Soteriology

Question 1

Common grace

Answer 1

Common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation
- Common grace is different from saving grace in its results (it does not bring about salvation), in its recipients (it is given to believers and unbelievers alike), and in its source (it does not directly flow from Christ’s atoning work, since Christ’s death did not earn any measure of forgiveness for unbelievers, and therefore did not merit the blessings of common grace for them either)
(not a different grace, but the same grace manifested differently)

Question 2

Examples of common grace

Answer 2

• Physical: rain Matt 5:44
• Societal: Having children Gen 5:4
• Intellectual
• Moral
• Religious: God may hear/grant prayers of unbelievers

Question 3

Election

Answer 3

An act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.
• Rom 8:28-30 (golden chain)
• Rom 9:11-13 (Jacob/Esau)
• Eph 1:4, 6 (“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world… He destined us in love to be his sons”)

Question 4

Election is not fatalistic

Answer 4

• “Fatalism” means a system in which human choices make no difference
• Scripture continually presents humans as able to accept or reject the gospel (not only do we make willing choices, but we make real choices since they affect the world)
• Scripture is clear that people’s eternal destiny depends on whether or not we preach the Gospel (Rom 10:14, 17)

Question 5

Election is not based on God’s foreknowledge of our faith

Answer 5

• Ultimately means that salvation lies within people and not God
• Rom 8:29: When people “know” God in Scripture, it means a personal relationship, not some facts about them (And to say that God chose “people groups” (like the church) must mean that he chose individuals to make up that group)
• Scripture never speaks of faith as the reason that God chose us (according to his purposes Rom 9:11, Eph 1:5)

Question 6

free will

Answer 6

We are not free in the sense that we are outside God’s control, but we are free in the sense that our choices are willing and have real consequences

Question 7

Election means we don’t have a choice

Answer 7

• God can work sovereignly through our desires so that he guarantees that our choices come about as he has ordained, but this can still be understood as a real choice because God has created us and he ordains that such a choice is real

Question 8

Election is unfair

Answer 8

Rom 9:20 But who are you, a man, to answer back to God?

Question 9

God wants everyone to be saved

Answer 9

• These verses talk about his revealed will (telling us what we should do), but not his hidden will (his eternal plans for what will happen)
• The verses simply tell us that God invites and commands every person to repent and come to Christ for salvation, but they do not tell us anything about God’s secret decrees regarding who will be saved.

Question 10

Reprobation

Answer 10

The sovereign decision of God before creation to pass over some persons, in sorrow deciding not to save them, and to punish them for their sins, and thereby to manifest his justice.
• Rom 9:17-22
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills … What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction?

Question 11

Reprobation verses

Answer 11

• Matt 11:25-26 “Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was your gracious will’”
• Ez 33:11 “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live”

Question 12

Cause of election/reprobation

Answer 12

the cause of election is God, the cause of reprobation is sinners (this is why double predestination is a poor term)

Question 13

Effective Calling

Answer 13

An act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith. (1 Pet 2:9 “…who called you out of darkness into his marvelous”)

• (Although it is true that effective calling awakens and brings forth a response from us, we must always insist that this response still has to be a voluntary, willing response in which the individual person puts his or her trust in Christ)
• (This is why prayer is so important to effective evangelism)

Question 14

Elements of the gospel call

Answer 14

(importance - Rom 10:14)

(1) explanation of the facts concerning salvation:
1. All people have sinned (Rom. 3:23).
2. The penalty for our sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
3. Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins (Rom. 5:8)
(2) Invitation to respond to Christ personally in repentance and faith (Matt 11:28-30 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened”)
(3) a promise of forgiveness and eternal life

Question 15

Regeneration

Answer 15

a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us (“being born again” Jn 3:3)
• total work of God (Jn 1:13 “were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”)
• (this is irresistible grace - you don’t choose to be born, you don’t choose to be born again)
• the exact nature is mysterious, but: instantaneous (though we may not realize when), affects the whole person
• comes before saving faith (reg. gives us the ability to respond in faith), though so close it’s almost at the same time (Jn 6:44)
• genuine regeneration must bring results in life

Question 16

Conversion

Answer 16

Our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation (repentance and faith)
• True saving faith includes knowledge, approval, and personal trust (saving faith: trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God) (This is why Jn 3:16 says believe IN him and not believe him; trust in him)
• Faith and repentance must come together (sorrow/remorse without faith is not genuine repentance) (two sides of the same coin; two aspects of same event)
• Faith and repentance continue throughout life

Question 17

Justification

Answer 17

an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight (Rom 3:26, 28, 5:1)
• “justify” in the NT most often means to declare righteous
• “in his sight” means he declares that we have no penalty to pay for sin, including past, present, and future sins (Rom 8:1)
• God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us (Rom 5:17)
• Scripture says that we are justified “by means of” our faith, understanding faith to be the instrument through which justification is given to us, but not at all an activity that earns us merit or favor with God (Rom 5:17-19)

