Monthly Archives: December 2009
The New Law: The Law of The Spirit
As was noted in the last post, according to Galatians 3, the law served as a tutor to point God’s people to Christ. As youth, we were all required the continual tutelage of parents, teachers and godly adults to properly lead us toward a path of righteousness. Indeed many of us wonder where our lives would have led us without such counsel. Yet, maturity gradually developed and we all eventually found ourselves grown and removed from such supervision. As adults we have now moved beyond the former restrictions of parental oversight and have assumed responsibility for our life choices. In some cases, we deeply understand the sentiment of certain rules of our parents, yet we may choose different rules for our own households.
The Elements of the Gospel: Faith
(This post is a continuation of the Pastoral Soteriology Series. It assumes pre-requisite reading of earlier posts, and will be followed by additional posts.)
While grace is the overriding precondition of the gospel, scripture unyieldingly asserts that faith is the necessary component by which salvation is applied to the sinner’s account. Ephesians 2:8 notes both elements quite clearly, asserting, “it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith.” Likewise, Hebrews 11:6 notes that “without faith it is impossible to please God,” demanding that God’s acceptance of man in some way hinges on the existence of essential faith. While faith in no way trumps grace – nor can it exist outside of grace – it is nonetheless a required component of the gospel which cannot be subverted. One simply cannot be saved without faith. Continue reading
