“By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin and restored to the favour of God.” But how can one be assured their faith has been justified? Assurance was a heated debate during the reformation period. It is apparent that Wesley wrestled with how to verbalize this piece of salvation puzzle as his critics found his ideas to be contradictory at times. For sake of clarity, only the explicable attributes for assurance will be brought forth. First and foremost, God is the source of assurance and not the individual. Secondly, the fruits of the Spirit are testimony or evidence of justified faith. “The Spirit of God does give a believer such a testimony of his adoption that while it is present to the soul he can no more doubt the reality of his sonship than he can doubt of the shining of the sun while he stands in the full blaze of his beams.” In other words, a person is assured that their faith has justified them from being a servant of God to being a child of God because of the witnessed fruits or signs of the Holy Spirit working within their heart. A third attribute is that assurance is self-evident. Even though he spoke in absolute tones, Wesley contemplated assurance for many years as he reconciled the experience of others. This eventually led him to acknowledge the idea that assurance could vary for certain people, in extreme circumstance at most. He also conceded from personal experience that the intensity of assurance can change over time. How, then, does
Sometimes when we hear the word justification we find it accompanied by other “ation” words: sanctification, glorification, propitiation, regeneration and imputation. These words are from time to time used interchangeably. This can be confusing and needs to be clarified before continuing. Imputation is where credit has been given. It can also mean to lay responsibility on someone. With God, imputation is where He accounts righteousness to the believer. Sanctification is separate from justification. Justification is about one’s position with God; sanctification is about one’s spiritual condition. Propitiation is defined in “Reformation tradition as the satisfaction of divine wrath upon sin”. Regeneration is the creation of a new heart and new spirit. This change of heart and spirit is what allows us to live righteous lives. Glorification comes once we receive our heavenly reward. It is the completion of our salvation.
When talking about human nature many answers starts appearing depending on who you talk to. With many atheists claiming procreating and survival of oneself are part of human nature, but that should be considered our instincts. As many other species of animals are capable of demonstrating this trait and not considered human nature. The bible describes our nature of being good when God first created Adam in the beginning of genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.“ It was not until the fall of man that created sin and lead to the corruption of the original design that God had created. The mystery of original sin by Shuster describes the fall as “What went wrong in the beginning marks everything that follows. Adam’s sin not only
Evangelical critics comment that when one speaks of justification it is indeed necessary but not firmly sufficient to underscore that believers are both justified and kept by grace. The ground of divine acceptance must be made patently clear. It is neither by our works, nor our love, that we are justified.
Dispensationalism maintains only one method of salvation through the dispensations, however, the dispensational idea that the content of faith changes, raises suspicions. The law was added in to grace and could not save (Ryrie, 2007). Thus, the law marked out the character of transgressions until Jesus Christ should come (Ryrie, 2007, p. 128). Without the law, there would no knowledge of God’s grace, and if righteousness could be gained through the law, grace would have no purpose (Gal. 2:21). Thus, the law’s purpose was to mark out grace, while grace fulfilled the law’s purpose (Rom. 10:4). Based on the characteristics of God’s immutability, this author believes that since God cannot change, neither can the content of faith, the measure of God’s grace, or the method and means of salvation. Dispensationalism does add value to Christendom; however, dispensationalism does create confusion over how one is saved. Thus, it is this author’s belief, that with a basic understanding of God’s characteristic of immutability, the church can eliminate any and all confusion concerning salvation and how one is saved.
Martin Luther wrestled over justification his whole life, it tore him apart and tore him away from the church. He set out to challenge the belief of the church at the time. He came to the opinion, from his study of the gospel and the early church, that justification comes from God’s gift of grace, that only must be accepted through faith.
The theme of Romans 5:1-5 Justification by Faith. When believers are justified and declared righteous, we have peace with God. Previously, we learned that the sinful nature of humankind provoked the wrath of God. Then Paul explained that the righteousness of God was needed. Additionally, through God’s grace, His righteousness was revealed to those who believed in Jesus Christ. Now Paul explains that through the death of Christ, believers find peace with God. Believers are no longer disobedient and God is no longer angry. Justification means believers are acquitted of guilt and have a right relationship with God. However, being in right relationship with God does not exempt us from suffering. Just as the grace of God is necessary for believers to be declared righteous, suffering is necessary to give us the strength to press on. Nevertheless, we can be sure that God is with us through our sufferings. Our sufferings give us strength and the glory of God helps us endure through the suffering.
An observation of this compelling issue is, all humans are extended the opportunity to receive salvation. However, in order to receive salvation that brings credits us with righteousness, we must have faith that God the Father sent his son Jesus to take
3. Justification by faith- Forgiveness and removal of sin by God can be achieved only through faith alone a. Emphasized by Martin Luther during the Reformation. Weakened the power of the Church by saying that it was not needed for salvation. Also
In addition, reason may only be utilized when provided with experience (115). However, experience, at times, can exceed that which reason has the power to evaluate (117). And so, when reason is unable to be utilized to evaluate a particular experience, the hermeneutical process between reason and experience becomes useful. We can evaluate our experiences via reason continually until our experiences eventually point in a direction that can, perhaps, issue analyzable knowledge on issues that were, at first, merely subjective (120). If an experience never arises in an objective, rather than subjective, way throughout the hermeneutical, then Wesley admits that not even his concept of “spiritual senses” can resolve the issue and the experience
Faith operates in a unique way by providing the average, the noble, or the distasteful with a means to understand the world we inhabit. However, our worldly experiences also operate as a means to understanding the complexities of our faith. For St. Augustine, faith provides more questions than answers, but consequently leads to his life as a bishop and eventually sainthood. For some, however, the Bible provides the answers to all the questions that go unanswered by common sense. In St. Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine is able to further understand himself and his faith in Christ by reflecting on anecdotes of his past. Conversely, the Bible’s use of etiology provides spiritual justification for physical realities.
When Wesley talked about development in holiness, and the fundamental goal of being entire sanctification, he was fixed that sanctification and justification is by faith. In his preaching, “The Scripture Way of Salvation”, Wesley expounded the faith by which Christians are perfected is because God is able, he promised in Scripture, he is willing, and he really does it 1) God has foretold this in Scripture. 2) What God promises, God is able to do. 3) God is capable and willing to manage it right away. 4) God actually answers this. Wesley concluded the sermon by exhorting his audience “expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now!”
John Wesley clearly saws that Christian’s doctrinal defenses hangs completely on the work of Christ. For examples if one’s leg is decline, bend or diminished it will not be affective strong enough to do all things. It is the same principle for atonement works in Christian life. Therefore, Wesley’s defense his own theological shield on the doctrine of atonement and his deficiency stands with great
John Wesley’s discourse, “The Means of Grace,” expresses the expedient of grace as, “outward signs, language, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end— to be the ordinary channels whereby he might impart to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” Acknowledging his need and proceeding in his evangelization, Wesley could obtain the grace he needed to have both the potency and placidity that was eluding from his religion. God utilized his perpetuated participation in the ministry of Scripture to proclaim faith in Christ into Wesley’s philosophy.
We need Jesus because there is no hope of salvation without him. This is a concept that holds the basis of Christianity. In this paper I want to go over what I think are the most important pieces of evidence to this thesis: Jesus as the prophesied seed of the women, Jesus as our mediator, prophet, and priest, and lastly Jesus as our king.
The purpose of this thesis is to provide an understanding of the meaning of Soteriology and the relation to the Doctrine of Salvation and Grace (Free Grace). Soteriology is “the study of the doctrine of salvation.” Basically, the teaching of Soteriology is part of Systematic Theology.