Eternal Election

Martin Luther

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2: 1-7).

 

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen (Romans 1:18-25)

 

No, I am not writing about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Thanks be to God, that election is not eternal, and Americans will decide on November 6 who will be the President of the United States for the next four years. This idea of Eternal Election is an important Biblical doctrine that should comfort Christians during difficult times and trials. Our salvation in Christ is so sure and certain that our relationship with God was known by Him before the foundation of the world (McCain, Baker, Veith, & Engelbrecht 2005). Unfortunately, trying to make sense of Eternal Election can sometimes be as frustrating and confusing as the Presidential election. I would like to examine Eternal Election, particularly in light of the two passages of Scripture presented above, as this has recently become the topic of conversation between me and one of my dearest friends.

 

John Calvin

Although there was no controversey among early Lutherans regarding what is commonly referred to as "God's Eternal Foreknowledge and Election", the doctrine was addressed in the Book of Concord in response to the ideas formulated and advanced by John Calvin and his followers. Calvin developed a doctrine known as double predestination. Briefly stated, this doctrine teaches four main points: 1) Christ died, not for all people, but only for the elect; 2) God created most people for eternal condemnation and is unwilling that they be converted and saved; 3) The elect and regenerate cannot lose faith and the Holy Spirit and be condemned, even though they commit great sins and crimes of every kind; 4) Those who are not elect must be condemned, and cannot attain salvation, even though they are baptized a thousand times, daily go to the Lord's Supper, and also live as holy and blameless as ever possible (McCain, Baker, Veith, & Engelbrecht, 2005).

 

This question of eternal election and predestination is one of the most difficult for us to resolve. And, by that I mean it is a question we will be unable to resolve. Simply put, the Bible teaches that 1) God desires all people to be saved and, 2) salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, which is entirely and completely a gift from God, independent of any work we could ever do. In fact, because of concupiscence, our natural inclination since the Fall is to turn away from God, as you know. Not only does salvation come to us as God’s gift, it MUST be God’s work if it is to happen, because we are inclined toward sin and away from God. To the rational human mind these things are irreconcilable. If we work these things out by pure human reasoning, we must necessarily come to the place where Calvin went, and say that God chooses some to be saved, and some others to be condemned. That isn’t a place where I wish to go, as Scripture expressly says otherwise. The conclusion to which I have come after years of wrestling with this idea, is that we should merely state what God teaches in his word regarding these things, and leave it at that. So, let’s have at it…

 

God resolved before the foundation of the world that those whom he would save, he would save by his grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.[1] Faith is a gift of God[2], kindled in the hearts of men by the working of the Holy Spirit[3], through his means, which is God’s word.[4]

 

This includes all people of all times – New Testament believers in Christ who heard the Gospel and believed, and also Old Testament saints, such as Abraham, as well. The Old Testament faithful, who believed that God would send a redeemer, had faith in God’s promise just as New Testament believers, but from a different perspective.[5] Old Testament saints trusted God’s promise to send a Messiah, whose name they did not know, after hearing God’s word. They were looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise. New Testament saints had/have faith in God’s promised Messiah, whose name they know to be Jesus of Nazareth. They are looking back toward that same fulfillment.[6]

 

God wants all people to be saved.[7] Many people, however, reject the word and thereby resist they Holy Spirit who attempts to work in them.[8] God will harden those who persist in their resistance of the Holy Spirit’s work through the word.

 

Just as an ungrateful birthday boy may turn up his nose at a gift he does not appreciate or understand, man is able to reject God's gift of a Savior. The natural state of mankind since the fall is to turn away from God.[9] The Pharisees, who loved their position in life and praise from men more than God, rejected the gift. They hardened their hearts to God's Holy Spirit, as St. Stephen tells them. They, along with all those who do the same, will receive their wages for their labor. [10] The Holy Spirit, however, continues to work in men as long as the word is present with them. St. Peter calls us believers a chosen people[11]. This, I believe, means that we who have heard the Gospel and believe it are elect. That may sound like a simple cop-out, but it is what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit calls us all through the Gospel, which St. Paul says is the power of salvation to everyone who believes[12]. St. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter one:

 

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves (Eph. 1:3-6).

 

The key words there are “in Him” and “through Jesus Christ”. The elect are elect, not because God picked his favorites and wrote them down on a “saved” list, and decided to damn all the rest. He chose his elect “in Him” – those who believe/did believe/would believe in Christ would constitute the elect.

 

This is how God worked in Pharaoh through Moses.[13] The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration uses this example:

 

“God did harden Pharaoh’s heart. In other words, Pharaoh always sinned again and again and became more hardened the more he was warned. That was a punishment of his earlier sin and horrible tyranny that in many and various ways he acted inhumanly toward the children of Israel against his heart’s accusations. God caused his Word to be preached and His will to be proclaimed to Pharaoh. Nevertheless, Pharaoh willfully stood up immediately against all rebukes and warnings. Therefore, God withdrew His hand from him, Pharaoh’s heart became hardened and stubborn, and God executed His judgment on him” (McCain, Baker, Veith, & Engelbrecht, 2005).[14]

 

God, standing outside of linear time, knows all things before they happen (foreknowledge).[15] Therefore, he has known since before the beginning of time who would, after being called by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, believe in Christ.[16]

 

That is not to say that God only called certain individuals because of his foreknowledge.[17] He, being God, and therefore not being bound by time and space as we humans are, simply knows all things before they happen.

