Deep in Scripture Radio

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Dear Marcus and Ken:

I really appreciate the way you have been discussing St. Paul’s doctrine of justification in Romans on Deep in Scripture. The question that keeps coming up in my mind is how this all relates to what St. James says in James 2:14-26 about faith and works. At one point James says “You see that a man is justified from works and not from faith alone.”(v 24). Does this contradict Paul’s teaching? How would you explain this problem? 

Sincerely,Jack

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Dear Ken and Marcus, Last week, you discussed Romans 4:4: “Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.” Recently someone pointed out Phil 2:12, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Could you compare and contrast these, and discuss how they relater to servile and filial fear? Thanks, Bob

Romans 4:13-25

13: The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, 

did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 

14: If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, 

faith is null and the promise is void. 

15: For the law brings wrath, 

but where there is no law there is no transgression. 

16: That is why it depends on faith, 

in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants -- not only to the adherents of the law 

but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all, 

17: as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations" 

-- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, 

who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 

18: In hope he believed against hope, 

that he should become the father of many nations; 

as he had been told, "So shall your descendants be." 

19: He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, 

which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, 

or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 

20: No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, 

but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 

21: fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 

22: That is why his faith was "reckoned to him as righteousness." 

23: But the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, 

24: but for ours also. 

It will be reckoned to us 

who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 

25: who was put to death for our trespasses 

and raised for our justification. 

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Dear Marcus and Ken, I regularly post comments on a discussion site which has a lot of Bible only Christians. ... One of the things I notice with this group is they go to the OT a LOT and the epistles but seem to ignore the Gospels and any parts of the Epistles that don't jive with their thinking (like most of James). Fear is very prevalent among them and the God they present looks more like the Terminator. Any help you can give me will be appreciated as when I post I try to write for those who may happen upon the conversation who may or may not be Bible Believers. Thank you, Carolyn

Last week, in your interpretation of Romans 2:29, you replaced Christian for Jew as an application. Instead of what Paul wrote—“For he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart; spiritual and not literal”—you read: “For he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and real baptism is a matter of the heart; spiritual and not literal.”  If this is an accurate application—replacing circumcision with baptism—than doesn’t this imply that the sacrament of baptism, like circumcision, is merely a matter of the heart and faith, with no kind of literal sacramental effect? That it is merely symbolic?

Thanks, Gene