The witness of those who know Him, the witness of the Holy Spirit.
The lesson there is that the scriptures testify to Jesus, and the context was that the Jew were relying on the Law to save them, but the Law points to Jesus. Yes, there is no salvation in the Bible, but the Bible is the only place where salvation is clearly taught. This is a false dichotomy, at best.
Given that the testimony of the Law and Prophets that points to Jesus is the same testimony as the Christian, it certainly is a false dichotomy.
2. As pointed out before, John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
3. Jesus condemned the Pharisees on several occasions, calling the sons of satan, a brood of vipers, etc.
One of the reasons they were condemned was because they were preventing people from drawing near to God:
Matthew 23:13 — Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to
Luke 11:46 — Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
4. The ultimate love for our neighbors is not to let them live in their sin, but to point them to Jesus. We have to confront sin.
Confronting sin is not necessarily condemning the sinner; in fact, there's little better way to raise a sinner's defensiveness than "dropping the hammer on them", how much more open to you would they be if, instead, you went two miles
for them? — if the goal of being a Christian is to be Christ-like then perhaps we should adopt his tactics. Often he didn't have to condemn the sinner because the sinner was well aware of their state and/or their accusers already had — Jesus was willing to address their deeper needs, to meet them where they were
, and he was not hard-hearted towards those suffering. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3[w/ Explanation].)
"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?”
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
3. I was pointing out that what was said was at best a half-truth.
4. Agreed. See post 43.