Imagine being able to transport back in time to late 18th century England. And you’re sitting around a table with some of the brightest evangelical minds of the day. Each week one of the ministers proposes a topic and they discuss it together.
You may not be as big of a nerd as I am. I would totally geek out for the opportunity to sit in those rooms and listen to these men discuss Scripture and the pressing issues of their day. That is why one of my favorite books is The Thought of the Evangelical Leaders: Notes of the Discussions of the Eclectic Society London during the Years 1798-1814.
The discussion I read today was proposed by Henry Foster. Foster was studying Philippians 3:8 and believe that most of the commentaries that he was reading were wrong. Foster believed that when Paul spoke of “everything a loss” this included even his works after becoming a believer.
“All our righteousness are but as filthy rags” noted Foster. And he believed Paul was saying that whatever attainments he had—even those produced by the Spirit—were as nothing in the sight of God.
Foster’s View Alive in Our Day
I’ve heard Foster’s view repeated often in our own day. In fact, I would almost be persuaded to argue that his view is the dominant view in more Reformed circles. It is often argued that we are but filthy worms and everything we produce is but filthy rags.
Have you ever heard someone say, “the human heart is an idol factory”? That’s part of a quote from John Calvin:
From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols…Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God.” –John Calvin, Institutes, 1.11.8
But is this an accurate view of the heart and righteous acts of a redeemed person? Is our heart still an idol factory? Is everything we produce as believers still nothing but filthy rags in the sight of God?
An Answer From John Venn
I’ve argued that Calvin’s idol factory is an appropriate image for the unregenerate. But it is not an entirely appropriate illustration for the heart of a believer. We are, as it were, under new ownership. We might still produce idols but it’s now considered a defect. There is a better image. Is Your Heart An Idol Factory?
And I think John Venn’s answer to Foster is also helpful on this point. Venn says,
We must take care not to extend the meaning of this expression, all things, beyond the rest of the passage. There is a material difference between the works wrought before and after justification…He would not use such a degrading expression as dung to describe the works wrought by the Spirit. Since his great end was to attain the power of the Spirit on him, is it likely that he would count the Spirit’s graces, though wrought in him imperfectly, so low? (Eclectic Society, 319)
I think Venn is correct. We need to stop debasing the Spirit’s work in our lives. The Spirit of God within us isn’t producing righteousness that is nothing but filthy rags. It is actually God-honoring works which are being produced by the Spirit in our life.
