"To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:"
Of course, anyone is free to comment, but I'm really hoping for a response from someone who has very indepth knowledge of the Bible, preferably also with knowledge of Koine Greek.
So, I'm reading Romans 2 and come across verse 7. I've been a Christian a long time and I've taken Bible study seriously for a long time. I'm a loooong way from shifting to believing salvation is anything other than through grace alone because there is just too many other clear scripture to that effect. I'm familiar with how this verse can be jammed into that box of salvation by grace alone, but it does take a bit of finagling. It doesn't really directly contradict the doctrine, but it seems to be far short of the best way of phrasing if one wanted to prevent someone from arriving at the conclusion that our good deeds contribute to salvation; especially considering that our natures, perhaps our pride, very easily slide in that direction without due vigilance. I would never phrase it like that. If I heard a preacher make a phrase like that, I'd be very critical and wonder if he was part of a cult like Mormonism that teaches "salvation is by grace, after all that we can do". I believe all scripture is inspired by God and I believe the phraseology is part of that although I realize that is partially if not mostly lost in translation. So...is it a problem that arises in translation somehow? I'm not interested in just making this verse fit in a 'salvation through grace alone' paradigm. I've seen that done already. What I want to know is why its worded this particular way rather than another way that makes it clear that works aren't earning our salvation. What was Paul trying to get across using the specific phraseology?
Of course, anyone is free to comment, but I'm really hoping for a response from someone who has very indepth knowledge of the Bible, preferably also with knowledge of Koine Greek.
So, I'm reading Romans 2 and come across verse 7. I've been a Christian a long time and I've taken Bible study seriously for a long time. I'm a loooong way from shifting to believing salvation is anything other than through grace alone because there is just too many other clear scripture to that effect. I'm familiar with how this verse can be jammed into that box of salvation by grace alone, but it does take a bit of finagling. It doesn't really directly contradict the doctrine, but it seems to be far short of the best way of phrasing if one wanted to prevent someone from arriving at the conclusion that our good deeds contribute to salvation; especially considering that our natures, perhaps our pride, very easily slide in that direction without due vigilance. I would never phrase it like that. If I heard a preacher make a phrase like that, I'd be very critical and wonder if he was part of a cult like Mormonism that teaches "salvation is by grace, after all that we can do". I believe all scripture is inspired by God and I believe the phraseology is part of that although I realize that is partially if not mostly lost in translation. So...is it a problem that arises in translation somehow? I'm not interested in just making this verse fit in a 'salvation through grace alone' paradigm. I've seen that done already. What I want to know is why its worded this particular way rather than another way that makes it clear that works aren't earning our salvation. What was Paul trying to get across using the specific phraseology?