Learn & Understand

Due to hectic schedules of our teachers, including my own, I need to fill this column. Also, due to our current study of Hebrews, the previous study of Romans and the Fishers of Men course, I have been thinking about what the Bible has to say about Christianity…​

What do faith, obedience, righteousness, justification, promise, law, love, grace, will & testaments, inheritance, sin, death, blood, sacrifice, life, and the list could go on, Our high priest and the importance of our bedrock confession regarding the Son of God come to mind, What do all these ideas have in common?

SALVATION.

I’ve come to believe that RIGHTEOUSNESS equals SALVATION.

But there’s the rub. Is it our righteousness that saves us? Or God’s? And there, is the intersection with Law. Are we saved by following law? The Law of Moses? Of Christ? Any Law?

Law does not save. Any law. The promise saves. Salvation comes through the promise God made to Abraham. Law is for the lawless, not the righteous. As you can see we’ve only shallowly touched a fraction of the ideas involved in salvation. A narrow view focusing on only one of the ideas, like faith or baptism or even righteousness will skew our understanding of salvation.

The more we learn about the whole system and try to solve the many (solvable) puzzles, fitting everything together, the closer we get to the mind of God. What a marvelous adventure.

Scott R