 

In this way, believers in Christ, the promised Messiah are – and have always been – elect from all eternity.[18] This is true in both the broad and narrow sense. Broad, because God elected that all believers would be saved in Christ Jesus from eternity; Narrow, in that God, as a result of his foreknowledge, knows each individual who has been or will be a believer in Christ. Therefore, each individual believer has also been elect from eternity. The key is that the Elect are elect in Christ. That is, the reason the elect are the Elect is because they are elect in Christ.

 

From the human perspective, people can come to faith, and they can fall from grace. From God’s perspective outside of time, since he had determined the method by which he would redeem mankind, and since he knows the outcome of all things, to God all things have been determined since before the beginning of time.

 

As for what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians “Dead” does most certainly, I believe, mean dead, but in terms of our spiritual state before we are “given the paddles”, so to speak, and are shocked to life by the Almighty Paramedic. Luther used the analogy of a corpse. A corpse can do nothing to resurrect itself and come back to life, and we, likewise, have zero power to effect in ourselves a spiritual resurrection (Luther, 1991). The Lutheran Confessions, in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration explain this Scriptural teaching by saying, “The Scriptures teach that a sinful person is not only weak and sick, but also finished and entirely dead” (FC SD II 10). To summarize it all, we are truly dead in our transgressions, which is to say that we stand outside of God’s forgiveness and salvation because of sin, and there’s nothing we can do to change that situation, just like that corpse is powerless to change – or even be aware of – its situation (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). That is why St. Paul also writes:

 

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching (Romans 10:14)?

 

Paul’s questions are designed to teach that by God’s design, faith is created only through the Word proclaimed (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). The process used by the Holy Spirit to effect that change is not explained, and is, frankly, none of our business.

 

The fact that we are, spiritually speaking, a smelly rotting corpse, describes the unregenerate state we are in before God converts us. This is the very thing St. Paul is describing in Romans chapter 1. Because of this, our spiritual state, we act as St. Paul describes. In our unregenerate state, left to our own devices, we are unrighteous and therefore turn away from and suppress the truth. Always. We can’t help it. The remedy to this is faith, which comes through hearing, and hearing comes through the word of Christ[19]. The forgiveness of sins is secured for us by Christ’s work on the cross, but it cannot come to us any other way than through the Word[20]. I don’t know how the Holy Spirit uses this tool of the Word to create faith in people who believe, I just know that that’s the tool he uses. The Lutheran reformers liked to point out that the Holy Spirit works, “when and where he will.” That is why it is important for all people to hear the Gospel – the Word.

 

Go back to the analogy of the birthday boy and his present for a moment. His natural inclination is to not accept the present. If the Giver just set the present in front of him, he would cross his arms and turn away from it all day long. This in spite of the fact that he sees the birthday cake and decorations and, therefore, knows it is his birthday, and that he should bow to social convention and accept the gift. The Giver, therefore, must order him to take the present and open it. “You take that present right this instant,” the Giver might say. “Now, open it. Open it and use it; it’s for your own good.” So, the little punk takes the gift and opens it, but it certainly isn’t of his own free will that he does so. He did not cooperate in receiving the gift. If he did a “verb” at all, the one we would have to conjugate would be “to submit”. And, after opening the gift, his whole attitude is changed. That might seem like a cooperation of sorts, or a good work, but I don’t think that it is.

 

And, if we want to carry the scenario even farther, let’s say he opens the gift, takes one look at it and heaves it on the floor. This would be analogous, I think, to those described in Romans 1 who, having seen what God has shown them, rejected His gift anyway. That would certainly be in keeping with the birthday boy’s nature. The Giver will offer the gift again and again through repeated exhortations to accept it but, at a certain point – we don’t know when – he will give the birthday boy over to his nature if he continues to be a jerk and will take the gift away. This is pure conjecture, though, and perhaps this whole exercise is a cheap word game. I haven’t decided for certain yet. The analogy is obviously flawed, but I think it goes a long way to make my point. Unfortunately, in this sinful, fallen world, we are forced to use verbs – action words! – to describe this process throughout which we are passive, if we intend to discuss it in human language.

 

These are wonderfully mind-bending things to think about and discuss. I would be remiss, however, if I did not point out that the whole of our entire discussion, after all is said and done, must be focused through the lens of (at least) three passages of Scripture:

 

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?...Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!...Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it (Romans 9:20-21; 11:33; Luke 18:17).

