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When we receive the gift of Christ as Saviour, we also receive the righteousness of Christ which means that all sin, past, present, and future is forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Christ shed on the Cross.
The point of Christianity is to be like Christ by living the way that he lived, which is why we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22), that those who are in Christ obligated to walk in the same way he walked (1 John 2:6), and to be imitators of Paul as he is of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). The goal of obeying God's law has nothing to do with becoming self-righteous. The Spirit has the role of leading us to obey God's law (Ezekiel 36:26-27), so you are contradicting yourself. Likewise, in Romans 8:4-7, Paul contrasted those who walk in the Spirit with those who have minds set on the flesh who are enemies of God who refuse to submit to God's law, and in Galatians 5:16-23, everything listed as works of the flesh that are against the Spirit are also against God's law while of the fruits of the Spirit are in accordance with it. There are many verses that show that God is gracious to us by teaching us to obey His law and the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey, so if you ignore those verses, then you are the one who has more to learn about God's grace and what it is to walk in the Spirit. Again, our obedience to God's law has nothing to do with contributing anything towards earning our salvation from God, but rather God graciously teaching us to be doers of it is the way that He is giving us His gift of salvation.
I don't see a significant different between he position that God is a doer of righteous works, so the way to love God is by being a doer of righteous works and you saying that the way to love God is by living who God is and imitating him. God's law describes the way that someone who is righteous lives, such as with describing the way that Christ lived, which has nothing to do with him proving his righteousness.
Our salvation from sin would be incomplete if we were only saved from the penalty of our sin while we continued to live in sin, so there must be an aspect of God's gift of salvation that we are experiencing in the present by being a doer of His law, which again is what Titus 2:11-13 is describing. Moreover, in Titus 2:14, it doesn't just say that Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness, but also to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law is the way to believe in what Jesus accomplished through the cross. Love does not before obedience, but rather being an obeyer of God is the way to love.
The content of a gift can be the experience of doing something, such as with giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari for an hour, where the gift intrinsically requires them to do the work of driving it in order to have that experience, but where doing that work contributes nothing to detract from the fact that the opportunity to drive it was completely given as a gift. Similarly, eternal life is the experience of knowing God and Jesus (John 17:3) and the gift of God's law is His instructions for how to have that experience (Exodus 33:13, Matthew 7:23).
Christ set a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
In John 15:10, Jesus used a parallel statement to equate his commandments with those of the Father, so he was not in disagreement with the Father about which commandments we should follow. Likewise, in John 14:24, Jesus said that his teachings were not his own, but that of the Father, so he did not teach his own set of commandments. In Deuteronomy 4:2, it is a sin to add to or subtract from the Mosaic Law, so Jesus did not do that.
Christ spent his ministry teaching his followers to obey the Mosaic Law by word and by example, so the Jerusalem Council was not debating whether followers of Christ should follow Christ, but rather they were debating whether salvation was by circumcision or by grace.
The difference is the difference between the old and new covenants. If doing is what it's all about first of all then Jesus didn't need to come, because no change was needed in us. But He said in Matt 5 and 23 that doing wasn't enough unless the inside had been cleansed and changed first of all. That's how our motivations become properly directed. And that change takes place as we turn to God in faith, becoming reconciled with the author of true righteousness rather than relying on ourselves. Then we have the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. Otherwise, why did Jesus come? Why did He need to come unless to effect that change?
Indeed. In Romans 2:13-14, Paul said that it was only the doers of the Mosaic Law who will be justified and that Gentile believers were by natures doers of it, and in Romans 2:25, he said that the way to recognize that a Gentile has a circumcised heart is by observing their obedience to the Mosaic Law.
In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and the Mosaic Law was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus also set a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law and as his followers we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22) and that those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walks (1 John 2:6).
In Acts 15:1, men from Judea were wanting to require Gentiles to become circumcised in order to become saved, however, that was never the reason for which God required circumcision, so the Jerusalem Council upheld the Mosaic Law by correctly ruling against requiring circumcision for an incorrect reason. In Genesis 12:48, a Gentile who wanted to eat of the Passover lamb was required to become circumcised, so the Jerusalem Council should not be interpreted as ruling against a Gentile correctly acting in accordance with what God has instructed as if they had the authority to countermand God.
You are confusing justification with sanctification as you have often done before. Nothing new here.
Sometimes I wonder if you are reading my posts. God Loves us first and we thus can Love Him. Accepting His Love gives us access to Godly type Love and the indwelling Holy Spirit, allowing us to go on not sinning, be pure. Our obedience shows our Love.
I agree that there is a difference between the Mosaic and New Covenants, though Jeremiah 31:33 says that the New Covenant involves God putting the Torah in our minds and writing it on our hearts, so the difference is not in regard to following the Torah. In other words, the New Covenant is still made with the same eternal God with the same eternal character traits, and therefore the same eternal laws for how to testify about His character traits.
Agreed. It’s all about how the laws is fulfilled, not about whether or not it must be fulfilled. The new covenant is not a reprieve from man’s obligation to be righteous, but the authentic means to fulfilling it.
Sorry if I've misunderstood your posts. I have not suggest that we need to obey in order to earn anything. In Titus 2:11-13, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so we are not extrinsically required to have first done those works in order to earn our salvation as the result or as the result of having first been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to be doers of those works is intrinsically the way that He is giving us His gift of salvation. Jesus saves from our sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so again Jesus graciously teaching us to be doers of God's law is intrinsically the way that he is giving us his gift of saving us from not being doers of it.
I'm not redefining belief, but rather I am showing that there are a preponderance of verses and examples that connect our belief with our actions. For example, in Hebrews 11, every example of faith is not just an example of someone being convinced that something is true, but is an example of someone taking an action that expresses what they believe is true. God is trustworthy, therefore His instructions are also trustworthy (Psalms 19:7), so the way to trust God is by obediently trusting in His instructions and it is contradictory for someone to think that we should just trust in God, but not in His instructions. Jesus said that the way to inherit eternal life is by obeying the greatest two commandments (Luke 10:25-28), so do you believe him or not?
