The Second of Two Parts Detailing the Historic Errors of Roman Catholicism, Contrasted with the Historice and Scriptural Emphases of the Protestant Reformation

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus . . . . ” (1 Timothy 2:5)

Roman Redeemers: Christ and Mary and the “Saints”

As you may well know, a redeemer is one who buys a slave and then sets it free. Yahweh himself redeemed the people of Israel when he called Moses from the burning bush to command Pharaoh in his name to “let my people go.” Having struck Egypt time and again by the plagues, directly demonstrating his power over Egypt’s gods, God coerced the slave masters of Egypt to release their slaves to the service of Yahweh. This was the chief redemptive act of God in the Old Testament; it’s the one which unifies the identity of the nation of Israel, which directly points to and typifies the work of the ultimate Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ our Redeemer was the only citizen of the nation of Israel to perfectly meet the demands of the covenant Yahweh instituted with the nation of Israel; he was the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, through whom God created the world. Thus our Redeemer was sent to Israel as a Prophet to reveal God’s will to his people; he was sent as King to conquer all his and his people’s enemies, namely the world, the flesh, the devil and death, rather than merely the political stranglehold of the Roman Empire over the nation of Israel; and in order to redeem his people, Christ served as the ultimate Priest, who mediated between the offending people and the offended God, Christ was God to man and man to God; his death met the terms of the holy and just God and likewise Christ’s death met the one essential spiritual need of the people, he demonstrated the grace and love without which all men live without hope. In this way, as Yahweh redeemed Israel from bondage to the Egyptians, so did Christ redeem his people from the consequences of the broken Law of God and bondage to sin.

Because Roman Catholicism receives Church Tradition as a source of revelation equal to Scripture, certain ideas about Mary have developed over time. These ideas are defended by inaccurate inferences drawn from Scripture texts related to Mary, coupled with an orthodox, Tradition-born title of her’s which has been misdefined and misapplied to make more out of Mary than is warranted by that title. One Church Council defended the doctrine that Christ was fully God and fully man from conception by saying that Christ was God even when he was in Mary’s womb. They bolstered this doctrine with a logical syllogism reasoning that since Mary is the Mother of Christ, and since Christ is God, then Mary is the “Mother of God” (theotokos). Through an inaccuarte transmission of this concept over time, the idea of Mary’s being the Mother of God gradually took into it associations of Mary with divinity. Coupling this with uncalled-for inferences from the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-48) and Mary’s “intercessory” activity in the New Testament account of the marriage at Cana (John 2:3), Roman Catholicism developed a divine mary who prays to her loving Son to extend forgiveness to penitent believers, making her a mediator between sinners and Christ, thus playing some role in Christ’s work as our Redeemer; a role which has led many Roman Catholics since the Middle Ages to call Mary “Co-Mediatrix” and “Co-Redemptrix” with Christ, which obviously contradicts the Bible’s emphasis that Christ alone (SOLU CHRISTUS, as the Reformers sloganized it) mediates between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Thus in popular Roman soteriology, Mary becomes, if you will, the matron saint of Roman Redeemers.

If Mary is the brightest star in a sky of Saints, let us now turn our attention to the lesser lights, each of which individually and corporately play a role in the nature and ongoing maintenance of Roman Redemption. Protestants understand that the word “saint” is used many times in the gospels and epistles. According to 1 Peter 1:1-2, a saint is a “sanctified one,” one who was elected by the Father in eternity past (cf. Ephesians 1:3-6) to be set apart by the work of the Holy Spirit in the gospel preached to receive the gift of faith (cf. Romans 10:17; Ephesians 2:8,9), and be sprinkled with Christ’s blood. The apostles greet many of the churches to which they write, referring to them as “the saints.” Clearly, these are references to the members of the church, without any distinction being made between classes of saints.

Church Tradition began to claim that a Saint is one whose personal righteousness was so meritorious that there was not only enough righteousness practiced to ensure his inclusion in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but enough also to be deposited in a so-called “Treasury of Merit” to be dispensed through the sacrament of penance to repair the damage done by sinning Catholics to their own justification. In other words, if post-justification righteousness was graded on a modern teacher’s scale, the “Saints” are those who scored over 100% in their lifetimes with the amount exceeding 100% being deposited into this “Treasury of Merit” for the benefit of the rest of the Church. Thus by this unscriptural doctrine, Christ alone is not enough to ensure our eternal salvation; he requires the assistance of his mother and the most worthy of his disciples. It cannot be urged too strongly to flee any doctrine that does not center on redemption SOLUS CHRISTUS, in Christ Alone! Certainly a gospel that requires such an elaborate team of Redeemers is a gospel that differs from the one originally proclaimed by the apostles.

