Posted on 10/31/2010 11:59:22 AM PDT by RnMomof7
Or the Pope is right because the infallible magisterium cannot be wrong because they said the are always right when they speak according to the formula which assures us they cannot be wrong. Which presumes more than the kind of manifest authority God showed the Israelites in establishing His Law. Convinced?
Therein lies the rub.
If works done for the purpose of meriting salvation are invalid because the motive is wrong, they are automatically disqualified as saving works. Which leaves the person seeking to merit salvation through works in the same quandary he was in.
Nobody can have completely pure motives and even if it happened to be the case once in a while by accident, those few times are not going to be nearly enough to outweigh the weight of sin that is condemning us; the one sin that we committed that made us all guilty before God to begin with.
Even our best actions coupled with our purest motives are tainted by sin. They cannot be an offering acceptable to God for that very reason. That's why our works of righteousness are as filthy rags.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus did indeed hold up the standard to which we are to attain to merit eternal life. He did not establish a NEW law with that teaching but showed us what the intent of the OT Law was all along.
If men were incapable of attaining salvation through the simple outward conformity to the mere letter of the Law, then it is much less possible for men to attain salvation through the keeping of the true intent of the Law as Jesus revealed it to us.
The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. Jesus's expounding on it was to show us the hopelessness of the situation so that we would come to Him for FORGIVENESS.
Romans 8:1-8 1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Jesus came to set us free, not to enslave us to the bondage of works again.
Ouch! I sense your pain. Not “the marks of the Lord Jesus in my flesh” (Gal. 6:17) but its pain. And salt on it? Sometimes we get too careless, and while God can intervene, he also wants to remind to respect things lie power. Uzza should have regarded the Ark as a 900 volt power line. May you know a speedy healing thru Jesus.
OUCH!
I once shot myself with a nail gun. That will wake you up!
Pray you will heal quickly.
Sorry for your loss, Bear.
We have an extended family member headed home to be with his Mom during her last few day. Sad times.
Oh dear...sounds horrid! Prayers for your healing and comfort!
Blessings to you, Quix!
Powerful teaching statement Daniel...one does pause and consider.
But Jesus is asking for this man to merit salvation - to give up his wealth and follow Him. All three Synoptic Gospels are practically identical on this parable and Mark and Luke both expand on this - the young man must give up his wealth first. He already believed in Jesus: Mark explicitly says that the man ran up and fell to his knees before Him. All three tell us that he addressed Jesus as "good Teacher" obviously without sarcasm or reservation. Perhaps I might reword this: the man does not merit salvation on his own, but his salvation, offered by God to all men, can be rejected by each man depending on his deeds.
What I firmly believe has been lost in certain people's idea of salvation is that we are utterly powerless to save ourselves and that if Christ had not come to save us we would all be rightfully condemned to an eternity apart from God. No amount of human effort, work, giving, striving and merit can earn what can only be granted by a sacrifice of blood/life of a perfect, sinless man and that was Christ Jesus.
Without God, we are nothing. We agree on this. We cannot be in Heaven for eternity if God did not offer us His Grace.
All our good deeds can only be as evidence of our gratitude for his mercy and grace and as expressions of our love for him because he first loved us.
That is not what the three Gospels say. For example, we have Luke 18:
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’[a]” 21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
What is stopping the man from salvation? His own actions and attitudes. He obviously believed in Jesus; each Gospel says that. But it also says that he must do more than simply believe.
When we, by faith, accept his unspeakable gift we are placing our trust in him alone to save us and that is how God intended it to be - we have no right to boast.
The Reformed and the OSAS crowds often boast about their own personal salvation and deride Catholics who have no 'assurance' of their own salvation. They do it on FR. They have done it in my own and in my wife's personal life as well. My wife was in an evangelical church's Bible study group back in Indiana and it was unreal the flack that she took because she did not have personal assurance of her own salvation. We traditional Christians only believe that Christ can save us. However, we also believe that we can lose our salvation based upon passages like these.
Doesn't say that. It says that he was sad. He obviously believed in Jesus - the belief itself was not enough; he needed to do. His salvation was in jeopardy not because of Christ, not because of unbelief, but because his deeds put that salvation into doubt.
Thx tons for your kind caring and prayers.
Doing better. Less pain.
It sure looked exceedingly dreadful fresh from the saw.
Much better now.
Thanks for your caring and prayers.
Oh dear Quix...I didn’t know you had been injured by your saw! (Blame the saw Quix..that always seems to make one feel better), but I suspect your experiencing some real tenderness by now...hopefully no infection. Maybe a Dr. Visit just to check?
Meanwhile may you be well soon....and praising God for how we are made!
CW
Thanks for the reply and which served as a clarification, as my sentence was supposed to say “such can only BE those done withOUT a motive to merit eternal life, or escape judgment.” But you understood the thought correctly, as the thought in context required.
What was his stumbling block? Money. Sad because he would have to give it up - he wanted things his way. It's not that he had to give it up, Jesus was showing him what he loved more - money.
Read the words of Jesus, instead of the words that you may think or want Him to say.
His belief was not TOTALLY on Jesus. Walking with Jesus is a FAITH walk. He wanted the security of his money. It had nothing to do w/his deeds, it's had everything to do with his hardened heart. Anything put before Jesus - that's the area where one has a hardened heart.
A faith walk? More peculiar gibberish from the children of the Reformation? Read your own paragraph here. It is about his deeds, or rather, lack of them, which has imperilled his immortal soul. Belief in Jesus is required, but not enough on its own.
Grateful that you are okay. Any pictures of the injury?
THX THX.
No health insurance. Could go to VA clinic if have to.
There are RN’s at church. Will do if any sign of infection.
Currently, PRAISE GOD, NONE.
I just keep bumping when I try and do to much and even when not trying to do to much. LOL.
Then, getting out of bed from a nap, I sat on my finger. That didn’t feel good at all.
LOL.
Got some Manuka honey. Good stuff.
THX.
No thanks. I’m not LBJ.
LOL.
Sure looks a lot better than right after the incident. That was pretty horrible and profuse bleeding from the sliced nail.
Sorry for the shorthand. Of course it is not the same. Both Mary and you and I were cleansed once. Mary was cleansed as she was conceived. She was simply made clean. You and I got cleansed later on in life through baptism. That is the difference in the moment of the cleaning I was speaking of.
Had this guy many years ago that was a frequent visitor to the E.R.
Seems he was a wood worker....and had this "habit" of zipping off ends of fingers. Last time I saw him...( No pun intended,,,) he had whacked another bit of finger off..and acted like it was nothing. Smiled at me...and said..."I did it again"....lol
Moral of the story....
Don't let that become you...FRiend.
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