John 3
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Do you hate the Light then? Everyone who practices evil hates the Light, and does not come to it.
How will you come to the Light unless you stop practicing evil? Men love darkness because their deeds are evil.
You are telling on yourself now.
Calvinist babblings, emsw, Calvinist babblings.
Matthew 7:21-23 is reiterated in the latter half of James
Chapter Two. To wit: The fruits of our conversion are
the proof of our conversion. While a careful reading
of Romans establishes that the ~cause~ of our conversion
"does not depend on the man who wills... but on God who
has mercy" ( Romans 9:16 NASB ).
Indeed, "there is none who seeks after God" ( Romans
3:11 NKJ ). So how can our works get us salvation
when we aren't even seeking God -much less salvation ?
"Those who were ~chosen~ obtained it" ( Romans 11:7 LP
NASB ). NOT those who were Christ-like !
It's entirely arbitrary, as John 6:65 states:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled
him" (NIV).
If it was based on our works, our goodness, our
Christ-likeness, then Psalms 14:3 ( cf Psalms 53:3 )
couldn't be true:
"There is no one who does good, not even one." (NASB)
Now, as for Matthew 19:16-19, the young man
SPECIFICALLY asked Jesus what "good deed" he
could do to "possess eternal life". Essentially, Jesus
told the guy how to be perfect. Since nobody can be
perfect, the young man went away disappointed.
Here you're looking at the answer and not appreciating
the question. The young man ~asked~ about getting
into heaven by "good deeds". And Jesus answered
by coming up with a good deed the guy could bring himself
to perform.
Such is the case with salvation by works. It's only
theoretically possible. Our sin natures make it ~practically~
impossible !
"There is no one who does good, not even one."
( Psalms 14:3 NASB; cf Psalms 53:3 )
Regarding Matthew 25:31-46, here again Jesus is referring
to the ~results~ of salvation, and NOT the cause of it.
The born again person will be a changed man. But let's
not confuse cause and effect here: The true Christian
produces good fruit because he has been justified before
God and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, NOT that he is
justified by his good fruit ( because he has none that are
acceptable to the Most High ).
"There is no one who does good, not even one."
( Psalms 14:3 NASB; cf Psalms 53:3 )