Many "Christians" have been deceived and are on their way to destruction (moral, God)
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Does anyone here truly believes they are being saved by their works?
We should be desiring and striving to please God through obedience.
We should also be teaching and encouraging every brother and sister in Christ to uphold the laws of God.
Not out of fear, but out of love for people, God and His good and perfect ways which bring forth life.
Practicing righteousness is not legalism
If you teach other people to relax even the slightest of God's standards, than you will be least in the Kingdom of God.
For that is not what Christ wants us to do.
Does anyone, anyone at all, truly believe they are earning their salvation by works?
Faith in Christ justifies us before God. Our works prove our faith is true.
People are not saved by "accepting Christ" with their mouths and rejecting Christ with their thoughts, words and actions!
Don't be afraid to do some good works, it doesn't make you a legalist or teacher of false doctrine.
It makes you a lover of God and of people.
Not practicing righteousness proves you are a child of the devil.
Quit your sinning and start loving!
1 John 3
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Righteousness is not from the law, unrighteousness is from the law.
We strive for every action, thought and word to be above the law.
Done out of love for God and others, not out of self love and fleshly motivations.
You can either be a slave to righteousness or a slave to sin.
A slave to the flesh or a slave to the Spirit.
A child of God or a child of the devil.
It is up to each individual to decide with their thoughts and actions whom they wish to serve.
Whatever they do, is what they have chosen.
A sinner's prayer does not mean anything without backing it up with your whole life
The Holy Spirit is more than enough to sanctify man from willful sin. Even into their thoughts
Have you ever, taken the life of another?
If, you have, how did it make you feel?
Believe me, I am not a pacifist by no means.
But I don't respond to things out of hate.
If your God hates evil, why does he allow children to starve?
And, all the other things you listed? Is he self-absorbed?
No I have not taken a life.
And we do not respond to things out of hate, but we hate that which is evil.
Christ teaches us to repay evil with good, for only good will bring about life and more good.
Evil feeds evil, sin feeds sin.
God does hate evil. That is why judgement will be inevitable.
God will serve justice when the time comes. He is allowing all those who will be His children to come into this world and follow Him. The time is nearly here, we are on the verge of destroying ourselves. The evil of sinful man will soon be put to an end, but first things we are going to make things much worse.
God knew before hand everything that would happen when He created this world.
He calculated the cost of raising His children and determined that it was worth it.
He is raising up beings like Himself, who know both good and evil, yet choose to do what is good even when it is difficult. Beings who love even when love is not deserved. He could have made us to be preprogrammed robots who can only act within our programming, but that would only be the illusion of love. God is greater than the illusion of love.
In the past, before we had the Holy Spirit to guide and help us. God gave us the 10 commandments/law of Moses.
The were laws made for a physical people and were created to govern our outward actions so that we would not commit evil deeds.
During that time is also when He appeared in physical ways, such as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night, a burning bush, providing manna to Israel. During that time He also punished men physically, to accomplish His purposes, prove He was truly God and remove wickedness from His people.
When Jesus came, He fulfilled the law of Moses and much more. not only outwardly but inwardly as well.
The 10 commandments were made for a people who did not have the Holy Spirit.
They apply to mainly outward actions. The Holy Spirit writes the laws in our hearts, and we obey them from the heart through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So when the 10 commandments say "Do not murder", Jesus instead says, "Do not even think a hateful thought"
And when the 10 commandments say "Do not commit adultery", Jesus teaches us "Do not even lust after a woman or you have committed adultery"
We are held to a higher standard, because we have a helper that conforms us to Christ and the love of Christ.
We no longer try to keep the commandments, because the commandments are made for criminals and sinners.
We begin to embody love, and love is above the law. The law does not apply to those who walk by the Spirit, for they will not break the commandments
The pharisees and saducees were good at keeping the law and finding loopholes to fulfill their lusts.
Christ said that inside, they were like tombs full of bones.
Jesus says that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the pharisees. We do that by cleaning the inside of the cup, not just the outside
I am just wondering what makes you think you have the inside track on what is required to attain Salvation? Or to receive god's grace and thus enter the kingdom of heaven?
In other words: how are you any different than any of the other countless christians, or buddhists or muslims who believe they know god's will and are worthy of heaven?
How are you not just another mortal, flawed human. Like san pablo told us in Romans: we all have sinned and fallen short and missed the mark. (the definition of "sin.") So how are you special?
Jesus said it is arrogance to believe you know the mind of the Father. Arrogance is a sin. You claim you know the mind of god. Thus, you are a sinner. SO why should we listen to you at all?
Jesus also spoke of false prophets. And how if anyone claims to know the Way then he is actually more of a sinner than someone who admits arrogance.
You OP reminds me of something one of the pharisees would say. Or perhaps a member of the Sanhedrin. And we know what jc thought about them! LOL.
But if you can prove that you do have an inside track I will be glad to hear it.
I will be waiting. Patience is a virtue. Hubris is not.
Der Vogal -
Jesus makes it very clear how we wre able to enter the kingdom of heaven in Matt.7:[21] Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
We must manifest the fruits of the Spirit oif Christ, so we have nothing of which we can boast.
John,
Your whole dissertation is as beautiful as it is true. Keep nurturing the Spirit.
Thank you brother, praise be to God. May the Spirit dwell in you powerfully
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