Salvation by Faith Alone?

[Drew]

Drew, What was the Law of Moses? The Old Testament saints had faith in Jesus coming to reconcile them to the Father. Because of that faith...they obeyed the law (that is works). The same thing we are saying..we are saved through faith on what Jesus did on the Cross..therefore we obey!

If you do not know what the Law of Moses is, I can understand why you hold the view that you do.

At Mount Sinai, God delivers the 10 commandments, as well as a whack of other laws, to Moses. Actually, I am not sure of the exact timing, but that's not really the point.

The Law of Moses, also referred to as the Torah, is the covenant charter of the nation of Israel. It was given to Jews and Jews only (plus Gentiles who were otherwise integrated into their community).

It is not, repeat not, for humanity in general.

Here's what Paul needs to say in Romans: "Listen you fellow Jews, do not think that salvation is achieved by doing the works of the Law of Moses - if that were true, salvation would be for Jews and Jews only". Here is the classic statement of this:

28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too

I trust that you may now see how people have mistaken "you are not saved by works of the law" to read "you are not saved by good works". Paul is not contradicting himself – he means what he write in Romans 2:6-7: we are indeed saved by good works.

Paul needs to tell the Jew that he is not saved by the works of the law of Moses. Search for all such “you are not saved by works†statements anywhere in Paul – you will see, that in each case, he is attacking the Jewish belief that salvation is limited to Jews and Jews only.

 

[awaken]

francisdesales, Drew..
We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one..
I believe...and have scriptures as to why I agree with the following...


Christ's sacrifice of atonement satisfied the demands of God's righteous nature. It enables believers to be restored to a right relationship with God because the guilt and penalty of our sins has been removed.

The glorification of believers will occurs when Jesus comes.. when all Christians, living and dead, will receive their immortal bodies. At that time our physical bodies will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye to be like Jesus' glorious body.

Grace is the undeserved favor and love of God toward mankind.

Justification is the act in which sinners (those who are unjust) are declared righteous (guiltless, free of blame). In other words, "justified" means "just as if I'd never sinned."
We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for our salvation.

To redeem something is to buy it back by paying a price for it. In Biblical times, slaves were redeemed by having their ransoms paid for them by someone else.
Believers have been redeemed by Christ through His death on the cross and have received forgiveness of sins.

Regeneration refers to the spiritual rebirth which occurs when a non-believer is justified by trusting in Christ for his or her salvation. This is also called being "born again" or, more accurately, "born from above."

To repent is to undergo a change of mind about your sins.
When a non-believer truly trusts in Christ alone for his salvation, he has changed his mind about his former sinful way of life and thus has repented.
True repentance will lead to works of obedience to Christ (in Biblical terms, it will "produce fruit").

To be righteous is to be Godly and just, to conform to the will and nature of God (although we should recognize that we will never perfectly conform to God's will this side of heaven).
When we place our trust in Jesus we receive righteousness, which means we become blameless and free from the guilt of our sins. Our sins are placed into Christ's bank account, so to speak, and His righteousness is placed into our account.

To be saved is to be rescued from the punishment for our sins (separation from God and torment in hell) and to inherit eternal life.

To be sanctified is to be made holy, clean and pure, free from sin. To be holy is to be separated from sin and set apart for God.
The act of sanctification occurs at the moment of salvation (when a person places his trust in Jesus) because God has set the believer apart for Himself. However, sanctification is also a process as the believer tries daily, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed and to live and act more and more in a Christ-like way.

 

[Drew]

francisdesales, Drew..
We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one..
I believe...and have scriptures as to why I agree with the following...

You are free to believe what you like. But it appears that you do disagree with a certain fellow named Paul who penned these words:

6God "will give to each person according to what he has done."7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

On what basis is eternal life granted? Answer: what you have done.

You have every right to believe that Paul has made an error in saying this - I do not think it is a great crime to deny the complete inerrancy of scripture.

But let's be clear - you are indeed disagreeing with Paul at this point.

