On the Journey

On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 34: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XVIII

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley conclude their series on the Catholic view of justification and the Reformation doctrine of "faith alone" by looking at one of the most controversial and misunderstood parts of the debate: the concept of merit.

Do Catholics believe they need to earn their salvation? At the end of time, does God merely ook at a list of our good deeds and bad deeds, and judge us according to the balance? Matt and Ken look at what the Catholic Church actually teaches about the idea of "merit," an idea that is often misunderstood even by Catholics.

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On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 32: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XVI

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their series on Catholic and Protestant views of justification with a look at the concept of divine sonship.

In some ways, the Catholic understanding of justification is like a person who owes a large amount of money being forgiven a debt; in other ways, it is like a criminal being absolved in a courtroom. But ultimately, it is most like a wayward child being welcomed back into a family.

This concept of divine filiation, held not only by Catholics but also many other Christians, is distinct from the Reformed notion of imputed righteousness; and, as Ken explains, was a key realization that began to lead him closer to the Catholic Church while he was still serving as a Baptist pastor.

 

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On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 31: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XV

On the last episode, Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley dealt with how the Council of Trent discussed justification as an event. On this episode, they look at how Trent talks about justification as a process.

If the event of justification (when a believer is baptized and enters into the family of God) can be comparable to the Israelites going through the Red Sea, then the process of justification (the lifelong journey of a Christian in relationship with God) can be likened to the journey of the Israelites through the desert to the promised land.

The Catholic Church teaches that justification is both an event *and* a process, and Matt and Ken explore how the Council of Trent discusses salvation in those two ways.

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On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 30: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XIV

Ken Hensley, a former Baptist pastor, and Matt Swaim, who grew up in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, look more about how they came to understand the Catholic Church's teaching on justification and salvation.

Is justification an event or a process? And what role do we play in our own salvation? Matt and Ken look at the decrees of the Council of Trent, and what they have to say about the interplay of grace and free will. Even the ability to turn to God and place our faith in Christ to be saved by Him is the result of God’s grace working in us.

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On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 29: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XIII

What is salvation? Is it something that comes from completely outside of us, or is it something we need to cooperate with? Or is it ultimately both?

Scripture offers many commands in regard to salvation: "believe," "repent and be baptized," "follow," "abide," "obey," and "love." Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley look at the totality of these statements and share what kind of picture begins to come together when these passages are taken as a whole.

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On the Journey with Matt and Ken - Episode 28: A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XII

If the Reformation doctrine of justification by "faith alone" was, as Protestant scholar Alistair McGrath describes it, a "theological novum," then what did Christians believe about salvation and justification prior to Martin Luther's revolution of 1517?

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of what led them to see that sola fide was an inadequate and incomplete description of how God saves His people, and share what picture began to form for them as they began to dive into the Old and New Testaments with a fresh set of eyes.

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A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part XI - On the Journey, Ep. 27

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to look at the Reformation doctrine of sola fide, or justification by "faith alone."

While Ken was still a Baptist pastor, he began to find that the more he searched the Scriptures, the more it seemed that sola fide wasn't the best way to articulate how God saves His people. In this episode, Ken shares with Matt the seven key realizations he had along the way that caused him to realize that "faith alone" was an inadequate way of explaining the Biblical understanding of salvation.

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A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part X - On the Journey, Ep. 26

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to look at evidence for justification being by the legal imputation of Christ's righteousness in the Bible, this time diving into the New Testament.

The theology of the Reformation, crafted and put forth by leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin, argues that when God saves someone, He credits His righteousness to their account. Catholics, Orthodox, Wesleyans and a number of other groups of Christians believe that when God saves someone, He actually forgives them and empowers them by grace to truly *become* righteous.

So what does the New Testament teach about how God saves someone? Matt and Ken explore the evidence in the latest episode of On the Journey...

A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part IX – On the Journey, Ep. 25

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue to discuss the Reformation pillar of sola fide, or justification by "faith alone," by focusing specifically on the idea of the doctrine of imputation.

As a Baptist pastor, Ken held to the Reformed belief that righteousness was "imputed," meaning that God credits His own righteousness to our account, and the Christian then wears that righteousness like a cloak. However, throughout the Old and New Testaments, God is shown to deal with his people in terms of actual forgiveness, actual regeneration, and actual transformation.

Matt and Ken look at how Scripture shows that God's plan for his people is not to merely credit righteousness to their account, but to transform their hearts and bestow upon them the grace to follow His commandments and live in true relationship with Him.

A Damning System of Works Righteousness, Part VIII – On the Journey, Ep. 24

Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley continue their discussion of the question of justification by “faith alone,” as articulated by Reformed theology, which Ken once held to as a Baptist pastor....