I LOVE IT, make up your own rules as you go along...Christ died for every sin that I committed, so therefore I can pretty much do as I please...WHOO-HOO...lookmout world, here I come......protestantism is great....
“Christ died for every sin that I committed, so therefore I can pretty much do as I please...WHOO-HOO...lookout world, here I come......”
Everyone does as they please, PERIOD. It’s only the influence of the Holy Spirit that can get any of us to sin LESS. If even one nano-sin was left unsettled by the Cross work of Christ then we are TOAST.
But oddly, your statement sounds like those who slandered Paul:
“And not rather (as we are slandered, and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil, that there may come good? whose damnation is just.”—Romans 3:8 DR
I certainly hope you aren’t in the same group as those people, sincerely.
There isn’t a Christian I know who thinks this way.
>>24“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (John 5:24 NASB). <<
I LOVE IT, make up your own rules as you go along...Christ died for every sin that I committed, so therefore I can pretty much do as I please...WHOO-HOO...lookmout world, here I come......protestantism is great....
Care to explain what is "made up" about what Christ said?
13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14 NASB)
Which, of course, no Christian thinks.
No Christian actually thinks that way. No Christian interprets Scripture to say that.
The only time I've ever heard of that is by Catholics who wish to discredit non-Catholic believers by accusing them of easy believism.
And of course, with it is the clear implication that works are necessary for be saved and stay saved, which they are not.
Works are the fruit, the result of salvation, not the cause of it.
Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
What kind of nonsense is this, as if salvation by faith equates to "Those who die wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire."
Salvation by faith refers to a faith which effects obedience towards its Object, the Lord Jesus, which the elect profess.
And which need for works if such faith was to be considered salvific is what reformers as Luther clearly taught .
This is what I have often said, if faith be true, it will break forth and bear fruit. If the tree is green and good, it will not cease to blossom forth in leaves and fruit. It does this by nature. I need not first command it and say: Look here, tree, bear apples. For if the tree is there and is good, the fruit will follow unbidden. If faith is present works must follow. †[Sermons of Martin Luther 2.2:340-341]
...it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! [http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-faith.txt]
Therefore faith and good works should be so closely joined together that the essence of the entire Christian life consists in both.†[Martin Luther, as cited by Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963], 246, footnote 99]
Scripture does warn believers against having an "evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God," (Heb. 3:12) and falling from grace (Gal. 5:1-4) and drawing back into perdition (Heb. 20:38) thru unbelief (since faith justifies), and thus works to chasten souls to repentance, lewst they be condemned with the rest of the world. (1Co. 11:30-32),
But it is faith which appropriate justification, thus such souls as Cornelius and household were born again before baptism, God "purifying their hearts by faith," (Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-9) while works - faith in action - justify one as being a believer. Thus various promises such as "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," (Romans 4:5) whosoever "believeth on him," whosoever "shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead," "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". (Romans 10:13) As well as "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16)
Likewise Christ said, "whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" (Matthew 9:5) For the former equated to the latter, healing testifying to the removal of the chastisement. Yet forgiveness is a separate act, but not separate from effects. Likewise justification by faith. The latter is a counted for righteousness without any merit of works, even as "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," (Romans 10:10) yet it is inseparable from the confession which is made testifying to salvation.
For the one who confesses the Lord Jesus by mouth and in baptism and newness of life testifies to being a saved believer, but which is not the same thing as teaching that eternal life is truly merited by the works one does by God's grace. (Trent)
God rewards faith (Heb. 10:35) in the light of its fruits, but which is not merit in the sense of actual worthiness of eternal life, which is an unmerited Gift, unlike damnation which is what man has actually earned. (Rm. 6:23)