Don’t ask me how you reconcile the following pair of statements. With all the talk of the fruit of faith, justification or salvation as progressive acts and discipleship as a model for sanctification, I’ve never been able to figure out how
Jesus apparent message of justification and Paul’s theory of the atonement are actually supposed to square up. As per example:
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. – Galatians 2:16b
‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’”
- Matthew 25041-43
Hermeneutics aside, these things seem to be irreconcilable. At least, they seem that way in the typical Reformational understanding of sola gracia and sola fide. Sometimes I just want to throw up my hands and ask God, “Which is it already?” I can’t ignore either of these points. And there comes a point where “living in the tension” isn’t exactly what I’d like to be doing. Forgive me, but I’d actually rather like to know if I will be spending eternity with God or apart from him.
