CONCLUSION

Let us return to the question that was raised in the introduction - why do men need to be saved? - why must Jesus die for the salvation of men? From the examination of the Biblical doctrine of sin and death in Part I, it became clear that the answer to this question was because man is dead, spiritually and dying physically. Man is separated and alienated from the true God; this is spiritual death. He does not know the true God, and because he does not know the true God, he turns to false gods - that which is not God - and makes these into his gods (Gal. 4:8). Man's basic sin is idolatry, and he sins (chooses these false gods) because he is spiritually dead - separated from the true God. This separation is not the result of his own personal sins. He received death from Adam, from his first parents. The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam - the sin of the first man. Adam's sin brought death, and this death has been spread throughout the whole human race, to all Adam's descendants (Rom. 5:12). This death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man's sin. This is why man needs to be saved. He is dead spiritually and dying physically. He needs life - he needs to be made alive - to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, is made alive to God, man will then be saved from sin. By removing the cause of sin - death - by giving him life, God delivers man from sin. For just as sin - trust in a false god - flows from death, righteousness - trust in the true God - flows from life. Salvation then is primarily from death and secondarily from sin. And since God's wrath is caused by sin, the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. Salvation then is also from wrath.

In Part III we saw that this exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus, His Son. God in the person of His Son entered into our death - both spiritual and physical - so that He might deliver us from death by raising Jesus from the dead. His resurrection is our resurrection, and we are made alive with Him and in Him. Taking away the cause of our sin, He saves us from sin. Jesus died for our sins - literally - to take them away, not just the guilt but sin itself. For, being made alive with Christ to God, we now in faith trust in the true God. This faith in the true God is the opposite of sin, which is trust in a false god. We have turned from our false gods to serve and trust the true God that we now know. This faith is righteousness, and it comes from knowing personally the true God through His Son, Jesus Christ. To know Him is life (John 17:3), and to know Him is to trust Him. For He is love and love begets trust. The death of Christ for us not only demonstrates God's love for us but it also the means by which that love is made known to us. By entering into our death, through Jesus' death on the cross, God could remove that death in the resurrection of Jesus. Now in the resurrection of Jesus, death, the barrier to knowing God, is removed. We see God revealed as never before. We know Him now, having been made alive to God in the resurrection of Jesus. To be spiritually alive is to know the true God personally. And to be alive in Jesus is know the love of God. Thus the death of Jesus is more than a demonstration of love - it is the means by which that love could remove the barrier of death to knowing that love and so that God could reveal Himself, making us alive to Himself. The trust that this love invokes is righteousness; it relates us rightly to God. Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. Being made alive, we are set right with God through faith. We are justified - set right - through the faith that resulted from the righteousness of God; that is, the act of God by which He set us right with Himself. He sets us right with Himself by making us alive to Himself. And the faith flowing from that life is the right relationship to Him. It is faith in the risen Christ through Whom we are made alive that is righteousness (Rom. 10:9-19). Justification is not a legal act but the real act of God whereby He puts us into right relationship - sets us right - with Himself. He did this by making us alive in Christ. This is not legal fiction but a reality - we are alive to God in Christ. And being alive we believe, we trust the God that we know, having been made alive to Him. This faith is righteousness; it relates us rightly to God (the opposite of the sin of trusting in a false god - idolatry). This rightousness of faith is no legal fiction. To be alive to God is to trust Him. And this is the reality that the salvation of God has produced. God is not concerned about legal formalities and technicalities. He is concerned about the reality of making us alive to Himself and the faith that trust Him and His love.

Because God so loved us, He has acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death (Rom. 5:12d), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God.
Reconciliation is salvation from death to life;
redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace.

These three aspects of salvation were historically accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This threefold act of God for the salvation of man is the righteousness of God. This righteousness of God (=salvation) has been manifested (publicly displayed) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). The gospel tells us about this act of God, about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. But also in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or actualized (Rom. 1:17). That is, in the preaching of the Gospel God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16). God contemporaneously and personally is accomplishing this salvation through the Holy Spirit. After raising Jesus from the dead and exalting Him to His own right hand to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11), God sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to give life to men (John 3:5-8) by revealing Jesus to them (John 15:26) personally as their Savior who died for them and as their resurrected, living Lord. This revelation takes place in the preaching of the Gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ, His Son. When one responds to this revelation by turning from his false gods (repentance) and turning to the true God, acknowledging Jesus as Lord (faith), he is saved (Acts 16:31).

It is at this point that the Biblical doctrine of salvation opposes that misunderstanding and distortion of the law -- legalism. As we saw in Part II, legalism -- as an idolatry of the law -- leads to and involves a misunderstanding of sin and death. Sin is misunderstood as only law breaking. Death is misunderstood as always the penalty of sin. And the wrath of God is misunderstood as only the punishment of sin. The immediate personal origin of sin has been misunderstood to be an inherited sinful nature, making sin instrinsic to human nature and implying a denial of human freedom and responsibility. This legalistic conception of sin and death leads to a misunderstanding of the need for salvation and the nature of salvation. Man needs salvation, according to this legalistic view, because he is a guilty sinner. He is guilty not only because of his own sins, transgressions of the law, but because of the sin of Adam whose sinful nature he has inherited. Whether he has had the guilt imputed to him or is guilty because he somehow sinned in Adam, man is guilty. Upon him rests the load of racial guilt as well as the guilt from his own personal sins. He needs to be saved because he is guilty. Salvation is according to this legalistic view conceived of as a removal of that guilt. Justice requires that the penalty be paid before the guilt can be removed. Guilt cannot be forgiven freely but can only be taken away by the paying of the penalty which alone can satisfy justice. Because of the enormity of the guilt -- it is against an infinite moral being -- finite man himself can never pay the penalty and go free. His sin demands an eternal punishment, and being finite he cannot meet the infinite demands of justice. If he is to be saved at all, he must be saved by another. One who is a man like himself but without sin. But also one who is God who alone can meet the infinite demands of justice. Where is such a one to be found? Only God can provide that one, and God has provided the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty of sin by sending His Son to become man. His death is the perfect sacrifice to satisfy the demands of justice. It can remove the guilt by paying the penalty of sin. In His death He endured the eternal punishment due to man's sin.

