| How Much Doctrine?, Part 2 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, January 11 2010 00:00 |
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This week we return to the question of how much doctrine must a Christian believe in order to be saved. The question arose from this paragraph in an earlier devotional: Wherever I find a believer, I have found a brother. Justification is by faith, not by joining a certain group, performing certain rituals (which differ from group to group), believing certain doctrines, or maintaining certain moral practices. When any or all of the above become criteria for salvation, then some man or group of men must exist to arbiter who measure up and who do not. That gives those people ultimate power over the consciences and souls of others. That’s what it’s really all about: power and control, and that is humanism that defies the sovereign power of God. The Scriptures teach plainly that we are justified by faith (Acts 13:39, Gal. 2:16, Rom. 3:28, 30, Rom. 5:1). To be justified is to be declared righteous in the sight of God. To be declared righteous means that we are declared innocent of the charge of sin, thus forgiven, and that we have acceptable and favorable standing with God. Justification is by, upon, on, by means of, through faith alone. Scripture declares that we are not justified in this sense by works. (James does not use the word in the same way that Paul does. James is saying of Abraham that his works of obedience vindicated the reality of his faith, and in that sense justified it. Hence, there is no contradiction.) We are not justified because of faith, for that would make faith a work. In a later devotional we shall explore the meaning of saving faith. But for now, let’s notice the fact that we are justified by faith and not by works. While it is true that understanding is a gift from God (Matt. 13:11, Phil. 1:9, 2 Tim. 2:7), the pursuit of knowledge requires human effort (Eph. 5:17, 2 Pet. 3:18). To that extent, knowledge is a work. If we say that one must know certain doctrines to be saved, that he must attain to a certain level of knowledge of doctrine before we are justified, means we have taken a position of justification by works. And that would be heresy! For that reason we must say that the knowledge of certain doctrines is not the determining factor for whether one is saved or not, for whether he is justified or not, indeed, for whether he is a Christian or not. In our next devotional we shall examine the usual reason for the confusion. Thank you for reading. God bless you all. |
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