Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Why Do Christians Argue Against Works?

Hmmm, okay, then what Christ do you believe in? You referenced Romans 10:9, right? 10:9 is about Jesus, isn't it?

It's important to know who they really are in order to fully love and worship God and Jesus. God, the Father, is the Creator of the universe, the Author of the plan of Salvation, the Father of Jesus Christ, and our One God, and removing Him from that exalted position and having Him share His position as “God” with two other “Persons” diminishes who He really is and what He alone has done. Making Jesus into God actually diminishes who he was, and who he is today, and what he accomplished and is still doing. It demeans Jesus because his courage, mental tenacity, love, great faith, and his true greatness is lost if he is made to be God.

Believing Jesus is God also demonstrates disbelief in his own words when he made statements such as “my father is greater than I” and when he prayed to the Father as “the only true God.” The Father has the unique and singular position as God, and should receive all the worship, credit, respect and awe that He deserves as the One True God. Jesus Christ has the unique and singular position to receive all the worship, credit, respect and awe that he deserves as the man approved of God—the only-begotten Son of the Father.
 
Believing Jesus is God also demonstrates disbelief in his own words when he made statements such as “my father is greater than I” and when he prayed to the Father as “the only true God.” The Father has the unique and singular position as God, and should receive all the worship, credit, respect and awe that He deserves as the One True God. Jesus Christ has the unique and singular position to receive all the worship, credit, respect and awe that he deserves as the man approved of God—the only-begotten Son of the Father.

In the following verses, we can unquestionably perceive that Jesus is God: in the verses we are informed that God is the Saviour, and that Jesus is the Saviour, therefore, Jesus Christ, in addition to being a man (in that He took on the form of a servant in the likeness of men) and humbled Himself, but nevertheless, He remained God. God, being God, is under no restrictions regarding how He manifests Himself, and can take on any He so chooses, whenever He so chooses.

[Phl 2:6-8 KJV]
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

[Tit 2:10 KJV]
10 Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
[2Pe 1:1, 11 KJV]
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: ...
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

[Jhn 14:8-9 KJV]
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father?

[Isa 9:6 KJV]
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
 
Last edited:
All unrighteousness is sin.

This is a very theological statement. What is righteous is and what is not is not clear in a definitive sense.

Is this what you are referring to?
It is much simpler and easier to trust only in Scripture to understand the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ, and not lean to our own understanding in trying to 'figure things out' in our own minds.

And so, if we ant to know what sin and righteousness and unrighteousness is, we see what God says it certainly is in Scripture: God is not the Author of confusion, nor is He vague about His commandments and law for man to do and keep.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

And so, all sin is unrighteous transgression of the law of Christ today. And Jesus asks us the same thing, if we want to know what that is:

He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

What many Christians trusting in grace demonize, is turning to the law of God written in Scripture to know exactly what sin and unrighteousness is, especially when it comes to the letter of the law.

What God says sin is, is what sin is, and it is unrighteous transgression of His written law.

It is a legal term defined by God, who is the true Lawgiver.

Any person called righteous in Scripture. therefore was keeping the law of God at that time, and not living in transgression of it, which is an unrighteous sinner.

The letter of the law itself is not the killer, but only doing the letter of the law without the Spirit, is death.

The letter without the Spirit kills, but the Spirit of the law gives life to the doer of the word. The law of God is simply His written word on paper, which is called Scripture of truth.

What Jesus came to do was to first show how to fulfill the righteousness of the law, both in spirit and in letter, which the keepers of the law of His day were only doing outwardly, but not by faith and love for the law inwardly:

I hate vain thoughts and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

The work of Jesus Christ in the heart is to purify us spiritually first, that we may also fulfill the righteousness of the law outwardly, even as He did, which therefore is to walk as He walked, which is the chief example ever on earth of a righteous man of God.

The error of trusting only in grace and one's faith alone for inward righteousness of God, is to seek the weightier matters of the law, and leave the other undone.

Sinning unrighteous Christians, who only follow their own faith by grace, think to keep the first great commandment inwardly, and yet transgress the written law of Christ outwardly: they only become neighborly unrighteous sinners by grace, and not righteous sons of God doing His righteousness by grace.

Now, with the law of Christ being the law of the Spirit, unrighteous transgression of His law begins in the heart with lust. The law of Moses only spoke of transgression outwardly, and was weak in that it did not command inward spiritual purity first, which it could not, until Jesus has come and risen again to give new birth of His Spirit by grace.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Doing the law of God is not ended in Christ by grace, but rather Jesus comes to end doing the law while remaining spiritually unclean within, such as a Pharisee, and also to end sinners transgressing the law outwardly, such as publicans and harlots.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness and true holiness in life, first inwardly, and also outwardly.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And we are to do our part in cleansing ourselves inwardly by His divine power given us for that very purpose, which we have when we receive Him to become righteous sons of God, and not just to become neighborly transgressors, or Pharisee law keepers:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

It is virtuous to do the law and not be an outward transgressor, but the believers are now called to His glory and virtue of inwardly purity of heart and conscience first.

