Huntley tonite: Acts 2:38 is the Only Gospel

[Sam]

Originally Posted by staysharp

Yes, according to Paul...

Romans 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

He was justified before circumcision...

9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

I know its hard to accept faith in Christ as the only path to God, but it's really not complicated. Once we are saved and married to Christ, our faith produces good works pleasing to the Lord.

Don't Paul in Romans and James in his epistle address faith from two different viewpoints? Paul in Romans addresses faith from God's viewpoint. He sees the heart and the instant a person believes the person is justified. James addresses faith from man's standpoint. Man looks upon the outward appearance and cannot see the heart so the only way a human can see your faith is by your works. Abraham was justified by faith many years before he offered Isaac on the altar of sacrifice but the way we humans could see Abraham's faith was by his willingness to offer his son expecting God to raise him from the dead.