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The Fallen and Redeemed Natures
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Scholasticism arose before and after the Reformation (AD 1517–1648).
Before the Reformation, pundits sought to understand God and his universe with more profundity. One of the primary issues was the relationship between faith and reason. A prominent concept was nominalism, which unwittingly opened the door for skepticism of the Bible and the promotion of human autonomy. Both of these ideas would become toxic to orthodox Christianity.
After the Reformation, the scholastic emphasis morphed from faith and reason to the relationship between faith and works. The soteriology of the Reformation based on the grace of God played a role in this change. If salvation is by grace, what is the role of human works? This became a prominent question.
There are some today who dismiss the role of works in the process of salvation as revealed in the New Testament. However, some of the seventeenth-century scholars had a different perspective. Consider, for example, the following quote about the relationship between faith and works from one of the theological pundits of the time:
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Nor can it be objected here that faith was required also in the first covenant and works are not excluded in the second. They stand in a far different relation to each other for in the first covenant faith was required as a work and a part of the inherent righteousness to which life was promised but in the second it is demanded not as a work on account of which life is given but as a mere instrument apprehending the righteousness of Christ on account of which alone salvation is granted to us. In the one, faith was a theological virtue from the strength of nature terminating on God the Creator. In the other, faith is an evangelical condition after the manner of supernatural grace terminating on Christ the redeemer. As to works, they were required in the first as an antecedent condition by way of a cause for acquiring life but in the second they are only the subsequent condition as the fruit and effect of the life already acquired. In the first, they ought to precede the act of justification. In the second, they follow it. (Francis Turretin,[1] 1623–1687)
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Turretin recognized that the relationship between faith and works was different in the New Testament and the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, justification before God was predicated on good works (defined as works aligned with God’s will, ways, and timing, and for the glory of God). The works must be performed perfectly and continually as a precondition of justification before God. But in the New Testament, good works are the by-product of divine empowerment that effects justification by faith. So, works are part of both covenants but in different ways.
One of the purposes for this difference was to answer an anthropological question.
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Are you a sinner because you sin?
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Do you sin because you are a sinner?
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If people are sinners because they individually sin, then it is, theoretically, possible that a person or persons could choose not to sin. But the apostle Paul answered this question (Ephesians 2:1–3). He stated that mankind is born “dead in trespasses and sins.” This means that humans—all humans—sin because they are by nature sinners.
Also, Paul inferred that the salvation process is initiated as an act of sovereign grace and not by human works. Note his words:
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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 ESV)
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This means that humans cannot freely choose to believe in Jesus, rather, Jesus chooses us. An illustration of this is the apostle Paul who was intercepted by Jesus on the road to Damascus while seeking to persecute Jesus and his disciples. Paul was not seeking Christ; he did not choose to believe in Christ. Christ chose him and saved him (Acts 9:1−19).
Jesus initiated and executed his encounter with Paul. The evidence of the divine work of grace in a recipient is the expression of faith by the recipient. Paul had no choice but to obey Jesus. Anyone expressing true faith in Jesus will be divinely empowered and impotent to resist the reality of Christ in them. This is the way of grace. Jesus said:
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All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (John 6:37 NKJV)
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People come to Christ because they have been given to Christ by the heavenly Father. There is no human choice in the initial step of coming to Christ. Salvation by grace is a divine work. This is sometime termed irresistible grace.
Having been chosen by God to receive eternal life, Paul explained that the purpose of salvation was, in part, for those saved to fulfill a divinely defined work assignment while on earth (Ephesians 2:10). Each recipient of God’s grace is saved to perform a work assignment in the metanarrative. Consequently, good works are not performed out of obligation but out of gratitude, as Turretin so eloquently stated above.
Serving the purpose of God out of gratitude is taught in Colossians 3. Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit and responsible to stop embracing values, principles, and practices incompatible with Jesus and start embracing values, principles, and practices compatible with Jesus. Scripture states this as “put to death” traits of the fallen nature (the nature of mankind without Jesus) and “put on” traits of the redeemed nature (the nature of mankind transformed by Jesus). Some of these traits for both the fallen nature and redeemed nature are listed in Colossians 3.
In addition, the overarching Christian trait is love, biblically defined as sacrificially serving God’s purpose in others. The virtues that flow from biblical love are illustrated in the right-hand column below. And in the left-hand column are virtues incompatible with Jesus.
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Learning to live as a Christian is a lifelong process of sanctification effected by the Holy Spirit. Christians will progressively mature (Philippians 1:6). Consequently, their deportment will look increasingly more like their position in Christ. To his Galatian disciples, Paul described the process of sanctification as Christ being formed in them (Galatians 4:19).
As many have stated, Christianity is not based on cheap grace. The call to be a disciple of Jesus is the call to forsake all others and be solely devoted to Jesus (Luke 14:25). Anything less is lukewarm, which is anathema to Jesus (Revelation 3:14). But no one can meet Jesus’ requirements for discipleship without divine empowerment, as Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3). This is the grace of God in the New Covenant that empowers Jesus’ followers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and to be mature (2 Peter 3:18).
May the Lord grant us all the grace to step up and mature into the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14–15). This is the only way to express our gratitude for the gift of life in Christ Jesus.
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[1] Scholastic Theology by W. Robert Godfrey, A Survey of Church History, Part 4 AD 1600–1800, https://www.ligonier.org/ (starting at 8:30 minute mark).
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Teaching: The Fallen and Redeemed Natures
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Sept – Dec 2023: Christian Worldview of Management
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Biblical Guidance for Building Organizations
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January 2024: Strategic Life Alignment Seminar
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Biblical Guidance for Finding Your Life Purpose
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Feb – April 2024: Christian Worldview of Leadership
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Biblical Guidance for Self-Governance and Leading Organizations
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July 2024: Strategic Life Alignment Alumni Event
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More Biblical Guidance for Finding Your Life Purpose
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The Business Roundtable is a monthly gathering of organizational leaders who seek to lead and manage based on a Christian worldview.
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