TS Study - Salvation: Paste-Future-Present

True Spirituality - True Spirituality Salvation: Paste-Future-Present
Comments on Francis Schaeffer's Book True Spirituality
A Book Study By Dan Guinn

Chapter 6 - Salvation: Paste-Future-Present seeks to unify the concepts of redemptive history with the life of the Christian. Dr. Schaeffer adds to what he has previously clarified in the last chapter, that we live in a supernatural universe, and that the central event in that universe is the cross of Christ. Thus it is the calling of the Christian to understand the implications of the cross for us.

The Fall - Man fell in history

• God's answer in history (The cross of victory).

The Christian Calling

• Evidence of The Victory of The Cross
• Right doctrine

1. Live a supernatural life now.
2. Demonstrate the character of God.
3. The unity of what salvation is.

• Adoption
• Mystical union
• Relationship with the Holy Spirit
• The empty hand of faith
  

The Fall - Man Fell In History
Dr. Schaeffer is very intentional to emphasize that the fall of man is an historical event. Yet more than that, the event is one that also involved the specific redemptive reaction of God (anthropomorphic) to this event in time and space.

God's Answer
"... when Christ came, died, and rose - also in history"..." the necessary victory was won." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 71

The Christian Calling
The core of ascertaining True Spirituality is understanding our position and understanding our duty. In the last chapter we learned our position is rooted in a spiritual universe that is relational with time and space. Understanding our duty and calling comes through grasping our relationship with the core truth of that spirituality, the truth of the cross.

Evidence of The Victory
Dr. Schaeffer hopes to point out that the intention of the sacrifice of Christ was to produce evidence of His victory in history through the work of the cross. This evidence is us, His people.

"9 But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9,10

"God has always intended that Christians should be the evidence, the demonstration, of Christ's victory on the cross."c

Right Doctrine
Ever an activist for the cause of truth, Dr. Schaeffer is emphatic that the truth of our faith is not separated from our experience or our practice. We are called to believe right doctrine.

There are some even today who would speak of doctrine as a non-essential aspect of the Christian faith. Yet Schaeffer wishes us to understand doctrine as, "true doctrine, the doctrine of scripture." The word doctrine means "teaching" or "law". The Christian without teaching is impotent and unprepared. The Christian without law is lawless and ungoverned by the truth of Christ teachings. Some also teach that the Christian is no longer under the law without proper clarification. We are no longer under the law, in that we are no longer under it's curse, yet we are not lawless. We are under the law of the new convenant, the Law of Christ.

Here are some verses I have added to assist in this important discussion. (Note: These are not in True Spirituality.)

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14;21

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." John 15:10

So we can see that believing that we are without doctrine and law is a serious mistake.

For Schaeffer, right doctrine is living the calling of the Christian life as evidence of Christ victory. He clarifies this idea by breaking it out into the following points.

Live a supernatural life now.
"Christians are called upon to be the demonstration at our point in history that the supernatural, the normally unseen world, does exist; and beyond that, that God exist." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 72

Demonstrate the character of God
"Christians are to demonstrate God's character, which is a moral demonstration, but it is not only to be a demonstration of moral principles; it is a demonstration of his being, his existence. What a calling, and how overwhelming!" Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 72

The unity of what salvation is.
Schaeffer here wants us to grasp that we need to see the whole gospel message. Salvation is not merely the conversion alone but the whole of our redemption.

"The word 'salvation' encompasses the whole: justification, sanctification, glorification" Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 72

So this plays out in the following ways.

Adoption
"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12

Mystical Union With Christ
"Second, when I accept Christ as my Savior. I immediately come int a new relationship with God the Son." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 76

Verses: Rom 7:4, John 15

Relationship With The Holy Spirit
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper (advocate, counselor), to be with you forever, 17 even
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither
sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will
be in you." John 14:16-18

The Empty Hand Of Faith
"Let me stress it again: salvation is all one piece. All salvation, past, present, and future, has one base. That base is not our faith. If we are confused here, we are confused completely. A man can never be justified on the basis of his own faith. Through all of salvation the only base is the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross in history. Faith is the empty hand, the instrument by which we accept God's free gift. Faith is simply believing in God." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 78

"On the basis of the finished work of Christ, a moment-by-moment life of faith is 'the victory.' Not our victory, but Christ victory, purchased for us on Calvary's cross, laid hold of moment by moment in faith." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 79

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so
that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15 :13

"This is our calling, through the agancy of the Holy Spirit. we are not called to serve God just any way but to know joy and peace in believing." Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality pg 80

So finally we can see the implications of the cross. The life of faith living in the moment-by-moment victory of Christ our savior.