Bible Study Co-Saviour With Christ: The Lie of Works-Salvation.

[Tenchi]

Acts 4:11-12
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you,
the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

​

It seems that, from the very beginning of the Church, some have desired to shape the Gospel to their liking, insinuating themselves into the salvation narrative as a co-Savior with Jesus Christ. The idea of being a helpless, desperately-corrupt recipient of undeserved divine mercy and grace is a bitter blow to the self-will and pride of many. And so, the Gospel is...adjusted so that the sinner contributes to his or her own salvation, acting to achieve their redemption by the depth of their faith and sincerity, and/or taking up the responsibility for the retaining of their salvation by careful maintenance of righteous living and unwavering belief. This is expressed in statements like, "Jesus saves me, but I must keep my salvation," or "If I stop believing, I will lose my salvation," or "No one can take me out of Christ's hand but I can take myself out of Christ's hand," or "If I don't fear the loss of my salvation, I'll just live like the devil." And so on.

So, what's the role of the lost sinner in obtaining salvation, exactly? Do they have anything to contribute to their salvation? Does God expect them to add to the saving work of the Savior, Jesus Christ?

The Bible is very unflattering in the picture it paints of the lost person:

Romans 5:6-10
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Titus 3:3-7
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Ephesians 2:1-6
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Each of these passages make two basic points:

1.) The lost sinner is incapable of achieving their own salvation.

What hope does a person who is "foolish, disobedient, deceived," who is "hateful and hating others," who is an "enemy of God" and "without strength," who is "dead in trespasses and sins" and bound under the power of the World, the Flesh and the devil have in saving themselves? None, obviously. Which is why such a person needs a Savior.

2.) God makes up for our incapacity, through Jesus saving us from ourselves.

None of the above passages locate the means of salvation in the lost person but always, solely in Jesus Christ. Through him, and only through him, God "makes alive" the sinner; through Jesus Christ, God "pours" out the Holy Spirit on the "foolish, disobedient and deceived"; through Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God, justified by his blood shed for us on the cross. And so, we read in Scripture verses like the following:

John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

1 Timothy 2:5-6
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all...

So, then, the only role the lost person plays in being saved is that of recipient. They are too weak and fouled by sin to contribute anything to God's salvation of them through Jesus.

Ah, but what of faith? Doesn't the lost sinner contribute their faith, their belief in Christ as Savior, to their salvation? They can't be saved without such faith, right? Well, consider the following analogy:

If I have faith in my dentist to fill a cavity in my tooth, and I am so confident he can do so that I go to his office and sit in his dental chair, has my cavity been filled? If I believed and waited in the dentist's chair for, say, a week, or a month, would my cavity be filled? No. Neither my believing in, nor my waiting upon, my dentist will fix the cavity in my tooth. It is only when my dentist appears and goes to work on my tooth with his dreadful needles, and drills and filling paste that my cavity is repaired. Nothing I do in putting myself in the place to have my cavity fixed adds to the actual business of remedying my cavity. Only my dentist does the work of repairing my tooth; I just sit in his chair and receive his work on my behalf.

Hopefully, the parallel here to what Christ does in healing the spiritual rift between myself and God is evident. It is not my belief that saves me, but the object of my belief, Jesus Christ, who repairs the "cavity" of my sin. I can believe as much and for as long as I like that Jesus can save me, but if he doesn't do so, my belief is useless.

You see, Jesus is unique as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) The atonement he made for the sin of all mankind, the sacrifice for sin God required, could only have been accomplished by him. Such a sacrifice needed the infiniteness and perfect purity of the God-Man. No lesser sacrifice would do. Read Hebrews 7-10. It is, then, extremely blasphemous for a sin-cursed, finite human person to imagine they can stand on par with Christ and share in his saving work at Calvary. Such thinking both grossly diminishes Jesus Christ and obscenely enlarges the sinner in need of cleansing of, and redemption from, their sin. No, there is only one Savior and we ain't him.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

So, what of those who say that their living, their righteous deeds, ultimately decide their salvation?

I've encountered those who believe this who've said to me that their born-again status is unknown until the Day of Judgment. They can only hope that their righteousness exceeds their sinfulness, that they've lived well enough to warrant entrance into God's kingdom. This thinking is of a kind with those who say that Jesus has saved them but it's up to them to retain their salvation. Like the person who wants to make their faith part of the means of their salvation, these folk want to make their actions, their good works, their contribution to the saving work of Jesus Christ. In other words, they think themselves a co-Savior with Jesus (though they usually deny this is the case).

