heretoeternity said:
Jesus said "you honour me with your lips but your hearts are far from me" Matthew 15, and in Isaiah 29...how do we give our hearts to Jesus/God ..Matthew 14.15 "if you love me keep my commandments"...and Paul said in Romans "do we make void the law through faith? God forbid. We establish the law" Apostle John in 1st John said "sin is transgression of the law"..and Paul said in Romans again "do we sin more so grace abounds? God forbid!"
Remember always,salvation is through the Son of God, His grace and commandments, and not the sungod/satan and his days of sunday, dec 25th and easter all of which are non Biblical and of pagan origin.
Salvation is by grace, through faith. You have added the requirement of commandments. The reason for this is most commonly due to a lack of understanding concerining the purpose and timing of the life of Jesus on earth. He made some comments, such as telling them the road is narrow to life. However, how is it that people wouldn't believe that He came to solve the problems that He was addressing?
As far as Math.14:15, He did not say " keep THE commandments". He said MY commandments. And 1John 3:23, we are told what they are. There are two. Faith in Him and love for one another. It is a major assumption that He would have been speaking of the commandments of law. Furthermore, He did not say in that passage that this was the requirement for everlasting life, anyway. He simply explained how we show love for Jesus.
As for Paul confirming that we establish the law. Why would you assume he was speaking of the requirement for everlasting life in that? He told the Galatian church what the purpose of the law actually is/was. It was given as a temporary measure until the Seed should come. And it was given to reveal sin. This revelation is what is needed to convince a person he needs a Savior. Thus the law is the tutor, or teacher that leads us to Christ.
Don't forget all the other stuff Paul said about the law.He called it the ministry of both death and condemnation in 2Cor.3:7-9. Then he called it the covenant that gives birth to bondage in Gal.4:24. Unless you can think of another reason he mentions Mnt. Sinai in that verse. The reason he said such damaging things about the law is precisely why he said it was given. To reveal sin. To declare guilt. This is what the establishing of the law means. It is not established as part of the way to salvation. That is not it's purpose. It was established for the given purpose, not the one you are claiming. To confirm this, there is always Phil.3:9.."....not having my own righteousness, which is through the law"...or Gal.3:21..." ...If there had been
A LAW given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by
THE LAW" .
As well, in Rom.10:9,10, as Paul tells of how salvation comes, he makes mention of confession and faith. NO MENTION OF LAW KEEPING. Previous to that in Rom.5, Paul tells of the free gift of both life and righteousness and tells how they were made available to us: Through the obedience and righteousness of ONE MAN: Jesus. I don't lnow how much more obvious these things can get, but alas, there is also the own words of Jesus in John 3:16 and John6:50,51, and John5:24....etc.
When He informed people that to have life they must keep the law, He was in the context of the covenant of law. The covenant of grace was not revealed and did not commence until
after His death. What He said about it and about the narrow gate, was true at the time He said it. He used the law to take away their confidence, not to instruct them about the new covenant way to life. As for the narrow road and gate....remember the promise made to Abraham, that his descendants would be innumerable. And remember the revelation of John as he saw a crowd around the throne of God that were the fulfillment of this promise..... virtually innumerable. How does that compute to "a few"? Answer: It doesn't. And neither does "a few" even remotely resemble God's promise. Get over it. We have life because
He is good...
not us.