 

[francisdesales]

francisdesales, Drew..
We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one...

I never really liked that statement - it should really state: "I have run out of arguments to defend my position or attack your position and I not interested in determining the truth of the matter, so I'm going to withdraw and ignore everything you said that might harm my position".

I believe...and have scriptures as to why I agree with the following...

Christ's sacrifice of atonement satisfied the demands of God's righteous nature. It enables believers to be restored to a right relationship with God because the guilt and penalty of our sins has been removed.

I see this as quite secondary to how Christians understood why Jesus died. "Atonement" theology is based upon St. Anselm's idea of 'satisfying God', but it doesn't sit well with the idea that God is a merciful God who desires that we SHARE in the divine nature. Ancient Christianity is absolutely FULL of the idea that God became man (and died) so that man could become God. Not to satisfy His "righteous nature". God could have done that by just saying "YOU ARE FORGIVEN"!!!

When my neighbor's kid breaks my window, my idea of righteousness can be satisfied by anything I choose, to include an unconditional forgiveness...

I am not quite sure "who" God is answering to in this "demand" upon Him, so I find the idea of "Atonement" as pretty weak. Perhaps we can explore that later...

The glorification of believers will occurs when Jesus comes.. when all Christians, living and dead, will receive their immortal bodies. At that time our physical bodies will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye to be like Jesus' glorious body.

I think that glorification begins even now - the Glory of God is man fully realized as God created Him. When we "put on Christ", we are glorifying God TODAY!

Grace is the undeserved favor and love of God toward mankind.

Yes.

Justification is the act in which sinners (those who are unjust) are declared righteous (guiltless, free of blame). In other words, "justified" means "just as if I'd never sinned."
We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for our salvation.

Naturally, DECLARE is to MAKE one righteous, not just to state it.
In addition, justification occurs many times over our life. Abraham was justified AT LEAST three times in Scriptures...

Thus, your last sentence should begin - "We are initially justified at the moment..."

To redeem something is to buy it back by paying a price for it. In Biblical times, slaves were redeemed by having their ransoms paid for them by someone else.
Believers have been redeemed by Christ through His death on the cross and have received forgiveness of sins.

That's not the only useage of "redeem". Who exactly is God "paying back" with the death of Jesus???

the second sentence is OK, by baptism, we are redeemed by Christ, buried with Him and receive the work of the cross, forgiveness of sins.

Regeneration refers to the spiritual rebirth which occurs when a non-believer is justified by trusting in Christ for his or her salvation. This is also called being "born again" or, more accurately, "born from above."

regeneration occurs WHEN we are born from above.

To repent is to undergo a change of mind about your sins.
When a non-believer truly trusts in Christ alone for his salvation, he has changed his mind about his former sinful way of life and thus has repented.

Repentance is MORE than just a "mind change", it is also an "action change".

True repentance will lead to works of obedience to Christ (in Biblical terms, it will "produce fruit").

True repentance INCLUDES obedience, it doesn't lead to it. HOW is it true if we don't actually change our behavior and askew works of evil???

One can have faith and initial repentance, but fruit does not always develop from that seed. re-read the Lukan version of the parable of the seed and note that faith can be lost...

To be saved is to be rescued from the punishment for our sins (separation from God and torment in hell) and to inherit eternal life.

You got your definitions mixed up again.

Being saved means
1. forgiven of sins.
2. being sanctified, now that we are free from the power of sin.
3. Eternal life in heaven.

#1 always happens, upon our baptism. #2 happens as we remain in Christ, remaining faithful in our walk. #3 happens only for those who CONTINUE on the narrow path, having faith working in love. #1 does not always lead to #3, but you cannot get to #3 without #1.

To be sanctified is to be made holy, clean and pure, free from sin. To be holy is to be separated from sin and set apart for God.
The act of sanctification occurs at the moment of salvation (when a person places his trust in Jesus) because God has set the believer apart for Himself. However, sanctification is also a process as the believer tries daily, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed and to live and act more and more in a Christ-like way.

