The God Centered Gospel vs. a Man Centered Gospel

The Centrality of God's Glory in the Gospel

Catholic Answers apologist Tim Staples has put out a series called God's Perfect Plan, Purgatory and Indulgences Explained. In listening to this series, I have discovered not only a few accusations about yours truly, based sadly upon Mr. Staples' ignorance of Reformed theology and the points that I've been trying to make in regards to that subject.

Mr. Staples, though a former Protestant, was, as I understand it, a graduate of the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. Now, I can assure you that the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College did not give Mr. Staples an appropriate foundation for really understanding Reformed theology, but he makes some accusations against me that maybe I'll have an opportunity.

I've already responded to on The Dividing Line, but maybe have the opportunity of doing some videos about in the future. But that's not what we're looking at in this particular video. What I wanted to address here were some, I think, much more important comments that Mr. Staples makes after having done a whole section against Calvinism, which again demonstrates some very fundamental errors on Mr. Staples' part as far as understanding is concerned.

He then addresses the issue of cooperation, synergism, shall we say, and is here, though, like my non-Reformed Protestant friends, who reject Roman Catholicism, to think just a little bit about why it is that your arguments are so similar to Tim Staples' arguments.

Specifically, he speaks here about the sacrifice of Christ. I know that my non-Reformed friends who hold to, for example, a universal atonement of Christ might not immediately see the connection, but the reality is that if you do not have a specific atonement, an atonement that actually accomplishes, well, atonement, propitiation, one that propitiates the wrath of God, not just potentially, but that actually accomplishes something, you really don't have a lot of arguments against Rome's position, and you end up arguing much as Roman Catholics argue.

But for all of you who have, for example, taken the position that, well, you know what, Rome's gospel, the Protestant Reformation, it was so long ago, does any of this really matter anymore? I hope you'll listen to what Tim Staples says in the two clips that I'm going to play here.

At one point, interestingly enough, in talking about the finished work of Christ, he says, you know, if you really take this perspective that when Jesus says, it is finished, that everything necessary for bringing about the salvation of God's people has in fact been accomplished, that thinking leads to Calvinism.

And he's right. He's exactly right. That's something that needs to be thought of, but then he goes, of course, after Calvinism, we'll look at that. But then I want you to listen as Tim Staples gives us a tremendous example of the difference between a theocentric gospel, a gospel that's centered upon God, and an anthropocentric gospel, a gospel that's centered upon man.

If there can be anything said of Rome's gospel, it is man-centered. If there can be anything said of much of evangelicalism today, it is man-centered. You see, if we do not recognize that it is the clear, biblical revelation, it is the belief of the writers of Scripture, not only that God is sovereign, that is that he has a sovereign decree whereby he is accomplishing his own glory, but that the gospel is the very heart and soul of the means by which God is glorifying himself, we will never get a firm grasp on biblical revelation.

As long as we think of the gospel as being about men, saving men, redeeming men, those are all true things, but they're secondarily true. They are the results of what God has done in glorifying himself through the redemption of a particular people in Christ Jesus.

But you have to start where the revelation starts, and the revelation doesn't start with man. If you start off with, well, we need to think about man's need. No, we need to start with God's glory, God's purpose, God's decree.

He's the creator. He's the one who made everything the way it is. You have to start with God and God first. And when you do so, and you recognize that he has a decree, that he is accomplishing his goodwill in this world, then all the beautiful threads of divine revelation that are found throughout the can of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation begin to become clear.

Not only the harmony of Scripture becomes clear, but you begin to see God has been at work from beginning to end. And friends, in the world we're facing today, if you don't believe God has a plan and he's still in control, it's time to panic because this world is out of control from our perspective.

Going back to this point, if you recognize that first and foremost the gospel is about what God does, not what God makes possible, not what God would like to do if we allow him, if we cooperate, if you see that God is accomplishing his purposes, he's working all things after the counsel of his will.

He is demonstrating his power and glorifying his name. And then you see the gospel in light of that. You see the perfection of Christ. You can see why Christ must be a perfect Savior, why he will save his people from their sins, not just try.

Why he will, in fact, in John chapter 6, save all that the Father gives to him. Not just those that cooperate, not those that just by their free will help him, none of that. He will save all those that the Father gives to him without fail.

If you see this as God's work, then that makes sense. But if you read the scriptures anthropocentrically, if you read them with man at the center, and that is the very essence of Romanism, and that's the very essence of what you're going to hear from Tim Staples here, then it makes no sense.

It becomes contradictory and quite honestly hopeless. So here is an illustration that you have to start with the God of the gospel before you can ever understand the gospel. So many people get that backwards.

