Reformation: Justification

More on the Reformation series by Adam Kaloostian.  Last week I wrote about sin, then listened to justification.  This week, I write about justification and I'll listen to whatever's next on the docket.

1. Did the terms of the covenant of works change after mankind fell in Adam?
A big fat NO.  To e blessed by God, we still have to be perfectly obedient.  2 problems arise: We can't do the works.  We all sinned in Adam and are born automatically separated from God.
Also, we can never bay off our debt for our failed works.  This is why God gave us a solution: he sent Christ.

2. What are the "active" and "passive" aspects of Christ's justifying works?
Christ passively obeyed by receiving our punishment on the cross.  He actively obeyed by doing all the good things that God requires.  He earned God's favor and we get credit for it, while we earned his wrath and He got credit for that.

3. What does "propitiation" mean?
We receive the blood he shed on our behalf.  Jesus satisfied the anger of God against our sin.  We had blood tainted with Adam's sin.  We now need clean blood to approach a holy God, and Jesus gives us this blood.

4. How is Adam a type of Jesus Christ who came?  On what basis will God reward anyone with eternal peace and happiness?

As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.  All are condemned by one man.  Not all will receive justification, but only those who receive God's gift.  Without true faith there is no justification.  But all people who are saved are saved by one man.

5. What are the 3 "parts" of true faith?  What is the "gospel promise"?
Knowledge -- aware of facts, know that God is true
Assent -- believe that the facts are true
Trust -- Christ died for my sins perfectly and my obedience worked out in his life.  Only those who believe have that atonement.

How do I know that I have it?  1 John 1:8 -- If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  We know we have truth because we are convicted of our sin.
Verse 9 -- If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
John 6:37--One who comes to me I will certainly not cast you out.

6. What role do our good works play in our justification?
No role.  We cannot be justified by our works.

Church re-cap

Church is really exciting now that we have kids all the time.  Also, Christmas is coming and that makes me happy.  I think I got my personnel differences worked out for now, but I also need prayer that people don't put worms in my ear, but that God will lead to what is right.

In teen Sunday School, we're going to speed through the Joseph story.  Yesterday we did Genesis 37, skipped 38, then did 39-40.  I did assign 38 for homework because, honestly, you can't graduate church and not know about Judah, Christ's ancestor and creation.

For warm-up, we talked about things that spoil relationships from A to Z.  Of course F stands for favoritism, which Jacob did to Joseph, forgetting that Isaac did the same thing to Esau and it also ruined that family.  Also, since Joseph kept getting into jail unfairly, I asked a series of unfair questions:
1. How do you put a giraffe in your fridge?  Easy, you open the door, put the giraffe in, and shut it.
2.  How do you put an elephant in your fridge?  Easy, open the door, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in, and shut the door.
3.  The Lion King called a meeting of all the animal kingdom.  One animal isn't there.  Which is it?  Duh, the elephant.  He's still in your fridge.
4.  The crocodiles own a river with no bridge and no boat.  You want to cross.  How do you do it?  Easy, just get in and swim because the crocs are still at the animal meeting.

Between Sunday School and church, I taped cardboard tubes to the wall.  Then in Children's Church, I quizzed them on what we talked about all fall.  If they got an answer right, they taped a leaf to the tubes, which were palm tree trunks.  Then, we did the story of Joseph rising to Pharaoh's number 2.  I'd ask a question, they'd read a paragraph of Genesis 40, then tape a picture on some steps until Joe got to Prime Minister. (I love having British curriculum.)

Macaria was back.  She somehow found my camera and started taking pictures.  I'll post them later.  I need to remember to bring my Cat for Kittens next week and keep it there, lest she come.

Communion went better this week.  Shannon the man called us into church and we partook.  Macaria sat next to me.  Normally she's seeking attention, but she was very respectful.  I emphasized that Jesus us really with us during communion and we need to be respectful.  She did better than the older kids.  May Jesus's blood revolutionize them this week.

Listening to Records: Learning to Breathe

This is the last Switchfoot album with just Jon, Tim, and Chad.  It's also probably the last time they took baths, as they lost the clean cut look after this.  This is certainly their only overtly Christian album.

