"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1: 3 esv)
Since "every spiritual blessing" is to be found only "in Christ," then the only way to have those blessings is by obtaining them in Christ. Entering into Christ results in obtaining all these blessings. Even though faith precedes entering Christ, being the means thereunto, yet even that spiritual blessing is a result of it being given "in Christ" on behalf of those chosen to salvation before the beginning of creation. So Paul wrote:
"...God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began." (II Tim. 1: 8b-9 nkjv)
Of course, Christ did not exist at this time, for "Christ" means "Messiah" and being such required that he be of the seed of Abraham, be a human, and this did not occur until the Son of God became incarnate and was born of the virgin Mary, in fulfillment of the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15. Nor did those who were given grace in Christ (the elect) actually exist then, though they did exist in the mind of God. There are those who have believed that Christ in his human nature did exist from before the world began, yea, from eternity, and also have believed that the elect actually preexisted then. Those known as the Two Seed Primitive Baptists have held to this view and have used the above text as a proof-text. All others rightly understand Paul to mean that in "purpose" or in his plan God the Father gave to the Son of God gifts of grace to bestow upon those so chosen. Faith is one of those gifts.
The grace of faith being actually given in time to the chosen is the means by which an actual living vital union is effected between Christ and the chosen ones. Once in Christ, every spiritual blessing is obtained, including spiritual life, justification, forgiveness, redemption or salvation, eternal life and immortality, an everlasting inheritance in the city of God and new heavens and earth. Though the verse in the heading sums it all up by saying that all spiritual blessings are to be found or obtained in Christ, yet it is good for us to notice some texts that focus on some of those particular blessings.
Things that are In Christ
Not only in Ephesians 1: 3 but also in Paul's letter to Philemon he calls attention to "every good thing which is you in Christ Jesus." (Philemon 1:6) In the new testament we read of "grace that is in Christ," of "faith that is in Christ," of "life in Christ," of "truth being in Christ," and of the "love which is in Christ," and of "hope which is in Christ," of "salvation which is in Christ," and of "redemption which is in Christ," and of there being "no condemnation to those who are in Christ," and of "liberation from the law of sin and death which is in Christ," and of being "created anew in Christ," of "consolation in Christ," and of "perfection in Christ."
In such verses the Greek word for "in" is "en" and generally denotes in, on, at, by, with, or among. Sometimes it may carry the meaning of "by" and be used in an instrumental sense. Most often it denotes a fixed position in space or time.
Being "in Christ" or "in God" is compared to being "in Adam." By discerning what it means to be "in Adam" we may learn what it means to be "in Christ" who is "the second Adam," not that they are in every way alike, however. Paul plainly says that "Adam is a figure of him who was to come," i.e. Christ. (Rom. 5: 14) He also said "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Cor. 15: 22) In this verse we see where the preposition "in" (en) means "by." However, it may also carry the meaning of "all who are represented by Adam" versus "all who are represented by Christ." So, union with Adam brings death and condemnation, while union with Christ brings new life, eternal life, and justification. We have already noticed Paul's words that spoke of the one "who unites himself with the Lord" and thereby becomes "one with him in spirit" (I Cor. 6: 17).
In the previous chapter we saw where the apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:11-12 spoke of how people are "without Christ" and "without God" before their conversion, before they believed and repented. He said that when they were converted that they were then "no longer strangers and foreigners" to the Commonwealth of Israel and the "covenants of promise." They became citizens when they entered into Christ by faith, as Paul said in Philippians 3: 20 - "our citizenship is in heaven." In Ephesians chapter three he also spoke of Gentile believers as "fellow heirs of the same body" with the believing Jews and "partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel." (vs. 6) If this is an effect by the gospel, then it can only mean by hearing and believing the gospel.
