Article by Gary Deddo, President of Grace Communion Seminar
Even after centuries of debate, Protestantism does not seem to have settled on how best to speak about the connection between faith in God’s grace in Jesus Christ and the life of obedience. All informed biblically grounded Christian teachers recognize that salvation is God’s work and that it is received by faith. They also recognize that the resulting life with Christ involves obedience to Christ. The problem is how to affirm one without denying—or severely qualifying—the other. How to avoid both works righteousness and antinomianism.
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Gary,
Thanks for diagnosing and exposing with great precision the core of what we need to apprehend in the seemingly perennial law/grace debate. As we fix our eyes and hearts on Jesus‘ finished work the Spirit transforms us. „Trust the Lord“ is not just a platitude, but the power of change. We preach that in Christ we are a „new creation“. Yet, in our experience, we often live according to the old Adam. Instead of looking at Jesus, we look at the self. Jesus is freedom, legalistic moralism a chain. I find that the term „obedience of faith“ expresses well how we should understand our relationship with the Lord and our participatory grateful response firmly anchored and energized in and by him.
Amen. Thank you Mr. Gary for this article
Thanks Gary — excellent points!