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Historical Background

In the early 5th century a debate arose between Pelagius, a British monk, and Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. They disagreed over the relationship between human nature after the Fall and saving, divine grace in Jesus Christ.

When Pelagius arrived in Rome and saw the city’s dim view of morality, he developed a reputation for being a spiritual director who urged people to reform their behavior and live lives as upstanding, moral citizens.

Pelagius’ View of Sin

Pelagius rejected the doctrines of original sin, substitutionary atonement, and justification by faith.

Pelagius emphasized unconditional free will and the ability to better oneself spiritually without grace. This was in direct contrast to Augustine, who believed that humanity was completely helpless in Adam’s sin and in desperate need of grace. Specifically, Pelagius took issue with Augustine’s prayer in his Confessions, which asked God to grant humans grace to act in accordance with his divine commands: “Grant what you command and command what you will.”
(Confessions, X. 40).

Pelagius rejected the teaching of “original sin,” the results of the Fall upon humanity. According to him, Adam’s sin in no way made humans corrupt, but instead “over the years our sin gradually corrupts us, building an addiction and then holding us bound with what seems like the force of nature itself.” (Letter to Demetrias, VIII). Humans by nature have a clean slate, and it is only through voluntary sin that humans are made wicked. Potentially, then, one could live a sinless life and merit heaven.

Pelagius thought that God commanding a person to do something that he lacked the ability to do would be useless: “To call a person to something he considers impossible does him no good.” (Letter to Demetrias, I). If God called humans to live moral lives, Pelagius thought, it should be within their power to carry out such commands.

Orthodox Response

Pelagius’ error was deemed heretical in 416 by the Council of Carthage. Originally Adam, Augustine said, possessed freedom—the ability not to sin. After the Fall, all human beings participate in Adam’s sin, which renders them not able not to sin. After the mediation of divine grace in Jesus Christ humans are once again given the ability not to sin.

Augustine replied to Pelagius’ views in two treatises: On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin. Augustine writes: “We must realize that Pelagius believes that neither our will nor our action is helped by divine aid…he believes that God does not help us to will, that he does not help us to act, that he helps us only to be able to will and to act.”(On the Grace of Christ, V.6).

Augustine saw Pelagius’ teaching to be a clear denial of Philippians 2:12-13, because Pelagius located the capacity “to will and to do” what pleases God in human nature rather than in God’s grace.”(On the Grace of Christ, V.6 and VI.7).

Why Does All This Matter?

Ignoring the consequences the Fall has on everyone leads to a diminishment of the multifaceted work of Christ. In his ministry Jesus not only bore our sins on the cross, but lived a perfect life in obedience to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit—the life that Adam failed to live—in order to restore fallen humans to their original state of grace.

It is not only through the grace of God that humans are initially saved but also through this grace that they are sustained. As Augustine put it, God “guards the weak so that by his gift the saints unfailingly choose the good and unfailingly refuse to abandon it.”(On Rebuke and Grace, 38).

Without understanding the magnitude of sin and the plight of humanity, the gracious work of Jesus for us and our salvation seems superfluous. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says: “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”

Because of sin, humans are not naturally good—that's why we need Jesus.

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One of the most difficult aspects of my work as a pastor is wading through the vast amount of ministry opportunities that seem to be never-ending.

Opportunity Is Everywhere

For church leaders, every day brings a barrage of ideas and decisions related to potential opportunities. They come from everywhere: God, the Bible, church staff, Sunday services, a restful vacation, the congregation, the web, the news, a walk down the street, and on and on.

I’ve found that every opportunity is fraught with some form of opposition.


Opportunity and Opposition


You don’t have to get far into the Bible to see the tension between opportunity and opposition. Our forefather Adam is created and given an enormous opportunity from God: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Those with an entrepreneurial bent get pretty excited when reading about an opportunity of such grandiose potential—being the first to inhabit the entire earth. Read a little further, however, and the opposition is readily apparent. In this case Adam and Eve are opposed and tempted by Satan, and they’re also opposed by their sinful desire to be like God, knowing good and evil.

