Grace Worth Fighting For: Recapturing the Vision of God's Grace in the Canons of Dort by Daniel R. Hyde

Author:Daniel R. Hyde [Hyde, Daniel R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: [u]
Publisher: The Davenant Press
Published: 2019-03-23T17:00:00+00:00

Turn back to Romans with me for a moment. In 3:19–20 Paul says the whole world is under the law and accountable to God. How does this call all humanity to account? By being unable to justify us from our sins before the holiness of God; instead, the law can only point out sin. To illustrate, we give our children lists of house chores and rules, but these cannot tell them how to clean their room, how to fold their laundry, or how to love and protect their siblings. If they break the rules and suffer the consequences, those lists are of no help to get them out of the punishment. The list just shows how bad they did; the list only accuses. In the same way the law of God says, “Love God” and “Love your neighbor,” but only points out the sin and the consequence, but not the remedy. This is consistent with what Augustine said: “The Lord Himself…shows us what evil we should shun, and what good we should do, which is all that the letter of the law is able to effect.”[578]

One of the great objections Paul addressed in Romans was, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?” (3:31). His extensive answer came in chapter 4. We uphold the law. How so? By giving it its proper place and power. This was illustrated in no better way than in the life of Abraham. Paul says he was justified not by works of law but by faith in Christ (4:13–16). This meant that Abraham was either an inheritor of God’s promises because of his works or because of God’s grace—there is no middle ground. The law brings wrath, but the promise of God rests on grace. In other words, the law does its work and the gospel does its work. “The word of the Law,” Rivetus said, “only prepares the way for justifying faith.”[579]

Article 5 of the canons expresses this common Christian conviction, saying, For though it discovers the greatness of sin, and more and more convinces man thereof, yet as it neither points out a remedy nor imparts strength to extricate him from misery, and thus being weak through the flesh leaves the transgressor under the curse, man cannot by this law obtain saving grace.

Article 6

What therefore neither the light of nature, nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the Word or ministry of reconciliation, which is the glad tidings concerning the Messiah, by means whereof it hath pleased God to save such as believe, as well under the Old, as under the New Testament.

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