Question:  Dear Greg,

            I have spent the past thirty years studying the truth about Christian morality, so allow me to point out some contradictions in the Pauline theology that you describe:

1.      You rationalize away all human responsibilities.  If Christ does everything, humans do not have to know what he is doing.  Is faith based on knowledge?  If  knowledge is important, then one of the human responsibilities is to study, understand and debate what Christ taught.  Christ said we are supposed to do so (John 4:22, Matthew 15:10, Mark 4:11).

2.      The primary human responsibility is to overcome sin.  Christ described the process as a path which is hard to find and follow (Matthew 7:14).  You describe the Christian life as bliss.

3.      Your (Pauline) rationalization, of God doing the work, is not a relevant point.  We don’t need to know what God’s responsibilities are.  His responsibilities or works do not remove the human responsibilities, as Christ described them.

            Christ’s entire purpose was to teach people how to overcome sin.  Paul rationalized away everything Christ taught—as you demonstrate in your statements.  Paul had no validity in doing that.  Persons such as you (starting with Martin Luther) assume that you are on safe ground quoting Paul regardless of Christ’s teaching.  You are wrong.

            Gary

Answer:  Dear Gary,

            With all respect, having spent 30 years “deriving the truth about Christian morality” may or may not be a credential.  I spent more than 30 years mired in authoritarian and humanly derived religion, thinking I was following Christ better than the vast majority of those who professed to do so.  But my studies have shown that my experiences during that time, as well as those who taught me, were wrong.  I am delighted to live in the United States where we each may hold conflicting views and reason together without either one of us having the opposing view forced upon us.  So, I respect your views, I understand your views (having held similar views for many decades), and I absolutely disagree with your views and can prove them wrong biblically.

            My disagreements with what you state are founded upon the Bible.  Perhaps that point of reference is where we will part company, for I regard the Bible to be the final court of arbitration in our discussion, the benchmark for discussions of this nature.  All of it, not absent Paul, but all of it.  And above all, all of it viewed from a Christocentric position--that the cross of Christ and his empty tomb provide the primary interpretation and focal point of all that the Bible teaches.

            Your point #1: I do not rationalize away human responsibilities.  Christians will be and are obedient.  They will be and are faithful; they will be and are dedicated.  My point is simply this—obedience for the Christians is not salvific.  Obedience follows faith rather than leading it.  Legalism cannot stand this argument because primacy is given to faith and to Jesus rather than to human innovation, character and virtue.  The classicus locus Pauline (and Christian) passage on this topic is Ephesians 2:8-10.  We are saved BY faith FOR works—not BY works FOR faith.

            You are quite correct.  Faith is based upon knowledge.  Biblical faith is informed and rational.  Christians grow in faith and knowledge OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST (2 Peter 3:18).  So, yes, Christians study, discuss and debate what it means to be Christian and the goal of all of that study and knowledge is Christ—not Paul, not Moses, not the law, not anyone or anything other than Jesus.

            Your point #2: Yes, a primary goal of humans is to overcome sin.  However, it is impossible for any imperfect human to overcome sin.  Only Christ can overcome sin.  We are capable of having victory over sin through him, and in him, NOT BY OUR OWN EFFORTS.  Romans 6:23 summarizes—“the wages (everything we earn by what we do) of sin is death.”  That’s bad news, but the verse does not end there.  After the comma the sentence continues, “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Eternal life/salvation is a gift.  A gift is not a gift if there are conditions, if something must be done in order to receive that gift or if things must be done in order to maintain that gift.  It would be cruel and a misrepresentation for the Bible to say that eternal life is a gift and then say that it’s not really a gift—it’s sort of a gift but with conditions.

            The biblically based doctrines of justification and sanctification teach that humans are redeemed by the blood of Christ.  We are justified and reconciled by his perfect work on the cross.  Further, God sanctifies us by grace because of the perfect righteousness of Christ.  In brief, we are all sinners.  We are all in debt.  When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior we are forgiven of our sin.  Our debt is paid.  We are now without any debt, but we are also, in that state, without any virtue.

            The Bible says that God then imputes to us the very righteousness of Christ so that God now gives us the riches of his kingdom.  He now calls us saints and holy.  This is a positional and legal perspective, for we are still in this flesh and as a result, even while we are Christian, even while we are seen by God as holy, his saints, his children, etc., we will sin.  That is inevitable, for we are flesh.  The book of Romans carefully lays out this theological position and the significance of the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

            Of course the path is hard to follow—without Christ it is impossible.  Further, one of the things that makes the Christian path hard to follow is that it means repenting, surrendering, giving up and admitting to God that we cannot ever be good enough to merit his grace.  Many humans balk at such a step for they are unwilling to admit that they cannot be good enough on their own.

            Please excuse any comments you have heard me say or that I have written describing the Christian life as bliss.  The life of following Christ is to accept what God leads you to and through.  It means picking up our individual cross, whatever that may be, and following him.  It means service and suffering, for that is the path our Lord chose and it will be the path we will follow if we accept him as Lord and Savior.

            Your point #3: God’s “responsibilities” to fulfill the law, of “doing the work” as you put it, do not mean that we are free to do whatever we please.  You are correct.  Again, the issue here is not whether a Christian obeys and is virtuous in his or her life.  The issue is who gets the credit, who performs the works and what value do human works have outside the providence of God.  The biblical answer is—none.  All our righteousness is before God as filthy rags.  Nothing we can do can ever earn salvation.  Nothing we can do can ever obligate the holy, just and perfect God of creation and eternity to respond to our demands.  He alone is good and he responds to us not because he has to, not because of our obedience, but because he wants to.  Because he alone is good.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht