@Episkopos, this is not a minor disagreement over terminology. You are teaching false doctrine about the very basis of justification, and Scripture directly contradicts you.
You said, “It is NOT the death of Christ that justifies us.” Romans 5:9 says the exact opposite: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Verse 10 continues, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” You do not get to tell people Christ’s death does not justify when Scripture says we are “justified by his blood” and “reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
Paul also says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). Peter says Christ “bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Paul summarizes the gospel by saying, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). The cross is not primarily about teaching us how to kill our outer nature. Christ died as the sacrifice for our sins.
You have also said that we are saved “by grace through faithfulness as well as faith.” Again, that is not what Scripture says. “For by grace are ye saved through faith...Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 4:5 is even more direct: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
Faithfulness and obedience matter in the Christian life, but they are the fruit of salvation, not an additional basis for justification. When you add our faithfulness to faith as part of how we are saved, you are adding human performance to the finished work of Christ.
Your treatment of 2 Corinthians 5:21 is just as serious. The text says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The context identifies God as the One reconciling us to Himself through Christ. You cannot rewrite that into Christ being made sin “by us” or change “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” into something more compatible with your system. That is not what the passage says.
You keep trying to move justification away from what Christ accomplished for the sinner and toward what happens in the believer through obedience, crucifixion of the flesh, faithfulness, and a supposed higher spiritual walk. That is exactly where your teaching goes wrong. Sanctification is biblical. Putting sin to death is biblical. Following Christ in obedience is biblical. None of those things becomes the ground upon which God justifies the ungodly.
Paul warned about those who “pervert the gospel of Christ” and said that anyone preaching another gospel is under condemnation (Galatians 1:7-9). That warning should be taken seriously. I am not saying this because I dislike your theology. I am saying it because you are publicly contradicting clear passages about Christ’s blood, His death for our sins, and justification by faith apart from works.
Stop forcing Scripture into your system. Let the text say what it says.
Christ died for our sins. We are justified by His blood. God justifies the ungodly who believes. Salvation is by grace through faith, not by our works, faithfulness, or spiritual attainment.
Anything that moves the basis of justification away from Christ’s finished work and places any part of it on human performance is false teaching.