This acrostic, a handy rhetorical devise, is based on passages from Romans, on Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and on
other worthy sources in the Christian theological tradition. The
passages cited describe the true “Roman Road to Salvation” for use in personal
evangelism and basic doctrinal instruction.
The Articles of Religion say, “Holy Scripture containeth all things
necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be
proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as
an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.” The Homily on Scripture says, “Therefore,
forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly men, which cared not but for their
carcase, let us reverently hear and read holy Scriptures, which is the food of
the soul [Matt. 4:[4]]. Let us diligently search for the well of life in the
books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of
men’s traditions, devised by man’s imagination, for our justification and
salvation. For in holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and
what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God’s
hands at length.” John Wesley wrote, who
lived and died an Anglican priest, “Try all things by the written word, and let
all bow down before it. You are in danger of [fanaticism] every hour, if you
depart ever so little from Scripture; yea, or from the plain, literal meaning
of a text, taken in connection with the context." (Works,
11:429). The acrostic here stands in
contrast to the Calvinist TULIP. The
Anglican view begins with …
Reason: What can be known about God, his
invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and deity, is clearly perceived
in the things that he has made; so, we are without excuse (1:18-20). He will
render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in
well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal
life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (2:6-8) For
when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires,
they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show
that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience
also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse
them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by
Christ Jesus. (2:14-16) I agree that the law is good (7:16), holy, righteous, and good (v. 12). I serve
the law with my mind (v. 25); it is
the law of my mind (it makes sense, v. 23).
It is spiritual (v. 14) and I delight in it (v. 22).
Original Sin:
But I am carnal, sold under sin (7:14). I see
in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive
to the law of sin which dwells in my members (v. 23). I know
nothing good dwells in my flesh (v. 18). Wretched
man that I am! Who will save me from
this body of death? (v. 24 (referring to physical flesh, the body
with which we are burdened in this life, which has a tendency to sin, has
sinned, and is, therefore, under a sentence of death))
Salvation
Revealed in the Suffering of Christ,
God’s Saving Act in Him: God has done what the law, weakened
by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (8:3-4 ESV)
Eternal Life:
If by the Spirit we put to death the
deeds of the body we will live (8:13).
The Spirit himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs
of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in
order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:12-17 ESV) For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united
with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified
with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we
would no longer be enslaved to sin … But now that you have been set free from
sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification
and its end, eternal life. (Romans
6:5-6 and 22 ESV) The
sufferings of this present life (understanding
that the painful way of the cross liberates us from sin and self, preparing us
for eternal life) are not worth comparing
to the glory that is to be revealed to us (8:18).
This system is not legalism but describes a Spirit-filled walk in the way of the cross, supported by recognized authorities in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church:
In CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THE GOOD AGAINST THE
MANICHAEANS, Augustine wrote: But to the
most excellent creatures, that is, to rational spirits, God has offered this,
that if they will not they cannot be corrupted; that is, if they should
maintain obedience under the Lord their God, so should they adhere to his
incorruptible beauty; but if they do not will to maintain obedience, since
willingly they are corrupted in sins, unwillingly they shall be corrupted in
punishment, since God is such a good that it [goes] well for no one who deserts
Him, and among the things made by God the rational nature is so great a good,
that there is no good by which it may be blessed except God … For sins, which
do not preserve but vitiate nature, are not from [God]; which sins, Holy
Scripture in many ways testifies, are from the will of those sinning,
especially in the passage where the apostle says, “… [God] will render unto every
one according to his works.”
From the SCRIPTURE WAY OF SALVATION by John Wesley: From the time of our being born again, the gradual
work of sanctification takes place. We are enabled "by the Spirit" to
"mortify the deeds of the body," of our evil nature; and as we are
more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God. We go on from
grace to grace, while we are careful to "abstain from all appearance of
evil," and are "zealous of good works," as we have opportunity,
doing good to all men; while we walk in all His ordinances blameless, therein
worshipping Him in spirit and in truth; while we take up our cross, and deny
ourselves every pleasure that does not lead us to God.
From Wesley’s SELF-DENIAL: How vainly we
attempt to follow Him that was crucified, unless we take up our cross daily … I
know of no writer in the English tongue who has described the nature of
self-denial in plain and intelligible terms, such as lie level with common
understandings, and applied it to those little particulars which daily occur in
common life. A discourse of this kind is wanted still; and it is wanted the
more, because in every stage of the spiritual life, although there is a variety
of particular hindrances of our attaining grace or growing therein, yet are all
resolvable into these general ones, -- either we do not deny ourselves, or we
do not take up our cross … Our nature is altogether corrupt, in every power and
faculty. And our will, depraved equally with the rest, is wholly bent to
indulge our natural corruption. On the other hand, it is the will of God that
we resist and counteract that corruption, not at some times, or in some things
only, but at all times and in all things. Here, therefore, is a farther ground
for constant and universal self-denial … In order to the healing of that
corruption, that evil disease, which every man brings with him into the world,
it is often needful to pluck out, as it were, a right eye, to cut off a right
hand; -- so painful is either the thing itself which must be done, or the only
means of doing it; the parting, suppose, with a foolish desire, with an
inordinate affection; or a separation from the object of it, without which it
can never be extinguished. In the former kind, the tearing away such a desire
or affection, when it is deeply rooted in the soul, is often like the piercing
of a sword, yea, like "the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, the
joints and marrow." The Lord then sits upon the soul as a refiner's fire,
to burn all the dross thereof. And this is a cross indeed; it is essentially
painful; it must be so, in the very nature of the thing. The soul cannot be
thus torn asunder, it cannot pass through the fire, without pain … it is always
owing to the want either of self-denial, or taking up his cross, that any man
does not thoroughly follow Him, is not fully a disciple of Christ … he made
shipwreck of the faith, for want of self-denial, and taking up his cross daily
… his faith is not made perfect, neither can he grow in grace; namely, because
he will not deny himself, and take up his daily cross.
From the Anglican Rite: And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and
bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching
thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may
worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be
filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him,
that he may dwell in us, and we in him.
