Is believing/faith a work ?

[Gottservant]

You Do Not Get what those Verses Mean, do you.

[...]
You are seeking CREDIT for YOURSELF.

You are basically saying "whatever good I have done, is God's gift to me"

And what did Jesus say about that? Hmmm?

"You make the commandment of God of no effect, by your tradition" (from memory, the gospels)

I have reason to boast, but I boast in Christ Jesus; I have reason to keep boasting in Christ Jesus, but I remember that God desires mercy.

 

[Kermos]

I think you got the wrong idea about Glorification. That is the Sinless body after we are raised or in the Rapture. Right now we are Forgiven, but still have a body that sins, even tho we strive not to. NO, it is NOT because HE sees the work we do that you think, "why He glorifies us!" You may be headed for a lesson in humiliation the HARD way.

Psalm 14:3 (ESV)
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Genesis 43:9 (YLT)
9 I—I am surety for him, from my hand thou dost require him; if I have not brought him in unto thee, and set him before thee—then I have sinned against thee all the days;

Romans 3:23 (NCV)
23 All have sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory,

You see, my attitude is this: Anything good I do, it is not me doing it, it is Christ in me doing it.
Anything Bad I do, it is me that sinned, not HIM. Try to learn what all GOD considers SIN, that will go a long ways to have that same attitude that I have. It is through HIS MERCY, that HE FORGIVES US AND GLORIFIES US. Like I said, we do not deserve a pat on the back for SELF, not at all,

Let me show you how Paul handled it.

Romans 7:17-25 (ESV)
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

We will not be rid of that sin in the flesh, until we get the GLORIFIED BODY at the resurrection or the Rapture.

@Gottservant, you really need to hear what VCO proclaims to you here!

VCO, you wrote of fruit of the Spirit (see "goodness" in Galatians 5:22) with "Anything good I do, it is not me doing it, it is Christ in me doing it". See, the Christ says "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Hallelujah, all praise and glory to the Risen King!

VCO also wrote of accountability to God with "Anything Bad I do, it is me that sinned, not HIM", and this is, again, in accord with the Word of God "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18:20, see also Romans 7:14-25). Wretched, evil creatures that we are - we need the Savior to seek and to save us (Luke 19:10) while we were against the Savior (Romans 5:8).

But that is not the end of VCO's explanation. VCO wrote of the manifold mercy - the undeserved forgiveness - imparted by God in Christ with "It is through HIS MERCY, that HE FORGIVES US AND GLORIFIES US", and this, yet again, concords with the Word of God "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, see also Romans 7:25 - Romans 8:11).

With great grace, immeasurably unearned love, God unilaterally exclusively saves us from the wrath of God - we Christians do not insult the Holy Lord God Almighty by claiming to do that which the Word of God says we cannot do by uttering "I chose Jesus" because we hear the Word of God "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:16) as well as "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19, includes salvation), and all the blessings of God mentioned in this paragraph are to all believers in all time because Christ says "What I say to you I say to all" (Lord Jesus Christ, Mark 13:37) to the Apostles Peter, Andrew, James, and John whom Christ had taken aside in private and said this.

VCO points out the opposition of the flesh against the Spirit (Galatians 5:17), and that the sin of the flesh gets cast away in the Resurrection by the Power of God (Romans 11:26).

May God bless you both.

 

[Gottservant]

@Gottservant, you really need to hear what VCO proclaims to you here!

[...]

VCO points out the opposition of the flesh against the Spirit (Galatians 5:17), and that the sin of the flesh gets cast away in the Resurrection by the Power of God (Romans 11:26).

May God bless you both.

If you can help it, please do not batter me with quotes.

I am merely asserting that Grace must be translated to Inspiration.

I conquer my flesh, by putting it to work - if you are against that, God help you?

 

[VCO]

If you can help it, please do not batter me with quotes.

I am merely asserting that Grace must be translated to Inspiration.

I conquer my flesh, by putting it to work - if you are against that, God help you?

You still do not get it. The good I do, it was JESUS IN ME that did.
The Bad I do, is all me. I can tell when Jesus in me did something right,
which is everything I did right, the GLORY BELONGS TO HIM, never is it me.

Romans 3:23-25 (NASB)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God
He passed over the sins previously committed;

When we do what is right, we demonstrate HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, not ours.

Prov 27:2 [HCSB]
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth — a stranger, and not your own lips.

I had two Mormon Missionaries at my door a while back, telling me how Good they have been. Surely you are not one of them?

 

[Gottservant]

You still do not get it. The good I do, it was JESUS IN ME that did.


[...]

I had two Mormon Missionaries at my door a while back, telling me how Good they have been. Surely you are not one of them?

No, I do things that are good and I let strangers praise me (good verse, you pointed out there - from Proverbs), but I do not do things worthy of more praise than Jesus.

Don't you see that ignoring the praise you deserve, does a disservice to the One who is worthy of praise for both your sakes.

You are saying you can't have one (praise yourself) without ignoring the other (praise for Jesus), that's just not true.

I bind the Devil, that has deceived you into thinking you are of no value in Jesus' Name Amen.

Neither of us are going to say "you praised me, you were sucked in!", we are going to say "We are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty to do".

You need to learn that true servants of God, do not do anything for the praise alone, but for the Love of praise given to God - this praise, being that which Jesus shares with God and we share with Jesus.

 

[Kermos]

If you can help it, please do not batter me with quotes.

I am merely asserting that Grace must be translated to Inspiration.

I conquer my flesh, by putting it to work - if you are against that, God help you?

Your last paragraph literally contradicts the very Word of God "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5) that you summarily subtracted from your reply.

In case that quote is insufficient for you, do not forget that your flesh deleted the Word of God previously posted, the graceful Way says "he who practices the Truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God" (John 3:21).

 

[Gottservant]

Your last paragraph literally contradicts the very Word of God "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5) that you summarily subtracted from your reply.

In case that quote is insufficient for you, do not forget that your flesh deleted the Word of God previously posted, the graceful Way says "he who practices the Truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God" (John 3:21).

You are self-effacing, out of Christian pride?

God compels what I do, but I do not do it apart from Christ - therefore I do it freely.

You want to make me a prisoner, of Grace, as if I have sinned, which I have not (not in Christ).

Just ask yourself "is there something that the Holy Spirit wants me to believe, about my salvation?" that you have done nothing and received grace is not it.

 

[Kermos]

You are self-effacing, out of Christian pride?

God compels what I do, but I do not do it apart from Christ - therefore I do it freely.

You want to make me a prisoner, of Grace, as if I have sinned, which I have not (not in Christ).

Just ask yourself "is there something that the Holy Spirit wants me to believe, about my salvation?" that you have done nothing and received grace is not it.

The Apostle Paul wrote "Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you" (Ephesians 4:1), so Paul refers to himself as a prisoner of Christ, but you reject being a prisoner of the Lord.

Compulsion is the opposite of free ("compulsion" is the noun form of "compel" which is a verb), so you redefine words into wrong meanings resulting in you denying simply fundamental linguistics, so you fail to understand the Spiritual.

I am in no way conveying that you are a prisoner of Christ.

Christians believe the Christ who says "he who practices the Truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God" (John 3:21), so any and every good work of a Christian is a fruit of the Holy Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22) for Paul also wrote "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness" (Galatians 5:22), so in your heart, you steal that "goodness" that is owned by the Holy Spirit with your words of "I do it freely" meaning you do it apart from the Spirit of Christ (free means independent). Your writings indicate that you are not in Christ.