Coram Deo

All-Time Grace

We are all, according to Luther, born Pelagians. That is, we naturally think that we are naturally good or, at worst, neutral. It takes a rebirth for us to recognize that we are capable in ourselves only of sin. Following that rebirth, we come to faith, trusting in Christ’s vicarious death and life for our salvation. And then we forget. We become Pelagians once more, saying with our lips that it is Christ who saves while working in ourselves to save ourselves.

It is true that sanctification is a synergistic work something we do in cooperation with the Holy Spirit We work with Him to purge from ourselves our sins. But it seems that one of the sins we tend to let run free is the sin of trusting in our own righteousness. We never say it that way, of course we know better than that But all too often, in our hearts, at the very core of our being, we are rather pleased with ourselves, and we expect that God is as well.

What we do is come up with our own law, a mark we can hit. It may be a list of sins that hold no appeal for us — God must like me because I’m not a sodomite. Or it maybe some spiritual regimen we go through, as if God will welcome us into His kingdom because of the perfect attendance button we got in Sunday school. Incredibly, even we Reformed people succumb to the Pelagian disease. We don’t really believe in unconditional election. We think God peered down the corridor of time and chose us because we have the good sense to be Calvinists.

Aren’t we something?

May it never be. We who know that we will stand before the throne only because of the righteousness of Christ must realize that we stand there, Coram Deo, right now because of the righteousness of Christ. We don’t don His robe later; we wear it now. And that’s a joyful truth. Right now you are as righteous in the eyes of God as Jesus Himself, if indeed you are in Him. You cannot please Him any more than you please Him right now. Grace is not just something future. It is past because He already has sent the Redeemer, and it is present because we are in Him now. Peace has been declared. It’s time we put down our swords and entered into the rest He has given us. It’s time we know that here and now, in time, we are in Him, and absolutely nothing can move us.

† By R.C. Sproul, Jr.