Men With Chests

My early religious background taught that salvation was a process of obedience to the Church and what the Church taught about Christ.  It was also tied to church traditions, liturgy, and sacraments. There was a special emphasis that through the Lord’s Table or the Eucharist we were fed by Christ through participation in the Eucharist. It was as a salvation by religious observance and good works. The point to all this was that there was no forensic or legal justification but rather an infused justification through these avenues as well as our good works. It was not grace alone but a view of grace and works. Continue reading →

In my last post on Grace or Works on Friday, we saw that it is only grace in salvation that brings full glory to God. Any thought or action that bring any credit to you robs God of Glory. We don’t deserve His mercy, we can’t earn His mercy, nor can we add in any way to God’s grace.  Gace is the sole prerogative of God.

We also saw that no amount of works on our part adds in any way to our righteousness.  It not only robs God of His glory, our righteousness can never satisfy God’s justice.  Any work we would do only has temporal value and cannot appease God wrath against sin which demands eternal death (Roman 3:23).  When we think that somehow God will accept our works, our so-called good intentions, we place more value on them that they are worth. Paul, in Romans, tells us that our works are not counted as favor but rather as a payment, what is due. Continue reading →