Dr Paul Allen

Reformers like John Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other author outside Scripture. They celebrated, among other qualities, how he championed the truth that God saves sinners not on the basis of their works but by his grace.   When it came to the doctrine of justification by faith, however, the Reformers did not find the clarity they wanted in the great church father.  Augustine never offers a systematic treatment of the meaning of justification, and a careful reading of his works reveals ambiguities in his treatment of the doctrine.   Nevertheless, he speaks of justification mainly in terms of God making sinners righteous rather than declaring sinners righteou s. To the Reformers, then, his way of expressing the doctrine obscured, even if it did not deny, Christ’s righteousness as the sole ground of a sinner’s justification before God. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) championed the truth that God saves sinners not on the basis of their works, but by his grace alone. E...

In Philippians 1:27, Paul exhorts the community to do one thing in his absence: “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” In this way, Paul says, your worthy lifestyle will be a “clear sign . . . of your salvation” (Phil. 1:28). At first glance, it seems that Paul, the Apostle of grace, is promoting salvation by works. It seems that we somehow need to prove ourselves worthy of the gospel before receiving salvation, with all the work of salvation falling into the lap of the believer. You will certainly find this perspective in both ancient and modern views of salvation. But is this self-saving message promoted by the Apostle Paul? A close look at Philippians 1:27 provides the answer. The Greek verb politeuomai, translated as “let your manner of life be,” is an imperative, that is, a command. By using this verb, Paul evokes the image of a city (politeuomai is derived from polis, meaning “city”). According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the city (polis) in ancient ...

We should take notice of what Jesus did not say in the Great Commission. He did not say, "Go therefore and make converts of as many people as possible." All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:18-20) One of the most exciting times of my life was when I was first converted to Christ. I was filled with a zeal for evangelism. However, much to my consternation, when I told my friends about my conversion to Christ, they thought I was crazy. They were tragically amused, remaining unconvinced despite my sharing the gospel with them. Finally, they asked me, "Why don't you start a class and teach us what you have learned about Jesus?" They were serious. I was elated. We scheduled a time to meet, and I got ...

If you are in Christ, the desire for holiness is woven into your spiritual DNA . You have learned to say with the old prayer, “Sin is my greatest evil, but thou art my greatest good.” Your soul has a new hunger: to be holy as Christ is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Patient as he is patient, bold as he is bold, zealous as he is zealous, pure as he is pure. So you “strive for . . . holiness” (Hebrews 12:14), and you know you are not yet as holy as you long to be. In the midst of this godly pursuit, however, we can easily miss one startling and wonderful fact: in Christ, we are already holy. We wake up holy, brush our teeth holy, check our email holy, drive through traffic holy. Before we ever began to pursue holiness, holiness pursued us, found us, claimed us, filled us. Whether we feel like it right now or not, holy is who we are. And unless we embrace the holiness that is already ours, our pursuit of holiness may leave us more harried and anxious than actually holy. Holier Than Thou Thinketh Pa...

The words justification and sanctification have largely fallen out of use in Western culture. Both terms lie at the heart of the biblical gospel. So, what does the Bible teach about justification and sanctification? How do they differ from one another? How do they help us understand better the believer's relationship with Jesus Christ? Justification is as simple as A-B-C-D . Justification is an act of God. It does not describe the way that God inwardly renews and changes a person. It is, rather, a legal declaration in which God pardons the sinner of all his sins and accepts and accounts for the sinner as righteous in His sight. God declares the sinner righteous at the very moment that the sinner puts his trust in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:16; 2 Cor. 5:21). What is the basis of this legal verdict? God justifies the sinner solely on the basis of the obedience and death of His Son, our representative, Jesus Christ. Christ's perfect obedience and full satisfaction for sin a...

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God ( Micah 6:8). The will of God for your life is your sanctification. Make the kingdom of God and His righteousness the main goal of your life, for God is not as concerned whether you live in USA or New Zealand . What does God require of us? He requires us to walk by faith, which means to walk trusting Him. First, He calls on us to act justly, to do what’s right. If we trust Him, we will obey Him. We will be a people who avoid sin and pursue righteousness. Sometimes doing things justly is painful and risky, but if we trust God, we will do what is right anyway. Second, He calls on us to love mercy. The word mercy can also be translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love.” Another translation can be “to love with loyalty.” Are we loyal in our love for those around us, or are we fickle? We could put it this way: Are we trustworthy? If...

LUST: The word was originally a neutral term describing any strong desire; hence its use in early translations of Gn. 3:16; Jn. 1:13; Nu. 14:8; Heb. 10:6. In its modern restricted sense of sexual passion it cannot adequately render many familiar contexts in AV. The Heb. nep̱eš expresses craving or desire in Ex. 15:9 and Ps. 78:18, and carries the promise of satisfaction in Pr. 10:24. Gk. epithymia expresses any strong desire, the context or a qualifying adjective determining its nature, whether good or evil. Hence it is used of the intensely pure desire of Christ , Lk. 22:15, and of Paul’s desire to be with Christ, Phil. 1:23, and of his longing to see his converts, 1 Thes. 2:17. Yet in 1 Pet. 4:3 it stands among a list of Gentile vices, and the adjectives ‘worldly’, ‘evil’, ‘youthful’ and ‘deceitful’ are attached to it in Tit. 2:12; Col. 3:5; 2 Tim. 2:22; and Eph. 4:22 respectively. The restricted reference to sexual passion is found in Eph. 2:3; 1 Jn. 2:16; 1 Pet. 2:11 (c...

