Provocations

Justification

2005-04-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what to post so this is the last half of a paper i just finished on the differences between John Calvin's and Thomas Aquinas' views on justification and which view is more correct. The part of the paper that is posted is the part about who is more correct and why, and its got some of my own thoughts in it as well. I encourage comments, disagreements, questions, or anything else. Peace.

These opposing views of justification mandate a declaration on how we are to actually construct the doctrine. It is clear Calvin’s views on justification are superior to those of Thomas Aquinas, yet Calvin leaves a hole in his argument that needs to be addressed.
Justification cannot be something that strictly takes place inside of us, as Aquinas believes; it must be outward, focused only on Christ. Aquinas does declare that Christ is the facilitator of our righteousness, but he also declares that we can be made righteous in ourselves. This simply cannot be true. If it is as Aquinas says, that we in ourselves are righteous, then there would be no room for sin; for a totally righteousness state is the absence of sin, and totally sinful state is the absence of righteousness. Yet we all still sin, and therefore are not totally righteous in ourselves. Therefore, Calvin is correct in stating that Christ’s righteousness covers us while we are still sinful. It must be this way while we are alive and have our sinful flesh. We can only be looked at as righteous due to Christ attributing his righteousness to us, because in reality we are still sinful creatures.
This concept has more implications that need to be discussed. When we seek to understand who, or what we look to, to know that we are saved we discover two very different viewpoints. In Aquinas’ view, since we are made righteous, we have only ourselves to look to in order to know if we are going to be saved. This simply isn’t psychologically healthy. If we only have ourselves to look to for our salvation we will constantly be anxious and worried over whether we are actually living righteously or not. There will be a constant preoccupation with our actions and with our thoughts; if those are not totally righteous we conclude we must not be justified and consequently must not be guaranteed salvation. The correct view is Calvin’s, when he says justification and salvation are totally alien to us; that is, they are found outside of ourselves and only in Christ. Since we are covered by Christ’s righteousness it is Christ that we look to for our salvation. If it is only through Christ, as Calvin asserts, that God looks at us, then we only have Christ to look at to know if we are saved. We have the blessed assurance of trusting in Christ’s overarching righteousness, not any of our own fleeting righteousness. In short it must be that we are imputed with Christ’s righteousness not infused with it.
Calvin stresses that it is by faith alone that we are able to be justified and saved. Yet he makes clear that faith is only an instrument for receiving Christ; faith itself does not justify, only insofar as faith receives Christ it justifies. Our faith is week and imperfect, therefore it is not our inconsistent faith that seems sturdy sometimes and frail at others that saves us. If justification were contingent on us having perfect faith it would lead to the same psychological problems as Aquinas view that we are made righteous. Therefore our faith that unites us to Christ is the faith that saves us, and the reality of this faith is that it too is facilitated by Christ and the works of the trinity. We don’t look at Christ from the outside; we put on Christ and He makes us one with Him through the work of the Holy Spirit who also works in an alien fashion, independent of any action of ours. Therefore none of our salvation by faith has anything to do with us, but everything to do with the works of the trinity.
In spite of all of this, Calvin still fails on one major point in his doctrine of justification. This is seen most clearly when he relates our being viewed as righteous to Jacob’s deception of his father to get the birth-right. As Jacob deceived his father, "we in a like manner hide under the precious purity of our first born brother, Christ, so that we might be attested righteous in God’s sight" (Calvin 228). The idea that we must hide under Christ in order to be saved is partly ridiculous. Calvin implies our salvation is made possible though Christ metaphorically sneaking us in the side door to heaven. It makes no sense for God to declare us righteous if we will never actually be righteous; perhaps Calvin would agree with me, but he offers no discussion of this concept. While we are living on earth God can declare us as righteous because it is a reality that we will be righteous. On earth, while we are still alive in our sinful flesh, it is necessary for Christ to cover us with His righteousness; yet once we die our sinful flesh dies as well, therefore now making it possible to actually be righteous. During our time on earth we live in the contradiction of the sinful desires of our flesh and the righteous desires of our soul, but when we die this contradiction disappears. When we enter heaven it will be because we are now righteous; we could never have been while living, but the death of our sinful flesh has made this possible. Thus it makes sense for Christ to cover us and God to declare us righteous while we are living; for as soon as we die our righteousness becomes actualized with the death of our sinful flesh, and we no longer must hide to be justified.
There are apparent differences between Calvin’s and Aquinas’ view of justification, and upon examination of these differences Calvin is shown to be more correct. Yet Calvin leaves a hole which opens up criticism to his doctrine. When this hole is filled in accurately the doctrine of justification becomes sound. It is by faith alone that we are justified and saved; yet this faith has nothing to do with us. It is not absurd for God to declare us righteous when Christ only covers us because as soon as we die we become righteous, thanks to the death of our sinful flesh. Yet the most important concept in this doctrine is the recognition of the continual need to focus our gaze only on Christ.