Is this possible? Does the Bible indicate that this is how things work concerning salvation? Do we ultimately save ourselves? No. In fact, the Bible expressly and repeatedly denies that one's works have anything to do with the basis for one's salvation.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Titus 3:5
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

2 Timothy 1:9
9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

Another analogy is very helpful here in understanding what the "I must maintain my salvation" folk are really thinking about Jesus, their Savior.

Imagine, you've been swept out to sea by a rip-tide and have no hope of ever being able to swim back to shore. You're not a good swimmer, you're very tired and cold, and waves are continually rushing over you, crushing you down into the frigid darkness of the ocean's depths. You're about to go down for the last time, all of your strength exhausted, your body paralyzed with cold, when a pair of strong hands grip your wrists and haul you up into a boat. Lying in a sodden, shivering, gasping heap on the bottom of the boat, you realize you've been saved from drowning.

It's some time before you can speak and thank your rescuer. But as the sun warms you and the terror of your near-death experience subsides, you croak out your gratefulness. Your rescuer smiles, his penetrating gaze fixed upon you, and says, "Oh, you aren't actually saved yet. I'm going to tell you how to swim properly, give you all the rules for making it back to shore safely, and then I'm going to throw you back in the water. I'll row alongside you, and encourage you with reminders of how to swim well, and warn you what will happen if you don't follow my instructions, but, in the end, if you don't build on my rescue of you with your own effort and swim back to shore, well, death will take you."

Confusion and horror settle on you as you hear these words. You know you can't make the swim back to shore! Surely, the fact that you had to be rescued from drowning in the first place makes this clear! As your rescuer explains the best way to achieve landfall, detailing proper swimming technique, and how to avoid being swept up again in another rip-tide, your mind is whirling, panic making you unable to take in all that's being said to you.

Suddenly, your rescuer scoops you up and, amidst your terrified shrieks, tosses you back into the bone-chilling waves. "I love you!" he calls out, "Trust in me! Obey me! If you do, you may make it to shore!"

I don't know about you, but this sort of "rescue" is no rescue at all. In fact, a "savior" who would do what I've just described would be profoundly perverse and evil. But, essentially, this is what Christ's salvation amounts to if I think my salvation depends upon me, ultimately. If Jesus got me into the "boat" of salvation only to throw me back into the water of self-effort to make my own way to the shores of God's heavenly, eternal kingdom, he is no different than the monstrous "rescuer" in the story above.

This isn't anything like the Savior described to me in Scripture, however. Thank God! His saving work in no part depends upon me. He saves completely and permanently; his salvation perfectly satisfying the demands of God's holy justice. Again, read Hebrews 7-10.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

Not only does thinking I must in some measure save myself make a monster of Jesus Christ, but it diminishes the saving work he did for us all on the cross. Instead of being the full and finished sacrifice the Bible says it was, Christ's death on the cross is incomplete, requiring our input of right living before it actually saves us. When Christ cried "It is finished!" the works-salvation crowd want us to understand that his atonement was ended but it was not sufficient. We must step up and stand with Jesus as a co-Savior, completing his saving work by our obedience to God.

I can think of few things as blasphemous as this belief. As was already pointed out, we are so far beneath Christ, the Incarnation of God, so unable to do for ourselves what he did for us on the cross, that to think we can participate in his atoning work in any way is both laughable and obscene, enormously prideful and incredibly foolish. Christ must be tiny and I must be enormous in order to think that any addition to his divine, supernatural salvation is, by me, possible or necessary.

It is the "old Self" that takes this view, the person the lost sinner is apart from God, who is independent and self-focused, always wanting to take center-stage as much as possible. So radically self-interested is the old, spiritually-unregenerate Self that it would even steal from Christ his glory as the Redeemer. Knowing this, Paul the apostle wrote:

1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Whether the works-salvation proponent wants to admit it or not, they are denying all that Paul wrote here when they insinuate themselves into the business of their salvation. In fact, they are showing that Self is at the helm of the "ship" of their heart, not the Holy Spirit. For if the Spirit were steering the "ship," they would delight in the knowledge of the perfect, complete sacrifice of Christ for their sin, not live in constant doubt and fear for their salvation; they would be crowded to God by love and joy, not shrinking in terror before Him at the ever-looming prospect of eternal damnation; they would rest in the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them, confidently standing in the grace of God extended to them in their Savior.

2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 8:15
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Ephesians 1:4-8
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us...

Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

1 John 4:16-18
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

 

[Hopeful 2]

Thanks be to God for the gifts of repentance from sin, and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of past sins.
And thanks be to God for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and speaking in tongues.
And thanks be to God for His word.
And for fellowship, prayer, study, and revelation.

 

[Tenchi]

Is it possible for me to withdraw myself from the salvation that God has worked upon me through His Son? Having been made a "new creature in Christ" by the Holy Spirit so that "old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5-8; Romans 8:9-16), do I retain the ability to dissolve my "new creature" status, to undo my second, spiritual birth (John 3:3-7)?

If I say that this power is mine, that I can "hand back" my salvation to God by "walking away from the faith," in doing so, I confer upon myself the status of Savior. For if it is within my power to undo what God has done, to make my adoption by Him always contingent upon my agreement to it, to make my faithfulness to God the key to my redemption, then I have set myself over the work of God in saving me and subjected His salvation of me to my humanness and all its waywardness and weakness.

This is, essentially, to rest the most vital thing in my life upon the very weakest foundation. As God's word indicates, my natural, unsaved state is one of rebellion toward God, of Self-will, pride and sin (Titus 3:3; Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:21). This nature does not simply disappear once I'm saved. Instead, the apostle Paul wrote of a terrible battle that rages within each child of God between their new, Spirit-given "Christ-nature" and "the old, unregenerate Self":

Romans 7:14-20
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
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.

Clearly, if our salvation depends upon us, if we are, at bottom, the key to our adoption into God's family, able at any time to abandon that adoption and return to an unsaved condition, then our salvation is anchored in the most tenuous of things! We have no hope, really, of remaining saved for very long; our fleshly, sin-nature vies constantly against the new Christ-nature we have in the Holy Spirit:

Galatians 5:17
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

There is plenty of evidence of this conflict between the old, carnal nature and the new Christ-nature among the first believers in the Early Church:

1 Corinthians 3:1-3
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Here, Paul described the believers at Corinth as both "brothers" and those "in Christ" and people "still of the flesh." Just as Paul wrote in Galatians 5:17, the believers at Corinth had within themselves two natures in conflict so that they "could not do the things that they wanted to do." They were doing very badly in living according to their "in Christ" status, being partisan, fractious and carnal in their dealings with one another instead. If the salvation of the believers at Corinth had depended upon their right living, upon their capacity to maintain perfect fidelity to Christ, their membership in God's family would have been very short-lived!

Galatians 3:1-3
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Here, too, Paul is writing to saved people who were being sorely tempted to migrate away from life in the Spirit into Old Covenant, fleshly law-keeping. Paul indicated that they had received the Spirit (vs. 2), which is to say they had been born-again, but they were not living like it, but were attempting, instead, to be "perfected" by keeping God's commands. As Paul pointed out, these Christians had departed from the proper basis for Christian living (life in the Spirit) without realizing they had! Clearly, the salvation of these believers was hanging by very weak threads, if their salvation was dependent upon them.

So, is God's salvation of the weak and wicked sinner anchored in their faithfulness and fidelity to Him? Are they actually their own saviors, by dint of their personal resolve and perfect obedience to God, maintaining their born-again condition?

The obvious answer, of course, is "No." Nothing as precious and crucial as our salvation can be left dependent upon us. As the above examples demonstrate, we are too weak, too wandering and selfish, to be the foundation of our salvation, to be our own Savior. Knowing this, God has kept to Himself the responsibility for our salvation, drawing us to Christ (John 6:44), convicting us of "sin, righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8), enabling us to repent of our rebellion and sin and understand the Gospel (2 Timothy 2:25) and then, if we choose Christ, preserving us as His own.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9
7 ...you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Philippians 1:6
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:12-13
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

1 Peter 5:10-11
10 ...the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Jude 1:24-25
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Continued below.

 

[Tenchi]

"But we must have self-determination," some Christians will respond. "You can't be saying that God does something to us in saving us that we can't undo. If I chose to be saved, I can choose to not be saved." Well, does this logic hold? Are there instances where the results of what we freely choose cannot be undone? Yes, there are many such instances. The man who agrees to brain surgery, for example, cannot undo the surgery that is done upon his brain and its effects. He will forever after have a scar on his head; he may suffer permanent impairments physically or cognitively in consequence of the surgery; he may have had brain tissue removed which can never be put back into his brain. And so on. If I choose to get into a fistfight with my neighbor and he knocks out a couple of my teeth, I can't just stick my teeth back into my gums and carry on. They're out, those two teeth, and they aren't ever again going to chew my food. If I freely choose to poke a sleeping grizzly with a sharp stick and he wakes up angry and mauls me, I won't be able to undo the mauling he gives me. So, then, there are myriad similar instances where the effects of what I freely choose cannot be undone.

