Friday, April 26, 2013
Both/And?
Mark Daniels:
And is it not misleading to preach salvation without the results? It's like selling a vacuum cleaner but never showing them how to use it - the house remains dirty and the vacuum cleaner is a really a paper weight
We can argue the theology of salvation by grace all we want - it is a wonderful truth, but it is not the only truth. It is one of many that we must proclaim.
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But, of course, James is not, in these verses, disputing the power of faith--simple trust--in Christ to save.
He is saying that faith is more than simple intellectual assent to the truths taught in the New Testament, such as that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's law and the Old Testament, that He is the "Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world," and that all who follow Jesus alone have life with God forever (John 3:16-18; John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
True faith, James is pointing out, infects the life of those who believe and, as a result, they live differently.The thing that always concerns me is what do we have if we have the intellectual assent, but not the changed lives? Can we lay claim to God's salvation if its effects are not evident? Is it not somehow delusional to do so?
And is it not misleading to preach salvation without the results? It's like selling a vacuum cleaner but never showing them how to use it - the house remains dirty and the vacuum cleaner is a really a paper weight
We can argue the theology of salvation by grace all we want - it is a wonderful truth, but it is not the only truth. It is one of many that we must proclaim.
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