I've been thinking a lot recently (uh oh) about faith and works and salvation and all of that. I haven't finalised my thoughts by any means, but a couple of things have occurred to me.
(1) I, and probably many others, am probably more of a Paulian than a Christian. I wrote a piece about Jesusanity a while back which tackled the issue of promoting Jesus' ethical teaching while neglecting His atoning sacrifice on the cross and such. Well, what I fear many of us are guilty of is being members of Paulianity, where we promote the doctrine of "Saved by grace through faith" and neglect almost everything else Paul said, and everything all the other NT writers and Jesus said. Would Paul be happy with this? I doubt it.
(2) As a result of my Pauline focus, I think I may have missed what salvation is all about. Sounds kind of drastic, but for the most part I think it's true. For me, good deeds done out of love have always been "evidences" of salvation. Faith saves me, faith in Christ means I have peace with God, and my (theoretically) increasing Christlikeness is the evidence of that. The more and more I think about this, the more flawed I think it is. Well, not so much flawed as incomplete. I wrote something down along the following lines, but I can't quite remember where. Anyway, it was something like,
"Good works are not the evidence of our salvation; they are the goal."
Salvation is not mere intellectual assent. The essence of being a Christian isn't just thinking like a Christian should think; it's becoming like Christ in both character and conduct. When we reduce our good deeds to proof that we are saved, we really miss the point of salvation. And what's more, we end up selling Christ's salvation as being something purely cerebral and fideistic, thus losing its redemptive, reforming, life-altering aspect. Of course our works should point people to something else, namely the lordship of Christ and the glory of God the Father. We are to preach not ourselves to people, but Christ.
That said, God's purposes in salvation are much greater than we might dare to think, and they very much include our good deeds which are born out of our new character. What's more, the apostle Paul would certainly agree:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Eph 2:9-10
and
"For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. " - Rom. 8:29
Christlikeness is the goal, and yet so often I settle for so much less.
(1) I, and probably many others, am probably more of a Paulian than a Christian. I wrote a piece about Jesusanity a while back which tackled the issue of promoting Jesus' ethical teaching while neglecting His atoning sacrifice on the cross and such. Well, what I fear many of us are guilty of is being members of Paulianity, where we promote the doctrine of "Saved by grace through faith" and neglect almost everything else Paul said, and everything all the other NT writers and Jesus said. Would Paul be happy with this? I doubt it.
(2) As a result of my Pauline focus, I think I may have missed what salvation is all about. Sounds kind of drastic, but for the most part I think it's true. For me, good deeds done out of love have always been "evidences" of salvation. Faith saves me, faith in Christ means I have peace with God, and my (theoretically) increasing Christlikeness is the evidence of that. The more and more I think about this, the more flawed I think it is. Well, not so much flawed as incomplete. I wrote something down along the following lines, but I can't quite remember where. Anyway, it was something like,
"Good works are not the evidence of our salvation; they are the goal."
Salvation is not mere intellectual assent. The essence of being a Christian isn't just thinking like a Christian should think; it's becoming like Christ in both character and conduct. When we reduce our good deeds to proof that we are saved, we really miss the point of salvation. And what's more, we end up selling Christ's salvation as being something purely cerebral and fideistic, thus losing its redemptive, reforming, life-altering aspect. Of course our works should point people to something else, namely the lordship of Christ and the glory of God the Father. We are to preach not ourselves to people, but Christ.
That said, God's purposes in salvation are much greater than we might dare to think, and they very much include our good deeds which are born out of our new character. What's more, the apostle Paul would certainly agree:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Eph 2:9-10
and
"For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. " - Rom. 8:29
Christlikeness is the goal, and yet so often I settle for so much less.
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