Wednesday, March 26, 2008

FAITH IS THE BOND OF UNION
...the gift of God to procure the favor of God



“We cannot be saved through Jesus Christ, till His righteousness be so far made ours as that it will answer the demands of the law for us, and procure the favour of God to us; but His righteousness cannot be thus imputed to us, or accounted ours in law, till we are so united to Him as to be one in law, or one legal person with Him. Now faith is the bond of union; faith is that which interests us in Christ; and therefore without faith we cannot receive any benefit from His righteousness.”

Samuel Davies, Sermons of the Rev. Samuel Davies, vol. 1 (Pittsburg, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1993), 123.

Of Christ and His Sufficiency
He is the Son that enlightens (Heb. 1:3), the Physician that heals (Lk. 4:23-24; 5:31), the Wall of Fire that defends (Ex. 13:21), the Friend that comforts (Jn. 15:14-15), the Pearl that enriches (Mt. 13:45-46), the Ark that supports (Gen. 6:18; Rev. 11:19) and the Rock to sustain under the heaviest of pressures (Deut. 32:18; 1 Cor. 10:4).

4 comments:

olan strickland said...

Imputed righteousness! Penal Substitutionary Atonement! Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification!

Too bad that more look to the philosophy of Charles Finney than they do the theology of Samuel Davies. Finney didn't believe in imputed righteousness - he held to the Governmental Theory of Atonement and believed that we could be forgiven "as if Christ had never died for us."

Thanks for posting sound doctrine!
Grace and peace
Olan

SJ Camp said...

Olan
Amen!

IMHO, the most disruptive thing to evangelism that has plagued the American church in the last fifty years is the reintroduction and adoption of Finney Invitationalism. It has produced many temporary converts.

Where are all of the doctrines of grace evangelists today?

Thank you again my brother.
Steve

PS - Tell Frank the Message paraphrase got the text wrong :-). It should read: 3Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be glorified.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent."

Campi.

Terry Rayburn said...

Steve,

Interesting alignment between imputation and union.

Although the best part of the Toledo Conference this year was the Pre-Conference on Hell and Heaven with you and Kistler, I had the privilege of some conversations with Richard Gaffin between sessions.

Gaffin is an impressive biblical thinker, if not the best pulpit communicator. I literally wanted to take him home for a few months to sharpen some iron with him.

Anyway, he teaches that Paul's primary emphasis is not Justification (most would disagree), although he firmly teaches it. He believes Paul's primary emphasis is "union" with Christ. Since I happen to agree, I was duly impressed :)

He has written a book on the subject, which I saw and thirsted for on the book table, but which I waited to order at home because I'm a cheapskate and read a lot.

Anyway, a virtual duplicate of his book is available in audio online here.

One of my favorite verses has become 1 Cor. 6:17 - "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

Declared righteous by imputation, and one spirit with Him, what a one-two combo :)

Blessings,
Terry

SJ Camp said...

Terry
Declared righteous by imputation, and one spirit with Him, what a one-two combo

Bingo!