REVISITING CHRIST’S MESSAGE TO TODAY’S EVANGELICALS

Part IV: Christ’s Offer To Wean Us From Evangelicalism’s Factions To Himself

B. Christ’s Cross-Before-The-Crown Solution Applied

1. Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Opposition To Wean Us From Its Faction

c. Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Opposition For “Eye Salve” of SPIRITUAL INSIGHT

(Revelation 3:18b[c])

I. Introduction

A. After Christ critiqued the five points of Calvinism and the Arminian errors that parallel those points in Revelation 3:17b, He gave the solutions to three of the Calvinist errant points in Revelation 3:18b.

B. The third errant point that Christ teaches how to address is Calvinism’s fourth point, its errant view of irresistible grace regarding the Holy Spirit’s conviction of God’s truth, and Christ teaches it in Rev 3:18b[c]:

II. Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Opposition For “Eye Salve” of SPIRITUAL INSIGHT, Rev. 3:18b[c].

A. Jesus counseled the pastor third to “buy” from Him “salve to put on your eyes, so you can see,” 3:18b[c] NIV.

B. Isaiah 55:1 reveals that to “buy” anything from Christ means to receive it from Him as a gift by God’s grace,

and aside from Revelation 3:18b[c], only in John 9:1-39 elsewhere in Scripture does Christ graciously apply a poultice to one’s eyes to give him physical sight (Jn. 9:1-7) that also leads to his spiritual insight, Jn. 9:35-39.

C. The Rev. 3:17 context reveals that the “sight” today’s Evangelicals need is spiritual insight, so we study the healing event in John 9:1-39 to discern how Christ graciously gives spiritual insight in our era of the Church:

1. To heal a man born blind on a Sabbath to get the attention of the Pharisees who LEGALISTICALLY forbade healing on the Sabbath, Jesus put a poultice of mud on the blind man’s eyes and sent him across Jerusalem to wash it off in the pool of Siloam (Jn. 8:59-9:7; The MacMillan Bible Atlas, 1968, p. 139).

2. The man returned seeing, so the city people who noticed it brought him to the Pharisees who argued among themselves over whether Jesus was not from God for healing on the Sabbath or if He was from God since a sinner could not do such miracles! The healed man heard the Pharisees’ arguing and sided with the BIBLICAL view that Jesus was from God, so he confessed that Jesus was a prophet, Jn. 9:8-17.

3. The Pharisees later unitedly LEGALISTICALLY called Jesus a sinner and tried to get the healed man to agree with them (v. 24-28), but the healed man detected the Pharisees’ conflict with the BiBLICAL view that a sinner could not heal him – so he asserted that view to assert that Jesus was righteous! The healed man’s assertion angered the Pharisees, so they excommunicated him, John 9:31-34, 22.

4. Jesus later asked the healed man if he trusted in the Son of Man, the Daniel 7:13-14 title for God Incarnate. When Jesus explained that He was that Son of Man, since the healed man had already logically concluded that Jesus was from God, he accepted Jesus’ claim and trusted in Him, John 9:33, 35-38 NIV.

5. So, in applying a poultice to the eyes of the blind man, Jesus arranged that he discern an UNBIBLICAL view in the Pharisees’ beliefs that led the healed man to increasing discernment of seeing Jesus as a man (Jn. 9:11) to being a prophet (Jn. 9:17) to being God Incarnate (Jn. 9:35-38) so he could be saved!

D. In application, Christ advises a pastor to ask Him to arrange for him to conflict with Calvinists that this pastor might discern unbiblical errors in Calvinism. When the pastor voices his awareness of the errors, the Calvinists will oppose him, driving that pastor to seeing increasing levels of Bible truth in contrast to increasing levels of error in Calvinist theology (1 Corinthians 2:11-15; 2 Timothy 1:13-14).

E. [For example, Calvinist theology conflicts with the Protestant Reformation’s Biblical Five Solas: (1) In contrast to Sola Fide (salvation by faith alone), Calvinism holds one is regenerated BEFORE he believes (L. Boettner, Ref. Doc. of Pred., p. 162-164), that one is ALREADY SAVED APART FROM FAITH! (2) This view counters Scripture’s Ephesians 2:8-9 claim that salvation is through faith in violation of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone as authoritative). (3) Thus, Scripture’s teachings on Solus Christus (salvation by Christ alone), Sola Gratia (salvation by grace alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone) are also countered by Calvinism that places its view of justification above Scripture’s teaching and authority on it, for by countering Scripture’s authority, Calvinism treats Scripture’s teaching on all the solas as being non-authoritative!]

Lesson: (1) Christ advises a pastor to ask Him to arrange for him to be cornered into conflicting with Calvinists so that the pastor will discern and voice his discernment of Calvinism’s conflicts with Scripture. (2) Calvinists will react by opposing the pastor, what drives the pastor under Christ’s oversight to gain even more discernment!

Application: May we all ask God for “eye salve” to grow in discernment of Calvinist errors and of Bible truth!