Believers are initially and ultimately saved by God's grace (i.e. Jesus Christ). It is why a person who comes to Jesus for the first time can have an assurance of salvation (Without doing any kind of work). Initial and ultimate salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are not ultimately saved by works of righteousness we have done alone without God's mercy (Titus 3:5).
Thanks for confirming the various things I've been saying that salvation-by-works Christians believe. The "initial" versus "final" salvation concept is an example of that which had not been well thought out. For what is a person saved from but from eternal condemnation. A person who was hypothetically "initally" saved from eternal condemnation cannot say that he has been saved, if in fact he ends up "finally" not being saved. (Note the rhetoric of Eph 2:8,9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.") This rhetoric does not match your theology as logically according to your theology a person can only say "I have the possibility of being saved, if I'm good enough in the end". That's the same mentality of the viewpoint Paul was opposing. The person is not putting his trust in God to save him, but rather trusting in himself to qualify himself to be saved.
And this is also what I've been saying about salvation by works Christians, they confuse Old Covenant concepts with the New Covenant concepts. They essentially think it's still justification by law, but simply by a different law. And many of them simply construct their new law by cherry picking from the law of Moses.#1. The Bible teaches that there is a change of the Law (Hebrews 7:12); So when Paul talks about the "Law" (generically), he is referring to the Torah, i.e. the Old Law (or the many laws given to Moses and Israel) and not the commandments given to us by Jesus Christ and His followers (i.e. the New Law or New Testament Law).
There you go misconstruing all kinds of verses. I already spoke of the Luke 10 passage (which is also the Mt 19 passage) as an example of confusing Old Covenant with New. As for 1John 1:7 you again confuse cause and effect. It's describing the behavior of those who are in Christ. You read it as a work to cause you to become saved. And you read 1John 3:23 which says And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. and simply append it with "in order to be saved", which isn't actually there. Again that was covered in the OP 2. Appending all commands in the New Testament to Christians with "in order to be saved". Heb 5:9 "to all who obey him". As I pointed out, those who are in Christ characteristically do obey him. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me" John 10:27 That's simply a truism. They listen and follow because they are his sheep. Those who disguise themselves wearing sheep clothing find it's not natural to listen and follow him. But the real sheep do.#5. The Bible teaches that obedience to God's commands is tied to eternal life from Matthew to Revelation (See Matthew 19:17-19) (Luke 10:25-28) (1 John 1:7) (1 John 3:23) (Hebrews 5:9) (Revelation 22:14).
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