Posted on 09/02/2017 7:03:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One gets the impression that a lot of people don’t really understand the religion they profess. Fwiw, I expect that’s been the default for the entire history of humanity.
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:4-7
RE: One gets the impression that a lot of people dont really understand the religion they profess.
We better hope most Muslims don’t understand clearly what Islam and the Koran really teaches...
Often they don’t, and they don’t like it when they learn it. There was a case in Australia where Christians from Pakistan were convicted of “religious vilification” simply for reading from the Koran words that local Moslems didn’t like.
“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”
Isaiah 64:6
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:1-3
Surveys are usually kind of ham-handed and don’t allow for any kind of subtlety. If the choices offered don’t fit your belief, you pick the one closest or you give up and don’t answer. I hate surveys, especially if they are written by people who don’t get the subject they are studying.
As for “works”, its really not that complicated. If you are walking with God, if the Spirit is resident in your life, there will be evidence of it in your character and in that piece of the world that surrounds you. Over time, as you walk it out, you and the space surrounding you will be different because God is alive in you.
You also have people who strongly believe in Modalism, dispensations in terms of the nature of God and other heresies but that is mainly due to Televangelists and prosperity teachers.
Uhm.....nope.
See one of the 3 great parables in Mathew 13 “Pearl of Great Price”
Correct, however the issues Paul took with it in his letters dealt with people who did works in vain. They did them to try and earn favor with God or erase a bad deed. It was not out of joy and love for God. The way I always put it is the man who committed adultery. Can buying his wife a new car and taking her on a 10 day cruise erase the bad deed and make her forgive him? However the man who surprises his wife with gifts out of love and joy for her can surely make his marriage stronger.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Galatians 2:8,9
but one must SHOW their own love of God....by doing good, refraining from sin...
I know so many so called "Christians" who's only objective is to get the name of "Jesus" in their prayers as often as they can...
otherwise, they cheat the govt and others and lie all the time....
the more they proclaim how great a Christian they are, the more I distrust them...the more they say they are "saved" the more suspect they are...
Thanks for posting this verse - Paul absolutely nails it in Galatians.
Well...
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” (Matthew 16:27)
Now, to be completely clear: People are ONLY saved by grace, but they receive that grace through faith and God’s works begun within them.
but one must SHOW their own love of God....by doing good, refraining from sin... (Every one of us continues to sin but "yes" we should "refrain" or repent from sin. Christians are not under the "dominion" of sin. God always provided the way out. The choice is ours.)
I know so many so called "Christians" who's only objective is to get the name of "Jesus" in their prayers as often as they can...
otherwise, they cheat the govt and others and lie all the time....
the more they proclaim how great a Christian they are, the more I distrust them...the more they say they are "saved" the more suspect they are...
**Titus 3:4-7 ....but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,....**
Written by Paul to Titus, a convert of his, that was bishop of the church in Crete.
Paul tells about his own conversion, to king Agrippa (in Acts 22:16); where Damascus disciple Ananias said to an obviously repentant Paul:
“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord”.
What's the difference between the two?
...a figure, not literal.
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