Christian Doctrine of Salvation

Salvation in Christianity

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By nature man is dead in sin Eph. In regeneration we are made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet.

The Doctrine of Salvation

We have put on the new man, which after God is created in holiness and righteousness Eph. Christ now lives in the believer Gal. God's seed now abides in him 1 John 3: So that henceforth the believer is possessed of two natures Gal. Thus regeneration is a crisis with a view to a process. A new governing power comes into the regenerate man's life by which he is enabled to become holy in experience: See also Acts The need is as far reaching as sin and the human race: No age, sex, position, condition exempts anyone from this necessity.

Not to be born again is to be lost. There is no substitute for the new birth: The absolute necessity is clearly stated by our Lord: The mind is darkened so that we cannot apprehend spiritual truth; we need a renewing of the mind Rom. The heart is deceitful, and does not welcome God; we need to be pure in heart to see God. There is no thought of God before the eyes of the natural man; we need a change in nature that we may be counted among those "who thought upon His name.

God alone can do it. If without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. This change, which enables us to be holy, takes place when we are born again. Man is conscious that he does not have this holiness by nature; he is conscious, too, that he must have it in order to appear before God Ezra 9: The Scriptures corroborate this consciousness in man, and, still further, state the necessity of such a righteousness with which to appear before God.

In the new birth alone is the beginning of such a life to be found.

To live the life of God we must have the nature of God. We are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" John 1: It was of His own will he begat us Jas. Our regeneration is a creative act on the part of God, not a reforming process on the part of man. It is not brought about by natural descent, for all we get from that is "flesh.

Nor is it by self-effort, or any human generative principle. Nor is it by the blood of any ceremonial sacrifices. It is not by pedigree or natural generation. It is altogether and absolutely the work of God. Practically speaking, we have no more to do with our second birth, than we had to do with our first birth.

The Holy Spirit is the Divine Agent in our regeneration. For this reason it is called the "renewing of the Holy Ghost" Tit. We are "born of the Spirit" John 3: Those who received Him i. The two great problems connected with regeneration are the efficiency of God and the activity of man. God begat us by "the word of truth" James 1: We are "born again," says Peter 1 Ep. These scriptures teach us that regeneration takes place in the heart of man when he reads or hears the Word of God, or the Gospel message, or both, and, because of the Spirit working in the Word as well as in the heart of man, the man opens his heart and receives that message as the Word of life to his soul.

The truth is illuminated, as is also the mind, by the Spirit; the man yields to the truth, and is born again. Of course, even here, we must remember that it is the Lord who must open our hearts just as He opened the heart of Lydia Acts But the Word must be believed and received by man. This is the clear teaching of John 1: We become "children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Man therefore is not wholly passive at the time of his regeneration. He is passive only as to the change of his ruling disposition.

With regard to the exercise of this disposition he is active. A dead man cannot assist in his own resurrection, it is true; but he may, and can, like Lazarus, obey Christ's command, and "Come forth! It is a change in a man's relation or standing before God. It has to do with relations that have been disturbed by sin, and these relations are personal.

It is a change from guilt and condemnation to acquittal and acceptance. Regeneration has to do with the change of the believer's nature; Justification, with the change of his standing before God. Regeneration is subjective; Justification is objective. The former has to do with man's state; the latter, with his standing. One thing at least is clear from these verses, and that is, that to justify does not mean to make one righteous. Neither the Hebrew nor Greek words will bear such meaning.

To justify means to set forth as righteous; to declare righteous in a legal sense; to put a person in a right relation. It does not deal, at least not directly, with character or conduct; it is a question of relationship. Of course both character and conduct will be conditioned and controlled by this relationship. No real righteousness on the part of the person justified is to be asserted, but that person is declared to be righteous and is treated as such.

Strictly speaking then, Justification is the judicial act of God whereby those who put faith in Christ are declared righteous in His eyes, and free from guilt and punishment. It is difficult for us to understand God's feeling towards sin.

To us forgiveness seems easy, largely because we are indifferent towards sin. But to a holy God it is different. Even men sometimes find it hard to forgive when wronged. Nevertheless God gladly forgives. What a wondrous forgiveness! Forgiveness may be considered as the cessation of the moral anger and resentment of God against sin; or as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; or, again, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death. In Justification, then, all our sins are forgiven, and the guilt and punishment thereof removed Acts God sees the believer as without sin and guilt in Christ Num.

The forgiven sinner is not like the discharged prisoner who has served out his term and is discharged from further punishment, but with no rights of citizenship. No, justification means much more than acquittal. The repentant sinner receives back in his pardon, the full rights of citizenship.

The Society of Friends called themselves Friends, not because they were friends one to another but because, being justified, they counted themselves friends of God as was Abraham 2 Chron. There is also the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the sinner. His righteousness is "unto all and upon all them that believe" Rom. For illustration, see Philemon At the bar of God no man can be counted righteous in His sight because of his obedience to law. The burden of the Epistle to the Romans is to set forth this great truth.

As a means of establishing right relations with God the law is totally insufficient. There is no salvation by character. What men need is salvation from character. The reason why the law cannot justify is here stated: Indeed, it was never intended to remove it, but to intensify it.

The law simply defines sin, and makes it sinful, yea, exceedingly sinful, but it does not emancipate from it. The law demands perfect and continual obedience: The only thing the law can do is to stop the mouth of every man, and declare him guilty before God Rom. It is a question of Moses or Christ, works or faith, law or promise, doing or believing, wages or a free gift.

From the contents of the epistle up to this point it must be clearly evident that if men, sinful and sinning, are to be justified at all, it must be "by his free grace. It is impossible to get rid of this double idea from this passage. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were more than a meaningless butchery -- "Without shedding of blood is no remission" of sin Heb. The great sacrifice of the New Testament, the death of Jesus Christ, was something more than the death of a martyr -- men are "justified by his blood" Rom. When Paul in Romans 4: Thus it come to pass that "all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" Acts The best of men need to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and the worst need only that.

As there is no difference in the need, neither is there in the method of its application. On this common ground all saved sinners meet, and will stand forever. The first step, then, in justification is to despair of works; the second, to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly. We are not to slight good works, for they have their place, but they follow, not precede justification. The workingman is not the justified man, but the justified man is the workingman. Works are not meritorious, but they meet with their reward in the life of the justified.

The tree shows its life by its fruits, but it was alive before the fruit or even the leaves appeared. See under Faith, II. Summing up we may say that men are justified judicially by God.

Regeneration begins the new life in the soul; justification deals with the new attitude of God towards that soul, or perhaps better, of that soul towards God; adoption admits man into the family of God with filial joy. Regeneration has to do with our change in nature; justification, with our change in standing; sanctification, with our change in character; adoption, with our change in position. In regeneration the believer becomes a child of God John 1: Adoption means the placing of a son. It is a legal metaphor as regeneration is a physical one.

It is a Roman word, for adoption was hardly, if at all, known among the Jews. It means the taking by one man of the son of another to be his son, so that that son has the same position and all the advantages of a son by birth. The word is Pauline, not Johannine. The word is never once used of Christ. It is used of the believer when the question of rights, privileges, and heirship are involved. It is peculiarly a Pauline word Gal. John uses the word "children," not "sons," because he is always speaking of sonship from the standpoint of nature, growth, and likeness cf.

We need to distinguish between the foreordaining to adoption, and the actual act of adoption which took place when we believed in Christ. Just as the incarnation was foreordained, and yet took place in time; and just as the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the word, and yet actually only on Calvary. Why then mention this eternal aspect of adoption? To exclude works and to show that our salvation had its origin solely in the grace of God Rom. Just as if we should adopt a child it would be a wholly gracious act on our part.

