From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In a message dated
3/25/2004 1:01:18 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
john: What we call the "social gospel" is not without merit as I read Isa 58:9-11.
Romans 2:18ff shows that there is at least a second path to God other than preaching the gospel. John
jt: No John, there is just one way/door and this is through Christ and by repentance.
john: It is the sacrifice of Christ that makes salvation for the world a factual reality.
john: What we call the "social gospel" is not without merit as I read Isa 58:9-11.
Romans 2:18ff shows that there is at least a second path to God other than preaching the gospel. John
jt: No John, there is just one way/door and this is through Christ and by repentance.
john: It is the sacrifice of Christ that makes salvation for the world a factual reality.
Romans 2:18ff (let's not forget that I have quoted scripture) works because
of the blood of Christ.
jt: The blood of Christ does not work by osmosis. There
must be some understanding
and a repentant heart involved.
john: And what does Romans 2 offer in terms of revelatory truth?
That those who have
a natural inclination to accomplish the law have the offer of salvation.
jt: It is not our natural inclination to love God
with all of our heart, soul, mind, and
strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. This kind
of love is supernatural and ONLY
comes by way of grace through faith. If you refer
to Romans 2:14 here "For when the
Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the
things contained in the law, these
having not the law are a law unto themselves"
please know that the nature Paul
speaks of here is that of the New Creation in Christ;
this is most definitely not the
old unregenerate nature.
Vs.14 refers to fulfilling God's law through Christ.
When we realize that Christ beleived that only two statments summed up all
of the law and
prophets (Love God and love your neighbor), we can understand just how one
might accomplish
his will instinctively --
jt: How John? Instinct does not make it
happen. Outside of Christ we know nothing of this
kind of love. In the flesh
we are at enmity with God and unwilling to lay down our lives for
another. Even in Paul's
generation he wrote in one place that he could only find one person
who genuinely cared about the sheep. Only one
person who was not all taken up with his
own affairs and who cared for the things of Christ.
That's sad....
and that is the message of Paul. In Isa 58:9-11 (a passage that
helped me in a very personal way)
makes it very clear that some search for God in vain, thainking that
compliance with form is more
important or just as important as a true conversion of the heart.
David, in Psalms 51 makes it
very clear that compliance to for (the altar of sacrifice of the
current law of God) was NOT what
God really wanted. Rather, God in every age and under whatever
administration seeks
contrition and brokenness.
jt: Yes...and obedience; He wants us to obey His
Word.
When we limit the offer of salvation to the preaching of the "gospel," we actually close the
When we limit the offer of salvation to the preaching of the "gospel," we actually close the
door on objectivity and the truth of salvation for all.
jt: Not if the person is preaching objective
truth.
Don't misunderstand me, here. I beleive that the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation --
but my definition of the gospel is very different from that of
thousands of others. The gospel,
for me, is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ --
period. In my personal ministry,
I was once criticized for not preaching the whole gospel because I omitted
Sunday sermons
on instrumental music and the notion that ministers were not
pastors.
jt: Well I wouldn't take that to heart, that's just the
old CofC devils acting up; if you are
in public ministry criticism is going to be
there. I don't understand what the CofC has
against instrumental music, especially when it is all
through the Psalms.
judyt
