The scripture that sparked this entire discussion for me was Ephesians 2:8-9, the first verse that I quoted in part 1 of this piece, about being “saved by grace through faith.” The very next verse says the following:
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
When we enter the new covenant through baptism, our old self is crucified and we are “a new creation” in Christ, a spiritual creation. It is a fact that when we walk according to the Spirit, then we do not transgress God’s law (Romans 8:5-9). If you are breaking the law in any way, then you are not walking according to the Spirit at that time. Going back to the scripture in Ephesians, we are created in Christ for a reason: “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Note that keeping the law in our outward behavior does not necessarily imply that we are walking according to the Spirit, but, on the other hand, if we are not keeping the law, then we cannot be walking according to the Spirit. I often remark that the whole point of the new covenant is that we will be made able, through the Spirit, to keep the law (i.e. “do good works”) in sincerity with the right heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27). If we have part in the new covenant, then we will be judged as to whether we have faithfully tried to obey God by using the Holy Spirit that God has given us.
It is not sufficient to merely receive the Holy Spirit. God requires that we continue to progressively submit our lives more fully to Him, and this process is commonly referred to “spiritual growth.” In the book of Revelation, the church of God is likened to a bride being prepared for marriage with Christ:
Revelation 19:7-8
The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the holy ones.
In order to be part of God’s church, you must be adorned with righteous acts. Righteous acts don’t make you part of the bride, but the bride must be adorned with them. Note that it doesn’t say that the bride is arrayed in Christ’s righteousness, but her own. I’m not implying that we make ourselves righteous, but that this is a different kind of righteousness than the righteousness imputed to us by the forgiveness of sins. God, by His grace because of our faith, erases the record of sin that we have – that’s the righteousness that makes salvation possible, but it’s not the end of the story: we must then obey God’s law to make ourselves ready for the wedding! Note that this righteousness also comes from God, since we cannot keep the law properly without His Spirit living in us – we don’t get any credit for our righteousness, other than the fact that we humbled ourselves before God so that He would work His righteousness through us so that we may be adorned with righteous acts.
Without these righteous acts to go along with the sinless record, a Christian is not complete. Consider the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22. A king prepares a wedding banquet for his son, and sends out his servants to inform those who were invited that the wedding is ready. When those people pay no attention, the king sends more servants to invite anyone who will come until the wedding hall was filled with guests. There is already a great lesson in this parable, but that’s not the end of the story:
Matthew 22:11-14
But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are invited, but few are chosen.
There is coming a time when God will have mercy on all men by bringing them to the right understanding, but God will also require that all men act on that understanding properly. If we receive the Spirit and then do not walk according to the Spirit throughout our lives, then we will be found lacking, as the man given one talent in the parable of the talents:
Matthew 25:26-28
His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant... Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents… And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Notice how similar the language here is to that in the parable of the wedding banquet. The punishment for not returning the talent with interest is the same as the punishment for coming to the wedding without wedding clothes. That’s because these parables are driving at the same point: the righteousness that is given to you (by grace through faith) is symbolized by both the talents and the invitations to the wedding – this righteousness is a gift that brings with it an opportunity to serve God. The wedding garments that you are supposed to be wearing and the talents that you are supposed to earn to give back to your Master are the righteousness that you must obtain by living according to God’s law by His Spirit – acting on the opportunity given by God to spiritually grow.
That’s how you are saved by grace but judged by your works. Righteousness is two-fold: first of all, we are given righteousness by having our record of sin erased, and then we are required to allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us so that we behave righteously on top of that. If we do not submit our lives to God's will and let His Spirit guide our actions in righteousness, then we will not grow spiritually and we will not pass judgment.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
There are still important questions that I have yet to address in this discussion, and I’ll eventually get to them in future posts and Spiritual Snacks. For now, you may ponder them yourself:
- If we are required to do good, then how good do we have to do to pass the judgment?
- If we are admittedly flawed and cannot force ourselves to submit to God 100% of the time, even with years of practice, how can we be assured of our eventual salvation?
- Did Christ also have both kinds of righteousness?
Jesus drank from 3 cups during the Last Supper, but the last - the fourth - he did not drink from then.
ReplyDeleteMatthew 27:48, Mark 15:36, Luke 23:36, and John 19:30 show Jesus drinking vinegar or sour wine on the cross, from a sponge placed on a hyssop branch. The hyssop branch was symbolic of the sprinkling of the Passover lamb's blood using a hyssop branch - see Exodus 12:22.
