"Not by works" - false!

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Apr 21, 2020
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#41
Well then I would state you have gravely misunderstood Hebrews 10:26
Please tell me exactly how, with relevant evidence.

I think the problem is that you're confusing keeping God's commandments with being under Mosaic law.
 
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EleventhHour

Guest
#42
"Which is not a bilateral agreement"

If it were not a bilateral agreement, that would imply that humans have to do nothing to achieve salvation.

This is NOT true.

In order to receive salvation humans must become Christians (i.e. follow Christ) and keep God's commandments.

Are you saying that people who don't follow Christ and don't keep God's commandments also receive salvation?

Solely, following Christ is not how we receive salvation, that demotes Him to a mere role model.
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#43
Solely, following Christ is not how we receive salvation, that demotes Him to a mere role model.
Wrong, and a very weak answer given the deep discussion we're trying to engage in.

How can you be a follower of Christ while not caring about whether you keep God's commandments?

I'll say again:
Your problem is that you're equating keeping God's commandments with living under Mosaic law.
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
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#44
the example of Jesus is good works, no way around that one.
Good works are the result, not the cause. By their fruits ye shall know them. Good works generally flow out of good fruit. Hebrews 10 in no way excludes this truth. Coming by faith includes turning away from darkness and looking to light. Making the choice to follow Jesus is not a work. Come just as you are. The blood of Jesus is the only thing that can wash us white as snow.
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#46
Good works are the result, not the cause. By their fruits ye shall know them. Good works generally flow out of good fruit. Hebrews 10 in no way excludes this truth. Coming by faith includes turning away from darkness and looking to light. Making the choice to follow Jesus is not a work. Come just as you are. The blood of Jesus is the only thing that can wash us white as snow.
I agree with this, but Christians still have a duty to keep God's commandments or else Jesus' sacrifice will not cover those sins:

Hebrews 10:26
"Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins".

Do not make the mistake that another poster on this thread is making, which is to confuse keeping God's commandments with living under Mosaic law.
 
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EleventhHour

Guest
#48
I agree with this, but Christians still have a duty to keep God's commandments or else Jesus' sacrifice will not cover those sins:

Hebrews 10:26
"Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins".

Do not make the mistake that another poster on this thread is making, which is to confuse keeping God's commandments with living under Mosaic law.

Basic theology 101 >>>>>> all sins were dealt with at the cross.

If you deny this you have not understood the Gospel
which explains your lack of understanding of Hebrews 10
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#50
Basic theology 101 >>>>>> all sins were dealt with at the cross.

If you deny this you have not understood the Gospel
which explains your lack of understanding of Hebrews 10
I agree with the first part, but this has nothing to do with what we were talking about.

This must be about the 10th time I've asked you this:
Are you saying that Christians do not need to concern themselves with keeping God's commandments?

Note that keeping God's commandments should not be confused with living under Mosaic law.
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#51
Agree. Coming to Christ means total and unconditional surrender.
True, but that's not the point of this thread.

Question:
Do Christians have a duty to keep God's commandments?

Note that keeping God's commandments doesn't equal living under Mosaic law.

So what's your answer?
 
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EleventhHour

Guest
#52
I agree with the first part, but this has nothing to do with what we were talking about.

This must be about the 10th time I've asked you this:
Are you saying that Christians do not need to concern themselves with keeping God's commandments?

Note that keeping God's commandments should not be confused with living under Mosaic law.
Specify which commandments then?
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
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#53
I agree with this, but Christians still have a duty to keep God's commandments or else Jesus' sacrifice will not cover those sins:

Hebrews 10:26
"Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins".

Do not make the mistake that another poster on this thread is making, which is to confuse keeping God's commandments with living under Mosaic law.
We are not in total disagreement, but I do not see Hebrews 10:26 as promoting "Salvation by good works."
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#54
Specify which commandments then?
Oh!
You don't know the difference between keeping God's commandments and living under Mosaic law?

I think we've got to the root of your problem.

I don't need to sit here and type out every single one of God's commandments for you, nor should I need to.
I would encourage you to read your Bible.

Have a blessed day.
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#55
We are not in total disagreement, but I do not see Hebrews 10:26 as promoting "Salvation by good works."
I do not see Hebrews 10:26 as promoting salvation by works either.

As I said in the OP, we have a duty to follow Christ AND keep God's commandments.
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
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#56
True, but that's not the point of this thread.

Question:
Do Christians have a duty to keep God's commandments?

Note that keeping God's commandments doesn't equal living under Mosaic law.

So what's your answer?
Christians have a duty to...

Matthew 22
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
 
Apr 21, 2020
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#57
Christians have a duty to...

