The heart of the Reformation faith
Ted Peters has written an academic paper that explores the heart of the academic faith...
It begins...
Faith, I believe, improves the quality of our daily life. To have faith in Jesus Christ makes us less anxious, less nervous, less defensive, more kind, more considerate, more loving.
How does faith accomplish this? The main contribution of faith, I believe, is that faith removes the need for self-justification. Deep down each of us feels a need to be justified, a need to feel that we are right, a need to believe that we are good and not evil.........
In what follows we will examine three models of faith: faith as believing; faith as trusting; and faith as the real presence of Christ. All three of these models are familiar to us in the Christian tradition. Yet, when we are looking for the heart of the faith that the Reformation has bequeathed to us, we need to ask: just how does faith justify?
and concludes
All three belong to our one faith, to be sure; yet it is the third, the presence of Christ within the person of faith, that we can connect with God’s justification of us. Christ’s presence is a gift of God’s grace. So is justification. So is salvation. The first thing a person of faith wants to say is, “thank you.”
To read the entire paper visit http://www.plts.edu/peters_articles_reformationfaith.html
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