By Grace Through Faith

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Except there aren't "degrees of salvation". Salvation is the divine rescue of the world by God through the sending of Christ. That's what salvation means.

One isn't partly saved; when the Allied forced liberated a concentration camp the people in the camp were liberated, they were rescued.

A partial rescue isn't a rescue at all.

-CryptoLutheran

Explain how the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

Luke 10:24
For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

Hebrews 4:8-11
8For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
 
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StevenBelievin said in post #1:

The point is that it doesn't matter how you feel if that feeling is opposed to God's truth.

That's right, and that goes for good feelings as well as bad.

That is, Christian faith mustn't be based solely on heart feelings, which can be very deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 28:26, Proverbs 14:12), but must be also a rational/intellectual enterprise. For saving faith requires mental assent (Philippians 3:15-16, Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:25, Romans 8:6) to Biblical doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16 to 4:4; 1 Timothy 4:16; 2 John 1:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:3, Titus 1:9) and continuing to remember that doctrine (1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Peter 3:1-2; 2 Corinthians 11:3).

For example, in order for people to be saved, they must believe (and continue to believe to the end: Hebrews 3:6,12,14, Colossians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15:2) the Biblical doctrine that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and the human/divine Son of God (John 20:31, John 3:36, 1 John 2:23), and that He suffered and died on the Cross for our sins, and physically resurrected from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Luke 24:39,46-47, Matthew 20:19, Matthew 26:28).

StevenBelievin said in post #1:

All of your sins, past, present and future were placed on Him at the cross and they were paid for forever.

Note Hebrews 10:26-29 shows that Christians, who have been sanctified by Jesus Christ's sacrificial blood (Hebrews 10:29), which sanctification requires faith (Acts 26:18b, cf. Romans 3:25-26), can, after they get saved, wrongly employ their free will to commit sin without repentance (Hebrews 10:26). By doing this, these Christians are unwittingly trampling on Jesus and His sacrificial blood and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29), turning the grace of God into lasciviousness (Jude 1:4), so their ultimate fate will be worse than if they'd never been saved at all (2 Peter 2:20-22). Even though Jesus' sacrificial blood is sufficient to forgive all sins (1 John 2:2), it actually forgives only the sins of Christians which are past (Romans 3:25-26), as in sins which have been repented from and confessed to God (1 John 1:9,7). Jesus' sacrificial blood doesn't remit unrepentant sins (Hebrews 10:26-29). So a Christian can ultimately lose his salvation if he wrongly employs his free will to commit unrepentant sin (Hebrews 10:26-29; 1 Corinthians 9:27, Luke 12:45-46).

Some Christians say Hebrews 10:26-29 isn't for Christians. But note the immediate context of Hebrews 10:26-29 is Hebrews 10:25, which is addressing "we" Christians. Hebrews 10:25-29 is the same idea as Hebrews 3:13: Christians need to gather together and exhort each other so no Christian will fall into any unrepentant sin. For any unrepentant sin will ultimately result in the loss of salvation (Hebrews 10:26-29; 1 Corinthians 9:27, Luke 12:45-46, Matthew 7:22-23, Galatians 5:19-21; 2 Peter 2:20-22, Romans 8:13; 1 John 5:16, James 5:19-20).

One way a Christian could come to desire to commit sin without repentance would be if he finds a particular sin to be very pleasurable, so pleasurable and so fulfilling (in the short term) that he continues in it over time until his heart becomes hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13), to where his love for God grows cold because of the abundance of iniquity (Matthew 24:12), to where he quenches the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19), to where he sears his conscience as with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:2), to where he becomes so infatuated with his sin he can no longer endure the sound doctrine of the Bible (such as the doctrine of Hebrews 10:26-29), but instead latches onto a mistaken, man-made teaching which contradicts the Bible (2 Timothy 4:3-4), such as the mistaken teaching which assures Christian there's no way they can ever lose their salvation, even if they sin without repentance.
 
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StevenBelievin said in post #1:

Salvation is the free gift of God and it cannot be earned. It can only be received.