But it is not enough just to be declared not guilty, man must be also have a righteousness which merits eternal life. He must not only have no guilt, no demerits, but he must also have a positive righteousness, merits placed to his account. Since man cannot earn this righteousness himself because of his sinful nature (he is not able not to sin and not able to do righteousness -- good works which merit eternal life as a reward), someone must earn this for him. According to this legalistic point of view, salvation is not only a vicarious satisfation of the demands of justice and the law, but it is also vicarious law-keeping. Christ's life of active obedience under the law provides that righteousness -- Christ earns for us eternal life by His active obedience. And by His passive obedience of death on the cross, He paid the penalty of our sins. Therefore, the one who receives in faith Christ's work for him is declared not guilty, and Christ's righteousness or merits is imputed to his account. He is justified because Christ has satisfied the demands of justice and fullfilled the law for us. He is legally entitled to eternal life if he receives it from Christ who earned it for him. Thus salvation is understood legalistically. It is a legal transaction -- a fire insurance policy that another paid for and is given freely to anyone if they will take it.

This is a consistent and logical explanation of salvation and man's need of salvation. There is only one difficulty with it -- it is not true. Yes, Christ died for man to take away his sin. The fact of Christ -- who He is and what He did -- is true, but the explanation is all wrong; it is legalistic. Salvation is not by works, even though another -- even God -- performs them. God is not the kind of God that the legalist thinks He is. He is not a God of justice but a God of love. The problem solved by Christ's death was not in God but in man. God did not have to be reconciled and His justice satisfied before man could be saved. On the contrary, it is man who needs to be reconciled to God; it is man who needs to be changed. Man is dead and he needs to be made alive. The problem is in man -- he is dead and he needs life. Man does not need a lawyer; he needs someone to raise him from the dead. And only God can do it, and He has done it through His Son's death and resurrection. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself -- not reconciling God to the world. And since man sins because he is spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12d), by making him alive God saves him from sin to righteousness. He saves him not just from the guilt of sin but from sin itself. And He saves him not from just breaking the law but from trusting in false gods. God saves man to trust in the true God Himself -- the only real righteousness. Legal righteousness (merits) is not enough. For the real law wants faith, trust in and love of God -- "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind." And since death is what hinders this, God has removed this hindrance by the death and resurrection of His Son. He entered into our death so that we could enter into His life -- through His resurrection. Being made alive with Him we can now trust, love, and worship Him.

I live, I live because He is risen;
I live, I live with power over sin;
I live, I live because He is risen;
I live, I live to worship Him.
Thank you, Jesus,
Thank you, Jesus,
Because You'r alive,
Because You'r alive,
Because You'r alive, I live.
(Richard Cook, Easter, 1974).

Legalism makes a problem of the Christian life because it puts the Christian under law, separating him from God. It leads him to trust in the law and ourselves and our works (in the flesh) rather than in the Spirit of God. The result is defeat and dispair of the man under law as shown in Romans 7. This is the practical effect of the legalistic theory of Christ's death -- it puts the Christian under law and the slavery of sin (Rom. 6:14). Sin uses the law as an occasion to become active (Rom. 7:8, 11). The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin (Rom. 7:21-23). That is, death leads to sin, since all sin because of death (Rom. 5:12d, "because of which all sinned"). The man under law is practically spiritually dead, separated from God, and therefore sins. Legalism does not work. Where is the victory of Christ's resurrection in the struggle of Romans 7? Only as we are delivered from being under the law -- we died to the law in Christ's death (Rom. 7:4) -- and are set free from law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death.
The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love and a joyful walk in the Spirit, trusting Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And if we love and trust God, is any law necessary to make us to do so? The law is for them who do not love and trust God -- though it will not save them -- it cannot make them alive; it cannot produce righteousness (Gal. 3:21). For if the law could make them alive, as legalism tries to tell us, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21). Salvation is not by the works of the law -- in any way, shape or form. Salvation is by grace -- God's love in action to make us alive to God in Christ through faith, through trust in Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. The Christian life, which is the present tense of salvation, is also by grace through faith. "As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him" (Col. 2:6).

The extent to which this legalism has affected Christian theology should be clear from the discussion in Part II. This legalism has not only affected the thinking of the church but the whole life of the church. It is the cause of many of the problems in the church. The result of this legalism is dead orthodoxy and a cold, unloving Christianity. To correct these effects of legalism there have arisen in the church various movements such as pietism, the evangelical awakening, the deeper life movement, revivalism, etc. None of these movements went to the source of the deadness, coldness and unlovableness but often just reinforced the cause -- legalism. The great outpouring of the Spirit starting at the beginning of the twentieth century has been constantly burdened and limited by the frequent relapses into the same legalism. And the source of the legalism in practice is the legalism of the theology. Practical legalism is the result of theological legalism. The problem is not too much theology but bad theology, legalistic theology. This theological legalism has misunderstood the Gospel of our salvation. With the present move of the Spirit, the time has come to remove the cause of this practical legalism by clearing the theological legalism out of our theology and again recovering the Bibical understanding of the Gospel of our salvation. Such a theological renewal should be the natural accompaniment of the move of the Spirit of God today and could produce a reformation comparable to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. This thesis is an attempt to contribute to such a theological renewal.

THE END

Copyright 1975, Ray Shelton