Questions

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Anne ("Weekend Fisher"), over at "Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength", has raised a series of interesting questions about faith and righteousness and salvation, some of them embodying some interesting assumptions. (She gives some interesting answers, too.)

Check this out: "We do not, then, merit the attainment of eternal life as if it were ... an obligation of God's to us based on our works, that he must award eternal life simply to satisfy justice."

No disagreement with Anne's conclusion. It's the assumption behind it that raises the eybrows and makes the conclusion moot. Let's examine that a bit. There's a Bible verse somewhere that has to do with this. Let's see... oh, yes. Romans 4:4. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." But does this mean God would really be obliged to save us, if we were righteous, to satisfy justice?

Answer One (which, as we shall probably see by time we get to Answer Two, really doesn't have much to do with it, yet needs to be said): No. God's sovereignty is such that He is not obliged to do anything, including being just or good. He is never obliged, and nothing whatsoever can put Him under obligation. Whatever He does, He does in absolute, radical freedom, because it is His will, and for no other reason.

Oh, but isn't God just by nature? And since He cannot act against His own nature, doesn't that oblige Him?

Counter-question: who determines God's nature? If anything or anyone other than God Himself, then yes, God is obliged, but He is also no longer God. Whoever made Him to be who He is, that is God. Or if God (unlike any of His creatures) determines His own nature, then He is whoever He is because He freely wills to be that, and freely wills to act accordingly. There is no question of obligation. Or, third possibility, if God's nature, in a manner surpassing our experience or understanding, is not determined at all, then again, God is totally free to do exactly as He pleases.

Doesn't God obligate Himself by making promises? No. He made the promises because they express what was already His will do to (or not do). He made them in perfect freedom and He keeps them in perfect freedom. (That, for a variety of reasons, paradoxically doesn't mean He could choose to break them, either.)

I have this nagging feeling that people who wish to find some theological way to obligate God (and I do NOT mean Weekend Fisher!) really must not have much faith in Him.

Answer Two (the real deal): If God has made a person righteous, has He not already, by definition, saved him? If anyone is righteous, it is by communion in Christ (and hence, participation in His righteousness). Communion in Christ! I mean, come on! What else did anyone think he wanted? That's heaven already, right there. Isn't it?