 

The God whose Christ died only for the elect and not for all people is not the God who has made himself known to us in Holy Scripture. Neither is the God who created most people for eternal condemnation, and is unwilling that those people be converted and saved as Calvinism teaches. Calvin, in order to get to the place where the above statement is truth, had to ignore Scripture and rely on his own rational mind for guidance in working these things out to their logical conclusions. If we do that, we will embark upon a pathway that leads to another destination at which I have no desire to arrive. In the end, we must necessarily wind up back where we began – God’s Word. This is not a thing we are going to understand while still on this earth. We must agree with Luther (of course!) when he says, “Even as I now believe in Christ my Savior, I also know that I have been chosen to eternal life out of pure grace in Christ without any merit of my own and that no one can pluck me out of His hand (Luther, 1991).” There again, as before, the key phrase is “in Christ”. It is always “in Christ” that we find our answer.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Engelbrecht, E. A., Deterding, P. E., Ehlke, R. C., Joersz, J. C., Love, M. W., Mueller, S. P., et al. (Eds.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

 

Luther, M. (1991). Kleine Katechismus, English. (C. P. House, Trans.) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

 

McCain, P. T., Baker, R. C., Veith, G. E., & Engelbrecht, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. (W. H. Dau, & G. F. Bente, Trans.) St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End Notes

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[1] Matthew 13:34-35; Ephesians 1: 4-6

[2] Ephesians 2: 8-9

[3] 1 Corinthians 6:11; 12:3

[4] Romans 1:16; 10:17; 2 Thessalonians 2:14

[5] 1 Peter 1: 10-12

[6] Hebrews 11

[7] Ezekiel 33:11; Matthew 11:28 Luke 24:47; John 1:29; 3:16; 6:40; 6:51; Romans 10:12; 11:32; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9 1 John 2:2;

[8] Matthew 22: 1-10; 23:37; Luke 14: 16-24; Acts 7:51

[9] Psalm 51:5; Romans 3: 9-18

[10] Romans 6:23

[11] 1 Peter 2:9

[12] Romans 1:16; 2 Thess. 2:14

[13] Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 7: 13-14; 7:22; 8:15; 8:19; 8:32; 9:7; 9:12; 9: 34-35; 10:1; 10:20; 10:27; 11:10; 14:4; 14:8; 14:17

[14] Paul T. McCain, Robert C. Baker, gene E. Veith, Edward A. Engelbrecht eds., Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House), 2005.

[15] Psalm 139:16; Isaiah 37:28; Matthew 10:29

[16] Romans 3:22

[17] i.e., that God knew that certain people would not resist the Holy Spirit, so he called them, and left the other people without hope of redemption.

[18] 2 Timothy 2:10

[19] Romans 10:17

[20] LC V 3

To Eat, or Not To Eat, That is the Question

Emperor Marcus Aurelius sacraficing at the
Temple of Jupiter in Rome

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand (Romans 14:1-4).

The words of Paul to the Romans, and elsewhere to the Corinthians, addressing their concerns over “meat sacrificed to idols” may seem, to modern ears, archaic. In our modern western society we do not have to deal with issues such as the public funding and worship of gods as did the early Christian subjects of the Roman Empire. The Corinthians, though, were facing a difficult spiritual situation. As Christians, they were in the minority in a culture which revolved around the pagan temple. Lenski, in his commentary, briefly explains the dilemma:

The pagan temple rituals, many state occasions, festivals of various kinds of societies, the lives of families and of individuals, all involved sacrifices to the gods and the participation of larger or smaller circles in the feasts connected with these rituals. The desire to participate in such feasts as well as the obligations of family connections or of friendship raised the question as to how far a Christian might go in this regard (Lenski, 1957).

In the worship of the pagan gods a part of the animal would be burned on the pagan altar. The rest of the animal would be prepared for the feast that followed (Lenski, 1957). Any of the sacrifice that was not either burned on the altar or eaten at the subsequent feast would have been taken home and eaten there. Lenski explains that some of the leftover meat sacrificed to the pagan gods would necessarily end up in the market butcher shops, and would be sold along with the ordinary meat.

The Corinthians had, evidently, debated how they should handle the situation in which they found themselves. Was it permissible to eat meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan god? Could a person eat in an idol’s temple or in the home of a pagan friend? Questions such as these were almost certainly asked of Paul by the Corinthians, and he devotes a significant portion of his epistle to their response.

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Corinthians 8:4-6).

So, the short answer from Paul is yes, you can eat meat sacrificed to idols. Paul briefly explains why. He reminds us that an idol is nothing – it is merely a carving made by man. He points out that all foods have been declared to be clean by our Lord. He gives thanks to God for what he receives. He declares, nevertheless, that he would rather never eat meat again, if his eating of meat causes one of his fellow brothers to stumble and harms their faith[1]. It doesn't matter what is permissible for Paul. It matters what builds up the body of Christ - the Church - because, as Paul explains, his entire existence is concerned with winning souls for Christ by proclaiming the Gospel.

Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.  Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble (1 Corinthians 8:8-13).

The things you do, like eating meat sacrificed to idols, may not be bad. Indeed, Paul says this elsewhere. All foods have been declared clean[2]. If you don't have an issue of conscience eating such things, you are free to eat them. If, however, one of your Christian brothers sees you in the corner idol-meat butcher shop and he, not having as mature an understanding of these ideas as you, is offended by your actions, or encouraged to participate in contradiction to his conscience, Paul tells the Corinthians that they should abstain. The reason: Christ died for that brother of yours who is offended, however unjustified that offense may be.

For Paul at once explains in regard to what point the knowledge of some is insufficient: “due to the custom hitherto”, when they [the “weak” Christians] were still Gentiles and attended idol feasts. They cannot, now that they are Christians, rid themselves of the old feeling regarding the idol that is honored by such a feast…The old custom or habit of thinking regarding the idol still has its effect, not, indeed, as though they still think that the idol is a real being, but that they eat “as an idol offering”…They still feel that eating such meat in some way connects a person with the idol, unreal though that idol is to whom that meat has been sacrificed. That is their weak point (Lenski, 1957).