That's right in that initial salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ without any works at all on our part (Romans 4:1-5, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5; 2 Timothy 1:9). But note that other passages show that Christians must have both faith and continued works of faith (1 Thessalonians 1:3, Galatians 5:6b, Titus 3:8) (not works of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law) if they're to obtain ultimate salvation (Romans 2:6-8, James 2:24, Matthew 7:21, Matthew 25:26,30, Philippians 2:12b, Philippians 3:11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:9, Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 6:10-12; 2 Peter 1:10-11, John 15:2a; 1 John 2:17b). For Christians must continue to do righteous deeds if they're to continue to be righteous (1 John 3:7, James 2:24,26). And there's no assurance Christians will choose to do that, instead of wrongly employing their free will to become utterly lazy without repentance, to the ultimate loss of their salvation (Matthew 25:26,30, John 15:2a).

StevenBelievin said in post #1:

Paul said that he labored more then them (the apostles) all, but he said it was not him but the grace of God that was with Him.

1 Corinthians 15:10b . . . I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

This means the apostle Paul didn't labor on his own, apart from God's help (John 15:4-5, Philippians 2:13). It isn't contradicting Christians themselves labor (2 Corinthians 5:9, Romans 2:6-8, Titus 3:8) together with God (1 Corinthians 3:9, Colossians 1:29, Philippians 2:12-13).

While God makes it possible for Christians to do the right thing (Philippians 2:13, John 15:4-5), He doesn't take away their free will, turning them into robots, or into macabre flesh puppets, mere marionettes whom He forces to dance across the stage as He pulls on their strings. Instead, He leaves them as His real children with free will. And so they have to choose each and every day to deny themselves, to take up their crosses, and to follow Jesus Christ, to the end (Luke 9:23, Matthew 24:13). And there's no assurance they will choose to do that (Matthew 25:26,30, Luke 12:45-46, Luke 8:13).

*******

StevenBelievin said in post #10:

Do you think that which has been started in the Spirit can be perfected in the flesh?

Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

This means the works of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law, especially its physical circumcision (Galatians 6:12-13), are works of the flesh as opposed to spiritual works of faith (Philippians 3:2-14; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, Galatians 5:6, Titus 3:8). For the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law isn't of faith (Galatians 3:12). Also, compare what Romans 7:5-6 says.

Galatians 3:2-3 means the works of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law can't make Christians perfect. Galatians 3:2-3 isn't contradicting that Christians must have both faith and continued works of faith (1 Thessalonians 1:3, Galatians 5:6b, Titus 3:8) (not works of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law) if they're to obtain ultimate salvation (Romans 2:6-8, James 2:24).
 
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ViaCrucis said in post #40:

Except there aren't "degrees of salvation". Salvation is the divine rescue of the world by God through the sending of Christ. That's what salvation means.

One isn't partly saved; when the Allied forced liberated a concentration camp the people in the camp were liberated, they were rescued.

A partial rescue isn't a rescue at all.

Initial salvation, being born again (John 3:3,7; 1 Peter 1:23-25; 1 Peter 2:2), is both present salvation and a contract for ultimate salvation, just as the birth of an infant is both present life and a contract for life as an adult. Just as children can know they're actually alive, so initially saved people can know they're actually saved (1 John 5:13; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). And just as an infant can't "give back" his being born, or become unborn, so a born-again person can't become un-born-again, or "give back" his being born again, his being initially saved. But just as there's no assurance children will reach adulthood, so there's no assurance initially saved people will obtain ultimate salvation. For just as there are conditions placed on children, like not running into traffic, and not drinking the Drano under the sink, if they're to reach adulthood, so there are conditions placed on the born-again, the initially saved, if they're to obtain ultimate salvation (Romans 2:6-8, Hebrews 3:6,14; 1 Corinthians 9:27).
 
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During the 1st century, there was a large body of Jewish oral laws, traditions, rulings, and fences that they taught for how to obey the Mosaic Law and that were needed to be obeyed in order to become saved. For example, in Matthew 15:2-3, Jesus was asked why his disciples broke the traditions of the elders and he responded by asking them why they broke the command of God for the sake of their tradition. He went on to say that for the sake of their tradition they made void the Word of God (Matthew 15:6), that they worshipped God in vain because they taught as doctrine the commands of men (Matthew 15:8-9), and that they were hypocrites for setting aside the commands of God in order to establish their own traditions, so what they were teaching as the Mosaic Law was in fact their own own traditions. It is critically important to correctly distinguish between what is said about these man-made works of law and what is said about God's Law so that we do not mistake something that was only against obeying man's law as being against obeying God's Law.

