Salvation by grace alone through faith alone excludes works righteousness

Possessing the Treasure ^ | February 16, 2015 | Mike Ratliff

[Zuriel]

**Many who believe they are Christians are not. They have a form of righteousness, but it is not the righteousness born from above.**

That pretty well descibes people that are bypassing the commandments of the Lord for conversion. This writer preaches salvation without any reference to these:

John 3:5-8; a man must be born again, and how you KNOW when they are.
Matt. 28:19; the Lord commanded that THEY baptize souls.
Mark 16:16; The Lord commanded to his disciples that one must believe and be baptized.
Luke 24:47; The Lord commanded that repentance and remission of sins are to be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
John 20:23; The Lord commanded that whose soever sins YE remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins YE retain, they are retained.

The writer doesn’t mention any of the detailed conversions in Acts, especially the first day:

In Acts 2:37 (in Jerusalem, where Jesus said would be the start of the Spirit being poured out) we find convicted souls asking, “what shall we do?”

2:38; “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.

**People who are ignorant of God’s righteousness cannot submit to it. Therefore, they go about establishing a righteousness of their own.**

That is exactly what this writer is promoting by high hurdling the commissions and the book of Acts, and even parts of Romans, which was written to people already born again (see 1:7):

Romans 6:3; “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
4. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:....” (That’s certainly not Spirit baptism, because the Spirit is life.) “..that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the GLORY of the FATHER, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
5 “For if we have been planted together in the LIKENESS of his death, we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his resurrection.”

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being THEN made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Rom. 6:17,18

**This is why we stress the Sovereignty of God so much here.**

How about stressing ALL of the sovereignty of the Lord’s ordained plan? This man is clearly stuck in the tradition of the Pharisees. In Matt. 23:23, Jesus Christ ripped the Pharisees for leaving the weightier matters undone. What is weightier in the New Testament than rebirth? Yet this writer doesn’t teach it biblically. While declaring he has faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, he shows that he doesn’t know HOW the blood is applied.

“If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15

[GeronL]

Then what is the point of a death-bed conversion that Catholics love so much? Murderers, child molesters are told they can be saved and go to heaven by repenting... but all their works have been evil.

[boatbums]

when one confuses apostolic succession with living Apostles today, a bit of humility when it comes to the true historical orthodox Christian Faith is in order.......

Care to point out where RnMomof7 did that? If you're going to join into a Religion Forum thread why not address the content of the OP rather than insulting the one who posted it?

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

I would point you to a thread titled “ apostolic succession” posted on 2/17/15.
The ignorance of the doctrine of apostolic succession is stunning. But nothing I read on the religion forum surprises me anymore.........

[bonfire]

Are you posting on the wrong thread?

[JSDude1]

You are my brother!

God Bless.

[Iscool]

“Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

Saving faith has no works...What could one possibly offer to God in trade for eternal life in heaven???

[Iscool]

The ignorance of the doctrine of apostolic succession is stunning.

There is no doctrine of apostolic succession in the scriptures...

[redleghunter]

The marching was faith in action.

Without the power of God there would be no faith. Without the God given faith, there would be no Object to put the faith in action.

So the answer is…

With God all things are possible!

[boatbums]

You should know it's not following the rules to drag arguments across threads. Address the topic of this one, if you can.

But, like the knee jerk FRoman reaction to this thread as others RnMomof7 has been posting recently, y'all seldom offer anything to the discussion BUT bluster, ignorance, whining and snark. Perhaps you imagine everyone here should just shut up and let Catholics own the RF and post whatever they want no matter how accurate, historical or truthful. But, alas, you don't, just like you don't own the early church fathers, the Bible, the name "Christian" or our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But hey, you'll have all eternity to adjust.

[LearsFool]

The marching was faith in action.

That's a good answer! Without the obedient action, where's the faith? It's as dead as a corpse. "Can that faith save?" According to James, no.

Those who want to separate our faith from our works are trying to kill our faith.

They would've told Naaman he didn't need to dip seven times in the Jordan, because God can heal people without water. If he had listened to them, he would've remained a leper.

They would've told Noah he didn't need to build an ark, because God can save people without boats. If he had listened to them, he and his family would've perished in the flood.

They would've told Abraham not to offer Isaac for a sacrifice to God, because God doesn't need human sacrifice.

