Suppose you were curious why your grandfather supported a particular charity and dug out his diaries. If he wrote that he supported a particular charity because it was founded by a good friend of his with whom he had a gay time whilst in college in the 1920s, you would find that in the gay 20s, gay meant happy, and your grandfather had a happy, pleasant, and wonderful time of friendship with that person. Obviously you would depend on the meaning you took from the usage of that time and not one from a text usage of the present time, where you would get a completely wrong idea.
Similarly, texts, both religious and secular of the time used the word “belief” to mean loyalty.Put this in your search engine and read the article:
He asked the rebels to join his army by saying, “repent and be faithful" to me
https://
www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=He+asked+the+rebels+to+join+his+army+by+saying,+“repent+and+be+faithful"+to+me+
So the requirement for salvation would be loyalty to Jesus, not dependence on Jesus to save them from condemnation.What about the texts that say salvation is not of works but of faith.
Well, it meant loyalty too, and it is not of works, else it would not be free, but earned, a wage and not a gift.However the faith, loyalty we are talking about does not CONTRIBUTE to salvation. The only labour that paid for our salvation is the work of Christ on the Cross.If I received food for working 1 hour in a restaurant, it means that my work paid for my meal. But if my action did not generate any contribution to the meal in terms of labour, or ingredients or cash, then my action can be considered not of works. What type of action can we find that does not contribute materially to the final result? Loyalty. Ten visits to a restaurant gets me a gift coupon for a free meals . It's even called a loyalty bonus, gift.
In Scripture it is confession. Con fess, con fessir, declare together, be of one mind (repent, meta noia!) with a person, with God. Agree with God.
Paul told the Athenians that their loyalty was to their Creator and not to wood and stone, so they needed to find out how their Father wanted them to live.When we confessed that serving mammon for earthly benefits was wrong disloyal (at baptism...I hope your church has a Scritural confession for baptism!), since God was our Father and serving God for eternal treasures was the only shrewd thing to do, since earthly treasures rust and perish and eternal treasures do not, then we have made a confession, that our former thinking was wrong, was sin, and we heard with faith, obedience to the command to repent, we confessed that God was our Father, not mammon, we were justified, found righteous, holy and accepted into God’s family as a member, confirmed by receiving the Holy Spirit:
Galatians 3:2This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
And by having our spirit seated with Christ in high places:
Ephesians 2:But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.Our spirits are safe, now we must make our bodies safe too, so that they can be made fit for resurrection.
Paul says we must ensure that we will not be found as a spirit without a body, naked:
2 Corinthians 5:1For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
That decision wIll be based on the works we do whilst in this life:
2 Corinthians 5:10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Now we must continue to be faithful to Christ, NOT try to use works to be sanctified, so that we can do those works that were prepared for us, by again confessing:
Galatians 3:Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Sanctification
Since good fruit only comes from good trees, we must make the tree good, by exposing them to the light of God’s holiness, not the standards of society. The sins we may not even admit as sins, (why would we keep doing them”?) are exposed for what they are. Only by our admission can God begin to cleanse them. If you don't throw your laundry into the laundry basket, how can it get scheduled for the wash day?
1 John 1:6If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Parallel verse:
1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.