[f.Christian]

Our part(works) in salvation...none---zero/ziltch/NEGATIVE(counterproductive/sin/self righteousness)!

[f.Christian]

Letter From The Pastor

Dear Friend,

‘I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.’ (Matthew 12:6).

"The Pharisees had confronted Jesus, accusing his disciples of desecrating the Sabbath by plucking grain. While purporting to keep faith alive, these serious-minded people had begun to destroy it with sterile practices, and routine procedures."

"To them, Jesus said," ‘One greater than the temple is here.’

"It was a shocking thing to say to ardent religionists. It was an offensive thing to say to people whose life revolved around the temple with its elaborate rituals and laws. There is no way around the sharpness of Jesus' critique. He was castigating the contraptions by which men and women seek to gain control of God; to secure his services, and guarantee his favor."

"The temple of pious practices and sophisticated symbols must be seen for what it is-a mere shadow of something far greater. God can not be contained by our religious forms, nor can he be managed by them. If we think so, we have repeated an age-old mistake. That temple must be... torn down---to make way for Jesus Christ."

"Contrary to what many have thought, faith does not come through doctrines, creeds, institutions and forms. Its origins are more mundane. It is born in the fact that men and women must live. They have to live in a universe that drives them to ask questions. What am I? Who is this person that I call me? Am I the sum of these wild impulses within myself, or am I really the noble creature I sometimes aspire to be? Why do I do things I despise, and why do I seek the destruction of those who offend me? Why am I here at this time, in this particular place, and not here at some other time and place? Can I be free of the many things that bind me, spirit and body?-guilt , fear, despair? Why is there so much pain?"

"Questions like these are the furnace out of which the golden treasure of faith is forged. The one who wrote: ‘In the beginning God,’ would not have done so if he had not first pondered why there was life. The Psalmist would not have sung, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ unless he had struggled with fear and futility. Job affirmed, ‘I know that my redeemer lives,’ after he struggled with the miseries of pain and injustice. Faith comes as men and women encounter God, in the questions raised by existence itself."

"When Jesus said, ‘One greater than the temple is here,’ he was drawing attention to himself as a surpassing religious center; a personal worship place, to which men and women might repair with their questions and longings. No other figure more thoroughly bespeaks human experience, than Jesus-especially on his cross. Naked, shamed, wounded in body, and tortured in spirit, he cries out: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Down into the abyss he goes, but in three days, he rises."

"This is why Jesus is greater than all other holy places, holy people and holy things. In him, questions, pain, even death become shining portals in the gloom. Utter calamity is transformed into utter blessing. The moment of despair is the birthplace of faith."

"May Jesus Christ, be Lord."

Yours in service,

Ron J. Allen.

[PFKEY]

All that is left for human agents to do, is adore.

LUKE 22

[19] And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

Question:

Is the 'doing' in this passage a work?

[PFKEY]

MATT 7

[21] "Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

An oft quoted scripture.

I'm quoting it in a different light than you normally see it referred to.

Question:

Is doing the will of the Father a work?

[Rambler]

Works is a shorthand term for human effort and ingenuity, aimed at achieving a safe and secure relationship with God. Such effort is contrary to grace. It also is effective, but in an opposite way, to grace. When placed alongside grace as a supplement, it changes grace's nature so that grace stops being grace.

Your definition of works above doesn't relate with the way it is used in scripture:

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

[WriteOn]

Phl 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

[WriteOn]

Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

[WriteOn]

Hbr 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[WriteOn]

Hbr 6:10 For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

[WriteOn]

2Ti 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

[WriteOn]

1Ti 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

1Ti 5:9 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,

1Ti 5:10 Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

[WriteOn]

1Ti 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

1Ti 5:9 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,

1Ti 5:10 Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

[Salvation]

Please reference the entire chapter and this verse with footnotes, specifically, as focused on the remnant.

Romans
Chapter 11

1

¹ I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

3

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life."

4

But what is God's response to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal."

5

So also at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

6

But if by grace, it is no longer because of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

7

What then? What Israel was seeking it did not attain, but the elect attained it; the rest were hardened,

8

as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day."

9

And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

10

let their eyes grow dim so that they may not see, and keep their backs bent forever."

11

² Hence I ask, did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.

12

Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world, and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles, how much more their full number.

