we do participate in; repentance and faith, sanctification. But the sovereign grace of God is the only cause of our effectual calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, and glorification. This truth was one of the issues that I struggled with most when considering reformed theology. I wanted to play a role in my own redemption, even if it was a small part. And yet, this sounds so ridiculous to me now. Nevertheless, I held on to that belief far too long.

Murray concludes the chapter strongly:

...there is good warrant for the conclusion that the application of redemption begins with the sovereign and efficacious summons by which the people of God are ushered into the fellowship of Christ and union with him to the end that they may become partakers of all the grace and virtue which reside in him as Redeemer, Saviour, and Lord. (94)

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

PART II - REDEMPTION APPLIED

Chapter 1 - The Order of Application

This chapter concerns itself with proving, defending and supporting the concept or doctrine that there is an order of salvation. That is, that redemption is applied as a "series of acts and processes" (Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1955. p80) and not as one "simple and indivisible act." (80) He suggests that "we have calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. These are all distinct, and not one of these can be defined in terms of the other. Each has its own meaning, function, and purpose in the action and grace of God." (80)

He beautifully describes this idea early in the chapter:

The provision which God has made for the salvation of men is even more strikingly manifold. For this provision has in view the manifoldness of man's need and exhibits the overflowing abundance of God's goodness, wisdom, grace, and love. The superabundance appears in the eternal counsel of God respecting salvation; it appears in the historic accomplishment of redemption by the work of Christ once for all; and it appears in the application of redemption continuously and progressively till it reaches its consummation in the liberty of the glory of the children of God. (79, emphasis mine)

Murray goes on to explain the ordo salutis by opening up Scriptures that deal with the subject. He says,

These few texts have been appealed to simply for the purpose of showing there is order which must be maintained and cannot be reversed without violating the plain import of these texts. These texts prove the fact of order and show that it is not empty logic to affirm divine order in the application of redemption. There is a divine logic in this matter and the order which we insit upon should be nothing more or less than what the Scriptures disclose to be the divine arrangement. (82)

In essence he suggests that in calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification we have "a chain of unbreakable links beginning with foreknowledge and ending with glorification." (83)

In summation he writes,

With all these considerations in view, the order in the application of redemption is found to be, calling, regeneration, faith and repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, glorification. When this order is carefully weighed we find that there is a logic which evinces and brings into clear focus the governing principle of salvation in all of its aspects, the grace of God in its sovereignty and efficacy. Salvation is of the Lord in its application as well as in its conception and accomplishment. (87)

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Chapter 4 - The Extent of the Atonement

Chapter 4 of John Murray's book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, considers whether or not the atonement is universal. Or, in other words, it considers the question "For whom did Christ die?"

Murray makes it quite clear where he stands:

We can readily see, therefore, that although universal terms are sometimes used in connection with the atonement these terms cannot be appealed to as establishing the doctrine of universal atonement...It is necessary for us to discover what redemption or atonement really means. And when we examine the Scripture we find that the glory of the cross of Christ is bound up with the effectiveness if its accomplishment... The atonement is an efficacious substitution. (75)

Murray discusses a topic in this chapter that I had not come across in my reading by those who are proponents of limited or definite atonement. Not that they don't hold to or believe what Murray suggests, rather that I had not read this particular topic in writings against universal atonement. A quote from Murray defines the topic best:

The question is not whether many benefits short of justification and salvation accrue to men from the death of Christ. The unbelieving and reprobate in this world enjoy numerous benefits that flow from the fact that Christ died and rose again. The mediatorial dominion of Christ is universal. Christ is head over all things and is given all authority in heaven and in earth. It is within this mediatorial dominion that all the blessings which men enjoy are dispersed. (61)

He goes on to say:

Consequently, since all benefits and blessings are within the realm of Christ's dominion and since this dominion rests upon his finished work of atonement, the benefits innumerable which are enjoyed by all men indiscriminately are related to the death of Christ and may be said to accrue from it one way or another... It is proper, therefore, to say that the enjoyment of certain benefits, even by the non-elect and reprobate, falls with the design of the death of Christ. The denial of universal atonement does not carry with it the denial of any such relation that the benefits enjoyed by all men may sustain to Christ's death and finished work. (62)

Despite describing some universal aspects of Christ's work, Murray clearly holds to a view of atonement which history has generally labeled 'limited'. Of the many quotes in this chapter that reference Murray's stance on this matter, this one I liked:

It is to beggar the concept of redemption as an effective securement of release by price and by power to construe it as anything less than the effectual accomplishment which secures the salvation of those who are its objects. Christ did not come to put men in a redeemable position but to redeem to himself a people. We have the same result when we analyse the meaning of expiation, propitiation, and reconciliation. (63)