Different system

Lutero said:Concerning what James said in the second chapter, other, pertinent questions might be:

What is faith? What is saving faith? How does faith save us? These are questions which deserve some nuance.  What is salvation? Saved from what? By what? According to what? For what purpose are we saved? Is there a purpose?If salvation is a spiritual rubber stamp with which God slaps some who ask and not others who don't--or some minor variation on that theme--then works are the sign of salvation, or the outworking of salvation.  If salvation is, as I suspect you mean it, rescue from hell at the end of the age at the time of judgment, then works are a way of continually living in a state of relationship, grace, salvation, or rescue from the world (however we define it), and the salvation that we live is fully realized when we can work no more.  I'm sure you could clean up those quick and dirty descriptions, but my point is only that your question presupposes a number of answers and expectations that, if undiscussed or unrealized, will only lead to fruitless tailchasing as people have arguments with themselves and their imagined enemies…. By which, I am trying to say, we will only argue about definitions, and if we immediately prooftext without first discussing how we shall read the texts in the first place.  What if we just thought of salvation as being rescued from a particular defeated way of living? Living takes works, no matter what, and works are what reveal intentions and spiritual desires... salvation and works are not two parts of an equation that must be balanced, but separate expressions of the same underlying truth, as revealed through Jesus Christ. Just one thought

Thanks for the input. The question doesn't seem that complicated to me. Nor does this seem to be one of those religious concepts that are difficult to find in Scripture. Scripture seems to teach explicitly, that works complete and perfect faith without which we can't be saved.

Sincerely,

De Maria