Mf Blume,
Are you saying that justification is conditional on future deeds? Then at what time can I say that I am justified, before the deeds are done or as soon as I get them done?
Abraham in
Genesis 15 knew nothing of
Genesis 22 but yet he was justified in
Genesis 15. Isn't it more accurate instead to say that a believer can know that he is justified before God WHEN he believes (apart from works either future or present)
Saving faith can be present in deeds, can be absent in deeds, and obviously can be present without deeds, and necessarily so at that, considering that faith without deeds IS the kind of faith that saves, otherwise it's not saving faith. Saving faith, which is the issue, is an inclination of the heart that is disheartened by deeds or works...otherwise if it were not such an inclination it would be presumptuous enough to have no need of a worker other than itself. Saving faith IS the acknowledgment of the inability of deeds to justify, whether past present or future, and the reliance on the ability of another to justify regardless, not on account of, deeds whether past, present or future.
If you are saying that saving faith will lead to good works, then I agree. However, saving faith and justification is NOT conditional upon future works. There is a difference between fruit and root.
James says we're justified by works...Paul says it's by faith apart from works. The only difference is the clause "before God." And since God gives faith, and since God justifies then no one can say a person is NOT justified because of the absence of works, and the opposite is true also...no one can say a person is justified because of the presence of works. God knows.
But I agree that it is faith that is the causal agent of salvation.
a
Threaded Mode
