THANKS MUCH. May not get to it until tomorrow.
Bless you and yours.
AMEN!
The author almost has it, but slips at the very end.
Verses which tell us we are saved by faith alone, lest any man should boast are also true with verses which tell us faith without works is dead.
The author is correct to point out that when an apparent contradiction exists, but through faith in Christ we have a friendly check and balance upon our thinking processes. Our past scarred thinking processes in our mind and soul, are evidenced in the outpouring of our heart. Whenever we think we see a contradiction in Scripture, our first response is to place the issue in God’s hands, let Him provide for us and if in His Will, grace us with the understanding He has intended.
BTW, this might not always be a painless process, but where we suffer it is due to our past sin rather than by His harm. Divine discipline might be in order, but it due to His love for us that He corrects us.
WRT faith and works associated with salvation, there are definite doctrines developed by many denominations which approach the issue from different directions.
The Catholic perspective recognizes salvation is spoken of in three tenses. One regards initial salvation associated with saving the believer from a judgment condemning the believer to the Lake of Fire eternally.
Other passages speak of working out our salvation, an ongoing process by which the believer is saved from many consequences of sin.
A third version is of perseverence which saves us from losing many crowns predestined for us in eternity past.
Other denominations might also discuss these doctrines but from building upon a slightly different ordering of verses and topical names of doctrines. Many Protestant doctrines look at the same verses with respect to initial saving faith, confession and justification, forgiveness and sanctification.
Upon initial salvation, when the believer receives the regenerated human spirit, the believer has eternal life. He is also sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Post salvation sin occurs, but this doesn’t remove the human spirit from the believer, rather it moves the believer out of fellowship with God. The believer still will not go into the Lake of Fire because he is part of the Royal Family of God, regardless if the degenerate believer wants that or not.
The degenerate believer, out of fellowship doesn;t get away with something by post salvation sin, rather he fails to be in the right place at the right time to perform by God’s Plan and leaves a crown predestined for him, sitting on the shelf eternally in heaven.
A believer sinning after salvation doesn’t result in the believer being sent to the Lake of Fire, nor is it proof that the initial saving faith was insufficient for God to recognize it for initial salvation to regenerate the human spirit, it merely manifests the believer slid back into temptation, not exercising proper faith at the time of his decision to sin.