Posted on 11/16/2002 1:02:27 PM PST by f.Christian
Good News For The Day
‘And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.’ (Romans 11:6)
Grace is enormously powerful; efficient. It is the kindness of God, by means of which he thinks lovingly, of each one, even before they are born. Them taking hold of them in life, brings them to Christ; to faith hope and love.
Though grace is dynamic-even formidable-there is something that can stop it being what it is, namely, works. Works is a shorthand term for human effort and ingenuity, aimed at achieving a safe and secure relationship with God. Such effort is contrary to grace. It also is effective, but in an opposite way, to grace. When placed alongside grace as a supplement, it changes grace's nature so that grace stops being grace.
The religion that Jesus brought to the world is all grace. In other words it is a religion that is about God; about the competence of God; the working of God; the creative achievement of God. This religion will not bear the admixture of the slightest addition of creative human effort into the equation. Before the religious activity of men and women can be added, the project must needs have been completed by God. Indeed, this is the very point the apostle wishes to make. Spiritual finality, and closure for humans beings, is achieved absolutely, for them, by God, through Christ. God does this in his kindness, or grace. All that is left for human agents to do, is adore. "Theology is grace; ethics is gratitude."
Dear Friend,
‘I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.’ (Matthew 12:6).
"The Pharisees had confronted Jesus, accusing his disciples of desecrating the Sabbath by plucking grain. While purporting to keep faith alive, these serious-minded people had begun to destroy it with sterile practices, and routine procedures."
"To them, Jesus said," ‘One greater than the temple is here.’
"It was a shocking thing to say to ardent religionists. It was an offensive thing to say to people whose life revolved around the temple with its elaborate rituals and laws. There is no way around the sharpness of Jesus' critique. He was castigating the contraptions by which men and women seek to gain control of God; to secure his services, and guarantee his favor."
"The temple of pious practices and sophisticated symbols must be seen for what it is-a mere shadow of something far greater. God can not be contained by our religious forms, nor can he be managed by them. If we think so, we have repeated an age-old mistake. That temple must be... torn down---to make way for Jesus Christ."
"Contrary to what many have thought, faith does not come through doctrines, creeds, institutions and forms. Its origins are more mundane. It is born in the fact that men and women must live. They have to live in a universe that drives them to ask questions. What am I? Who is this person that I call me? Am I the sum of these wild impulses within myself, or am I really the noble creature I sometimes aspire to be? Why do I do things I despise, and why do I seek the destruction of those who offend me? Why am I here at this time, in this particular place, and not here at some other time and place? Can I be free of the many things that bind me, spirit and body?-guilt , fear, despair? Why is there so much pain?"
"Questions like these are the furnace out of which the golden treasure of faith is forged. The one who wrote: ‘In the beginning God,’ would not have done so if he had not first pondered why there was life. The Psalmist would not have sung, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ unless he had struggled with fear and futility. Job affirmed, ‘I know that my redeemer lives,’ after he struggled with the miseries of pain and injustice. Faith comes as men and women encounter God, in the questions raised by existence itself."
"When Jesus said, ‘One greater than the temple is here,’ he was drawing attention to himself as a surpassing religious center; a personal worship place, to which men and women might repair with their questions and longings. No other figure more thoroughly bespeaks human experience, than Jesus-especially on his cross. Naked, shamed, wounded in body, and tortured in spirit, he cries out: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Down into the abyss he goes, but in three days, he rises."
"This is why Jesus is greater than all other holy places, holy people and holy things. In him, questions, pain, even death become shining portals in the gloom. Utter calamity is transformed into utter blessing. The moment of despair is the birthplace of faith."
"May Jesus Christ, be Lord."
Yours in service,
Ron J. Allen.
LUKE 22
[19] And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
Question:
Is the 'doing' in this passage a work?
[21] "Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
An oft quoted scripture.
I'm quoting it in a different light than you normally see it referred to.
Question:
Is doing the will of the Father a work?
Your righteousness crucifying Christ?
I don't quite follow that. Would you elaborate on that point?
And what is your definition of a work?
Do the two passages I cited constitute works? If not what you define them as?
I'd like to take a shot at this one...
If one is a churchgoer but not a believer, then one's righteousness is but that of the Pharisees...useless and barren. Upon one's conversion, one is given to understand one's utter dependance on the grace of God (and not your own works); hence a former churchgoer sees their former "righteousness" as the sin that it is. And, of course, sin is the reason for Christ's sacrifice! (How'd I do, f.C?)
Your definition of works above doesn't relate with the way it is used in scripture:
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
The part I am trying to understand is if there is anything that God requires of us that is considered a work.
Or for someone to maybe define what a work is.
Where the two examples I gave works?
There is absolutely nothing man can do of his own invention that would make him right in the sight of God. So in that sense works do not save. Only the grace of God can save man.
On the other hand we are commanded to obey the will of God in order to be right in his sight.
To obey the will of God requires man to do or not do certain things. In this regard, obedience to God is often seen as a work.
So, to a repentent sinner grace is sufficent to an unrepentent sinner grace is of no help.
Scripture makes the distinction between two types of works. One is the works of righteousness, which does nothing for salvation: Titus 3: 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit
The other are good works, which are the result of faith and can make faith perfect: James 2:22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
To condemn all works as contrary to grace goes against Scripture.
Agreed
‘I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.’ (Galatians 2:21)
"These are the words of a man (Paul), describing his own Christian life. He sees himself as somehow having been included in the crucifixion of Christ. His former way of life met its end, when it met Jesus. He considers his old way of life was put to death on the cross of Jesus. Now, he lives from a different perspective; an entirely new standpoint. He can describe this new way of living thus: "I no longer live; Christ lives in me."
"The new centerpiece of Paul's existence is Jesus, who expressed his great love by dying for him on the cross. That is the great theme of the apostle's new life. It is in that context, that Paul goes on to state: "I do not frustrate the grace of God." He means to make the point, that Christian faith, is faith in God's work; in God's action. Christian faith lays hold on what God has achieved. Conversely, righteousness which is of the law, is a religious perspective which places some hope or confidence in the things that a believer can do in response to God."
"To trust in one's own spirituality, is to exchange faith in Christ for something else. In the apostle's mind, grace and Christ are co-extensive. Where one is, so is the other. In the gospel, faith permits no 'other' than these, within its purview. Faith's horizon is totally taken up with Christ; with grace."
"To trust in one's own... religious effort---is to frustrate grace."
"God teach us to rest in his work, and not in own own."
... "Only(thread) God can deal with sin, either as a disease or a crime; as a dishonour to Himself, or as a hinderer of man's approach to Himself.'
"He deals with it not in some arbitrary or summary way, by a mere exercise of will or power, but by bringing it for adjudication into His own courts of law. As judge, seated on His tribunal, He settles the case, and settles it in favour of the sinner, -of any sinner on the earth that will consent to the basis which He proposes. Into this court each one may freely come, on the footing of a sinner needing the adjustment of the great question between him and God. That adjustment is no matter of uncertainty or difficulty; it will at once be granted to each applicant; and the guilty man with his case, however bad, thus legally settled, retires from court with his burden removed and his fears dispelled, assured that he can never again be summoned to answer for his guilt."
"It is... righteousness(chapter/book)--that has reconciled God to him, and him to God."
We must take all that has been revealed and make certain that our reading of any one passage is in accord with all other passages on the same matter.
If a reading is not in accord with other scripture than one of the readings is not correct. The Bible does not contridict itsef.
I asked a few very simple, yes and no, type question that you have not yet answered. If you can address those questions then it is possible for this discussion to proceed.
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