And there is nothing virtuous about being an open transgressor of His law, especially when it is taught as by grace:

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
 
"Until the sinning stops, neither does the unrighteousness. No man is counted righteous and justified by Christ, while still doing unrighteousness."

This is slightly confusing to me. The block between man and God is the lack of seeing sinful acts as sinful and destructive and the need to repent and change.
The block between man and God is sinning against God by lust within the heart. We must first see sinful acts where they begin, so that we repent spiritually, before repenting bodily.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Repenting in the mind is not repenting of unbelief that there is one God, or even that Jesus is Christ, but rather is repenting of taking thought for unrighteousness, Repentance with divine power of Christ is to have His renewed mind constantly renewing and cleansing any such thoughts appearing, so as not to receive them into the heart to lust.

Those not resisting the devil to flee from their heart and mind, are those with lust already in the heart. They try to resist bodily in a losing battle.

The secret and mystery of Christ within His people, is where the war begins, which is the spiritual warfare in the spirit and mind.

Jesus was not a perfectionist on earth, neither is He a perfectionist Lord and Savior commanding perfectionism of the mind.

The difference between an overcoming saint, and double minded christians, is that the saint no longer wants nor accepts any thought for unrighteousness against God, and so receives them not, nor takes them to heart as lust, but are cast down and out at the door: DOA.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

The fowl birds will certainly fly by in this life, as they did with Abraham to steal his sacrifice pieces, but they are no more invited into the heart to nest. Those same birds would then proceed to drop their filthy spots upon the soul that is sinning in the flesh.

If we're not going to acknowledge where the real sin and warfare for the soul begins, then we're never going to fight wisely to resist the devil at the only time and place we can overcome Him.

Christians still trying to overcome sinning with the flesh, by fighting against the flesh, will remain stuck in Romans 7, desiring with the mind not sin against God bodily, but still doing so bodily.

Our fight isn't against our own bodies, because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual and strong through the Spirit and word of the Lord.

The point of salvation is repentance not perfection, because if perfection was the case Paul was never saved.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Phil 3:12
Paul was bewailing double heartedness in Romans 7, but only acknowledging the ongoing spiritual warfare of all men in mortal flesh in Philippians 3, which Jesus also fought unto the end on the cross.

Obtaining perfection in the mind and body is only at the resurrection, and until then we have renewed by unperfected minds. God on His throne cannot be tempted, because it is impossible in His glory to have any unwanted thought appear in His mind at all at any time.

The whole story of the temple and sacrifices in the temple is that perfection is not Gods requirement to approach Him but repentance and the desire to change. He will deliver the fruits of change to a heart that desires this righteousness as Jesus puts it.
Exactly true, which is why just having an unwanted unrighteous thought, is not sinning against God, unless we take it to heart to lusting for it.

The perfectionists declare it sin to have any thought at all, that brings not glory to mind, They don't know what they are talking about, and speaking from their own vain imagination. They take it upon themselves to declare what is and isn't sin, and what coming short of the glory of God is in this life. They make themselves lawgivers and judges of all men.

It is a lie to teach that the law and righteousness of Christ is perfectionism.

They either do so ignorantly, or they do so with the express purpose of justifying transgressing God's law. Since, as they say, any bod thought is sinning, then everyone is sinning all the time anyway. That would also include Jesus as a man, who was likewise tempted in all points as we.

By their perfectionism rule, sinning with the devil against God becomes meaningless, dumbing it down to having an inglorious thought.

Jesus had every unrighteous, ungodly, vain thought and imagination thrown His way by the tempter, yet without sinning, because from His youth, He never recieved any of them into His pure heart to lust. The false perfectionist teaching makes the man Jesus a sinner just like anyone else, because He had tempting thoughts appear in His unperfected mind as a man in mortal flesh.

We are Gods workmanship not our own. We are as Paul describes slaves to righteousness, our hearts cry out to us to walk this path, to know the light and dwell in it. We are not afraid of the emotions of the heart because the heart sings praises to Christ for the cross, bows the knee in wonder at this infinite love that would bow down and call us friends.

So long as we continue to endure tempting thoughts and cast them down, rather than receive them to lust against Jesus in our hearts, we continue to be His pure in heart workmanship of righteousness within first, and also outwardly.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Back
Top