Of course, our first parents do sin, and all future opportunities are forever changed by the curse upon humanity. For the man specifically, his work to “fill the earth and subdue it” is a lot harder now that the earth is at war against him, broken and fallen from its luscious garden state.

You Are Cursed

The same call and the same curse that burdened Adam remain in place for all of us, which means that effectively evaluating opportunities is no easy task.

Three key filters can help separate fruitful opportunity from sinful distraction: wisdom, priorities, and cost. I’ll discuss these biblical principles in future posts.

Jamie Munson is the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. You can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Deep Water

It's always interesting to watch fights and see how a fighter's natural tendencies become pronounced during stressful situations. For example, a fighter with a wrestling background will almost always resort to shooting a double-leg takedown if he starts getting hit on his feet. Similarly, a BJJ guy will inevitably pull guard if a wrestler starts to get the dominant position in the clinch. Every fighter has a background that they will resort to when the fight gets so tough that they stop thinking and start reacting. Fighters call this being taken into the "deep water." Our lives are not much different in this regard—during times of high stress and struggles we see that our sinful nature starts to come to the surface in ways that are unique to our personal makeup and background.

The Point of Breaking

Personally, the economic downturn has hit my business very hard. My ministry, Agon Fighters, founded with Matt Lindland and other fighters, has seen donations dry up. Because of funding, we have had to postpone video production of a DVD with fighters' testimonies. Through all of this, I have found myself becoming angry and increasingly selfish with my remaining resources. These times in our lives are the "deep water," but the difference is fighters want to be taken into the deep water, while in our personal lives we do almost anything to avoid it. Fighters understand that the only way to become a more complete fighter is to be pushed to the point of breaking, and since their goal is to be a complete fighter, they welcome these opportunities.

Completeness

James speaks of this in the context of our lives when he says, "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4). Our goal in our faith should be the same as a fighter's goal in the octagon—to be complete. When we have this goal, we can have the joy James speaks of when we are taken into the deep water because God uses these trials to make us complete, to make us like him!

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To answer any significant question about where we come from, why we are here, what is right and wrong, who God is, and where we are going when we die requires doctrine. Subsequently, everyone has doctrine. The only question is whether it is truthful, biblical, and helpful.

Admittedly, in the name of being doctrinally vigorous, some people go too far and put secondary issues—those that are unworthy of battling over—in the closed hand of conviction. Conversely, some people do not go far enough and put in the open hand primary issues that are worthy of battling over. In writing Doctrine, my coauthor, Dr. Gerry Breshears, and I sought to follow the storyline of the Bible and focus on the major unifying, liberating, and life-changing doctrines of the Bible.

The timing of this book is incredibly significant. At the very least, evangelical Christians in general, and younger evangelical Christians in particular, seem incredibly confused on doctrine. One study revealing the incredible need for Doctrine is the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (2008) (see note below). It reports the beliefs of the 13.5% of emerging adults (ages 18 to 23) in the United States today who self-identify as Protestant Christian and who attend an evangelical church at least “two to three times a month”:

• 97.2% believe in God.
• 96.6% believe that Jesus was/is the Son of God who was raised from the dead.
• 96.4% believe that God created the world.
• 89% “definitely” believe in angels.
• 76.2% “definitely” believe in demons.
• 82.5% “definitely” believe in any form of afterlife.
• 83.0% believe in astrology “not at all.”
• 83.2% believe in reincarnation “not at all.”
• 94.8% “definitely” believe in miracles.
• 95.0% believe in a coming judgment day, when God will reward some and punish others.
• 91.2% believe that God is a personal being who is still involved in the world today.
• 81.9% believe that only people whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus go to Heaven.
  Corollary: 5.3% say that only good people go to Heaven; 2.5% say that all people go to Heaven; 4.9% believe “something else” about Heaven, and 2.2% “don’t really know or care” who goes to Heaven. 3.3% don’t believe in Heaven at all.
• 1.6% tries to include practices from Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen, or other Asian religions.
• 85.5% say that it is “okay for religious people to try to convert other people to their faith.”
• 71.8% say that Christians should only practice one religion.
• 24.6% say that it is okay for Christians to practice other religions as well. (Another 3.6% don’t know.)
• Less than two-thirds (66.2%) say that “only one religion is true.”
• 70.8% say that it is not okay for Christians to “pick and choose their religious beliefs without having to accept the teachings of their religious faith as a whole.”
• More than one-quarter (27.0%) thinks that it is okay to “pick and choose.”
• 89% say that they have “a lot of respect for organized religion in this country.”
• Almost one-quarter (24.3%) agrees with or is still undecided about moral relativism.
• 36.0% “agree” or “strongly agree” that “we should adjust our views of what is morally right and wrong” to reflect changes in our world.
• 52.0% “agree” or “strongly agree” that people should not marry someone of a different religion.

