I have enjoyed the thread but I must post on the question of works. Why do protestants demonise them? I open my new testament and every where Jesus opens his mouth, there is a whole stream of "works" flowing from his moth, lol.
Faith without works is dead. And faith without Love is utterly useless. Thats not something made up by SDAs, JWs or anyone. Giving people a false assurance that they are saved
no matter what (the OSAS-Once saved Always saved, belief) just because they made a certain decision
once, is in my view, no better than what prosperity Gospel preachers do. The Bible guarantees no one that they somehow lose their free will once they answer an altar call. That their ability to say "no" to God today disappears just because they said "Yes" yesterday. That happens after death, when we leave this world of choices and the ability to determine our eternal fate, but not a moment before. Until death, we remain as free as Adam was in the garden (when he was perfect) to reject God, and being a Christian never takes that away from us. Which is why Paul was taking care to run his race diligently lest after preaching to others, he himself may be found unworthy of the prize for which he ran. If he, of all people, did not have that assurance, how can christians give themselves this assurance of their own accord?
We are not saved by the works of the Torah, sure. That merely pointed to the way, it was not the way. But this does not mean that
all we are required to do is believe. We still must love, out of our own love for Christ and keep from imorality, and grace--not our own inherent "power" which is non-existent--is what makes this possible. Jesus said many times that people would be sent away in the judgment for failure to do what people call "works" like refusing selfishly to help the hungry or those in need that God sends our way; He made our own forgiveness conditional on how well we ourselves forgive others; He warned of serious consequences for burrying and refusing to use the talents God has given us and told us bluntly that unless our righteousness exceeded that of the Pharisees who diligently followed the Torah, we could not be saved. The Bible says that those who
persevere to the end will be saved and the apostle Paul lists sins that keep one out of heaven. Moreover, he teaches no amount of faith is of ANY value without LOVE which is what matters above all. So the idea that all one needs to do is just match the devils (mere belief)
once in their lives to be saved is unsupportable in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus certainly expects a whole lot more from those who claim him as Lord than mere belief and he is not shy about tieing in their eternal fate to this expectation.
While it is certainly true that no one can
earn even
one iota of their salvation, believers in sola fide also go the other extreme and confuse
freedom with
power. But they forget that even freedom itself is a totally free and unmerited gift, as is our very existence, creation itself. There is
nothing we do or have or are that is not a completely free gift. We are creatures. Of our own being, we are truly nothingness itself that Gods power has turned into something. The use of these gifts does not take away from the fact that they are always free gifts. That is why, no matter what we think we give to God or give for his sake, it will alwas be impossible to match or outgive God. Whatever we give and the very ability and opportunity to give, are all his gifts! Always. Some imagine that salvation being
a relationship between two free wills--the divine and the human--and therefore a matter of co-operation, submission and CHOICE at all times--is somehow a denial of the power of God or somehow a belief in the power of the human to save himself. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
To believe that one can do anything,
even the act of choosing God, or
even believing in Jesus except by the power of God himself, which comes to us in the form of the free gift of grace, is an old heresy rejected by the early church long ago. Its not new. But to reject this false belief by going the other extreme that nothing is required from the human, as if he is a robot, and not a spirit, a child of God, is equally untrue.
Salvation is the sharing of the very life of God by humans, an adoption, the REAL indwelling of the Trinity--an intimate communion with God--in the heart of the believer. No one can buy the "right" to share in God's very life. This is not something anyone can give to himself by performing any action whatsoever. It can only be accepted, appreciated, and co-operated with. But neither does this life impose itself on the soul. God is no rapist. When you tell him you are no longer interested, he will leave. Of course he will never cease trying to win you back, But neither will he ignore the freedom he himself has guaranteed you in this life either. The Bible says nothing can separate us from Gods love. However evil we are, Gods love is always knocking. It never grows tired. But love must be accepted for it to transform the person. Indeed, that gift of life which begins as a seedling once a person makes his profession of faith, requires nurturing, watering, indeed protection and not hindrance, in this life, to grow as Jesus parable of the seed shows, and if it is not thwarted, it will grow to be full and bear much fruit. But if thwarted or neglected, it will die.
Salvation is not a legal decree where God pretends he doesnt "see" your sins because supposedly he has punished Jesus on your behalf. Jesus' death as a sacrifice (and a sacrifice is not the same thing as a punishment) literally did the impossible and
earned the grace by merit of love, one perfect act of love is answered by another, two divine persons, and God pours his love on Jesus and all those united to him via his humanity, which is all human beings. It is that grace that transforms all those who open the doors of their hearts into partakers of the divine life, adoption as God's own children, through union with Jesus, the only-begotten one. Indeed, it will transform even the fallen world into a new creation, on the last day, much as humans are born with a new life in Jesus, simply by virtue of Jesus making himself a citizen of it.
Our sin is not so great that it cannot be overcome so that we despair about our weaknesses and come up with a doctrine that we are immune from the responsibilities that accompany the priviledge of being creatures of free will, something more than animals. Our iniquity is not more powerful than God's love, and God can transform
in actuality--not just pretend by covering our sin over with a blanket but not actually removing--and wash us and fill us with his own holiness. We just have to be OPEN to this, and yes, the ability to be open is, at all times, availed to all of us already as a free gift. Even to those who have never been Christian. Thats why they are able to become Christrian eventually. Why fear then, if Gods help is guaranteed? Thats like when Peter forgot to look at Jesus and started staring at the storm, and therefore forgot to rely on the divine help of Jesus, or even to ask for it, then it was just him and the storm, so the divine help though present did not prevent him from sinking. When he remembered (again, that rememberance is a gift itself, as we cant remind ourselves to seek God if left to our own devices) he did seek the help and found it ready, available. It is not different with salvation. The power is always Gods, but coperation, openness on our part, remain a factor throughout.
