Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
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In this specially requested episode, Andy returns from a long hiatus with a Reconnect episode on the role of godparents in baptism and in the life of their godchildren.
Show Links
Episode 70: Does Baptism Save You?
Episode 99: Lutheran Theology Part 4
“Does Baptism Save You?” by Andy Wrasman
“Means of Grace Questions” by Andy Wrasman
From my experiences, when people speak of Luther’s reformation teachings in commemoration of his posting of the 95 theses on October 31st 1517, the focus is almost always on his rejection of the selling of indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. Inevitably this leads to the “solas of the Reformation” – that one is justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone[i] – being presented as the pistons that drove all of Luther’s reforming agenda. This depiction of Luther’s reforming work that I have observed again and again in numerous Lutheran congregations every Reformation Sunday has led me to see Luther’s reformation work to be primarily focused on correcting false doctrine. What I have just recently discovered however from reading Scott Hendrix’s article “Martin Luther’s Reformation of Spirituality” is that central to Luther’s reformation was not a mere correcting of false doctrine, but that the Reformation had an additional emphasis, if not primary emphasis, on reforming Christian spirituality.
Late medieval spirituality consisted of the selling of indulgences for the remission of sins. In particular, a full indulgence gave the pardon of all of one’s temporal punishment for sins committed up until the issuance of the indulgence. Partial indulgences could lessen, or shorten, the temporal punishments one would receive for his sins. These indulgences were granted by the authority of the pope with the full indulgence coming solely through his auspices. To acquire these indulgences a Christian would have to attend countless masses, take pilgrimages to relics and shrines of saints, give endless cycles of penance, dive full-length into all that monasticism had to offer, and of course fill the Church’s coffer with pecunias multas (lots of money). Luther’s 95 Theses and the resultant doctrinal formations that followed his initial disputation for clarifying the power of indulgences[ii] led to a necessary forsaking of these false spiritual practices for an embrace of a true, authentic Christian life of spirituality.
At the heart of Luther’s reformation of spirituality was his spotlighting that the religiosity of the Church in the late medieval age was wholly of human creation and ordinance – thus not established by God in his revealed Word. Such religious activities were, as such, adiaphora – neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture – thus Luther would come to demonstrate that such self-elected works had no value whatsoever to contribute to one’s righteousness, one’s right-standing before and with Christ. All the spiritual mumbo jumbo of man’s creation, no matter how Christianized it might be made to seem, will actually kill you physically and spiritually, and Luther knew and experienced this suicidal murdering of his body and soul first hand through his fervent devotion to the monastic lifestyle for twenty years. Much in the same way that Paul claimed to be a Pharisee of Pharisees, Luther was a monk of monks! Following the rules and edicts of men to attain eternal life, Luther discovered that they only lead to the ruin of his body and the unending torment of his conscious that knew he was still a sinner rightly deserving God’s righteous judgment.
The epiphany of the salvation in Christ that comes apart from the works of the believer that Luther found in Scripture and stood upon for his salvation didn’t eradicate all spirituality, all Christian living, it simply eradicated the false-spiritualties of the Church of his day, because Christ did give edicts of religious and spiritual activities to those who would follow him, and Luther was not rejecting these, namely, Christ’s commands to baptize, to proclaim the Gospel, to administer the sacrament[iii], to absolve the sins of the repentant and to retain sins and excommunicate the unrepentant, to suffer with Christ and for Christ, and to love and serve all people as Christ would have us to do. Essentially, following Christ and not the pope was the new landscape of Christian living that Luther sought through his reformation work. Christian living and spirituality is thus very much a Lutheran thing.
[i] Sometimes lists contain four or five solas instead of just the three I have provided with the additional two solas being Scripture alone and the glory of God alone.
[ii] Disputation for Clarifying the Power of Indulgences is the title given in the 1518 Basel reprint.
[iii] By sacrament, I am referring to communion.
The following is an example of an all too common conversation that arises when certain Christians encounter confessional subscription for the first time.
Lucy: Hey, Andy, I know you are studying at a Lutheran seminary. I was hoping you could explain to me what just occurred during this installation service for Pastor Forde.
