Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Winter Edition 2004
The Kingdom Of Grace
The messianic kingdom that Jesus intended
to establish, and in fact did establish, at his first advent is a kingdom of
redemption through grace. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). "The law was given by Moses, but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). "The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men" through Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11)!
Modern holiness folks speak much of two works of grace. The
term "works of grace," when applied to the experiences of being forgiven of
sins, and of being purified in heart can be misleading, however, if we do not
understand and emphasize the fact that all of salvation, from start to finish,
is underlain and enabled by grace. Let us not then limit grace to only "two"
works, for salvation is not a state of grace in which to park, it is a way, a
path, or a journey, and we need to have a doctrine of perseverance just as much
as we need to have a doctrine of entrance experiences.
The modern holiness preacher's job is not to "park" people in
a carnal Christian state of pre-entire sanctification experience. None of the
children of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for forty years made it into
the promised land except the two, Caleb and Joshua, who would have gone in at
the beginning had they not been hindered by the unbelief of others. The lesson
we learn from the wilderness experience of Israel is that the carnal are not
going to make it into Canaan! In fact, there are no "carnal" Christians in the
first place, for the expression itself is a misnomer based on a misunderstanding
of the situation in the Corinthian church.
The model of the believers at Thessalonica, not the example
of the troublemakers in Corinth, is the proper portrayal of a pre-entirely
sanctified condition. Though Paul does indeed set before the church at Corinth
the high standard of true holiness (I Corinthians 12:31; 13:1-13; 7:1; 13:11),
yet nowhere does he insinuate that the carnal at Corinth, who "walked as men" (I
Corinthians 3:3), needed to be entirely sanctified! Rather, Paul counsels the
church to put out of their midst those who walked after the flesh until they
should do the first work of repentance (I Corinthians 5:7; 13; II Corinthians
7:8-11). Friends, a good case of old-fashioned Holy Ghost repentance takes care
of many a "carnality" problem. Whether we like it or not, the fact remains,
there are no troublemakers in the true church of God!
The modern "carnal Christian" theory derives, not from
primitive Wesleyan Methodism, but from the ideological constructions of late
nineteenth century Calvinistic premillennialism. The twentieth century Holiness
movement's widespread acceptance of the postponement of the kingdom theory of
popular dispensationalism (based on SRA's erroneous interpretation of Daniel's
prophecy of the 70 Weeks) has led to the destruction of the kerygmatic
foundations of the Christian system, most notably of the doctrine of scriptural
holiness, among us. Postponed kingdom thinking drives true holiness out of the
world, because holiness IS the kingdom: postponing the kingdom means postponing
holiness as well!
Lord help us all get over the antinomian fables of Darbyism,
and return to John Wesley's personal passion for God, and to his understanding
of the realized messianic kingdom of grace! Amen.
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