in Sunday school we continued our discussion in Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2. though we talked about a majority of topics, the main topic for discussion was about works righteousness. Are we saved by grace and grace alone? Are we saved by grace AND by doing good works? Are we saved only by good works? As a class we decided that the only thing that literally SAVES us is grace. We are not saved by anything that we personally do. HOWEVER, salvation includes a path of discipleship. When we go down this path and grow in our faith, we gain the heart of Christ because we become like him. As a result, if we are truly saved and growing in our faith, good works are unavoidable. That makes good works an expression and evidence of salvation, not the grace-giver. Anyways, that was the position our class corporately agreed upon.
questions:
1) what do guys think about the relationship between works and salvation personally?
2) what is your opinion of my class's consensus about the issue?
that goes back to the faith vs. works discussion in James (?). It says that you cannot be saved by good works alone, but rather good works are a representation of grace; so in the same way you cannot have grace without good works.
ReplyDeleteI think it goes to this balance between what our responsibility is to God to grow and seek him, balanced with God's grace and the blood of Christ which makes it so we can seek God, and eventually get to him.
im actually preaching about that on sunday... weird.
i do agree with what the class came up with. faith without works IS dead. we cannot have a faith so strong that we are searching after the heart of christ, but not doing what Christ called us to do. we can have all the faith in the world but we also need to be servants. and that means working for Christ. Works is a result of the faith that we grow in everyday. BUT works are not enough, we can't go through life doing good things, but reject God, or just forget about faith! it doesn't work like that. we do works in accordance with our faith.
ReplyDeleteYes Kara, and class it makes sense. If you have faith but don't do anything about it, how can you say you have faith. I say I have faith that the Boston Red Sox are going to win the world series this year, so what do I do, i show my faith. I put on the hat and watch the game. It's like with Faith in God. I believe God can save us, i believe God is real so go to church. I go to people and show them my faith. People see this and that makes them believe as well.
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