Andy: (Starts to nod yes to give a reply, but is cut off.)
Lucy: During the service, the pastor said he confessed the Bible to be (she throws up her fingers for air quotes) “the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” But then he also pledged himself to the creeds and the Lutheran Confessions. Then he promised that everything he would do as a pastor would be (throws up her fingers for air quotes again) “in conformity with Holy Scripture and these Confessions.” This seems like a contradiction.
Andy: How so?
Lucy: It seems to me that the promise he made puts the Confessions on the same plain of authority as the Bible. Is this correct?
Andy: No. That isn’t correct. Before I answer your question, let me first share with you what the Confessions are, so that you know what it is he subscribed to believe to be in conformity with Scripture. The Lutheran Confessions are called The Book of Concord which contains the three ecumenical creeds of the Church, the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasius Creed, as well multiple documents written during the 16th century during the Reformation: Luther’s Small and Large Catechism, Philip Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession and Defense of the Augsburg Confession, Luther’s Smalcald Articles, Melanchthon’s Treatise on the Authority and Primacy of the Pope – in which he calls the office of the pope the office of the Anti-Christ – it’s awesome! You’ll love it Lucy – and the Formula of Concord, which was written by many authors.
I can give you more information on any of these writings, if you would like them, but to answer your question; what the pastor just subscribed to was that he unconditionally recognizes that these writings are a correct exposition of the Bible. In other words, The Book of Concord accurately represents the teachings of Scripture. It is not “the infallible rule of faith and practice.” Instead, the Confessions are normed by “the infallible rule of faith and practice” – the Bible.
Lucy: Do I understand you to be saying that these Confessions are true only insofar as they represent accurately what is in Scripture?
Andy: Some Lutherans might be open to accepting such a subscription, but my church body, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, expects our pastors to subscribe unconditionally to the Lutheran Confessions not insofar as they are a correct exposition of the Word, but because they are a correct exposition of the Word.
Lucy: To my way of thinking this still seems like splitting hairs. It appears as if the Confessions are being raised to the level of Scripture. Why is it necessary to have the Confessions? In my Church, we don’t believe in creeds or have confessions; we just believe in the Bible.
Andy: I understand how this can be a bit confusing to you, as I do understand how this might seem as if we are adding words to the Bible, since you are not familiar with confessions or their use. I ensure you that’s not what we are doing, and I might be able to help you understand how we are not doing this by pointing out that you just shared a creed of your church body.
Lucy: I didn’t share a creed. We only believe the Bible.
Andy: That’s your creed. (Pausing to let it sink in)
Lucy: …That’s not a creed. It’s an anti-creed.
Andy: A creed is simply a statement of belief. You believe that creeds are not necessary for a church body to have and confess, but that is a statement of belief, thus creedal. Essentially, everyone has creeds.
Lucy: So maybe what I’m asking and really wanting to know is, why isn’t the Bible enough? What task or function do the Confessions play that make them necessary, or really important?
Andy: Great questions. When we consider the Bible, it’s not that large of a book, but certainly there are many interpretations that emerge concerning it, wouldn’t you agree?
Lucy: Yes. I know that you Lutherans believe that baptism saves you, but I reject that idea entirely.
Andy: That’s an example of division in the Body of Christ. And from my experiences, when discussing this teaching, both sides of the debate end up using the same verses. When I point to verses that I believe demonstrate the promises of forgiveness of sins, new life, and salvation that God has given to us in baptism, Christians from your position typically say those verses are about spiritual baptism.
Lucy: That’s right. My church body would say such gifts are received in Spiritual Baptism when we receive the Holy Spirit and faith – or when we are born again.
Andy: Because of these differing interpretations and the different hermeneutics – rules of interpretation – that bring forth these contradictory teachings, confessions are necessary and helpful. They place a stake in the ground concerning what one understands to be the proper interpretation of Scripture. You and I both would agree that we what we believe is found in Scripture, but we believe different things are taught by Scripture. For instance, how would I know what you and your church body believes concerning the Bible, since all you believe is the Bible? Would I have to read the whole Bible? And then because of different hermeneutics, I still likely wouldn’t arrive at knowing what you believe when you say, “I just believe the Bible.”
