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The Covenant Relationship
Lesson Ten
(part two)
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Entrance Requirements:
Since one of
the primary blessings of the NC is salvation (through forgiveness of sin), it
follows that the requirements for entering the NC are identical to those
required for salvation (Jer. 31:31-34). Thus,
we will examine every stated requirement for salvation or forgiveness. There are six requirements:
1.
Hearing the Word. “faith comes
from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the
word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The
following requirement is faith, and this passage insists that Scripture must be
heard to produce it.
2.
Believing (Faith in) the Gospel. "For God
so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
3.
Repentance. In Acts 2:38,
Peter urged his guilty listeners first to “repent” and be baptized. We recall that John the Baptist “preached a baptism
of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). It means to turn away from sin.
4.
Confession of the Lordship of Jesus. This is not to
be confused with “confession” of sin (which John the Baptist called for from
those he baptized. This “confession”
means that we acknowledge that Jesus has authority over us as “Lord.” This requirement is found in Romans 10:9-10,
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe
and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” This is often called the “good confession”
from 1 Tim. 6:12-13, where Paul reminds Timothy that he once made the “good
confession” and that this was the same confession the Jesus himself made before
Pontius Pilate—an acknowledgment of Jesus’ Lordship.
5.
Calling upon the Name of the Lord. This is from Romans
10:13 (which is a quote of Joel 2:32, see also Acts 22:16): "Everyone who calls on the name of
the Lord will be saved." This
is an admission that we are incapable of saving ourselves and then openly
acknowledging that “the Lord” (Jesus) is the One who must save us. The idea of “Name” especially involves
authority, hence we call Jesus to save us.
6.
Baptism. This is an
immersion in water that is more than a symbol—it causes what it symbolizes
to become reality. Baptism is a
“covenant entrance ritual.” That is, it
is precisely here that one enters the New Covenant. It confers two incredible grace gifts upon
the baptized believer: remission of
sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Much more will be said about baptism in the next lesson.
Notice that each of these, when performed, shapes the
resulting relationship in significant ways.
Each step forces the appropriate “relational dynamics”:
1.
Hearing—determines that the resulting covenant will be defined in response
to God’s revelation—to both Scripture and to Jesus, the living Word,
personally.
2.
Believing/faith—sets the dynamic of mutual faithfulness and commitment
on the model of Jesus’ Cross, and on the reciprocating cross-bearing of the
believer.
3.
Repentance—guarantees that the dynamic of holiness will
characterize the covenant and its partners.
4.
Confessing the Lordship—sets in place the dynamic of authority,
leadership, and sovereignty for Jesus and submission, obedience, and
service for believers.
5.
Calling upon the Name—makes impossible the dynamic of
self-righteousness and necessitates the dynamic of gratitude, appreciation,
and praise.
6.
Baptism—enables the dynamic of total surrender and self-sacrifice
that is the relational-dynamic equivalent of a death.
Thus, a conversion responsible to the relational dynamics
will result in a relationship with God that is Biblical, faithful, holy,
obedient, grateful, and fully surrendered.
Is every obedience required? It will be
seen that each of these is essential to the formation of the New Covenant,
given the absolute necessity driven by the Cross. Anything less would be unworthy of the
love, faithfulness, and grace of Jesus.
He deserves this much; and nothing less.
It can also be seen that the omission of any of these will result in a
relationship that is fundamentally flawed and deficient regarding the
particular “relational dynamic” at play in that obedience. Now at your conversion, these may not have
been verbalized with the same precision with which we speak here, but none of
them should stand out as alien to the conversion experience.
Two common mistakes: Notice that
the covenant-entrance described above involves two components: obedience (to the six requirements)
and relational dynamics (bound up in these six). Two mistakes commonly result when one
component is attended to, while the other is disregarded. And it will be seen that churches of Christ
are more prone to one, while “evangelicals” (esp. Calvinists) are prone to the
other.
First, evangelicals want to assign “all responsibility” for a
conversion-response to God, and allow “no responsibility” to the believer. So, any response—including coming to faith—is
something God creates in the believer.
And then they typically wrap up some collection of the “six
requirements” all under the label of “FAITH.”
They see faith as the absolute and only requirement, with the others
somewhat optional. In spite of these
errors regarding the six particular requirements, evangelicals sometimes
achieve to a remarkable degree the “relational dynamics” required of a true
convert!
What should be our response?
