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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Do Jesus and Paul agree on salv by faith | NT general Archive 1 | reilly1041 | 81149 | ||
I am a relatively new Bible reader and one big question keeps hitting me -- I see a difference between Jesus' words on heaven and Paul's. Let me explain... Paul says "If you confess w/your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9, TLB) And also, "For it is by grace you have been saved thru faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works..." (Eph 2:8, NKJV) But I don't see Jesus talking that way in the gospels. For example, in Mt 7:21, Jesus said that "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. they may refer to me as Lord, but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Fathers in heaven". And again, in Mt 5:22, He says "if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell". See also Luke 12:35-49, where He discusses being prepared about his coming. If the servant isn't behaving well, the master will tear the servant apart and banish him. These statements of Jesus seem to indicate that much more than simply announcing and believing in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God is required for the Kingdom of Heaven. He clearly states that the key issue is whether you obey his Father in heaven. Is this to be interpreted as living a good life, following the commandments, etc., as additional requirements for heaven? Does that jive w/Paul's statements? Note that it's not that I'm against trying to live a good, holy life, but this seems to lead down the road of salvation by faith-and-works. Please help me understand this better, because my life was changed by Eph 2:8-9, but this is confusing me. Thanks! |
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2 | Do Jesus and Paul agree on salv by faith | NT general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 81150 | ||
PartI Reilly, You should get a variety of response here. I will give you my own answer which will not be the mainstream opinion on this forum, but it will give you one perspective among others. This will take several parts to submit. "Justification and Salvation Are you saved? If you live in America and if you ever engage in discussions of life, death and the meaning of it all, you either have been or will be asked this question. A legitimate response is: What do you mean by saved, how is one saved and what do I have to do to be saved? Usually when the question has been posed as: Are you saved? The question is coming from an Evangelical Protestant Christian and the answer the questioner will supply is: "If you confess with you lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Rom.10: 9) You are invited to ask Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior. This is the "Faith Alone" doctrine of justification or salvation that is one of the two pillars of Protestant Reformation doctrine, and it's proponents will back it up with a series of scripture verses in the same vein. For example; "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law," (Rom. 3: 28); "…a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified," (Gal. 2:16). So, are we saved by "faith alone"? Or is there more to the Christian understanding of the justification of sinners before God and our salvation through, with and in Christ Jesus? How are we saved? The Catholic belief is that if we are saved by anything "alone ", it is by grace alone, since it is only by God's grace that we even have the gift of faith. But we are not saved by faith alone. Catholics believe that we are justified by "faith working through love." (Gal. 5:6). It is useful to note that the only place where the phrase "faith alone" is found in scripture is James 2:24, which states: "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." And two verses later: "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." How do we deal with this apparent conflict between St. Paul and St. James, since we believe that both were writing under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit? The solution to the problem lies in looking at all of these passages in their full context and indeed in the context of the complete body of Sacred Scripture. Paul never says that we are saved by faith alone, although he does say we are saved by "faith, apart from works of the law." James never says that we are saved by works alone, without faith much less "works of the law," but he does say we are justified "by works and not by faith alone." Paul and James are not talking about different kinds of faith. We know this because they are both writing about faith using Abraham's faith as an example. A closer look at "works of the law" and works in general seems appropriate." © Emmaus Road Disciples |
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3 | Do Jesus and Paul agree on salv by faith | NT general Archive 1 | ::LatterRain:: | 81163 | ||
A closer look at "works of the law" and works in general seems appropriate." ------------------------------ Very interesting. Thank you for sparking this diversity between "works of the law" and works in general. |
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