"How wonderful to know that Christianity is more than a padded down pew or a dim cathedral, but it is a real, living, daily experience which goes on from grace to grace."
Jim Elliot
I've been going through Galatians with each of the Bible Studies I lead through StudentLife and the theme of justification by faith alone pervades each study. But what a delicate balance it is! It is easy to look at stringent religious organisations and judge that they are trying to earn salvation by their efforts. But what about my heart?
In Romans 9:31-32 Paul explains that "Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works..."
Here we see that legalism is not defined by mere obedience but by the value the subject places on obedience. It makes me wonder if I obey God because I believe (in some small, unconscious area of my heart) that my salvation hinges on personal effort or if I obey in faith.
That raises the question; How do I obey in faith? I think we must first look at what we are to have faith in. The answer is Christ. We believe that God is faithful to keep his covenant with Abraham, we believe that the seed from which Abraham has many descendants is Christ (see Galatians 3) and we are included in the covenant that God makes with His people saying that He has wiped away our sins and forgiven our iniquities (See Hebrews 10).
I think we often forget how much of an impact perspective has in our walk with the Lord. If I don't have faith, I am unable to participate in the freedom of the Christian life. I begin to have faith in myself, which is no faith at all. And then I wonder why my walk with the Lord is so up and down. It's because I'm trying to live the Christian life in my own strength as opposed to by faith in God's grace.
But when I walk by faith I can see my life characterised by grace. I cannot keep myself from sinful thoughts, but He can. I cannot keep myself from reacting out of anger, jealousy, or pride, but He can. So I cling to Him, when I feel like a failure and I make much of Him when there is fruit.
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jer 31:33)
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."
(Hebrews 10:19-23 ESV)
Dear Ashley,
ReplyDeleteIs Half of The Story Sufficient For Salvation?
How many sides are there to a story? If you say two, then you are wrong. If you had one side and I had one side that would make two sides. However, there is a third side, the side of truth.
Rule # 1... One half of truth does not a truth make. Neither does one half of a story make the full story.
No intelligent person can hear one side of a story and decide which side has the truth.
Both sides have to be heard, then analysed, and then a decision has to be made as to which side (if either) has a valid story, and after that, the right side(s), or truth side, can be determined.
This thinking holds true for discerning what Holy Scripture tells us.
Throughout the Bible there are double standards, yet the fundamentalist thinking shows only one standard, or one side of the story, or only one half of the truth.
Their thinking is in violation of rule # 1. With only one half of truth, you do not have truth. Anything less than the whole truth is error.
In the following examples, side 'A' is the first side, side 'B' is the second, and side 'C' is the right, or truth side.
Example # 2... Sola Fides... Saved by faith alone. The fundamentalist believes he is assured of salvation. All he has to do is to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savior and salvation is automatic and irrevocable no matter what he does for the rest of his life.
Oh Yeah? What happened to the ten commandments?
A. Many verses in Scripture attest to salvation by faith alone. Joel 2:32, "...that every one that shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Acts 2:21 says the same almost word for word, and likewise for Rom 10:13. "...I live in the faith of the Son of GOD...", is from Gal 2:20. Again, these are beautiful words that should be heeded by all.
B. However, elsewhere in Scripture there is quite a different side of the story. Start with Mt 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in Heaven shall enter the kingdom of Heaven."
It is very clear that you have to do the will of the Father to gain salvation. I like 1Cor 10:12, "...let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
That one says you cannot be guaranteed of salvation. Then James 2:14-26 says over and over, "...Faith too without works is dead...Faith without works is useless...so Faith also without works is dead." Again, words to be heeded by all.
C. So what is the answer to this dilemma? Is this one of those Bible 'conflicts' you keep hearing about? No, not at all. The answer is very simple.
There are two types of salvation, 'objective salvation', and 'subjective salvation'.
The verses in 'A' are examples of objective salvation. Jesus Christ did atone for all of our sins, past, present and future.
He did His part and did it well, but He left the burden upon each one of us to complete the second side of the story by atoning for our own sins, by doing the will of the Father.