Question 18

Adoption

Answer 18

an act of God whereby he makes us members of his family (Jn 1:12 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God”)
• not fully realized in the old covenant
• follows conversion and is an outcome of saving faith
• distinct from justification

Question 19

sanctification

Answer 19

a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives. (1 Cor 6:11)

Question 20

Three stages of sanctification

Answer 20

1. At regeneration: a definite break from the ruling power and love of sin, so that the believer is no longer ruled or dominated by sin and no longer loves to sin (1 Cor 6:11, dead to sin and alive in Christ Rom 6:11)
2. Increases throughout life: Phil 3:13-14
3. Complete at death for our souls and when Christ returns for our bodies (Heb 12:23 “to the spirits of just men made perfect”)

Question 21

Matt 5:48 be perfect

Answer 21

God commands all people everywhere to obey all of his moral law, but we are still not able. This is the standard for which we should aim and we are held accountable.

Question 22

Roles in sanctification

Answer 22

• God: (primarily God) Phil 2:13 “God is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure”
-The Son earned our salvation, the HS works in us
• Us: passive one in which we depend on God to sanctify us, and an active one in which we strive to obey God and take steps that will increase our sanctification (Rom 12:1 living sacrifice)
-Bible reading/meditation, prayer, worship, witnessing, Christian fellowship Heb 10:24-25, self-discipline

Question 23

Sanctification affects the whole person

Answer 23

• intellect and knowledge (Col 1:10 “increasing in the knowledge of God”)
• emotions (Gal 5:22)
• decision-making faculty
• spirit
• physical bodies

Question 24

Motivation for sanctification

Answer 24

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15)

Question 25

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Answer 25

• “before many days you shall be baptized with the HS” Acts 1:5 (7 total passages speaking of baptism of HS)
• subsequent to conversion; more power for ministry and speaking in tongues
• It is a phrase that the New Testament authors use to speak of coming into the new covenant power of the Holy Spirit (happened for disciples at Penecost, for Corinthians at conversion; not something for us today)
• leads to a “higher” class of Christians
• filling with the Holy Spirit not as a one-time event but as an event that can occur over and over again in a Christian’s life

Question 26

Perseverance

Answer 26

all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again (Jn 10:27-29, 1 Jn 2:19)

Question 27

Not all who appear to be Christians will persevere

Answer 27

Matt 7:21-23
Not every one who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.”

Question 28

death

Answer 28

Not a penalty for our individual sins (for that has been paid by Christ), but a result of living in a fallen world, where the effects of sin have not all been removed
• God uses it to complete our sanctification and our union with him
• Still not right, and Christ will defeat it
• Phil 3:10 “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”
• Phil 1:21 “to live is Christ and to die is gain”

Question 29

What happens at death?

Answer 29

• Believers’ souls go immediately to God’s presence (Death is a temporary cessation of bodily life and a separation of the soul from the body) Lk 23:43
• Unbelievers go immediately to hell for eternal punishment (rich man and Lazarus: none may cross from there to us” Luke 16:24-26)

Question 30

Soul sleep

Answer 30

• not taught in scripture
• passages use “sleep” as a metaphorical expression for death
• OT believers: not many passages talk about this, but the ones that do reference immediate fellowship with God (Enoch, Elijah, story of rich man and Lazarus “Now he is comforted here” Luke 16:25)
• because of this immediate fellowship, we should not pray for the dead (2 Cor 5:10”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”)

Question 31

Glorification

Answer 31

• when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own
• 1 Cor 15:12-58
• OT: when Lazarus dies and Martha says to Jesus “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” Jn 11:24

Question 32

The resurrection body

Answer 32

1 Cor 15:42-44
What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body…. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
• Imperishable: not wear out, grow old, or be subject to sickness
• 1 Jn 3:2 “When he appears we shall be like him”

Question 33

Creation will be renewed when we are glorified

Answer 33

Rom 8:21

“the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God”

Question 34

Unbelievers will be raised for judgment on the Final Day of Judgment

Answer 34

Acts 24:15 “that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust”

Question 35

Union with Christ

Answer 35

phrase used to summarize:

1. We are in Christ.
2. Christ is in us.
3. We are like Christ.
4. We are with Christ.

(1) Eph 1:4 “God chose us in Christ”
(2) Gal 2:20
(3) 1 Cor 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”
(4) Matt 18:20 “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them”

Question 36

Our union with Christ during our lives now

Answer 36

1. We have died and been raised with Christ.
2. We have new life in Christ.
3. All our actions can be done in Christ.
4. All Christians together are one body in Christ.

Question 37

Ordo salutis

Answer 37

1. Election
   
   2. The gospel call
   3. Regeneration
   4. Conversion
   5. Justification
   6. Adoption
   7. Sanctification
   8. Perseverance
   9. Death
   10. Glorification