Please NOTE: In the Traditional
"TULIP","L" stands for Limited Atonement. However, under closer examination of the actual doctrine, sophisticated Calvinism teaches unlimited payment for sins toward GOD (so GOD's Righteousness is not compromised), but LIMITED application to man, from the standpoint of Election (see my "P", below). You'll hear of the sophisticated Reformed or Calvinist call this "unlimited atonement, limited redemption": "limited" means limited to the elect, not a partial salvation.
By contrast, the unsophisticated Calvinist, and the "TULIP" "L" mistake Atonement for salvation. which is why some contend that Christ only died for the "elect" (the "U" and "L" in this site explain why that saying is incorrect). Further, the parallel claim that somehow a Holy God is compensated by the suffering of the non-elect in Hell. Such a claim, needed to explain how only the elects' sins are paid, unwittingly denigrates God's Love and Holiness-- ah, God is a sadist? Really? Of course, no Calvinist means to say that....but the "L" in traditional TULIP says EXACTLY that. 'So, needs to be fixed! More in X. |
LIMITED access to Salvation thus results.Everyone who has ever been or will be born has been given a lifetime's worth of rights to access salvation. God bends over backwards, so to speak, to make sure no one refuses Him -- He stops just short of coercion.Why a right of access, rather than automatic salvation? Because, as we saw under "U", agreement to the payment is required. God agreed, says Gal3:20(NASB). But, do we? That's the question. Hence, "access", as with a computer, means one must WANT access. Otherwise, the availability of access just sits there, like a computer cursor: click on the "yes", and you're "in". Calvinists don't understand that Adam's depravity affected his body, not his soul, for the body is material, and the soul can't be procreated. They thus can't tell, from Romans 5:12 (one of their favorite verses, and a true verse on man's depravity), that "depravity" is genetic. "Depravity" is a blind-brain signal constantly pinging, "me-be-good, merit-me, me-be-god", over and over: dementedly, dissociatively. This genetic program-run-amok (and the reason physical life terminates) results in man being constantly tempted. Temptation, though, is not sin; temptation is but a signal our congenitally-crazed brains send our souls. "Sin", by contrast, requires volition to agree, and volition remains free, because volition is a faculty of personhood, and the "person" is his soul, not his body. We saw all this in "T". So Calvinists depravedly conclude that man lost his immaterial free will as a result of Adam's "Fall" -- which loss is then procreated by sex(!), in all Adam's progeny. This, even though Calvinists KNOW it's laughable to claim the material can ever "beget" the immaterial. This, even though Calvinists KNOW that the human spirit never had volition in it, and even though they KNOW the human spirit was lost by Adam when he sinned. Don't you make that same mistake. Free will, and free will only, is the issue: do you want God, or not? It's not an issue of your sins; it's not an issue of your works; it's not an issue of any human factor, past, present or future. Do you click on the "yes" or not, at God's 'prompt' of the Gospel? If "yes", you're permanently saved, since you chose what GOD did for you. God won't force you to choose what He accomplished in Christ apart from your consent. To force you would be UnRighteous, Unloving, dishonoring to the terrible price Christ voluntarily paid on your behalf. It's up to YOU. Making that choice is a choice to "be reconciled to God", as Paul puts it in Timothy. "Reconciliation" is another Bible term. It's more commonly translated "peace", in English. "Peace", as in "no-more-war". Your "yes" concludes peace between God and you, by means of Christ. So, obviously, the choice is based on HIS merit, not yours. Why else would you believe in Him? You just agree. In that very second (per the ingressive aorist of 2Cor5:21's "become") you "become the Righteousness of God in Him." That is part of what the Bible calls your "redemption". The Bible uses the term "Redemption" to stress the result of salvation. "Ransom", "bought with a price" are synonymal terms. From these synonyms we can see what "redemption" means: we were kidnapped, enslaved, to sin (in our bodies). We are now, having clicked on that "yes" -- FREE! -- to live toward God. 2Cor5 is a beautiful chapter to read, as are Romans Chapters 5-8, on this topic. Technically speaking, Atonement is Unlimited, but Redemption is limited only to those who have been "reconciled" (believed in Christ). God is not satisfied with any other payment except Christ's. Christ is thus the High Priest and Mediator of Salvation (and of everything else: see the "S" subpage). So salvation is FULL, but of "limited access": limited to those who accept the Mediator's payment, just as God did (see Gal3:20, NASB). When you believe in Christ, that's a "yes" clicked on God's prompt of the Gospel. So, you are reconciled. So, you have accepted the Mediator. So, you are redeemed, free: Galatians 5 is a beautiful summary of this fact. If you're still having trouble with the above Bible terminology, go back to the Home Page and click on "Salvation Components" chart. Following the chart are the Bible's definitions of key salvation terms. (Using 1Jn1:9, you should be able to prove they are defined correctly by looking up every verse in the Bible with the term in it, and reviewing the context of every such verse.) |
"Mediatorship", once understood, clears up a lot of confusion folks have about the Hypostatic Union. That Christ would be One Person of TWO full natures makes some folks scratch their heads, wondering, "Well, Divine Will is different from human will, isn't it?" The problem most folks seem to have is that they don't understand the meaning of "will". "Will" is "Will". Ability to want, or refuse. Will is an attribute of personhood. By itself, it has no quality, but is just an attribute. So Christ's Personhood consists of His Will, consciousness, etc. These personhood attributes are true whether God or man. However, Quality, by contrast, is measured by other attributes, and it's the quality issue which requires distinguishing between His Two Natures. That's why you'll see theologians make distinctions in what's usually called the doctrine of the "Community of Attributes" to show the interaction. They subdivide the doctrine into "Attributes of Deity", "Attributes of Humanity", and "Attributes true for the Whole Person" (for some reason, "Entire" is eschewed in the nomenclature). "Whole Person" Attributes being used are, for example, in Ps31:5 (last sentence He uttered on the Cross, in its entirety -- last two Gospels only reference it), and Heb10:5. Whole Person, but speaking from Deity, would be, for example, John 8:58; Whole Person, but speaking from Humanity, would be, for example, John 19:28. [Biblio note: 92SD,L1239.]
