Talk:KCU/04/The Gs

Instructor Feedback on First Draft

As a first draft, this contribution falls short. (This would not pass if submitted for the final draft.) You do have some good starting points in the biblical evidence you found.

Things to work on:

1. Actually write paragraphs that expand on what the biblical evidence means (this should be done in conjunction with steps 3 & 4 below)

2. Bring in more dialog partners from extra research & incorporate them into your paragraph discussions

3. Look up more of the biblical evidence

4. Look up technical commentaries on the biblical evidence: e.g., commentaries from the NIV Application Commentary Series, the Word Biblical Commentary Series, the New International Commentary on the New Testament Series, &/or the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series.

If you are able to get your hands on these resources, I believe they would help you greatly (more than many other resources you could find, though I am sure there are other excellent ones as well):

Salvation: Understanding Biblical Themes By: Joel B. Green Chalice Press / Paperback

By Faith Alone: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification By: Gary L.W. Johnson, Guy Prentiss Waters Crossway Books & Bibles / 2007 / Paperback

Rereading Paul Together: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification By: David E. Aune Baker / 2005 / Paperback

Justification: What's at Stake in the Current Debates By: Mark Husbands, Daniel J. Treier Inter-varsity Press / 2004 / Paperback

(I found them by just doing a quick key word searches on salvaton & justification on the website of Christianbook.com & quickly evaluating which resources seem most promising based on what I know about the topic & the authors of the resources)

If KCU's library has one or more of these books, be sure to look them up. If not, see if they can get the books to you through interlibrary loan quickly.

Here's some resources that may be helpful:

http://www.the-highway.com/faithandworks_Machen.html

http://www.the-highway.com/articleJan98.html

http://www.the-highway.com/Justification_Packer.html

http://www.the-highway.com/Justification-Armstrong.html

http://www.the-highway.com/Justification-Gerstner.html

http://www.fisheaters.com/solafide.html

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aiia/james2-24.html

http://home.inreach.com/bstanley/works.htm

http://www.justthetruth.net/Can%20I%20Fall%20From%20Grace.htm

http://www.preparingforeternity.com/grace.htm

http://www.jefflindsay.com/faith_works.html

http://www.soundofgrace.com/mar99/murrell.htm

http://www.founders.org/FJ59/contents.html

Here's an excellent, relevant forum contribution from one of the students in my Ethics online class (Nancy Gainer), which can be a dialog partner for you. The perspective would favor saved by grace (vs. works):

There was a pastor once in the 1980’s that had a strong opinion on the recovery movement, which was becoming popular in his church. He thought that the people were getting off too lightly, because they were free moral agents and responsible for their sin, and he didn’t think that they had been powerless to control their alcoholism. As Dr. Henry Cloud states, this is only partly true. The Bible does say that we are responsible and accountable for our sin. It is our problem and no one else’s. But the Bible gives another message more devastating and convicting. The Bible says not only that we are responsible for our sin, but also that we are powerless to keep from sinning. This is very profound: we cannot change, and we are held responsible for not being able to change. Does anyone need a Savior? (Cloud & Townsend, 2001).

I have been as guilty as anyone for judging someone, who states that (1) they are helpless to control their urges, because they were born that way. Another one that really bothers me, (2) I am not responsible because my parents didn’t do their job in raising me and it is their fault I am the way I am. According to the Bible, we are all held accountable for our individual problems, and we cannot change ourselves once we are in them. In short, we are in prison, or as the Bible states, we are “slaves to sin”. It is no one else’s responsibility but ours for our problems.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3: 9-18 that if man were free to perfectly choose obedience, then someone other that Christ could have lived a sinless life and escaped judgment based on human merit. The command to obey all of the Law or be cursed proves that those who are under the Law are cursed, as Paul teaches in Galatians 3. Logically, then, if people had the ability to obey the Law perfectly, then it would not follow that being under the Law insured that they would be cursed. But Paul said that it did. This provides a fatal counterexample to any universal claim that responsibility implies we have the ability on our own to change our lives (DeWaay, 2005). Martin Luther’s position is that all fallen sinners are in bondage to their own sin so much so that they will not submit to God without a prior sovereign work of God’s grace. This became what is known as Luther’s doctrine of “grace alone” (DeWaay, 2005). We are all only saved by the grace of God and not by anything we do ourselves. In Second Corinthians 12:9, Jesus says that in all of our burdens and trials, His grace is sufficient for us; His strength is made perfect in our weakness. We can accomplish anything through the grace of God and His Son Jesus Christ.

