Kenton Slaughter

“The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever… a stone… cut from a mountain by no human hand.” Dan 2:44-45

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3

Rom 7:4 “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead” If we die to the law through His death, then He does not make us alive again to the law in order to bring us into heaven. No, our entry into God’s presence has a different basis: “He was declared to be the Son of God… by his resurrection from the dead,” (Rom 1) so that “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,” (Gal 2) because, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3) So neither Phil 2 nor Gal 3 suggests that Jesus’s obedience was righteousness-accruing as though He entered heaven by works of the law. “For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law” (Gal 3:21). On the contrary, both passages focus on Jesus’s death as an obedient act of atonement and the singular basis for our release from the law. “For, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal 2:21). But what we have in Christ instead is “the righteousness from God that depends on faith… and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:9-10).

Mmmm. 🤔 “…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Php. 2:8). “…becoming a curse for us—for it is written” (Gal. 3:13).

Luke 24:5-7 “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

Luke 23:56 …On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

1 Cor 5:7-8 Messiah, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Mark 15:25-39 It was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” …So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. …And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

@wordsofthislife No, but Abraham’s inheritance, along with his house, passed to Isaac and to Jacob such that the house of Israel is Abraham’s designated household. As the Scripture says, “through Isaac shall your offspring be named” (Gen 21:12; Rom 9:7; Heb 11:18).

Just a reminder — Abraham was not of Israel.

3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

Mark 14:61-64 …Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?”

1. If Adam was our “federal head” only until his first sin, then how was it ever counted to his offspring, who were yet to be born? 2. 2 Cor 5:21 echoes Rom 8:3-4 and 1 Peter 2:24. Our sins were counted against the Son of God only insofar as Christ bore them as a man under the law cursed by the law. But even in bearing punishment for our sins, Jesus must have remained righteous according to God’s reckoning of Christ as His own Son. It is on the basis of that reckoning that Jesus was resurrected, which is why we must first die in Him in order to be resurrected with Him.

@kps2014 @ReformedCaio 1. No, just until his first sin. 2. 2 Cor 5:21 says otherwise

There are three imputations involved in salvation. 1. The imputation of Adam’s first sin. 2. The imputation of sins to Christ such that He bears their guilt and punishment. 3. The imputation of Christ’s full satisfaction and perfect obedience.

Go from the presence of a foolish man, When you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit. Fools mock at sin, But among the upright is favor. - Prov 14:7-9

Rom 8:31-39 If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Messiah Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? …I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Messiah Jesus our Lord.

Mark 14:1-9 It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread… And while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Not wholesale. But I think quite a few authors and theologians (from different traditions) have steered me in this direction. D.A. Carson’s New Studies in Biblical Theology probably played the biggest single role in steering me toward re-examining the text more closely to pay attention to what the New Testament says and doesn’t say.

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Do you know of specific theologians or theological views/traditions that would hold to your view on these things? What your describing is similar in some respects of what I've read in Sailhamer.

There are two ways to heaven: Absolute perfection in keeping the law and faith in Christ for salvation from sin. T/F

Luke 20:1-8 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? Hebrews 1:13

1 Tim 2:1-3 I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.

Well it is also prescriptive, but right, the law can neither be the cause nor the basis of eternal life, not least because Jesus elsewhere claims the exclusive Father-given authority to give it by His own volition (not as that which He earned from the law) and, as Gal 3:21 and 2 Cor 3:3-6 argue, stony laws don’t have the capacity to give life. That said, I also think Jesus gave an incomplete answer to the self-righteous lawyer who tried to test him, but a complete answer to the sincere ruler: “Come, follow me.” As for Rom 2:13-15, yes, but I think Paul was previewing Rom 8 and alluding to Jer 31:33. The doers of the law will be declared righteous before God, but not on the basis of the law (which pre-condemns everyone as sinners). The righteousness that God will certify on the day of judgment precedes and enables their Spirit-led fulfillment of the law’s requirements. The law was imposed on condemned sinners who are already cut off from God’s life, so it’s not a path from unrighteousness to righteousness or death to life. But, the law is a genuine shadow outlining the path of righteousness and life for those whom God has justified as His children. The actual object of that path is Jesus, the righteous Son who leads us to God by the Spirit. So yes, those who love God and keep His commands and fulfill the law’s requirements will inherit eternal life, but the only ones for whom that is true are those whom God has justified and brought to life by grace.

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Thanks! So in Lk. 10 & 18, would you say Jesus is saying obedience to the law is descriptive of someone who will inherit eternal life, but obedience isn't the cause? Also, for those who obey the Law in Romans 2: would you say this a description of sinful yet justified believers?

I’d say living that accords with God is a natural, necessary, and inseparable condition of life with and from God, so while it takes the form of obedience and reward in this age, obedience is not properly a pre-condition for life. Two sets of Scriptures to back this up: 1) John 17:3; Rom 6; Phil 3:8-11: eternal life is experiential knowledge of God that culminates in eternal glory and immortality. Obedience leads to holiness and eternal life, yet eternal life is a free gift, the result of righteousness given by God apart from works of the law. How do those things fit together? God gives the life that we are to live, including its eternal culmination. 2) John 1:12-17, 3:3-16; Rom 8:14-29; Gal 3:24-4:7; 1 Peter 1:3-25; 1 John 3:1-3: The proper precondition for eternal life is Spirit-wrought birth as holy children of the living God. The love and purity that characterize obedience are themselves characteristics of God’s children, for whom eternal life will constitute perfection in maturity. These aren’t gracious exceptions to a covenant of works owing to Christ’s completion of the law’s requirements: Jesus himself characterized His obedience as the love of the incarnate Son for the Father. Such love and purity aren’t preconditions for the love of God. They flow from God’s love. So there is no invisible level that obedience in love must reach before eternal life is granted. The only threshold that exists is human corruption (physical and moral) and the fixed judgment of this creation, both consequences of the Fall. And it’s because this corrupted age will terminate in judgment that eternal life will be received as the reward for endurance in living according to God’s incorruptible ways.

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Since you don't believe obedience is a precondition for life (if I understand you correctly), how do you interpret Jesus in Luke 10:28 and 10:18-28?