## Did you know?
#Christianity is neither a feeling nor is it a way of life nor is it a 'state of raised consciosness'--but a body of doctrines to be believed or rejected. Certainly, there may be feelings that result from it, and certainly faith will affect one's way of life--but primarily, the gospel is 'news' that we either believe or reject.
Matthew 18:3
And he (Christ) said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
So IMO, there is (or should be) a “change” of consciousness that occurs when we apply the teaching of the Gospel to our lives.
It’s not simply “news that we believe” - there is the doctrine of stewardship/discipleship that applies our life afterwards to the work of God.
None of our work changes our salvation which is only available by the Blood of Christ. Yet the work is to be done according to God’s Will- on earth as in heaven.
News -> faith -> justifcation -> sanctification.
A changed life is a consequence of faith. 🤙
also see [WLC 70-77](https://opc.org/lc.html)
ok, for the theology eggheads (like me) out there, more technically, the 'ordo salutis' is...
Theology > Doxology > Axiology
Believing the truth of the gospel ought to cause us to erupt worship toward God and motivate us to live in accord with his commands out of gratitude for his overwhelming grace toward us as undeserving sinners.
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him as righteousness.
"Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
– James 2:20–24
Do you see that as in contradiction to Romans and Galatians?
Might I suggest:
No, they are reconcilable. As someone has said "We are saved by faith alone, but faith that saves is never alone."
I would go with Christianity being more a way of life, however, but you have to believe Christ in order to live it, and be empowered by His Spirit. There's a lot of Scripture I could provide to back this up, but I don't want to get into a theological or semantic dispute (and some of this I think is just hair-splitting). I'll just say like Satoshi: if you don't see it, I don't have time to explain it to you... 😅
"We are justified by faith alone; but the faith that justifies is never alone."
💯
