Living vs Dead Consider this quotation: Does this contradict Galatians 2:16? Of course not. James 2:14-26 is summarized in the tautology: if you don’t live your faith, your faith is not living, but dead The difference between living and dead faith is the nature of that faith, not the deeds. …
I’ve casually followed Michael Foster for some time on Twitter. Some of you may know of him from the “It’s Good To Be A Man” blog, which is shared with Dominic Bnonn Tennant. Readers here might have read Sharkly’s critical piece on the pair (from 2019) called “Bnonnas Foster: A …
Perseverance and Salvation The word sōzesthe (σῴζεσθε) can be translated either as “you are saved” or “you are being saved.” Regardless of which one is chosen, Paul does not describe a works-based salvation, as if 1 Corinthians 15:2 said “you are saved as long as you live the gospel.” Paul doesn’t say “unless …
There is a great—and revealing—discussion of patriarchy happening over at Sigma Frame. Let’s take a short break from the ongoing series on justification to discuss it. Over the last few months, I pointed out to Sharkly—time and time and again—that Christian patriarchy, by excusing male responsibility, doesn’t respect a man’s authority within his domain. If …
In this discussion on justification by faith, we have talked a lot about faith, but not a lot about justification. In the Bible, the word translated as justification comes from the Greek word dikaioó (δικαιόω): I make righteous defend the cause of plead for the righteousness (innocence) of acquit justify; hence: …
Faith and Works Are we saved by faith alone? Are there other prerequisites? Many verses explicitly state that salvation requires belief—faith. Some explicitly state that works do not save. Some are directly out of the mouth of Jesus. Let’s imagine that faith is required, but not sufficient, for salvation. Then, every scripture that …
After we defined what faith was (and wasn’t) in Part 2, we then openly wondered about the interplay between living faith and bad (or no) works. Does the presence of bad works—disobedience—indicate that one did not have faith or salvation? Next, we noted that, while Jesus in the second gospel …
In Part 1, we discussed how faith, belief, works, obedience, justification, and salvation are all dependent on love. The Greatest Commandment is to love God. Without a person first loving God, those other things are nothing. Love has primacy. It is only through love that our incorporeal sacrifices of our …
The New Sacrifice In the midst of my series on the Eucharist, I discussed the prophecy of Malachi and concluded that what God wanted most was followers who love him: Cyril had identified the incense and pure sacrifice spoken of by Malachi as the blessings, praise, and glory that the church—congregation—offers to …
The series on faith is a collection of separated, but related, essays. Here is the index: Prelude #1: The Eucharist Prelude #2: The Living Voice Prelude #3: Changing Language Part 1: The Primacy of Love Part 2: What is Faith? What are works? Part 3: Faith and Works (Belief/Obedience; Unbelief/Disobedience) …