They don't think it's important anymore to lay a theological foundation, theological in the proper sense of the term, that is doctrine of God. And they do that, they have no firm foundation upon which to stand.

Let's listen to what Tim Staples has to say here, and we'll have some comments. I'll actually play two clips. We'll.

Christ's Finished Work and the Resurrection

Comment in between the two. Earlier, I quoted from Dr. Norman Geisler and Ralph McKenzie, who made a very important assertion commonly made by many Protestants. They said, and I quote, Scripture teaches that when Christ died on the cross, he proclaimed, it is finished.

Referencing John 19 .30. Speaking of his work of salvation on the earth, Jesus said to the Father, I have glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Close quote. And that's a reference to John 17 .4.

Now, the idea here is when Christ said it is finished, he was indicating there would be nothing more to be done for salvation or justification because he did it all. Now, taken to its logical conclusion, I believe this sort of thinking leads to Calvinism.

Christ did everything, and we are little more than puppets acting out God's predestined plan as so many puppets on a stage. But those Protestants who don't use this text to this extreme will use it to say that there's nothing required for us to do with regard to salvation except accept Christ's finished work by faith.

But this is not what the text means. Jesus merely says he has finished the work the Father gave him to do. There's nothing here that concludes there's absolutely nothing else that we have to do for salvation.

We know, for example, in one sense there was more Christ had to do for our salvation. So, I mean, you're taking this to an extreme even with reference to Christ. You say, how? Well, look at Romans chapter 4 verses 24 and 25.

It says, quote, Jesus our Lord was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Now, folks, the resurrection had obviously not occurred yet at the time of the crucifixion when Jesus said it is finished.

And yet, according to the text, the resurrection would be just as necessary for our justification as the crucifixion. Further, there is more that, and this is so important, there's more that we have to do in order to be saved.

For example, we have to believe, we have to be baptized, we have to confess faith in Christ, we have to persevere. See?

Tetelestai, it is finished. Just a part? Just a portion? Or was not the Lord indicating that the very focus of his entire incarnation, his self-sacrifice, his giving, that which made the very God-man pray in that inter-Trinitarian relationship of Father and Son, let this cup pass from me, becoming sin?

Is that not much more than just, well, he made it possible, but then there was going to be more. There was going to be the resurrection, and then there was going to be all this other stuff, and we have to have the treasury of merit, and there's just going to be a lot more.

It was started, not really finished. I kind of understand why Mr. Staples says that Rome does not have a finished work of sacrifice to begin with. Given its doctrine of the Mass, there is no finished sacrifice.

You approach, allegedly, the same sacrifice re-presented, not repeated, but re-presented over and over and over again, and you're never perfected. It's never finished, never done. Despite the constant drumbeat emphasis of the Book of Hebrews, hapax, ephapox, one time, it's finished.

Those who are being sanctified, perfected. Notice he said this sort of thinking leads to Calvinism. Yeah, finished works of atonement do lead to Calvinism. They don't lead to much of evangelicalism that has a universal atonement, but they do lead to Calvinism because that's the biblical teaching of the perfection, the sacrifice of Christ.

He says we are little more than puppets. That is the standard retort of the person who has no interest in the truth of the issue, has no meaningful criticism to offer. It is blasphemous and inane to think that John Calvin, the Westminster divines, Edwards, Spurgeon, Machen, Hodge, Warfield, etc., etc., believed men were but mere puppets.

God does not incarnate himself as a puppet. Men continue to bear the imago dei, the image of God, when God makes it clear as day that he raises up, for example, Pharaoh. And he does so, this king of the mightiest nation on earth in his day, solely to glorify the name of Yahweh and to make his power known in this man.

Does that make Pharaoh a puppet? Is that even a meaningful comment? And yet he raised Pharaoh up for that very purpose. When Herod and Pilate and the Jews and the Romans all together, for differing reasons, did exactly what God's hand predestined to occur in Acts chapter 4 in the crucifixion of Jesus, does that make them merely puppets?

The high matter of God's eternal and sovereign decree and how this determines the actions of men in time is not a mere matter of coercion or force, as Staples so glibly presents it in this series. He says there was more Christ had to do for salvation relative to the resurrection, as if Christ's death, burial, and resurrection can be separated from one another.

This is not some separate or new work. I don't think that was an overly effective argument, but I hope what you heard stuck in your mind toward the end of that clip. There is more that we have to do to be saved.

Remember what I said earlier? A theocentric gospel versus an anthropocentric gospel. A God-centered gospel where he glorifies himself perfectly versus a man-centered gospel where God is but a player.

