Posted on 04/11/2015 4:20:43 PM PDT by RnMomof7
To utterly despair of oneself is infinitely more difficult for a man than to invent some kind of good works.generated self-salvation project. Human beings irresistibly gravitate toward a works or karma-based system because it gives man the false hope that his redemption is within his own reach. But a salvation that is all of grace, a gift earned by Someone else, is so utterly offensive to human nature, so humbling to our pride, that only a supernatural work of grace will bring a person to yield to it.
Contrary to popular and cultural concepts of God, the Bible declares that trusting (even partly) in our goodness, merit or works for salvation is one of the the greatest causes of man's damnation. Instead the Bible teaches that God came into the world as a flesh human being to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law and absorb the penalty we deserve for sin on Himself in order to redeem all who, by the grace of God, come to Jesus Christ in faith. And when Jesus died on the cross he actually nailed the ordinances of the law that stood against us to the cross; in the second chapter of Colossians we read that he blotted them out (Colossians 2:14). Yes Jesus actually fulfilled the law and satisfied the penalty of sin from our side. He didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). This means he did for us what we were unable to do for ourselves. We can do nothing to achieve salvation or add to His work (partly or fully).
This means that when we trust in following the rules, even if we are zealous for God in order that God would save us, we spurn God and His only means of forgiveness for us. It is to declare independence from God's way and establish ones own righteousness (Rom 10:1-4). But the salvation of God is based solely upon His accepting us in His Son Jesus Christ. It is not that God does not want us to be moral. No, He does. But He does not want us to make a savior our of morality. It is because of Him that we are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:29, 30). Therefore when a person trusts in Jesus Christ they cannot boast in anything: not their faith, and not their works.... because He accepts them by grace because of the work of Jesus unto faith and good works. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." In other words, God accepts us by grace alone that He might mold and create children who, by His Spirit, walk after Him.
To those who are in Christ, our record of our wrongs have been nailed to the cross and He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the Saints. Now we can walk without fear of condemnation and can behold the face of Jesus and gaze into His beauty, knowing that one day, because of Him, we will be like Him.
"Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains." John 9:41
Grace ping
do not worship your “works”
What God demands (sinlessness), God provided (sinlessness). Grace, Grace, Grace. Unearned, unmerited, undeserved favor with God. It is his gift to all who believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Excellent stuff. Thanks.
Well, that sums it up very nicely.
Ping for any Catholics who may genuinely be interested in what others believe.
What a wonderful God we have.
He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves and then freely gives it to us as a gift.
In my past, I never dreamed of a God who actually WANTED to save me. I always thought I had to grovel and beg and hope and try to appease His wrath and earn his favor.
What freedom there is in being released from that bondage.
And I thought He really wanted to damn people cause He was up there just waiting for someone to make a mistake and ZAP, too bad for you and that if He saved someone, it was reluctantly, cause He had to because they qualified themselves.
Thanks for posting this, RnMomof7.
I think that is the image of God that Satan would have us have.
What better way to turn people off to God than to portray Him as a petty, vindictive, capricious being.
Ye, Gods grace is the only thing which saves, and it comes through faith which is shown by our works.
There's not a lot there that's incompatible with Catholic belief. The idea that the Catholic church thinks you can earn your way into heaven is a canard.
The moral is, tomorrow morning go to a church that preaches Christ crucified, not one that exhorts you to be a better person.
He is a petty and shabby sort of being who delights in spoiling joy and ripping up at our peace.
When any religion demands that works need to be done to somehow attain a place in heaven, then heaven is earned.
Catholics can deny with their dying breath that theirs is a works based religion, saying that it’s by grace through faith, but when suddenly they are saying that you have to be baptized, take communion, do corporeal works of mercy, etc, to stay saved, it’s salvation by works.
Salvation is a gift, freely given. It is not earned or kept by works.
Our works do not gain us heaven nor does the lack of them damn us to hell.
As long as Catholics keep telling us that we are going to be judged by our works by God and end up in either heaven, hell, or purgatory based on them, they are advocating a works based religion because works are the measure by which God is making His decision.
Let's run an experiment:
What's the difference between you and the unbeliever who has received the same aid of God as you have, yet you converted and, presumably, will persevere, and they either remain unconverted or convert and fall away?
“tomorrow morning go to a church that preaches Christ crucified, not one that exhorts you to be a better person.”
Why not go to one that does both?
How is Christ Crucified being preached when we’re told we don’t need to struggle by Grace to remove sin from our lives or deny ourselves because Jesus did everything? Do we have pet sins we don’t wanna give up? Lustful thoughts? Contraception? Seems like the Crossless Christ to me.
“Strive ... for that holiness without which no one will see The Lord.”
-Hebrews 13:14
That should warn anyone to avoid those who come saying what you must do.
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