"But we're talking about a relationship, a love-relationship, not being mauled by a bear," some Christians will respond. "I can end relationships that I choose to take up, even if the relationship is with God." Well, hang on, here. A relationship with God is the effect of salvation, not the substance of it. I enter into a love-relationship with God through being saved by Jesus; I am not saved by a love-relationship with God.

Entering into a relationship with God first requires a profound change in who I am. I must be perfectly justified, and fully sanctified, and cleansed of the stain of all my sin before I will be accepted by God (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9-10:21). He will accept into His kingdom and family nothing less than the perfection of His Son. Which is why we all so desperately need the Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit who comes to live within me gives to me all of who Jesus is (Romans 8:9-16; Galatians 3:27), his perfect righteousness, sanctification, character and power, and this - and ONLY this - makes me acceptable to God. In making of me his temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and altering me on a fundamental level, the Holy Spirit does an irreversible work, just like the brain surgeon who removes a tumour from my brain. God has made me physically with unchangeable attributes about which He did not consult me and which I have no choice but to accept. In the same way, He has made me spiritually a "new creature," and the attributes of what He has made me to be, I cannot undo.

John 10:27-29
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

For some odd reason, when some Christians read "no one is able to snatch them out of my hand," they add, "except me." The phrase "no one" is not qualified in this way in the text above, however. "No one" is universal in its scope, encompassing everyone. In other words, when Jesus says "no one is able to snatch them out of my hand," the sheep themselves are included. If I am a "sheep" in the flock of God given to Christ, the Good Shepherd, neither myself nor anyone else can snatch me out of Christ's hand. This is very plainly what "no one" means.

And so, we see the Good Shepherd in Christ's parable of the Lost Sheep going out and retrieving his wayward sheep (Luke 15:4-7). It is his sheep, after all, not just any old sheep, that the Shepherd goes out to find. Though the sheep has exerted its will in wandering off, the Shepherd does not shrug his shoulders and say to himself, "Well, if the sheep doesn't want to be my sheep, okay; it can do as it likes." No, instead, the Shepherd goes out and finds his sheep and brings it back to the fold.

When the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) demands his inheritance from his father, then uses it to fund a frivolous, stupid excursion into a "far country," his father does not declare, "My son is no longer my son. He has gone off on his own, so my relationship to him is utterly dissolved." Not at all. Instead, the father is looking for his son's return, and when he sees his boy afar off, he runs out to him, embraces him, kisses his cheek, and before the boy can get any repentant words out, calls for new clothes and a homecoming party. Nothing the boy had done had dissolved his relationship to his father. Even destitute, eating pig slops, the Prodigal was still a son to his father.

The writer of Hebrews wrote of God's discipline of His children being a mark of His love of them.

Hebrews 12:5-11
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Does a parent discipline, or chasten, an obedient child? No. Reproof and correction are for disobedient children. God, then, is promising discipline of His disobedient, which is to say, sinful, children, not dissolution of their membership in His family. This discipline extends even to physical death, in some cases:

1 Corinthians 11:28-30
28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

1 John 5:16-17
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

See also: Acts 5:1-11.

All of this, it seems to me, amply contradicts the notion that one can undo one's salvation. What God has done in this regard, we haven't the power to negate.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9
7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Hebrews 13:5
5 ...be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

 

[Fastfredy0]

Agrees with Tenchi


John 1:12 But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name— 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh [the flesh is carnal and flesh always lusteth against the Spirit], nor of the will of man, but of GOD. Martin Luther: they become the sons of God, neither by the birth of the flesh, nor by a devoted observance of the law, nor by any devoted human effort whatever, but by a Divine birth only. Those three negative statements stress the fact that salvation is not obtainable through any racial or ethnic heritage ( blood ), personal desire ( flesh ), or man-made system ( man ).

John 6:29 Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent.”

2 Timothy 1:9 for He delivered us and saved us and called us with a holy calling [a calling that leads to a consecrated life—a life set apart—a life of purpose], not because of our works [or because of any personal merit—we could do nothing to earn this], but because of His own purpose and grace [His amazing, undeserved favor] which was granted to us in Christ Jesus before the world began [eternal ages ago], [works]

Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit

 

[Tenchi]

Bump.

 

[Tenchi]

Bump.