Here is the song from "Learning to Breathe."  They revamped it for the next album.  This is the song.  This is the song that ended up on Walk to Remember and launched Switchfoot into secular music.  The Learning to Breathe version is cleaner, much like the boys were. 

Amazing song.  It's like these guys are still cooped up in child-world, where they live with parents and are done with college but are still trying to get jobs and live independently.  It's where I am at this point, and I am certainly learning to adjust to not being free after the college independence.  I'm learning to breathe.  More importantly, I'm learning to rely on the Lord for everything as my obsessions and worries get in my way.

Very Christian song.  A good music video where they are flying planes.  They say they are musicians and we shouldn't try it at home.  Darn. 

Either way, they live for heaven now.  God is so present to them that they are already in heaven.  It's true.  Jesus Christ is heaven and we don't need to pine for it now.  I hope they still believe that these days.

This song is amazing.  Years later, I saw so many people wearing t-shirts with "Love is the Movement" on them.  I had no idea that was referring to the Switchfoot song as the song didn't get on Walk to Remember, but it does.  I just learned tonight that it's a theme song for "To Write Love on Her Arms" that organization that works to stop teen suicide and cutting.

Tune for the poparazzi.  Last really cute Switchfoot song with references to pop culture.  Another in the theme of riches don't get you everything.  In fact, you'll be more depressed with fame and fortune.  You'll get no private moment and will have to mold to the world's expectations.  Sadly, this is exactly what happened to Switchfoot in the next years.

Innocence Again.  The effects of God's grace on someone's life.  We've ruined our lives but through Jesus's blood, God restored us to a time when we were still innocent.

Playing for Keeps.  A lovely forgettable song, therefore, I'm not linking to it.

Only the losers win.  Very catchy version of Jesus's warnings: if you gain you're life you'll lose it; if you lose you're life you'll gain it.

The Economy of Mercy.  They seriously need to sing this song again.  It's their most Christian song.  In fact, it's almost reformed.  You should listen to this twice.

Erosion, er, I mean, "eroosion," as it is pronounced in Jon's Kermit voice.  This is one of the many songs where I make fun of their pronunciations.

Living is Simple.  Very happy song with a good ending, and another you should listen to over and over.  It's the best song on the album.  Living is at least meant to be simple.  They don't seem so simple on later albums, but right now, it's just as it should be.

Friday Facts!

Cleaning my house this week, I found the rest of my hamper!  Yay!  I don't have buy a new one.  I didn't have to buy a new one to find the old one.  I just needed to clean.

Maybe I'll find Christmas presents this way.  Find old stuff, wrap them up, and give them to people.  It's not like they'll get anything unless I mooch off  my dad even more. 

I got my old bed up here, too!  Yay!  Now I can invite friends over for sleepovers!  I'll still sleep on the daybed that I've slept since April of 2010, but I can put bed sheets on my old bed and will simply look nice. 

Sadly, now that my hamper is up, I think my bed is going to be doubling as a hamper as well.

Going to a Wycliff Bible translators banquet tomorrow night.  I would love to be a part of that.

Got an internship interview on Tuesday, but I'm still hesitant about giving up my freedom.  I'm especially hesitant about it conflicting with my volunteering at Refuge.  Alas, I'll have to give something up, though, and this is what I've been clamoring for all fall.  I need an internship, experience, and possibly insurance, so again, I don't have to keep mooching off of dad.

I'm stealing this from Persis.  It's just too adorable.

If we only had a rep

(to "If I Only Had a Brain.")

While Georgia voted red
We're stuck with him instead
Congressman Hank Johnson
We originally had John Linder
But our state got gerrymandered
If we only had a rep

He spoke for my dad's Rotary
He's so dumb that it's scary
His own party had to apologize
He thinks weight will seek an island
State healthcare we should stop fighting
If we only had a rep

I wish that I could move
Out of the three
Blue districts left
But in ministry and college
I can't move out.
I must adjust.

We still get to trust in God
Congress approved the motto
Only nine folks object.
No surprise on the roster
Hank opposed it like a rock star.
If I only had a rep.

Pharaoh Pharaoh

Another weird day where I did an hour of driving and didn't leave my town.  Part of that driving included turning around to get my cell phone.  It was right next to my brain, charging. 

I'm really excited about our new era at Trinity where we have Herndons every week for at least a year.  We'll get so much done.