If your actions have the potential to harm his faith and cause him to fall away (put a "stumbling block" in front of him, as Paul says), you should not do the thing that causes offense, even if you may have the Christian liberty to do so. Lenski comments:

Not our knowledge but our love for the weak must govern our action a [stumbling block] is something that lies in a path, against which an unwary foot may strike and cause a person to stumble or to fall; metaphorically, anything that may cause a person to sin and to suffer injury to his soul, (Lenski, 1957).

If these relatively insignificant issues of personal conduct get in the way of Paul's Christian witness and example because Paul is stubborn about exercising his Christian liberty, he explains, his Gospel witness is ineffective to outsiders, and the faith of those less spiritually mature brothers could be jeopardized. Paul writes in his epistle to the Romans:

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble,” (Romans 14:20-21).

How do these questions, and Paul’s response to them, apply to those of us who comprise the church today? The last time I looked, there were no enormous marble statues of Jupiter in the town square. There don’t seem to be many pagan temples conducting animal sacrifices in my neighborhood, and I couldn’t tell you the last time I was invited to eat meat at a pagan feast. So, can we just let this one go, and chalk this section of the Scripture up as the vestigial remnant of an ancient culture, with no application for us today? Hardly. What applies to Paul, the Corinthians, and the Romans also applies to us. We might not be dealing with the whole" meat sacrificed to idols" issue, but that doesn't mean there aren't issues that come up by which we offend each other. 

One that leaps to mind immediately is consumption of alcohol. Different Christian denominations have differing views regarding alcohol. I went to college in the south and, even though I spent many summers of my youth visiting relatives in Mississippi, moving to western Kentucky and actually living under the so-called “Bible Belt” was a different experience. For one thing, no one knew what a Lutheran was. Those who were familiar with the Lutheran church had a vague sense that we were sort of like Roman Catholics. That meant crucifixes, strange “costumes” (vestments), and confusing and elaborate religious rituals to them. The predominant religious culture where I lived was that of the Southern Baptists. I don't want to get into a comparative religions lecture here. Suffice it to say that there are theological differences between Lutherans and Baptists, chief among them being how we view the sacraments. There are also sociological differences, and the one that I experienced most prominently had to do with alcohol.

The county in which the university I attended was located was "dry". That is to say, it was illegal to purchase, possess, or consume alcoholic beverages. Being a Lutheran of German heritage, this was quite perplexing to me. Beer was a part of our history and heritage. Real wine was (and is) used in the sacrament of the altar in our churches. Now I was being confronted by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with the idea that drinking alcohol was sinful and evil. Alcohol was so bad that it was outlawed because it was perceived to be damaging to the very fabric of society. The fact that it was outlawed in the county did not, however, stop some people from purchasing, possessing, and consuming it.

The Bible, of course, does not say that alcohol is sinful or evil. To the contrary, one could even say that the Bible, in at least one place, advocates the drinking of alcohol. Every booze hound in the world is familiar with the Biblical passage where Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine to cure his stomach ailments. This passage is often misused by alcoholics to try and nullify the calls of their concerned family and friends to stop drinking. Scripture does warn, strongly and repeatedly, against the abuse, misuse, or excessive use of alcohol.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Galatians 5:13-14).

So, just like eating meat sacrificed to an idol, it is permissible to drink alcohol. If, however, my drinking offends my brother who does not yet have this understanding and causes a division, or encourages him to imbibe against the warnings of his conscience, I should follow Paul’s example and abstain from drinking. These issues should be explained to those who do not understand them, to be sure. In the meantime, however, we should not do anything that might hinder or damage their faith. This goes for idol meat, alcohol, or whatever has the potential to cause a division in the church. Conversely, those who abstain should not, as Paul writes, judge those who do not. Paul tells us not to quarrel over opinions. We shouldn’t engage in behaviors that would cause other believers to stumble in their faith (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). When those outside the church see those of us who are members of Christ’s body “biting and devouring” each other through ugly and sinful quarreling, we cease to be an effective witness to them[3]. The Christian liberty we have in Christ is not just freedom from the Law without a purpose. To the contrary, God has given us this liberty to serve others in love.

  

Works Cited

Engelbrecht, E. A., Deterding, P. E., Ehlke, R. C., Joersz, J. C., Love, M. W., Mueller, S. P., et al. (Eds.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Lenski, R. C. (1957). The Interpretation of I and II Corinthians. Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press.

 

End Notes

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[1] 1 Corinthians 8:13

[2] Romans 14:14

[3] Galatians 5:15

Same-Sex "Kiss-in" at Chick-fil-A

Read this story about Chick-fil-A; it's the same old thing you would expect from left-wing homosexual activists. The thing which we must not allow to become "true through repetition", however, is stated in this quote:

"For me why it's so important is, I don't believe anybody should have the ability to say, I'm not a good Christian, or I'm Jewish, that I'm not a good Jew because I'm gay," said Alt, who has been with her wife for 12 years and has two daughters. The couple have invited Cathy over to dinner, where they "can share a respectful dialogue [sic] about our faith, work and families here in Georgia," said Alt, who says she'll even make chicken.

