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NASB | Matthew 4:23 ¶ Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 4:23 ¶ And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news (gospel) of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people [demonstrating and revealing that He was indeed the promised Messiah]. |
Subject: The true Gospel Jesus proclaimed |
Bible Note: Dear 00123, I rarely see the antinomianism you are describing. On the other hand, the legalism you advocate is rampant. 1. The failure to apply a truth, does not invalidate the truth. Truth is never measured by what people say or do. "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience." 2. Jesus never urged "living out a holy life" as the means of salvation. Instead, He affirmed that "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27). 3. Look at Matthew 7:21 in context. Notice that Christ says, "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." (Matthew 7:17-18) Fruit is a natural result of the nature of a tree. Fruit does does not make a tree what it is. (cf Luke 6:43-44) 4. We cannot show "too much emphasis on God's act on our salvation" (sic). Salvation is a work of God that has no equal (Isaiah 43:19). How can we overemphasize something that is declared on every page of Scripture? If we give it less emphasis than God Himself does, what does that make us? As scribes of the Kingdom, we want to render a good accounting of the truth He has given us (Ephesians 4:11-14). 5. Sound doctrine is based on all that the Scripture says about something. It is not measured by how people receive it? "The supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit, into which Scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved." 6. Finally, you assert that this emphasis is a "modern Protestant" thing. Have you not read the following? "If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly and comes to the regeneration of holy baptism -- if anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the Apostles, for blessed Paul says, 'And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 1:6). And again, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God' (Ephesians 2:8). For those who state that the faith by which we believe in God is natural make all who are separated from the Church of Christ by definition in some measure believers. "Concerning the succor of God. It is a mark of divine favor when we are of a right purpose and keep our feet from hypocrisy and unrighteousness; for as often as we do good, God is at work in us and with us, in order that we may do so. "Concerning the succor of God. The succor of God is to be ever sought by the regenerate and converted also, so that they may be able to come to a successful end or persevere in good works." --Council of Orange, canons 8 through 10 (529 AD) In Him, Doc |