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| Faith in Jesus Christ IS ALSO a work. |
FEW understand the
three distinct sets of contrast in the biblical doctrine of justification. Why
are so many so confused?
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It was in 1517 that
Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of the church in
Wittenberg, Germany. As you know, this event triggered the Protestant
Reformation, and at the very heart of this Reformation is the recovery of the
gospel from the corrupt Roman Catholic Church.
You might ask,
"What did the Roman Catholic Church do to the gospel?" The Roman
Catholic Church distorted the gospel, and the gospel became so distorted that
it could no longer be regarded as good news. In the Roman Catholic Church, the
gospel is not good but, in fact, bad news. Why? Well, for instance, while Roman
Catholics do not deny the necessity of faith in Christ, they add to that faith
a list of works that one must do in order to be saved. The first in that list
is baptism, without which no one can be saved, according to Roman Catholics. In
their catechism we read, "The Lord Himself affirms that baptism is
necessary for salvation...
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The above are the
opening paragraph of the article "What is the Gospel" by Dr Brian G
Najapfour.
"...they add to
that faith a list of works that one must do in order to be saved..."
The Mother Harlot
Church teaches that BOTH faith and works are necessary for salvation.)
The daughters of the
Mother Harlot insist that faith ALONE is necessary for salvation.
However, the
Scriptures declare plainly that:
i. Faith in Jesus
Christ IS ALSO a work God requires of His children; Christ Himself said it.
John 6 KJT
28 ¶Then said they
unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 ¶Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent.
1. Faith is a work of
believing in Christ, the work of obeying a plain commandment:
1 John 3:23 KJT —
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son
Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
ii. Faith is a fruit
of salvation; only those ALREADY saved by grace are capable of exercising
faith.
Faith is a saving
grace worked in a child of God by the Spirit of adoption given to dwell within
a child of God. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 KJV —
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith...
John 3:3 KJT — Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The bestowal of
salvation in the new birth makes possible the perception of the kingdom of God
that is, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whatever has
happened to common sense? Putting the cart before the donkey is stupid, i.e.
lacking common sense.
The biblical doctrine of justification by faith is framed by Apostle Paul in the context of his battle against the Judaizers who insisted on the observation/keeping of the ceremonial laws. He marshalled Abraham to demonstrate the point to them. Few understand this important fact.
Kindly peruse this
short article:
https://things-new-and-old.blogspot.com/2011/05/three-distinct-sets-of-contrast-in.html
