“We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, and this includes the law that ‘thou shalt score 100% on the justification portion of your Westminster exam.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 710
Jet Fuel Mix
“I can see broader uses of the word election in Scripture without denying in the slightest the doctrine of decretal, jet fuel election, a doctrine which flies our Reformed fighter jets really, really fast, and which I like as much as anybody.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 707
Scriptural Language and Technical
“What we are saying is that if ‘election’ means one thing one hundred percent of the time in Westminster (because it is being applied in a precise, theological way), and it means that very same thing seventy percent of the time in Scripture, a Bible teacher needs to be able to say what is going on exegetically that other thirty percent of the time. That is all, and it ought not to be controversial.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p.707
Really, Not Leaving at All
“The historic Reformed faith is a spacious mansion. We really need to stop living in the broom closet that some want to call true Calvinism. And it is possible to come out of the broom closet and not be in the process of leaving the house.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 706
Logically Prior
“Do you recall that when I raised the point of the primacy of regeneration, leading logically to repentance and faith, not chronologically in stopwatch fashion, that I was responding to you guys making a big deal out of the traditional ordo? And that I said, fine, if you insist, this means that some form of infusion is logically prior to imputation?”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 700
Tension in the Ordo
“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
Only LIving Things Act
“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
An Eye Must Be Alive in Order to See
“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
An Aorist Scream
“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
No Other Options
“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