the glorious exchange

Here’s the second post in my series on my systematic, P.R.A.I.R.I.E. Check out the original post (here), the post on the Providence of God (here), and the post on the Radical Corruption of Man (here). The “A” in the acronym stands for the Attainable Life, which is another aspect of Scripture that traditional Calvinism (of the TULIP variety) does not address. The attainable life refers to the teachings of Jesus and of Scripture that apply to this life now: our life as exiles on earth.

First of all, it is imperative that we note that the teachings of Jesus are indeed attainable. That is, they are able to be lived out, though not of our own volition. Jesus instructs us in Matthew 5:48:

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This quote is from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest single soliloquy on morality in human history. We must remind ourselves that, as everything is a result of the grace of God, this is not an admonition to cover ourselves by laws and legality, but rather to embrace the grace of God as the only means to perfection. However, perfection by the grace of God through the person of Jesus is indeed attainable, and should be strived for in this life. Indeed, this is why Jesus came, as He addresses in John 10:10, which we should all be familiar with:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

If we, by the grace of God, obey our Lord Jesus, then our life will begin to be transformed, and conform to the life of Jesus (Romans 12:2), the perfect God-man who walked among us.

Here’s the second post in my series on my systematic, P.R.A.I.R.I.E. Check out the original post (here) and the post on the Providence of God (here). The “R” in PRAIRIE stands for Radical Corruption, for reasons other than acronymical (is that a word?) linguistics. Check it out from dictionary.com:

rad-i-cal (adj.)

1. of or going to the root or origin. fundamental.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme
3. forming a basis or foundation
4. existing inherently in a thing or person

cor·rup·tion (n.)

1. the state of being corrupt
2. moral perversion; depravity
3. perversion of integrity
4. putrefactive decay; rottenness

The phrase, “radical corruption” is similar to the Calvinistic phrase “total depravity”, but (I believe) it has a better denotation and connotation. Total depravity can be seen as utterly evil. This is not true of man. We do not murder, lie, steal, cheat, and idolize without ceasing, due to many reasons (all of which can be attributed to the grace of God). We have a conscience (a remnant of His image, perhaps?), we try to do good, there are threats of legal action (again, as part of God’s common grace on us), and of outcast from civilization. Instead, we are naturally inclined (prior theologians refer to our “tendencies” or “affections”) to evil, to idolize creation before Creator, and to commit morally depraved acts. Radical corruption refers to the corruption that is deeper than our outward actions, and speaks to our inward tendency; the word radical both connotates and denotes that the corruption is not simply carried out by our hands, but is indeed embedded in our hearts. What does Scripture say about this doctrine? A better question would be, regarding this truth, what doesn’t it say?

We can review a section of Scripture that we already discussed in the Providence of God, Ephesians 2:1-3

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The most often quoted verse in Scripture with regard to total depravity would be Romans 3:23. But I personally think that the verses (10-18) leading up to verse 23 are much more telling:

 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The scary thing about radical corruption is that, because the corruption is foundational, we can’t escape it. It’s like being born inside a jail cell, and the key is nowhere to be found. Someone outside of the jail cell must let you out. Romans 8:7-9 speaks of our inability to free ourselves from our own corruption:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

 As does John 6:44 -

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Where did the radical, foundational nature of our sin come from? From Adam, the first man, who freely sinned, and bound both the totality of mankind and all subsequent individuals of mankind due to his idolatry in the Garden of Eden, even if we don’t sin as Adam sinned. We can see this in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verse 12-21:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This passage is also clear that even though our corruption is radical, the righteousness and grace of our Lord Jesus extends past our outward actions and to our innermost being: the soul itself. Not only is the corruption inherited by us radical…but the grace extended to us is as well. 

This is the first in a series of seven blog posts (at least) to address this system of thinking about Scripture, and God’s work of redemption. You can see the original post here (link). The first point of PRAIRIE, my proposed solution to the shortcomings of Calvinism, is the Providence of God.

The reason for this point is because it is where Scripture starts. Calvinism, in the traditional sense, begins in reaction to Arminianism, whereas a true Gospel-centered systematic will begin where the Bible begins: with God creating all things good.

This point says that God is providential and sufficient in all of our necessities. That His grace is what breathes into us life, and that His grace has provided us with creation around us to inhabit. His Spirit allows us to continually live, according to Job 34:14-15. The providence of God also states that not only has He created all things once upon a time, but that every moment of the day He is continually bringing things into, and keeping things in existence. Every nanosecond of every day is an act of Hebrews 11:3 proportion: bringing something into existence from nothing. The reason for this is clear: there is nothing in this second that necessitates anything continuing to exist in the next second.

Colossians 1:15-17 puts it plainly:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

God is not only proficient, sufficient, and efficient for our existence, but for our salvation as well, according to Romans 3:21-25:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

and according to Ephesians 2:4-9:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Here is a post from November 2006, reprinted because of some recent questions at our last unplugged. I will be expounding upon these as requested by those who commented. I probably should have done this 2 years ago…

A recent podcast from the Resurgence (link) got me to thinking. The topic is “Preaching and Teaching Jesus From Scripture” [great podcast, by the way, I highly recommend it if you’re a pastor or teacher], and it was talking about this new wave of reformed thinking, which I consider myself to be a part of.

The major point brought up was that “traditional” Calvinism started with total depravity, that is, man. The Bible, however, starts with God. Another point I myself thought of when thinking about Calvinism is that it omits the teaching and life of Jesus; that is, it talks nothing about living the Kingdom life in the here and now. All of the components deal with either the past or future. Following this thinking, I devised a new acronym, along the lines of TULIP, to describe this new, and more Biblically accurate, Calvinism.

• Providence of God - This component simply states that God, in the beginning and even now, provided everything for Adam and Eve. They needed nothing, whatsoever.
• Radical Corruption - This states the same thing as total depravity: our very nature is sin, down to our core. This is passed on from our forefathers, and will continue to be passed on. There is no way we, in and of ourselves, can overcome it.
• Attainable Life - This attests to the teaching of Jesus. He showed us a way of living that overcomes our corruption through indwelling of the Spirit. This is the Kingdom life for the here and now.
• Inherited Election - This is the same as unconditional election: we’ve done nothing to merit our election by God, it is simply inherited by us because of the sovereign grace of God.
• Reserved Atonement - This is the same as limited atonement. It states that when Christ died, it was sufficient for everyone, but it only affected and is efficient for the chosen elect.
• Irresistible Grace - This has remained without change. It simply says that no one can resist the Spirit drawing them to the Kingdom, but that the Spirit can and does yield to one’s resistance.
• Eternal Security - This component is equivalent to the perseverance of the saints, which says that if we are called, then we will persevere to the Coming Kingdom, Heaven.

Just my two cents. There’s a lot more behind the added two (Providence of God and Attainable Life), just thought I’d throw it out there.