In Galatians 3:10-12, it says that these man-made works of law are not of faith, but in Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith is one of the weightier matters of God's Law, so God's Law is of faith, and obeying it is straightforwardly about putting our faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live and that His commands are for our own good (Deuteronomy 6:24). So in Romans 3:27-28, it distinguishes between two laws: a law of works and a law of faith. We are justified by faith apart from these man-made works of law contrary to what the Pharisees were teaching, but our faith does not do away without our need to obey God's Law, but rather our faith upholds God's Law, which means that we are to live in obedience to it by faith (Romans 3:31). God's Law was never given as a means of becoming justified, but rather it was given to those that God had already justified by faith as instructions for how they should therefore live by the same faith.

Wrong. Talmud isn't the Law of sin, the written Torah is. It caused sin to generate:

Romans 7:8-11
8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin isdead. 9I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Did the believers under Law die and go to Hell? No! They were kept safe, if, IF, they tried to follow it, when it would humble them, but if they did not replace it with the traditions of men, which did not humble, as seen in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.

Galatians 3:19
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

Galatians 3:24
Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith.


Matthew 27:52
The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

What the believers until John the Baptist lacked was eternal life, to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ, to have union with them, because Christ had not yet been sent...


The Gospel is a treasure chest, a multifaceted diamond, needing to be unpacked of all its complex and numerous teachings. 66 books and you cling on to just one teaching? Talk about an unbalanced diet:

Matthew 7:22,23
23Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; departfrom Me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Simple is good, and probably attractive, but it can lead to missing the target, leaving the desired result unattained. It’s a crime that the pulpit and the pews of our mainline churches settle for the incomplete and the inadequate.


Matthew 13:52
And Jesus said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old."
 
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Explain how the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

In the kingdom the least is greatest.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant," (Mark 10:43)

The last is first.

"So the last will be first, and the first last." (Matthew 20:16)

God's reign is not like the order of this world in which might makes right, the great and powerful lord over the rest; God's reign turns the ordinary on its head.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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In the kingdom the least is greatest.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant," (Mark 10:43)

The last is first.

"So the last will be first, and the first last." (Matthew 20:16)

God's reign is not like the order of this world in which might makes right, the great and powerful lord over the rest; God's reign turns the ordinary on its head.

-CryptoLutheran

I never asked you who is the greatest in the kingdom or why. I asked you why the least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist. Please answer if you can.
 
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ViaCrucis

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I never asked you who is the greatest in the kingdom or why. I asked you why the least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist. Please answer if you can.

No one would question John's greatness, which is why the Evangelist adds,

"And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism."

And yet,

"But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves."

Jesus continues,

"'O what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

"We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep."


For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon"; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.'


For no one was greater born of women, but though John was praised, the hypocrites said, "he has a demon", then when the Son of Man came, whom John spoke about, they said, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."

None greater than John, yet here is One greater, the Son of Man, but they would not receive it. The least one is Christ Himself.

Christ's word μικρότερος means "lesser"; the lesser (Jesus) is greater than the greater (John). Even as John himself had said, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie".

See, for example, St. John Chrysostom's commentary on Matthew taken from his 37th Homily:

"Now what He said is like this: "woman has not borne a greater than this man." And His very sentence is indeed sufficient; but if you are minded to learn from facts also, consider his table, his manner of life, the height of his soul. For he so lived as though he were in heaven: and having got above the necessities of nature, he travelled as it were a new way, spending all his time in hymns and prayers, and holding intercourse with none among men, but with God alone continually. For he did not so much as see any of his fellow-servants, neither was he seen by any one of them; he fed not on milk, he enjoyed not the comfort of bed, or roof, or market, or any other of the things of men; and yet he was at once mild and earnest. Hear, for example, how considerately he reasons with his own disciples, courageously with the people of the Jews, how openly with the king. For this cause He said also, "There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist."

