Not By Works

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
37,726
13,522
113
I don't agree with your implication that satan was trying to get Eve to obey "A physical work of God" to be free.
wow, are you daft or are you willfully slanderous?
God did not command the Woman to eat from this tree. i never said He did.


Satan told her that by taking and eating from the tree -- which is a physical act -- she would become like God.
this is a lie.

God never associated the fruit of the tree with becoming like Him at all -- not even in Genesis 3, the judgement, when He said behold! the man has become like one of us! -- there it is not because of any physical act of Adam that this is declared.

what does your religion say is the reason God said this of Adam?
how does Adam become like God?
 

Hevosmies

Well-known member
Sep 8, 2018
3,612
2,633
113
physical circumcision - despite it being the commandment given to Abraham, despite it being the commandment given in the Law - this is not keeping God's commands. this is not faith working through love. this is not a new creation.

it's a picture, a shadow, but it's not the reality. the substance is Jesus Christ :)


For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
(Colossians 2:9-12)

the truth of circumcision is amazing thanks for bringing it up @Hevosmies
No problem amigo!

I have talked about this alot with the brethren. Why does Paul say circumcision is nothing, but keeping the commands of God, yet circumcision IS a command of God?

I've heard many explanations to this, but few in-depth ones that satisfy me. I will keep searching till I find out what he means by commandments there. Perhaps what Jesus said? Anyone got something?
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
37,726
13,522
113
This is exactly what I mean, its PICKING and CHOOSING which commandments apply.

And the usual strategy is: You cant be saved by getting circumcised!!!!! SAVED BY GRACE AMEN! But then they turn around and say: Well now that you got saved by grace through faith you have to obey the Torah(which includes circumcision) or you will lose your salvation.

Well isnt that great.
exactly

someone says, circumcision is to be understood spiritually! yes saved by grace!
but the same someone says, you must physically observe sabbath or you are not saved and if you ever had salvation you'll lose it if you don't.
because you're under Torah, and when the Bible says you are not under the law, it only means not under the Levitical sacrifices for guilt and sin, you're actually under all the rest of it and that's how you get saved, if you faithfully keep it all to some hazy standard for the rest of your years on earth.
except circumcision is part of the law and has nothing to do with sin offerings.
except even tho they confess some things are spiritually understood ((like stoning people for certain sins and being circumcised)) they teach other things are not ((like ritual sabbath inactivity and kosher diet))
except nowhere in the Bible is Torah ever spoken of as though it is modular, as though you can keep some and not all or you can break into pieces and sort them into a 'good' and a 'not actually good' pile.

it's a form of godliness. but it's dishonest and self-contradictory. it says the only thing Jesus really accomplished was revising the priestly sacrificial system, and righteousness is something to be attained through human will & effort. what it spends most of its time doing is boasting of itself and accusing others. concerning itself with who will ascend and who will descend, presuming to have authority to judge. but what does faith say? don't ask who will ascend or descend. it is Christ who has descended and who has ascended, and it is upon Him that the angels ascend and descend.
 

Studyman

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2017
3,570
516
113
="posthuman, post: 3778344, member: 170505"]amen to that.
take it to heart, dude. you don't destroy the NT by quoting Mark 7:7


how can you pretend to have a spiritual understanding of this and, though you write many words, have no answer for why it is not required in the flesh? and do not apply the same understanding to the other sign of the other covenant?

is it your doctrine that an uncircumcised male who becomes a believer should become circumcised, obeying the commandment both to Abraham before the law and to Israel in the law?


Well Mark 7 is one of many scriptures which expose one of your religious doctrines as false, "the Pharisees were trying to earn salvation by obeying God". You preach one thing, Jesus preaches another. That is the crux or our disagreement.

Regarding Circumcision, I believe "ALL" that is written about it.

Duet 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Duet 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

Rom. 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

Phil. 3:
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Col. 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

A true believer is already circumcised in the heart. He has already "put off the Body of sins". Already called to repentance. As the Christ promised.

"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."

And as Paul said in Romans 2:

"Circumcision profits" man if they are obedient to the Word of God. But if they are not obedient to the Word of God, then they are no different than a heathen whether they have a foreskin or not. This has always been the case, at least according to the scriptures.

