MrVersatile48 wrote:
I think the OP confuses the Bible command - to 'preach & teach the whole counsel of God' - with the glorious good news gospel that sinners are saved by the sheer grace of God, thru faith in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross, as in John 3, Romans 3, Galatians 2:15-16 & Ephesians 2:8-9
The way of salvation is purposely simple, so even children can grasp it & pass it on
Exactly. When you say to a child who just pinched the slop out of another child’s arm, “Is that love one another? How would you like it if they did that to you? â€Â, you are teaching them to walk by Jesus’ teaching to treat others as you would want them to treat you. When you tell the pinched child to forgive the pincher, it is the ‘turn the other cheek’ and the ‘forgive as you have been forgiven by God’ lessons. No rocket science here. The common people received his word gladly.
Why does everyone stop with 8 and 9 of Ephesians 2? Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Seems like a lot of people are suffering from ‘works’ fear. Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
Here are the works to fear: the
works of the flesh, not to be confused with good works done by our human bodies in Christian love and the
works of the law, not to be confused with doing the commands of Christ when working out our salvation.
The works of the flesh are clearly defined for us: Gal 5:19 Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The works of the law are doing rituals of any kind and thinking it is the ritual that has merit before God. It is the heart that God looks at. He’s not interested in your sacrificial giving or good deeds if your heart is doing it for praise and selfish pride and not out of love for God and your neighbor. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, but he doesn’t want to hear us mouthing prayers and making a confession for some sin while we are harboring desires to do it again. It is only if we walk in the light of God’s love and holiness, that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness and confession is made unto salvation.