Sonship is now the present possession of the believer. Strange as it may be, inconceivable as it may seem, it is nevertheless true. The world may not think so v. But some day we shall throw off this disguise 2 Cor. It doth not appear, it hath not yet appeared what we shall be; the revelation of the sons of God is reserved for a future day.

See also I John 3: The blessings of adoption are too numerous to mention save in the briefest way. Some of them are as follows: Objects of God's peculiar love John We have the family name 1 John 3: We receive fatherly chastisement Heb. Those who are adopted into God's family are: Led by the Spirit Rom. Have a childlike confidence in God Gal. Have liberty of access Eph. Have love for the brethren 1 John 2: Are obedient 1 John 5: If Regeneration has to do with our nature, Justification with our standing, and Adoption with our position, then Sanctification has to do with our character and conduct.

In Justification we are declared righteous in order that, in Sanctification, we may become righteous. Justification is what God does for us, while Sanctification is what God does in us. Justification puts us into a right relationship with God, while Sanctification exhibits the fruit of that relationship -- a life separated from a sinful world and dedicated unto God. Two thoughts are prominent in this definition: And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness.

Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord. It is evident from these scriptures that sanctification has to do with the turning away from all that is sinful and that is defiling to both soul and body. In this sense whatever is set apart from a profane to a sacred use, whatever is devoted exclusively to the service of God, is sanctified.

So it follows that a man may "sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord," or he may "sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession" Lev. So also the first-born of all the children were sanctified unto the Lord Num. Even the Son of God Himself, in so far as He was set apart by the Father and sent into the world to do God's will, was sanctified John Whenever a thing or person is separated from the common relations of life in order to be devoted to the sacred, such is said to be sanctified.

Whenever the sacred writers desire to show that the Lord is absolutely removed from all that is sinful and unholy, and that He is absolutely holy in Himself they speak of Him as being sanctified: Sanctification may be viewed as past, present, and future; or instantaneous, progressive, and complete. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The very moment a man believes in Christ he is sanctified, that is, in this first sense: For this reason all through the New Testament believers are called saints 1 Cor. If a man is not a saint he is not a Christian; if he is a Christian he is a saint.

In some quarters people are canonized after they are dead; the New Testament canonizes believers while they are alive. Note how that in 1 Cor. By a simple act of faith in Christ the believer is at once put into a state of sanctification. Every Christian is a sanctified man. The same act that ushers him into the state of justification admits him at once into the state of sanctification, in which he is to grow until he reaches the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ.

Justification differs from Sanctification thus: We are being transformed from one degree of character, or glory, to another. It is because sanctification is progressive, a growth, that we are exhorted to "increase and abound" 1 Thess. The fact that there is always danger of contracting defilement by contact with a sinful world, and that there is, in the life of the true Christian, an ever increasing sense of duty and an ever-deepening consciousness of sin, necessitates a continual growth and development in the graces and virtues of the believer's life.

There is such a thing as "perfecting holiness" 2 Cor. God's gift to the church of pastors and teachers is for the purpose of the perfecting of the saints in the likeness of Christ until , at last, they attain unto the fulness of the divine standard, even Jesus Christ Eph. Holiness is not a mushroom growth; it is not the thing of an hour; it grows as the coral reef grows: Some day the believer is to be complete in all departments of Christian character -- no Christian grace missing.

Complete in the "spirit" which links him with heaven; in the "body" which links him with earth; in the "soul" as being that on which heaven and earth play. Maturity in each separate element of Christian character: This blessing of entire and complete sanctification is to take place when Christ comes: How explicitly Paul puts the matter in Phil. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: How are men sanctified?

What means are used, and what agencies employed to make men holy and conform them into the likeness of Christ? The agencies and means are both divine and human: Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it. Just as in Hebrews Of course there is a sense in which the believer is responsible for his progress in the Christian life Phil.

We cannot purify ourselves, but we can yield to God and then the purity will come. The "God of peace," He who reconciles us -- is the One who sanctifies us. It is as if the apostle said: This same truth, namely, the sanctification of the church as based on the sacrificial death of Christ, is set forth in Eph. Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who gives us freedom from the law of sin and death Rom.

