I know what you are saying, you are saying a person, must be have faith + good works in order to be saved, this is the joke, that should make you laugh.
Petro, in all fairness, I went out of my way to make sure that that is not what people would think I said. If you can please show me where you think I said that faith + good works save then I will edit my post to clarify it. since that is not what I believe.
Here is what I believe.
Works don't save! Never have, never will!
Works are an evidence, not a determing factor.
We know a tree by it's fruit.
So when I quote scripture that speaks of works, I"m not saying one can lose or gain salvation by works, I'm simply saying that if you claim to be saved and the evidence shows otherwise, it's time to be concerned. This is how Jesus can say" If you love Me, keep my commandments." He is saying that this will be an evidence of a true salvation. He is not saying we gain or lose salvation by keeping the commandments.
4JC,
I have been busy, and hadn't seeing this post for sometime..
So, to answer you; I say;
Yes, well Jesus knows what He is talking about....no question about it..
Let me ask you two questions;
1. What commandments are we to keep??
2. What does this following passage teach?
2 Cor 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.7 But if
the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.10
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.11
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
According to this passage of scripture what is it that was done away with??
Hint;
the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,
This had to do with the OLD COVENANT.
What does this mean, to you??
7 But if
the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
You said; [I quote]
And by works I'm also speaking in terms of obedience. Do we sin? Sure we do. but we strive not to. We strive to be Christ like, even though we know we will fall short. We do this because we love Him, and choose to be obedient. Even when we are not feeling the Holy Ghost goose bumps we still choose to be obedient
out of duty. This is what love is. Hasn't there ever been a time when you wanted to sleep in and not go to church? Why do you get up and go anyways? Duty, we do it because that's what love does. This is what James was speaking of. "show me your faith without works". Which is not in cotrast to Paul.[end of quote]
Did you have
"free will" before you were saved??
There is a difference between, "duty" and "free will"
The jews who felt that since they were now justified by faith, they no longer needed to observe the law (Gods Law). This is a classic form of people who think they have a license to sin. James took care of that.
On the other side we have the Jews who felt justified by obeying the law. Paul took care of that. Paul and James were not contradicting eachother, but were standing back to back defending two different attacks on there faith.
There is no evidence for what you have stated, both are defending against the same error which continues in the church to this day, one of Faith plus works equals salvation.
You need to read Acts 15, the result of the4 First Council at Jerusalem, there is no mention of obedience to any lcommandments of law there, at all, the appeal to
obey my commandments comes from Jesus Himself,
if you love me....He says.
Must you keep the Sabbath today??
If you take this post to mean something other than what was clearly said. Than there's nothing I can do about it. I've been as clear as I know how to be. If it wasn't you Petro, I'd assume someone was trolling.
Answer me the questions...............
Blessings,
Petro
God bless