This "community" structure really isn't so hard to understand. Deity is Deity; Humanity is Humanity. So Humanity, although capable of accessing Deity, is still Humanity. Kinda like how your body can send signals to your brain, and your brain, to your soul -- but the components, as it were, are all separate, still. So, Humanity's "will" is but a subset of the WHOLE Will of Christ, the God-Man Person. This structure makes His Life in 1st Advent the absolute hardest, for it was a constant option available, for Humanity to access Deity. Which, would have been for Him, a unique sin, had he accessed Deity contrary to the Father's Will at any time, awake or asleep.
Omniscience is an attribute of Deity, never Humanity. So, when He's using His Omniscience, He's God. His Human knowledge, though, remained human. It's easier to understand this fact, when you realize that human knowledge is "smaller". It's not mingling. Attributes of Deity adhere to Deity, as it were; of humanity, to humanity. So: as a Whole Person, He never willed for His Humanity to access Omniscience for the benefit of His Humanity. In short, He kept on willing to shield His Humanity from Omniscience. He kept on willing from the "human side", as it were, to be unaware of that knowledge. It required Him, as a Whole Person, to keep willing that, 24 hours a day! That's why it was the worst of all pressures, to BE both God and Man. Satan was counting on leveraging that pressure into sin, in Matt4.
It's very easy to overthink His Personal Structure. People become confused mostly because they are trying to get an understanding of how His Dual Nature functioned, and they can't fathom how He could compartmentalize His Awareness (i.e., keeping Omniscience away from the human "side"). The following analogies for how His Nature worked might help you, although all of them are incomplete metaphors. (It's actually harder to describe how His Dual Nature functions, than to understand how it works!)
Here's the analogy which made me understand the Hypostatic Union. His "Will" is the 'hub', as it were, of ALL His Attributes, both Divine and Human. Each Attribute is connected, as it were, to Will. ONE Will, because One Person. He can will thus to use any attribute at any time. So the question was, would He will to use His Divine Attributes to help out His Human ones? See, a person can "will" without "looking" at one of his attributes. The other "attributes" respond to will, since will is the hub of personhood. And that's the danger! One slip of the "will" and it's all over -- for Christ. That's what Satan was angling for, in Matt4: to get His Human nature to will a use of a Divine Attribute. Which, since Christ is One Person, inseparably Divine and Human, was always possible! What a pressure, to keep restraining self from using such power!
Another analogy: you know that you have a conscious mind, and an unconscious one. The latter you glimpse upon waking, if you remember a dream. Now, pretend that, instead of being UNABLE to access the unconscious, you had to keep willing to SHUT it out of your conscious mind. That's kinda like what He had to will for His Humanity's awareness: 24 hours a day.
Another metaphor: His Humanity could have accessed the knowledge, but had to keep refusing to do so. Kinda like ignoring a continually-horrible pain.
Another metaphor you can use to aid understanding: think of how you can cut off some desire or knowledge, in favor of something else. By an act of will.
If you ponder this topic, you will gain the glory of seeing how truly magnificent is His Love, how truly magnificent is His Legacy to us. It takes time to understand His Structure. Many people have died over arguments as to how His Nature worked, so don't think yourself stupid for not "getting" it, right away. Use 1Jn1:9 -- that will greatly speed up the understanding process. Here's a sampling of some of the historical debates on His Nature:
If you still have trouble understanding the Hypostatic Union, search for the "Fixes" link on the Home Page, click on that link, and then read ALL of the "Nature of God Topics" section. Or, from the Home Page, search for and click on the "Part II" link, then read that mammoth page (the page's end covers His Nature, but the background beforehand matters a lot).
|
||
previous page | next page | |