On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 6:38 AM, geoff <[email protected]> wrote: > You just asked one of the central questions of the Reformation - and got it > wrong. Salvation is by faith alone - not of works (eph 2: 8,9). And it > really IS that clear.
True: salvation is by faith alone, and grace is sufficient. Works are, however, the outward manifestation of that salvation, rooted in the case of a truly saved person in love, such that if there are none, or a man's works contradict his faith, he needs to check his faith. And by logical extension, his salvation. Works don't save you, but a man who does no good works, or does them out of anything but love (e.g., some people do good works out of fear of damnation), is probably not saved, because he has not really accepted and internalized that grace. Or did you skip over the parts that say, e.g., "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) and "If a man says he loves God, but hates his brother, the same is a liar, and there is no truth in him" (1 John 4:20)? The proposition may be "that simple" but its implications are profound and by no means "simplistic." - Publius > Geoff Flight > General Manager > > Sustainable Resources Industry Training Pty Ltd > _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
