Posted on 02/19/2017 5:01:22 AM PST by metmom
“‘The Lord, the Lord God, [is] compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth’” (Exodus 34:6).
God’s grace is His undeserved favor shown to sinners.
God’s grace has always been a focus of praise for believers. Today’s verse is quoted several times in the Psalms and elsewhere in Scripture (for example, Neh. 9:17, 31; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8). Paul is grateful for God’s abundant grace in 1 Timothy 1:14, and John writes, “For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16). Today some of our favorite hymns are “Amazing Grace,” “Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord,” and “Wonderful Grace of Jesus.”
What exactly is grace? It is simply God’s free, undeserved, and unearned favor. It is a gift given by God not because we are worthy of it, but only because God, out of His great love, wants to give it.
Grace is evident to Christians in two main ways. The first is electing, or saving, grace. God “has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). “By grace [we] have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). This is God’s grace to sinners, for “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20).
Another grace in our lives is enabling, or sustaining, grace. We didn’t just receive grace to be saved; we now live in grace. It is the grace of God that enables us to live the Christian life. When Paul asked that some debilitating “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7) be removed, the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). Paul elsewhere says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).
Remember, we have earned neither saving nor sustaining grace. Nothing we can do can make us worthy of one more bit of grace. God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” (Ex. 33:19). This truth should make us all more grateful because He saved us and sustains us despite our sin. It should also make us humble because we have no worthiness to boast about (Eph. 2:9).
Suggestions for Prayer
Thank God for His grace in saving and sustaining you.
For Further Study
Read Genesis 9:8-19.
How did God extend grace to Noah and his family? What was the visible sign or symbol?
“How can all be “true believers” if they pick and chose the teachings of Jesus that they believe in?”
If someone exercises saving faith in Christ and His sacrifice, they have eternal life.
“How can all be “true believers” if they follow a heretical belief system?”
That statement is based on Fake News from Rome.
“Yes Jesus died for the sins of all mankind - principally the sin of Adam - original sin”
All sins - original, sins of commission and sins of ommission.
“We are required to be validly Baptized and we must not die in the state of mortal sin.”
No. Not required. Baptism follows salvation as an public proclaimation of a new inward reality. It is a “picture of a house - not an actual house.”
“We have a responsibility to keep God’s Commandments. We have a responsibility to Love God and our neighbor.”
We have the new choice of allowing Christ to live His new life in and through us.
“WOW. You certainly are biased against anyone who does good works.”
Good works follow salvation as fruit and evidence of a new life within. Works give no merit nor grace.
“Paul tells us: “For [God] will reward every man according to his works: to those who by perseverance in working good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. “
Indeed, after salvation, the true believed will be held accountable for his remaining life on earth and will gain reward or suffer loss - but his salvation remains intact in both cases.
Best
Perhaps the Catholic understanding of The Bema seat in Heaven is flawed ...
Perhaps??
It has been perverted into purgatory.
‘By Jove I think you’ve got it!’
bump
Here is where it began to heat up ...
That's EXACTLY what I've been saying! Scripture is THE authority because it ALONE is the holy word of Almighty God and there are many verses that Catholicism ignores or perverts not to mention their preposterous claims that places "tradition" ABOVE the word. That you are even using the inane and many times refuted assertions about 30k protestant churches only proves the desperation Catholics feel when shown how wrong they are.
From The Rule of Faith in the Early Church:
Irenaeus’ wrote that it was the Gnostics who pointed to a living voice and living oral tradition outside of Scripture, and this is what Roman Catholics attempt to do by point back to 2 Thessalonians 2:15 and John 20:30 and 21:25 – reading centuries later doctrines, practices, or “seeds” of those concepts back into those verses – this is what the Gnostics were doing in Irenaeus’ day, in order to try and establish an authority from the apostles outside of written Scripture. See Against Heresies 1:8:1
When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce (“living voice”) . . .
This is exactly what Roman Catholics all the time when attacking Sola Scriptura.
We are told that the first Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42), which was the oral teaching that was given even before the New Testament was written.
______________________________________
Actually the first Christians had the Torah and the Pentateuch and other written scripture from Moses and the prophets. The LORD Jesus Christ told them to search the scriptures. How would they have searched the scriptures if they were not written down ???
The LORD Jesus Christ was telling the story of Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom and He said “”But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’
In the Old Testament times God told prophets to write down what He told them
Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. Habakkuk 2.2
By the time of Jesus there were a lot of scrolls of scripture etc
Jesus Himself went into the temple and as a Rabbi got up to read and He asked for a scroll of Isaiah and read Chapter 6:1 and then said “This day this prophecy been fulfilled right here in front of you.” Which made the Jews spitting angry because they had all read and pondered that scripture themselves for years. To the point they tried to kill Jesus...