Ligonier.org web page was the creation of R.C. Sproul and it promotes the BABF view. In this article (here) they give an article by Sinclair Ferguson (teaching fellow, vice-chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and Chancellor's Professor of Systematic Theological Seminary) titled "What it means to be in Christ" and in it he says things which betray the BABF view, as we will see. Ferguson wrote (emphasis mine):
"But now by faith, we are no longer in Adam. We have been translated and are now in Christ...by the ministry of the Spirit, he unites us to Himself by faith, and we come to share in all the benefits and blessings of His work. All that he has done for us is now ours, and we receive it all because we are in Christ."
Since it is true that it is by faith that people are "now in Christ," then regeneration cannot be prior to faith, for then we would have to affirm that in being regenerated or born of God there is no union created. Ferguson rightly says that it is by faith union with Christ, by being "in Christ" by faith, that "we come to share in all the benefits and blessings of his work." Ferguson however, in another article on the same web site titled "Which comes first in our salvation, faith or regeneration?" (See here) contradicted what he wrote in the above citation, writing the following:
"I think it's very clear that in order to come to faith, first of all, God has to give us a new heart. And that is really what John had said in the prologue to the gospel as well, that those who came to believe in Him were born not of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but born of God. John 1:14"
So, Ferguson has this order: 1) regeneration, 2) faith, 3) union with Christ. Anyone should see the logical consequences of such an order. First, it is against scripture. Second, it is against what he wrote previously. Third, it says a man may be regenerated apart from being "in Christ" or united to him. Fourth, he has one of the chief benefits of salvation (regeneration) not coming as a result of union with Christ.
The order should be faith, then union with Christ or being in Christ, then regeneration. That was the view of Calvin as we have seen and of the first Calvinist Reformers. Further, to say that the new heart produced in regeneration precedes faith is to deny that the new heart is a heart of faith and that is absurd. In Hebrews we read of the "evil heart of unbelief" (3:12) and its counterpart must be the good heart of faith.
As for John 1:12-14 teaching that people are born again before faith, that is absolutely not what the text says. The text clearly says it is those who "received" or "believed" Christ that were given the blessed privilege to "become the birth children of God." They were "born of God" when they received Christ and entered into Christ and when Christ entered into them.
Martin Lloyd Jones (1899-1981), well known popular theologian and proponent of the BABF view, in a sermon on Ephesians 2:8 (available to read here), said the following (emphasis mine):
"As we think of faith we must be careful, therefore, to view it in this light. Faith is not the cause of salvation. Christ is the cause of salvation. The grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is the cause of salvation, and I must never speak in such a way as to represent faith as the cause of my salvation. What is faith then? Faith is but the instrument through which it comes to me. ‘By grace are ye saved, through faith.’ Faith is the channel, it is the instrument through which this salvation which is of the grace of God comes to me. I am saved by grace, ‘through faith’. It is just the medium through which the grace of God bringing salvation enters into my life. We must always be extremely careful, therefore, never to say that it is our believing that saves us. Belief does not save. Faith does not save. Christ saves—Christ and His finished work. Not my belief, not my faith, not my understanding, nothing that I do—‘not of yourselves’, ‘boasting is excluded’, ‘by grace, through faith’."
Notice the contradiction in his saying that "faith" is no "cause" of salvation but then says that faith is the instrument or channel by which salvation is experienced. Does he not know that an instrument or means or condition is a cause? It is not the only cause, not even the primary cause, but to deny that it is no cause at all is what we would expect from the Hyper Calvinists of the Hardshell Baptist variety. He also says that we should never say that "our believing saves us" and "faith does not save us." Unbelievable. The writers of the new testament have a different view. In forgiving a woman of her sins Christ said to her: "your faith has saved you." (Luke 7: 50) In Hebrews 3:18-19 Paul says people could not enter God's rest "because" of their unbelief (lack of faith), affirming that it is "because" of belief or faith that entrance into God's eternal rest is obtained. All the verses that say salvation is "through" or "by" faith say faith is a cause. These kinds of statements are the result of affirming that people are saved before and apart from faith.