Sanctification is to be made holy, thus, there is no need to discuss "being covered" by Christ. If so, we wouldn't need to be made holy. The fact that sanctification occurs in this life suggests, as Christ does, that OUR righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees to enter the Kingdom.

Regards

 

[Drew]

Christ's sacrifice of atonement satisfied the demands of God's righteous nature. It enables believers to be restored to a right relationship with God because the guilt and penalty of our sins has been removed.

All this is true, but there no actual scriptural material that asserts that the awarding of eternal life is based on anything other than good works.

Please prove me wrong - give us one scriptural argument that shows that ultimate salvation is not based on good works. I suggest that what you will actually come up is material that "proves" ultimation salvation by faith based on non-BIblical antecedent assumptions. Prime among these is the manifestly unBiblical view that salvation is a "one-timer".

Please - let's respect Paul. He clearly does not see salvation that way.

Now I want to pre-empt those who will misrepresent what I am saying here: I am, of course, not denying the sufficiency of Jesus' death in saving us. Nor am I embracing salvation by good works fore which I can take credit.

fds and I have been clear to the point of annoyance about this, so please (and I am not talking to you, awaken) - do not bear false witness about what I (and I am pretty sure fds) believe about this.

 

[Drew]

Grace is the undeserved favor and love of God toward mankind.

Absolutely correct.

But it is also true that ultimate salvation by good works is entirely an act of grace, if, repeat if, it is the Holy Sprit who generates these works.

So please - let no one tell you that "salvation by good works" is at odds with salvation by grace.

There would be a conflict with the concept of grace if what I was saying was "we are saved by works generated by our unaided moral effort".

But neither I, nor fds, for that matter, are saying anything of the kind.

 

[francisdesales]

But it is also true that ultimate salvation by good works is entirely an act of grace, if, repeat if, it is the Holy Sprit who generates these works.

So please - let no one tell you that "salvation by good works" is at odds with salvation by grace.

There would be a conflict with the concept of grace if what I was saying was "we are saved by works generated by our unaided moral effort".

But neither I, nor fds, for that matter, are saying anything of the kind.

Agreed. Works of love are just as much a matter of grace as is faith in God. Where does the Bible state that faith is some magical conveyor belt that God sets on auto pilot that churns out the "good deeds"????

Isn't it that without Christ, we can do nothing? FAITH is not the 'mover', here, God is!

Isn't it God who moves within us the will and desire to DO good (in the context of "working out our salvation", no less... Phil 2:12-13)

The false dichotomy between faith and love drives me crazy! NEVER does the Bible contradict or set as opposites the concept of love and faith! We MUST HAVE THEM BOTH FROM GOD!

Yet, that is what sola fide does - thus, for the sake of truth, it must be destroyed.

Regards

 

[Drew]

Justification is the act in which sinners (those who are unjust) are declared righteous (guiltless, free of blame). In other words, "justified" means "just as if I'd never sinned."
We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for our salvation.

This simply does not hold up to exegesis that honour the details of what Paul writes:

13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

How do you explain this statement? If Paul believes that "We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone", why does Paul talk about a future justification at the Romans 2 judgement?

Now let's be fair here: There may indeed be texts that place justification in the past, as having been attained upon belief. Fair enough. But you are effectively saying "I choose to believe some of Paul's statements about justification but not others". For my part, I accept both types of justification statements by Paul.

And in so doing, I toss out the pre-conception of justification as a one time event and defer to Paul: we are justified in the future by good works since, in the present, we are justified by faith precisely because the Spirit, given in the present on the basis of faith alone, generates the good works.

 

[Drew]

The false dichotomy between faith and love drives me crazy!

While I agree with the false dichotomy, here are two things that drive me crazy:

1. The inability (or intentional refusal) to understand the difference between denying the salvific power of the Law of Moses and denying the salvific power of good works;

2. The fact that those people who deny the possibility of salvation by good works because "there is none righteous, no not one" have clearly torn Romans 8 clean out of their BIbles, burned those pages and scattered the ashes over yon deep blue sea. Clearly, Romans 3 describes the state of man apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Mysteryman]

The false dichotomy between faith and love drives me crazy!

