Doug Brents
Member
Option 1 assumes the understanding that for faith to be alive, effective, and meaningful it must include actions of obedience as James 2:14-26 indicates.
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Are you taking the time to pray? Christ is the answer in times of need
https://christianforums.net/threads/psalm-70-1-save-me-o-god-lord-help-me-now.108509/
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Depending upon the Holy Spirit for all you do?
Read through the following study by Tenchi for more on this topic
https://christianforums.net/threads/without-the-holy-spirit-we-can-do-nothing.109419/
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How are famous preachers sometimes effected by sin?
Join Sola Scriptura for a discussion on the subject
https://christianforums.net/threads/anointed-preaching-teaching.109331/#post-1912042
Bible Study Eph 2:8-9
- Thread starter Doug Brents
- Start date
The works are the expression of faith. Works are done out of love for God. God owes me nothing. This morning at our men's prayer breakfast we were reading from Job and found the following.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Job 13:15 NKJV
God also said, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Exodus 33:19 NKJV
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Job 13:15 NKJV
God also said, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Exodus 33:19 NKJV
Faith is a free gift from God as no one could ever earn it or work for it. What follows that free gift is the love we have for others in sharing God's love as that free gift is faith that is Christ Jesus that needs to be shining through us as it reaches out hope for others.
Doug Brents
Member
Without the Spirit working in our life, we will not see the truth of the Gospel. And without the Blood of Christ there would be no forgiveness of sin, nor any chance at salvation in the first place.
But faith is not a gift of God. Faith is our response to belief in the Gospel. As James was very clear in saying, it is our actions that are the soul, the life, the substance of our faith. If there is no action taken, then that faith is dead, and a dead thing cannot bring life (salvation).
The idea that we can be passive bystanders in our salvation, and that AFTER we are saved THEN we can take action to do what Christ says is patently unBiblical. No where in Scripture is any blessing EVER received before action is taken by the recipient.
I see our faith is that of believing in Christ who is our gift that we have faith in and picking up our cross and follow in His footsteps. Grace is free, but with faith comes belief first as we then build upon our faith in learning that of God's will in our obedience to Him.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Faith + Jesus= our free gift from God as we can not earn the Lord's salvation as it/He is freely given.
Just another way I look at the free gift of faith through God's grace.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Faith + Jesus= our free gift from God as we can not earn the Lord's salvation as it/He is freely given.
Just another way I look at the free gift of faith through God's grace.
Doug Brents
Member
Let me share a short story with you.
A man had a feed store in a farming community that had the only scale for more than 200 miles. People came from miles around to sell their crops at his store because of the scale. After many years running the store, he passed the management of the store to his some, and some years after that, he died.
Shortly after this, a man from the government showed up to certify the scale, bu had to tell the young man that he could not certify the scale. When the scale read 90 pounds, there was really 100 pounds on it. The son quickly realized that he had a problem. He had been ripping off the farmers in the community, and so had his father, for years.
So now the young man had to ask himself a very important question: was he more committed to his business or the truth. Was he going to continue to use the old scale as is, now knowing that he was ripping off his neighbors, because, “that’s the way it’s always been?” Or was he going to stop using the scale until he could afford to fix it or get a new one?
That is my question to all of you. To what are you more committed: truth or “how it’s always been done”?
Are you more married to what you learned in school (Sunday School, seminary, at the feet of a sage, whatever), or are you more married to the truth?
Will your pride be crushed to find that not only have you been wrong, but your father (teacher, mentor, sage, …) was wrong too? Or can you subject your pride to the Word of God and let It be the authority?
If, as we must, you take Scripture as a whole, as one complete work, then every single sentence and word in it must be taken into account when formulating any doctrine. If you fail to do so, then your scale is out of balance and cannot be certified. When you take every word of Scripture into account, there are too many places where a physical act is commanded with salvation as the reward for doing that act for physical action to be summarily dismissed out of hand because of man’s interpretation of a single verse (or passage) (ie. Eph 2:8-9).
A man had a feed store in a farming community that had the only scale for more than 200 miles. People came from miles around to sell their crops at his store because of the scale. After many years running the store, he passed the management of the store to his some, and some years after that, he died.
Shortly after this, a man from the government showed up to certify the scale, bu had to tell the young man that he could not certify the scale. When the scale read 90 pounds, there was really 100 pounds on it. The son quickly realized that he had a problem. He had been ripping off the farmers in the community, and so had his father, for years.
So now the young man had to ask himself a very important question: was he more committed to his business or the truth. Was he going to continue to use the old scale as is, now knowing that he was ripping off his neighbors, because, “that’s the way it’s always been?” Or was he going to stop using the scale until he could afford to fix it or get a new one?
That is my question to all of you. To what are you more committed: truth or “how it’s always been done”?
Are you more married to what you learned in school (Sunday School, seminary, at the feet of a sage, whatever), or are you more married to the truth?
Will your pride be crushed to find that not only have you been wrong, but your father (teacher, mentor, sage, …) was wrong too? Or can you subject your pride to the Word of God and let It be the authority?
If, as we must, you take Scripture as a whole, as one complete work, then every single sentence and word in it must be taken into account when formulating any doctrine. If you fail to do so, then your scale is out of balance and cannot be certified. When you take every word of Scripture into account, there are too many places where a physical act is commanded with salvation as the reward for doing that act for physical action to be summarily dismissed out of hand because of man’s interpretation of a single verse (or passage) (ie. Eph 2:8-9).