But lest the exceeding greatness of His praises should produce a sort of extravagant feeling, the Jews honoring John above Christ; mark how He corrects this also. For as the things which edified His own disciples did harm to the multitudes, they supposing Him an easy kind of person; so again the remedies employed for the multitudes might have proved more mischievous, they deriving from Christ's words a more reverential opinion of John than of Himself.

Wherefore this also, in an unsuspected way, He corrects by saying, "He that is less, in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." Less in age, and according to the opinion of the multitude, since they even called Him "a gluttonous man and a winebibber;" and, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" and on every occasion they used to make light of Him.

What then?" it may be said, "is it by comparison that He is greater than John?" Far from it. For neither when John says, "He is mightier than I, does he say it as comparing them; nor Paul, when remembering Moses he writes, "For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses," does he so write by way of comparison; and He Himself too, in saying, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here," speaks not as making a comparison.

Or if we should even grant that this was said by Him in the way of comparison, this was done in condescension, because of the weakness of the hearers. For the men really had their gaze very much fixed upon John; and then he was rendered the more illustrious both by his imprisonment, and by his plainness of speech to the king; and it was a great point for the present, that even so much should be received among the multitude. And so too, the Old Testament uses in the same way to correct the souls of the erring, by putting together in a way of comparison things that cannot be compared; as when it says, "Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord:" and again, "There is no god like our God."

Now some affirm, that Christ said this of the apostles, others again, of angels. Thus, when any have turned aside from the truth, they are wont to wander many ways. For what sort of connection has it, to speak either of angels or of apostles? And besides, if He were speaking of the apostles, what hindered his bringing them forward by name? Whereas, when He is speaking of Himself, He naturally conceals His person, because of the still prevailing suspicion, and that He may not seem to say anything great of Himself; yea, and we often find Him doing so.

But what is, "In the kingdom of heaven?" Among spiritual beings, and all them that are in heaven.

And moreover His saying, "There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John," suited one contrasting John with Himself, and thus tacitly excepting Himself. For though He too were born of a woman, yet not as John, for He was not a mere man, neither was He born in like manner as a man, but by a strange and wondrous kind of birth.
" - St. John Chrysostom, Homily 37.2-3

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Weakened is about right. Salvation is about entering rest and the law could not help here.

According to Jeremiah 6:16-19 and Matthew 11:28-30, the Law is the good way where we will find rest for our souls. Someone trying to become justified by obeying the Law perverts it and robs it of the rest that it was intended to give because they will never know if what they had done was good enough. Rather God's Law gives us rest for our souls because it has always been about having faith in God to guide us through life.
 
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Wrong. Talmud isn't the Law of sin, the written Torah is. It caused sin to generate:

I didn't say anything about the Talmud being the law of sin. These verses directly contrast the Torah, which Paul delighted in obeying and served with his mind, with the law of sin that held him captive and that he served with his flesh, so they are not the same thing:

Romans 7:21-25 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:8-11
8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin isdead. 9I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

These verses are saying that the power of sin is the law of sin and that the law of sin seized the opportunity through the commandment to deceive him and through it kill him. However, in the next two verses, Paul said that the commandment is holy, righteous, and good and that he did not blame what was good for bringing death to him. So the problem is not God's Law, but the law of sin that caused him disobey it, which means that the solution is not to do away with God's righteous standard, but to free us from what is hindering us from obeying it.

Did the believers under Law die and go to Hell? No! They were kept safe, if, IF, they tried to follow it, when it would humble them, but if they did not replace it with the traditions of men, which did not humble, as seen in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.

God said that what He commanded was not too difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11-14, Romans 10:5-10), so it was not designed to teach teach us humility by being too difficult to obey, but rather humility is in accordance with what the Law instructs.

Galatians 3:19
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

Galatians 3:24
Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith.

So the Law was added because of transgressions, but now that Christ has come we can go back to our transgressions? Really? Rather, now that Christ has come, we now have a superior teacher by word and by example for how to walk in God's ways in accordance with His Law. We now also have the indwelling of the Spirit, who has the role of leading us to obey God's Law (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Matthew 27:52
The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

What the believers until John the Baptist lacked was eternal life, to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ, to have union with them, because Christ had not yet been sent...