13

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry

14

in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.

15

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

16

³ If the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch of dough; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

17

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place and have come to share in the rich root of the olive tree,

18

do not boast against the branches. If you do boast, consider that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

19

Indeed you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in."

20

That is so. They were broken off because of unbelief, but you are there because of faith. So do not become haughty, but stand in awe.

21

For if God did not spare the natural branches, (perhaps) he will not spare you either.

22

See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness to you, provided you remain in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

23

And they also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

24

For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated one, how much more will they who belong to it by nature be grafted back into their own olive tree.

25

⁴ I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in,

26

and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob;

27

and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

28

In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs.

29

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

30

⁵Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,

31

so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may (now) receive mercy.

32

For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.

33

⁶ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!

34

"For who has known the mind of the Lord ⁷ or who has been his counselor?"

35

⁸ "Or who has given him anything that he may be repaid?"

36

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Table of Contents Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Footnotes

¹ [1-10] Although Israel has been unfaithful to the prophetic message of the gospel (Romans 10:14-21), God remains faithful to Israel. Proof of the divine fidelity lies in the existence of Jewish Christians like Paul himself. The unbelieving Jews, says Paul, have been blinded by the Christian teaching concerning the Messiah.

² [11-15] The unbelief of the Jews has paved the way for the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles and for their easier acceptance of it outside the context of Jewish culture. Through his mission to the Gentiles Paul also hopes to fill his fellow Jews with jealousy. Hence he hastens to fill the entire Mediterranean world with the gospel. Once all the Gentile nations have heard the gospel, Israel as a whole is expected to embrace it. This will be tantamount to resurrection of the dead, that is, the reappearance of Jesus Christ with all the believers at the end of time.

³ [16-24] Israel remains holy in the eyes of God and stands as a witness to the faith described in the Old Testament because of the firstfruits (or the first piece baked) (Romans 11:16), that is, the converted remnant, and the root that is holy, that is, the patriarchs (Romans 11:16). The Jews' failure to believe in Christ is a warning to Gentile Christians to be on guard against any semblance of anti-Jewish arrogance, that is, failure to recognize their total dependence on divine grace.

⁴ [25-29] In God's design, Israel's unbelief is being used to grant the light of faith to the Gentiles. Meanwhile, Israel remains dear to God (cf Romans 9:13), still the object of special providence, the mystery of which will one day be revealed.

⁵ [30-32] Israel, together with the Gentiles who have been handed over to all manner of vices (Romans 1), has been delivered . . . to disobedience. The conclusion of Romans 11:32 repeats the thought of Romans 5:20, "Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more."

⁶ [33-36] This final reflection celebrates the wisdom of God's plan of salvation. As Paul has indicated throughout these chapters, both Jew and Gentile, despite the religious recalcitrance of each, have received the gift of faith. The methods used by God in making this outreach to the world stagger human comprehension but are at the same time a dazzling invitation to abiding faith.

⁷ The citation is from the Greek text of Isaiah 40:13. Paul does not explicitly mention Isaiah in this verse, nor Job in 11:35.

⁸ Paul quotes from an old Greek version of Jb 41, 3a, which differs from the Hebrew text (Job 41:11a).

[fishtank]

BFLR (bump for later reading)

[restornu]

Something for Nothing-

If I sow nothing I reap nothing!
I am not accountable for doing good, for sharing, being kind, truthfulness, praying, keeping the sabath day, envy, I can do as I please for I am saved by Grace!

and Grace is going to give me a full spiritual bank account on the Great and Dreathful Day!

Judgement Day is going to be interesting:)

[Luna]

In my religion, we're taught that we are saved by grace after all we can do. It's likened to a child who wants to buy something he can't afford. So, his dad makes a deal with him. "You earn some money, save it all, then bring it to me after a couple of weeks, and we'll buy you that toy." So, the child gets to work, does extra chores, mows some lawns, and puts all his money in a box. After working for a couple of weeks he brings his box of money to his father. "It's not enough," the child says. "But it's all I have." The dad says, "No problem. I'll pay the rest." So father and child go down to the store to buy the toy. I see works as working with God for my salvation. I can't get a free pass into heaven without doing my part. I give to God what is in my power to do (all my works), and God takes care of the rest.