Anyhoo not a nice try...most of the participants in this thread know the Bible...
Well and truly stated!
Well, since you want to go by Barrett's estimate of "Protestant" denominations, then you will have to accept his conclusion of there being 8000+ "Catholic" denominations, too. You want to do that or will you concede that you shouldn't be using him as a reference for that information anymore?
Do you just make up facts to support your religious beliefs?
IT seems so: (same source)
“The Catholic Church in Canada is not a different “denomination” from the Catholic Church in the U.S., which is not a different Catholic Church from the one in England, etc. If you search the available “World Christian Database” online, there is indeed one Catholic Church in the U.S.A., (see also Barrett, Encyclopedia, volume 1, page 783 for the U.S.A.) and in the world there are indeed 238 “Roman Catholic” denominations (for exactly 238 countries), i.e. one Catholic Church for each country. The same “counting by country” seems to be the case with some of the denominations in the other mega-blocs. “
Your comment about 8000+ destroys any credibility that you may have had, You just blame someone else and make up “fake facts”. Typical liberal.
Because people don't become believers by following a belief system.
Belief systems do NOT save anyone.
Being a follower of Christ, having been born again/born from above is what saves someone.
Yes Jesus died for the sins of all mankind - principally the sin of Adam - original sin. The death on the cross allowed us to be reunited with God after Adam (and the rest of us) were banned from the Garden of Eden.
Jesus died for ALL sin. There is no such thing as *original sin* in Scripture. Nor are there venial or mortal sins.
Sin is sin and leads to separation from God and must be dealt with. The penalty for sin, whatever it is, is the same. Death.
Jesus paid that penalty when He died on the cross. God's demand for justice was satisfied with that death and anyone who throws themselves on God's mercy and receives Christ by faith, is justified and forgiven by faith, and by faith, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, credited to their account.
God deals with that person as if they had never sinned and He is free to as the death of Jesus satisfied His demand for justice.
We no longer have to pay that debt of sin that we owe because Jesus paid it for us.
The problem is, the Catholic church, like all works based religions, would put us back under the bondage of works to merit our place in heaven, which we cannot do nor could ever do, ever if we hereafter lived an entirely sin free life.
With the first sin, the damage was done and we came under God's condemnation.
When we accept Christ we are no longer under the condemnation because that condemnation fell on Jesus and being in Him, we are effectively sheltered from experiencing God's wrath against our sins ourselves.
Ya think?????
So you dispute that the Apostles taught their followers in the oral tradition, as Jesus did, for example the Sermon on the Mount?
They repeated the teachings and traditions and miracles from Jesus and the New Testament was written later on.
The Catholic Church has never said that the Old Testament was not read or used by the Apostles. They were available at the Temple.
Even today the readings from the Old Testament and the Gospel are read from the pulpit at Mass in the oral tradition.
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,* so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.j 1Cor 1:17
[1:13–17] The reference to baptism and the contrast with preaching the gospel in v. 17a suggest that some Corinthians were paying special allegiance to the individuals who initiated them into the community.
* [1:17b–18] The basic theme of 1 Cor 1–4 is announced. Adherence to individual leaders has something to do with differences in rhetorical ability and also with certain presuppositions regarding wisdom, eloquence, and effectiveness (power), which Paul judges to be in conflict with the gospel and the cross
The BIBLE version: JOHN 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”
You are deceitful, the Truth is not in you.
Praise the Lord, may your tribe increase by His grace.
Nope! Not making up anything. I remember that figure from a thread we had right here on Free Republic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1108779/posts.
It stated:
No doubt the same Roman Catholic apologists who so gleefully cite the erroneous 25,000-denominations figure, and who might with just as much glee cite the revised 8,196-denominations figure, would reel at the notion that there might actually be 223 distinct denominations within Roman Catholicism! Yet that is precisely the number that Barrett cites for Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Barrett indicates in the case of Roman Catholicism that even this number can be broken down further to produce 2,942 separate “denominations”—and that was only in 1970! In that same year there were only 3,294 Protestant denominations; a difference of only 352 denominations. If we were to use the Roman Catholic apologist’s method to “project” a figure for the current day, we could no doubt postulate a number upwards of 8,000 Roman Catholic denominations today! Hence, if Roman Catholic apologists want to argue that Protestantism is splintered into 8,196 “bickering” denominations, then they must just as readily admit that their own ecclesial system is splintered into at least 2,942 bickering denominations (possibly as many as 8,000). If, on the other hand, they would rather claim that among those 2,942+ (perhaps 8,000?) Roman Catholic denominations there is “unity,” then they can have no objection to the notion that among the 8,196 Protestant denominations there is also unity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.