On 7/19/06, George Murphy <gmurphy@raex.com> wrote:
>
> OK, I've been trying to resist getting into this, both because I'm soon
> going to get off the list for while and because, frankly, I haven't found
> discussions with Rich F. very profitable. But there's an important point
> that's being missed here, though I think (perhaps surprisingly) that Rich F.
> is the closest to being right on this particular point.
>
> What's being left out here is faith, the most important aspect of which is
> trust. & faith, properly understood, is the open hand which receives what
> God wants to give us. "Justification by faith" means to accept the gift of
> forgiveness, salvation, &c which God freely gives for Christ's sake. Of
> course there are different levels of trust & we properly trust in other
> people & things but our ultimate trust is to be in God rather than anything
> else - *including ourselves*. Faith is, therefore, closely related to
> "submission" - though not submission in a servile way.
>
> But it is precisely the need for this type of submission that rules out
> claims like "God favors the learned," the subject of previous debate. If
> God favors the learned & I'm learned then I have something in myself that I
> can rely on to gain God's favor. My submission need be only partial because
> I can say to God "Here's something that you should reward me for."
>
> Acceptance by God depends only upon God, & faith is simply the passive
> acceptance of God's choice. That is illustrated nicely in Gen.15 where
> God makes a covenant with Abram while he's asleep!
>
> Shalom
> George
> http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>
George put it better than I could. Perhaps this could be a piece of common
ground. Rich?
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Received on Wed Jul 19 15:16:17 2006
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