For the kids' lesson, we'll have palm trunks, a quiz game, and a leave on each palm trunk for each correct answer.  Then we'll read a bit of Genesis 41, answer a question, and put a picture for that answer on some steps.  I've decided that the glue is banned for now.  The kids will have to just pass around the tape.  Then we'll have communion, in the sanctuary because it's communion Sunday, and this time stay there because I miss singing the hymns. 

For the teen, we'll speed through Genesis 37 to 40, and I'll give her chapter 38 for homework.  I want more people to know about Judah.  Despite his seedy story, he still is Christ's ancestor, and people need to notice how he rises to the forefront.  His story is more impressive than Joseph.  But it's still fun how Joseph starts out as Jacob's favorite, brags about his dreams, and I do agree that he was a spoiled brat.  Mom thought he was perfect, but I agree to the spoiled brat theory. 

It took unfair incarceration, being framed by Mrs. Potiphar, and more jail time, to make him the godly man that we remember.  Joseph had to get away from Jacob to see God while Judah got to know God through his grace alone.  It took impregnating Tamar, accusing her of whoredom, and then her accusing him back, for him to finally take responsibility for his actions, eventually offer his life for Benjamin, and become the true eldest son of Jacob, the one man God chose for Christ's lineage.

Reformed Faith 3

Part 3 of Adam Kaloostian's series.  This is about preaching the Word: the first of the three signs of the true church.  He focuses on Total Depravity for now.

1. Why is it important that preaching should be clear about sin?
"You can't understand the Gospel unless you understand sin.  People are bad, very bad.  And we have to answer to God. You have cancer.  The doctor needs to offend you to give you a cure.  Without knowing sin, we won't take the proper course to treat it."
Those are all Adam's points.  My interpretation, we need to know about sin because we need to know why we need a Savior.  In fact, we need to know how serious is this sin, that even one sends you to hell forever.  We will never stand trial before a God who is a consuming fire with our flammable sin.  This is also why it is so important that we believe Genesis literally.  We need to believe that millions of years of death did NOT occur before man sinned, that death is the result of sin, and that as we all have Adam's DNA, we all have to die because sin is in our blood.

2. What is the covenant of works?  What is our spiritual relationship to our first father Adam?
God gave Adam the covenant of works: obey perfectly in thoughts, words, and actions and you will live with God's blessing.  Adam did not keep that covenant, therefore we are all separated from God.
Romans 5:12 shows that when Adam sinned, death entered into the world through that sin, cursing the ground and his children.  It spreads to all men because all sin. 
Paul also says that until there was the Law, sin was in the world.  The Law did not come until Moses, so sin was not imputed to the people because they had not heard the Law, yet they still died from Adam to Moses. 
Why was there death between those times?  We are dying because we are punished for Adam's first sin.  It is credited to us as if we had done it.  We all sinned in Adam and we all belong to the fallen, sinful race from birth.
My answer: since Adam and Eve had no children until after the fall, we were all born separated from God.  If they had children before the fall, then some would have been perfect, but since all of us are after the fall, we all are born in separation and in death.

3. What does it mean to be totally depraved?
Romans 3:9 shows how we are already charged with our crimes.  All are under sin.  No one is righteous, not one.  None seek for God.  If there are religious seekers then either the Holy Spirit is hunting them down, or they are seeking idols: the benefits of religion without the actual religion.  In our "free will" we can only sin.  Everyone and every action is only inclined to seen.  Even if we could come to our Holy God, the consuming fire, with our flammable sin, we would not want to in our own "free will."

4.  How do you come to know that you are totally depraved?
You come to that knowledge by hearing the Law, as shown in Romans 3:19.  It speaks to those under the law.  Through the law comes knowledge of sin, making us wonder if we've ever obeyed any commandment.  Have you obeyed a commandment?  Since you've broken at least one and followed none of them whole-heartedly, you realized that you are a sinner and woefully lost from God.  The Jews would always try to obey from the moment they knew until they died, but even then, penance does not erase your past sins.  You are still condemned.  A code of commandments that was supposed to produce life became our deaths because we've broken all of it.

5. What is God's fair punishment against sinners?
Death.  Eternal condemnation.  People are born into sad situations and conditions.  It is sad, but that's the way it is.

That's all for now.  We'll get to the solution next week.