OK. My feeling is that the NT is full of the idea that we are saved (whatever that is) by God's grace, not by our efforts. On the other hand, I do know thatt there are a few verses which seem to go the other way, so like almost every other belief relating to the afterlife, there's room to have a contrary opinion. By clear, I believe I had in mind more that the verses like the one already cited are not easily misunderstood, not that there are not others that seem to lean in the opposite direction.
The "court of law" idea seems apt, but there's something wrong with the doctor analogy. I want to say that its more like receiving an innoculation. We don't have to cooperate in its healing properties and we don't have to understand immunology for it to work. But I really haven't whipped up a cleancut replacement analogy that I am happy with at this time.
Ah! So the problem wasn't necessarily with the analogies themselves - they adaquetly displayed a disagreement.
You
do find the courtroom analogy apt, and the hospital analogy lacking. I am the opposite.
I find the courtroom analogy lacking and the hospital analogy apt. Though granted both are metaphors and not to be extended too far in our theologies.
That's all I really wanted to accomplish - to point out that there is a fundamental disagreement in the way we view salvation which leads us to different conclusions in the faith v works dichotomy.
__________________________
(As a second point within this post, I wanted to offer this explanation of my view of the relationship between faith and works. I had posted it in the "define faith" thread, but I think it belongs here)
Faith, in the Greek, is synonymous with "trust" - they are the exact same word, actually. When we talk about "faith in God" we are talking about
trusting God.
It's the same as if I were to say "I have great faith in Mr. Bob as CEO of that company."
That is why Christ is so often frustrated that people don't have faith - especially the Jews who have
seen the providence of God and
should trust Him.
I also think that faith can, therefore, come in degrees which deepen and grow as time goes by. It is possible to trust someone a little, a lot, or completely. While it is easy to
declare that we trust someone completely, it is very very hard to actually live that way. It takes a growing relationship, and experience of that person's trustworthiness.
This is part of the importance of the scriptures - especially the Old Testament, Gospels, and Revelations, in that they reveal God's providencial hand throughout history and allow us, even if we have never experienced God directly, to have a seed of faith that He ought to be trusted - that we should have faith in Him.
Faith is critical to the Christian life because it is the ground of all repentance - by which I mean it is the ground of all good moral action and the means by which our actions are changed.
This is on two grounds - the first is what you were speaking to (and this is where we wholeheartedly agree): we must trust the promises of God and their ultimate fulfillment in Christ's two comings. We must trust that death has been conquered by Christ so that we are freed from it's bondage (otherwise the repentance has no relevance since we will die eternally just the same). We must trust that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead - that what we do in this life
matters into eternity. This trust in God gives us no excuse. It makes us face the result of our sin in the cross of Christ where we see the corruption of this creation in killing its creator. This is the beginning of repentance: seeing our sin and it's consequence (death). This is the word of the cross, and it begins with faith.
The second thing faith does is establish the grounds for reformed action - for true dispassion (that is, freedom from the passions control over us). How? Because to trust in God is to be unable to sin. Insomuch as we trust God, we cannot sin.
If I trust God absolutely, then everything which happens to me I believe to be for my ultimate good - even if not a part of God's "original" plan, I trust God's providence to the point that I know He can incorporate all things to the ultimate aim of His will. This is not something I can argue you to believe in. It is a matter of faith and learned gradually. According to the way I act, I have not even begun to learn true faith (so I'm a poor teacher anyway).
If I have true faith, I trust that each person brought to me is for my good, each event, each blessing, each hardship. I can no longer get angry about anyone cutting me off in traffic. I can no longer worry about money (which means I cannot cheat, steal, nor lie). I can no longer do violence (because I trust that God has made the person to whom I would do violence, and I trust His providence to guard that person's life until He sees fit to allow it to end). I can no longer do anything except love. That is all that is left to me, because in faith I can percieve that the person and creation in front of me has been given for my good, but also that I have been given for theirs. Thus, to trust God IS to love my neighbor, IS to repent and act within God's will.
Faith IS action. This is why faith without works is dead - it is no faith at all that isn't action. It is also why actions without faith are dead. It is no
truely righteous thing that is done for any other motive than God - it is, in fact, an act of idolatry (since to worship is to dedicate one's whole self to the thing worshipped, to dedicate any act to something other than God is to worship it and therefore commit idolatry). Anything done not out of faith is dead.
This faith is nurtured not by us, but by God in synergy with the free will He has granted us. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Faith is the gift of God, though if I bury my gifted talent in the ground (if I don't act upon and invest that faith) I will lose it (and from those who have not, even what they have will be taken away).
Faith is, therefore, the ground of our repentance, whose aim is nothing less than the love of God itself - to become the image of God again.
Anyhow - that's my perspective on it.
Cheers,
Macarius