xyz said:
Jesus said that love is a reaction to one's forgiven sins, and forgiveness indicates justification, so it is quite reasonable to say that one is justified by love.
<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/nope.gif" alt="" /> It is NOT "quite reasonable to say . . ." for it contradicts the biblical teaching of the nature of justification; that pronouncement by God upon a sinner that Christ's righteousness has been imputed to him
through faith, that appointed means by which one is united to Christ.
As I wrote, and you would do well to quote me accurately in this matter, the sinner at regeneration has a new
disposition which is totally opposite of that which was previously owned, i.e., one of hatred toward God and an adamant aversion to all that his holy and good. One is given to love God and especially the Lord Christ by which he is drawn to Christ and thus exercises faith in Him
unto justification.
On the other side of the coin, it is true that "we love because He first loved us". But Christ's love for His sheep likewise does not justify. Christ's love for the elect is eternal yet until the sinner
believes upon Him, the sinner is not justified. The Spirit must
apply the benefits of Christ's atonement to the sinner from which the sinner believes upon Christ (aka: faith) and which then results in justification. It is by grace through faith that one is justified. Nothing else contributes to one's justification. As it has been consistently held against all other teachings, SOLA FIDE!
In His grace,
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