Last week, a comment from “John the Curious Catholic” inspired me to post the following. He’s a Catholic examining Protestant theology; I wrote the following once to help a couple of Protestants who were examining the Roman Catholic teachings. John, feel free to correct or contend with whatever I may have misconstrued or treated too simplistically. All I know about the subject, I learned from the guy in the picture (R. C. Sproul). If you want more detailed info, consult his website, www.ligonier.org. But considering, this isn’t your first rodeo, you probably already have! At any rate, happy reading!

Detailing the Historic Errors of Roman Catholicism, Contrasted with the Historic and Scriptural Emphases of the Protestant Reformation

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)

Roman Revelation:
The Word of Christ and Church Tradition

The Roman Catholic Church subscribes to the “Two Source” theory of revelati0n. This is the view that Church Tradition alongside Scripture serves as God’s means of revealing divine truth to the world. Church Tradition develops in many ways: Ecumenical and Catholic Councils, writings of the Church Fathers, “ex cathedra” (from the throne) pronouncements by Popes.

The Reformers had respect for all aspects of “Church Tradition” — they knew it has its place; however, they also knew that the authority of Scripture exceeds the authority of all other forms of Church authority. Creeds, Councils, Fathers, Popes, Bishops are all subject to Scripture, according to Protestant doctrine because God has “exalted above all things [his] name and [his] word” (Psalm 138:2). The Reformers’ work was to examine all these things in the light of Scripture, rejecting that which is not consistent with Scripture, maintaining that which is. Scripture alone was written by Christ’s Apostles and it is their writings which embodies the foundation of which Christ himself is the cornerstone. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles that the converts on the first Day of Pentecost following Christ’s ascension ” . . . devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . . ” Inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church seeks divine revelation in the Word of Christ and postapostolic Church Tradition, they undermine their devotion to the Apostles’ teaching, whereas the Protestant Church obediently confesses that divine revelation is only found in the writings of the Apostles (meaning the New Testament) and Prophets (meaning the Old Testament). Their slogan for this biblical emphasis was, “SOLA SCRIPTURA,” that is, “Scripture Alone.”

Not only did the Roman Catholic Church undermine the authority of Scripture by Church Tradition (cf. Matthew 15:6b-7a), they also corrupted the Word of God by weaving into its contents apocryphal books which demonstrably lack the marks of inspiration borne by the canonical Old and New Testaments. While it is true that some early editions of the Authorized Version commissioned by King James I of England and produced by Anglican clergy and scholars contained the Apocrypha, they published them separately between the Testaments for use as informative intertestamental history, similar to our modern English translations which frequently contain articles detailing this very same information. The only difference between then and now is that then, they provided the original sources; now we merely condense this material in essay form. Furthermore, the 39 Articles of the Church of England explicitly deny the inspiration of the Apocryphal books.

1. Q. What is the Gospel?
A. The Gospel is the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Q. What did the Lord Jesus Christ do in his life?
A. The Lord Jesus Chrsit perfectly obeyed God’s Law and earned eternal life for sinners in his life.

3. Q. What did the Lord Jesus Christ do in his death?
A. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered sin’s penalty for sinners in his death.

4. Q. What did the Lord Jesus Christ do in his resurrection?
A. The Lord Jesus Christ proved that sinners have been justified before God in his resurrection.

5. Q. Why do we call him Lord?
A. We call him Lord, because he is our Creator and our God and so we must obey him.

6. Q. Why do we call the Lord, Jesus?
A. We call the Lord, Jesus, because God sent his Son to save sinners.

7. Q. Why do we call the Lord Jesus, Christ?
A. We call the Lord Jesus, Christ, because God has anointed his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to reign as King over his people and conquer the world, the flesh, the devil and death.

8. Q. To what does God call us in the Gospel?
A. In the Gospel, God calls us to repent of our sins, receive Christ by faith, worship him in spirit and truth and obey him in thought, word and deed.

Resurrection and Justification

How is the resurrection of Christ linked to the idea of justification in the New Testament? To answer this question, we must first explore the use and meaning of the term justification in the New Testament. Confusion about this has provoked some of the fiercest controversies in the history of the church. The Protestant Reformation itself was fought over the issue of justification. In all its complications, the unreconciled and unreconcilable difference in the debate came down to the question of whether our justification before God is grounded in the infusion of Christ’s righteousness into us, by which we become inherently righteous, or in the imputation, or reckoning, of Christ’s righteousness to us while we are still sinners. The difference between these views makes all the difference in our understanding of the Gospel and how we are saved.