While I agree with the false dichotomy, here are two things that drive me crazy:

1. The inability (or intentional refusal) to understand the difference between denying the salvific power of the Law of Moses and denying the salvific power of good works;

2. The fact that those people who deny the possibility of salvation by good works because "there is none righteous, no not one" have clearly torn Romans 8 clean out of their BIbles, burned those pages and scattered the ashes over yon deep blue sea. Clearly, Romans 3 describes the state of man apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hi

LOL - Heck, you have added three whole chapters to the book of Romans, and you see no problem with that either --

 

[Drew]

Let's review some of the ways that people have dealt with this statement from Paul:

6God "will give to each person according to what he has done." 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

... I told you that the word "in" was omitted from the originals.

MM is telling us that he, unlike all the scholars, somehow knows what the original manuscripts contained. He is effectively justifying the rewording of Romans 2:7 to change the clear meaning of it as presently rendered in all translations.

His argument: He (MM) somehow know that the word "in" was in the orignal texts, even though he has not provided a scintilla of evidence to support this, frankly, wild claim.

And then there is this in relation to Romans 2 (I added the emphasis):

Tribulation and anguish upon those who do evil....glory, honour, and peace to those who do good.These are the "treasures" being stored up...those who do evil will reap anguish in this life, and those who do good will reap peace and honor in this life. Is there one single mention here of salvation?

How can one deal with this? As the text itself shows, eternal life is clearly the issue.

And then we have this:

The error of NT Wright, is that he assumes that the context is about believers and unbelievers being judged in some future judgment.

What kind of writer would talk about a judgement with people getting eternal life if, in fact, no believers are present at that judgement? Who gets eternal life besides believers? Why would Paul talk about getting eternal life at this judgement if no believers are present? This would like saying “all men will get blue shirts and all women will get pink shirt†at some gathering where no men are no present. No rational person would say this – and yet this is what mondar is effectively asking us to believe.

This is what is so frustrating about this issue. All of the above arguments are manifestly and clearly incorrect.

And yet they are believed by these three individuals.

 

[Mysteryman]

Let's review some of the ways that people have dealt with this statement from Paul:

6God "will give to each person according to what he has done." 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

... I told you that the word "in" was omitted from the originals.

MM is telling us that he, unlike all the scholars, somehow knows what the original manuscripts contained. He is effectively justifying the rewording of Romans 2:7 to change the clear meaning of it as presently rendered in all translations.

His argument: He (MM) somehow know that the word "in" was in the orignal texts, even though he has not provided a scintilla of evidence to support this, frankly, wild claim.

And then there is this in relation to Romans 2 (I added the emphasis):

Tribulation and anguish upon those who do evil....glory, honour, and peace to those who do good.These are the "treasures" being stored up...those who do evil will reap anguish in this life, and those who do good will reap peace and honor in this life. Is there one single mention here of salvation?

How can one deal with this? As the text itself shows, eternal life is clearly the issue.

And then we have this:

The error of NT Wright, is that he assumes that the context is about believers and unbelievers being judged in some future judgment.

What kind of writer would talk about a judgement with people getting eternal life if, in fact, no believers are present at that judgement? Who gets eternal life besides believers? Why would Paul talk about getting eternal life at this judgement if no believers are present? This would like saying “all men will get blue shirts and all women will get pink shirt†at some gathering where no men are no present. No rational person would say this – and yet this is what mondar is effectively asking us to believe.

This is what is so frustrating about this issue. All of the above arguments are manifestly and clearly incorrect.

And yet they are believed by these three individuals.

Hi Drew

May I strongly suggest, that if you will not discuss this with me, that you refrain from mentioning me in your posts as well.