First, we should applaud and show appreciation for every
achievement of these dynamics. However,
we should also recognize that there are often systemic relational failures
among evangelicals. Some quite obviously
never die to sin or fail to become holy/sanctified in their lives. In other words, it cannot be assumed that
every evangelical has indeed achieved the “relational dynamics” God desires.[1] And, while they correctly identify
“faith” as the essence of the response God requires, a faith deficient in “relational
dynamics” is not the saving faith God looks for. And ignoring the six requirements can easily
cause such deficiency.
Second, we should respect the silence of Scripture on this
point. We are nowhere told that God will grant
salvation and eternal life to a believer who has never repented, never assented
to the Lordship of Jesus, or never was buried into Christ’s death at
baptism! We may hope, privately, that
those who expire before achieving a clearly complete conversion might be saved
by a gracious God who might so appreciate the relational dynamics achieved that
He overlooks the particular obediences neglected. That said, we should never speak, over the
silence of Scripture, and give any assurance that this is a given. It is not.
Evangelicals love to cling to the “thief on the cross” as
a model for themselves, finding an example of salvation apart from
baptism. However, it seems that Cornelius
might be a more fitting model: he
was quite advanced in relational dynamics toward God, but God still sent to
Cornelius an apostle proclaiming the Gospel and calling for a response of faith
and baptism. Just as God appreciated his
relational achievements so much that He gave Cornelius an opportunity to
complete his conversion, God may be providing our evangelical friends with
an opportunity to finally be baptized.
A mistake to which churches of Christ are susceptible:
Praise God,
that the “back-to-the-Bible” approach of the American Restoration Movement
enabled churches of Christ to rediscover the six requirements for Christian
conversion! However, we may advocate
these truly Biblical requirements while failing to attend to the relational
dynamics that God wants them to produce!
Sometimes we present the requirements as a sort of “check-list”
and assume that the key issue is “obedience.” At times, we bring in the example of
Naaman (2 Kings 5), who was told to baptize himself seven times in the
Jordan River and thus had his leprosy cleansed.
The story is used to demonstrate the necessity of careful obedience,
as Naaman was ready to consider alternatives:
first, he had hoped Elijah would just work the miracle directly. And then, Naaman knew of plenty of other good
rivers to dip in. But—no obedience, no
healing! That is Naaman’s lesson, and
then our fellowship sometimes uses this to illustrate the need to complete the
“check-list” in careful obedience. Good
as far as it goes, but do not fail to notice that the check-list can be
presented, complete with the example of Naaman, and yet Jesus and His Cross may
never even be mentioned! Would such
“careful obedience”—without Jesus—save?
If conversion is presented this way, it fails. The key ingredient is not obedience, as
though God is simply looking for obedient people to bless. The key factor is what sort of
relationship is produced, and this brings us again to “relational dynamics.” If these are not attended to, the
evangelistic effort is flawed and failed.
A similar error can be made among denominational believers. They may consider themselves already saved
by faith. Yet later, agree to obey the
Bible command to be baptized, agree to “get wet all over”! However, this “obedience” also ignores the
relational dynamics set forth in Scripture that specifically are associated
with baptism. Thus, we would be quite
right to insist that this “wetting” was not baptism; nor did it save. Again, more than obedience is required—the
quality of relationship matters!
None of this is to downplay the necessity of careful
obedience toward each and every one of the six requirements!
We insist, however, that with each particular obedience must come
careful attending to the relational dynamics involved. Each of these requirements is set forth for some
“reason” that was by intention in God’s design. Each affects the resulting shape and quality
of the relationship between the believer and God. And we should definitely expect Jesus to
get the quality of relationship He died to achieve, and not a whit less. And we dare not place ourselves in position
to consider some alternative approach to salvation and covenant-formation to be
just as good as the one set forth by God in Scripture. This has been too often attempted by those
inside and outside of churches of Christ ever since the Protestant Reformation.
[1]
Occasionally one hears critiques from within churches of Christ, in which the
best is assumed for evangelicals as spiritually gifted believers; while our
brethren are portrayed as legalistic and carnal. This is reminiscent of the “myth of the noble
savage” from the 18th century, in which Euro-invaders to the
Americas were seen as conniving, ruthless, truly savages; while the natives
were viewed as pristine examples of a truly “christian” character. This positive regard and negative stigma,
drawn from a self-critique, are “broad brush false” and serve a polemic
function.
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