I think it is Scripturally impossible to deny that the cross demonstrates God's love for us, while we were yet sinners, and that faith without works is dead. This is not the same as "salvation by works" nor is it an attempt to deny the cross. Denying the cross is saying you love Jesus and then being blinded to "love one another."
It of course would not be right to say that
Acts 2:38 believers are universally unloving, or any other adjective, since any large group is made up of different hearts; but a people become known by their fruits, and truthful cliches are developed as a witness.
Grace is an ideal we are all still working toward, i believe; we still exhibit pretty much all of the characteristics of Law, imo; one of them might be developing a law by which others must be "saved," and, possibly, deeming those that Christ would advise one to "Go, and do likewise" as being "lost," somehow, as a result of that law.
I am not denying your argument, as far as it goes; but i am judging it by its fruit.
"Every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord."
This is a great confession; but it is meaningless if one does not have love to show they understand it; and we have several passages, more than one, that indicate that it is those who demonstrate
Love one another that best reflect the cross--and several that indicate that the ones most loudly proclaiming a law are judged for lack of love.
And the question "If
Acts 2:38 saves me, why not just wait until my deathbed to perform it?" becomes an answer, i think.
Threaded Mode