He is called the Holy Spirit, not only because He is absolutely holy Himself, but also because he produces that quality of soul-character in the believer. The Spirit is the executive of the God-head for this very purpose. It is the Spirit's work to war against the lusts of the flesh and enable us to bring forth fruit unto holiness Gal.

How wonderfully this truth is set forth in the contrast between the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans. Note the unsuccessful struggle of the former, and the victory of the latter. Note also that there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in the seventh, while He is mentioned about sixteen times in the eighth chapter.

Herein lies the secret of failure and victory, sin and holiness. Only as the believer, daily, yea, even momentarily, takes by faith the holiness of Jesus, His faith, His patience, His love, His grace, to be his own for the need of that very moment, can Christ, who by His death was made unto him sanctification in the instantaneous sense, become unto him sanctification in the progressive sense -- producing in the believer His own life moment by moment. Herein lies the secret of a holy life -- the momentarily appropriation of Jesus Christ in all the riches of His grace for every need as it arises.

The degree of our sanctification is the proportion of our appropriation of Christ. How does the Word of God sanctify? By revealing sin; by awakening conscience; by revealing the character of Christ; by showing the example of Christ; by offering the influences and powers of the Holy Spirit, and by setting forth spiritual motives and ideals. There is no power like that of the Word of God for detaching a man from the world, the flesh and the devil. One cannot become a saint in his sleep. Holiness must be the object of his pursuit. The lazy man will not be the holy man. God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Sanctification is brought about in the life of the believer by his separating himself deliberately from all that is unclean and unholy, and by presenting, continually and constantly, the members of his body as holy instruments unto God for the accomplishment of His holy purposes.

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Thus by these single acts of surrender unto holiness, sanctification soon becomes the habit of the life. Even a cursory perusal of the Scriptures will reveal the large and important place which the doctrine of Prayer finds therein. The Christian life cannot be sustained without it; it is the Christian's vital breath. Its importance is seen when we recall: That the neglect of prayer is grievous to the Lord Isa. That many evils in life are to be attributed to the lack of prayer Zeph.

That it is a sin to neglect prayer 1 Sam. That to continue in prayer is a positive command Col. That it is God's appointed method of obtaining what He has to bestow Dan. That the lack of the necessary blessings in life comes from failure to pray James 4: That the apostles regarded prayer as the most important employment that could engage their time or attention Acts 6: It is interesting to trace the development of prayer in the Scriptures.

In the life of the patriarch Abraham prayer seems to have taken the form of a dialogue -- God and man drawing near and talking to each other Gen.

3-Fold Salvation

The patriarchal blessings are called prayers Gen During the period of the Law. Not very much prominence is given to formal prayer during this period. Prayer had not yet found a stated place in the ritual of the law. It seems to have been more of a personal than a formal matter, and so while the Law may not afford much material, yet the life of the lawgiver, Moses, abounds with prayer Exod.

David seems to regard himself as a prophet and priest, and prays without an intercessor 2 Sam. The prophets seem to have been intercessors, e. Humanity's offense of rebellion against God is one that demands a restitution or satisfaction. Fallen humanity is incapable of making adequate satisfaction. Nevertheless, such is God's love that God will not simply abandon us to the consequences of our sins.

Anselm wrote, "This debt was so great that, while none but man must solve the debt, none but God was able to do it; so that he who does it must be both God and man. So God took human nature upon himself so that a perfect human might make perfect satisfaction and so restore the human race.

His foundational work is seen later in Calvinism and Arminianism. Eastern Christianity was much less influenced by the theological writings of Augustine. It asks different questions, and it generally views salvation less in forensic terms e. It views salvation more along the lines of divinization or theosis , a seeking to become holy or draw closer to God by being united to him in will and operation as an extension of God in the world, a traditional concept taught in the Orthodox Church , the Oriental Orthodox Churches , and the Eastern Catholic Churches.