Thanks

 

[awaken]

I encourage everyone to live your faith through loving obedience to Jesus Christ. Then you'll never need to be concerned about whether or not you're going to heaven, because you'll be living in obedience to the Lord Jesus, showing yourself to be His disciple.
Again...Salvation does not come through any good works or good deeds or good intentions or volunteering at church or any kind of penance. Salvation does not come through any righteousness of our own (we have no righteousness of our own). Salvation does not come through church membership or through growing up in a Christian family and attending church all your life. Salvation does not come through any other religions or spiritual beliefs. Salvation does not come through any religious ceremony such as baptism, confirmation, communion (also called the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist) or any other rite or ritual or ceremony. For the Scriptural evidence that we are saved through faith in Jesus alone and not through baptism or any other works.


Salvation comes to us only through the grace of God (the word "grace" means "unmerited or undeserved favor"). There is nothing we can do, and nothing we can offer God, that can make us deserving of salvation because it's the undeserved gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation ( going to heaven) is a free gift! We simply have to choose to receive it! however...obedience is the evidence of our salvation.

 

[awaken]

Justification is the act in which sinners (those who are unjust) are declared righteous (guiltless, free of blame). In other words, "justified" means "just as if I'd never sinned."
We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone and His finished work on the cross for our salvation.

This simply does not hold up to exegesis that honour the details of what Paul writes:

13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

How do you explain this statement? If Paul believes that "We are justified at the moment when we trust in Christ alone", why does Paul talk about a future justification at the Romans 2 judgement?

Now let's be fair here: There may indeed be texts that place justification in the past, as having been attained upon belief. Fair enough. But you are effectively saying "I choose to believe some of Paul's statements about justification but not others". For my part, I accept both types of justification statements by Paul.

And in so doing, I toss out the pre-conception of justification as a one time event and defer to Paul: we are justified in the future by good works since, in the present, we are justified by faith precisely because the Spirit, given in the present on the basis of faith alone, generates the good works.

through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)

"the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:26)

"He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 4:25-5:1)

"For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified" (Romans 10:10)

"know that a man is not justified by observing the law [the law of Moses], but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law" (Galatians 2:16)

 

[Mysteryman]

I encourage everyone to live your faith through loving obedience to Jesus Christ. Then you'll never need to be concerned about whether or not you're going to heaven, because you'll be living in obedience to the Lord Jesus, showing yourself to be His disciple.
Again...Salvation does not come through any good works or good deeds or good intentions or volunteering at church or any kind of penance. Salvation does not come through any righteousness of our own (we have no righteousness of our own). Salvation does not come through church membership or through growing up in a Christian family and attending church all your life. Salvation does not come through any other religions or spiritual beliefs. Salvation does not come through any religious ceremony such as baptism, confirmation, communion (also called the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist) or any other rite or ritual or ceremony. For the Scriptural evidence that we are saved through faith in Jesus alone and not through baptism or any other works.


Salvation comes to us only through the grace of God (the word "grace" means "unmerited or undeserved favor"). There is nothing we can do, and nothing we can offer God, that can make us deserving of salvation because it's the undeserved gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation ( going to heaven) is a free gift! We simply have to choose to receive it! however...obedience is the evidence of our salvation.

Hi awaken

I will say :amen to your post here. I would also like to add, that all those who ever lived in the OT are going to receive eternal life in the same way we Christians do. By the grace of God. It is a free gift to us and to them as well. God is no respector of persons. He is a respector of circumstances however, and of sin unto death.

The only thing that keeps on out of eternal life, is when God takes their names out of one of the two books of life. Only then does anyone go to eternal death, and damnation. In other words, it's God's buisness who ascends and who decends . There are sins unto death, and murder is one of those sins. But God still judges who actually commits murder and who does not.

No man that ever lived, can do anything to receive eternal life. However, they can do something to receive eternal death/damnation. God has foreknowledge, and he already knows who will and who will not receive eternal life.

 

[francisdesales]

The false dichotomy between faith and love drives me crazy!