Lucy: You’d go to our church website and you can find our “What We Believe” page.
Andy: And when I click on it, would the page simply show a picture of a Bible, or would it take me to the entire text of the Bible, since that’s “just what you believe?”
Lucy: (Pausing a moment in thought) Are you suggesting that our “What We Believe” page functions as our Confessions.
Andy: Yes, I am. And I think when you understand that, you’ll understand more fully the function of confessions. I’m sure you believe that your church’s “What We Believe” page is in submission to Scripture.
Lucy: I do.
Andy: And as such, that page and the beliefs found on it, are a helpful tool for you to share your faith with others. It’s a good summation of what you (throwing up air quotes with his fingers) “confess” to be true as a Christian – even though the Bible is (again, throwing up air quotes with his fingers) “the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”
Lucy: I’m glad we’re having this conversation. I’m understanding creeds and confessions in a brand new light.
Andy: Thanks for taking the time to understand our position and use of the Lutheran Confessions. We certainly don’t want anyone to think that we are adding to or taking away from Scripture with our use of creeds and confessions. I think it is also helpful to understand the origins of confessions. Many scholars consider 1 Corinthians 15 to contain an early church creed. Paul says that what he first received he passed on to the Corinthians as of first importance. As I said, creeds are useful for sharing and teaching the faith with others, because they formulate what is in Scripture in precise statements that Scripture doesn’t always do for us. The idea then is that Paul received this instruction when he became a believer and then he used that instruction to pass the faith on to others. It’s a very simple creed: “Christ died for sins, was buried, and raised on the third day according to Scripture,” and then a list of eyewitnesses to the resurrected Lord is given. If someone were to ask me what the Gospel is, I’d use that creedal statement that in this instance, interestingly, goes back to before Scripture was even written!
Lucy: Are there other reasons creeds and confessions are used, or other reasons they were formulated besides simply confessing and teaching?
Andy: I do think we take for granted much of the doctrines we know in the Church today. For instance, if I looked on your church’s website’s (throwing up air quotes) “creedal page,” I imagine that I would find statements about the Trinity – God being three persons, yet one God. That doctrine and the wording we use to describe the nature of God is not clearly defined or formulated in Scripture. We can see that all three persons are fully God in Scripture and we can see that Scripture is clear that there isn’t three Gods, so what do we do with that? Well… thankfully, the early Church handled such problems for us by formulating doctrinal statements on the Trinity – a word that is not in the Bible by the way. The Church was forced to do such work, because they recognized that teachings were emerging that were against the witness of Scripture. Because the saints that have gone before us have done such work formulating the doctrine of the Trinity, such as what is recorded in the Nicene Creed, we don’t have to and that creed can serve as a boundary marker for us on what is correct and incorrect concerning the person and nature of the Triune Lord.
Lucy: So what do you do if a new controversy or false teaching arises that isn’t addressed in the Confessions of the Lutheran Church?
Andy: I’m glad you asked. The Confessions can serve as a flexible guide that shifts to the needs of the times, since the Confessions don’t always address the concerns of the day. For instance, a couple of decades ago, the book series, Left Behind, sparked a lot of conversation concerning the return of Christ. The Lutheran Confessions don’t directly make statements on the Rapture or the Millennium found in Revelation chapter 20, yet they do provide guidance on what is allowed and not allowed to believe concerning such matters by the boundary markers they set concerning how we can interpret Scripture.
Lucy: It is interesting that you mention that example, because when that series was so popular, our church made an addition to our “What We Believe” page. Do you think your church body would ever add or update your Confessions to meet the needs of the day?
Andy: It is possible. We however have the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) that provides study documents, opinions and statements on theological issues that are not directly and specifically addressed by the Confessions in our current context. Their reports serve as guidance to the pastors and congregations in our church body, but pastors are not bound to subscribe to them as they are the Confessions.
Lucy: This is all very fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to explain the Book of Concord to me.