It also stresses teaching about forgiveness. Philaret , [41] includes the questions and answers:. How does the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross deliver us from sin, the curse, and death? That we may the more readily believe this mystery, the Word of God teaches us of it, so much as we may be able to receive, by the comparison of Jesus Christ with Adam.

Adam is by nature the head of all humanity, which is one with him by natural descent from him. Jesus Christ, in whom the Godhead is united with manhood, graciously made himself the new almighty Head of men, whom he unites to himself through faith. Therefore, as in Adam we had fallen under sin, the curse, and death, so we are delivered from sin, the curse, and death in Jesus Christ.

His voluntary suffering and death on the cross for us, being of infinite value and merit, as the death of one sinless, God and man in one person, is both a perfect satisfaction to the justice of God, which had condemned us for sin to death, and a fund of infinite merit, which has obtained him the right, without prejudice to justice, to give us sinners pardon of our sins, and grace to have victory over sin and death. Orthodox theology teaches prevenient grace , meaning that God makes the first movement toward humanity, and that salvation is impossible from our own will alone.

However, humanity is endowed with free will , and an individual can either accept or reject the grace of God. Thus an individual must cooperate with God's grace to be saved, and he can claim no credit of his own, as any progress he makes is possible only by the grace of God. The Orthodox Church further teaches that a person abides in Christ and makes his salvation sure not only by works of love, but also by his patient suffering of various griefs, illnesses, misfortunes and failures Luke The Protestant Christian perspective on salvation is that no one can merit the grace of God by performing rituals , good works , asceticism or meditation , because grace is the result of God's initiative without any regard whatsoever to the one initiating the works.

Broadly speaking, Protestants hold to the five solae of the Reformation , which declare that salvation is attained by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone for the Glory of God alone as told in Scripture alone. Some Protestants, such as Lutherans and the Reformed , understand this to mean that God saves solely by grace and that works follow as a necessary consequence of saving grace. Others, such as Methodists and other Arminians , believe that salvation is by faith alone but that salvation can be forfeited if it is not accompanied by continued faith and the works that naturally follow from it.

Most Protestants believe that salvation is achieved through God's grace alone, and once salvation is secured in the person, good works will be a result of this, allowing good works to often operate as a signifier for salvation. A minority rigidly believe that salvation is accomplished by faith alone without any reference to works whatsoever, including the works that may follow salvation see Free Grace theology.

Karl Barth notes a range of alternative themes: For various cultural reasons, the oldest themes honor and sacrifice prove to have more depth than the more modern ones payment of a debt, punishment for a crime. But in all these alternatives, the understanding of atonement has the same structure. Human beings owe something to God that we cannot pay. Christ pays it on our behalf.

Thus God remains both perfectly just insisting on a penalty and perfectly loving paying the penalty himself. A great many Christians would define such a substitutionary view of the atonement as simply part of what orthodox Christians believe. According to Christian Frank Stagg , salvation is rooted in the grace of God.

Both those approaches were about years old. Recently, new accounts of Christ's salvific work have been introduced or reintroduced, and the debates have generally grown angrier, at least from the liberal side. Those who defended substitutionary atonement were always ready to dismiss their opponents as heretics; now some of their opponents complain that a focus on substitutionary atonement leads to violence against women and to child abuse. Lutherans believe that God has justified all sinners , that is, he has declared them " not guilty " for the sake of Christ.

Lutheran churches believe that this is the central message in the Bible upon which the very existence of the churches depends. In Lutheranism, it is a message relevant to people of all races and social levels, of all times and places, for "the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men" Romans 5: All need forgiveness of sins before God, and Scripture proclaims that all have been justified, for "the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men" Romans 5: Lutheranism teaches that individuals receive this free gift of forgiveness and salvation not on the basis of their own works, but only through faith Sola fide: Saving faith is the knowledge of, [46] acceptance of, [47] and trust [48] in the promise of the Gospel.

