quote by guibox:
unred typo wrote:“If you are in Christ, commit a sin and die, you will still be judged by your works. If you continue in a perfect walk in repentance, love and good works and then die, you will be judged by your works. All are going to be judged by their works. You’re not going to be judged by the last sin you committed but by the works of your life. You remember God is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love. Even a cup of cold water given will not be forgotten.â€Â
So you are saying that it isn't one sin that we commit, but the oveall weight and balance of them in the end? My friend, this is indeed salvation by works and a complete contradiction of Epehsians 2. I know you have your own interpretation of that with your American education analogy, but the bottom line is salvation by the weight of our works is achieving salvation by works. Paul makes it clear that this is not so even though we are still judged by our works. Either salvation is by grace or by works. Though you would disagree, your rational makes salvation completely by works (for Christ dying for the sins of the world don't save us at all if we don't 'apply it' as you've said. So salvation is NOT solely by grace and completely by works (for those who apply it). Paul says that salvation is NOT of works AT ALL. 'By grace are you saved'.
You can't get around this clear teaching, my friend. You emphasis works so much that you are on the oppostie end of the spectrum from the hyper-Calvinist.
You are speaking like a Catholic, not a protestant. Might as well believe in purgatory and the sacraments while you are at it because your theology leads one to these conclusions.
The hyper-Calvinist says God, by grace, has planned every step of every man and there are no deeds that count towards a person’s salvation. (all grace) On the opposite from that is the one who says that God has nothing to do with a person’s salvation and he must do all his works to please himself because there is no plan to save man at all, therefore we might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. (no grace at all)
My view is the biblical one, where man and God work out God’s plan of salvation by the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ, (grace) the regeneration and the sanctification of man through the Spirit, by obedience the commands of Christ to love. (good works) My view harmoniously unites both the verses that say salvation is a gift (what could be a greater gift than the blood of your only son) of grace (God was not obligated to save any one who broke his law) and works (how can you call him ‘Lord,’ and not do what he says to do? )
My theology leads me to follow Christ. What is wrong with that? Answer me.
quote by guibox:
unred typo wrote:“Sins repented of are covered by the blood. If you commit a sin that you had previously repented of, are you saying that it isn’t a sin or that you feel it is ok to do it now? I’m confused as to your question here.â€Â
No, my point is that if our works do in fact save us as you say, then any sin committed can send you straight to hell. Where is the assurance of salvation? You are striving to 'be good' lest that one sin condemn you. You are saved by striving to be perfect. Well, the fact is, is that if you are not perfect, you can be condemned at any notice of unconfessed sin or sinful acts. This is the pressure that forced Luther to rethink the salvation process. You are not saved by accepting Christ.
Are you saying that the Catholic church was right and Luther was wrong?
Who cares what Luther thought? That is between him and God. His time is over and there is nothing I can do to change his mind now. As my mother in law used to say, he’s made his bed, let him lie in it. I don’t have to make the same mistakes either he or the RCC have made in the past.
I am striving to walk according to the leading of the Holy Spirit day by day. My assurance is given day by day as I walk in light, because I believe and have faith that my sins are covered by the blood of Christ as the Spirit brings them to my attention. If I ignore this leading, I will quickly lose that assurance and that is as it should be. Lack of assurance is key to repentance.
If I have a false assurance, where will my repentance come from? I will feel no need to repent and get right with God again if my faith is in the idea that through my single act of repentance, Christ erased all my past, present, and future sins way back when I first realized I was a dirty sinner in front of a holy God and came to Christ for cleansing. Just because that is what you believe and were taught from certain scriptures, doesn’t mean it’s biblically true. I don’t care how great you think Luther was.
quote by guibox:
unred typo wrote:“I don’t think it is stressed enough that we must, MUST, walk in the light of love for one another in order to be in Christ. If we walk in the light as he is in the light then the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. And we are going to have sin, even when we try our best not to. “
And the point made by those on the other end of your theology, is that 'walking in the light of love for one another' is what saves us, regardless of whether 'we are going to have sin, even when we try our best not to'. By saying that we 'must walk in the light... to be in Christ' and still say 'we are going to sin' causes a dichotomy according to your theology. OSASers are saying what you are saying. Being in Christ is what saves us. Doing an inevitable sin and dying will not do our salvation in. We cannot be in Christ and feel saved when our individual works condemn us over and over again and become the determining factor of whether we are saved or not.
Get this straight. God doesn’t save us because he needs us to do good works for him. He hasn’t employed us to do his work on earth because he has run out of angels. He saves us according to his great mercy and love that he has for all of mankind. He wants all men to repent and come to the knowledge of the truth. What is the truth?
The truth is that God is love and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Christ removes all this darkness. If we hold on to feelings of hate and vengeance, we are not walking in the light. If we are lusting after evil things, we are allowing evil to darken our path, we will stumble more and more. We are grieving the Spirit whenever we are holding onto the sins that he wants to erase from us.
If we continue ignoring the voice of God, eventually we can block it out with the noise of the world, and if we continue down this path, we will eventually be out of the light completely, and full of darkness. You don’t grow any fruit in darkness. When we are judged by our works, as it says we will be in Romans 2, how much fruit will there be if we spent all our time here in pursuit of evil things?
