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He told them they condemned him to be crucified. Which they did when they chose Barabbas to go free instead of Jesus. Which hearkens back to Leviticus, by the way. And his hearers knew then that they had done this to the one Person who could save them, their Savior, even God Himself, and...

Well, I agree, as long as you're understanding is as mine that faith is itself a gift of God (rather than something we somehow conjure up in ourselves and then somehow merit our salvation). The Romans 9 and Ephesians 2 quotes cited above in my immediately preceding post above are crystal clear...

No, he was telling those who had been saved already to respond accordingly. And those 3000 responded positively because they had been appointed to eternal life ~ in the same manner as those described in : "And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the...

Well, right, and Gentiles, too, who were in Christ. He was writing to all of them, his brothers in Christ, not merely his ethnic "brethren." This is precisely why James is just as relevant to us Gentiles today as ethnic Jews. Actually, I agree with what you say here, but in the context of...

I feel very confident that Peter got himself baptized. Paul, too. John probably did it. But it really makes no difference whether they did or not; they were obviously born-again Christians, baptized by the Spirit with fire. Jesus did no baptizing with water, because God the Father, God the...

No, problem, my beloved brother! (see what I did there? :)) Iron sharpens iron, and I know you will return the favor. :D Grace and peace to you.

Sure! That's the point! No, because otherwise they wouldn't be James's beloved brothers ~ his brothers in Christ. He wouldn't be able to call them his brothers. Grace and peace to you.

Think of this outward water baptism as an act of thanks to God and faith in Him for what He has done ~ baptized by fire with the Holy Spirit ~ rather than something we do to somehow deserve this baptism by fire with the Holy Spirit. And for what He will do in bringing this work that He Himself...

In this very post, Robert Derrick, you quoted me pointing out James 4:8. James is writing to Christians; in James 1:1, he addresses this personal letter to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion ~ who, even today, we Christians are a part of. He refers to us many times ~ starting with James 1:2...

Effectual baptism is from heaven, by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is very clear about this in Matthew 21:23-27, Mark 11:27-33, and Luke 20:1-8. All these passages are the same event. Here's the Luke passage: "One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the...

Is James mistaken, then, in James 4:8, in addressing Christians as sinners? And remember, this is the Bible, we're talking about, the Word of God, so if James is mistaken, then... God is. So no, James is not mistaken. I'll say this ~ there is a certain sense in which Christians are no longer...

Preaching to the choir, Robert. I mean, the Bible talks about Jews and Gentiles as two separate people groups, so referring to them separately can't be avoided in that sense. But yes, God's Israel is one people, consisting of God's elect, people of every tongue, tribe, and nation. Grace and...

I think we're just sort of missing each other, Pythagorean12... not really talking about the same thing. I'm not talking merely about willful sinning. If you want to talk about willfully sinning ~ as in stating that what God has declared and designated as evil/sin as not sin or evil but good...

I did not intimate in any way otherwise; if you perceived that in anything I said, it was in error. Yes, Gentiles in the flesh ~ those of any other nation other than ethnic Jews ~ were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of...

Well, yeah, at any point in time, all Israel has been saved. So in that sense, yes, Israel is complete; it is what it is right now. But there are still some that will be of Israel that are not yet. Sure. The fullness of the Gentiles has not yet been brought in and the partial hardening that...

It most certainly is! But thanks be to the Father and the Son for the Holy Spirit, our daily Helper, with Whom we know that it is a certainty, eventual as it may be. :) Thank you, TEXBOW. Grace and peace to you also, Brother.

Jesus Himself, when He walked the earth as a man, was fully God and fully man. We Christians are being made like Jesus ~ being conformed to Him ~ and one day will be fully like Him. Scripture is filled with like concepts of ongoing construction: 1. the household of God is built on the...

Absolutely. Well, no. We still have our original sinful nature (this is the "old man" that Paul exhorts us to put off), but now we have a new nature of the Spirit because of our having been born again of the Spirit (this is the "new" that Paul exhorts us to put on): "Now this I say and...

Much agreed. Right, including faith itself, which is the gift of God, and not something man conjures up in himself and offers to God in contribution to his salvation. TEXBOW, I agree with much (probably most) of what you say here and elsewhere, but this particular thing I do not. God's plan...

Thanks for the compliment! But let me ask you, if we are not sinners, then why do we still sin? Oh, not at all. My quote of Paul above from Romans 8:1-2 applies here, too. I think we can look at what Paul says in Romans 7 here, too. We are like Paul, which is what he's saying, here: "Now...