Calvinists believe in the predestination of the elect before the foundation of the world. All of the elect necessarily persevere in faith because God keeps them from falling away. Calvinists understand the doctrines of salvation to include the five points of Calvinism , typically arranged in English to form the acrostic "TULIP". Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity, held by Christian denominations such as the Methodist Church.

It is based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius — Like Calvinists, Arminians agree that all people are born sinful and are in need of salvation. Classical Arminians emphasize that God's free grace or prevenient grace enables humans to freely respond to or to reject the salvation offered through Christ. Classical Arminians believe that a person's saving relationship with Christ is conditional upon faith, and thus, a person can sever their saving relationship with Christ through persistent unbelief. Arminians hold the following beliefs:. The Five Articles of Remonstrance that Arminius's followers formulated in state the above beliefs regarding I conditional election, II unlimited atonement, III total depravity, IV total depravity and resistible grace, and V possibility of apostasy.

Note, however, that the fifth article did not completely deny perseverance of the saints; Arminius, himself, said that "I never taught that a true believer can… fall away from the faith… yet I will not conceal, that there are passages of Scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect; and those answers to them which I have been permitted to see, are not of such as kind as to approve themselves on all points to my understanding.

Methodism affirms the doctrine of justification by faith, but in Wesleyan-Arminian theology, justification refers to "pardon, the forgiveness of sins", rather than "being made actually just and righteous", which Methodists believe is accomplished through sanctification. Methodist soteriology emphasize the importance of the pursuit of holiness in salvation, [78] a concept best summarized in a quote by Methodist evangelist Phoebe Palmer who stated that "justification would have ended with me had I refused to be holy.

Jones in United Methodist Doctrine writes that in Methodist theology:. Faith is necessary to salvation unconditionally. Good works are necessary only conditionally, that is if there is time and opportunity. The thief on the cross in Luke He believed in Christ and was told, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise. The man was dying and lacked time; his movements were confined and he lacked opportunity. In his case, faith alone was necessary. However, for the vast majority of human beings good works are necessary for continuance in faith because those persons have both the time and opportunity for them.

Bishop Jones concludes that "United Methodist doctrine thus understands true, saving faith to be the kind that, give time and opportunity, will result in good works. Any supposed faith that does not in fact lead to such behaviors is not genuine, saving faith. Christian Universalists agree with both Calvinists and Arminians that everyone is born in sin and in need of salvation. They also believe that one is saved by Jesus Christ. However, they emphasize that judgment in hell upon sinners is of limited duration, and that God uses judgment to bring sinners to repentance.

Western Churches of Christ are strongly anti-Calvinist in their understanding of salvation, and generally present conversion as "obedience to the proclaimed facts of the gospel rather than as the result of an emotional, Spirit-initiated conversion. Some churches of Christ hold the view that humans of accountable age are lost because of their sins. Some Churches of Christ, which don't identify as a denomination, teach that the process of salvation involves the following steps: While other Churches of Christ which identify as a denomination do not hold this view.

Beginning in the s, many preachers began placing more emphasis on the role of grace in salvation, instead of focusing exclusively implementing all of the New Testament commands and examples. Because of the belief that baptism is a necessary part of salvation, some Baptists hold that the Churches of Christ endorse the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

Protestant beliefs about salvation. The general Christian belief that salvation means returning to the presence of God and Jesus is similar to the way the word is used in the Book of Mormon , wherein the prophet Amulek teaches that through the "great and last sacrifice" of the Son of God, "he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice".

There are two kinds of salvation, conditional and unconditional. Unconditional salvation is similar to what is believed by other Christians in that the atonement of Jesus Christ redeems all humanity from the chains of death and they are resurrected to their perfect frames. They will also be redeemed from the powers of Satan, except those sons of perdition of vile wickedness and those who have been enemies to God, in which they will be returned to their master. All others will receive a degree of glory set apart for their just metes.