REMEMBER: These statistics are from the 13.5% of emerging adults (ages 18 to 23) in the United States today who self-identify as Protestant Christian and who attend an evangelical church at least “two to three times a month.” In Doctrine we hit all these issues and many more in a readable manner.

Note: The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) is the most comprehensive and rigorous social scientific research ever conducted on the religious and spiritual lives of American youth. It is based out of the University of North Carolina and the University of Notre Dame. The wave 1 survey was conducted among American youth ages 13 to 17 between July 2002 and April 2003, and produced a total N = 3370. Most recently, a third wave of the survey was conducted from September 24, 2007 through April 21, 2008 with the same respondents—when they were between the ages of 18 and 23 years. (This is during the first half of what developmental psychologists call “emerging adulthood.”) The National Study of Youth and Religion was generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and is under the direction of Christian Smith of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. For methodological details and related publications, visit: http://www.youthandreligion.org/.

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Serving the church and spreading the gospel. Help support this effort by giving to the Global Fund. More info at MarsHillGlobal.com.

Your people could benefit tremendously from having a solid grasp of key theological terms. We at the Resurgence came up with the idea of creating posters that succinctly explain the most important theological ideas.

Discipleship

This poster explains the biblical concept of discipleship, which begins with repentance and becomes a way of life for every believer. We are called by Jesus, just as his disciples were called in the gospels, to "leave everything" and follow him (Luke 5:28).

• Download the Discipleship poster here.

For creative ideas for how to use our free Resurgence posters, click here.

Docent Research

Customized research for pastors. High-level exegesis, theological analysis, and cultural research as well as writing assistance. Learn more.

From the recent sermon Jesus Without Sin, on Luke 4:1-13.

1. Satan is a real enemy

Satan is a real enemy. Do you believe that? You need to discuss that at your community group and with your friends. If you don’t, if you still think, “I think that’s hocus pocus. I think that’s psychological projection. My community college professor really confused me on this point,” you need to articulate that. Don’t be a liar. Be honest. Come clean.

See, one of the most amazing things Satan did is he presented himself in the media: cartoons, little horns, red cape, and pitchfork. “Here he comes. Yeah, we know it’s him. How can we tell? He’s the red guy.” It’s not that easy. He’s into marketing and advertising. He’s subtle and crafty and sly and he’s very adept at baiting the hook. You have a real enemy. If you don’t believe that, confess that as sin. That’s the beginning of all your troubles. You have a real enemy. You’re born into a real war. You’re born again as a Christian on Christ’s side of the battle. But, the battle rages in your life as it did in his.

(Click here to see the rest of this post)

Sinless

This poster explains the doctrine of the perfect, sinless life of Christ and how it relates to our salvation. By God’s grace, the perfect obedience of Christ is attributed to all who put their faith in him.

Download the Sinless poster here.

Click here for ideas for how to use the posters.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

I have been studying these verses recently and thinking about the command to love one another and how that can actually happen.

• Romans 13:9—The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
• Galatians 5:15—The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself.
• John 14:34-35—Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
• 1 John 3:11,16—This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

The problem is that a command doesn’t generate the ability to fulfill the command. People can tell you over and over again to love each other, but telling you to do something doesn’t make it possible for you to accomplish it.

