Introduction:
Churches of Christ often begin their study of the gospel by closely examining the conversions listed in the historical narrative of the book of Acts.
Acts 2:38 sound familiar?
Here the assumption is made that if a person will simply read the book of Acts and be careful to perform all of the same moral and religious commands that the first century believers did at salvation, that through our own obedience we can be saved as well.
These commands include hearing, believing, repenting from sin, confessing the name of Christ and being baptized in water, and then (once in a saved condition) that we can keep ourselves saved by being faithful and continuing to live a moral and religious good life.
In Church of Christ language, this is sometimes called 'following the gospel', 'meeting God's conditions of pardon', 'following the New Testament pattern', or the '5 step plan of salvation', and is a theology teaching 'salvation by New Testament law-keeping'.
Unfortunately beginning any study with a false presupposition, pretext, or false doctrinal bias can (and often does) prevent someone from ever understanding how we are saved by placing faith in Jesus Christ alone, and can lead a person into a salvation theology of works.
Here Church of Christ dilemma seeks to explain from the Scripture the often misunderstood doctrine of justification by faith alone to those in the Churches of Christ, and provide answers to many of the objections they have regarding this doctrine.
Galatians 2:15-16
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”