Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

trust the police because we are afraid to walk the
streets without knowing they are around. We trust
the government because we fear the alternative—
anarchy. To say that we trust Christ for our
salvation can be far short of the magnificent faith
of the apostles, because such trust can still be tied
to our egocentric radius of selfish concern.
Such trust may be ever so good and justifiable
in the light of sinful man's natural selfcenteredness.
But it is not New Testament faith.
This phenomenon which was repeatedly spoken of
as "the faith" must be understood, or we can never
grasp what happened in the time of the apostles.
The content of their faith depended on a clear
appreciation of the content of agape. Destroy or
weaken the idea of agape, and you automatically
destroy or weaken the inner content of faith. And
since justification by faith is the only way we can
be "put right with God," it is no surprise that Satan
has cleverly worked to corrupt the meaning of
agape so that he could corrupt the meaning of faith,
and thus do away with the true gospel.
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