Lack of Love

Doug Coupland writes about this “problem of love” in his book Life After God: “Now here is my secret—that I need God, that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving, I need God to help me be kind, as I no longer seem to be capable of kindness, I need God to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.”

To add to the problem, when Jesus and Paul make love the fulfillment of the law it really points out our failure. Summing up the law in the command to love just consolidates our failures to one big failure: our lack of love.

The gospel has something to say about this “problem of love”: God has loved us in a way that has given us life. The atoning death of Jesus provides the means by which we enter a relationship in which love is received and expressed. With that as the context of the commands to love, the commands are viewed not as the "ought" of compulsion but the “transformation” of internal constraint. To those who encountered the source of love, the commandment to love can be read with hope and joy, because love is not alien to our experience.

An Abundance of Love

God’s love for us transforms us. The more we bask in God’s affection, the more the reality of God’s acceptance of us seeps into our hearts, the more we might love others as ourselves. This seems to be the logic behind Jesus’ statement: love one another as God has loved you. We have been given an overabundance—a surplus—of love. And out of that love, we can love others out of the overflow of God’s affection for us.

Our inability to love others (our failure to keep God’s perfect law) can point us to the God who accomplished perfect love, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. The command can be a moment to encounter God’s love for us and for God to enable us to participate in his love for others.

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A Miracle

In John 6, Jesus performs a miracle of multiplying loaves of bread and fish to feed over 5,000 people. This passage has been used to make the point that Jesus had to wait for the boy to offer his food before Jesus would do his part. When applied to our spiritual lives it looks like this: “God is really into you, but he wants you to be really into him first and he wants you to make the first move and show him that you are serious and all about his glory. And after you respond, God will look upon you with favor and good pleasure. God may even ‘use you’.”

This is not true. We do not have this miracle recorded for the purpose of trying to convince you to try harder to get God’s attention.

When Jesus’ first century audience sees this miracle they corner him and ask: “What do your works mean? Come on! Tell us what you’ve come to do. We want to know. We’d like you to be our king. We have an agenda for you.”

Bread of Heaven

Jesus reminds them about the bread or manna in the desert with Moses and says: “It wasn’t Moses who gave you bread in the desert. It was my father who brought the bread from heaven. And now it is the father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. That would be me! I am the bread of life. I am the true life that has come down from heaven.”

He claims to be the one who can truly give the life of God and says “If you do not have me you do not have life.” The life of God was poured out in his life. The bread came down from heaven; we didn’t climb up to God.

In Jesus’ words about being the bread of life, claiming that he is the life of God on earth, we are looking at the very heart of Christianity—that we are not spiritual, but that we have a desperate spiritual need. We cannot climb the ladder to God through some technique. Rather, Christianity teaches our alienation from God until it is remedied by Christ. God came near to us in Christ, so Christ could take care of that which separates us from God and then bring us near to God.

God’s Condescension

To understand this is to get at the heart of what Jesus is about. We do not inherently have “spiritual life.” Christ was our spiritual life for us on our behalf. In being the bread of life, Jesus disarms us of our self-reliant spiritual efforts. As a result, we have a problem. We do not naturally on our own come near to God. He must come near to us. So a relationship with God is based on God’s condescension to us in Jesus being the bread of life from heaven.

It is not that we have risen to spiritual heights, but that the bread of heaven has come down to us. Thankfully, it’s not all about us.

Vintage Church

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

What did you learn today?

 The first dozen times I spent with Pastor Mark Driscoll he asked me the exact same question—"What did you learn today?"



This did five things:

1. It forced me to consider the massive amount of information coming in and discern what's important.
2. It set me up in the habit of reflection on how God is moving and what he's teaching me.
3. It made me understand that I have a pastor who cares not just about what I do, but who God is shaping me to be.
4. It increased my awareness of the who, what, where, why, and when around me.
5. It pushed me to take on the identity of 'learner'.

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus' work in these twelve letters of counsel to individuals. Find out more.