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.
J

J70x7

Guest
Matthew 16:27
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.
 
J

J70x7

Guest
Romans 6:16
Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice.
 

BillG

Senior Member
Feb 15, 2017
9,049
4,456
113
Jesus taught/fed all who came to Him. He didn't go around feeding random poor folks who were saying "shove Jesus up your ###". He said "Come to ME all you that hunger".

He helped them who said "I believe, help me in my unbelief". He came to turn folks away from sin, not make them comfortable in it.

He fed those 5000 who came to Him. He didn't pray to the Father to send food to every random poor person on the planet. He had the power, but He didn't.

There were a lot of poor Jews in His time that He didn't feed. He reminded the Mainstream Preachers of this and they got angry with Him as well.

If you Love God, according to the first and greatest commandments, then you would learn from Him how to Love your Neighbor. But if a man doesn't Love God enough to trust in His Word, then how can this man know how God wants us to love each other?

Of course if you have been convinced you are already saved, already immortal, then these details don't really matter do they.
Ah but why did they come to him?
Did he not seek out the lost?
Did he not go to Zacchaeus?

He went and loved people where they were at and they responded.
He did great things.
The word spread.
Yet people still sought him out for the wrong reasons

John 6:26-40
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

They only sought him because they probably wanted more food.
But then he turns it around.
"Seek to eat food that ensures and gives everlasting life"

"What works shall we do, the works of God they say"
Jesus said "This is the workof God, that you believe in him whom he sent"

Then they have the audacity to ask him what sign will you do so that we believe in you.

As if he had not proven himself already.
They hungered after the wrong thing but Jesus addressed that.
But the truth is they came to him.
They would never have done that if he had not gone into the world, the real world.

You want to try it, try being like Jesus.

And if they reject it then as Jesus says "Walk away"
But we must be careful and respsonsive to the Holy Spirit to walking away.
Jesus never rejected Peter, even though Peter rejected Jesus.

If we do not go out into highways and byways people will not know about Jesus.
If we do not love people like Jesus they will not know what true love is.

As you say

Of course if you have been convinced you are already saved, already immortal, then these details don't really matter do they
I would say that you not are saved by grace through faith in order to good works.

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

From what I see about you is that you have no idea what good works are, come to that lawlessness either as you quote on one hand works of the flesh then bang on about believing in a long haired pretty boy Jesus who is akin to a centrefold in a pornogrphic magazine.

Oh well never mind.
 

Studyman

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2017
3,570
516
113
Have you departed from iniquity - or do you still sin every day just like everyone else?
Of course I strive every day to "Depart from Iniquity". Don't you? shouldn't all who call Him Lord, Lord, strive to obey Him? And I am more obedient today, than 27 years ago. Is that not "Growing in the Lord"? And shall I not learn obedience from the things I suffer like He learned obedience from the things He suffered? Am I not to suffer with Him?

Heb. 5:
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Is He not also making me perfect? Is He not the Author of my Faith and Salvation? Shall I listen to Him and obey?

2 Cor. 1: 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

Phil. 3:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Heb. 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

I thought "departing iniquity" was "Growing in the Lord". But "many" who come in His Name on this forum, call that "trying to save myself" and they preach against such behavior, calling anyone who would trust this Jesus names.

What spirit would want me to reject so much of what the Christ teaches just so modern religions and their man made religious traditions can be justified?

I'm not going to do it, I'm sticking with His Word's even if it makes the religious men of the modern religions of the land angry. It's not like that has never happened before.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
I don’t get the dude, He goes around preaching sinless perfection. Then attacks us and stands for a person who does not believe in sinless perfection. But believes we can sin our way out of salvation.

Talk about a contradiction!!
Such are the ways of all workers for, cainologists and Pharisees........walking, talking contradictions!!
 

VCO

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2013
11,995
4,615
113
. . .
You want to try it, try being like Jesus.

And if they reject it then as Jesus says "Walk away"
But we must be careful and responsive to the Holy Spirit to walking away.
Jesus never rejected Peter, even though Peter rejected Jesus.
. . .