Abraham and David were justified by faith (Romans 4:1-8), so that is how everyone before the cross received eternal life.

The Gospel is a treasure chest, a multifaceted diamond, needing to be unpacked of all its complex and numerous teachings. 66 books and you cling on to just one teaching? Talk about an unbalanced diet:

Where have I ever indicated anything like that I cling to just one teaching or that I don't value all of the books in the Bible?

Matthew 7:22,23
23Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; departfrom Me, you workers of lawlessness.’

These verses should give pause to people who teach against obeying God's Law. Likewise, in 1 John 3:4-6, it says those who practice Lawlessness have neither seen nor known him.
 
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simply
The question was why do some Christians struggle and fail while other seem to do well with effortless success..


the simple answer to this question is found in proverbs and ecclesiastes and even job.... here is some quick study on this..



 
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No one would question John's greatness, which is why the Evangelist adds,

"And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism."

And yet,

"But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves."

Jesus continues,

"'O what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

"We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep."


For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon"; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.'


For no one was greater born of women, but though John was praised, the hypocrites said, "he has a demon", then when the Son of Man came, whom John spoke about, they said, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."

None greater than John, yet here is One greater, the Son of Man, but they would not receive it. The least one is Christ Himself.

Christ's word μικρότερος means "lesser"; the lesser (Jesus) is greater than the greater (John). Even as John himself had said, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie".

See, for example, St. John Chrysostom's commentary on Matthew taken from his 37th Homily:

"Now what He said is like this: "woman has not borne a greater than this man." And His very sentence is indeed sufficient; but if you are minded to learn from facts also, consider his table, his manner of life, the height of his soul. For he so lived as though he were in heaven: and having got above the necessities of nature, he travelled as it were a new way, spending all his time in hymns and prayers, and holding intercourse with none among men, but with God alone continually. For he did not so much as see any of his fellow-servants, neither was he seen by any one of them; he fed not on milk, he enjoyed not the comfort of bed, or roof, or market, or any other of the things of men; and yet he was at once mild and earnest. Hear, for example, how considerately he reasons with his own disciples, courageously with the people of the Jews, how openly with the king. For this cause He said also, "There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist."

But lest the exceeding greatness of His praises should produce a sort of extravagant feeling, the Jews honoring John above Christ; mark how He corrects this also. For as the things which edified His own disciples did harm to the multitudes, they supposing Him an easy kind of person; so again the remedies employed for the multitudes might have proved more mischievous, they deriving from Christ's words a more reverential opinion of John than of Himself.

Wherefore this also, in an unsuspected way, He corrects by saying, "He that is less, in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." Less in age, and according to the opinion of the multitude, since they even called Him "a gluttonous man and a winebibber;" and, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" and on every occasion they used to make light of Him.

What then?" it may be said, "is it by comparison that He is greater than John?" Far from it. For neither when John says, "He is mightier than I, does he say it as comparing them; nor Paul, when remembering Moses he writes, "For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses," does he so write by way of comparison; and He Himself too, in saying, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here," speaks not as making a comparison.

Or if we should even grant that this was said by Him in the way of comparison, this was done in condescension, because of the weakness of the hearers. For the men really had their gaze very much fixed upon John; and then he was rendered the more illustrious both by his imprisonment, and by his plainness of speech to the king; and it was a great point for the present, that even so much should be received among the multitude. And so too, the Old Testament uses in the same way to correct the souls of the erring, by putting together in a way of comparison things that cannot be compared; as when it says, "Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord:" and again, "There is no god like our God."

Now some affirm, that Christ said this of the apostles, others again, of angels. Thus, when any have turned aside from the truth, they are wont to wander many ways. For what sort of connection has it, to speak either of angels or of apostles? And besides, if He were speaking of the apostles, what hindered his bringing them forward by name? Whereas, when He is speaking of Himself, He naturally conceals His person, because of the still prevailing suspicion, and that He may not seem to say anything great of Himself; yea, and we often find Him doing so.

