It does not get any plainer..........Our righteous works have ZERO to do with Salvation!
New American Standard Bible
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
King James Bible
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
That's true. That's how we come to Him. But I think of how 1 John ends, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." Jonah 2:8 My favorite verse from Jonah, which he prayed from the belly of the fish.
We see in the New Testament that greed is idolatry, and indeed anything that comes before God in our hearts is idolatry. Common idols are children, personal desires, smart phones, possessions and money. Reminds me of the parable of the sower and the danger for the believer is being the seed which was sown among thorns - I have always liked the Mark account which states, "the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful." This has been my concern for my own life. The "plant" springing from the seed God has sown remains alive! And desires for things other than the Word? Whoa. I don't think I know of anyone like that. Narrow the gate and difficult the Way indeed! Few are they that find it. It's like when Jesus speaks of the widow at the beginning of Luke 18 and says that God's chosen ones cry out to Him day and night and then He wonders aloud, "when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on earth?"
Read Psalm 119. That has to be us. Those things have to be what our hearts individually say. "I rise before dawn and cry for help; for I have put my hope in your Word." I literally do that. Another verse states that the psalmist pants for God's Word! That sound like seed sown on good soil. Elsewhere, it says that he has chosen meditation on God's Word over sleep. Wow. Sounds like a heart free from idols.
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