So Jesus was truly the Passover Lamb; then he said, "It is finished." When did Jesus drink the last cup?
WHAT YOU MUST DO TO BE SAVED
ReplyDeleteTo be saved, you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31).
However, that's not all. Sacred Scripture clearly shows other things you must also do to be saved:
• You must endure to the end. Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13.
• You must accept the Cross (suffering). Matthew 10:38, Matthew 16:24-25, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27.
• You must be baptized with water. Mark 16:16, Titus 3:5, I Peter 3:20-21.
• You must be a member in God's true church. Acts 2:47.
• You must confess your sins. James 5:16, I John 1:9.
• You must keep the Commandments of God. Matthew 5:19-20, Matthew 7:21.
• You must heed the words of St. Peter, the first Pope. Acts 11:13-14, Acts 15:7.
• You must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus Christ. John 6:51-58, I Corinthians 10:16, I Corinthians 11:23-29.
• Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. CCC 1996, John 1:12-18, John 17:3, Romans 8:14-17, 2 Peter 1:3-4.
The only Church that meets all the requirements of Salvation is the Holy Catholic Church.
Thanks for the comments! I’m not really sure of the point that you were trying to make in the first post, but I presume it’s related to the fact that you bolded the point about eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood in the second post. I understand what you're talking about, but I don’t see how it’s relevant to me in particular or why you would have thought to bring it up first. Anyway, having considered the scriptures that you gave in the second post, I have the following remarks:
ReplyDeletePeter, Popes, etc:
Acts 11:13-14
There is no reason to think that this message is anything other than the gospel. As such, there is no reason to think that there is anything inherently special about the fact that it is being delivered by Peter. If you believe in the harmony of the scriptures, then you must accept that Peter was nothing but a fellow worker in God’s service (1 Corinthians 3:4-7).
Acts 15:7
Note that there had already been “much discussion” between all of the apostles and elders. Furthermore, when Peter was done, Paul and Barnabas addressed the entire assembly as well, during which everyone remained silent. When Paul was called by Christ to evangelize to the Gentiles, he did not consult with Peter or any other man (Galatians 1:11-22).
Additionally, the bible never institutes a supreme office of “pope” or anything else for the church of God. The highest office that you will find in the New Testament is that of apostle. In short, my conclusions are that there was never any “highest office” in the New Testament church and that, even if there was, it is not evident from scripture that Peter would have been the one holding this office. Also, if there were such an office in the New Testament church, then you would come to the conclusion that Paul was terribly remiss in giving honor to it (or even mentioning it, for that matter.)
Confession:
James 5:16
This scripture refers to confessing your sins to “each other.” The purpose of confessing our sins to one other is so that we can pray for each other so that God will help us to repent and stop sinning, and that help comes by the Holy Spirit living in us.
1 John 1:9
This is clearly not the same type of confession as in James. God does not forgive us for confessing our sins to human beings – He forgives us for repenting and confessing our sins to Him in humility.
The flow of events looks something like this:
confess to other believers -> they pray for you to be healed of your sin -> God grants you the humility you need to repent -> you repent (i.e. sorrowfully confess) -> God forgives
Notice that the first 2 steps are not essential. They are good to have, and, out of love, we should eagerly desire to pray for each other’s sins so that we can all come to greater service to God, but the scripture also says to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phillipians 2:12-13).
(Sorry, I had to split up my response. Here's the rest!)
ReplyDeleteThe Problem with Catholicism:
I agree with most of what you have said, except for the two points that I expounded above. The problem with Catholicism is that they’ve built up an adulterated system of worship that looks nothing like the church of God when it was formed. The incorporation of pagan symbols, idols, and holidays is a telling show of the lack of understanding of God’s law – which brings me to the next point: though you rightly say that one must keep God’s commandments to obtain salvation, the Catholic church does not correctly teach those commandments.
The True Church of God:
I did an article not too long ago (Are you “in” the Church?) that explains what the church of God is. It is not an organization; therefore to claim that the Holy Catholic Church is the church of God is an inherently wrong statement. I do believe that anyone who wants to be part of God’s church must be part of the same church that the apostles belonged to, but that church is not defined by ascribing to a particular organization. The way to become part of the church is to repent, be baptized, and receive the Spirit through the laying on of hands.