Matthew 22
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Yes, I agree.

Those verses imply that we are no longer under Mosaic law, which we are not.

Do you know the difference between God's commandments and Mosaic law?
 
E

EleventhHour

Guest
#58
Oh!
You don't know the difference between keeping God's commandments and living under Mosaic law?

I think we've got to the root of your problem.

I don't need to sit here and type out every single one of God's commandments for you, nor should I need to.
I would encourage you to read your Bible.

Have a blessed day.

So you are unwillingly to answer my question? Why is that?
 
May 22, 2020
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#59
Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on willfully and deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice [to atone] for our sins [that is, no further offering to anticipate],

Four commentaries (portions of which I list below) all state the "deliberately sinning" refers to the sin of APOSTASY.
noun: apostasy; plural noun: apostasies ... the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief.

I believe the verse is being used in such a way as to define "sinning" as ANY SIN. This is not the case in the eyes of these four commentators.

Four Commentaries
Constable


The writer turned from positive admonition to negative warning, in order to highlight the seriousness of departing from the Lord.

"Between the imperatives of vv. 22-25 and 32, 35, the author describes, more fully than in 2:2f.; 6:4-6, the nature and consequences of apostasy, previously described as 'falling away from the living God' (3:12)."

10:26-27 "The word 'we' cannot refer to any other group of people than his readers and himself [cf. 2:1]."

Willful sin in the context of Hebrews is deliberate apostasy, turning away from God (2:1; 3:12; 6:4-8; 10:23).

"The faulty translation 'keep on sinning' misses the point altogether. The context suggests that the author is thinking of a particular sin rather than a lifestyle in which one continues to sin."

If an apostate rejects Jesus Christ's sacrifice, there is nothing else that can protect him or her from God's judgment (cf. 6:6; Num. 15:30-31). Some interpreters believe that this is only a hypothetical possibility for a genuine Christian.[ Others believe that only professing, not genuine, Christians are in view. Still others believe that "this sin could only be committed in the first century when the temple was still standing, and only by an unsaved Jew or proselyte to Judaism." However, what the writer said in all of the warning passages in Hebrews makes it clear that genuine Christians can apostatize.



Henry
Having mentioned these means of establishment, the apostle proceeds, in the close of the chapter, to enforce his exhortations to perseverance, and against apostasy, by many very weighty considerations, Hebrews 10:26,27, &c.

1. From the description he gives of the sin of apostasy. It is sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, sinning wilfully against that truth of which we have had convincing evidence. This text has been the occasion of great distress to some gracious souls they have been ready to conclude that every wilful sin, after conviction and against knowledge, is the unpardonable sin: but this has been their infirmity and error. The sin here mentioned is a total and final apostasy, when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour,--despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier,--and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life and all this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously. This is the great transgression: the apostle seems to refer to the law concerning presumptuous sinners, Numbers 15:30,31. They were to be cut off.


Darby
Hebrews 10:26; which is founded, moreover, on the doctrine of these two chapters (9 and 10), with regard to the sacrifice. He insists on perseverance in a full confession of Christ, for His one sacrifice once offered was the only one. If any who had professed to know its value abandoned it, there was no other sacrifice to which he could have recourse, neither could it be ever repeated. There remained no more sacrifice for sin. All sins were pardoned by the efficacy of this sacrifice: but if, after having known the truth, they were to choose sin instead, there was no other sacrifice by virtue even of the perfection of that of Christ. Nothing but judgment remained. Such a professor, having had the knowledge of the truth and having abandoned it, would assume the character of an adversary.

The case, then, here supposed is the renunciation of the confession of Christ, deliberately preferring-after having known the truth-to walk according to one’s own will in sin. This is evident, both from that which precedes and from verse 29.

Calvin
And that the Apostle here refers only to apostates, is clear from the whole passage; for what he treats of is this, that those who had been once received into the Church ought not to forsake it, as some were wont to do. He now declares that there remained for such no sacrifice for sin, because they had willfully sinned after having received the knowledge of the truth. But as to sinners who fall in any other way, Christ offers himself daily to them, so that they are to seek no other sacrifice for expiating their sins. He denies, then, that any sacrifice remains for them who renounce the death of Christ, which is not done by any offense except by a total renunciation of the faith.

 
Apr 21, 2020
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#60
So you are unwillingly to answer my question? Why is that?
Don't talk to me about being unwilling to answer questions.
I literally asked you over 10 times whether you think Christians should keep God's commandments and you still haven't provided an answer.

At least we now know why you haven't given an answer: because you don't know the difference between God's eternal commandments and Mosaic law.

Am I going to sit here and type out every one of God's commandments for you.
No!