Christians must, every time this false argument is made, point out that the Christian religion is not arbitrary. It's moral values and doctrines are taken from Holy Scripture; those things are not defined by individuals, but by God's Word. Christians within Christendom may argue regarding issues of practice - wine or grape juice in communion; sprinkle, pour, or dunk in baptism etc - but we all agree on the fundamental things which define what Christianity is. God's Word defines homosexuality as an abomination, and unnatural. It is a sin, just like adultery, murder, lying, and all kinds of other things we do every day because our human nature is corrupted by sin. The difference between a Christian and the person quoted above, is that the person speaking in the quote refuses to acknowledge what God has defined as a sin because it is something that applies to them. They aren't the first person to do this, and they won't be the last. I would love to redefine all of my favorite sinful things so I could go about my life in a cloud of self-defined moral comfort. I would love to ignore all the things God's Word says about adultery, because then it would be acceptable for me to cheat on my wife. Although, I'm not sure that my wife would see it the same way. Of course, that's the issue with what is called "moral relativism". This isn't about homophobia, or hating homosexuals, it is about what God's Word says. You may accept what God's Word says, or you may reject it. You may not redefine it. Unfortunately, we know from how the Left in America changes and distorts the meaning of the U.S. Constitution that words only mean to them that which makes them feel good; not the thoughts and ideas which those words were written down to preserve.

Simply calling one's self a Christian does not make it so. A person cannot be a "good" Christian if they do not acknowledge their sin, repent of (turn away from) that sin, believe in Jesus, who rescues man from sin, and seek to live their lives in a God-pleasing way, avoiding sin, with the help of God's Holy Spirit. The Christian also acknowledges that, even after faith in Jesus is kindled inside them, they will fail to live up to the mark and sin. Often. A Christian failing to live up to Christian morality as defined by Holy Scripture is quite different, however, from someone who refuses to acknowledge what God calls sin, and claims to be a follower of Christ. That person attempts to redefine the Christian religion according to their own personal moral code. They may delude themselves into thinking they are Christians, but God's Word says what God's Word says, and all the politi-speak at the Left's disposal ultimately can't change that.

If we allow the Left to redefine what it means to be a Christian in terms of "multiculturalism" and "political correctness", anything goes in the church, and the church as we have come to know it will cease to be. More frightening, the message of the gospel will become obscured by this fog, and many who need to hear it will not. This is what has been happening over the last generation in most Christian denominations. There are a lot of things we may allow to pass by us for the sake of peace between friends, but this cannot be one of those things. The way we combat this is simple: Christian laypeople, when confronted with this multicultural, politically correct nonsense, must rebut it simply, lovingly, and firmly, regardless of with whom they are speaking.

No one is forced to eat at Chick-fil-A. If you don't want to spend your money there because of the Christian beliefs of the CEO, that is your business. No one has to become a Christian; that matter is between God and the individual. I, however, will not allow the Christian religion to be redefined according to left-wing political correctness so people can feel comfortable in their sin, and therefore ignore the issue with which God confronts them - and all of mankind - in his Word: The fact that we are sinners who are in need of a savior, a savior he has provided us in Christ Jesus. I urge all Christians not to let this flawed and dangerous thinking pass by them unanswered.

Jesus Calms a Storm

Jesus Calms the Storm - Rembrant 1633

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41).

Jesus had been “teaching by the sea” all day[1]. Immediately prior to his teaching session by the sea, Jesus had argued with, and been rejected by, the Pharisees, whom he decried as the evil and adulterous generation[2]. Jesus had healed a demon-possessed man, and the common people began to wonder if Jesus might be the Messiah[3]. The Pharisees accused him of being possessed himself rather than acknowledging the messianic claims of his followers, and demanded from Jesus a sign proving that he was the Messiah. As a side note, this is ironic, as Jesus’ healing of the demon-possessed man was recognized by the common people and the Jewish religious establishment of the day as sign pointing to the Messiah (Fruchtenbaum). The rabbis of Jesus’ time taught that, when Messiah came, he would cast out mute demons from those people possessed by them.

There was one kind of demon against which [Judaism’s methodology] was powerless, and that was the kind of demon who caused the controlled person to be dumb or mute. And, because he could not speak, there was no way of establishing communication with this kind of demon; no way of finding out this demon’s name. So…it was impossible to cast out a dumb demon. The rabbis had taught, however that when the Messiah came, he would be able to cast out this type of demon. This was the second of the three messianic miracles: the casting out of a dumb or mute demon (Fruchtenbaum).

Jesus, however, told the Pharisees that there would be no further signs given to them, the evil and adulterous generation, except for the “sign of Jonah”, thereby alluding to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection.

Jesus and his disciples were in Galilee, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. They would be traveling to the region of the Gerasenes (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). This region was part of the Decapolis[4] and was more Gentile in culture. Consequently, the Jewish people living there had probably adopted some Gentile customs in violation of the Law of Moses[5] (Mark 5:11). This is the region where Jesus will meet and exorcize “Legion” from a man and send him into a herd of pigs.

The "Jesus Boat" on display at the Yigal Allon Museum in Israel.

