@GodsGrace @Eternally-Grateful
EG,,,
It's wrong of you to bring into question someone's salvation because they don't agree with you.
Leave the judging of souls to God....which only HE can do.
I agreed
As to Abraham....
James is making a point.
Abraham was declared righteous in 12....
But he also OBEYED God at that time and left his home.
He always OBEYED God....
James used 15, Isaac, because it was such a difficult command to obey...
and yet, Abraham obeyed THAT command too.
Both sides of this argument have brought up Abraham and rightly so, because both Paul and James did~Paul used Abraham as a prefect example of one that
lived under the system of faith, as being the evidence of being a child of God; James used Abraham as a perfect example of
professors of being true worshippers of God, works will be in their life,
even if only a smoking flax and a bruised reed, much like Lot, and his carnality.
Galatians 3:6~Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
This is the most popular Bible quotation (
Genesis 15:6;
Romans 4:3,
5,
6,
9,
22,
24;
Galatians 3:6;
Jamess 2:23).
Paul declared New Testament worship of Christ to be comparable to Abraham’s worship, and it is.
The adverbial phrase, even as, means that there is a very strong comparison to be seen. Paul has been mentioning faith over and over, and Abraham
is the greatest example of it. The Galatians stood by faith (2:16; 3:1-5); God approved Abraham by faith (
Gen 15:6). This is precious and sweet, if you grasp Paul introduced Abraham as father to Gentiles!
The Judaizer false teachers could only offer some connection to Moses by circumcision.
Why is Abraham so important? For very good reasons in opposing the legalism of Judaizers. All the Jews recognized Abraham as the great friend of God, inheritor of promises, and father of the nation, in whom they took great confidence (
Matt 3:9;
John 8:33;
Ex 3:6).
For those trusting Abraham, he was a man approved and commended by God for faith. For those trusting circumcision, Abraham was declared righteous before it (
Rom 4:9-12). For those trusting Law, Abram was righteous 430 years before (
Rom 4:13-16;
Gal 3:17).
What did Abraham believe? God promised him a son and a multitudinous seed (
Gen 15:6).
Did Abraham call forth faith in order to be justified and made righteous by God at this time?
Here is where we greatly differ from Arminians and Calvinists alike about justification, whom we find to be very similar on this doctrine,
when we press them for definitions~which we try to do with
@Eternally-Grateful, but he refused to answer.
Arminians ( @ Eternally-Grateful ) hold
conditional justification – faith is the human condition for righteousness~and some among them like
@GodsGrace and
@synergy add works boldly as means in order to obtain life in the world to come, along with their faith produce by their so-called free will, of their sinful flesh.
Many Calvinists hold instrumental justification –
faith is the instrument receiving righteousness.
We deny both as being heretical notions, for our faith does not affect
legal justification.
The text says God accepted Abraham’s faith and counted it
as evidence for righteousness, which is how we understand it:
our faith is the spiritual evidence and fruit of salvation.
The difference is significant ~ is legal justification conditional, or is it unconditional? Is faith the means of righteousness before God, or is it
only the evidence of righteousness?
Consider carefully: Abraham had believed God and his promises and trusted Him obediently long before
this minor event (
Gen 12:1-4;
Heb 11:8;
Gen 12:7,
8;
13:4,
14-18;
14:17-24).
If this event was the conditional or instrumental cause of Abraham’s justification, then he was a condemned pagan in his previous acts of worship, which God joyfully accepted! Think again!
Did Melchizedek bless Abram as a condemned sinner on his way to the lake of fire (
Gen 14:18-20)?
Before Abraham could get started believing, God had already accepted him (
Gen 15:1)!
If this event was the conditional or instrumental cause of Abraham’s justification, then the shish-ka-bob javelin act of Phinehas was his condition or instrument (
Ps 106:30-31)! Consider this well and in closing answer these questions if you can......
Is it an act of faith that justifies? A life of faith? Or only while you have faith? Or what?
Or, is it true that
legally we are justified by
the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ alone? And our faith and
other good works are the evidence that we have been justified by the grace of God on the behalf of Jesus Christ. I stand upon this blessed and biblical truth, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