Andy: I’m glad you found my answers helpful. Let me send you a text message of an image I have saved that I think will serve as a good summary of what we’ve discussed that you can use as a tool to help explain this conversation to others in your church. I probably should have pulled this up at the start of our conversation. (Sends text message)
Lucy: (Opens message and sees the following image)
Irenaeus was a 2nd century apologist for the Christian faith who was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, in the first part of the century. His death date is not certain, but it is likely that he lived until the end of the 2nd century. Irenaeus became the bishop of Lyons, France, and he serves as an important church father for several reasons: he was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John, he is an early and reliable external source that verifies who wrote the four Gospels, he wrote against the Gnostic religion that had infiltrated all of Rome by the 2nd century, and through his writing helped establish apostolic tradition and the early formation of the New Testament canon. It is on these last two points that this paper will focus. Gnosticism was an esoteric religion that assumed Christianity into its teachings. It spoke of God, Jesus, and salvation, yet due to its esoteric nature, Gnosticism contained “wisdom” as its name suggests (since gnosis is wisdom in Greek) that was new and true, even though it was secretly obtained. These doctrines contradicted the doctrines of Jesus’ apostles, the founders of the Church. In Irenaeus’ excerpt, “Priority of the Apostolic Tradition,” from his work Refutation and Overthrow of the “Knowledge” Falsely So Called, he makes the argument that the teachings of the apostolic tradition are authoritative over and beyond any other religious source that might take hold of Jesus’ name and work.
Seeking the truth, recognizing the truth, proclaiming the truth, and defending the truth is at the heart of why Irenaeus is writing. Gnosticism is abounding all over the Roman world and in many regards it uses the same language as the Church and even incorporates Jesus into its heretical teachings, while distorting the true nature of Christ and his work. In this excerpt of his argumentation against Gnosticism, Irenaeus focuses on apostolic tradition as the basis to reject Gnosticism The Church in the 2nd century in which Irenaeus is writing is on its third and fourth rounds of leadership, in other words, they’re not sitting very far from the apostles. Irenaeus says that he and others can enumerate the bishops that the apostles placed in charge, giving their names and cities, and they can also do the same for the bishops that those bishops placed up to the present. He ensures them that the apostles didn’t keep any secrets hidden. They passed on all there was to pass on concerning the teachings Jesus handed to them.
The apostles are so vital to knowing the truth in Irenaeus’ argumentation, because as I just stated, they got their teachings from Jesus. Jesus, as Irenaeus reminds his readers, is the Son of God. He reminds them of the teachings of the apostles, that Jesus stepped down from heaven and was incarnate, made man, born of the virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, but came back to life! He reminds them that Jesus is coming back to save those who are saved, and to cast everyone else into eternal fire. Jesus is not the guy you want to be on the wrong side of in history. You want to be in right standing with Jesus, and the way to do that is to be in right standing with the teaching of the apostles. Jesus gave everything he wanted us to know to them, they passed it on to their disciples, who passed it on to their disciples. Why, oh why, would anyone want to hear or entertain the teachings of the heretics, “For they had no Church or form of doctrine.” He then names a couple of big wig heretics that his readers would have known, Valentinus (a Gnostic theologian) and Marcion (a dualist who was close to being a Gnostic). His point here is that these two men’s teachings had no origin before them. What weight does their teaching have to be considered true? None! What weight does the teachings of the apostles and their succession of bishops have? Jesus! They got Jesus! Case closed.
This argumentation from Irenaeus still proves helpful for us today. At the start of the 20th century, all we knew about Gnosticism was preserved from the writings of Irenaeus. Then the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s and they resurrected the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, because within the collection of codices found in the caves of Qumran were a slew of Gnostic Gospels discovered for the first time. Peter Jones has written extensively on how the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries have relaunched Gnosticism, pointing out how many of the tenants of Gnosticism are found in the New Age Movement, whose leaders have been known to have read these newly discovered Gnostic texts (Jones, The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back). These newly discovered Gnostic texts have brought about a need for a reaffirmation of apostolic tradition and succession to counter why the Gnostic Gospels are not in the Bible. It is often claimed that they were intentionally removed from the Bible by the Church leaders because their teachings contradicted that of the Church. This charge against the Bible is so simple to answer, but few Christians today seem to know how to respond to this attack. Irenaeus’ argument remains more than sufficient: the Gnostic Gospels all emerged out of thin air, arriving chronologically after the teachings of the apostles, contradicting the teachings that Jesus personally and historically handed down to them. The apostles have Jesus, the Son of God, upon which their teachings stand. The Gnostic Gospels stand on nothing except the thin air from which they are derived. Case closed.
