So please refrain from trying to understand what Paul is saying..but misunderstanding.
We discuss to be clear, right? My view is that truth, if properly understood, is simple, and can be simply expressed. Convoluted arguments don't tend to convince me especially when the clear statements of Scripture appear to disagree. I look for clarity and simplicity.
Paul was trying to get Gentiles to NOT convert to Judaism. This has nothing to do with the required obedience required for salvation.
So then if you want to question the bible accurately...and what I'm saying...talk about obedience.
No one here is advocating becoming a Jew for salvation. So please stop with the strawman arguments.
There's a straw man right there! I've never, not once said anything that you advocate becoming a Jew. Classic example of straw man. Interesting!
Then what does it have to do with? Being a Saint over the Faithful?
God rejects His children as well as accepts them. Look at Israel.
Are you saying then that the Israelites were born again? Born of the Spirit, born of above?
In this part:
There are they who say that we are saved by...Jesus plus nothing"...as if God wanted us to relax our way into the kingdom. These are they who are overly afraid of "works".
But nobody is saved in a vacuum. We are ALWAYS doing works...whether they be works of the flesh or the Spirit. It is really just one or the other. So there is no such thing as "Jesus plus nothing." It is either Jesus plus the works of the flesh....to an eternal loss. Or else Jesus plus the life in the Spirit which leads to eternal rewards.
You've asserted that we are saved by Jesus plus "the life in the Spirit" You've asserted that we are always doing works, those being either the works of the flesh, or "the life in the Spirit", which, if we are to think a moment about what you mean by that, it would be those works that are not of the flesh, the "other" works, the works of the Spirit, and then you shift in your assertion, not that Jesus plus the life in the Spirit is to salvation, instead, to eternal rewards.
What does that mean? No one is finally saved until the end of their time...their race. So are you speaking of a religious salvation status? You know this doesn't exist but in the minds of religious men.
On this part, "So are you speaking of a religious salvation status? You know this doesn't exist but in the minds of religious men." If I know it doesn't exist, is that what I would be speaking of?
But back to your questions, what does this mean? "No one is finally saved until the end of their time...their race."
If no one is saved until the end of their time, and salvation equals Jesus + "the life in the Spirit", and "the life in the Spirit" is all the good works, as opposed to those fleshy works, then people are saved by trusting Jesus sufficiently to begin a life of good works which is ultimately what saves them.
If your salvation is dependent on what you do in the future, well, I'd be very afraid. But God wants us to know peace, and rest, in Jesus' finished work. And from that new life in Christ, we go on to live lives that honor Him, and that abound in good works, unreproachable.
Much love!
