For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
Johnson Oatman, Jr. phrased it this way in a hymn written in 1895:
No friend like Him is so high and holy,
No, not one! No, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
No, not one! No, not one!
2 Corinthians 7:5-6
Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. Nevertheless God…
“I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew—He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior true; no, I was found of thee.” The first verse of this 19th century hymn (author unknown), expresses a biblical synergism at work in our salvation.
Synergism is a word that needs some unpacking. The World English Dictionary defines synergism as the working together of two or more agents to produce an effect that is greater than the sum of their individual effects. Thus, in a theological context, it has to do with the way in which, or the extent to which, one’s eternal salvation is the result of both divine and human activity.
From the beginning, the church catholic has held that man cannot save himself by simply doing good deeds. The kerygma has always been, “Repent of your sins; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Furthermore, she (the church catholic) has always maintained that it is even beyond man’s ability (in some autonomous way) to decide to place his faith in Christ for salvation. Rather, God must take the initiative. He must act first, or all is futile.
The essence of the gospel is that God has acted first, in sending his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. And God has acted first, in sending his Holy Spirit, to stir the hearts of men to believe and embrace the gospel.
God’s actions call for a response, one that it is incumbent upon us to make. Choose you this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15). Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:8). Come unto me, all you who labor (Matthew 11:28). Seek the Lord while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6). When I choose, when I cleanse, when I come, when I seek, I am actually, self-consciously, doing something. I am not in a trance.
God acts first. He takes the initiative. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) Then I act. I respond in faith unto salvation. This is a synergy that is surely biblical, is it not?
Yes, it is, but there’s a bit more unpacking to do. God and I may be the two agents in this synergy, but it’s not the kind of synergy where two agents bring their independent work together to achieve a greater result. We are never independent of God. How could we be? “For in Him we live, and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Or, to paraphrase, “in Him we live, and move, and choose to follow Him, and cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts, and come unto Him sinful though we are, and seek Him as He commands.” Saving faith is both a gift and a response, but the response is itself a gift.
This is synergism of a kind, but not of a kind that detracts from God’s sovereignty. The domain of our hearts is the very kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). This is also monergism (God acting alone) of a kind. “He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me.” And yet it is not of a kind that detracts from man’s responsibility. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:3).
The salvation of God, wrought through the atoning sacrifice of Christ and by the working of the Holy Spirit in hearts that are wide open, is ultimately a mystery—a wonderful mystery which cannot be fully explained by any fine-grained theological system.
Perhaps synergism and monergism thus understood are just two ways of expressing the same ineffable reality.
2 Corinthians 6:6-8
...by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report.
Be honest. Be committed. Give of your best to the Master.
2 Corinthians 5:9-11
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
“A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify. A never-dying soul to save and fit it for the sky.” So begins the hymn by Charles Wesley, a Methodist, inspired by the writing of Matthew Henry, a Presbyterian, in his commentary on Leviticus:
“We have every one of us a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify, an immortal soul to provide for, needful duty to be done, our generation to serve; and it must be our daily care to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our Master, who will shortly call us account about it, and it is our utmost peril if we neglect it. Keep it “that ye die not”; it is death, eternal death, to betray the trust that we are charged with; by the consideration of this we must be kept in awe.”
This to me is all very interesting, and very instructive. Aren’t both of these godly men essentially saying the same thing? Neither considered their good works as meriting salvation. Yet both believed good works were a necessary part—in some sense the only true expression of—their faith in God, that self-conscious faith which is itself a divine gift.
This is just another way of expressing the divine-human interaction in salvation that, no matter how it is systematized, is ultimately a wonderful mystery.
2 Corinthians 4:1
Therefore…as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.
If God were cruel, if He were vindictive, how should we not despair and lose heart?
2 Corinthians 3:18
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
Sanctification is serious business. It’s not that we can do it on our own. We really can’t do it at all. The only thing we can do is trust and obey. God does the rest. But we’ve got to trust and obey with all we’ve got.
2 Corinthians 2:4
I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you.
We often think of the Apostle Paul as a hard-hitting, no-nonsense preacher. And he was. But he was also a tender, even vulnerable, shepherd. Did he have a split personality? Not at all. The love of God was shed abroad in his heart, and it was out of that love that he acted and reacted, to which analysis he would be quick to add, “Yet not I, but Christ in me.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
“God is a good God. Every heartache He understands…” So went the song sung at the Oral Roberts crusades years ago. But it is really true. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of all comfort. He understands because He cares.
I Corinthians 16:13-14
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.
There is no fear in love. There is no weakness either.
I Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
This is the ancient kerygma, which predates Paul’s ministry, for he says he received it, and it was “according to the [Old Testament] Scriptures.”
