“You can deny what scriptures says, but I choose not to...”
We can all grab Scripture bytes and jab each other, but what is the lesson of the WHOLE?
God proved, laboriously so, that man ain’t got da goods! Right there in Leviticus 18:5 you read, “Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them”. Many years later the Spirit has Paul write:
“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says...” (Romans 10)
The law is not of faith, but one could listen to endless sermons and read endless encyclicals & Catechisms and never know it. But it’s right there in SCRIPTURE. What happened between Deuteronomy and Romans to change “the person who does the commandments shall live by them” to “not of faith”?
For one a Stumbling Stone was laid!
““Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 9:33)
Anyone who chooses to follow Israel’s errant path of trying to pursue righteousness as if by works is toast, since “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them” (Galatians 3:10)
James reiterates this fatal situation in his letter (2:10): “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”
For your consideration.
“We can all grab Scripture bytes and jab each other, but what is the lesson of the WHOLE?”
The whole of scripture is simple in this regard: No one can cling to sin unrepentant and be saved.