THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

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THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
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FREEDOM OF THE WILL

• A Wesleyan speaks
• Human choosing is governed by its Orderer as
  having rational freedom, not as stock or stone.
  Providence acts not only through natural
  causality but amid a freewheeling, proximately
  indeterminate history, hedging and persuading and
  constraining human folly.
• T. Oden, Wesleys Scriptural Christianity, 114.

• A Calvinist speaks
• That Calvin regards everything that occurs as
  embraced in the eternal decree of God lies on the
  face of his teaching at every point . . . . While
  repudiating the Stoic doctrine of necessity, . .
  . He is insistent that God is the arbiter and
  governor of all things.
• J. Murray, Collected Writings, 4,192.

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WESLEY ON FREE WILL

• Now if man be capable of choosing good or evil,
  then he is a proper object of the justice of God,
  acquitting or condemning, rewarding or punishing.
  But otherwise he is not. A mere machine is not
  capable of being either acquitted or condemned.
  Wesley, Works, X.233-4

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WESLEY ON GRACE

• First, God worketh in you therefore you can
  work- otherwise it would be impossible. On
  Working Out Your Own Salvation, 3.3
• Everyone has a greater or less measure of this
  (i.e., preventing grace), Ibid., 3.4
• . . . there is a measure of free-will
  supernaturally restored to every man.
  Predestination Calmly Considered, sec. 45.

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CALVIN ON FREE WILL

• Because of the bondage of sin by which the will
  is held bound, it cannot move toward the good,
  much less apply itself thereto for a movement of
  this sort is the beginning of conversion to God,
  which in Scripture is ascribed entirely to Gods
  grace. ICR, 2.3.5

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CALVIN ON GRACE

• I do not tarry over those fanatics who babble
  that grace is equally and indiscriminately
  distributed.
• The ambiguity in the second part offends me, for
  it has given rise to a perverted interpretation.
  They thought we cooperate with the assisting
  grace of God, because it is our right either to
  render it ineffectual by spurning the first
  grace, or to confirm it by obediently following
  it.
• ICR, 2.2.6

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HUMAN NATURE IN ITS4-FOLD ESTATE

• Innocent Good, but able to fall
• Fallen Bad, Not able to do good
• Regenerate Mixed, able to do good or evil
• Glorified Good, not able to do evil

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SCRIPTURE ON NATURE AND FREE WILL

• No one comes to me unless the Father draws him
  John 644
• For the sinful nature is always hostile to God
  Romans 87
• The natural man does not receive the things of
  the spirit I Corinthians 214

• A bad tree cant produce good fruit. Matthew
  718
• An evil person produces evil words out of an
  evil heart Matthew 1233
• Whatever is in your heart determines what you
  say Luke 645

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COVENANT OF WORKS

• Parties God and Adam, Gen. 115-17
• Promises Eternal Life, Gen. 29
• Conditions Faith and Obedience, Gen. 215-17
• Sanctions Death, Gen 217
• Hosea 67, But like Adam, you broke my covenant
  and sinned against me
• Romans 512, When Adam sinned, sin entered the
  entire human race. Adams sin brought death, so
  death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. I
  Cor. 1521ff

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COVENANT OF GRACE

• Parties your God and the God of your
  descendants, Gen. 177
• Promises I will be your God, Lev. 2612
• Conditions You will be my people, Dt. 6
• Faith
• Obedience
• Rewards He will live with them and they will be
  his people, Rev. 213

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COVENANT OF GRACE

• Adamic Covenant- Hosea 67
• Abrahamic Covenant- Genesis 121-5 chapters
  15,17
• Mosaic Covenant- Exodus 61-8 195,6 3213
  Deuteronomy 6 76

• Davidic Covenant- II Samuel 7 Psalm 89
• New Covenant-Ezekiel 3422-31 3625-37 Jeremiah
  313,31-40 3315-26
• Fulfillment- Luke 2220 Hebrews 915

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THE PROBLEM OF SIN
How Does This Fit?
Sin Exists In Gods Universe
God is Good
God is All Powerful
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THE PROBLEM OF SIN
The biblical doctrine leaves us with mysteries
beyond our comprehension, but these are, as
Laidlaw says, 'solvents, not sources of
difficulty. Into the problem of evil, Scripture
introduces elements of explanation. It accounts
for man's present moral and physical condition,
for the broad phenomena of life and death in a
way that is thinkable and intelligible'. The
humble Christian is content to contain these
unresolved problems. They do not disturb his
peace of mind because, in the last analysis, the
ground of all peace of mind is the conviction of
the sovereignty, justice, goodness of God. What
he cannot resolve he believes God does. It is the
apex of Christian piety to trust in God, just as
it is also the foundation, to say, 'I do not
know, but I do know that God does'. Christian
piety leaves unresolved problems in the hand of
God, remembering that, if we knew all, then we
would be as God, and worship and adoration would
be at an end. Clouds and darkness are round about
him but justice and judgment are the habitation
of his throne. Murray, CW, 1,76.
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THE DEFINITION OF SIN

• Sin is lawlessness, I John 34
• Sin consists of attitudes contrary to the law of
  God, Ex. 2017 Matt. 522,28
• Sin is any want of conformity unto, or
  transgression of the law of God S.C. Q. 14

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ORIGINAL SIN

• We become sinners because we are in Adam
• Really, we are his physical posterity
• Spiritually, he is our covenant head and we are
  represented by him
• This is the federal or covenantal view

• Three Imputations in Scripture
• Adams Sin to Us
• Our Sin to Christ
• Christs righteousness to us
• Romans 514 I Corinthians 1522, 45 II
  Corinthians 520

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SIN AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
All the reformers of the sixteenth century,
including even the gentle Melanchthon and the
compromising Bucer, under a controlling sense of
human depravity and saving grace, in extreme
antagonism to Pelagianism and self-righteousness,
and, as they sincerely believed, in full harmony
not only with the greatest of the fathers, but
also with the inspired St. Paul, came to the same
doctrine of a double predest- ination which
decides the eternal destiny of all men. Nor is it
possible to evade this conclusion on the two
acknowledged premises of Protestant orthodoxy-
namely the wholesale condemnation of men in Adam,
and the limitation of saving grace to the present
world. -Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 1,451.