The following "Question" was asked by an attendee at the 2005 Shepherds' Conference (a ministry of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California), and was "Answered" by John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from "General Session #10 John MacArthur - Q&A."  A copy of the CD, cassette tape, or MP3 can be obtained by going to:  www.shepherdsconference.org  ©2005. All Rights Reserved. Grace Community Church.

Questioner

I have a couple of verses that I struggle with; first one’s John 5:29, Jesus says, “And will come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”  And then the other one is Romans 2:13, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law who are justified.”  I’ve just struggled at times to try to understand those in light of, like what R. C. Sproul talked about last night, justification by faith alone.  How do you teach this?

John MacArthur's Answer

Well, the simple answer to that is understanding justification by faith alone, as R. C. explained it, is critical to salvation, but that’s not all there is.  There are more elements of salvation than the forensic element.  The forensic element is God’s declaration.  There is also the fact that we experience, not just a forensic declaration of imputed righteousness to our account that comes from Christ, but we also are actually changed—this is the doctrine of regeneration.  I mean, there are a number of facets—justification is one thing, redemption is something else (another way to look at that), adoption is something else (another aspect of that)—but when you get into the inherent, intrinsic change, you get into the new creation, the new birth; you get into doctrines of conversion and regeneration; now you’re talking about the fact that there is a real change.  Of course, that’s what R. C. was saying at the very end of his message last night.  It’s not enough simply to believe things are true.  It’s not enough to just have faith in a doctrine or trust in a doctrine.  You must demonstrate the kind of trust in Christ himself that brings about, by the work of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, which then gives you a new disposition and a new nature and a new direction. 

Of course, that’s the whole point of the second chapter of James, isn’t it?  Or of Romans six: “You were slaves of sin; now you’ve become slaves of righteousness.”  You were altered from one form of doctrine to another, and you were transferred from one kind of servitude to another kind of servitude.  John says it in a very black-and-white way, when he says, “Whoever is born of God doesn’t sin.”  It’s that simple.  It doesn’t mean you never sin; he means that there is a basic, internal, dramatic alteration of who you are: a new disposition with new loves and new longings and new direction and all of that.  It is not any longer the unbroken, uninterrupted pattern of sin. 

So, you can evaluate, according to James, someone’s regeneration based upon their life.  You could interpret John 5, where Jesus says, as you noted, “Those who have done good”—the real good is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—“they go to the resurrection of life.  Those who have done evil”—the real evil that Jesus may be directing their attention to is the rejection of himself—“to the resurrection of damnation.”  The right thing to do is to believe in Christ; the wrong thing to do is to reject Jesus Christ.  That could be inherent in that text, contextually.  But even beyond that, in the end, every person can be known by his works.  I mean, Jesus said, in that same Sermon on the Mount we were talking about, “By their fruits, you shall know them.” And you cannot verify the salvation apart from righteous conduct.  That’s all that’s saying, and, in the end, your works do testify to regeneration. 

The little thing was, it’s not the works—you’re not saved by works—but you’re saved unto good works (Ephesians 2:10 “Saved unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”).  It is just as much in the sovereign preordination, predestination, and election of God that we be regenerated, as it is that we be justified.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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