Subject: need for a bible-anyone |
Bible Note: You wrote: "1. What does Jesus say in Luke 23:43?" NASB: 'And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."' You wrote: "2. My whole premise is that this question is irrelevant, because of the change of covenants" And I repeat what you ignored in the post to which you responded: "Please show me where the Old Covenant was a covenant by which anyone was ever justified." The Old (Mosaic) Covenant was never a means of salvation. So why do you keep repeating that the thief was saved under the Old Covenant? If the New Covenant was Jesus' last will and testament as you say, whose last will and testament was the Old Covenant? You wrote: "3. Whether the thief was or was not baptized has no bearing on our salvation, for we come after the cross. What Christ did before the cross, in no way nullifies the requirements of His will after the cross." Baptism is certainly God's will, but returning to Galatians 3:15, the covenant of our salvation had been ratified between God and Abraham. And as that verse says, no conditions can be added to a covenant once it is ratified. While baptism is a requirement of His will, it is not a means for us being declared righteous. If we must keep every last requirement of His will in order to be saved, then none of us save Christ will be in heaven, because we all still continually fall short of His righteous requirements. You wrote: "Wherein does obeying God’s commands constitute works or boasting in works?" You are kidding, right? You and your "Church of Christ" colleagues have been quoting the "works" passages non-stop for the last week! Well, let's see how obeying God constitute works. I am sure you like the first of these two verses: "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." --Philippians 2:13 Here is another one you love: "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" --James 2:14 And a few more, just to remind you: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." --Ephesians 2:10 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father." --John 14:12 You wrote: "Luke 24:47 says what? Repentance and forgiveness of sins. Repentance too is a requirement towards salvation." Repentance is a requirement and component of true saving faith. Biblical faith cannot happen without repentance. I have already covered that in other posts. Repentance is not a work, but "metanoia," a change in thinking. So in a broad sense, repentance and possessing faith in Christ alone can be described as two aspects of the same change of disposition. You wrote: "We must have faith to obey the Lord’s commands. Is that not the greatest manifestation of faith: obedience to His commands?" Absolutely! Obedience to his commands is the ONLY manifestation of saving faith. But it is still that: the manifestation and not the faith itself. It is how the world sees and we ourselves are assured that my faith is genuine. God, however, knows whether He has worked saving faith in me or not (1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Corinthians 4:5), and does not need the outward manifestations before he can credit me with Christ's righteousness. I do not ignore Psalm 119:160. I said you misused by alleging that "the sum" being described in the verse means that passages that say that God's people are saved through faith, specifically excluding works, can be combined with passages commanding us to obey God, to conclude that we are indeed decalred righteous on the basis of something we do (actually a LOT of somethings, according to you). I already addressed Galatians 3:24-29 in another post today. Feel free to look it up and respond! --Joe! |