Bibliography
Bai, Han Gook. Apostolicity as a Church Response to Gnosticism in Irenaeus. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Seminary, 1970. BV4070.C69 M3 1970 no.1
Hochban, J. I. “St. Irenaeus on the Atonement.” Theological Studies, 7 no. 4 (1946). Accessed Dec. 11, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/004056394600700402
Jones, Peter. The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An old Heresy for the New Age. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1992. BP605.N48 J67 1992
Kerr, Hugh T. Readings in Christian Thought. 2nd ed. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1990.
Olson, Mark Jeffrey. Irenaeus, the Valentinian Gnostics, and the Kingdom of God (A.H. Book V): The Debate about 1 Corinthians 15:50. Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen Biblical Press, 1992. BR65.I63 A39 1992
Ware, James. “Paul’s Hope and Ours: Recovering Paul’s Hope of the Renewed Creation.” Concordia Journal. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2009). Accessed Dec. 11, 2018. https://issuu.com/concordiasem/docs/cjspring091
Wingren, Gustaf. “Saint Irenaeus” In Encyclopedia Britanica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. 2013. Accessed Dec. 11, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Irenaeus
Soren Kierkegaard lived a short live in the first part of the nineteenth century. He was born in Denmark in 1813 and died there in 1855. In this lifetime, he was largely unknown to most of Europe and he only wrote in Danish, yet in the mid-twentieth century his writings became more influential. His writing was too hard hitting against the culturally norms of his day and the church authorities and the state of Christendom to ever grow wings in his lifetime. In writing his unpulled critiques against Hegel’s philosophy which emphasized the collective of the masses working together to usher in a better and better world and humanity, Kierkegaard focused on truth being found in the individual and even a questioning denial of one absolute dogmatic religious truth which later gave way to existentialism, a view that places existence over essence (Karr, 266). The other element of his writings that stands out is his views that being Christian comes from being a contemporary with Christ in one’s own living. This emphasis on Christian living gave way to another important, enduring teaching of his, which is that the Christianity of the New Testament no longer exists despite Denmark being a Christian nation! Before Friedrich Nietzsche would write, “God is Dead” in the back half of the nineteenth century, Kierkegaard essentially proclaimed, “Christianity is Dead.” It is on this last emphasis of his writings that his work, Christendom, falls. In an excerpt of that text entitled, “Whether Christianity Exists,” Kierkegaard lays out all the many reasons why the Christendom of his day in Denmark was not true Christianity.
Kierkegaard found himself in a “Christian nation,” Denmark. But on close examination, he could not see what he thought was true Christianity, and Kierkegaard seemed think he was the only one with this realization, so he wrote to convince others of this with the aim to get people away from the worst of sins, hypocrisy, which is to say everyone in Denmark was just “playing Christianity.” They were actors merely engaged in “Sunday Christianity.” Sure, Denmark had the vast list of churches with all the great inventory that goes along with them: candles, bells, organs, sepulchers to the prophets, garnished tombs for the righteously departed in their communities, and of course a gang of priests to play the leads in this drama, but what was lacking was a true New Testament Christianity of the first century that saw a body of Christians denying themselves, shirking the world, and in fact dying from it. Kierkegaard saw in himself and in his countrymen the opposite of that New Testament example; he saw an ever increasing value and seeking after the temporal joys of this earthly world in himself and others year after year.
Again, hypocrisy, is the root problem for Kierkegaard. He saw that priests were living for the world in their vocations. They were constantly seeking job raises and promotions within their profession. They weren’t denying the world or their earthly ambitions and desires as they were calling others to do. The people showing up every week to church to hear such messages weren’t doing that either. Kierkegaard saw that people had compartmentalized their lives. Sunday was for the Christian stuff and Monday through Saturday were for their earthly pursuits and passions. The two were not in-synch with each other. People were content with the numbers – everyone identifies as a Christian, so we must all be Christian. People were content with their Christianity and thus were happy to live in the lie of being Christian, knowing in their heart of hearts, it wasn’t true Christianity; it wasn’t the true calling of Christ to his people, the true calling to pick up your cross and follow him, to partake in his suffering and death – now!
