Not By Works
- Thread starter dcontroversal
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Your refusal to accept that the agape of a saint can turn cold and dead through replacing surrender to God with surrender to self is why you are seduced by OSAS's License to Sin.
Maybe one day you can read your Bible without skipping over Matthew 24:12-13 KJV.
Please don't listen to this person's unBiblical counsel. Leviticus 19:17-18 KJV not only says we are to warn a brother when he falls into sin, but failure to do so means we hate that brother:
Leviticus:
19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] the LORD.
1 John 3:15 KJV says if we hate our brother, we are guilty of murder, so such horrible counsel not only harms the erring brother, but incriminates ourselves. 
Salvation isn't tied to obedience, but surrender. Obedience is simply the evidence of whether we are or not. Surrendered people give up the right to govern themselves and submit to the authority of the government to which they've surrendered...they don't keep on fighting.
3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, [then] have we confidence toward God.
When a person climbs down to the pit of sin and takes a seat and swats away the uplifting hand of God and waves a OSAS License to Sin in His face, he knows full well what he's doing. The answer you are looking for is the longer we stubbornly refuse God's help to get back up, the more numb to the Holy Spirit we become until we are past the point of no return and incapable of repentance, which is what happened to Satan and his demons. You sear your conscious with a hot iron and it's over for you.
Goes without saying in a way. I mean, if no works at all, then what is there other than a mere profession? However, and this is the important matter, a christian does not focus on his own works as for his right standing with God, he focuses on Jesus and His work. Do not put the law where only the gospel fits. A christian life is not about demands and musts, it's about living a life of gratitude to God.
There's something to it. We are either God-centered or self-centered. Self-centeredness can never motivate works and obedience that pleases God.
I see it differently in that while we may struggle day to day with falling into sin seven times and getting back up, a true Christian is not going to continue in deliberate, habitual, known, iniquitous sin...he loves Jesus too much to keep doing it. Any person who continues in iniquity is either not saved or a saint in danger of killing off their agape which will render them incapable of enduring to the end.
Are you claiming God's commandments are too grievous, which John insists otherwise?
I accuse no one - Scripture on the other hand is "quick and powerful" discerner of our thoughts and intents. We all know when we're doing wrong, but some of us choose to take responsibility, while others accommodate their wrongdoing by crafting for themselves a OSAS License to Sin.
Of course, we should worship God everyday!
I can't tell you what the numbers are, but only that Jesus said "many" saints will fail to "endure to the end" because the iniquity they practiced killed their agape cold and dead.
Saints who trust God to keep them and work in them are going to evidence that trust by keeping the commandments, will they not, according to 1 John 2:3-4 KJV?
Is it the fault of the lifeboat if a rescued drowning victim jumps back into the raging sea?
There are plenty of "saviors" in which the world believes: Matreya, TB Joshua, the Mormon Jesus, etc. It's just as important for us to believe correctly about Jesus as it is to believe in Jesus.
Jesus did not die to give humanity a License to keep on doing that which made necessary His death to begin with - He said "if ye continue in My Word -- not sin -- ye are My disciples indeed."
As a non-Calvinist, I say both sin and salvation are a choice we make. Jesus had no advantage over us in resisting temptation, lest the devil seized upon that as a platform to accuse God of injustice a long time ago.
That's why Paul said in Hebrews 12 to us that when we think we're just gonna DIE if we don't indulge that darling sinful habit we love so much, look to Jesus and all He put up with. Paul says unless your fight against temptation is so fierce that you start sweating great drops of blood, he doesn't wanna hear one word about how "we can't keep the law".
It's worth pointing out that offer is to save us "from" our sin, not in our sin, according to Scripture. We accept the offer by surrendering our will to His will and He gives us both Pardon for sin and Power to live for Him; a wonderfully beautiful arrangement that has absolutely no need of a OSAS License to Sin, just as no husband who loves his wife needs a license to fool around with other women.
Why do people equate God's giving men the opportunity to walk away with weakness on God's part? God does not lock us into a bird cage like captured canaries. He desire more than just a bunch of canaries flitting around in Heaven. He desires to have faithful ones who have chosen to abide in the vine. The Word is very clear on this.
If I'm a robot, then I'm a 1968 HAL compared to all the 2021 Honda Asimos running around yelling "Legalist!!!"
BTW, you should probably learn what it means to "judge" from a Biblical standpoint (hint: it isn't calling out false doctrine).
Spiritual Immaturity is why. They are Courtyard Christians stuck outside fixated on the altar of burnt offering instead of taking their place with the rest of us beside our High Priest in the Sanctuary, stuck on the milk of the Word and unable to digest solid food, stuck between a decision to make a full surrender or trying to get by with a OSAS License to Sin.
I love 'em just the same
God knows we are not capable of perfection, but He also knows we are capable of repenting when we err. We are capable of daily surrender and cross bearing. That is why He commands it...
Luke 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.