“Our corporate justification as the Church was Pentecostal. God publicly vindicated us, owned us as His people, and established us in the world as His own righteous people. This means that the Church as the Church is justified, just as the Church is elect, and redeemed, and so forth. But this also means that non elect covenant members, while truly attached to the body, are nevertheless an incongruity—spots and blemishes that will be removed as the Bride is made radiant. But in the meantime, until they are removed, we have to learn to deal with non elect members of the Elect One, and unjustified members of the Justified Body.”
Definitionally Related
“In the historic Protestant view, good works are inseparable from biblical salvation. They are not a condiment to flavor a ‘raw’ justification, but rather are definitionally related to justification. Justification and sanctification are not like salt and pepper, or ham and eggs—two things that go well together. They are definitionally interrelated, like the terms husband and wife. If there is no wife, then by definition there is no husband. If there is no husband, then by definition there is not wife. Apart from sanctification, justification does not exist. Apart from justification, sanctification does not exist.”
Geneva and Rome
“We have already considered what the Bible teaches about justification and the justified individual, considered as an individual. In this limited sense, the historic Protestant position on justification is correct, and the Roman Catholic understanding of individual justification as a process involving an infusion of righteousness is wrong.”
United Rightly
“Christ did not die so that we might live. He died so that we might die, and He lives so that we might live. Our life is not tied to His death—our life is tied to His life. But we cannot be tied to His life unless we have also been united with Him in His death.”
Resurrected Law
“In part the covenant is new because the law governing the covenant is new. But by new, we do not mean ‘freshly invented’ but rather ‘back from the dead.’ There cannot be a change in the priesthood without a corresponding change in the law. But the priesthood has been bestowed on Christ on the basis of His power of an indestructible life.”
How the Law Bears Fruit
“When Jesus died, the law died. And when He rose again, so did the law . . . the law has complete continuity in the same way that the body of Christ had continuity with His resurrection body. It was the same body that rose from the dead (John 20:27). The law has discontinuity in the sense that the resurrection changes the meaning and nature of everything.”
Sinners With No Hands
“Stop trying to pick up grace. You have no hands. Grace picks you up, out of the miry clay, and sets your feet on the rock. A true heart knows this.”
Two Kinds of Readers
“The Word of God is unified, but the reason we see it as divided is that we have to account for two kinds of people, each group seeing the Word as unified, but in different ways. But the Scriptures are not divided up into law portions in one section and grace portions in another. We do, however, have law-readers and grace-readers.”
Sons of Belial
“What are we to make of the phrase ‘sons of Belial’? In every instance of the phrase in the Old Testament, it always refers to members of the covenant whose lives were completely at odds with the terms of it, and whose hollowness was exhibited in their behavior.”
Infidelity Within the Covenant
“Mark this well: adultery is not the same thing as divorce. It is certainly covenantal unfaithfulness and is grounds for divorce, but if there is no divorce, then the marriage remains binding on both parties. An adulterous husband is a covenant-breaking husband, not an ex-husband. In short, we must distinguish covenant-breaking from covenant-separation.”