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NASB | Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace [God's remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; |
Bible Question:
Greetings Rowdy! I have addressed your specific questions several times, in posts, 120336, 120371, and 120402. :-) Now, how about an answer to my question? Are we saved or are we hoping to be saved? Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
Bible Answer: In response to your question, I can only quote the following John 12:50 "I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me." John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. BUT although we can KNOW we are saved it's a growth process, one in which we mature, we are refined by the trials and tribulations of this world. Peter sums it up very nicely in 2 Pet 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. 17You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. For you see, we all start out as babes in Christ as cited in 1 Cor 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able. Some of us grow very quickly, apparently endowed with a generous blessing of talents and put them to work in our ministry to the Lord early in our christian walk. Others never mature to their full potential or anywhere close. Some lose their faith altogether. Concerning your posts, with reference to Matt 25 and James 2; it's rather difficult that any really serious student of the Bible would put any belief or faith in your special interpretation, especially Matt 25. In the vast majority of Christendom, this passage is very, very clear and means exactly what it says. We must see ourselves as branches being grafted into the Lord's family or vineyard and we MUST be found fruitful or we'll be cast into the fires of Hell. Now, I'm not saying that this fruit has to meet a certain standard of quality; what I AM saying is we MUST give it our best shot. When it's obvious a person isn't really giving his ministry an honest effort, we should approach that person with love and encouragement, showing him/her how it can be done and let them grow at their own rate of speed. I agree with you as I've stated many, many times on this Forum, we CANNOT and MUST NOT consider our works as commanded by James to be "our earning" salvation. NO, it can never be and hope to be successful for it will certainly fail. Instead, we must see ourselves as humble servants (read as slaves) that owe our very lives to our Lord and Master. Since He is such a wonderful and loving Master, we should be willing and anxious to perform these acts of ministry throughout the balance of our lives and indeed we must. As a matter of fact, I've stated before and I repeat it would be a good idea if the word works weren't even used in this discussion for it does seem to give the idea of earning something. Maybe it has something to do with the translation of these passages of James but clearly he was not trying to say that we can earn our way into Heaven. And again, I repeat I don't know how the actual mechanics of Grace and our fruitful ministry of works in the Lord's vineyard work together. I simply see them both in God's Word and have resolved I must do my part if I want to accept God's gift of salvation. I sincerely hope this is clear to all who read and participate on the Forum for to you and me, our salvation depends on ALL of God's Word. God bless all those who read, study and obey God's Word. --Rowdy |