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To: paladinan
I find no Scripture to support salvation working differently for different people;

You may have to explain your reasoning to me, on that one. Salvation (which is offered to all--cf. Titus 2:11, 1 Timothy 2:4, etc.) certainly worked differently for Judas Iscariot than it worked for the good thief on the cross!


I was unclear, we're talking about two different things. When I used the phrase "salvation working" I was referring to God's Law Word setting forth who is saved and who is not, i.e., how God's Law "works" or how God's Law describes his salvific plan. When you commented on my use of the phrase "salvation working", your response treated the phrase to mean how individual people's salvation or damnation "works out" for people in history on an individual basis.

I'm making a very simple point about God's justice. Perhaps an imperfect but simple analogy:

We have laws in New Jersey. We have judges and courts. That is the legal system.

We have people in NJ. They all have their own stories of their lives. Some found themselves participating in our legal system as defendants.

Do our NJ judges treat every defendant the same UNDER THE LAW, or do our NJ judges favor some defendants over others based on who the defendant is, i.e., an uncle, a nephew, a friend, etc. ? That is the question of justice respecting persons.

God's Law Word reveals the God's salvific plan to us. The judicial fundamentals of the plan: everyone falls short of the glory of God, thus everyone merits damnation. Everyone therefore must rely solely on the merits of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross for salvation.

In the Bible, there is simply no verse that says some relative or friend gets into heaven without appealing to Christ's sacrifice on the cross. There are no payoffs, so special side deals, no winks, no nods. There are no excuses, no "see what I did here", or "but I always did this". Nothing can be traded or offered in exchange for salvation. All those worldly rewards will be utterly useless when one faces judgement.

Yet those who are saved, the true believers in Christ, who appeal only to Christ's atoning sacrifice - the Bible tells us they belong to Christ, they are his, and they will have lived accordingly, no surprise. Yet even so they will NOT insult Christ to make reference to anything but his shed blood and their belief in him as their Lord and Savior as the only hope of their salvation.

It is crystal clear: God does NOT JUDICIALLY favor one person over another in terms of what merits a man his salvation. Simply put, no man merits salvation.

If God showed favoritism judicially his justice would be imperfect, God forbid. No, his law is perfect.

Psalm 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."

Wow, I started out trying to just get agreement on a simple point and wound up preaching. Pardon me. I know this takes so much time and we have such a wide gap between us, even so, at least we're civil.
227 posted on 06/05/2014 11:29:57 AM PDT by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
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To: PieterCasparzen

All right... and (I don’t know if this will surprise you, or not, but) I fully agree (as would any faithful, well-informed Catholic) that every last salvation of every last human is completely and utterly attributable to the grace of God alone, bought for us by the Blood of the Lamb Who died upon the cross for us.

But: why did you bring this up, re: my position?


236 posted on 06/05/2014 1:44:48 PM PDT by paladinan (Rule #1: There is a God. Rule #2: It isn't you.)
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