While the law and all our versions of it cannot help bring us out of our bondage to sin, Jesus can. He replaced living by the law with living by the Spirit. This means that to live according to a relationship and a process that empowers us, we need to get back to a dependency on God. To change the areas we cannot change, we first have to admit to them (confession) and admit we are unable to change them by ourselves (poverty of spirit). Then we have to be set free by establishing a relationship with Him, which takes care of the guilt and condemnation of the law (forgiveness). Then there must be a change of mind and a change of direction about the seriousness of the sin (repentance). Winning the war over sin included the entire growth process itself as we live the life the Spirit provides. Significant problems like addiction and other patterns of behavior do not give way to simple formulas such as “that is sin. I won’t do it anymore”. To achieve victory we need to change fully in all of life as we commit to the life of the Spirit (Cloud & Townsend, 2001).

I have never read the 12 Steps before, and they make a powerful statement about our powerlessness and dependence on God for His assistance in conquering our problems. This Twelve - Step program, as I see it, can apply to anything in our life and not just addiction. What a powerful tool to have to work with!

In the book, Total Forgiveness, we are reminded that in Matthew 5:7 we need to be merciful for then we shall be shown mercy. We should be gracious to others and not judge them. We don’t know what struggles they are dealing with, and our mercy toward them may make the world of difference in their life that they need to persevere. Jesus is not telling us to ignore what is wrong, when he says not to judge others, but to not administer unfair or unjustified criticism. There is one acrostic in the book that I found helpful and powerful and I would like to share it with you. When speaking to or about another person, ask yourself if what you are about to say will meet their NEED:

Necessary – Is it necessary to say this?

Encourage – Will this encourage them? Will it make them feel better?

Edify – Will it edify? Will what you say build them up and make them stronger?

Dignify – Will it dignify that person? Jesus treated other people with a sense of dignity"" (Kendall, 2002, p. 96).

One small bit of advice I am going to leave you with is as much for myself to follow as to help you with your every day walk, and that is to forgive yourself, because God already has.

Here's another useful forum contribution on your topic, by a student in the Christian Heritage online course (Erika Simpson) that you may find helpful as a dialog partner:

I believe that the Bible is very clear that grace is the instrument by which we are saved, just as faith in God is what allows us to accept salvation. I will have to agree with Mark Black that works are not a requirement or basis for salvation, but instead a sign of salvation (1). Some religions believe that good works are a basis for salvation or that grace must be earned; however, this is not biblical.

God’s word communicates that our works cannot save us; they cannot get us into heaven. The apostle Paul writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). I agree with J. Gresham Machen when he states that Paul argues that man is “justified by faith alone” (2). Machen also goes on to explain the position of the “Judaizers” who disagreed with this point:

What the Judaizers said was not that a man is justified by works, but that he is justified by faith and works — exactly the thing that is being taught by the Roman Catholic Church today. No doubt they admitted that it was necessary for a man to have faith in Christ in order to be saved: but they held that it was also necessary for him to keep the law the best he could; salvation, according to them, was not by faith alone and not by works alone but by faith and works together (2).

Many Catholics argue that salvation comes by faith and works together because of the verse found in James 2:24, which says “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” I am afraid that these people are not considering the whole context of the chapter, which explains that faith must be accompanied by deeds or it is worthless. God tests our faith by commanding us to do good deeds, even when it is difficult or against our nature. The chapter closes with these words: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 5:26). As addressed by D. James Kennedy, “...James is dealing with people who profess to be Christians, and yet they don't evidence the reality of their faith by their works [deeds]… James is saying that real faith always produces works as a result” (3). We must be very careful to properly interpret scripture so that we do not become confused. We must look at the setting, the speaker, the audience and other factors involved to get the most relevant information out of scripture.

In conclusion, the Bible says unmistakably that we can do nothing to earn God’s grace, because it is a gift. 2 Timothy 1:9 states that God has called us to a holy life “not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace”. Paul writes in Romans 5:15, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” Romans 3:28 does a great job of summarizing the issue. It reads, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."

1. Mark Black. Theology Matters. p. 110

2. J. Gresham Machen. “Faith and works.” <www.the-highway.com/faithandworks_Machen.html>

3. D. James Kennedy in “Irreconcilable Differences,” a roundtable discussion and television broadcast, Ft. Lauderdale FL, 1995. <www.christiananswers.net/q-aiia/james2-24.html>