Jones said further:
"Surely the whole point of the first three verses of this chapter is to show that no other position is at all possible. How can a man who is ‘dead’ in trespasses and sins save himself? How can a man who is an ‘enemy and alienated in his mind’, whose heart is ‘at enmity against God’ (for that is what we are told about the natural man), how can such a man do anything that is meritorious? It is impossible."
"How can a man who is dead" do anything to be saved? Answer: by the power of God's word and Spirit as Paul said in the context (Eph. 1:19). It happens when the gospel comes to dead sinners "not in word only but in power and in demonstration of the Spirit." (I Cor. 2:4; I Thess. 1:5) People "come" to Christ for life (John 5:40; 6:37) and the "coming" of the texts is doing something. The coming is indeed a result of the Father's drawing and teaching (or revelation). So, it does not imply that the coming was done by a sinner's innate power. Further, as I have shown, in the very text Jones is talking about Paul plainly said that the salvation from death (quickening) is "by grace through faith." Let us put the key verses together that illustrate how wrong is the carnal reasoning of Jones and those of the BABF view.
"and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (1: 19-20)...even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)...For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..." (Eph. 2: 5,8)
So, dead sinners are made to believe in Christ, to receive him into their hearts, by the mighty power of God and as a result they are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ.
Jones said further:
"The first thing that happens to us, the apostle has told us in verses 4 to 7, is that we have been ‘quickened’. New life has been put into us. Why? Because without life we can do nothing. The first thing the sinner needs is life. He cannot ask for life, for he is dead. God gives him life, and he proves that he has it by believing the gospel. Quickening is the first step. It is the first thing that happens. I do not ask to be quickened. If I asked to be quickened I would not need to be quickened, I would already have life. But I am dead, and I am an enemy, and I am opposed to God, I do not understand, and I hate. But God gives me life. He has quickened me together with Christ. Therefore, boasting is entirely excluded, boasting of works, boasting even of faith. It must be excluded. Salvation is altogether of God."
No, "the first thing that happens to us" is not the quickening! Why do I say that? Because Paul says the salvation from spiritual death via quickening is "through faith." This is in keeping with other texts, such as when Christ said to dead sinners - "you will not come unto me that you might have life" (John 5:40); And in what the apostle John said when he said "whoever has the Son has life" (I John 5: 12). The word "has" (ἔχων (echōn) denotes possession, as when Christ says "whoever has ears." Christ is possessed when he is "received" willingly. John spoke of this when he wrote: "to as many as received him to them he gave the privilege to become the children of God" (John 1:12). Paul wrote of this receiving when he wrote:
"For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (I Cor. 4: 7)
Jones is also wrong when he says "without life we can do nothing." Why? Because we have already seen how one must receive Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the LIFE" (John 14:6), in order to have life, so receiving precedes obtaining life, just like coming to Christ precedes obtaining life as we saw. (John 5:40) Even in the context of chapter two of Ephesians Paul spoke of the dead "walking" in sins and "fulfilling" their sinful desires. (verse two). If the dead cannot do anything then why does he say, via his messages to them, "awake you who sleep and arise from among the dead and Christ will give you light"? (Eph. 5: 14) Why did Christ throughout his ministry preach to the spiritually dead and tell them what they must do to be saved? The dry dead bones in Ezekiel chapter 37 were very active in coming together and being clothed again with flesh before the breath of life entered into them.
Jones, like his fellow BABF Calvinists, carries the idea of spiritual death to an extreme. First of all, people who have died are not really dead in every respect, because they have an immortal soul. They are dead only in their bodies. So, when Jesus spoke to Lazarus saying "Lazarus, come forth," he was not merely addressing his flesh but his spirit which was conscious in Sheol. And, the text says "he came forth," and in Greek the word for "come" and "came" is in the active voice which means Lazarus was active in it and not merely passive. After all, he is the one who did the coming.
