Revisiting the Screen Door

Here's an interesting use of blogging as a ministry tool. Over at Adrian Warnock's blog, he's in a dialog with Duck of the Daily Duck, who seems to be a politically right-of-center lapsed Catholic¹; lapsed might be harsh, for his religious life may well be better than his friendly-but-skeptical writing. However, what is ensuing is an stimulating discussion of some core Christian doctrines.

There are multiple posts that can be had from the Warnock-Duck dialog, especially off of this Duck critique of atonement doctrine. However, it's Duck's review of a Warnock sermon podcast that got my attention. It's Matthew 25 that he's quoting.

But if I were to argue against Adrian's position above, derived from Romans 8, that only a turn to Christ in the spirit will bring salvation, from a Biblical standpoint, I would invoke Matthew 31-46:

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' 37Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' 40And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' 45Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

If good works held no influence on salvation, then this passage makes no sense. Clearly Jesus is telling his followers here to look for him "in the flesh", not in the spirit. Those of his followers who looked to him but not to the opportunities to help their fellow man, even if it means taking their eyes off of him, will not be saved. Jesus is not making a distinction between the spirit and the flesh, but is saying that the two are one.

The other classic verse on that theme is James 2:17's "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Or, as Rich Mullins put it, as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

However, a comprehensive look at scripture would argue for the case that faith produces a changed heart which then produces the works. Here's a 2002 Edifier that's worth quoting-

Worksies might point out that James 2 says faith without works is dead, but I'll counter that it the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit that comes concurrent with one's faith that produces the works. An earnest faith in and love of God will be expressed by various works, but will not be the cause of one's salvation.

If you don't have anything to show that you have a changed heart, there's a good reason to question whether you've actually been saved in the first place. It doesn't mean you have a quota of good works that you have to meet in order to punch a salvation ticket, but that you allow the Holy Spirit to start the sanctification process and lead you from a more-worldly approach and towards a more godly approach.

¹D'oh! It takes me four years to fully get the pun in Relapsed Catholic. We don't use lapsed in too many other connotations other than "lapsed Catholic," so relapsed usually is associated (at least in my mind) with "falling off the wagon" and back into an vice of some sort.

Comments

[Bene D]

Good for you! Kathy had a lot of us doing a double take:^)
Praying for you Mark.