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Tuesday, February 18, 2020In a modern-day brand of Christianity devoted to good works, faith in the forgiveness of sin deteriorates, and the Golden Rule becomes a means of salvation rather than the fruit of salvation. An empty stomach is no way to a man’s heart, and racial justice is long overdue, but a cup of water can never replace the healing power of the Cross. In a country where famine and poverty have reduced the day’s ration to a bowl of rice and the domicile to one room, food and shelter are obviously important, but so is faith in God’s mercy. Faith is indispensable. Neither individual holiness nor social concern can be legislated... The fact is that the more seriously one takes the demands of God, the more conscious of his own need for mercy he becomes. But, fortunately, as Kierkegaard put it, “The opposite of sin is not ‘virtue’ but faith.”* * from Kierkegaard, Sickness unto Death
... Paul G. Johnson 1931-2013, Buried Alive, Richmond: John Knox Press, 1968, p. 143
  (see the book; see also Matt. 8:16-17; Rom. 6:3-8; 14:13; Gal. 3:21-22; Tit. 1:15; Heb. 11:6; more at Cross, Faith, Forgiveness, Good works, Mercy, Salvation, Sin, Virtue)  
  
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