The author wrote about a Christian brother of his that had studied the doctrine of justification and then heard a brilliant lecture on it. The friend remarked how few understood “what is actually the doctrine of justification. And he kept on, saying, ‘These people don’t have the slightest idea what it means to be justified.”‘ The comment of the author was that this is a “latent germ of destruction which can blossom, without much effort, into spiritual pride.” The author said that he commented to the brother on that occasion: “‘They know, brother, they know! If someone has been truly rescued by the precious blood of Christ he knows experientially what justification is.'”
The above statement is rather astonishing to my understanding. We don’t have to say that people have to know what the doctrine of justification means with perfection in order to be saved, but that does not seem to be the real issue here at all. I guess I tend toward agreement with the man who (perhaps with sorrow) stated over and over that people don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to be justified. I am just not sure how a person can be rescued by the blood of Christ in an experiential manner without knowing to some degree what justification really is. Experiences do not determine what is true, but truth is what interprets our experiences. Anyone can have an experience and interpret that experience in many different ways. But something is being experienced. What is it that can interpret the experience of Christ? It must be Scripture that interprets that experience or the experience could be a deceitful act of the devil or perhaps a person deceiving him or herself.
There is a reason that we are to teach the Gospel and to teach it in truth. There is a reason that Paul said that there is only one Gospel and that if anyone teaches another that person is to be eternally cursed (Gal 1:6-10). The Gospel is not simply just any message about any Savior that can happen in any way that a person wants, it is the message of the glory of God shining through Christ that is used by the Holy Spirit to regenerate sinners and give them an eternal life that is defined by knowing God (John 17:3). There is a reason that Paul teaches us that it is the Gospel that must be preached in order for people to be converted. It is a Gospel that must be understood and not just thrown out as a message into the wind. It is through a faith in Christ that comes through the Gospel that a person is converted. We have no biblical reason to believe that people are converted unless they understand the Gospel to some degree. Can people believe that which they don’t have some understanding of?
It is true that the author does preface his statement with “if someone has been truly rescued.” That might seem to give him an out on the issue, but it does not. What he seems to allow is for people to have an experience of salvation without knowing the Gospel. It is that which I am fighting against with some degree of vehemence. A person must know the Gospel in order to be saved. We must stand on that truth and never let it go. We are to go into the whole world and proclaim the one and only Gospel. If a person claims to have experienced salvation, then that person needs to explain what Gospel he or she believes in. We have no right to go around calling people Christians if they cannot confess with their mouths the truth of the Gospel. If they cannot profess Christ and the Gospel with their mouths, then we have no idea what they have experienced.
What the author is doing, however, is making room for different theologies to be accepted and for Reformed people to acquiesce that those people are believers. This is a major issue of contention. We have to go back to what the Gospel is no matter what brand of theology a person confesses. We must be bold and honest enough to say whether or not we hold to the Gospel that the Reformers set out. If we do not, then we are not Reformed in that way. If we do not hold to the Gospel that they set out, then we need to set out from Scripture what the biblical Gospel is. If it is different from the Reformers, then we need to say that they taught a different Gospel. But if what they taught is biblical, then many in our day teach a different Gospel. We simply cannot have it both ways. We cannot hold to the teachings that the Reformers set out as biblical and yet hold to the opposite teachings of people today. They are mutually exclusive. It is pride to call people Christians that do not believe the biblical Gospel. It is not pride to hold to the biblical Gospel and proclaim it to the glory of God. Luther taught that our own free-will must be denied in order to be saved by grace. That is what was taught in the Reformation. I think Scripture teaches it too.
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