It has been quite amazing my whole Christian life which started before my freshmen year in high school to see the grace of God live through me. It wasn't until my freshmen year in high school that I started to become a workman unto God, in that up until college I didn't start studying the Word of God or as Paul calls it the word of truth. Although I started to read the Bible I was not reading it the way that God tells us to in His Word on how to read it and how to study it. I found myself leaving the authority of Scripture to the authority of man. I found myself resting my faith in men rather than in Christ and His Word to me. I would read a ton, but I could never make sense of a lot of things in the Bible such as:
Romans 3:27-28, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."
Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."
So there is Paul's doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. But listen to James.
Compared to,
James 2:17, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
James 2:20, "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
James 2:24, "Ye see then how that by works a man is JUSTIFIED, and NOT BY FAITH ONLY."
Go ahead read the passages, but as a student of the Word and any person, (you don't have to be a professor or scholar) should be able to see that Paul and James are not saying the same thing. However in the Christian world many upon many try to reconcile these two men, they try to spiritualize the passages to make them say the same thing. You will hear, James is giving a sermon on Ephesians 2:8-10, along with many other things. John MacArthur took two books to try and make sense of these men. In Martin Luther's mind after learning that a man is justified by faith alone in Christ alone in which many call "the doctrine on which the Church (Body of Christ) stands or falls", he thought it was a flat out contradiction that was irreconcilable (which is true if you do not rightly divide the Scriptures) and said that James was "an epistle of straw" and put James along with Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation on a status of secondary importance. I mention Luther because of two reasons, 1) At least this man recognized the irreconcilability between James and Paul's doctrines, in which the church today does not and does everything and will say anything to try and mesh them together, 2) Luther is a man who is greatly looked at in the church today especially Reformed theologians and his relegating James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation to secondary status of importance is quite interesting. Along with these men stand a vast majority of theologians who try and mesh the passages together such as; Piper, Spurgeon, Packer, Sproul, Boice, etc......
I recently read something that Boice said and here it is, by the way this is what I would say the majority of the church believes today.
"Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20).
Boice says that this verse means, "Unless you who call yourselves Christians, who profess to be justified by faith alone and therefore confess that you have nothing whatever to contribute to your own justification--unless you nevertheless conduct yourselves in a way which is utterly superior to the conduct of the very best people, who are hoping to save themselves by their works, you will no enter God's kingdom. You are not really Christians."
According to Boice the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus nothing turned to justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus works, or "oh yea you need to work too". Boice actually went on to try and explain the two Paul and James and admitted that what he was saying sounded confusing and contradicting. I find it quite amazing the in God's Word He tells me, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."
This is just one example of many things in God's Word that weren't lining up and because of it many divisions within the Body of Christ have formed, we call this denominationalism. We have baptists, lutherans, catholics, protestants (spelling), methodists, pentecostals, new covenant theology, calvinists, arminianists, you name it and the Body of Christ has it and we wonder why unbelievers doesn't want to have to do with anything with Christ, because we ain't what we should be. In fact, a lot of the Body of Christ doesn't even know what God is doing today. Many hearts will be pricked with that statement, many will say I am arrogant, ignorant, and self-righteousness, but is it any surprise to take a look at church history and to think we have had it right the whole time, but really don't. This was Israel's attitude. Stephen in the book of Acts was giving Israel's history and it was filled with not knowing, and disobedience, yet they thought they were doing a service to God when they stoned God's messenger to them, but were doing the exact opposite. I see the same pattern in the Body of Christ as was in the nation of Israel, maybe it is because we are trying to be so much like them that we become them, maybe that's where we want our identity as God's chosen nation that Paul now says is cut off, maybe it's because we have our identity in religion, in baptism, the law, in gifts, but not in Christ, maybe that's why we can't humble ourselves to admit that we were wrong instead of closing our ears like Israel. May we not be like Israel, may we not follow their ways, may we not follow man, or church history, but may we follow God and His ways.
My whole point is, the reasons why the Body of Christ is not where we are supposed to be which is in Him, in the faith that Christ sets forth through the apostle Paul, or even deceived in thinking we are there, that we have reached the unity of faith is because the Body of Christ does not recognize the two-fold purpose of God and one can know more of this as they study the Word of God being a workman, rightly dividing the word of truth. There are two sets of truth one for nation Israel, God's purpose for the earth bring forth the eternal earthly kingdom that He prophesied about, and two the Body of Christ God's purpose for the heavenly places in which was hid in God in a mystery not made known to the world since it began, but now God is revealing His eternal purpose with the heavenly places, this information He gave to Paul who preaches the Gospel of the Grace of God, unlike that of Israel who had Moses and the Law. There are two sets of truth in God's Word that need to be rightly divided this is the key to understanding your Bible. Here are a list of some things to be divided.
Prophecy & Mystery
Law & Grace
-covenants
-Spirit (how He is working)
Israel & Body of Christ
Heaven & Earth
MUCH MORE.........
More to come, if you have any questions, please respond.
In Him,
Joshua
According to Boice the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus nothing turned to justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus works, or "oh yea you need to work too". Boice actually went on to try and explain the two Paul and James and admitted that what he was saying sounded confusing and contradicting. I find it quite amazing the in God's Word He tells me, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."
This is just one example of many things in God's Word that weren't lining up and because of it many divisions within the Body of Christ have formed, we call this denominationalism. We have baptists, lutherans, catholics, protestants (spelling), methodists, pentecostals, new covenant theology, calvinists, arminianists, you name it and the Body of Christ has it and we wonder why unbelievers doesn't want to have to do with anything with Christ, because we ain't what we should be. In fact, a lot of the Body of Christ doesn't even know what God is doing today. Many hearts will be pricked with that statement, many will say I am arrogant, ignorant, and self-righteousness, but is it any surprise to take a look at church history and to think we have had it right the whole time, but really don't. This was Israel's attitude. Stephen in the book of Acts was giving Israel's history and it was filled with not knowing, and disobedience, yet they thought they were doing a service to God when they stoned God's messenger to them, but were doing the exact opposite. I see the same pattern in the Body of Christ as was in the nation of Israel, maybe it is because we are trying to be so much like them that we become them, maybe that's where we want our identity as God's chosen nation that Paul now says is cut off, maybe it's because we have our identity in religion, in baptism, the law, in gifts, but not in Christ, maybe that's why we can't humble ourselves to admit that we were wrong instead of closing our ears like Israel. May we not be like Israel, may we not follow their ways, may we not follow man, or church history, but may we follow God and His ways.
My whole point is, the reasons why the Body of Christ is not where we are supposed to be which is in Him, in the faith that Christ sets forth through the apostle Paul, or even deceived in thinking we are there, that we have reached the unity of faith is because the Body of Christ does not recognize the two-fold purpose of God and one can know more of this as they study the Word of God being a workman, rightly dividing the word of truth. There are two sets of truth one for nation Israel, God's purpose for the earth bring forth the eternal earthly kingdom that He prophesied about, and two the Body of Christ God's purpose for the heavenly places in which was hid in God in a mystery not made known to the world since it began, but now God is revealing His eternal purpose with the heavenly places, this information He gave to Paul who preaches the Gospel of the Grace of God, unlike that of Israel who had Moses and the Law. There are two sets of truth in God's Word that need to be rightly divided this is the key to understanding your Bible. Here are a list of some things to be divided.
Prophecy & Mystery
Law & Grace
-covenants
-Spirit (how He is working)
Israel & Body of Christ
Heaven & Earth
MUCH MORE.........
More to come, if you have any questions, please respond.
In Him,
Joshua
