Faith without works is dead. (Saving faith, the chair illustration)
praise_yeshua > 12-10-2019, 07:11 PM
I was listening to a sermon on faith today and I was reminded of an old illustration often used.
The illustration goes something like this.....
"sitting in a chair" is believing that the chair will hold you up. That "Saving faith" is sitting down and RESTING upon the work of the chair to hold you up. It is usually accompanied by the words found in James "faith without works is dead"......
Well..... there is so many things wrong with this illustration that it is hard to know where to begin. The first place to begin might be the most obvious.
"James" gave an illustration of exactly what he was talking about and he didn't use "sitting in a chair" as an example. He used a very specific example in the life of Abraham.
1. Thus...... You have someone replacing the example found in the Bible with THEIR OWN example or equating THEIR illustration to be equal or superior to the one recorded in the Bible.
2. What man sees as an illustration or confirmation of "works in action"= faith... is actually only appearances.
There is ONLY one person that can truly Judge "motives" for any action. That alone is God and ONLY HE is right.
Yes. Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them" but this is something WE can't truly KNOW because its not ours. Its God's. We should deal with them in this life in a manner of approval of their fruits or not but we must remember that we truly don't know
Thus we are admonished to.....
1Co 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.