While I agree with the false dichotomy, here are two things that drive me crazy:

1. The inability (or intentional refusal) to understand the difference between denying the salvific power of the Law of Moses and denying the salvific power of good works;

2. The fact that those people who deny the possibility of salvation by good works because "there is none righteous, no not one" have clearly torn Romans 8 clean out of their BIbles, burned those pages and scattered the ashes over yon deep blue sea. Clearly, Romans 3 describes the state of man apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yea, I'm not sure on the #2 one, either...

I guess there IS no "born from above" transformation

Regards

 

[francisdesales]

I encourage everyone to live your faith through loving obedience to Jesus Christ. Then you'll never need to be concerned about whether or not you're going to heaven, because you'll be living in obedience to the Lord Jesus, showing yourself to be His disciple.

I would agree. We are assured of heaven AS we remain in Christ.

Again...Salvation does not come through any good works or good deeds or good intentions or volunteering at church or any kind of penance. Salvation does not come through any righteousness of our own (we have no righteousness of our own). Salvation does not come through church membership or through growing up in a Christian family and attending church all your life. Salvation does not come through any other religions or spiritual beliefs. Salvation does not come through any religious ceremony such as baptism, confirmation, communion (also called the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist) or any other rite or ritual or ceremony. For the Scriptural evidence that we are saved through faith in Jesus alone and not through baptism or any other works.

Salvation comes from obedience to God, and much of what you said ordinarily falls under the auspice of "obedience to God"

As such, those who refuse to be baptized, relying on "God alone" is disobeying the command of God to BE baptized, attend "church", and believing particular religious beliefs (like Jesus is God?)

Salvation comes to us only through the grace of God (the word "grace" means "unmerited or undeserved favor"). There is nothing we can do, and nothing we can offer God, that can make us deserving of salvation because it's the undeserved gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation ( going to heaven) is a free gift! We simply have to choose to receive it! however...obedience is the evidence of our salvation.

Ah, you are reverting backwards to THAT doctrine again...

Nothing we can do without God. With God, I can do anything He desires. Why is that so difficult to accept? God desires to share of Himself with us, it is not Him against us. The condition described in Romans 1-3 is us without God. God rectifies that by drawing US to Him, as per Romans 8, we are now new creations. Don't you believe in the Word of God?

We are not filthy rags anymore!

Regards

 

[francisdesales]

LOL - Heck, you have added three whole chapters to the book of Romans, and you see no problem with that either --

Don't you remember I have the original manuscripts? Silly... ;)

 

[awaken]

We accept on faith that we are now saved. Faith is not a feeling and it's not an emotion. Faith involves doing something. After receiving salvation, we should now do the things that Jesus wants us to do. The Bible says the connection between faith and actions...
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" (James 2:14)

"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:15-17)

"But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." (James 2:18)

"You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." (James 2:20-22)

"And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." (James 2:23-24)

"In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (James 2:25-26)

James has given us the key: He says that we must live our faith, we must put our faith into action. Actions speak louder than words, and our actions demonstrate what's in our hearts. If we have been calling ourselves Christians but we have been living self-centered lives, then we would be wise to take these words from James as a wake-up call and begin living Christ-centered lives instead. When we get to heaven there will be no more opportunities for rationalizations, excuses, or self-deception, so let's be brutally honest with ourselves while we still have time to change the way we're living our lives. If our daily lives revolve around our own needs and desires or our family's needs and desires rather than focusing on God's desires then our priorities are misplaced. This is one reason why it's important to read the Bible every day, because we need to get to know our Savior and understand what He has commanded us to do.

After our salvation...we will have the desire to please Him...

 

[chestertonrules]

I encourage everyone to live your faith through loving obedience to Jesus Christ. Then you'll never need to be concerned about whether or not you're going to heaven, because you'll be living in obedience to the Lord Jesus, showing yourself to be His disciple.

Your post should have ended here! This is great advice and I thank you for posting this. All Christians would do well to heed these words.