(Rom 3:8 ESV) 8 And why not do evil that good may come?–as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
Notice the charge Paul responds to: “why not do evil that good may come?” Why were such charges being made against Paul? Continue reading
I’ve said this many times before, but given where we are in the discussion, I really have to reiterate this point: People are far more motivated by relationship than reward and punishment.
My parents are nearly 90. They couldn’t spank me if they wanted to. And they seem quite intent on spending whatever inheritance I might have otherwise received. Hence, no reward and no punishment — not if we weren’t in relationship. Continue reading
Before we answer further why Christians work even though they’re saved by faith in Jesus and not works — even those who do not work, we have to consider why, oh why, we care.
Why do we care that a Christian is lazy if God saves the Christian who doesn’t work? And we do care — very much. And we should.
I think it’s because those who are more mature care about the things of God. Lazy Christians don’t convert the lost — and we love the lost. Lazy Christians don’t feed the poor — and we love the poor. Lazy Christians don’t care for their brothers and sisters as they should — and we love our brothers and sisters. Continue reading
Either due to my incompetence or due to the hacking, I lost the list of progressive blogs and discussion groups once posted on this site.
But I found a copy in an old back up, predating the loss. I doubt that it’s entirely up to date, but it’s pretty close.
Whew!!!
If your favorite blog (other than this one, of course) or discussion group is missing, please let me know by comment and I’ll add it.
If one of the links is out of date, please let me know that, too.
At long last, Norton’s has freed One In Jesus from blacklist purgatory. You can confirm this by clicking on the “Monitored by Sucuri” icon over on the right.
If you are still having trouble logging in, here are some suggestions — Continue reading
(Rom 4:5 ESV) And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Does this mean that Christians aren’t expected to do good works? The verse sure seems to be saying that Christians are those who do not work.
One In Jesus has been hacked twice in the last few weeks — and has never been hacked before. It’s a common problem. Edward Fudge and Cecil Hook had their sites hacked, as have many major corporations. But you’d think that running a standard, popular blogging program like WordPress would prevent such things. But, no, it doesn’t.
It’s a terrible feeling — like being stolen from. These particular hacks weren’t designed so much to crash the site as to provide a launch point for phishing efforts — that is, the site was taken over for the sake of theft.
I’ve now subscribed to a service called Sucuri, which monitors the site for malware and cleans up any hacks, all for $89.99 per year. I’ve also installed a plugin called Bullet Proof Security, which makes several changes to the site making it much harder to hack. Continue reading
This is ju…u…u…st a little late, since my birthday was last Sunday. But it’s been a hard week, what with preacher interviews, travel, a hacked website, and back problems — leading to a variety of medicinal ministrations. (As I sit here typing, I have three ice packs wrapped about my tronchanteric bursae and sacroiliac.)
But despite the delay caused by all the distractions, I deeply appreciate all the birthday greetings. It was an astonishing number — from at least 5 continents. I was greatly encouraged during a time when I really needed it.
As shown by the preceding post, “works” refers to far more than works of the Law of Moses — indeed, to anything that is claimed to be a path to justification other than faith in Jesus. Therefore, passages such as Galatians 2:16 do not allow us to create a New Testament version of the Law of Moses as a path to justification.
(Gal 2:15-16 ESV) 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
The usual conservative Church of Christ response to this is to assert that “justification” is only our initial salvation and so Paul is only talking about how saved we are the moment we arise from the baptistry. After that, we’re dealing with “sanctification,” and the rules get tougher! Continue reading
