Space-Filling Thoughts

Photo from Unsplash One of the dangers to which the church has been exposed for a while now is the teaching that one can be a Christian or child of God without living a life that is different from the world and in conformity to God’s word.  People therefore talk about “carnal Christianity” or “disobedient children of God.”  The idea is that you can be saved by Christ without ever repenting of your sins or living a change life.  Others are even more radical and say that you never even have to come to faith in Christ at all. Part of the problem here is a misunderstanding of the nature and role of faith in salvation.  First of all, there are those who misunderstand the nature of saving faith.  They argue that saving faith is just intellectual assent to the truths of the gospel and that you can have this faith without ever repenting of your sins.  In the 18th century, this was called Sandemanianism; today it is called “no-Lordship salvation.”  I say this i...