You want to use Circumcision as a tool to make void God's Commandments which you have deemed beneath you, go ahead. This is Bible discussion forum. You have your religion. I disagree with it.

But of His Sabbaths it is written:

1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

3 Neither let the son of the stranger, (uncircumcised Gentile) that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;

5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

And again:

13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

And again:

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (Deception)
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Where did Jesus say Physical Circumcision is made for man? Where did Isaiah speak about Gentiles performing physical circumcision? And yet His Holy Sabbath is preached even to the uncircumcised.

You are free to preach anything you want and reject anything you want, same as Eve.. But the Christ, the Word of God which became Flesh, is pretty clear. A circumcised man who rejects His Sabbaths is a heathen in His eyes, and an uncircumcised man that Humbles Himself to God's Sabbaths get's a name better than that of son's and daughters.

I can't do as you do, and pick and choose what Word's of God to live by and what Word's of God to reject. I am a servant and therefore am striving to "Live by" EVERY Word of God.

Since I am already circumcised in the Heart and Flesh, through the Work of God, I can now move on to the most important things.

Rom. 12:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world (or the religions of this world) but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

And can you deny that this is the Will of God"

Duet. 30:
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

The Mainstream Preachers of Christ's time, like you, got all wrapped up in physical circumcision. It seems you both have "Omitted" the Weightier matter of His Law.
 

BillG

Senior Member
Feb 15, 2017
9,020
4,438
113
Well isnt that great.
Not really.

It makes a mockery of what Jesus did and those who peddle such things (which I know you do not) just lay a heavy burden on people.

Just like the Pharisees.
Those who say and twist the laws they themselves could not keep yet command others to keep them.

You dirty sinners and law breaker's.

What did Jesus say?

Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Thank you Jesus that you love us miserable sinners.
Thank you that you are merciful because we know we need you and want to be like you. Not to be saved but because we are saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
 

Suzy37

Active member
Nov 20, 2018
208
42
28
I find it amazing, that God said he saved us when we were at our worse. that people think AFTER we have been adopted as a child of God, Given the HS who helps giude us, and chastens us, that we can become WORSE that we were BEFORE we were saved.

That seem to be an impossible task. It basically says GOD totally failed in growing us, they even with his inluence and power. we went backward, NOT FORWARD.
The problem here is thinking we are saved when we are converted We start a process of savation at conversion and baptism that lasts until we die or Christ returns, Not an instant thing but a lifelong process of growth and overcoming!
 

mailmandan

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2014
25,457
13,396
113
58
The problem here is thinking we are saved when we are converted We start a process of savation at conversion and baptism that lasts until we die or Christ returns, Not an instant thing but a lifelong process of growth and overcoming!
For by grace you have been (past tense with ongoing present results) saved through faith.. (Ephesians 2:8) Therefore, having been (past tense with ongoing present results) justified by faith.. (Romans 5:1) Justification is not a process, but ongoing sanctification is.

There are 3 tenses to salvation that must not be confused. 1. We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin (justification) 2. We are being saved from the POWER of sin (ongoing sanctification) 3. We will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin. (glorification) We are converted and saved at repentance/faith (Acts 3:19; 11:17,18; 15:8,9; 26:18) and water baptism "follows" repentance/faith/conversion (Acts 10:43-47).
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
The problem here is thinking we are saved when we are converted We start a process of savation at conversion and baptism that lasts until we die or Christ returns, Not an instant thing but a lifelong process of growth and overcoming!
Actually this is a problem. Thinking we begin in the spirit (after conversion) and spend a lifetime trying to perfect (of finish accomplish, bring to a conclusion) that conversion so it is complete. Paul had words about people who think this way He called them foolish galations. I pray you are not one of them, I pray you find out when Jesus said we HAVE eternal life, He meant it, When he said we will NEVER DIE, and BE RISEN, and NEVER BE LOST, again, he meant it.

My Faith is in God. Not myself. I pray you fing this faith in you. And stop tryign to rely on your own ability to perfect the salvation you think God gave you
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
Not really.

It makes a mockery of what Jesus did and those who peddle such things (which I know you do not) just lay a heavy burden on people.

Just like the Pharisees.
Those who say and twist the laws they themselves could not keep yet command others to keep them.

You dirty sinners and law breaker's.

