Understanding Righteousness, Salvation, and the Gospel's Power

R.C.: Well, we look to the Scriptures, and we see when Paul explains the doctrine of justification, he goes back to the Old Testament to Genesis 15, where the Scriptures say of Abraham, "He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." And when Paul develops the doctrine of justification by faith alone, what he is saying there is that when God counts somebody righteous on the basis of faith, it's not because He looks at them and sees that they are inherently righteous, but rather they have been clothed by the imputation or the transfer of the righteousness of Christ to that person by faith. [00:05:34]

R.C.: Well, because of the critical importance of the recovery of the gospel that had fallen into darkness in the Middle Ages and the recovery of the gospel in the 16th century that provoked the motto of the Reformation, "Post Tenebras Lux," “after darkness, light.” And, we call ourselves evangelicals because of the recovery of evangel, of the gospel, in the 16th century Reformation. [00:10:36]

R.C.: I would say one of the most important things you can do as a pastor, as a minister of the gospel is when you preach, preach through books of the Bible so that you're not beating your own drum, but that you deal with the whole counsel of God as it is set forth on page after page after page. And so in one sense, you discipline then to address whatever the text teaches, and it isn't going to be very long when you're preaching through any book of the Bible, you're going to have to deal with those issues that touch on the whole counsel of God. [00:13:56]

R.C.: Well, when you ask how important creeds and confessions are, from the very earliest time in the history of the church, the church has not only proclaimed the truth of sacred Scripture, but have had…has had to deal with distortions and radical departures from biblical truth in the appearance and occurrence of multiple heresies that have threatened the church from the very beginning. And then one of the earliest creeds, in fact what is thought to be the very first Christian creed was the simple statement "Jesus is Lord." [00:15:10]

R.C.: Well, it's good to hear that there are young people out there that are pursuing missions because that's a pursuit that the Lord has placed upon us, on the church with the Great Commission that we all are responsible for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Whether I'm actually going as a missionary or contributing to that endeavor, but all of us are responsible that the Great Commission be fulfilled because Christ is Lord. And because He's Lord, we have to do what He commands us to do. [00:17:18]

R.C.: Alright first of all, I've never talked to a Reformed theologian in my life who didn't affirm that Old Testament saints were indwelt by the Holy Ghost. First of all, we distinguish among various different works attributed to the third Person of the Trinity. For example, regeneration is so vitally important, and it's the Holy Spirit who is the One who changes the disposition of our hearts. And anyone who is a believer in the Old Testament had to be regenerate before they would be believe…a believer. [00:22:55]

R.C.: Well, when you talk about 100 percent sure, you ask me if I think something is the case, Adrian. And I could answer that question in a multitude of different ways. I can say to you, "No." I could say, "I don't think so." I could say, "Absolutely not." Or I could say, "Yes, maybe," "I hope so," or "I think so." Or, I can say, "Absolutely certainly." So those responses indicate various degrees of certainty that are associated with a particular question. [00:27:48]

R.C.: No, I don't think there's any more difficulty at all. People embrace relativism. That's the bad news. You notice the book that went to the top of the charts and nobody expected it to The Closing of the American Mind, several years ago, from a professor at Cornell, I believe it was, that he talked…to say that when a student entered college, 95 percent of students entering college had already embraced relativism. And by the time they graduated from college and had higher education, it was now up to 98 percent. [00:36:44]

R.C.: Now, I would say that that person could certainly be a truly regenerate person. All kinds of Christians have all kinds of theological weaknesses and errors. We always have to struggle about this. So I don't just make the automatic assumption that somebody's not a Christian if they neglect a particular doctrine. Although, to deny the reality of hell in any significant way certainly raises the question of whether or not a person is indeed in the faith because it is such a central core teaching of Scripture. [00:41:20]

R.C.: If we're talking about hyper-grace in terms of grace covering everything including there are those in that movement that are basically antinomian. That is, they believe that once we experience grace, we're no longer under the law in any sense, even in the instructive sense. And I'm going to say if a person is saved by grace, not by law, we understand that,. that nevertheless that doesn't mean, it's the old question that Paul writes, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" And his answer is, "God forbid!" [00:48:54]

R.C.: Boy, you know I wish I had a lot more time not only to answer that question, but to fulfill the study of church history. You know, it's the old maxim whether it's church history or other history is that those who refuse to study history are doomed to repeat it. And virtually every heresy that we face everyday today is a rehash of some heresy that the church had to deal with in the history of the church, and that God has preserved His church through all the centuries. [00:50:48]

R.C.: I think I understand it James. First of all, I haven't written a book like this, but I've often thought about writing a book called "The Sensuous Christian," who lives and dies by their feelings. It doesn't matter whether you feel, if you're forgiven by Christ, that's an objective state of affairs. If you've confessed your sins and God promised to forgive you your sins, if you confess your sins then your sins are forgiven, it doesn't matter how you feel. [00:52:56]