Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Saved by belief or belief and baptism? | NT general Archive 1 | bslinker | 37606 | ||
Believing and faith go hand in hand. Mark 16:16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned" So there HAS to be a belief system inside you to be baptized, otherwise baptism will do you no good. Belief has to come first. The writer above has it correct by quoting Rom 3:28, but on the flip-side of the coin, James 2:24 says EXPLICITLY that "... a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" There is a huge difference between being justified by faith and being justified by faith ALONE. Use this analogy when making a cake for example: You can say that "you can make a cake by using cake mix" which is true. But can you say "you can bake a cake by using cake mix only"? Of course not, you need an oven, flour, water, etc.... to make that cake. But its a true statement that you can make a cake by using cake mix, but its not true to say that you can make a cake by using cake mix only. It cannot be done. I believe we can understand that simple analogy. The same goes for baptism. We are saved by baptism and not by baptism only. We are saved by faith but not by faith only. We are saved by confession (Rom 10:10) but not by confession only. We are saved by repentence (Acts 2:38) but not by repentence only. So its the combination of all these together that saves us. It is correct as the above writer said that its not water that saves us, but it is the obedience to God that does. Think of the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 where Naaman was a leper. He wanted to be healed of his leprosy. He was told by the man of God to go to the Jordan river and dip 7 times to be cleansed. Naaman question that like people question baptism today, "why do I have to be baptized?" why can't I just believe?". Naaman questioned it too! "Whats wrong with the rivers of Damascus?" he asked. But it wasn't til he went to the Jordan River and dipped 7 times that he was cleansed. Was it something in the water? Not at all. It was OBEDIENCE. It was the faith and the belief that cleansed him, not the water. Do you think that he would have cleansed if just dipped once or twice? Not at all, but he did what was asked of him to be cleansed, he obeyed it, and believed that doing what he was told would cleanse him and he it did. I hope this helps in trying to make sense of the "baptism" issue. | ||||||
2 | Saved by belief or belief and baptism? | NT general Archive 1 | Reformer Joe | 37794 | ||
As a courtesy, please try to use paragraphs more. You wrote: 'The writer above has it correct by quoting Rom 3:28, but on the flip-side of the coin, James 2:24 says EXPLICITLY that "... a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" There is a huge difference between being justified by faith and being justified by faith ALONE.' That is what James writes, and Paul writes: 'What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness" --Romans 4:1-5 So we have Paul saying that Abraham is saved through faith APART FROM works, and James saying that Abraham is justified BY his works. How do you reconcile these two passages? I would recommend a book entitled _Righteous Sinners_ by Ron Julian, to examine the dynamic between God's grace, our faith, and our works. He analyzes both Paul's commentary of Abraham and James' commentary of Abraham. --Joe! |
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3 | Saved by belief or belief and baptism? | NT general Archive 1 | bslinker | 37795 | ||
Its a combination of the two. We can go to easily understood passages in James Chapter 2 James 2:20 "But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith WITHOUT works is USELESS?" Then we go down a couple more verses to verse 26 James 2:26 "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." I think we can easily understand the example of the "body without a spirit" in the verse above, that you cannot have one without the other. Hope this helps, thanks for the reply! Barry |
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4 | Saved by belief or belief and baptism? | NT general Archive 1 | Reformer Joe | 37802 | ||
I agree completely that true faith will result in works. But Paul is very clear in stating that it is the faith by which we are saved, and not the works. Christ's righteousness is credited to us not on the basis of us earning it or deserving it in the slightest (Romans 8:7-9 makes that pretty impossible), but on the basis of faith. Works are the evidence of our salvation, not the basis of it. That is true Christianity, standing firmly between legalism on one extreme and antinomianism on the other. Best way I can put it? We are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but no works means no true faith. --Joe! |
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