VERY GOOD POST, especially that part.

Those who insist on presenting FALSE DOCTRINE and a FALSE GOSPEL, I know I give them way more chances than I should.
Here is what Paul says:

Titus 3:9-11 (HCSB)
9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning,
11 knowing that such a person is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.

And I give them more chances than that, hoping they might come to repentance. And yet they never do.

Some People CRITICIZE me, saying that when I do put them on the IGNORE LIST, that I am UNLOVING, or NOT TOLERANT, or just being RUDE, when I put them on the IGNORE LIST. When I know even JESUS SAID:
Mark 6:11 (HCSB)
11 If any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

To me on this thread, that means PUT THEM ON THE IGNORE LIST. I know I am far more LENIENT than JESUS or Paul. But I at least do use the IGNORE LIST Options, which I personally think that is far better than to give them a continuous Sounding Board for their False Doctrines, and False Gospels.

I found this Picture while searching to see how many I do have on the IGNORE LIST.
I Think this is WORTH SHARING WITH YOU ALL.

 
Dec 1, 2018
92
28
18
Lol

Ok, here is the facts.

1. I am not justifying evil. I am holding onto the grace that has and continues to save me (something I am not sure you understand) I do understand grace but the truth is neither all grace nor all works. They are part of the same belief system. You cannot TRULY (and that is the operative word) claim to believe something and then regularly live in opposition of what you claim to believe. Its the reason i shared the two passages i did.
2. You say you do not wash yourself. Yet you say it is YOUR WALK IN THE SPIRIT that saves you, news flash. By defenition that is you washing yourself. (It is your power of walking that saves you)
Untrue. It is yielding to the Holy Spirit which we have a choice to do. it is no different than accepting Jesus Christ. Is that a work in your eyes and so our salvation is based on work only? You cannot classify everything we do as a work.
3. I agree. He who is born of him does learn to walk like him and they aught to lve as he lived. But even paul acknowledged this is a learning process. A baby can not act like an adult (he can not drive, hold a job, Follow a map to get someplace or many other “adult” things, He can not even do things a child can do. Let alone what a teenager can do. ) So saying a baby Christan can act like an child, a teen, or even an adult is not understanding what a true babe is (its why they need fed milk, they can not grasp the cpncept of mature things) and they will not even have the capacity to live like Christ did at that time, because they have to LEARN (A process called sanctification) which evidently you do not understand either!
I have no issue with new Christians; scripture acknowledges them. But there are plenty of Christians who have been around a long time and reject what God teaches and yet those in the pulpit assure them they are saved no matter what they do. We have way too many which support abortion, adultery, homosexuality, etc. 2/3 of abortions have been performed on believers. The problem is that once you tell a person they can never be lost (which scripture does not really do), you end up with a bunch of people who live their live as they see fit, not as God intends. The doctrine espoused in the Modern Church supports these people rather than confronting them.
4. Your strawman that I preach, believe or even think a person who claims to be saved, yet never do a thing God says (work) has ever been saved, is not only ignorant of you (you have no idea what I believe) but outright offensive..(true faith works, it does not sit on a couch and do nothing) . Your words suggest what i responded to. So that i will not remain in ignorance on this matter, please tell me what you believe about the relationship of faith and works in the process of salvation as well as your understanding if we have any responsibility in our salvation.

So you study up on some christian growth, what it looks like and all the things that can afffect it. And study the word where it says he who BEGAN a good work WILL Complete it. And also that he has PERFECTED FOREVER those who he is IN THE PROCESS OF SANCTIFYING. Then get back with me.. ok?
For the first scripture, it is an encouragement, not a fact. In v5 he also sets the context: those who are participating with Him in the gospel; he has confidence in them since their works testify to their faith. The language explicitly says its a confidence. If it were a fact, it would be stated differently just as other facts are in scripture. Hebrews 10:14 is harder and i will need to study this further, but the fact that in the same chapter with the warning about continual sinning tells me that the passage on its own is probably not what we think.....
 