Man is the central the central person here, and it's man that determines whether it's going to succeed or not. There is more that we have to do to be saved. We have to believe. We have to be baptized.

We have to confess faith in Christ. We have to persevere. We, we, we, the treadmill of human accomplishment. Oh no, but it's all by grace because God makes it available. The Judaizers could have said that.

Oh, circumcision. I mean, we can make a great argument of circumcision from the Old Testament, and it's all by grace. No. Why do I believe? Because the faith that I have that perseveres is the divine gift of God.

I can't glory in it. I can't look at someone else and say, see, he, he didn't, he didn't persevere. My faith was better than his. Is that what we're gonna be doing in heaven? No. There is nothing more that we have to do to be saved because we are the objects of Christ's perfect work of salvation.

Yes, I do believe, but I've been enabled to believe in that faith that I have as a gift of God, and he keeps me in it, and he perseveres in saving me, and that's perfectly consistent with the exhortation of Scripture to me to believe, repent, and persevere because I recognize that outside of the Spirit of God working within my life, I will not even desire these things.

But you see, the vast difference between recognizing the reality of the warning passages and the exhortation passages and what Mr. Staples does is the difference between a God-centered reading of the text and a man-centered reading of the text.

Mr. Staples has a God who cannot save anyone outside of their cooperation. He has a God who can't save anyone. I have a God who saves everyone he chooses to save. He does so perfectly. That's the difference between a God-centered gospel and a man-centered gospel.

The Roman Catholic View of Merit, Works, and Indulgences

But if it could get worse, it does in this clip. There's much more we could say,.

And there is much more that is essential for our salvation other than faith alone, but the bottom line here is this. Jesus Christ did not suffer and die so that we don't have to. Jesus Christ suffered and died so that our good works offered up in him can be truly pleasing and salvific before God.

Indeed, Jesus didn't suffer and die so that we don't have to suffer and die. He suffered and died so that our suffering and death could be salvific, not only for us, but for those whom we pray for and we offer up our sufferings for.

Well, there you go. I've had so many people say, Roman Catholics don't believe that our good works are salvific. Yes, they do. As long as they're done in the state of grace, in Christ, they're salvific.

Christ makes it possible for us to obtain the grace whereby our works done in the state of grace merit eternal life. That's the Roman Catholic teaching, at least Mr. Staples is being honest about it. Now, I recognize there are all sorts of views out there today in Roman Catholicism, and a large portion of your priests and bishops are universalists and inclusivists, and I understand all that.

We're talking about the official teaching. It isn't really believed by a whole lot of people, but it is by Rome's apologists. They don't discipline the people who don't believe that, but that's another issue.

There you heard it. Christ did not die. Christ did not suffer and die so that we would not suffer and die. He suffered and died so that our suffering and death would be salvific in behalf of ourselves and those for whom we pray and offer our sufferings.

That's indulgences. That's what Indulgentiarum Doctrina, an apostolic constitutional revision of indulgences, post-Vatican II, taught, that we expiate our sins and the sins of others. There you have it.

Jesus makes it possible. There's a clear dividing line, my friends, between those who believe that Jesus is a perfect Savior who has the power in and of himself, through his sovereign majesty, to save perfectly, and those who don't.

That, sadly, is not the line between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Norman Geisler says Christ's death did not save anyone. He died to make men unsavable. Rome says Christ's death makes it possible for our good works to be salvific.

There are many ways in which on that particular issue, Dr. Geisler and those who follow him are closer to Rome than they are to me and that they are to the biblical presentation. If you are new to our channel, maybe new to some of these issues, I would highly recommend that you listen to some of the debates we've done, especially the debate that I did with Fr. Peter Stravinskas on Purgatory.

Listen to the series of sermons that I've been delivering at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church on the book of Hebrews. It's fairly unusual for Roman Catholics to encounter exegesis of the text from their priests.

That's not what they're trained to do. But already, even though we have just finished the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews, we have already encountered so much divine revelation that is directly contrary to what you just heard from Tim Staples, that I would encourage you to consider those things.

But again, to anyone who has minimized the difference between the Roman gospel and the biblical gospel, I hope you were listening carefully and considering the ramifications of what Mr. Staples said. God's Word does not present a Savior, a Jesus, who suffers and dies so that my suffering and death can be salvific.

The scriptures present a Jesus whose suffering and death is substitutionary and that there is a people who by grace are united with him so that his death becomes their death, his resurrection their resurrection, his life their life.

That's why it's all of grace, because it's all centered upon God and his freedom. The God-centered gospel versus the man-centered gospel. I hope and pray that God by his Spirit will reveal to you the difference between the two.

Thanks for watching.