If they were in a typical Galilean fishing boat of the day, it would have been approximately 25½ feet long, 7½ feet wide, and just over 4 feet high. An excellent example of this type of fishing boat is on display at the Yigal Allon Museum in Israel. The “Jesus” or “Sea of Galilee” boat, as it is known, was discovered in 1986 on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee (Sea of Galilee Boat, 2012). The remains of the boat first appeared during a drought when the waters of the sea receded. The boat is made of 12 different types of wood and measures 25.5 ft. (8.2 m) long, 7.5 ft. wide, and 4.1 ft high. It would have had a crew of five (four rowers and a helmsman) and could carry about 15 additional persons (Jesus Boat Museum, 2012).

Unless a person has ever been in the position of similar life threatening danger, I don’t think they can really know just exactly what the disciples were feeling as they battled the storm. They would have been literally terrified to death. They had experienced that chilling moment when the idea of losing their lives had ceased to be an abstract idea, as it is to most people for much of the time, and become a looming possibility that had to be considered. As they struggled fruitlessly to keep their boat from sinking, it became apparent to them that something more than their efforts would be required if they were to make it through the situation. They would have to be rescued; their situation was hopeless. In exasperation they wake Jesus and ask him if he does not care about their fate. At this point they do not realize just who Jesus really was.

The disciples believed, or at least confessed, that Jesus was the Son of David, just as some of the people who saw him cast out the mute demon did. Probably, like most of the average people, though, they understood the Son of David – the Messiah – to be a political savior rather than a spiritual one. In fact, this view would not be totally eradicated from the minds of the disciples until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Even the disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus talked to him about how they had hoped that the murdered Jesus might have been the one to “save Israel”, the implication being that he must not have been the one, since he was killed by the Romans at the urging of the Jews.

Jesus was indeed the savior of Israel, but certainly not in the way that the Jewish religious establishment, or the Disciples (at this point in their story) expected. Jesus also certainly cared for the disciples’ well-being, but he, unlike we sinful human beings, totally trusted that care into God the Father’s hands[6]. He also understood that man’s physical needs were secondary to man’s spiritual needs. That is why he can sleep on a cushion, on a boat, in the middle of a raging storm – this situation, like all others, is in the Father’s hands. In a sense, you could say that, no Jesus didn’t care that the Disciples were “perishing”, at least in the manner about which they were concerned. He didn’t have to care about that physical situation because it was already in the care of God the Father. No one in the history of human kind, however, cared more than Jesus about how the disciples were truly perishing – spiritually and for eternity. The spiritual situation of mankind is that of the disciples rowing and bailing their boat against the storm. Those efforts will prove fruitless, the proverbial boat of our soul will sink into the sea of sin and death, and our efforts to keep it from doing so are woefully insufficient. We need to be rescued from slipping into the abyss. Jesus cared so much about this that he came to earth a human being in order to atone for the disciples’ sin – and the sin of all mankind – to save them from eternal destruction. Jesus tells the disciples, in fact, that these are the things – those things which pertain to our eternal destiny – to which we should devote our time and attention[7].

Verses 38-39 illustrate for us the dual nature of Jesus. He is truly a human being as evidenced by his physical needs; he was exhausted after a long day of “teaching by the sea” and contending with the Pharisees, and he needed to sleep. He is also divine because, as the disciples point out, “…the wind and the sea obey him.” Jesus is, in addition to being a man, the King of Creation, the one through whom all things were made[8]. When he came to earth, Jesus did not cease to be God; Jesus became Immanuel, “God with us”. He emptied himself of his divine power and took on the form of a servant. He did this so that he could live the sinless life we were incapable of living, and then he paid the debt of guilt that we, mankind, owed to God because of sin[9] by dying on the cross, for, as St. Paul writes, the wages of sin is death[10]. Jesus is the Son, the God-man, second person of the Holy Trinity. Kretzmann observes:

The evangelist here pictures Jesus, the Lord of the universe, who commands the sea, and it gives Him unquestioning obedience. The man Jesus is the almighty God (Kretzmann, 1921).

If the disciples believed what Jesus was teaching about who he was, why he was on the earth, and what was really important (spiritual things rather than physical things), they wouldn’t have been afraid of the storm. They would trust in God in all situations, even the ones which potentially lead to death. Jesus knows, however that they do not yet understand the things he is teaching them properly. They will eventually, though, properly hail him as Messiah. They will also, much later, exhibit the same type of trust in God that Jesus exemplifies in the boat as he slept when they all are, with the exception of St. John, martyred for their faith.

Jesus’ miracle of calming the sea shows that Jesus possesses divine power and authority over creation. It confronts the disciples with the actual Word of God manifested in the flesh, through whom creation itself was brought into existence. Jesus is the Creator of Genesis, and the Designer who spoke to Job[11]. This miracle should also give us, who are also his disciples, comfort. We can look at Jesus the man, sleeping on a cushion in the boat amongst the raging tempest, and know that Jesus the Divine Son of God is aware, and in control of all things. Kretzmann explains:

From that little nutshell of a boat, even while He was asleep, He governed heaven and earth, land and sea. Only His divine majesty was covered by the form of a servant. And as He did then, so He does now: He uses His divine power, His omnipotence, in the interest, in the service of men, especially of His disciples, of His believers. That is the comfort of this story (Kretzmann, 1921).

