Prose

* "Salvation is not a license to sin. A true Christian will continue to do good work, as Christians are not only appointed by God to be saved but they are also appointed to do good works before the foundation of the world.  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10)."
- Pastor Ramil Corpuz

As an observer of Christianity, one of the problems that I saw in the postmodern church is the persistence of these two age-old heretical extremes:
- Pelagianism, which states that a person should work for his holiness in order to earn his salvation;
- Antinomianism, which states that since a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, he doesn’t need to do good works anymore after salvation. 

I personally have 2 problems with the first one. First, it makes salvation unattainable, as it is stated in the word of God that absolutely no one on earth does anything good (Romans 3:10-12). Second, it makes the salvation of God through Christ useless and pointless; because if it is true, then why did God have to send His Son to die on the cross? And also, why does Jesus have to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in and with His believers in order to sanctify them? If it is true, then Christ died in vain, and therefore, the grace of God is nullified (Galatians 2:21)!

Now, about the second one, I tend to think that it is due to the common misconception about the grace of God. What many Christians don't understand is that grace is God's unmerited favor for the believer to save him from his sin. Because God knows that we cannot possibly save ourselves from our sin, He showed us grace by first sending His only begotten Son to pay the price of our sin on the cross with His own blood (Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7); and then, by giving us His word and His Holy Spirit in order to sanctify us (John 15:3; 17:17; Romans 15:15-16; 1 Peter 1:2). So the grace of God does not license us to sin; on the contrary, it liberates us from sin (Titus 2:11-12). Therefore, one who is truly saved by grace does not desire to be free to sin, but rather, to be free from sinning.

Finally, as an avid learner of history, I learned through history that faith is a person's heartfelt devotion and allegiance to another person known by him. And as Bible-believing Christians, we believe that a believer is saved by grace through faith in Christ (Romans 3:24-26, 28; Ephesians 2:8-9). Now, come to think of it: if you truly have faith in Christ, that means you know Him personally and love Him wholeheartedly. If you truly know Him, you know Who is this Person Who paid the price of your sin with His own blood - how holy, wonderful, and exceedingly worthy He is. And if you truly love such Person, you would surely despise the fact that you have sinned against Him. Consequently, you will desire for Him to completely redeem you from your sin so that you could be free to wholeheartedly love Him.

As a conclusion, here's an important question for all of us: Are you truly saved?

- Shim'onai :D

----------------
* In his blog "Are Ananias and Sapphira in heaven? Since God says ALL liars will go to hell, are they in hell because they lied?" (www.ssccmanila.com/!Are-Ananias-and-Sapphira-in-heaven-and-since-God-says-ALL-liars-will-go-to-hell-if-a-person-that-says-they-are-a-christian-lies-are-they-going-to-hell-because-they-lie/c798/559c087e0cf2ae09c19b4f03)