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well there is your first mistake.. the gospel is the good news of Jesus. it tells us how we can be saved..
We are only justified if we place our faith in Christ, and recieve this precious gift. If we have not recieved in faith. we are not justified.
And hence. you are trying to earn your salvation. You reject grace you reject the cross. you reject the gospel.
Keep trying like the pharisees to earn your salvation. You will fail. and you will not like the outcome.. Fall to your knees and recieve christ.. or reject him abd try to save yourself
James 2:17
There's a great deal of presumption, judging, and unjustified criticism in your prejudiced post. And you draw conclusions from your own bias, not from anything I've written, despite your claims to the contrary. In short, I've never claimed, ever, to you or anyone else, that one is saved by his works. And you didn't read the parable of the sheep and the goats did you?
and?
So you are perfect. from birth until today you have never sinned, not even once?
Yet you mock God with your pharisee type legalism
lol
And you still haven't read the parable of the sheep and goats. A classic clear proof and example of how we are judged by our works.
Salvation is not a reward for good works.
Never claimed otherwise.
Yep.
Indeed. Just what I said.
Absolutely.
We are not arguing.
Maybe not arguing. But you are determined with a zeal I haven't often seen, to paint me in a particular corner. That corner spells heretic...unsaved... unchristian... legalistic... apostate (if ever I was saved at all)... unbeliever (ifI wasn't ever saved). That is your continuing inference, and to which i take exception and on that point, our conversation is pointless. I will leave you to your prejudices.
You can spin it however you want it. When you say that any work. or motivation behind any work affect our eternal destiny. You are teaching salvation by works.
“43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. ”
Once again“43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. ”
Matthew 25:43-46 KJV
And do you seriously believe that you will gain heaven and eternal life regardless of what you do, say, and think? That is not grace. That is presumption. I'm not misrepresenting you. Your hyper grace antinomianism oozes from every post you write.
In Revelation the saved and lost are contrasted throughout, but none more so than in chapters 12 13, and 14 where in each chapter the saved are described as commandment keepers, and as having the faith of Jesus.
One cannot keep any commandment without faith in the active reality of God's power sustaining the life of the obedient.
They will do those things if they were truly sanctified by the Spirit of God. The point i have been at pains to make clear is that in the parable, and elsewhere in scripture, it is those works that are used as evidence in the judgment as to whether we are saved or not. The question as to whether we have faith or not does not come up in the judgment. It is only the works that are looked at and used as the standard by which we receive a pass or not. I do agree with you that we are saved by grace first, and those works are a fruit of the faith revealed externally.
Yet they won't be saved except they do. Not because they do those things, but because of grace through faith. No-one will be saved as James says, by faith alone.
You have to much focus on good works and not enough forcus on Christ and his work.
Your interpretation of James 2 and Romans 4 are at odds with each other.Yet they won't be saved except they do. Not because they do those things, but because of grace through faith. No-one will be saved as James says, by faith alone.
“14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ”
James 2:14-26 KJV
