One of the greatest controversies that has been a part of the
church since its inception is the role that the law plays in the life of a
Christian. On the one hand, you have those who believe that the law is
everything. In other words, you can do what you need to in order to attain
perfection and be “right” with God. This idea found perhaps its greatest
proponent in America in the person of Charles Finney. On the other hand, you
have the folks who, like the non-lordship salvation proponents, will tell us
that the law matters not one wit. As long as you say a prayer and “accept”
Jesus you’re golden. Thus, you have people such as Sam Gipp, a King James only
proponent, telling us that an individual who rejected his faith and now does
his best to destroy the faith of others, is still saved (whatever that means!)
“I think my mind has been too intent on things which I look
upon as services for the Church. But God will have us know that he has no need
of me nor them, and is therefore calling me off them. Help me with your prayers
that I may, through the riches of his grace in Christ, be in some measure ready
for my account.” John Owen, Letter to Charles Fleetwood
One of the defining differences between the Bible and the
purported holy books of other religions, is the fact that the Bible does not
seek to paper over the faults of its main characters. From beginning to end,
the Bible shows the lives of the protagonists in its narratives with their many
virtues, but also with their many warts. Although it calls Abraham the “friend
of God” (James 2:23), it also tells of the unbelief that led him to seek to
have a child with Hagar (Genesis 16) and to lie about Sarah (Genesis 20).
Although it says that David was a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), it
also tells of his adultery, murder and unbelief (2 Samuel 11). (As an aside,
the Qur'an, and Islam in general, considers all its prophets sinless).
“For just as the body without the Spirit is dead, so is faith
without works dead being alone” (James 2:26).
One of the great debates within so-called Christendom is just
how works and grace interact in the salvation of man. The Roman Catholic church
officially stipulates that works are a part of the justification process and
that, although grace is necessary to bring about the salvation of the soul, it is
not in and of itself sufficient for that purpose. This was perhaps the greatest
“bone of contention” between the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, et. al.) and the
Roman church. Whereas Rome dogmatically set forth the essential nature of works
in contributing to a man’s salvation at the council of Trent—including
baptismal regeneration—the Reformers insisted that grace alone, through faith,
was the vehicle through which God saved the sinner.