Faith is a way of life and not merely a means to attain the forgiveness of our sins, by the free grace of God (though faith includes that reality), and not merely trust in the Work and the Person of Jesus Christ (though faith includes that reality also). The apostle Paul writes to believers, "for we walk by faith," live our lives by / through the lens of our faith in Christ, "and not by sight&quo…
I don't mind telling you that the idea of complete and perfect and sinless obedience to God in Jesus Christ by the empowering and indwelling Holy Spirit has, in the last few years, somewhat troubled me. Not that I want to live in sin. God forbid! Sin destroys lives. Sin wrecks families and friendships, ministries and fellowships, brings shame to the believer and dishonor to Christ and His Church. But when I…
I don't know about you but sometimes I struggle with the weight of my own sin. The longer I walk in Christ, and the more I understand His holiness, the more sin I notice in my fallen nature. I am not yet entirely sanctified (Phil. 3:12). I thought that I would be much farther along in sanctification by now--some 30 years later. I thought, when I was first saved and born again, that I would actually become s…
If Augustinian soteriology and Reformed theology were unknown in the mid-to-late first- through at least the late fourth-century then how can such views be orthodox and biblical? I once believed that, because the early fathers did not hold to doctrines of Original Sin, Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints, such views could not possibly be…
Have you ever heard or read anyone who seemed put off because a person "came to faith" in Christ prior to their death? "For 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved'" (Rom. 10:13). To such a person, this last-minute conversion seems insincere, and "not fair." The person who thinks like this is a bit troubled because she has been a believer for over fifty yea…
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the [Gentile]. For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith [or out of faith into faith , CSB tn; by faith resulting in faith , EHV tn; it begins and ends with faith , NCV, cf. NLT; a righteousness that is by faith from first to last , NIV]; as …
"For by grace you have been saved through faith," writes the apostle Paul to the Ephesians, "and that," having been saved , is "not [a result] of yourselves, [but] is the gift of God"; adding, " not as a result of works , so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). So, therefore, keeping the Law of God, or trying to be a good and decent human being, will never merit anyone t…
I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness [writes Paul] ... For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jes…
There is a false teaching that has spread like cancer among churches for decades now that we are all--every single one of us--innately and automatically children of God. This heresy must be fought for the sake of Christ, for the sake of His Gospel , for the sake of His atoning work on the cross and the salvation of lost sinners. We are not all children of God. Even a cursory read of Jesus' words in the Gos…
Pelagius is biblically, ideologically and spiritually farsighted, in that he cannot see clearly the radical depravity of fallen mortals (and that condition being due to an inherited state of nature transmitted from the fall of Adam our father); and he is also biblically, spiritually and theologically nearsighted, in that he cannot see clearly the utter holiness of God that demands sinless perfection for one …
The question of why I still believe in Jesus, why I believe in the triune God of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, and why I still believe in the Bible as God's Word (not merely the opinions of uneducated fishermen and farmers), and in Salvation from Sin and in Christ's Church, &c., does not concern the origins of my faith (as debated by Calvinists, Arminians, e…