We have to keep the commandments. We have to practice 'subjective salvation'. There is no salvation by accepting only part of Scripture as shown in 'A', and by rejecting, or trying to explain away the verses in 'B'.
Yet this is what some non-Catholics are doing. Again, we have to combine 'A', and 'B', to have the full truth.
A+B=C = TRUTH.
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteThe gospel you are preaching is a different gospel to that the Bible preaches, not only in Pauline terms, but red letter also. Jesus taught justification by faith alone through grace alone as clearly as Paul taught it. Though He may not use those exact terms or mention the concept as frequently, the free nature of the gospel is clear in Jesus' teaching, both implicitly and explicitly.
Firstly implicitly. The implicit nature of salvation being given to us freely through no merit of our own is clear implicitly in Jesus' teaching in at least 3 ways:
-'blessed are the poor in spirit'(Matthew 5), these were some of the first words of Jesus recorded. They serve as an early suggestion that salvation belongs, not to those who can summon the ability in their own power to overcome sin, but to those who know they are completely bankrupt before God.
-'it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all'(John 6). Why would Jesus teach salvation belonged to those who were able to conform themselves to the requirement of the law before it was granted if He also stated clearly the flesh was of no assistance.
-'you do not believe because you are not part of my flock'-Jesus clearly taught the doctrine of pre-destination (God choosing those to whom he would grant faith, clearly taught in the just quoted verse and in other places also (the elect for example in Matthew 24)). If salvation had anything to do with the works we do to earn it the doctrine of election and pre-destination would not work. Like it says in Romans 9 and like Jesus said himself, He chooses us, we don't choose him.
On next post explicitly how salvation is by grace alone through faith alone through Jesus alone:
Secondly explicitly
ReplyDelete-Luke 18:9-13. The gospel by grace alone through faith alone in the atoning mercy of Christ is clear in the tax collectors prayer that Jesus uses in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee at the temple. The word here for 'be merciful' is hilaskomahee, or literally 'be propitious'. Paul uses the same concept of propitiation in Romans 3:25 with the same Greek word in a different form. Jesus taught that the man who did not bring his works before God as a means to salvation, but put his trust alone in the mercy of God, was the one who was justified. Your teaching is completely contrary to this and risks becoming, not only like the Pharisee's prayer, but also like the plea of those in Matthew 7:21
-Matthew 7:21. It is a common occurrence for people to use this verse to support the teaching that you espouse but this verse is in fact teaching contrary to your interpretation. Jesus is not teaching a works-based righteousness, but the opposite. His warning is to those, like yourself, who would bring their works to the table of salvation, expecting them to be sufficient to justify themselves before God. 'did we not do all these things in your name?', they were coming before the Lord expecting their works to be of aid in meriting salvation. This is heretical. Their plea before God in fact looks like a new covenant mirror of the Pharisee's prayer in Luke 18 and moreover, is the kind of attitude that results in condemnation. Thus doing the will of the Father is not a reference to earning our righteousness through our works of obedience, for that is not God's will for us, (by works of the law no man is justified-Romans 3:20, Galatians 2:16 and Galatians 3:10) but when you link it with John 6, his will and his work for us is to believe in the one whom He has sent(John 6:29). When we believe we are born again, and when we believe in this way (a way that saves us), we will continue to believe(1 Corinthians 15:1-5), and as we continue to believe, we will be sanctified(Galatians 3).
Please repent of your false teaching-works on our part are a fruit of salvation, not its cause, Jesus said that if you make the tree good its fruit will be good (Matthew 12), the only way to be made good is through a heart transplant, which can only happen through the blood of Christ, not white-knuckled self-righteous religion. Don't continue on trusting in your works as a way to merit the salvation of God, you cannot atone for your sin, only the blood of Christ can! The only way you get access to that blood is not through earning it but through giving up and trusting it to be sufficient for everything you need before God for atonement (Luke 18:9-13, Romans 3:25). Revelation says we overcome the devil through the word of our testimony and the blood of the lamb, not through our ability to kill our sin in our own strength!
I love you, repent, give up and trust in the blood of Christ alone, it will not fail you.