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A regular anti-Calvinist rant begins as follows. Read the full post to see how congruent merit is smuggled into a good start.
You stray as soon as you start implying faith is the cause of our justification. It is not. Faith is a condition of our justification. Your view, an erroneous view, that we need only believe, implies merit of man as a condition upon God. Strict merit is condign, as it looks to the "worthiness" of the one doing the work. The only alternative to condign merit is congruent merit, your view, which supposes some "suitability" or "fitness" in the recipient of the reward based upon the recipient's mustering up of faith (working) all by himself.
We Protestants hold that Jesus had merited condignly our justification. We rejected any notion that we have either congruent or condign merit. We confess that Christ’s obedience is perfect. His merit, His obedience, is active and suffering righteousness (that is, His whole obedience) is imputed to us. The ground of our acceptance with God as righteousness is wholly outside of us. Ours is an alien righteousness, a righteousness not of our own. Our cooperation is of no account in our justification either as the ground or the instrument. Christ’s obedience is the ground and faith is the sole instrument because our works are defiled and imperfect.
Your doctrine of congruent merit says that God grades on a curve. He does not. Uzzah did what lay within him (2 Sam 6) and he died. Isaiah 64:6 says that all our works are as filthy rags. There is no condignity (intrinsic worth) to them. We were born in sin (Psalm 51:5). We are dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1–4). Our best works are like dung (Philippians 3:8).
Now you may protest when I claim you have made faith a work, but you make faith a work the instant you believe that you somehow autonomously can manifest saving faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is blatant Pelagianism to believe that you can use your own resources to move from unregenerate to regenerate. There is nothing in the Scripture that a person can truly believe without the work of the Holy Spirit. It is grace and not volition that separates the believer from the non-believer. Your view is that all have been given an equal amount of grace that they need only 'believe'. You cannot twist this 'belief' to mean it is not a work and not something to boast about. Two persons are both given the same grace, one believes and one does not. The only difference in your view, then, is that one was somehow more perceptive, hence more meritorious. This is synergism and not Biblical.
Spend ten minutes and learn more about justification: http://vimeo.com/94263700
AMR
So far, so good, Robert.
You stray as soon as you start implying faith is the cause of our justification. It is not. Faith is a condition of our justification. Your view, an erroneous view, that we need only believe, implies merit of man as a condition upon God. Strict merit is condign, as it looks to the "worthiness" of the one doing the work. The only alternative to condign merit is congruent merit, your view, which supposes some "suitability" or "fitness" in the recipient of the reward based upon the recipient's mustering up of faith (working) all by himself.
We Protestants hold that Jesus had merited condignly our justification. We rejected any notion that we have either congruent or condign merit. We confess that Christ’s obedience is perfect. His merit, His obedience, is active and suffering righteousness (that is, His whole obedience) is imputed to us. The ground of our acceptance with God as righteousness is wholly outside of us. Ours is an alien righteousness, a righteousness not of our own. Our cooperation is of no account in our justification either as the ground or the instrument. Christ’s obedience is the ground and faith is the sole instrument because our works are defiled and imperfect.
Your doctrine of congruent merit says that God grades on a curve. He does not. Uzzah did what lay within him (2 Sam 6) and he died. Isaiah 64:6 says that all our works are as filthy rags. There is no condignity (intrinsic worth) to them. We were born in sin (Psalm 51:5). We are dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1–4). Our best works are like dung (Philippians 3:8).
Now you may protest when I claim you have made faith a work, but you make faith a work the instant you believe that you somehow autonomously can manifest saving faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is blatant Pelagianism to believe that you can use your own resources to move from unregenerate to regenerate. There is nothing in the Scripture that a person can truly believe without the work of the Holy Spirit. It is grace and not volition that separates the believer from the non-believer. Your view is that all have been given an equal amount of grace that they need only 'believe'. You cannot twist this 'belief' to mean it is not a work and not something to boast about. Two persons are both given the same grace, one believes and one does not. The only difference in your view, then, is that one was somehow more perceptive, hence more meritorious. This is synergism and not Biblical.
Spend ten minutes and learn more about justification: http://vimeo.com/94263700
AMR