Category: Engaging the Culture

“In the ordo, the first item of business is regeneration, which is a transformation in us. It is a form of infused righteousness, a type of sanctification. If my heart is not changed, then I cannot believe the right way, and if I cannot believe the right way, then I cannot be justified. The order we affirm is ‘change of heart in me,’ ‘repentance and faith,’ ‘righteousness imputed to me,’ and then ‘ongoing changes in me.’ If [he] objects to this, then he can rewrite the Reformed ordo. But when he does that, he ought not to call that rewrite ‘walking in the old paths.’”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 697

“Life and obedience are essential characteristics of the instrumentality of faith, in just the same way that life is an essential characteristic of a seeing eye. But I do not see blue as a reward or payment for having a living eye. This does not make life irrelevant to the seeing however.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 694

“When I say that faith is alive, I am saying nothing more than that faith is really faith. When I say that faith is obedient, I am saying nothing more than that faith is true faith. If it were not alive, not not obedient, you would not have the same basic thing, only with some of the paint chipped off. You wouldn’t have faith at all. And if you don’t have faith at all, then you don’t have justifying faith, or faith that lays hold of Christ. Put another way, faith must be faith to be the instrument of justification.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 694

“Now if you have a law/gospel hermeneutic, you have decided going into your exegesis what that exegesis can and cannot reveal to you. So if I produced a verse that said, ‘Thou shalt exercise justifying faith as your evangelical obedience,’ this would not even be a minor challenge to a law/gospel hermeneutic. A law/gospel hermeneutic would chase the verb around the room, until the aorist imperative ran out of the door screaming, turning the verse into gospel, remarkably enough.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 692

“If doing what God says to do is obedience, and true faith is doing what God says to do, then true faith is obedience.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 691

“Here is a good place for some good and necessary consequence. A command can only be disobeyed or obeyed. Ignoring it is disobedience. Pretending not to hear is disobedience Given the authority and legitimacy of the command, there are no other options. If someone wants to maintain a third possibility, I am open to hearing what it might possibly be. Now, does God command men to believe the gospel?”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 689.