Conditional salvation of the righteous comes by grace coupled with strict obedience to Gospel principles in which those who have upheld the highest standards and committed to the covenants and ordinances of God will inherit the highest heaven. Full salvation is attained by virtue of knowledge, truth, righteousness, and following true principles. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Part of a series on Christianity Jesus Christ. Jesus in Christianity Virgin birth Crucifixion Resurrection. Moral influence theory of atonement. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.

Plan of salvation Latter Day Saints. Archived from the original on Nov 9, Retrieved Sep 25, Archived from the original on Jul 24, Foundations of religious tolerance. University of Toronto Press, Issues in Theology of Liberation. State University of New York Press, Bridgehead, , pp. Bridgehead, , pp Macmillian, , pp Franks, A history of the doctrine of the work of Christ in its ecclesiastical development vol.

Hodder and Stoughton , p. Kingsway, ; first published , pp. This is a favourite theme in the early Fathers, as H. Turner showed in The Patristic Doctrine of Redemption. It can scarcely be denied that much of the second century understanding of the cross was frankly exemplarist. Bethune-Baker , An introduction to the early history of Christian doctrine to the time of the Council of Chalcedon London: The change, that is, which it effects is a change in man rather than a change in God. It is God's unchangeable love for mankind that prompts the Atonement itself, is the cause of it, and ultimately determines the method by which it is effected.

Turner, The Patristic Doctrine of Redemption: Brondos, Paul on the Cross: Baker, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. Retrieved 21 April Retrieved 14 Feb Archived from the original on You Are Forgiven Through Christ! Yet, no one receives the benefits of this gospel message without faith. By faith, the individual receives the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Concordia Publishing House, Concordia Publishing House, , p. The names appearing in parentheses, while not forming an acrostic, are offered by Theologian Roger Nicole in Steele's book cited herein, The Five Points of Calvinism: Instead, the word 'total' is used to indicate that the "whole" of man's being has been affected by sin. The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. James Nichols and William R. Baker, , I: Contrasting Views of Salvation: Calvinism and Arminianism Nashville: The Quest for Truth: Answering Life's Inescapable Questions Nashville: A Study in Perseverance and Inheritance London: A Theology of Salvation, ch.

This balance is most evident in Wesley's understanding of faith and works, justification and sanctification. Wesley himself in a sermon entitled "Justification by Faith" makes an attempt to define the term accurately. First, he states what justification is not. It is not being made actually just and righteous that is sanctification.

It is not being cleared of the accusations of Satan, nor of the law, nor even of God. We have sinned, so the accusation stands. Justification implies pardon, the forgiveness of sins. Ultimately for the true Wesleyan salvation is completed by our return to original righteousness.

This is done by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Wesleyan tradition insists that grace is not contrasted with law but with the works of the law. Wesleyans remind us that Jesus came to fulfill, not destroy the law. God made us in his perfect image, and he wants that image restored. He wants to return us to a full and perfect obedience through the process of sanctification. Good works follow after justification as its inevitable fruit.

Wesley insisted that Methodists who did not fulfill all righteousness deserved the hottest place in the lake of fire. Retrieved 19 July The Essentials, 2nd Edition. Retrieved 21 May Westminster John Knox Press. Jacob Albright, founder of the movement that led to the Evangelical Church flow in The United Methodist Church, got into trouble with some of his Lutheran, Reformed, and Mennonite neighbors because he insisted that salvation not only involved ritual but meant a change of heart, a different way of living.

James 11 April The Survivor's Guide to Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. Living as United Methodist Christians: Why I am a Methodist and an Evangelical". Magida, How to Be a Perfect Stranger: Available on-line in an "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 19, Archived copy as title link , and here [1] , here "Archived copy". Archived copy as title link and here "Archived copy". Foster, "Churches of Christ and Baptism: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today , Wm.

God So Loved the World: A Study of Christian Doctrine Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, , , with the addition of specific citations. A Study of Christian Doctrine. Northwestern Publishing House, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 7 February Retrieved 26 January

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