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The Free Gift
The Following is an e-mail exchange with my Dad regarding salvation by faith alone versus salvation with human effort mixed in with it.
DAD"S EMAIL Answer me one question, if, while sincerely believing that Christ is the Son of God and that He died to save all men from sin, I commit adultery, cheat my business partners, abuse the poor, dishonor my parents, curse, drink to excess, take drugs, and maybe even commit murder, will I get to heaven regardless?
Don't answer me with a barrage of scriptural quotations, but in your own words, please.
By the way, if you are worried that I don't believe in the divinity of Christ, stop worrying. I do. The difference between me, a practicing Roman Catholic, and many Fundamentalist Christians is this: I think that my faith REQUIRES me to act in accordance with its tenets, and to do penance when I fail; that a Christian faith that is not demonstrated by Christian deeds is a hollow, meaningless faith, that it is indeed hypocrisy.
I'll give you a concrete example. What if I met a beautiful, sultry woman who made no secret of her desire to spend the next couple of nights with me. Now suppose I gave in and slept with her, violating not only the 6th commandment but also betraying the woman I love, would not God hold that against me? Are you saying that I could have f!@#(censorship mine) her brains out and suffer no consequences in the Hereafter merely because I believe in Christ? That strikes me as a license to do as you damn well please.
Webster's defines a gift as "Something given to show friendship, affection or support." Reward is "Something given in return for good, or, sometimes, evil, or for service of merit."
So, my interpretation is this: Christ gave his (human) life to show his love for us, but we MUST accept that gift by doing our utmost to behave as He would want us to. If we don't, we are only saying we believe in Him, but we are not showing that we do, nor do we show our love for Him. In so many words, to not act in accordance with one's faith is to deny one's faith, no matter how much you proclaim that faith with your lips.
I await your reply. Dad.
MY REPLY(with much prayer before, during, & after in the mighty name of the Messiah)I accept your message for value, and return it for value with a reply to your question beginning with ,
" IF while SINCERELY believing . . . I commit adultery , etc . . ."
Based on the hypothetical nature of the question beginning with "IF" , I will too operate within that framework. IF the person conducting his affairs in the manner you described while SINCERELY believing at the same time would lead one to conclude reasonably that the belief WASN'T SINCERE. That's exactly what James addresses in Chapter 2 which contains the faith without works verses. Remember the very first verse of that chapter sets up the context with ,
" IF a man SAYS he has faith . . ." & DOES NOT say "if a man HAS faith".
King David violated all ten commandments , alone, in the situation with Bathsheba. His contrition for his deeds are recorded particularly in Psalm 119. But his repentance alone isn't what justified him from sin. It was his faith which prompted him to say ,
"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in NO WAY impute sin."
So, David's faith in the end turned out to be sincere all along - He had the sense to respond to God's will & not his.
Your question ending with [quote]". . . will I still get to heaven?"
First of all, the question is,"What are God's requirements to "get to Heaven" ? A perfect righteousness without any sin nature whatsoever is the answer. God the Father cannot allow anyone with a sin nature in His prescence because their sin condemned flesh would be destroyed by His indescribable presence. Moses wasn't allowed to see the Father because he would've been destroyed by the Father's holy presence. God the Father is referred to as an "All Consuming Fire". Jesus said no man has seen the Father except Him.
Since we are born with a sin nature, we automatically do wrong right out of the gate. Christ credits(imputes) His perfect nature on to our account which replaces our sin nature IN THE EYES OF GOD. It is only His perfection that is allowed to exist in the eternal kingdom. If we've ever broken just ONE of the commandments, we are guilty of eternal punishment. We cannot get rid of the sin nature we were born with by helping old ladies across the street, working in the soup line, etc... We need an entirely new nature GIVEN to us because we are all guilty of having to pay the wages of sin, so eternal life has to be offered as a GIFT since we can't eradicate it ourselves.
PLEASE JUMP TO THREAD 3 for the continuation.
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