Posted on 04/24/2017 6:45:59 PM PDT by NRx
The very basic fact is that God has ALWAYS saved human souls via faith and not by what someone earns or merits. From the start Abraham - the father of the Jewish people, God's chosen nation - on the basis of his believing God, his faith that what God had promised, He would fulfill. Did Abraham show by the way he obeyed God that he HAD genuine faith? Absolutely! Just like Rahab the harlot showed her faith by protecting the spies Joshua sent into Jericho. Just like any person who has received the GIFT of God (which is eternal life) through faith and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of promise WILL be evidenced by the life they live by that same faith. But these good works DO NOT save them. Faith is what saves us.
I can't help but conclude from the arguments you continue to make that it is your own bond to a misbelief that your faith MUST be supplemented by ones works in order to merit eternal life in heaven. That just isn't how grace works. What you are preaching is an accursed gospel that the Holy Spirit through Paul condemned REPEATEDLY. The entire book of Galatians addressed this issue because people had come in and tried to tell the people there that they could be saved by obedience to the law of Moses. Here is what Paul told them:
Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3)
Now, I already know the RCC-line, "That's talking about the Law of Moses. We're talking about good works, works of charity, spiritual works of mercy, etc.". Yet, that misses the point that Paul brings out that IF a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law (the Law of Moses WAS the epitome of the measure of righteousness a man could attain - but never could). The truth was that the law was given to lead us to Christ.
No one has said here that works aren't part of living a holy, God-pleasing Christian life. They are evidence that we have genuine faith. And, here's a BIG point...our works DO justify us before others. God sees our hearts, others can only see the outward person by how they live. That's why Paul said he disciplined himself so that when he had preached to others, he would not be disregarded.
Finally, if you or anyone wants to be justified before God by your works, God says:
We are justified by faith because of grace. Either you get that or you don't.
Either you believe ALL of Scripture or you lie in the comfort of your favorite passages.
Matt 7:21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
1 Corinthians 9:27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
2 Timothy 2:12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us;
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
Luther and his ilk concocted the notion of faith alone because of their inability to reconcile their weakness with their salvation.
Ditto!
You keep posting the same passages as if I haven't addressed them. I did, multiple times. Why do you continue to ignore the ones I have posted? It sounds to me like you think Scripture DOES contradict itself. I don't. It also sounds like you believe your works justify you and are the cause of your salvation, else why post verses and insist they prove your point? I don't think they do, but you go right ahead and trust your own righteousness to save you (it won't).
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