Friday, May 21, 2010

When Christianity Is defined by Actions Instead of Belief

When Christianity is defined by actions and not belief, one of two things are more than likely to happen.

1) The gospel will be pushed out of the center and all but abandoned for the sake of the actions by which Christianity has now become defined by. The fact is that nearly all actions required of Christians are not distinctive to those who believe in the gospel. The one thing that separates Christians from everyone else is belief and trust in the gospel of grace in Jesus. There are countless people who are OK with "following Jesus" in his ethics while content to ignore his atonement.

Or

2) The one thing that will define the Christian life will be the one thing that can separate us from others: evangelism. Witnessing/Personal Evangelism will and already has become the baseline for determining the status of whether a person is Christian in the current evangelical culture. This is the inevitable result of placing emphasis on works at the expense of belief.

In the first inevitability, the call to these deeds are biblical, explicit and agreed on by every believer, though there may be disagreement on how to do these actions in particulars. The difference is motivation. In the second inevitability, the call is not so explicit and certainly not the thrust of the NT since there is never one explicit call to personal evangelism. Of course this does not mean it cannot be effective or that we should not do it. But it does tell us that if it were the bottom line for defining Christian faithfulness, the Apostles would have been more explicit and well, there would have been more talk of it.

There may be other inevitabilities for defining the Christian life in terms of action over belief but these are certain - as they are being played out everywhere in the current evangelical climate.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Fashion Jewelry Manufacturer from China-Wonderful-jewelry.com supplies top quality fashion jewelry wholesale, fashion costume jewelry wholesale, cz jewelry wholesale. We are one of the biggest online jewelry wholesale store. Offering best customers' service and fast delivery. Shipping worldwide.


fashion jewelry wholesale
cz-jewelry-wholesale.com
terryzhu329.blogspot.es

Jim said...

Kingsoft office software officially released the latest prerelease version of WPS Office 2007, adhering to the version of WPS Office 2012 smart brisk, convenient installation, the depth is compatible with Microsoft Office Professional 2007.

Atlas Equipments said...

"I quite like looking through an article that will make people think.

Also, thank you for allowing me to comment
"

- Portable Concrete Batching Plant | Screed vibrator | Stationary Concrete Plant

Gujarat Carz said...

Hi it’s me, I am also visiting this web site daily, this site is really pleasant and the users are actually sharing pleasant thoughts.

- taxis in ahmedabad | online taxi booking | book cab online