Scripture is clear. If you seek justification through the law, you are obligated to obey it perfectly. Either trust fully in Christ, or trust in your ability to “cooperate.” You cannot have it both ways. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” — Galatians 2:21

A true Christian delights in God’s law, and this delight is evident in his life, but he never trusts in the law for his justification.

If love shown to the image passes to the prototype, then clothe the image, and say you have clothed the saint. Feed the image, and say you have fed the saint. Give drink to the image, and say you have refreshed the saint. But these are imitations of charity, not charity itself. They are ultimately falsehoods. Christian love is powerful precisely because it is true: not exercised toward the likeness of our neighbors, but toward our neighbors themselves. “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18)

Bravo 👏🏻

When Catholics say “I’ve read the whole Bible and it made me even more Catholic!”🥴

Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Later, Abraham obeyed God by offering Isaac, and his faith was “completed by his works” (James 2:22). But notice the reward God gives for his obedience: “Because you have done this… I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring… and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16–18). Through faith, Abraham himself was counted righteous. His obedience was rewarded with blessing that extended beyond himself: his offspring would multiply, and through his offspring the nations would be blessed. There is something beautiful here for the Christian life. Our works do not justify us before God. We have already been counted righteous through faith apart from works. Rather, living faith bears fruit in obedience, and God uses our obedience to bless the nations and extend his covenant blessings to others. So we do not look to our works as the means of our justification. We pursue good works in faith, trusting that God works through them for the good and salvation of others. As Paul said, we do everything “for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Cor. 9:23). Christian joy is not merely that I possess the blessings of the new covenant, but that our family grows and others come to share in God’s grace with us. Faith alone receives the grace of justification. Love labors so that others might share in the riches of God’s grace with us.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” — Galatians 3:3

When apostles and angels received religious bowing, they immediately rebuked it. Rome and the East found a convenient workaround: bow instead before the blind, deaf, and mute work of human hands. The image cannot rebuke you. And so the voice of the very saint it represents is silenced.

Biblical Christianity 📖 ✝️: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5–7) Catholicism 🇻🇦: “O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbor, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life.”

The current state of online apologetics 🤦🏻‍♂️

Saying the church gave us the canon is like saying Watson and Crick gave us DNA.

Recognizing something does not give you authority over the thing recognized. God authored the genetic structure of life. Watson and Crick helped discover and describe the structure of DNA. But it does not logically follow that because they helped us recognize something that objectively existed before them, they therefore possess infallible authority over every subsequent question concerning genetics. Their recognition did not create DNA, give DNA its properties, or place DNA under their authority. Likewise, God inspired Scripture. The Church recognized, preserved, copied, transmitted, and defended those writings. Even the Catholic Catechism says that the Church “discerned” which writings belong to the canon (CCC 120). Protestants can examine the same historical evidence and apply the same kinds of criteria in discerning which writings belong to the canon. I gladly acknowledge the Church’s role in recognizing the canon. But “the Church helped us recognize and preserve Scripture” does not logically entail: “Therefore specifically Rome possesses infallible authority to interpret Scripture, and you must accept Rome’s doctrines wholesale.” Recognizing something does not give you authority over the thing recognized. And there is another assumption buried within the argument: “the Church” is being treated as synonymous with “Rome.” Much of the early recognition and reception of Scripture occurred throughout geographically diverse churches, not through a single authoritative ruling from Rome. Christians in Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, North Africa, Asia Minor, and elsewhere were receiving, citing, comparing, and discerning these writings within their own ecclesial contexts. So even granting that “the Church recognized the canon” does not get you to “Rome gave us the canon.” You still have to demonstrate why the catholic activity of the early Church should be identified specifically with the later claims of Roman ecclesial authority. I have no problem receiving the testimony of the historic Church. What I reject is the assumption that receiving the testimony of the historic Church requires me to accept Rome’s claims of authority over that Church. Scripture is authoritative because God authored it. The Church’s recognition of that authority is an important historical witness to what God had already given. It is not the source of Scripture’s authority, nor does it establish Rome as an infallible interpretive authority.

They argue against things we never actually say. They can’t help but straw man our position because the biblical distinction itself is difficult to escape: God graciously produces good works in his people. Those works still do not justify them before God. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (Phil. 2:13). And yet: “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). We have never denied that Christian works are wrought by God in those in whom his seed abides. We deny that works wrought within us by God become the ground of our justification. Christ alone is our righteousness. Faith alone receives him. Our works contribute nothing to the verdict.