Second, being dead to God means separated from God who is life. So the prophet said - "your iniquities have separated between you and your God." (Isa. 59:2) So, when the Prodigal Son was separated from his Father and communion with him, he is said to be "dead." (Luke 15: 32)
No, the first thing in the order of salvation is faith. However, prior to faith God is at work in producing faith, but this pre-regeneration work of God is not yet regeneration. So, before "coming" to Christ in John chapter six (which is when a sinner receives life) we see the work of the Father in "drawing" and "teaching" the alien sinner. The older Calvinists all taught that the Holy Spirit first convinces dead sinners of their condemned sinful condition and need of salvation before they come to Christ and are saved. This is what theologians call "conviction of sin." So Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) said (emphasis mine):
"The soul must be beaten down by conviction before it be raised up by regeneration; There must be some apprehensions of the necessity of it."
John Owen (1616-1683) also has said the same. In "Pneumatologia" (1674) he wrote (emphasis mine):
So, Jones is wrong to say that "the first thing" is quickening. What about hearing the word of God? Does that not precede being saved? No wonder that those of the BABF view often come to deny that the gospel or word of God is a means in quickening dead sinners.
Jones said further:
"Paul says: ‘We are his workmanship’! It is God who has done something, it is God who is working; we are His workmanship. Not our works, His work."
So, those Calvinists who deny the BABF view don't agree with this? Are they ignorant of this basic truth? Men such as Calvin, Beza, Charnock, etc.? I could say that my heart surgery was the work of the heart surgeon. But, I am the one who consented to it and put my trust in him to do it.
Jones said further:
"So, I say again, it is not our good life, and all our efforts, and hoping to be a Christian at the end, that makes us Christians."
So Calvin could not believe this because he taught that sinners were born again or regenerated by faith?
Jones said further:
"But let me go further. It is not our decision, our ‘deciding for Christ’, that makes us Christians either: that is our work. Decision does come into it, but it is not our decision that makes us Christians. Paul says we are His workmanship. And thus, you see how grievously our loose thinking and our loose speaking misrepresent Christianity!"
Where in the Bible is it said that people are not saved through a choice? Do people not choose to believe, to come to Christ, to call upon the name of the Lord? Are people saved against their wills then? Did not Paul say that salvation is the result of God working in people "to will"? (Phil. 2:12-13) When people decide not for Christ, is that an act of the will? (See I Peter 2:4-7)
Jones said further:
"I remember a very good man—yes, a good Christian man—whose way of giving his testimony was always this: ‘I decided for Christ thirty years ago and I have never regretted it’. That was his way of putting it. That is not Paul’s way of describing becoming Christian. ‘We are his workmanship!’ That is the emphasis. Not something I have gone in for, not something I have decided, but something that God has done to me. He might better have put it like this: Thirty years ago I was dead in trespasses and sins, but God began to do something to me; I became aware of God dealing with me; I felt God smashing me; I felt the hands of God re-making me. That is Paul’s way of putting it; not, I decided, not, I went in for Christianity, not, I decided to follow Christ, not at all. That comes in, but that is later."
It is this kind of defense of Calvinism, or pseudo Calvinism, that leads people away from it. It is an example of Calvinists going to an extreme in their fighting against Arminianism. Notice this story of what happened in the ministry of the apostle Paul:
"King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.” Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.” (Acts 26: 27-29 nkjv)
According to Jones Paul was wrong to try to "persuade" Agrippa to be a Christian! Or perhaps Jones would be led to say that being persuaded does not involve the will?
This same order (of faith preceding regeneration) is taught in many other texts. For instance, the apostle Paul also wrote:
"buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." (Col. 2: 12 nkjv)
This "raising" is a quickening or making alive. Yes, it is the work of God, but it was a result of dead sinners putting their trust in God and his ability to raise them out of spiritual death.
Some of the BABF folks, when this text is brought to them as a refutation of that view, will often say - "well, if you take that view, then you must say that it is in baptism that the quickening occurs." However, that is not so. And, even if it was, the text still says "raised through faith." Barnes in his commentary wrote: "Wherein also - In which ordinance, or by virtue of that which is signified by the ordinance." See my article on Col. 2: 12 (here) Paul is saying that the resurrection to spiritual life through faith is pictured in the rite of baptism.
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