But what is, "In the kingdom of heaven?" Among spiritual beings, and all them that are in heaven.

And moreover His saying, "There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John," suited one contrasting John with Himself, and thus tacitly excepting Himself. For though He too were born of a woman, yet not as John, for He was not a mere man, neither was He born in like manner as a man, but by a strange and wondrous kind of birth.
" - St. John Chrysostom, Homily 37.2-3

-CryptoLutheran

Where does it say, in Scripture, that Christ is the least, the lesser, μικρότερος, in the Kingdom of God?
 
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Wordkeeper

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I didn't say anything about the Talmud being the law of sin. These verses directly contrast the Torah, which Paul delighted in obeying and served with his mind, with the law of sin that held him captive and that he served with his flesh, so they are not the same thing:



Romans 7:21-25 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.



Quote
The Oral Torah was far from monolithic; rather, it varied among various schools. The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel. In general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud.[citation needed]

The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud (Cod.hebr. 95), dates from 1342 and is available online.


Talmud - Wikipedia

Besides, wriiten Torah itself is claimed to have brought death:

Romans 7:9-11
9I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

These verses are saying that the power of sin is the law of sin and that the law of sin seized the opportunity through the commandment to deceive him and through it kill him. However, in the next two verses, Paul said that the commandment is holy, righteous, and good and that he did not blame what was good for bringing death to him. So the problem is not God's Law, but the law of sin that caused him disobey it, which means that the solution is not to do away with God's righteous standard, but to free us from what is hindering us from obeying it.

That's like saying “guns dont kill, people do”. The truth is both together kill. So the presence of Law and the presence of sin kills. And the solution is to make obsolete the Old Covenent and its requirements to obey the law perfectly. Which Jesus did.

God said that what He commanded was not too difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11-14, Romans 10:5-10), so it was not designed to teach teach us humility by being too difficult to obey, but rather humility is in accordance with what the Law instructs.

Nothing about saying the law is easy to follow, instead the solution is to explain Moses words, ask for mercy.

Romans 10:5-9
5Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”a 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ”b(that is, to bring Christ down) 7“or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ”c (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”d that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So the Law was added because of transgressions, but now that Christ has come we can go back to our transgressions? Really? Rather, now that Christ has come, we now have a superior teacher by word and by example for how to walk in God's ways in accordance with His Law. We now also have the indwelling of the Spirit, who has the role of leading us to obey God's Law (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Where did I say “we can go back to our transgressions”. Dont put words in my mouth. With sin dominating, the Law was given to provide a way for forgiveness, by humbling. Obviously if you don't follow the law, but instead follow the traditions of men, Baal worship, then you wouldn't be humbled. Like the self righteous (by the Laws of the Pharisees) Pharisee in the Temple.

Abraham and David were justified by faith (Romans 4:1-8), so that is how everyone before the cross received eternal life.

Through humbling.

Luke 18:14
14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Where have I ever indicated anything like that I cling to just one teaching or that I don't value all of the books in the Bible?

The false teachers only valued signs, the narrow perception which Jesus Himself criticised.

Luke 10:20
"Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

Similarly, you draw on a narrow aspect Of Scripture to the detriment of the learning the wider teaching:

These verses should give pause to people who teach against obeying God's Law. Likewise, in 1 John 3:4-6, it says those who practice Lawlessness have neither seen nor known him.

No one is criticising signs. They should confirm the Gospel message, should not be viewed narrowly. Leading to gathering. Leading to names beng written in Heaven, like Moses, the Gatherer.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Where does it say, in Scripture, that Christ is the least, the lesser, μικρότερος, in the Kingdom of God?

From the perspective of those He was talking to He was "the lesser"; the context here is Jesus in relationship to John the Baptist; John's disciples came to Jesus asking if He was the One, Jesus said "Come and see", Jesus highly praised John--and John was well received among the Jews, though many of the religious elite did not--Jesus, however, is greater than John.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Wordkeeper

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From the perspective of those He was talking to He was "the lesser"; the context here is Jesus in relationship to John the Baptist; John's disciples came to Jesus asking if He was the One, Jesus said "Come and see", Jesus highly praised John--and John was well received among the Jews, though many of the religious elite did not--Jesus, however, is greater than John.