Dec 1, 2018
92
28
18
What does any human being believe they can do to earn salvation and to keep it. How in the world can that be possible?
Be faithful to keep salvation. There are plenty of passages that tell about losing your faith either directly or indirectly.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
What does any human being believe they can do to earn salvation and to keep it. How in the world can that be possible?
From day one men have been trying or believing they could offer works....

Adam and Eve -->Made fig leaf aprons
Cain -->Offered the works of his hands
Pharisees-->Some law keeping drivel

Galatians is clear....faith plus works to gain or finish salvation = double cursed false gospel of a different kind with no power to save, all who believe it are fools and bewitched

Exactly why the number that is rejected is MANY....and note....the believe they KNOW JESUS and even call him LORD and they fully expect to enter based upon what they have done...

Faith plus works is what they believed and peddled....same false gospel that many so called Christian religilns peddle to this very day!!
 
Dec 1, 2018
92
28
18
From day one men have been trying or believing they could offer works....

Adam and Eve -->Made fig leaf aprons
Cain -->Offered the works of his hands
Pharisees-->Some law keeping drivel

Galatians is clear....faith plus works to gain or finish salvation = double cursed false gospel of a different kind with no power to save, all who believe it are fools and bewitched

Exactly why the number that is rejected is MANY....and note....the believe they KNOW JESUS and even call him LORD and they fully expect to enter based upon what they have done...

Faith plus works is what they believed and peddled....same false gospel that many so called Christian religilns peddle to this very day!!
You don't understand the relationship. Works follow faith. Faith begets works. We don't save ourself through works. Apples and oranges.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
Be faithful to keep salvation. There are plenty of passages that tell about losing your faith either directly or indirectly.
And on that states clearly...

Jesus begins, finishes and completes the work if faith he began in us. The same faith that KEEPS us by HIS POWER!

Your Jesus must be weak, inept or a liar.....not the Jesus of the bible!
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
You don't understand the relationship. Works follow faith. Faith begets works. We don't save ourself through works. Apples and oranges.
No, I understand it just fine....you on the other hand seem to conflate the issues and in so doing peddle that which is double cursed with no power to save....See Galatians, Titus, 2nd Timothy, Ephesians, John, Romans 3 and 4 etc........then top off with 1st Corinthians 3 and expalain what type of work wood, hay and stubble equates to......yeah...I know the context!
 
J

J70x7

Guest
1 John 15:10
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love.
 

Studyman

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2017
3,570
516
113
Ah but why did they come to him?
Did he not seek out the lost?
Did he not go to Zacchaeus?

He went and loved people where they were at and they responded.
He did great things.
The word spread.
Yet people still sought him out for the wrong reasons

John 6:26-40
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

They only sought him because they probably wanted more food.
But then he turns it around.
"Seek to eat food that ensures and gives everlasting life"

"What works shall we do, the works of God they say"
Jesus said "This is the workof God, that you believe in him whom he sent"

Then they have the audacity to ask him what sign will you do so that we believe in you.

As if he had not proven himself already.
They hungered after the wrong thing but Jesus addressed that.
But the truth is they came to him.
They would never have done that if he had not gone into the world, the real world.

You want to try it, try being like Jesus.

And if they reject it then as Jesus says "Walk away"
But we must be careful and respsonsive to the Holy Spirit to walking away.
Jesus never rejected Peter, even though Peter rejected Jesus.

If we do not go out into highways and byways people will not know about Jesus.
If we do not love people like Jesus they will not know what true love is.

As you say



I would say that you not are saved by grace through faith in order to good works.

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

From what I see about you is that you have no idea what good works are, come to that lawlessness either as you quote on one hand works of the flesh then bang on about believing in a long haired pretty boy Jesus who is akin to a centrefold in a pornogrphic magazine.

Oh well never mind.
What "many" who come in His name seem to always omit from their posts, is that had it not been for the Christ's obedience to His Father, He could not have forgiven any man. His "works of kindness" were only accepted by His father because He was Faithful Son, not like Adam.

