God & Jesus' love and favor are unconditional/unmerited in one sense and conditional/merited in another sense. I will explain later how to relate these 2 senses.
But many Protestants refuse to teach that in one sense, God's love is conditional and God's grace/favor is merited. They teach half-truths. At best.
Ever read 1 of your own Reformed Protestant colleague's books?
Carson:
Finally, God's love is sometimes said to be directed toward his people in a provisional or conditional way - conditioned, that is, on obedience. It is part of the relational structure of knowing God; it does not have to do with how we become true followers of the living God, but with our relationship with him once we do know him. "Keep yourselves in God's love," Jude exhorts his readers (v.21), leaving the unmistakable impression that someone might not keep himself or herself in the love of God.. The Lord Jesus commands his disciples to remain in his love (John 15:9), and adds, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love (John 15:10).
Quote from: D.A. Carson. (2000) The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Crossway Books, page 19-20.
We must teach both truths:
- God's love is unconditional in one sense
- God's love is conditional in another sense
Then we must relate the 2 senses coherently.
Not to do so is teaching half-truth and error.
For example, Jesus is both God and Man. Only teaching that Jesus is God or only teaching that Jesus is Man is not teaching the full truth. This is teaching half-truth and error.
Likewise, those who teach that God's love is ONLY unconditional and refuse to teach that God's love is ALSO conditional in another sense, those false teachers are teaching half-truth and error.
So says Billy Graham's grandson, former The "Gospel" Coalition rising star, who fell to the earth after committing adultery, getting divorced and now continuing to commit adultery in an adulterous "remarriage". Despite refusing to repent from adultery, he is back again as a pastor preaching "God's unconditional love".
For more on adulterous "remarriages" see: https://tinyurl.com/can-I-divorce-and-remarry
Michael Frost, a Lutheran pastor replied.
Pardon the typo: justification*
Pardon typo: gracious*
His next reply avoided all my points supported by Jms2v24, Eph2v1-10, Titus2v11-14 & the connection between Rom3v21-26 & Rom6.
The above link: https://searchingscripture.wixsite.com/solascriptura/post/some-protestants-don-t-believe-iroc-too
Also, note that those who don't remain in Jesus' love are thrown into the fire.
So first, Jesus loves unconditionally. He calls all kinds of sinners to repent and no longer live as sinners but instead become his disciples. Unconditional love.
After that, Jesus then teaches his disciples that if we want to REMAIN in his love, we must meet his condition: keeping his commands. Conditional love. Jn15v10.
Those who refuse to keep Jesus' commands do not meet Jesus' condition for remaining in his love. Thus, they will be thrown into the fire, the lake of fire.
Unconditional love leads to conditional love.
Next, God's unmerited grace/favor leads to merited favor.
Like many, he rips Eph2v8-9 out of context to make his typically Protestant point.
Watch this video for critique of the Protestant distortion of Eph2v8-9: https://youtu.be/Vofm7BYrzRs
Clearly, there is a sense in which God's favor is conditional upon obedience.
If God's favor is ONLY unmerited, then why is the Spirit of favor outraged by unrepentant sinning?
Remember Ray Ortlund's contrast?
This is what I meant earlier: "God & Jesus' love and favor are unconditional/unmerited in one sense and conditional/merited in another sense. I will explain later how to relate these 2 senses."
Now let me share with you my replies to Tim Keller.
Mt21v31. Jesus called tax collectors and prostitutes to repent from their sins and they did. The religious leaders heard Jesus calling them to repent from their sins and they refused.
Big difference between the repentant and the unrepentant.
No question at all that Jesus shows unmerited grace/favor to sinners - who are called to repent from their sins and follow him as his disciples.
Jesus does not let his disciples who used to be tax-collectors continue cheating people.
Jesus does not let his disciples who used to be prostitutes continue committing sexual immorality.
In other words, unmerited favor was shown to sinners to lead sinners to repentance and then to merit his favor or God's favor.
How does God transform someone who used to be a sinner and who never merited anything but God's wrath into a holy-one who merits his favor?
Pardon typo: relate*
The above link: https://searchingscripture.wixsite.com/solascriptura/post/some-protestants-don-t-believe-iroc-too
Rev3v1-6: “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works COMPLETE in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are WORTHY. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Note that in Rev3v1-6, being WORTHY of walking with Jesus and enjoying eternal life involves:
#1: A Christian repenting from sin
We do not offer Levitical animal sacrifices to atone for our sins.
We do not offer Roman Catholic sin sacrifices in the Mass to atone for our sins.
Jesus taught us to ask our heavenly Father for daily bread and forgiveness of our debt.
This implies: we sin daily so we need to ask God to forgive our daily debt.
So when I say Christians need to do good works to merit God's favor, to be WORTHY of eternal life, I do not mean that if a Christian sins but repents from his sin, God will still say, "Nope, you can't be forgiven."
#2: A Christian doing COMPLETE works taught by the Jesus and his apostles
This does not mean Christians can only be WORTHY of eternal life if they are 100% sinless and the moment a Christian sins, he is forever condemned to the lake of fire. Otherwise, Jesus won't waste his breath calling Christians to repent.
To ensure our works are COMPLETE means to fulfill our baptism vow.
Mt28: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
We don't pick and choose which commands to obey and which commands to disobey. We don't act smart and categorize some commands as "primary", "essential-to-salvation" and must must must be kept.
Then categorize some commands as "secondary/tertiary/etc", "non-essential-to-salvation" so we should "agree to disagree" or practice "theological triage".
Make sure our works are COMPLETE means go and observe ALL Jesus' commands, whether spoken personally by Jesus or through his apostles as recorded in the Scripture.
When we disobey, repent. Don't distort the Scripture to pretend that one is obeying. Don't make black into white and white into black. Be honest. Be humble. Confess one's sin. Change.
This is what we need to do in order to be WORTHY of walking with Jesus in eternal life.
Praise God for deciding to show us unmerited favor and unconditionally loving us elect even before the creation of the heavens and the earth. We did nothing to deserve being predestined for glory and eternal life.
Praise Jesus for loving us unconditionally by calling us to repentance from our sins and for sacrificing his life to atone for our sins.
Praise God for giving us his Holy Spirit to circumcise our hearts (Rom3v26-29) to cause us to obey him (Eze36v26-27).
Eze36: 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
This is how God's unmerited favor causes us to be subsequently able to merit his favor.
This is how Jesus' unconditional love causes us to be subsequently able to meet his condition for remaining in his love.
Glory be to God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Post-Script.
Many Protestant teachers despise these truths.
For example,
Why was I blocked? For hurling vulgarities at him?
He tweeted something about "grace" being "inexhaustible". I can't even quote his full tweet because I've been blocked and can't see his tweets. Anyway, since he insisted that "grace" is "inexhaustible" which is not true, I replied with 1 tweet to correct that error.
Paul Tripp wrote a book, "Instruments In The Redeemer's Hands: People In Need of Change Helping People In Need of Change". So when it's time for him to change his mind and let it be renewed when corrected by Scriptures like Heb10v29, he stubbornly refuses to change.
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