Loving People

2005-04-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

I don't think we know how to love people. Or maybe it is something much worse; we know how and we still continue not too. I've been thinking about it latley. Christians at least from my experiance, have done a bad job of loving people. Sure we are nice, sure we are helpful, but i don't think we are anywhere near loving people the way the New Testament describes. I include my self in all of this. So much of this is not even our immediate actions, those usually look great from the outside. Its where our hearts are at. This comes out i think most in our conversations. We say things like "Mary is a great person, but did you see her hair today, it was horrible." We judge people before we even know them or even if we do know them we judge them anyway. Its where our heart is at.
C.S. Lewis has a great essay called meditations in a tool shed. In it he sees a ray of light coming through the roof of a dark tool shed. He notes the difference it makes when he looks at the light (its just a beam with some dust) and when he looks along the beam (he sees through the roof green trees blowing in the wind). He applies the distinction between looking at an looking along to situatons of knowledge, i.e. if you want to know someting you have to look along it and not at it. The truth is, says Lewis, when you simply look at something you are just looking alone something else and you never see the thing for what it actually is. I want to apply this thinking to loving people. Perhaps a reason why we don't doa great job of loving people is that we are constanly looking at the person, we never look along them. Looking along a person and not simply at them involves putting your self right along side them before you do anything. You give yourself over to the person and seek to know them before you act, say, or do anything. You meet them where they are. When we look at someone we respond only to thier actions, apearance, attitude, demeanor, and not to who they are as a child of God. Perhaps if we looked along people and not simply at them, knowing full well that we all fall short and all need love, we will begin to truly discover what it means to love people. Utill we can effectively love all people, what is going to make us any different from the secualar world. We are called to be set apart from this world, perhaps one of the best ways we can do this is love all people the way God intended it. Anyone can be nice and a lot of people, Christian and non-Christian, but how we love should be setting us apart from this world in order that we might be able to do the work of Christ in it. Please comment, add to, or critize this. I'm learning this as i am writing this, I by no means have all the answers. I just want to love people.

Me, Miles, Thomas (college, YES!)

2005-04-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Me, Miles, Thomas (college, YES!)
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

fun in the library

Me and sisters

2005-04-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Me and sisters
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

my sister and me before this school year, Kara, Greg, and Kaitlyn Spore

Thomas

2005-04-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Thomas
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

my roommate, its Thomas, Thom to you.

Miles

2005-04-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Miles
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

my buddy miles, miru son....

ROB lang

2005-04-07T12:31:00.001-07:00

ROB lang
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

good old Rob Lang

Josef (hes black)

2005-04-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Josef (hes black)
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

my black friend Josef, hes one of the only ones of his kind here at Whitworth, its kinda sad, our lack of diversity

NADIA!

2005-04-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

NADIA!
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

My girlfriend, man shes good looking.

Me and Nadia

2005-04-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

Me and Nadia
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

This is my and my girlfriend of over a year. Some of you may know her, her name is Nadia Stimpel. She is beautiful.

Me and Nadia

2005-04-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Me and Nadia
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

This is me and my girlfriend of

gregory spore

2005-04-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

gregory spore
Originally uploaded by gspore08.

this is me

How do i get pictures up here??

2005-04-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows how to post pictures on the Blog thing, if you could let me know how that would be awesome, leave a comment or e mail me or something......

well...its me gregory

2005-04-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, in case i haven't talked to some of you may read this, this is Greg Spore. I'm at whitworth and loving it. If this post works out, then come comments telling me that would be great since i am new at this. I'll write more later. I really want this to be a discussion oriented thing, so help me out with that by leaving loads of comments and questions whenver i post. Grace and peace you all.