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.
Dec 2, 2020
172
84
28
Exception to your post.

"You will go out and do those works"
Replace with "I want to go and do those works you have predestined for me to do, please help me"

To say you will go out and do those works places a burden on the believer when they may not have the capacity to do so.

You only have to look at the concourse of Peters restoration "Peter do you love me? To understand this. Peters love for Jesus was not the same love that Jesus asked of him.
On the third time Jesus accepted that but still said to him "Go feed my sheep"

Peter moved from Phileo to Agape love.

Any believers who use it for a license to sin should be corrected as it was in Romans, if they reject it then wipe the dust the sand of your sandals.
At this point you're splitting hairs. It amounts to the same thing.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
How can one believe in Christ and ask him to save him/her without some level of trust however small?
People do it all the time,

the question I would ask is how can a person be born again, have the i dwelling Holy Spirit, and never change to the new creature they claim to be, or still try to earn the salvation God supposedly gave them and have lack of faith God will keep his word? Proven by the fact they continue to think obedience is what will in the end determin their salvation?

I can say a sinners prayer, it does not mean I repented at all
 

CherieR

Senior Member
May 6, 2017
2,269
1,425
113
People do it all the time,

the question I would ask is how can a person be born again, have the i dwelling Holy Spirit, and never change to the new creature they claim to be, or still try to earn the salvation God supposedly gave them and have lack of faith God will keep his word? Proven by the fact they continue to think obedience is what will in the end determin their salvation?

I can say a sinners prayer, it does not mean I repented at all
Insecurity and struggle with trust may make someone think they need to earn God’s approval. God knows the heart of each individual.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
Insecurity and struggle with trust may make someone think they need to earn God’s approval. God knows the heart of each individual.
Yes believers can at times become legalistic in there thinking but I am not talking about them
I am talking about those who come to a church. End up saying a sinners prayer and profess faith. Then soon they disappear. And when you see them find out they do not even believe in Jesus. They tried but they just did nit really see any truth.

As John said. They went out from us but they were never if us..,

Then you have those that think salvation is not by faith alone. Their faith is in their work
they have a belief. But they have no foundation of faith in how truly sinful and deserving of judgement they are more do that have true living faith in God completed work. Or that would not try to add their works to his for salvation. They are those who think they begin in the spirit but Must perfect in the flesh. Paul calls them fools
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
Insecurity and struggle with trust may make someone think they need to earn God’s approval. God knows the heart of each individual.
And by the way yes. I am not sure we can truly know if anyone is truly saved or not. But God knows. And that’s all that matters
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
We either accept Jesus Christ through confession, repentance and trust or we do not. I'm not understanding "false faith or false confession."
The distance between true and false faith is basically the difference from the brain to the heart. We must believe from the heart. Adherance to a creed is not faith.

Also, any faith and confession that does not result in the new birth cannot save. We must be born again. We must be born of God.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
How can one believe in Christ and ask him to save him/her without some level of trust however small?
It is possible to trust in our faith, in our sinner’s prayer, in saying the right words, in having the right creed, in doing the right things, in other words, to trust in something that we do, instead of trusting Christ.

Even putting our faith in our faith can replace faith in Christ. Salvation is not obtained by following a formula. It is a miraculous thing.

It is a very subtle deception that the adversary uses.
 

CherieR

Senior Member
May 6, 2017
2,269
1,425
113
It is possible to trust in our faith, in our sinner’s prayer, in saying the right words, in having the right creed, in doing the right things, in other words, to trust in something that we do, instead of trusting Christ.

Even putting our faith in our faith can replace faith in Christ. Salvation is not obtained by following a formula. It is a miraculous thing.

It is a very subtle deception that the adversary uses.
I think if someone puts their faith in their faith than it follows that he/she must have faith in something. It may be faith in Christ. It could be faith in self. Or faith in something else. I believe that if someone truly has faith that faith must have an object in which their faith is.
 

