[S I M T A N]

You said the truth will set you free. Do you have the truth? 

There was a direct conflict between James and Paul on this particular issue. I didn't pit them. The Bible did. 

We have a statement from Jesus who warned his followers about the people who will teach others to discard the law. Lo and behold, Paul came along and did exactly what Jesus warned. Surely the disciples, who heard that warning directly from Jesus, would immediately recognize Paul as the one Jesus spoke about in the warning. 

There is nothing to argue here. I am merely reminding you of Jesus's warning.

I've lost count of the number of times I'd expounded our views on the principle of sola fide at great length. Another detailed explanation will not only draw yet another expostulation from you, it'll also bore my bros and some others to tears. Any way you slice it, your reigniting the sola fide controversy and putting an entirely different slant on the doctrine of justification by faith is, to all intents and purposes, pitting James against Paul.

Clearly, the principle of justification by faith is completely at odds with your Islamic works-based salvation. Works of the flesh or works of the law are enemies of the gospel and detract from the grace that alone can save us. So naturally, you're bound to downplay or reject the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. Regardless of how you interpret the apostle Paul, it's quite clear that Jesus taught justification by faith alone. To abandon this truth is to abandon soteriology altogether. No doctrine is more important to evangelical theology than this.

The church stands or falls on this one doctrine, a central biblical distinctive, if not the single most important doctrine to get right. Christianity is the religion of divine accomplishment, with the emphasis always on Christ's finished work. All others, including yours, are religions of human achievement. They became preoccupied, inevitably, with the sinner's own effort to be holy. "Every "different gospel" is under the eternal curse of God.

Scripture itself makes sola fide the only alternative to a damning system of works-righteousness. Those who trust Jesus Christ for justification by faith alone receive a perfect righteousness that's reckoned to them. Those who attempt to establish their own righteousness or mix faith with works only receive the terrible wage that's due all who fall short of perfection. So the individual as well as the church stands or falls with the principle of sola fide.


"For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God" (Rom 10:3).