KindiakMath

All Christians believe that we are saved by grace through faith. Different denominations develop different mental models of said saving, but all agree that it happens by an act of God’s generosity to us:

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. [Ephesians 2:8–9]

But a classic question arises: if we are saved by grace through faith, and is not a result of works, does that mean we get to sin however we want? Any serious Christian would scoff at that rather ludicrous statement, myself included. But how might we defend our rightful retort rigorously?

In these blog posts, I have defined a Christian as follows (where I used the masculine pronoun without loss of generality):

Definition 1. A person is Christian if he regards Jesus as his Saviour, King, and God. More specifically:

• Saviour: Jesus saved him from his own sin-death spiral,
• King: Jesus’ agenda take priority over any other agenda, and
• God: Jesus is the self-existent maximally great being.

Lemma 1. To keep rules as a pre-requisite to receiving God’s kindness is to deny Jesus as Saviour.

Proof. The New Testament repeatedly opposes “by works” (i.e. rule-keeping) to “by grace”.

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. [Ephesians 2:8–9]

Making rule-keeping a pre-requisite is exactly what the Apostle Paul calls “seeking to be justified by the law”:

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” [Galatians 3:11–12]

Christ came to save sinners from the curse of the law as our curse-substitute:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. [Galatians 3:13–14]

Therefore if receiving God’s saving kindness required law-keeping, we would have no curse-substitute, and Christ’s death is emptied of its saving meaning:

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [Galatians 5:2–4]

Therefore, to treat God’s saving kindness as conditioned on rule-keeping would be to shift confident safety in to our rule-keeping and out of Christ’s work—denying Him as the one and only Saviour of our sin-death spiral.

Corollary 1. A Christian will not look to rule-keeping as a pre-requisite of God’s kindness.

Lemma 2. To sin however we want is to deny Jesus as King.

Proof. To sin however we want, by definition of “we want”, is to desire sin:

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. [James 1:14–15]

Sin leads to rebellion against God and His objectively good words and works (i.e. biblical law-breaking):

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [Matthew 13:41–42]

In that regard, our agenda in sinful desire takes priority of Jesus’ agenda for upright living:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Ephesians 2:10]

Therefore, to sin as we want is to deny Jesus as having the highest-priority agenda in our lives (i.e. as King).

Corollary 2. A Christian will not want to keep on sinning.

Lemma 3. To give greater attention to any pursuit other than the person of Jesus is to deny Him as God.

Proof. The first among many of God’s good words in His commandments is to worship the LORD, and only the LORD:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. [Exodus 20:2–3]

Furthermore, we are to love the LORD with our entire selves:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. [Deuteronomy 6:4–6]

In this case, no other pursuit will be greater than our pursuit of the LORD:

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. [Matthew 6:24–25]

Since Jesus is one of the three co-eternal persons in the one LORD God, if we see Jesus as God, we will give attention to Him with all our selves, and must be greater than attention to any other pursuit. Taking the contrapositive, if we give greater attention to any pursuit other than the person of Jesus, we deny Him as God.

Corollary 3. A Christian will give the greatest attention to Jesus.

Theorem 1. A Christian will give the greatest attention to Jesus, and not want to keep on sinning nor look to rule-keeping as a pre-requisite of God’s kindness.

Proof. Lemmas 1–3.

Theorem 2. A Christian will abound in good works, called virtues.

Proof. When a person views Jesus as Saviour, they will see God’s kindness as an action that expresses His massive love:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5:6–8]

Furthermore, they see clearly of God’s superior design for life:

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. [Romans 6:20–22]

And they see the superior goodness of Jesus as their King, grounded in uprightness:

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. [Psalm 45:6–7]

Under this King’s righteous rule, life flourishes, inwardly in virtue:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [Galatians 5:22–24]

And outwardly in blessing:

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. [Acts 4:32–35]

Even blessing towards the unlikeliest of persons:

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. [1 Corinthians 4:11–13]

And they display God’s glory to even His enemies via virtue:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. [1 Peter 2:11–12]

—Joel Kindiak, 10 Dec 25, 1654H