tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post2563391331384301645..comments2024-03-26T00:19:08.753-07:00Comments on The World's Ruined: John Calvin: The Recompense of Good WorksJack Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18281378425270530573noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post-10784645149354000762016-10-21T10:49:13.966-07:002016-10-21T10:49:13.966-07:00From a lecture Entitled “Justification” contained ...From a lecture Entitled “Justification” contained in his Collected Writings, Murray on extra rewards: <br /><br />While it makes void the gospel to introduce works in connection with justification, nevertheless works done in faith, from the motive of love to God, in obedience to the revealed will of God and to the end of his glory are intrinsically good and acceptable to God. As such they will be the criterion of reward in the life to come. This is apparent from such passages as Matthew 10:41; 1 Corinthians 3:8–9, 11–15; 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 4:7. We must maintain therefore, justification complete and irrevocable by grace through faith and apart from works, and at the same time, future reward according to works. In reference to these two doctrines it is important to observe the following:<br /><br />(i) This future reward is not justification and contributes nothing to that which constitutes justification. (ii) This future reward is not salvation. Salvation is by grace and it is not as a reward for works that we are saved. (iii) The reward has reference to the degree of glory bestowed in the state of bliss, that is, the station a person is to occupy in glory and does not have reference to the gift of glory itself. (iv) This reward is not administered because good works earn or merit reward, but because God is graciously pleased to reward them. That is to say it is a reward of grace. (In the Romish scheme good works have real merit and constitute the ground of the title to everlasting life.) The good works are rewarded because they are intrinsically good and well-pleasing to God. They are not rewarded because they earn reward but they are rewarded only as labour, work or service that is the fruit of God’s grace, conformed to his will and therefore intrinsically good and well-pleasing to him. They could not even be rewarded of grace if they were principally and intrinsically evil.<br /><br />Murray's commentary on Romans 2:5-16 rejects the hypothetical view held by older reformed theologians--" The apostle thus speaks, not in the way of abstract hypothesis but of concrete assertion… He says not what God would do were He to proceed in accordance with the primal rule and standard of the law, but what, proceeding according to that rule, He will actually do.’… The determining factor in the rewards of retribution or of glory is not the privileged position of the Jew but evil-doing or well-doing respectively."Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06233995709579822605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post-89919950736761770442015-12-18T21:27:02.158-08:002015-12-18T21:27:02.158-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06233995709579822605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post-24843660469903138752015-12-18T21:26:40.407-08:002015-12-18T21:26:40.407-08:00I don't believe in extra rewards for some Chri...I don't believe in extra rewards for some Christians, but also I don't believe in judgment after resurrection ( I agree with Fesko that there is no more judgment after the resurrection of the already justified elect) <br /><br />John 5:24--- will not come into judgment but has passed from death to life<br /><br />http://heidelblog.net/2009/06/five-arguments-against-future-justification-based-on-works/<br /><br />http://www.reformation21.org/shelf-life/four-views-on-the-role-of-works-at-the-final-judgment.php<br /><br />http://www.reformation21.org/articles/five-arguments-against-future-justification-according-to-works-part-ii.php<br /><br />http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2015/10/judgment-according-to-works.php<br /><br />http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2015/02/god-accepts-imperfection.php<br /><br />http://www.reformation21.org/articles/five-arguments-against-future-justification-according-to-works.phpMarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06233995709579822605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post-63135482113646418142015-10-13T15:50:41.506-07:002015-10-13T15:50:41.506-07:00The good works of the justified are not pure. Thos...The good works of the justified are not pure. Those works, in the language of older theologians, still have the remnant of sin in them. Christ's satisfaction wrought on the cross sufficiently forgives the sin in those "good" works. He not only forgives the conscious, chosen sins of the justified but he forgives the remnant of sin in the consciously chosen "good" works of the justified. Both are covered by th blood. God therefore accepts our "good" works as he does our persons, for the sake of Christ. One justification, one forgiveness for all sins whether blatant violations of the law or simply the imperfection of sin that remains in even our best works.Jack Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18281378425270530573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422410239991902086.post-84396136267733496542015-10-13T13:41:15.030-07:002015-10-13T13:41:15.030-07:00I report that with which I do not agree, from Roge...I report that with which I do not agree, from Roger Olson.<br /><br />"But we must also agree that the rewards will be real and meaningful rewards for freely deciding to allow the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit to work in believers’ lives.<br />My fear is that Calvin robs rewards of any meaning and implies that God is actually rewarding himself and not believers. If that is the case, why mention rewards at all? Why preach or teach heavenly rewards as motivation for obedience and service as the New Testament clearly does?<br />Ah, yes…the Calvinist will say “foreordained means to a foreordained end.” Back to that. But this seems to take to an extreme a right emphasis on God’s sovereignty and glory. The upshot of it all, then, is that whatever a believer is or is not accomplishing is out of his or her control. And that at the judgment seat of Christ all God will be doing is rewarding himself. Now, this might make sense WERE IT NOT FOR THE DEGREES OF REWARDS ISSUE. Clearly there will be degrees of rewards. How is God glorified in awarding to himself a lesser reward than is possible?<br /><br />My point is that the Calvinist doctrine of rewards involves a conundrum. It actually makes no sense at all. Which is perhaps WHY preaching and teaching about heavenly rewards has virtually ceased. They only make sense within a synergistic view of sanctification.<br />In the past, and perhaps to some extent still today, SOME Reformed preachers have taught that justification and regeneration are monergistic while sanctification is not.<br /><br />That doesn’t seem to fit with a consistently Calvinist understanding of God’s sovereignty, however, and as Calvinism has become increasingly consistent ... any element of synergism, even in sanctification, is slipping away (if not totally condemned).<br /><br />It seems to me that heavenly rewards is an inescapable biblical truth. Calvin believed that. And yet it makes no sense within a strictly, consistently monergistic soteriology (in which even sanctification is interpreted as solely God’s work to the exclusion of any free human contribution in which “free” is understood as power of contrary choice). http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/05/a-new-book-on-justification-and-some-questions-about-calvinism-and-heavenly-rewards/Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06233995709579822605noreply@blogger.com