Vol. XXXVIII July 3, 2006 No 7
FAITH AND EXPERIENCE
Be Who and What You Are! (2)
by Tom McLemore
Last month, we began exploring the distinction between what is accepted by faith and what is realized in experience by looking at becoming and being a child of God. We explored becoming a child of God in terms of the birth (baptism) which is realized as fact by faith, and living as a child of God (manifesting the behavior of a child of God) which is realized in the experience of the believer. This month we will consider other doctrines concerning which the teaching of the scriptures can only be understood by keeping this distinction in mind.
There are many statements about things which occur which we must acknowledge on the basis of faith (because God reveals to us that these things occur). They are distinct from our knowing them in our experience. And yet, we must accept the fact that they occurred when God says they occurred. It may be grasped, in some cases, by accepting the indicative as well as the related imperative. The indicative in these cases is acknowledged only in terms of faith, but by means of responding to the imperative, it is acknowledged in terms of experience. Yet we must recognize on this basis that the occurrence was a reality in God before it becomes real in experience. In fact, it is conceivable that many things that are said by God to have occurred may never, in this life, be realized fully in experience!
Consider some New Testament doctrines that can be understood only in terms of the distinction between status and accomplishment, faith and experience, indicative and imperative. Keeping this distinction as clear is possible is the key to grasping the New Testament approach to ethics, viz., Be who and what you are!
First consider the concept of creation. At the moment of entering or being clothed with Christ (which occurs for the penitent believer at baptism, according to Romans 6:3, 4; Galatians 3:26, 27) a person is identified as being a part of God’s new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is realized by faith. That person’s actual change into a new person in behavior begins at this point, and it is clearly conceived of as a process (see Ephesians 4:17-5:2, Colossians 3:1-15; Romans 6:1-23, etc.) which is actuated in experience. These same passages also apply to the concept of dying and putting to death. God says the old person dies in baptism (status, realized by faith, indicative), and yet we are urged to put to death the behavior characteristic of the old person/life (God’s accomplishment, experience, imperative). In other words, God says, be who and what you are!
Next, consider the concept of righteousness. In justification we receive righteousness (“God’s righteousness” Romans 1:16, 17; 3:21-26, et. al.). There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), because God does not impute their sins to them (2 Corinthians 5:19), but rather his righteousness, on the basis of faith (Romans 4:1-8). This speaks of our status, realized by faith, and revealed as God’s indicative. However, we also are enabled, by the influence of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” to accomplish righteousness in life (Romans 6:11-22; 8:1-4, et. al.), and it is God’s accomplishment in our experience which provides an imperative wherein we submit to him. This righteous behavior is not the basis for, but is the result of, our status. In order to understand the passages in which Paul discusses righteousness, it is essential to maintain the distinction between status, (realized by faith, received as indicative) and accomplishment (realized in experience, received as imperative).
Sanctification is another concept which must be understood in this manner. To be sanctified is to be “set apart” to God. A saint (literally, “a holy one”) is a person who is sanctified. It is a fact that all Christians have been granted status as saints and are sanctified in Christ (Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Corinthians 1:1, 2, 30; 6:11; Ephesians 4:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 2:11; 10:10, 14, 20; 1 Peter 1:2; 2:5, 9), and yet sanctification (God’s producing holiness of behavior in us by his Spirit as we learn Christ and submit to him) is a process which continues to the day of Christ (Romans 6:19, 22; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 4:4; 5:23; 2 Timothy 2:21; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15, 16; cf. Philippians 1:6). Failure to maintain the distinction between status (realized by faith, received as indicative) and accomplishment (realized in experience, receive as imperative) has led to misuse of the term saint to refer only to someone who has attained a high degree of moral purity. While the underlying might be noble, for a person in Christ to declare, “I’m no saint,” is to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding.
Romans 8:29, 30 is a very important text in this regard: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” As we have seen above (particularly, in Colossians 3:10), there is a sense in which we are already conformed to the image of God’s Son (to be realized by faith), and yet in experience, we are still aspiring to “the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
Note the past tense in Romans 8:29, 30, especially of the verb glorified. Clearly, this passage refers to what is accepted as true by faith rather than what has been realized in experience. There are several passages which speak of the glorification of God’s people as occurring in the day of Christ, and yet some describe the present glory of the children of God. In fact, Paul describes the status of Christians as risen with Christ and sitting with him at God’s right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 3:1-4)! Paul is speaking of what is true in terms of faith and what is thus to be experienced to a great extent in life and ultimately and completely in the world to come.
Consider in this regard the fact that death is abolished–we believe it and live in light of it (Hebrews 2:14, 15). Yet, death will be destroyed–we will experience it (1 Corinthians 15:25; 2 Timothy 1:10)! Similarly, Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in his cross (Colossians 2:15), and yet we must still battle against them arrayed in the panoply of Almighty (Ephesians 6:10-17). Can you see the distinction (between faith and experience)?
An unwillingness or inability to distinguish between what is received by faith and what is received in experience may lead people to deny the essentiality of baptism and to view it as the moment at which the believer becomes a child of God, a new creature. They are focused on experience, and particularly the experience of a feeling. They are focused on the point at which they feel saved rather than upon listening to God’s word through which HE reveals to them that they have been saved. They are focused on when they think they can see the results of regeneration instead of when they can believe in regeneration. It comes down to walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) . . . to trusting God and not leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). If we could approach all of the passages on baptism with Colossians 2:12 in mind, perhaps we could see how baptism can be the moment wherein we become children of God and enter our relationship with God in Christ–“risen with him through faith in the operation of God.”
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