So according to your gospel one is initially saved by grace vs any works they have done, rendering them accepted in the Beloved and spiritually seated with Him in Heaven, etc. but after this they must be saved by works, albeit done by grace, meaning the believer is not doing the works. In which case Thus salvation under the Law is only condemned because besides lacking the perfect atonement, they lacked the level of grace needed to justify one, to fulfill the righteous demands of the Law.
James says he will show you his faith by his works (See James 2:18).
So works are not in conflict with God's grace by faith. It is a part of it (after we come to the Lord Jesus by faith - seeking His forgiveness) we then bring forth works (Which is a reflection of our continued faith or belief in the Savior).
For the very goal or reason why Christ died for us was so as to make us holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27) and for us to be zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).
1 John 1:7 says,
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
So you have to
walk [i.e. keep God's commandments] in
the light [i.e. God the Father] as
He [i.e. Christ] is in the light in order for the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from all sin. Compare 1 John 1:5-7 with 1 John 2:3-4.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23).
Also, Hebrews 5:9 says,
"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;"
Do you believe this above verse in what it plainly says?
Or would you seek to change what it says because you don't like it?
Hebrews 5:9 plainly says that Jesus is the author of eternal salvation to ALL who OBEY him.
It does not say to all who believe and do not worry about sin but just focus on his sacrifice.
You said:
How sad that Paul did not have to instruct them that rather than effectual faith justifying one in conversion and the consummation of one's life in earth, on Christ's account (though he once was) it is actually the level of performance of works that enables him to attain to Heaven, versus works being required in the sense that saving faith is only that which will effect obedience thru the Spirit.
Which justifies one as being a believer, and fit to be rewarded for his works under grace
(it is by cooperation with God's grace that one obeys the Lord, walking in the Spirit, which the believer otherwise could not and would not do, yet which God rewards anyway, as He promised).
You obviously did not read and understand Romans 8:1 or you are reading from a Modern Translation that left out certain key words to what it fully says.
"
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1).
I mean, what do you do when you encounter and or read Romans 8:13?
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Romans 8:13).
For Romans 8:13 clearly says,
1. If you live after the flesh, you will die.
2. If you through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body (sin), you shall live.
You said:
Wrong again, for as shown before, Paul was not simply rejecting the ceremonial class of Laws as being salvific, but the whole system and thus all systems of justification based upon the level of performance. Thus Paul never restricts the rejection of salvation by Law-keeping to just the ceremonial law, but requires keeping all the Law if one will be saved by it:
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10) Of course this was shown to you and ignored.
Not true. Nowhere does Paul condemn the Moral Law as a part of the faith or after we are saved by God's grace. Paul lists that those who break the moral law will not inherit the Kingdm of God (See Galatians 5:19-21). Paul distinguishes what law he is talking about when he says that if you seek to be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing (Galatians 5:2). Paul does not say if you seek to not murder, and or if you seek to not steal, Christ will profit you nothing. Nowhere does Paul ever say that.
Also, the context of Galatians 3:10 is in reference to the Law of Moses (the 613 commands given to Israel) and Paul is not referring to God's Eternal Moral Laws or the Commands given to us by Jesus Christ and His followers in the New Testament.
"And this I say,
that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." (Galatians 3:17).
Which law came 430 years after the promise made to Abraham?
Is it the Law of Moses or the Law of Christ?
Obviously it is talking about the Law of Moses and not all law.
But we still have to serve, though.
"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not
in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:6).
Romans 7:6 says that we are to serve in newness of spirit and NOT in the oldness of the letter.
What is the oldness of the letter?
It is the 613 Laws within the Law of Moses given to Israel.
You said:
Again, you cannot have saving faith which will not effect works, but the effect itself is not the means of obtaining and actual basis for justification, as instead it is the faith behind the works. Reducing justification by faith and not on the basis of the performance which will follow, and then making justification on the basis of the level of obedience is untenable. Either one has saving effectual faith, or one does not.
"In most cases?" Once again your confused theology is illogical. Either one is justified on Christ's account, as in conversion, with works following, or one is justified on the basis of his performance, in which case it must be perfect in order to be with God.
The third alternative is not salvation by imputed or actual righteousness, but on innocence, in which case one must be forgiven of all sin, but which according to your soteriology does indeed logically require knowing, remembering and confessing all sin done as a believer, rather than faith out of a heart that is penitent over sin in general(which results in contrite confession if and when convicted of sin) justifying one.
