Posted on 07/23/2014 9:24:10 AM PDT by xzins
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."
After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.
Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables.
[Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.]
If we refrain from sinning because we are afraid of the fires of Hell, that is acceptable to God. Not optimal, perhaps, but acceptable.
I’ve used this comparison: Imagine Islam is a dad named Allah and his child named Achmed and Christianity is a dad named Jehova and a child named Joey.
Allah tells Achmed to clean up his room. Jehova tells Joey to clean up his room. Achmed cleans up his room because he’s scared that if he doesn’t he will be written out of the will. Joey cleans up his room because he loves his dad and wants to please him. And he knows that whether he cleans up his room or not he is still in the will. He is free to do it out of love.
This is Christianity.
Not to anyone who has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and understands it’s affect on one’s life. The desire to help others is one of the results.
>>it is because you are saved that you should be impelled to do good works and, moreover, if you are saved then there will be fruit from it.<<
Not one truly saved person would disagree with you. How about let’s focus on the salvation and let the Holy Spirit work in a person’s life rather than carnally focus on the works? So called good deeds and “good works” are done even by unbelievers.
“This is Christianity.”
That’s pretty narrow. God is more generous than that.
Grace, therefore, must be about a different way of being righteous that has nothing to do with me. It’s a righteousness that’s given to me as a gift. That must mean that I continually get it without deserving it. In fact, it means that I continually am granted grace even though my behavior is continually saying I don’t deserve it.
***
That idea, together with Ephesians 2:8 is how I justify compassion, rather than contempt or judgment, for those who do not (yet) believe as I do...
I was being brief. :-)
I can see that, NCLaw441.
I do make one important caveat, though. We cannot redefine sin as non-sin, thereby living by a new-age legalistic code. My Methodist conference has a bishop's treasurer who is an MSM (male sex male) homosexual and living in an open MSM homosexual relationship with another male. The conference does him a grave injustice letting him think that is just fine. It isn't fine. It is defined by God as sin...it is harmful, deadly, physically, socially, and spiritually.
It's one thing to struggle with sin acknowledged as sin, and entirely something different to simply say God is wrong and that what you're doing is just fine.
That to me is living by a redefined legal code and not living by faith in Jesus trusting in the grace of God to rid you of your sin.
I can see that, NCLaw441.
I do make one important caveat, though. We cannot redefine sin as non-sin, thereby living by a new-age legalistic code. My Methodist conference has a bishop's treasurer who is an MSM (male sex male) homosexual and living in an open MSM homosexual relationship with another male. The conference does him a grave injustice letting him think that is just fine. It isn't fine. It is defined by God as sin...it is harmful, deadly, physically, socially, and spiritually.
It's one thing to struggle with sin acknowledged as sin, and entirely something different to simply say God is wrong and that what you're doing is just fine.
That to me is living by a redefined legal code and not living by faith in Jesus trusting in the grace of God to rid you of your sin.
ping to #47
Outstanding point.
We ALL struggle with sin to varying degrees, but hopefully we can be honest enough to realize that it's sinful even if we are willfully engaging in it.
Moral relativism is, in my opinion, Satan's main force of evil in the western world today. Pope Benedict XVI condemned it as the "dictatorship of relativism" and that is certainly what we are seeing with the authoritarian imposition of things like same-sex "marriage" and other travesties that were unthinkable just a generation ago. C.S. Lewis stated it perfectly when he wrote, "If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all."
Unfortunately, relativism is even beginning to infiltrate the conservative movement through the writings of Ayn Rand (who DESPISED Lewis and Christianity in general) and we are in real danger of America falling into the same abyss that Europe has.
I certainly agree with you that sin is sin, and I believe that homosexual acts are sinful. But, I believe that because of my faith. I guess others may have differing faith, or none at all.
If we refrain from sinning because we are afraid of the fires of Hell, that is acceptable to God. Not optimal, perhaps, but acceptable.Then why did Jesus talk about Hell so much?
I disagree pretty strongly. In fact, I think if I am trying to do better because I’m afraid I’m losing my salvation, I’m sinning in that very attitude. It is not by works...
I’ve used this comparison: Imagine Islam is a dad named Allah and his child named Achmed and Christianity is a dad named Jehova and a child named Joey.
Allah tells Achmed to clean up his room. Jehova tells Joey to clean up his room. Achmed cleans up his room because he’s scared that if he doesn’t he will be written out of the will. Joey cleans up his room because he loves his dad and wants to please him. And he knows that whether he cleans up his room or not he is still in the will. He is free to do it out of love.
This is Christianity.
Then why did Jesus talk about Hell so much?
Because He offered an alternative to death - life eternal. He offered a better way through Grace.
There seems to be a belief in Christian circles today that God confers grace upon us and, no matter how we act or behave, it's simply OK because we are all sinners saved by grace. But God confers grace upon us so that we strive to grow in holiness towards Him. An interesting passage among others in the Old Testament is the following:
Every Christian seem to know this but they don't seem to understand that the only way fellowship with the Father is possible is through sanctifying ourselves through His word, prayer, and humility (among other things) so we can draw near. God sits out there wanting to have fellowship, yet our sinful and selfish behavior prevents us from having the communion God really desires.
There is a stigma of any discussion on trying to be holy these days thinking it is works oriented or that one might seem too pious. But those who believe they can live just like they want and are simply saved by grace should reexamine themselves to see if they are in the faith. They really have no desire to commune with God. There is no desire to submit to God will for their lives, perfect as His plan is for us. A person who has no desire to want to give up their sinful behavior or even grow in their faith cannot draw closer to God nor does it indicate a changed heart.
Christians should not only want but desire to be sanctified. It is through that process we draw closer to God. It is a desire given to us by God to want to seek Him and to grow in Him, leaving behind our natural man so that we can approach the holiness of God. It's just the way it is.
My belief is that we are sanctified through the blood of Christ, who paid the price for our sin, and that allows us to be in the presence of God.
We are saved by the blood of Christ. We do come to the presence of God through Christ our Lord. That doesn’t negate our requirement to look to see that we are in the faith and not in some rebellious state or that our hearts are not deceiving us into thinking we are in fellowship. We are to put off the old nature.
Eph 4 gives a list of things to do to grow in Christ.
I could not agree more. Living a Christ-filled life is how we can maintain our assurance of salvation, and help fulfill our part of the Great Commission.
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