Charles Dickens ’ classic novel, Great Expectations , chronicles a tale of a young, poor boy, named Pip. The little guy is an apprentice blacksmith and has no hope of ever being rich on his own merit. He is fascinated by the genteel society and opulence of the upper crust. His fantasy is to one day be a gentleman himself. Then one fine day he is visited by an attorney who informs him that he has come into some serendipitous fortune of property and unimagined wealth. Pip’s dream of being a gentleman is suddenly within reach. But he soon discovers that his great expectations of fitting into the haut monde of 19th century London will require more than just the position his money affords him. His practice belies his origins. So, with the help of a friend, he is discipled in the arcane ways of etiquette and sophistication. He painstakingly observes and mimics the nuances of the behavior, fashion, and mannerisms of those he now considers his peers. He masters the accentuation of their sp...

Wesley understood entire sanctification, or perfection in love, then, as a continuum of grace and response that leads persons from the guilt and despair of their sin to the knowledge of God and, by faith in His grace in Jesus Christ , to the crisis moment of the justification and the new birth. The life of sanctification springs from the regenerated life created by the new birth and continues as the Holy Spirit through His gracious ministry calls them to moment-by-moment obedience to the will of God, which is the expression of His holiness and love. In this part of the Christian’s progress in obeying the will of God and conforming to the mind of Christ, the remains of the rebellion and fallenness create conflict and often depression.  The nature is still corrupted by a systemic illness that makes a free and ready response to the love of God a source of contention in the inner volitional being. The volitional powers have to be cleansed from the effects of the Fall, which ...

The Spirit’s work of regeneration of the heart marks the beginning point of sanctification. It means that we have been given that power over sin which is the birthright of every child of God as we seek to be conformed to His image. In regeneration the formation of the Christ life in us has begun; the call to holiness and divine love becomes the compelling motive of the new life under the power and inspiration of the Spirit, who has brought about our adoption as children of God. Every person who is born of God, from the moment of regeneration, has the promise of victory over sin and the devil and has the power of the Holy Spirit to realize that victory in everyday living. Wesley recognized that Christian believers, and especially those who were most serious in their desire to please God and forsake sin, experienced a continuing element of rebellion, a systemic illness, which weakened the will to holiness and love and divided their intention to love God and neighbor without reserve. “...

Wesley declared that the supreme and overruling purpose of God’s plan of salvation is to renew men’s and women’s hearts in His own image. It is a teleological theme,14 for he believed that all the grand currents of biblical salvation history moved toward this one end and had, in a restricted but definite manner, a fulfillment and perfection in this life.  Wesley held that God had promised salvation from all willful sin, and he saw this promise in passages such as the following: Deuteronomy 30:6; Psalm 130:8; Ezekiel 36:25, 29; Matthew 5:48; 6:13; 22:37; John 3:8; 17:20–21, 23; Romans 8:3–4; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 3:14–19; 5:25, 27; and 1 Thessalonians 5:23.  He believed that such passages as Luke 1:69–75, Titus 2:11–14, and 1 John 4:17 indicated that this sanctification took place before death. By grace, God would restore to us the holiness that had been lost in the Fall by our first parents. The gracious element resides in God’s good will to all, in that He is ...

Wesley used his observations of contemporary experience and his reflections on the lives of past Christians to shape his understanding of God’s will, he nevertheless held God’s Word as ultimate and authoritative. He refused to consider seriously any teaching unless it could stand its ground under the pure light of revelation. No Christian leader has ever been more faithful in bringing all observation, experience, and rational conclusions to the Scriptures for final judgment. “If by catholic principles,” he said on one occasion, “you mean anything other than scriptural, they weigh nothing with me. I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice than the Holy Scriptures.” At the same time, he insisted that God’s truth was given to us to be translated into life and could be if it were received and believed.  Therefore, to understand salvation fully, one must take into account the knowledge of God given to those who were honestly seeking His will and experiencing His gra...

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ .” ( Philippians 1:6 ) Our Lord gave this powerful promise to perform the good work that He began at and with the church at Philippi (the “you” is plural in the Greek text). It is an earthly, temporal promise; that is, the promise is to “perfect” the good work “until the day of Jesus Christ.” The church at Philippi closed its earthly doors centuries ago. Something much more than mere continuation is pledged. Surely our Lord has in mind His assurance that “the gates of hell” would not prevail against His church ( Matthew 16:18 ), but there were some churches to whom Christ spoke who were in danger of losing their “candlestick” or church-hood ( Revelation 2:4 ; 3:16). What, then, can we be assured of by this marvelous promise? Perhaps the basic “good work” that our Lord refers to is seen in the list of commendations given to the seven churches ...