What makes you believe that doing good as a part of salvation is immoral?
Or are you just blindly reading those verses you want to see in the Bible to fit your own personal belief?
God's Word is not contrary to Moral Law or in doing good.
Why? Because God is good.
For his people are a reflection of God.
For God is the One who works within His people.
If they regulated sin to not being all that important, then it would destroy the very reason Christ died on the cross for us. For sin was so serious that it required the death of God's Son (Jesus Christ). So God takes sin very seriously because the wages of sin is death. Jesus does not undo sin for us so we no longer have to worry about sin. Jesus cleans our past slate and gives a fresh new start. If we sin again, we have to go to His grace and seek to overcome that sin. If not, then we are turning God's grace into a license for immorality (See Jude 1:4 (NIV)).
Life teaches us that if a person has a low regard for something, then chances are that person is not going to care about it and they are going to end up doing the very thing that they have very low regard for. For if a person does not care about staying in shape, chances are (if they do not have a high metabolism) they are going to be fat and overweight. The same is true with someone who does not regard sin as being that vital or important in their walk with God. If they feel sin only damages the fellowship with God, and not their salvation, chances are they are going to commit sin on some level and think they are saved (Thereby turning God's grace into a license for immorality).
Just look at the fruit from the life of George Sodini (Who was a huge proponent of Eternal Security).
http://eternalsecurity.us/george_sodini.htm
You said:
This is a major foundational, fallacy in your soteriology for as your premise is false so also is your conclusion. NOWHERE does Scripture teach that some sins are ultimately not mortal, while as explained to you and ignored, your proof text, 1 John 5:16-17, does not refer to sins, but one sin, which would be final apostasy (which can be by implicitly blaspheming the Holy Spirit in order to escape conviction as Pharisees did, or renouncing the faith).[
What Scripture states, as shown you and ignored, is that "the wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23; cf Ezekiel 18:4) and likewise "your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:2)
There are sins that God will judge more harshly than others, and relative to the light and grace one has been given, yet nothing that defileth will be allowed in the heavenly holy city of God, (Revelation 21:27) and the Lord taught that even thoughts can be evil things which come "from within, and defile the man." (Mark 7:21,23)
Nowhere does Scripture teach that God will convict every believer of every one if his sins, and if someone thinks he ha e confessed them all then I believe they have a superficial understanding of sin. But then again I can understand why you must resort to your ambiguous false dichotomy btwn sins that must be confessed and those that need not be.
Thus your whole soteriology is specious, and all it see you posting are the same errors already refuted, or arguing against what I did not teach, and I need not nor am i using more energy and hours (esp. on this summer day) to deal with more of your prolixity, which cannot salvage your refuted accursed gospel.
May God peradventure grant you "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Timothy 2:25)
1 John 5:2 says,
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments."
1 John 3:10 says,
"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."
Also, again, not all sin is the same. 1 John 5:16 says clearly that there is a sin NOT unto death. The sin not unto death is clearly in reference to a believer confessing their sin with the intention of forsaking that sin (See 1 John 1:9 cf. with 1 John 1:7 and Proverbs 28:13). For John only mentions the only exemption for sin is through confession (1 John 1:9) and forsaking it (1 John 1:7). John says that person who commits sin, they are of the devil (1 John 3:8). John says that all who do evil hate the light (John 3:20).
Also, there are other kinds of sins that do NOT lead unto death. Peter says baptism does not save us for the putting away of the "
filth of the flesh" (
1 Peter 3:21). This "
filthiness of the flesh" is clearly in reference to "
sin" (As shown elsewhere in the New Testament - See
2 Corinthians 7:1). So baptism is not in reference to a Command with spiritual death consequences (if a believer does not obey it). Paul lists many times those sins that will cause a believer to not inherit the Kingdom of God (
Galatians 5:19-21) (
Ephesians 5:3-7) (
Colossians 3:5-10) (
1 Corinthians 6:9-11). This is further repeated by John in
Revelation 21:8. In addition, Jesus also lists certain commands that have spiritual death in mind for a person if they were to break them (Like looking upon another in lust (
Matthew 18:9), not forgiving others (
Matthew 6:15), and leading a child to stumble into sin (
Matthew 18:6 NLT)).
