Monday, March 05, 2007

Salvation through Faith

"It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith... so that we could not more radically misconcieve it than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attriubted in the Scriptures soley to Christ himself."

- J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith?

"Moreover, although we do good works, we do not base our salvation on them; for we cannot do any work that is not defiled by our flesh and also worthy of punishment... So we would always be in doubt, tossed back and forth without anycertainty, and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly if they did not rest on the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior."

- Belgic Confession


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