Plantinga Ch. 4

Redemption. This is the subject of the fourth chapter of Neil Plantinga's sometimes tedious manuscript Engaging God's World. Redemption is the process by which the elect are restored to God's favor through Jesus. Plantinga goes on to mention the many aspects of redemption, particularly the charge that we are given as redeemed.

As redeemed creatures, we have been given a charge. This famous charge has been taken from the end of Matthew, where we are told to go and make disciples of all nations. This is a wonderful command because it indicates several things. Firstly, all nations and all peoples have been saved by God. Secondly, that God has chosen people to be his. This second point has been worded as such due to the line from Ephesians 2 that it is by grace that we have been saved through faith, and that this salvation is a gift of God, it is nothing humans have done. This has caused me to ask many questions, and I would like to pose them here. As Prof. Ribiero said today, answering your own questions sometimes helps you learn that point even better. So with that in mind, why do we even take the time to evangelize, knowing that God's irresistible grace will bring his chosen to him? There are several answers that I can think of. First, Matthew 28 tells us to. Faith without works is dead, and although we can never "repay" our debt of being saved, we show our dedication and gratitude by obeying God. Second, we must take every opportunity to witness, to reform all things, not knowing who God has chosen. Therefore, we must always be conscious that we could be ministering to one of God's elect at any time.

Another thing that I liked from Plantinga's fourth chapter is his explanation of justification. As Plantinga states, justification is God's acceptance of sinners, on account of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. It is truly comforting that although we never can do anything right, it is still acceptable to God. If we think of all the times that we have sinned in the last week or even day, we are very humbled. Yet despite this, we are still able to be redeemed by God. I struggle with the fact that I can be accepted by God, despite all the times that I have sinned and willfully and knowingly disobeyed. It is humbling, and yet a wonderful fact.