Therefore, in the mist of tribulations, we know that all things work to the good of them who love Him, who are called according to his purpose[12]. We know that Jesus will calm the storm which threatens the passage of our spiritual ship, and he will pilot it safely into the peaceful rest of eternal life with him, where we will be once and for all free of the stain of sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Works Cited

Decapolis. (2012, June 28). Retrieved June 28, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapolis

Engelbrecht, E. A., Deterding, P. E., Ehlke, R. C., Joersz, J. C., Love, M. W., Mueller, S. P., et al. (Eds.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Fruchtenbaum, A. (n.d.). The Three Messianic Miracles. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from Ariel Ministries: www.arielministries.us/archive-files/mbs-masters/mbs/mbs035m.pdf

Jesus Boat Museum. (2012, December 28). Retrieved June 27, 2012, from Sacred Destinations: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jesus-boat

Kretzmann, P. E. (1921). Popular Commentary of the Bible (Vol. 1). St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Sea of Galilee Boat. (2012, June 27). Retrieved June 27, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee_Boat

End Notes

[1] Matthew 13; Mark 4:1

[2] Matthew 12:38-42

[3] Matthew 12:22-23

[4] The Decapolis was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Judea and Syria. The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status. The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture in a region that was otherwise Semitic. With the exception of Damascus, the "Region of the Decapolis" was located in modern-day Jordan, one of them located west of the Jordan River in Israel. Each city had a certain degree of autonomy and self-rule (Decapolis, 2012).

[5] Leviticus 11:7-8; Mark 5:11

[6] Matthew 6:25-34

[7] Matthew 6:25-34; 13-44

[8] John 1:3

[9] Philippians 2:5-11

[10] Romans 6:23

[11] Job 38:1-11

[12] Romans 8:28

I Believed, And So I Spoke



The Resurrection of Christ - Cranach



Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1).

You have seen Christian men and Christian churches so dispirited and discouraged that you knew at once that they could not hope for success at that rate. What a pity to work so hard for years in the kingdom of God and then to give up, just because we do not seem to be making much headway – possibly none at all. Humanly speaking, what would have become of that little band of Saxon immigrants in 1839 when their leader went wrong if Dr. C.F.W. Walther and his colleagues had given up in despair (Burgess, 1988)?

Dr. Walther, along with approximately 800 other German Lutherans left Saxony when they came to realize that they were not free to practice their Christian faith according to the Lutheran Confessions. This group of Christians found themselves increasingly at odds with the Saxon government at the time, which vigorously promoted rationalism and unionism among the Lutheran (Evangelical) and Reformed (Calvinist) churches in Saxony (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, 2012). Unwilling to compromise the Lutheran Confessions, this group set out to the United States in 1838. One of their ships was lost at sea; after an arduous voyage, the settlers landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. They made their way up the Mississippi River and settled in Perry County, Missouri. Soon after the immigrants were settled in the new homeland, their leader, Martin Stephan, was accused of financial and sexual misconduct and was expelled from the settlement (Concordia Historical Institute). This shook the community. The people were deeply disturbed. They were unsure whether or not they were a new church after having left the governing church authorities and church hierarchy in Germany, or if they were simply a branch of the old church in Germany. Dr. Walther eventually emerged as the leader of the community, and was able to persuade the people that they were indeed a new church body, separate from the church they left behind in the Old World (Concordia Historical Institute).

This letter was written to the church at Corinth; they seem to have been a congregation with plenty of their own troubles as well. Paul visited Corinth during his second missionary journey; he later wrote a letter to them, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9, which has been lost to the ages. Paul then sent them what we today call 1 Corinthians, to which some scholars believe Paul may have referred to as the “painful letter” in 2 Corinthians 2:4 (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). 2 Corinthians was written in approximately AD 55. The purpose of the entire letter was to show the Corinthian Christians that Paul’s work among them was truly Christ’s work (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). He writes about the very real human problems congregations, both ancient and modern, face such as divisions, false apostles/teachers, human frailty, poverty of sin, generosity, suffering, and self-examination. He wrote directly to the Corinthians; he is, by virtue of the universality of his message, speaking to all Christians of all times. Paul quotes Psalm 116:10:

I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted” (Psalm 116:10).

He does so to explain his motivation for proclaiming the Gospel in the midst of suffering (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). The psalmist writes that, even though he was greatly afflicted with terrible trials, he nevertheless believed and trusted in the Lord. St. Paul also seeks to encourage the reader to remain faithful to the Lord in the midst of trials, looking forward to the Lord’s redemption. This would be significant to the Corinthians, as they were a congregation in turmoil, and Paul has been shepherding them through their tumultuous times. They are also, as Paul writes earlier in chapter four, “jars of clay,” in which God has placed his treasure[1]. Paul wants the Corinthians, though frail, afflicted, persecuted, perplexed, and struck down, to continue speaking to the Gospel to everyone. As they continue to do so, God’s saving grace would naturally extend to more people. Such is the nature of evangelism[2]. As God’s kingdom grows, thanksgiving among his subjects would grow as well, and God would be glorified all the more among mankind.

…knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence (2 Corinthians 4:14).

