Thanks for posting that.
Excellent points all.
But, I would personally emphasize what Jesus stated in John 6:28, 29: “THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD - that you BELIEVE in Him whom He sent.” IMHO, one of the biggest periods in scripture, though not in the Greek which had no punctuation.
The reality emphasized in Point 1 is only a result of vs. 29 being first a reality in experience. All works that are not out of faith (”obedience of faith”, Romans - Paul) are dead works.
Only works that are out of faith, done by the Holy Spirit in and through us, last forever.
2. The only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is through DOING the will of God.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 ESV
“An expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”“What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?”He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.“You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”- Luke 10: 25-28 HCSB
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And when you realize you can’t fulfill it perfectly:
John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Funny, I thought it was Jesus’ teaching on divorce.
“The problem is that a faith that is rooted in the Scripture alone is not sustainable. It will dry up and wither on the vine.”
There are too many verses in the Bible that describe the exact opposite of that statement— makes the whole essay suspect. I guess I’m supposed to substitute what ever anyone writes for scripture.
#1 No disagreement
#2 Not true. John 3:16 belief in Jesus is enough as witnessed by the thief on the cross. However, if one believes, that belief will cause one to do.
#3 Jesus did not need to condemn the world - that would be redundant as the world is already condemned. That did not stop Jesus from calling out sin.
#4 No disagreement.
1. How do we know Jesus without the Bible? The lesson there is that the scriptures testify to Jesus, and the context was that the Jew were relying on the Law to save them, but the Law points to Jesus. Yes, there is no salvation in the Bible, but the Bible is the only place where salvation is clearly taught. This is a false dichotomy, at best.
2. As pointed out before, John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
3. Jesus condemned the Pharisees on several occasions, calling the sons of satan, a brood of vipers, etc.
4. The ultimate love for our neighbors is not to let them live in their sin, but to point them to Jesus. We have to confront sin.
Jesus, not the Bible, is God’s living and active Word that brings life. That’s accurate, but calls for continuing revelation which few will accept because they know better.
James contrasts compares belief to mere mental accent saying even the demons believe. But demons don’t trust Jesus for their salvation. Faith alone saves. Works can be evidence of faith, but works do not save. Lack of works can be evidence of lack of faith, but not necessarily. For example the thief on the cross or a deathbed confession.
In the end, one worships whom one obeys.
A lot of things in this article come under the category,
“Sounds good until you think about it................”
Another one is Jesus’s strict prohibition of divorce and remarriage, except (in some versions) under very narrow circumstances. The Protestant “scripture only” people are very eager to dismiss or ignore that tough teaching.
Catholics pretending again
Good post!
If you only had the Gospel of John would you be condemned? That Gospel only emphasizes belief that Jesus is our salvation. No works needed, only belief.
If we truly have Jesus and believe in him. We will desire to be more like him. When we are more like him, we will want to do works in his name. It will never make us tolerant of sin but loving of sinners that we wish would do better. We will still say “now go and sin no more.”
I am sorry but this sounds like an attempt to convince me to be more accepting of sinful lifestyles. I reject that and so should you.
When Jesus is alive and real to you, and you have surrendered your will then you are in the right spot.
“The doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) was developed by the Reformers in response to the Roman Catholic Churches corrupted teachings that emerged in the 16th Century teaching that one could gain favor with God and shave off years in Hell and Purgatory by giving money to the church or doing acts of penance.”
Perhaps the author should ‘get it right’ before he uses examples such as this. It’s not a teaching of the Church that you can buy yourself out of hell. Once your in hell, you’re there forever. The selling of indulgences was wrong. The doctrine of indulgences is perfectly sound.
Uhhhh ... what church DOES he go to ?"
I tend to fall into the Sin of Despair because I know I’m lousy at most all of that.
Although the bit about Jesus not condemning — he did condemn, but not much in the eternal sense. There is always hope a soul can repent and convert.