@mailmandan
@Big Boy Johnson
@Ritajanice
@Rella
This is my understanding:
Christ says we abide in Him if we keep the "Law of Faith" (Ro 3:27), and if we abide in Him, He supplies us with the Spirit (1 Jn 3:23,24), because the eternal life is in His Son (1 Jn 5:11), but the *singular* Law of Faith is *twofold* :
1) Believe in the Name of God's Son, and
2) Love one another.
"Love one another" is the same as saying "walk by faith", and "walk after the Spirit", because "faith... works by love": infracting "let every man be fully convinced in his own mind" (Ro 14:5) is "sin" (Ro 14:23), but what we do in faith is "God's righteousness revealed from faith to faith" (Ro 1:16,17), like "footsteps of faith" (Ro 4:12), which is what James 2 is talking about, and is just as Paul says, "if we live by the spirit let us also walk by the spirit", so that Christians who do not "walk after the spirit" die and do not live (Ro 8:12,13), whereas even Gentile Christians, who do not have the Law, but who are under Grace and walk after the Spirit, are qualified as "doers of the Law" who will be "justified" when they are "judged" and "repaid... eternal life" (Ro 2:6-16, 26,27; Gal 6:6-10).
This explanation is how Paul can warn the immoral that God will withhold His Spirit if they live that way (1 Th 4:8)--like King David, who said, after his own commission of immorality, "do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (the presence is by the Spirit (Acts 3:19,20), and *only* God's people have His presence (Ex 33:15,16), the marker they are His people--so this is actually an issue and threat of being "cut off from among his people" (Ex 31:14; Ro 11:17-23), or "blotted out" (Ex 32:32; Rv 3:2-6)).
This perspective is also the only way to reconcile "no condemnation for those in Christ [in Whom there is no sin (1 Jn 3:5)]" (Ro 8:1) with the fact that there
is "condemnation" for the believer who "sins" by doing what he doubts (Ro 14:5,23): by infracting the second table of the *singular twofold* "Law of Faith", the believer isn't "abiding" in Christ (1 Jn 2:28), but is led away by some form of idolatry (1 Jn 5:21), whether it is the "Galatian" idolatry ("this persuasion doesn't come from Him Who calls you" (Gal 5:8) means the "false Gospel" is a "doctrine of demons" (1 Ti 4:1), and "the idols the nations worship are demons" (Dt 32:16,17; 1 Co 10:20), resulting in them "deserting Him Who calls you in the grace of Christ" (Gal 1:6; 1 Jn 2:28)) or any other form of idolatry (ie, selfishness--"no covetous man, who is an idolater" (Ep 5:5)).
This perspective also explains how the person who doesn't provide for his family can be said to be "worse than an unbeliever", and be said to have "denied the faith": the command is a
twofold but
singular command, sinning against one part is like sinning against the other part, so that the practical sin against his family has a double effect of functioning as a denial of the Lord, a violation against the first table of the Law of Faith, which is why it stipulates, "
The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels".
Question: Why would Christ even raise the issue of "confessing them before His Father"?
Answer: "Whoever denies Me before men I will deny before My Father" (Mt 10:33)--the one who sins also is denying the Lord by not representing the Lord before men, since, if he was walking by faith, he would be revealing the Lord in his deeds. As James says, "I will show you my faith *by my works* --walking after the spirit, sowing to the Spirit, doing good, is the second table of the
singular twofold "Law of Faith", "confessing Christ" with one's deeds, but to fail to do this, to not walk in faith, but in doubt, is like a denial of Christ, and this "unrighteousness" "suppresses God's truth" (Ro 1:18), and does not reveal His righteousness (even if you may appear "blameless" to men, if you are not walking in faith you're not revealing His righteousness (Ro 1:16,17), but, at best, a righteousness of your own based on the knowledge of Good and Evil (the Law (Pp 3:9) being only one form of the knowledge of good and evil, under which all had generally had been since Adam)), and it is to "defile" of one's "garments" (Rv 3:4), and, as God, Who does not change, says, "the one who sinned against Me I will blot out of My Book" (Ex 32:32).
This perspective explains how Paul can warn Christians that if they don't make their body their slave, instead of allowing their bodies to make them their slaves (going back to the slavery of Sin), that they will fall under God's wrath and forfeit the promise, just as happened to the Jews after they were saved "by the blood of lambs", and "baptized into Moses", and "ate communion" (1 Co 9:26-1 Co 10), which was written for the instruction of Christians.
Protestants tend to overemphasize the
first table of the Law of Faith, so that the Bible cannot make sense, whereas the Old World believers (Catholics, Eastern Orthodox) tend to overemphasize the
second table of the Law of Faith, so that there is no stability in the finished works of Christ (and this has been my error, and weakness, as well--but I received the grace of prayer through fellowship with other believers, and I have received answers to my prayers), but there is a middle way of emphasizing Christ's finished works, and also recognizing the imperative of not only living by the Spirit but also walking by the Spirit, so that we are not believing in some man's insane nonsensical hole-filled interpretation of the Scriptures, but believing ALL of the Scriptures, believing God, Himself.