This message seems to ring very true of a good number of big name modern day church writers and speakers. In particular, I’m thinking of Francis Chan and his book, Crazy Love, and Daivd Platt and his book, Radical – both authors are New York Times Bestsellers. The following is part of the description of the book Radical found on the book’s website:
It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily . . . (radical.net)
The follow up question in the description is, “But who do you know that lives like that? Do you?” The answer is no one, except Platt is inviting you to live like that by committing to a one-year experience called the Radical Experiment. Unlike Kierkegaard who said he and everyone in Denmark wasn’t a Christian based on the life Jesus called his disciples to live and so should stop being hypocrites, Platt says, “You can do it!” And if one listens to Platt enough that doing is the sign that you are a true Christian. It’s what can let you sleep at night, knowing that if you die before you wake, your soul God will take.
Francis Chan in his book, Crazy Love, start out well, proclaiming the “crazy love” that God has for us, but then the rest of the book is about how we should reciprocate that love by being “crazy in love” – or “radical” as Platt would label it. Chan says that the term “lukewarm Christian” is an oxymoron, because we all know God spits out the lukewarm from the letter to the Laodiceans in Revelation. When he describes the sorts of things Christians should be doing based on Jesus’ teachings or morality and generosity, for instance giving away your coat if you have two, we find that no one lives up. Chan even admits at one point that we all have some elements in our lives that our lukewarm, but if that’s the case, then no one is a Christian since he says it’s an oxymoron to be a lukewarm Christian. Chan is the worst at this sort of exhortation, because he also admits in his writings that he doesn’t want anyone to doubt their salvation who is lukewarm – too late Chan, I know someone who has doubted their salvation from reading your book.
It’s clear to me that what Kierkegaard and most recently Chan and Platt have written about concerning the Church by and large not looking like the Church in the New Testament Scriptures is for the most part true. However, I think this shortcoming arises more when we focus on the book of Acts. When we read the letters Paul and others wrote, we see that the churches in the first century had some rampant sins to be contested, such as the man who very knowingly by all in the community was having sex with his mother-in-law with no church discipline or repercussions. All except one of the seven churches to receive letters in Revelation got chastised for their lack of works or zeal or misplaced trust in worldly possessions and remedies. The author of the book of Hebrews had to even exhort the Christians to not give up meeting together as many were in the habit of doing. Those first century Christians didn’t even have the excuse of being able to listen to the sermon online if they played hooky from the Sunday gathering. For sure, we’re not all living the “radical” “sold out for Jesus” lifestyle, but we can’t all do that. It’s not everyone’s calling. Someone needs to earn the money to be able to host the house church gatherings, someone needs to earn the money to sponsor the missionary journeys, someone needs to earn the money to feed the kids (the next generation of Church leadership).
The other large problem here is that Kierkegaard’s assessment is only valid for himself. He cannot see into the hearts of the men and women he is judging. If such New Testament living is the standard of being a Christian, then many of us are not saved. Where would David or Solomon fit with this standard? Where would the chief of all sinners, Paul, who did not do the good he desired to do, but instead did the evil he hated, stand before an almighty God? Would they be called friend? Will they receive the praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Will any of us? This leads to the biggest problem with this type of judgment, especially when shared completely void of the Gospel message: judging our salvation by our adherence to the Law of God is devastating to one’s faith in Christ. It takes our trust off of Jesus Christ crucified. Instead of boasting in Christ, we are turned inwards toward our own deeds. We must point to our works to demonstrate our justifying love to God and our neighbor. However, Scripture demonstrates that it’s from God’s love for humanity that he sent Christ who demonstrates that love for us by dying for all of our sins. The penalty for all of our sins is paid in full. That’s where our assurance of salvation comes, from an alien righteousness, a righteousness from outside ourselves that is imputed on us. It is not an infused righteousness.
Andy Wrasman 