He didn't reject the Father's instructions as the Mainstream Preachers of His time did. He was a faithful Son.

My point is that if I am not "working together" with the Christ to be a Faithful Son, then all those righteous looking works, like feeding random poor folks in His Name, singing Jesus happy birthday, or whatever the religious traditions is, means nothing because Jesus said, if I practice iniquity, He doesn't know me. It doesn't matter if I rid folks of a gambling demon, or a drinking demon in His Name. or if I do all manner of righteous looking things in His Name.

He didn't say "if you want to enter heaven, feed random poor people". He didn't say "If you Love Me, feed random poor people".

He didn't say "And showing Mercy to thousands of people who Love Me and feed random poor people".

Jesus would never promote a religion which creates images of God in the Likeness of man. He would never reject His Fathers Sabbath for an ancient pagan High Day.

If I am to be like Jesus, that would also include respect and obedience to His Father first and foremost, as the First and greatest Commandment commands.

If I am tricked or convinced to reject or ignore this first and greatest commandment, then He says He doesn't even know me, and rightly so.

If we were led by the Word of God without all the religious "Other Voices" influencing us, it would be a no-brainer IMO. But as Jesus said "offences must come".
 

gb9

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
12,407
6,744
113
1 John 15:10
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love.
and what commands were John speaking off? believe on the name of the Son and love one another.

you deceivers all try to use this verse to point back to the Law of Moses, but those commands, given to Israel by covenant only, was not what John was referring to.
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
and what commands were John speaking off? believe on the name of the Son and love one another.

you deceivers all try to use this verse to point back to the Law of Moses, but those commands, given to Israel by covenant only, was not what John was referring to.
Quintiple Amen......and you got that right.....the second word describes them to a T!
 

gb9

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
12,407
6,744
113
Quintiple Amen......and you got that right.....the second word describes them to a T!
you know, I wonder - how many of these Bible-thumper, command and Law keepers have ever actually read the Bible all the way through, just one time.

not that I would get an honest answer from that bunch ( the Lord mentioned several times in the O.T. about only using HONEST weights and measures, guess they skipped those verses ?? )
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
you know, I wonder - how many of these Bible-thumper, command and Law keepers have ever actually read the Bible all the way through, just one time.

not that I would get an honest answer from that bunch ( the Lord mentioned several times in the O.T. about only using HONEST weights and measures, guess they skipped those verses ?? )
I will never understand how anyone can peddle...

a. saved by works
b. saved by law keeping
c. saved by commandment keeping
d. saved by a faith plus a,b,c blend

when the bible is clear concerning the purpose of the laws, commandments and states clearly that works are not part of the saving equation.

Any addition to Jesus and faith devalues Jesus and faith while interjecting self into the equation....anything that takes away from ALL GLORY going to CHRIST while placing on us and what we do or have done brings CHRIST down and lifts us to a position where we can glory.

No one will ever convince me that it goes beyond grace thru faith into the finished work of Christ for salvation....salvation that is complete and eternal and beyond the ability to be revoked and or lost!!
 

Argueless

Active member
Oct 21, 2018
658
161
43
I'm happy to do the work God requires.

And here it is: "Then they asked Him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.'" (John 6:28-29)

Believe.

That's it, and that's all. To add anything else to it makes Jesus a liar, and transforms salvation from a gift to be received, into a wage to be earned.

To put yourself back under the Law does little but places a curse from God upon you. (Galatians 3:10-13)
First of all I'm not a Jew so I am not or ever have I been under the law of Moses. I'm not putting myself back anywhere I've never been. I'm not cursed.

Does suffering for Jesus aside from believing will make me an unbeliever who would say that Jesus lied?

Who does the work of sending the Son and who does the believing of the One that was sent?

He sent the Son that you may believe. (John 3:16) and not only to believe but also to suffer for Him (philippians 1:29) and to obey His commands (john 14:15-31) which is to LOVE GOD and one another (john 13:34-35) because LOVE is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10