Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Another Gasp from UOJ Land":
I had a chance to discuss UOJ at length with two separate Lutheran pastors this weekend (they were not ELCA). Neither discussion produced doctrinal agreement but I did realize a few facts. The two major issues that cement the UOJ doctrine with adherents are the following. First, they equate the payment given for sins with forgiveness and naturally righteousness and justification must be declared at the same time. Second, they insist all sins must have been forgiven or else faith would have nothing to lay hold of.
The resultant trouble that comes from this false doctrine is that by it they must declare that the entire world, still at enmity with God and outside of the body of Christ, have been declared forgiven, righteous and justified by Him. Righteous and justified because they have no sin, it's all been forgiven. But wait, why do they go to hell when they die in this state? Because they don't have faith, they are still in the sin of unbelief. But wait, God declared everyone forgiven, righteous and justified. Well, they say that God takes back his declaration. That by my rejection of the free declaration of forgiveness and justification bestowed upon me I cause God to take back what he has already declared to be true.
Now I'm dead in my sins since I have the power to nullify God's declaration. Faced with implying that God made a mistake, or that I have such power, it's said that it isn't mine until the Holy Ghost creates faith in me to believe that Christ paid for my sin. I say yes exactly, that's the true doctrine, that it's by faith alone I am forgiven, justified and declared righteous. Ah no, they say, it has to be an already accomplished fact otherwise there isn't anything to have faith in. True Wauwatosins at least are consistent enough to carry the false doctrine to it's blasphemous end and state there are guilt free, righteous and justified saints in hell. This problem shows how the UOJ false doctrine destroys the continuity of Scripture.
The glaring problem revealed above is how can anyone who is still guilty of the sin of unbelief be declared by God to be forgiven, righteous and justified? That makes a mockery of Christ's payment. Makes a mockery of the Father when he says he is just and that he demands perfect obedience. If UOJ is correct then it makes God a liar.
Now if UOJ adherents declare that Christ paid for all of my sins such that God the Father was able to declare me forgiven of all sins, righteous and justified then why do I now need to believe it. I now have the righteousness that God demands and have no further need for Christ the Law or the Gospel. To now demand that I need to believe it by faith, worked by the Holy Ghost, means you've turned God's grace into law.
But faith is not required and I am destined for heaven because I am as white as snow in God's eyes. That is if Christ truly did make full satisfaction for my sins. I won't play devil's advocate for that one though. You can see where this goes.
God's truth is that just like Abraham our faith does not lay hold of forgiveness as an accomplished fact but lays hold of the promise. The promise of forgiveness, righteousness and justification through faith. Faith in Christ's perfect payment, making satisfaction for our sins, worked by the Holy Ghost. Galatians 3:7 "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Galatians 3:8, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Romans 4:3, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Romans 4:16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all," Galatians 3:14, "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
The Lord's will be done,
Brett Meyer
