I see in the rich young ruler a man who was very sad and disheartened when it was made clear to him by Jesus Himself that “keeping all of the commandments since my birth” (works) wasn’t going to earn him salvation. To me, the position of works based salvation diminishes God’s grace that He extended to us, and it diminishes what Jesus did on the cross for us. God’s grace, love, peace, and mercy don’t need any help from us.
I think it's patently obvious that Jesus was asking him for more works.
Originally Posted by antlers
Originally Posted by Tyrone
This get's back to the original question of the thread.
Does ‘the Church’…the body of believers, individually and collectively…bear any responsibility at all……? When young people come home from college with real academic questions about the faith of Christianity (for example), and they’re given Sunday School answers, does that have a negative impact…? When they’re told they must believe in the literal 6 day creation in Genesis (for example) in order to believe The Gospel, does that have a negative impact…? When they see Christians selectively ranking sin, and focusing on the moral failures of others while ignoring their own moral failures, and pretending that someone else’s sin is worse than their own sin, does that have a negative impact…?
Sure, there's a lot of factors. But antinomianism is probably the biggest. It is the most recently fashionable. It's a perfect sin for us over-entertained moderns who think they have to be entertained every waking moment.
The other things that you perceive as failings have been going on since the beginning of time.
