“Sin a little or sin a lot, it doesn’t matter”
Rev. Langerak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI7u-NX_zuY&t=5230s Communion’s Difference from Mass Jan 30, 2022
C. 1 hr min 21:12 “It simply doesn’t matter for our salvation whether we sin a lot or we sin a little. Whether you obey a lot or you obey a little that’s not the issue. The issue is Christ. I know if you have Christ you’re not going to run roughshod over God’s law. And I know if you have Christ you’ll be sorry for your sins. But what you do is not the issue, Christ is the issue and what Christ did, that’s the only ground and foundation of our salvation.”
Apparently, our sins do not grieve God? By them we do not incur a deadly guilt? We do according to Canon 5, articles 4&5.
Also, it is unclear to say that what we do does not matter ‘for our salvation’. Because, if Langerak means ‘for our justification’, he would be correct. However, our salvation is not summed up in only justification.
Furthermore, it is patently false to say, “I know you will not run roughshod over God’s law”. It is false because we do have an old man of sin, and we will run roughshod. We are not so free from sin that we will have obedience arise unsummoned from within ourselves.
Langerak contradicts himself
This statement, ‘I know you will not run roughshod’ also contradicts his own teaching that the regenerated man remains totally depraved and unaffected by grace in this life, (see below). Our obedience is a willing obedience, but it is not automatic.
He says that he knows his listeners will live ‘right’, but how does he know this for sure? Is this revealed to him? But both David and Peter did run roughshod over God’s law, as did the nation of Israel so often.
“The law is a weak and beggarly thing” ~NL, RP Family Conference (8/18/22)
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”. ~ Ps. 19: 7-8.
Rev Langerak says that regeneration leaves us unaffected concerning our activity
Rev. Langerak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dnbR2FvKH0 The Believer’s Internal Warfare 12/12/2021
C. min 36:35 “the child of God is regenerated in his deepest being; he’s not regenerated at a superficial level, he’s not regenerated at the, at the point of his activity”. NL sounds like Whitten.
He goes on to say that outward change is not regeneration; and it’s agreed that mere outward change is not itself regeneration. But the outward change of life is the result of regeneration, it is the evidence of regeneration. If regeneration does not result in outward change, then what is the work of the Spirit? Is it only to affirm us as legally ‘saved’ while we continue in indifference to our sins?
But the HC QA 103 states in the second part of its answer concerning our keeping of the Sabbath, “that all the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in me: and thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath.”.
More ‘What you do does not matter’
Rev. Langerak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDtt_6bNyfI The Sending of God’s Son 7/17/2022 pm
Rev. Langerak continues, “[Christ is] a bright light in a dark night, a fresh breeze on a stifling day … liberty from bondage to the law, and he enlightens our eyes and he refreshes our souls that’s the gospel. The gospel has nothing to do with what you do, …”
Indeed, the Bible teaches, and the PRC still affirms that what we do has nothing to add to, or for, our justification. But the Bible certainly teaches that Christ’s work in you has everything to do with what you do. That’s sanctification. Langerak truncates the gospel.
No law or external code for the preacher?
Rev. NL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDtt_6bNyfI The Sending of God’s Son 7/17/2022 pm
C. 1 hr. min 25.56 to the end of the sermon, “… to tell the church that she must worship God in this specific way which is to withhold Christ from the people of God … as we are facing … when they told me ‘it’s sinful for you to write in the Sword and Shield’, they denied Christ. I’m not under law, I’m under grace and that’s true of the whole life of the child of God. We are not under law, our life isn’t regulated by an external code, our life arises up spontaneously out of our hearts as the delight of our heart, we want to love God, we want to not sin, that’s what Christ earned. That’s what his righteousness gives you.”
The Bible does not teach spontaneous obedience nor automatic good works that arise unsummoned in the believer. They supply no proof text for this idea. ‘Under grace’ has never meant ‘no external code’ guiding our life.
Finally, I’m not sure why he claims that writing for the S&S is the same as worship. And, very likely the facts are a bit altered from the reality of what his consistory actually told him. Don’t forget, he tells us his side of the story.
