I am God's workmanship
created IN Christ Jesus for good works, which I do because I know what it
means to be loved by God. Anyone who has come to his spiritual senses and
moved away from performance-based theologies, will always be prone to
digression, whether it be back to evidences of faith from a Calvinist
perspective or works for righteousness from the side of Arminians.
All of this is good, Bill. Within the Churches of Christ (back when I was a member of that group), there was preacher named Tony Ashe. I do not know what became of him, but he came to our congregation and delivered a series of lessons on salvation by faith through grace -- not the normal topic for the c of c. One of the things he stressed was the fact that even our ability to "want to" is imperfect.
In the end, it is up to God. Keeps us humble.
David Miller observed that often we stress certain doctrines out of a sense of insecurity in reality of that very teaching. True. But sometimes, it is out of a deep and profound sense of appreciation.
Anyway -- good words.
John