Losing Something in the Translation
One of the problems that led to confusion was the meaning of the word justification. Our English word justification is derived from the Latin justificare. The literal meaning of the Latin is “to make righteous.” The Latin fathers of church history worked with the Latin text instead of the Greek text and were clearly influenced by it. By contrast, the Greek word for justification, dikaiosune, carries the meaning of “to count, reckon, or declare righteous.” The verb “to justify” and its noun form, “justification,” have shades of meaning in Greek. One of the meanings of the verb is “to vindicate” or “to demonstrate.”

The Justification of Jesus
The Resurrection involves justification in both senses of the Greek term. First, the Resurrection justifies Christ himself. Of course, he is not justified in the sense of having his sins remitted, because he had no sins, or in the sense of being “made righteous.” Rather, the Resurrection serves as the vindication or demonstration of the truth of his claims about himself.

In his encounter with the philosophers at Athens, Paul declared: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

Here Paul points to the Resurrection as an act by which the Father universally vindicates the authenticity of his Son. In this sense, Christ is justified before the whole world by his resurrection.

The Justification of Sinners
However, the New Testament also links Christ’s resurrection to our justification. Paul writes, “It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:24-25).

It is clear that in his atoning death Christ suffered on our behalf, or for us. Likewise, his resurrection is seen not only as a vindication of or surety of himself, but as a surety of our justification. Here justification does not refer to our vindication, but to the evidence that the atonement he made was accepted by the Father. By vindicating Christ in his resurrection, the Father declared his acceptance of Jesus’ work on our behalf. Our justification in this theological sense rests on the imputed righteousness of Christ, so the reality of that transaction is linked to Christ’s resurrection. Had Christ not been raised, we would have a mediator whose redeeming work in our behalf was not acceptable to God.

However, Christ is risen indeed!

Romans 4:25 bugged me for years and I used to ask everyone I knew whom I thought might know something, and the only answer I ever got was, “Because God’s Word says so.”

Thanks to Ligonier Ministries for this short article detailing the relationship between Christ’s resurrection and our justification. Be sure and click on the link above in the title, “Easter Theology” and patronize their ministry. You’ll be amazed how much you’ll learn about God, do so on your knees and allow the theology to become doxology (praise)!

“You can’t help nobody if you can’t tell ’em the right story.” Jack Cash, brother of Johnny Cash, as portrayed in Walk the Line (PG 13)

Every story is about fall and redemption in one way or another. There would be no plot if there were no problem to solve or conflict to resolve. The story of the entir human race is that of its fall and redemption. Your stroy is about your fall and your redemption. The mission of the church is to tell this story; to introduce the characters to the plot: they’ve fallen and they can’t get themselves up on their own, their problem is so bad, they can’t solve it themselves, they need Another to solve it for them, the conflict that has entered their life has killed them, and they need Another to return them to life.

Stories are often considered mere entertainment. And to be sure, the church in this Laodecian (Rev. 2) generation have caught on to the idea that entertainment will help them tell the Story. Even if at times they’re telling the right story, that of the fall of man into sin and the sinless Christ crucified and risen for sinners, they’ve wrapped it up in so much entertainment that many are in danger of overlooking the Gift because they’re so fascinated by the wrapping paper. If sinners are distracted from the Story by trappings geared toward appealing to their interests, or meeting their felt needs, the church can’t help them. At other times, the church forgets to get around to the Story at all because they’re so aware of all the other stories in the Bible. “Christians don’t need to hear the Story this week, they’ve already heard and believed and received it, now they need to hear what they need to do,” and thus the Story is placed on the shelf in the interest of relevance or practicality. But no matter how much they mean to help, they “can’t help nobody if [they ain’t tellin’ ’em] the right story.”

The church seeks to tell a story, but all too often it’s not the Story they were commissioned to tell (Matthew 28:19-20). Many times they tell their own story. A story about how they’ve picked themselve up by their own bootstraps, a story about what a great example they are. When this is the story they tell, the Holy Spirit won’t bring sinners to life, nor will he empower believers to serve. All applications and all examples, and all pastoral autobiography are not to stand alone. They are to be built on the firm foundation of the Story, explicitly told each week.

We’ve fallen into sin so there’s nothing we can do to redeem ourselves:

. . . that’s why the Story must remain on center stage: The Gospel is for Christians, too!

They must be reminded that even though they’ve been saved they still need to hear the Gospel addressed to them (1 John 1:9) to cleanse them so they can progress on the journey to glorification by way of sanctification (Proverbs 4:18).