They would've told Rahab not to hide the spies, because God could keep them safe from harm without her help, and anything she did would be trying to earn her way into the promises to Israel.

They would've told Moses' parents to go ahead and have him put to death, because God promised to deliver Israel from bondage and didn't need their help, and because anything they might do would be a denial of God's power to save.

They will tell us not to kill the old slave man in baptism and be raised from the water a new free man, because God's already done everything, and any obedience we might render would be earning our salvation. And those who listen to them and ignore God are still in bondage to sin and don't even know it.

[lupie]

Ping to self to read later today as time and grandbaby allows.

RnMom - keep up the great articles. I have been keeping fed!

[trebb]

Nice but useless exercise w/o a statement of the purpose. You left out 'obedience' as a partial choice - it was just as important as the faith that kept them marching for 40 years prior. I see it as a demonstration of God's faithfulness in His time.

I love the opportunity to think on various parts of the Bible that may not come up in everyday conversation - thanks for the question(s).

[Faith65]

BFL

[LearsFool]

Thanks for the reply.

In the case of Jericho, the obedience was marching. Why was marching obedience? Because God had commanded it.

What would’ve happened if the Israelites had said, “We’re not going to march, we’re just going to have faith only”?

That’s the question the “faith only” folks refuse to answer. They’ll never answer it because the answer exposes their false teaching.

So no, I don’t think it’s a useless exercise. It exposes these false teachers, so that others can be on their guard lest their faith end up as dead as the devils’.

[servantboy777]

With all the religiosity, dogmas, church doctrines...all the various interpretations/denominations/high church, low church, all the theological gobble gook, throwing scripture versus at one another in an attempt to win the interpretation tug of war...God just looks down at man’s attempt to figure Him out and shakes His head. They still don’t get it!

Our Father made it so simple. In fact, so simple it boggles the mind. I guess you could say, “the peace which passes ALL understanding”. When one finally comes to the end of that spiritual struggle, to the end of himself, surrenders out of spiritual exhaustion....they then will find true grace.

I tell folks from time to time a story of an old fella in a liturgical church I once attended. This old guy always wanted the service a certain way. Sat in the same spot and by goodness, better not be in his seat on Sunday morning.

Always seemed displeased by the priest’s sermon, actions. As the plate would come, he’d raise a one dollar bill, high enough for others to witness, then place it in the plate as a symbol of his displeasure with “whatever”.

I was pretty close to the priest, and once heard, “this is our church, we were here before you came, we will be here after you leave”. Kinda my last straw was when this old fart chastised a young acolyte for wearing tennis shoes with his cassock rather than black dress shoes as the official rule book suggests. Imagine how this kid must have felt. Trying to serve and get verbally smacked cause it wasn’t good enough. There were several others in that click, but this gentleman seemed to be the head...gotta do it my way crowd.

Never ever, ever ever ever ever want to go down that road again. Modern day Pharisees.

[metmom]

That is so sad to see.

That gets the enemy more mileage in turning people against Christ than any amount of persecution that he can inflict on the church.

[stonehouse01]

“...never want to live in a Religion of works again...”

Once saved always saved. Presumptuous and unbiblical premise.

We are redeemed by Christ through baptism:

Mark 16:16 - (Acts 10:47-48 for infants and children not old enough to believe yet; see also Acts 16:15,30 -33 and Luke 18:16; also Mark 9:22-25 where the father saves his child’s soul through his, the father’s, faith). Also baptism is the new circumcision, which the Jews practiced on their infant sons at 8 days old

Peter 3:21

Acts 2:38

Acts 22:16

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

The sanctifying grace that is received in baptism can be lost. There is no assurance salvation; there is HOPE of salvation, but not assurance; sanctifying grace can be lost:

There is much scripture that shows this:

Matthew 12:32 The sin of blasphemy against the Holy spirit is not forgiven in this age or the age to come (also is proof of purgatory)

Matthew 13:20:21

I Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul himself is aware that he could lose his salvation

Also - one MUST have faith to be saved (Catholic doctrine includes the the so called “sola fida” proof texts), but faith alone without the follow through of the proper works of grace (commandments, beatitudes, etc.) is not enough. This does not mean that works alone are sufficient either; IT IS BOTH