The cross was not about YOU ..it was about the wrath of God against man . The only thing that could elimate that wrath was death..and even the death of a man was not enough..only God dying himself could satisfy that wrath..and you think a few years of you burning it off will make you worth to stand in HIS presence?
Tts 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Rom 3:27 Where [is] boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
I love the Potter and the Clay ..It speaks to the sovereignity of God...
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
A wonderful Calvinist analogy:>)
If the Potter puts His clay into a kiln, to burn off the waste and to perfect the pot, is that a "work" of the clay pot?
That's two. Care to answer?
SD