CherieR

Senior Member
May 6, 2017
2,269
1,425
113
It is possible to trust in our faith, in our sinner’s prayer, in saying the right words, in having the right creed, in doing the right things, in other words, to trust in something that we do, instead of trusting Christ.

Even putting our faith in our faith can replace faith in Christ. Salvation is not obtained by following a formula. It is a miraculous thing.

It is a very subtle deception that the adversary uses.
I can see your point that one may put their faith in what words are spoken in a sinners prayer. This is very much a possibly that someone may believe that way.

Also sometimes OCD will manifest itself in the form of rituals such as trying to pray the right words or saying a prayer the “ right way” This form of OCD is know as Scrupulosity or religious OCD. There can also be other rituals that one may do to alleviate one’s anxiety. Often times one will logically know that it doesn’t make sense what the obsession is but feel compelled to do rituals to feel better. It can be a very frustrating cycle.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
I think if someone puts their faith in their faith than it follows that he/she must have faith in something. It may be faith in Christ. It could be faith in self. Or faith in something else. I believe that if someone truly has faith that faith must have an object in which their faith is.
Amen

If I have true living faith in Christ. Then the object of my faith is Christ. If I believe we are saved by grace through faith. I am not trusting my faith to save me. I am trusting the object if
My faith to save me
 

star

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,582
2,046
113
North Carolina
Romans 10:9

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.


1 Peter 1:23

for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.



It is not up to me to decide what is in an individual's heart. One, according to the above scripture, is born again, saved if they confess and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
 

star

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,582
2,046
113
North Carolina
John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Do we sometimes make salvation the gift more complicated that it is?
 

star

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,582
2,046
113
North Carolina
A sinner saved by grace is saved according to scripture. Faith is how Abraham pleased God. Faith is the guiding light IMO and that faith grows from a babe in Christ to maturity along the way. Or some people may stay a babe in Christ. As for living the Way, even though we are saved we are going to slip and fall along the way. So there again, that saving grace is what covers us and keeps us God's child.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
I think if someone puts their faith in their faith than it follows that he/she must have faith in something. It may be faith in Christ. It could be faith in self. Or faith in something else. I believe that if someone truly has faith that faith must have an object in which their faith is.
Correct. And only faith in Christ saves.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
Amen

If I have true living faith in Christ. Then the object of my faith is Christ. If I believe we are saved by grace through faith. I am not trusting my faith to save me. I am trusting the object if
My faith to save me
Correct. It is the object of our faith that is important
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Do we sometimes make salvation the gift more complicated that it is?
It becomes uncomplicated when the Gospel is clearly and powerfully, ( power of the Spirit) is proclaimed and it touches the heart.

Preaching Jesus crucified and risen is what produces simple and powerful faith.

If it’s a mere exercise, it becomes complicated.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
I think if someone puts their faith in their faith than it follows that he/she must have faith in something. It may be faith in Christ. It could be faith in self. Or faith in something else. I believe that if someone truly has faith that faith must have an object in which their faith is.
Yes, people have faith in many things, but only one faith can save. Only faih in Jesus and what He has done.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
Romans 10:9

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.


1 Peter 1:23

for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.



It is not up to me to decide what is in an individual's heart. One, according to the above scripture, is born again, saved if they confess and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
Only God and maybe that person knows if that person believed from the heart. It says you must believe in your HEART.

A person can join a church, publically profess Christ, have the right creed, pray the “right” words, etc without ever believing from the heart.
 

OIC1965

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2020
2,754
1,016
113
A sinner saved by grace is saved according to scripture. Faith is how Abraham pleased God. Faith is the guiding light IMO and that faith grows from a babe in Christ to maturity along the way. Or some people may stay a babe in Christ. As for living the Way, even though we are saved we are going to slip and fall along the way. So there again, that saving grace is what covers us and keeps us God's child.
I have slipped and fallen many times, but never has God forsaken me.