What did Jesus say?

Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Thank you Jesus that you love us miserable sinners.
Thank you that you are merciful because we know we need you and want to be like you. Not to be saved but because we are saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Hey Bill! Hope you had a great thanksgiving.
 

AgapeShellArt

Active member
Nov 21, 2018
156
128
43
The problem here is thinking we are saved when we are converted We start a process of savation at conversion and baptism that lasts until we die or Christ returns, Not an instant thing but a lifelong process of growth and overcoming!
salvation is past, present and future.

its mistake to think we are NOT saved. it is an instant thing to be justified by faith but life long thing to learn personal sanctification.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,401
113
wow, are you daft or are you willfully slanderous?
God did not command the Woman to eat from this tree. i never said He did.



Satan told her that by taking and eating from the tree -- which is a physical act -- she would become like God.
this is a lie.


God never associated the fruit of the tree with becoming like Him at all -- not even in Genesis 3, the judgement, when He said behold! the man has become like one of us! -- there it is not because of any physical act of Adam that this is declared.

what does your religion say is the reason God said this of Adam?
how does Adam become like God?
I vote for both in your first line.......and could embellish that list easily......
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,401
113
salvation is past, present and future.

its mistake to think we are NOT saved. it is an instant thing to be justified by faith but life long thing to learn personal sanctification.
AMEN.......saved at the micro second of belief and continuing to be saved into the future.......Greek verb tense proves this as well as the verbiage of the bible.....it speaks of salvation in all three tenses and a Perfect Tense Greek verb = a present continuing result from a past completed action.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,401
113
The problem here is thinking we are saved when we are converted We start a process of savation at conversion and baptism that lasts until we die or Christ returns, Not an instant thing but a lifelong process of growth and overcoming!
Wrong........In the grace you are, HAVING BEEN SAVED OUT OF FAITH <----past tense......Salvation is spoken of in all three verb tenses and a perfect tense Greek verb sets for a present continuing result from a past completed action.....the process you describe is ongoing sanctification which is used is a dual manner in the bible....

Sanctified eternally and positionally in Christ at the moment of belief
Daily sanctification of our lives based upon the transformation described in Romans 12:1-2

The bible clearly teaches

1. Was saved when I believed
2. Am saved right now
3. Continuing to be saved into the future

We are kept by the power of God through faith, will never be forsaken or left and even DAVID spoke of his salvation in the present tense....
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
37,726
13,522
113

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
37,726
13,522
113
Neither let the son of the stranger, (uncircumcised Gentile) that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
in the Sinai covenant the stranger who joined Himself to Yah circumcises his flesh:

A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.
(Exodus 12:48)
but God has destroyed the separation, and brought salvation to all people.
the lynch pin of His Salvation is faith in Jesus Christ, not ritual saturday inactivity.


you wrote a lot of words again that completely skirt the profundity of the facts: God commanded physical circumcision in the past and He no longer does. something amazing happened! what is it?

and we were talking about the hypostatic union, but you are trying to change the subject. why?
the 'something amazing' is Christ. the God-in-form-of-man is Christ. why is it you stop talking about Him, cannot talk about the power of what He has done, and try to talk about hating pharisees and keeping physical regulations instead?
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,805
29,184
113
Well I'm not sure there is a difference between someone who has been convinced they shall not die, and someone who is convinced they are immortal.

I just found it fascinating How the Christ describes the very first deception in the examples He created for our admonition.

I'm not sure how I am "reading something into it that isn't there".

But thanks for your thoughts and the kind reply :)
The text does not say Eve was convinced she would not die, either. That is what the serpent said to her. "You will not surely die." But, again, to read into the text that she was convinced within her own self is going beyond what the text actually says. She could have eaten of the forbidden tree simply hoping she would never die. But we know that was the wrong tree for that, don't we? Again, hoping for something and being convinced of it are two separate things; the text says neither. The text does not say what you claim it does. Yet you do not see how you are reading that into Scripture, when the words you say are not what is written?
 

TruthTalk

Senior Member
Jul 17, 2017
2,904
2,262
113
God does nothing "half way." His salvation plan is a once and forever one.
Amen and thank you star, it is comforting to wake up every morning knowing that God is always on our side; the Good Shepard will always make his children know that they are secure.

God bless!