When the preacher neglects to tell the church the right Story, he can’t help the church grow in grace.

The Scriptures just handed me another blade with which to continue my ongoing crusade to reintroduce the Gospel to Evangelicalism. I was listening to the book of 1 Peter on CD, when I heard that Peter writes that we were born again through the living and abiding word of God, he ended the passage clarifying what the “word” is that gave us new life: “And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b).

“And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b)

I’ve been amazed in the past couple of years how deaf the ears are on which this message falls. The constant reply to my constant pleas that every sermon should always be explicitly built on the foundation of the Gospel of the sinless life of Jesus, the death of Jesus because of our sins and the resurrection of Jesus because those who come to faith are justified is that “we are to preach ‘the Word’.

“And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b)

What my dear brethren mean is that we should preach the “whole counsel of God.” We should preach more than just the Gospel, the Bible talks about all kinds of other things than just the Gospel, if we always preach the Gospel, we won’t have time to preach the rest of the Bible. What they miss is that I’m not talking about preaching the Gospel instead of the rest of the Bible, I’m talking about (and so did the Reformers, who recovered the Gospel out of the ash heap of Romanism, the “Founding Fathers” of “Evangelicalism”) preaching all of the Bible in context.

What is the context? The Gospel.

Everything that comes before the sinless Christ crucified and risen for sinners points to and reaches its pinnacle and therefore its ultimate point in the sinless Christ crucified and risen for sinners; likewise, everything that is revealed in Scripture after the sinless Christ crucified and risen for sinners (you know, all that “practical” and “relevant” stuff) flows out of and is built on the foundation of the sinless Christ crucified and risen for sinners.

If we talk about everything that leads up to the Gospel but leave out any explicit reference to the Gospel as the point of that material, and get off on things other than that ultimate point, then we are not preaching the Word.

“And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b)

If we talk about all that practical stuff that is built on the foundation of the Gospel and flows from the source of the Gospel, assuming everyone understands that the Gospel is the source, foundation and reason we do these things, then we are not preaching the Gospel, because I don’t care how long people have been involved in church, if they don’t get reminded constantly (in every sermon) that all that stuff they are to do which is taught in Scripture is founded on, has it source in, and is done because of, and by the power of the Gospel, the Power of God for Salvation to Everyone who Believes, then they’re going to wind up doing it by their own power and for their own reasons. And therefore, the Word hasn’t been preached.

“And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25b).

Are the sermons you hear Christ-centered or Man-centered?

Get your pad and pencil or pen ready the next time you sit under the preaching of the Word of God, and see how you fare with the following three questions:

1. Is Jesus mentioned in this sermon?
2. Is Jesus the subject of the verbs?
3. If so, what are the verbs?

Among other considerations, there are two primary objectives that must be communicated in any sermon:

• Indicatives (What God or Christ does for or to sinful and/or saved man)
• Imperative (What sinful and saved men are to do for God and Christ)

For example, the Law (what God is and does, and so what man ought to be and do) is imperative, and the Gospel (what Christ has done for sinners) is indicative.

In Christ-centered preaching, the logic will flow from indicative to imperative; from what God does, in Christ, to what man ought to do. We derive the proper motive and power to perform the imperatives of Scripture from the proclamation of the indicatives of Scripture.

Whenever the focus of the sermon is imperative, what we can or should be doing, and the indicatives of God’s work on our behalf rates as a secondary concern in the sermon, we unintentionally slip into thinking we’ll earn the indicatives (that which God grants by his grace) by performing the imperatives (that which God gave us to prove to us we must rely only on his grace). This is the danger of man-centered preaching.

Is Jesus mentioned in the sermons you hear? If he is, is he the subject of the verbs; is he the one doing the work, or is Man? If Jesus is the one doing the work, what work of his is being proclaimed? Is he proclaimed as our Problem-Solver, Example (WWJD), Therapist or Sugar Daddy? Or is he proclaimed as our Creator, Redeemer, Advocate, Mediator, Judge, Prophet, Priest or King?

The reason this matters is because “the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Salvation is an all-encompassing work, including not only our justification, but also our sanctification and our glorification. Preaching on sanctification is vitally important; there is much for us to do, in dependence on God’s gracious empowerment, to grow in sanctification, but this is not achieved by majoring on detailing all the imperatives alone, but the imperatives of preaching, what we normally call “application” of God’s Word, must be built on the foundation of the indicative of the Gospel preached alone.

So, don’t forget to ask these three questions the next time you hear a sermon, and may it provoke you to pray that your preacher makes the Gospel plain to instill faith in the lost and to strengthen the faith of the saved.