“SYNERGY”
Although it’s been around for a while,
there is a buzz word called “synergy”.
The definition of
synergy is as
follows “Synergy is the combined value and performance of two entities
to
produce an end result that couldn’t be achieved individually.”
In religious
synergistic terms … there are three ways of
putting this:
1.
“Do your best to serve God
and Christ will make up for the deficiency … and by this you will be
justified.”
2.
“The combined efforts of
you and Christ will see you saved.”
3.
“My obedience to God’s laws
are acceptable to God through the goodness of Christ.”
This is how many people think … that
you can combine law and grace …. your obedience to
God’s laws + God’s
grace = salvation.
In his “Pilgrim’s Progress” John
Bunyan had to meet this error of his day, and personified this type of
legalism as
the fellow called Ignorance:
Christian: “How doest thou believe?”
Ignorance: “I believe that Christ died for
sinners, and that I shall be justified before God from the curse,
through his gracious acceptance of my obedience
to his Law. Or
thus, Christ makes my Duties that are Religious acceptable to his
Father by
virtue of his Merits; and so shall I be justified.”
Ignorance’s formula for salvation can
be expressed as follows:
My obedience +
God’s grace by Christ’s
merits = Salvation
In theology, this is called religious
synergism … a combined
effort.
A story:
There was a man who was condemned to
death for embezzlement of $4,000.
But there was pity in the heart of the
Royal family.
The king gave $2,000 from the treasury
as a contribution to the debt.
The queen gave $1,000.
The crown prince gave $980.
The people in the public gallery
passed around the hat and gathered $19.90.
But it was of no avail, as the man
owed $4,000 and had come up short 10 cents.
The judge said “It’s no use, the
fellow must be executed!”
In desperation, the condemned man
searched his pockets, and to the applause of the spectators, he
produced the
vital last ten cents from his own trouser pocket.
Now of course, it wasn’t a large
amount, that ten cents, compared to the gifts of the Royal family, but it was the
ten cents
that secured his freedom.
The moral of
the story:
Subconscious
in our minds is that we have contributed to
our own salvation … no matter how small … and inevitably, that “ten
cents”,
will seem more important and precious to us than the goodness and
merits of
Christ.
Harley
Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
Answer: 100%
short.
“For
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
(James
2:10)
“CONTACT US”
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com