St. Paul gives the Corinthians the thing upon which they must always remain focused in verse 14 – the resurrection of Jesus. The “he” in that verse is clearly God the Father, as we are told elsewhere in the New Testament that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead[3]. This is not to be taken as some sort of evidence that Jesus is inferior to God the Father, or that he is not divine in his nature. Scripture also tells us that Jesus raised himself from the dead[4], and that Jesus was raised by the Spirit[5]. Jesus, Scripture teaches, has two natures – one human, and one divine. With respect to his human nature, Jesus was certainly subordinate to God the Father and, while he was on the earth, he had to rely on God the Father for everything. This is called Jesus being in the “state of humiliation” (Luther, 1991). The reason for this is not because Jesus was essentially less than divine. It is because he voluntarily emptied himself of his divine power and set it aside to take on human nature, in fulfillment of God the Father’s will[6]. When St. Paul speaks of the resurrection, he means the literal, bodily raising of Jesus, or another, from the dead. Paul uses lots of imagery in 2 Corinthians 4, but not where the resurrection is concerned. To Paul the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus is the most important aspect of the Christian faith[7].

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

The Outer self is the physical person; the inner self is the spiritual person. The outer self experiences all of the wasting away that St. Paul describes in Chapter four because of the Fall and sin. When sin entered creation, God’s creation became totally corrupted. Sin entered God’s creation through one man, and death through sin[8]. Because the corruption of sin reaches the very nature of mankind, all people are subject to physical death. Our inner, or spiritual, self is revived by the power of God’s Holy Spirit working through his means – Word and Sacrament – as God has promised us (Luther, 1991). The Holy Spirit works a renewal of a believer’s whole life – in spirit, will, attitude, and desires[9]. This spiritual renewal manifests itself in a believer’s life as what Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[10].

What does St. Paul mean by the “light momentary affliction”, and how does that affliction prepare St. Paul’s readers for, “…an eternal weight of glory…”? He is writing about life. After sin entered the world and corrupted God’s creation, life got difficult. Man had to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow, woman had to endure pain in childbirth, our corrupt nature turned away from God and turned in toward ourselves. We became subject to sorrow, pain, and death. Paul tells us, however that this light, momentary affliction is not all that there is. Because we have been spiritually united with Christ in his resurrection through baptism, we will also be physically resurrected to eternal life, just as he was[11]. And, just as an athlete endures the pain of training so that he may bear the weight of the sport in which he competes, so we endure the affliction of a corrupt and sinful world, in anticipation of the weight of eternal glory with Christ.

Paul continues with his comparison of temporal and eternal things in verse 18. “The things that are seen” is the physical world; “the things that are unseen” is the spiritual world. The physical world is in a state of decay; the spiritual world is eternal. Paul is not a Christian Scientist; he is not saying that that humanity and the universe are spiritual rather than material (Christian Science, 2012). He does not deny that the physical world is real, as the Gnostics of his day did, and claim that it is evil, and only a projection, or shadow, of the true spiritual reality. The physical world is merely in a state of “passing away”. Even if St. Paul believed that the physical world was not real, and only the spiritual world was reality, he was reminded of the truth constantly. He could not simply project, or believe his way out of beatings, stoning, imprisonment, and ultimately, death.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:18 – 5:1).

Paul moves from talking about the general physical world to our individual physical bodies. Our corrupted physical body will eventually be destroyed by death. Paul refers to it as a tent, which is a temporary structure. When this happens, though, we know that, through faith in Christ, we have a building from God – a permanent structure – which will last forever. This building from God is the resurrected body promised to us by Christ, redeemed for eternity, restored and transformed by God himself (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009).

This is what we, as Christians, must focus on when times become tough for us. We may not be facing the same sort of obstacles that St. Paul and the Corinthian church faced in their everyday lives, such as violence and persecution. We do, however, face life as believing Christians in an increasingly secular world that is more hostile to the message of Christ crucified and risen every day. We may not be dealing with the trials of establishing and holding together a religious colony in a new country, trying to overcome all the obstacles that go along with such an undertaking. We are, however, a church made up of human beings, complete with sinful human natures; our human failings prove this to us, and those around us, daily. St. Paul instructs Christians to look beyond the momentary affliction to the eternal glory of salvation in Jesus (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009). We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. And, because we believe, we must also speak. We must speak to those around us who do not know the good news of what Jesus accomplished on the cross at Calvary. The goal of St. Paul’s ministry among the Corinthians was to reach more people with the Gospel. Our goal is the same. Our human failings, our afflictions, all those things that Satan uses to trouble and harass us, become temporary nuisances that will surely give way to the glory of life eternal with our Savior (Engelbrecht, et al., 2009).

Works Cited

Burgess, D. F. (1988). Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations. St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Christian Science. (2012, June 12). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science

Concordia Historical Institute. (n.d.). Concordia Historical Institute. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from C. F. W. Walther: http://www.lutheranhistory.org/collections/fa/m-0004.htm

Engelbrecht, E. A., Deterding, P. E., Ehlke, R. C., Joersz, J. C., Love, M. W., Mueller, S. P., et al. (Eds.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Luther, M. (1991). Kleine Katechismus, English. (C. P. House, Trans.) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. (2012, June 12). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheran_Church%E2%80%93Missouri_Synod

End Notes

[1] 2 Corinthians 4:7

[2] Isaiah 55:11

[3] Romans 10:9

[4] John 2:19-21; 10:17-18

[5] Romans 8:11

[6] Philippians 2:5-11

[7] See 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection of Christ is the subject for the entire 15th chapter of this book. St. Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in you sins…If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied,” (1 Cor. 15:14, 17, 19).

[8] Romans 5:12-21

[9] Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17

[10] Galatians 5:22-23

[11] Romans 6:3-4