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NASB | Romans 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
Subject: Does God love everybody? |
Bible Note: Swerv, You stated: “His elect are those who reflect their love for God by obeying His commandments. This does not earn salvation but reveals to God our heart in wanting to serve and obey Him.” That statement is only partially true. Was Saul of Tarsus not God’s elect even though he persecuted the those of “the way”? Was Peter not God’s elect even though he denied the Lord three times? Was King David not God’s elect even though he committed adultery and murdered? Was Moses not God’s elect even though he disobeyed and was forbidden to enter the Promised Land? Was Jacob not God’s elect even though he lied to his father and deceived him to receive his blessing? Do those actions reflect their love for God or obedience? God’s elect were chosen before they had a chance to choose to be obedient. (Eph 1:3,4) (2 Tim 2:19) (2 Thess 2:13). It is God’s sovereign choice who the elect shall be. (Rom 9:14-24) And in all of these we see it was based on nothing to do with our works, since yet, there were no works done. God did not set the elect because he foresaw them to be holy, God determined to make them so. You then said “No matter what - the people will be saved in the end at Jesus return - are those who keep His commandments.” We don’t keep His commandments. If we could obey and keep His commandments in their entirety, Jesus would not have had to willingly die in our place. It is through faith in Christ and what he accomplished on the cross that we are saved. Saying that we must keep the laws in order to be saved is not true in the least. Even under the Old Covenant it wasn’t adherence to the Law that saved, it was faith. The Law showed us that we couldn’t do it on our own. We are called to be obedient and our obedience does show just where our hearts are, but we are not saved simply because we keep his commandments. From the grace of God comes our salvation, freely given to us through faith in Jesus Christ. You also stated: “The only reason we have a New covenant is because fault was found with the people of the Old covenant because they could not keep the promises they made as part of the Old covenant.” The reason we have the New Covenant is because that was God’s plan all along. He didn’t decide one day that he needs to adjust His perfectly eternal plan to suite the wickedness of men. We can’t keep the commandments either. If fault is going to be placed, you had better place it on us as well. Christ’s atonement was for sins past present and future. I found the following, which I hope helps you to address your statement: “The question we then must ask ourselves is what laws did God put in our heart for us to obey. Although, the covenant has changed from Old to New - God still wants us to obey His laws which instead of being written on stone - are now written on our hearts.” “Written in their hearts - The revealed Law of God was written on tables of stone, and then recorded in the books of the Old Testament. This law the Gentiles did not possess, but, to a certain extent, the same requirements were written on their hearts. Though not revealed to them as to the Jews, yet they had obtained the knowledge of them by the tight of nature. The word “hearts” here denotes the mind itself, as it does also frequently in the Sacred Scriptures; not the heart, as the seat of the affections. It does not mean that they loved or even approved of the Law, but that they had knowledge of it; and that that knowledge was deeply engraved on their minds. Their conscience - This word properly means the judgment of the mind respecting right and wrong; or the judgment which the mind passes on the morality or immorality of its own actions, when it instantly approves or condemns them. It has usually been termed the moral sense, and is a very important principle in a moral government. Its design is to answer the purposes of an ever attendant witness of a man’s conduct; to compel him to pronounce on his own doings, and thus to excite him to virtuous deeds, to give comfort and peace when he does right, to deter from evil actions by making him, whether he will or no, his own executioner: see Joh_8:9; Act_23:1; Act_24:16; Rom_9:1; 1Ti_1:5. By nature every man thus approves or condemns his own acts; and there is not a profounder principle of the divine administration, than thus compelling every man to pronounce on the moral character of his own conduct. Conscience may be enlightened or unenlightened; and its use may be greatly perverted by false opinions. Its province is not to communicate any new truth, it is simply to express judgment, and to impart pleasure or inflict pain for a man’s own good or evil conduct. The apostle’s argument, does not require him to say that conscience revealed any truth, or any knowledge of duty, to the Gentiles, but that its actual exercise proved that they had a knowledge of the Law of God. Thus, it was a witness simply of that fact.” – Matthew Henry WOS |