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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Saved by Faith Alone?, #11
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [immorality], and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)
Forgiveness is included in Divine grace but is only one aspect of grace.
Grace in its finest, purest form is Christ Himself. Just as righteousness and eternal life are Christ Himself, so it is true that Divine Grace is Christ Himself. All the believer needs for life and glory is in the Lord Jesus and is the Lord Jesus.
Grace is the Presence of God that has come to mankind in order to make new creatures—life-giving spirits. Grace includes forgiveness but actually is the Divine Virtue in action to change the descendants of Adam into life-giving creatures.
To make new-covenant grace an alternative to godly behavior is to change the grace of God into immorality. It is to completely destroy the purpose of God in the new covenant.
"Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [immorality]" (above) means they had accepted the forgiveness of God and then had continued in ungodly behavior.
Faith. "The just shall live by faith" is a declaration of the Old Testament and is repeated three times in the New Testament. "The just shall live by faith" is the motto of the Protestant Reformation. Some of the Protestants added the idea that justification is "by faith alone."
The concept of the righteous living by faith is attended by much confusion of thinking. The idea that we are justified by faith alone is not scriptural. This position is denied by the Apostle James.
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)
James has stated that if faith is alone, not accompanied by righteous works, it is dead! The Protestants have misunderstood the Word of God.
The confusion that surrounds the concept of the just living by faith has to do with what it means to "live by faith."
To live by faith is understood to mean that at some point we state our belief that the Lord Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our justification. We receive eternal righteousness, the legal standing of imputed (ascribed) righteousness, if we ever once state our belief that the Lord Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our justification. Some teachers, in complete misunderstanding of the Scriptures, go so far as to state that once we make a profession of belief we never again can be lost to the purposes of God.
The above is not at all what it means to live by faith.
First of all, to live by faith is to live by faith. It is a way of life, not a statement of belief.
To live by faith is to live by humble dependence upon God. To not live by faith is to live by arrogance and self-reliance.
The righteous live by humble dependence upon God. The unrighteous live by arrogance and self-reliance.
To be continued.