-CryptoLutheran

So there is no Scriptural basis for your assertion.
 
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Soyeong said in post #50:

. . . the solution is not to do away with God's righteous standard, but to free us from what is hindering us from obeying it.

That's right (Hebrews 12:1).

But note that on Jesus Christ's Cross, for both Jews and Gentiles (John 11:51-52), of all times, the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law was completely and forever abolished (Ephesians 2:15-16, Colossians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18), disannulled (Hebrews 7:18), rendered obsolete (Hebrews 8:13, Galatians 3:2-25, Galatians 4:21 to 5:8), taken away and replaced (Hebrews 10:9) by the better hope (Hebrews 7:19), the better covenant (Hebrews 7:22, Hebrews 8:6-12), the second covenant (Hebrews 8:7, Hebrews 10:9), of Jesus' New Covenant law (Galatians 6:2, John 1:17, Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 12:24, Hebrews 9:15), so that the law was changed (Hebrews 7:12).

All Christians, whether Jews or Gentles, of all times, are delivered from the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law and shouldn't keep it (Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18, Galatians 2:11-21) or have any desire to keep it (Galatians 4:21 to 5:8, Galatians 3:2-25). Christians keep the spirit of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Romans 7:6) by loving others (Galatians 5:14, Romans 13:8-10), by doing to others as they would have others do to them (Matthew 7:12).

The New Covenant is a new law (Hebrews 7:12,18-19, Hebrews 10:1-23), consisting of Jesus Christ's New Covenant/New Testament commandments (John 14:15), such as those He gave in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:19 to 7:29) and in the epistles of the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 14:37). These commandments exceed in righteousness the abolished letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Matthew 5:20-48). So there's no reason any Christian should ever want to go back under the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Galatians 3:2 to 5:26). It was just a temporary schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-25), a temporary shadow (Colossians 2:16-17), which God set up because of sins long after He'd set up the original promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, and long before He brought that promise to fulfillment in Jesus' New Covenant (Galatians 3:16-29, Matthew 26:28).

The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law has been made obsolete by the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:13). For example, the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law required an Aaronic priesthood (Exodus 30:30), while the New Covenant replaced the Aaronic priesthood with the Melchisedechian priesthood (Hebrews 7:11-28). And the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law required animal sacrifices for sin (Leviticus 23:19), while the New Covenant replaced these with the one-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10).

The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law is the Hagar to the New Covenant's Sarah (Galatians 4:21-25). So those people, whether Jews or Gentiles, who try to keep the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law are like Ishmael, Abraham's son by a bondmaid (Galatians 4:22), who was cast out (Galatians 4:30), while those people, whether Jews or Gentiles, who keep the New Covenant are like Isaac (Galatians 4:28), Abraham's son by a freewoman (Galatians 4:22,31), who became his heir (Galatians 4:30b).

The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law, including the letter of the 10 commandments, written and engraven in stones (2 Corinthians 3:7, Deuteronomy 4:13, Deuteronomy 27:8) was the ministration of death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7,9). For example, see Leviticus 20:10, Exodus 31:14, and Numbers 15:32-36; and contrast these with the New Covenant's John 8:4-11 and Matthew 12:1-8.

The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law has been completely and forever done away (2 Corinthians 3:11), abolished (2 Corinthians 3:13b). But it's still able to spiritually blind some people as with a veil from beholding Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:14-16), while the New Covenant is the ministration of the Spirit and righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:6,8-9b) which remains (2 Corinthians 3:11b) and which permits Christians to remove the veil and behold Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, Mark 15:38, Hebrews 7:18-19, Ephesians 2:15-18, Colossians 2:14-17).

But a mistaken spirit of Pharisaism can still sometimes deceive even Christians into thinking they must keep the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law in order to be saved (Acts 15:1,5) or in order to become perfect (Galatians 3:2 to 5:26). This is a false, cursed gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). For if any Christians are keeping any part of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law thinking they must do so in order to be saved, or in order to become perfect, then Jesus Christ will profit them nothing. They have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:2-8).
 
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Wordkeeper

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You mean other than Matthew 11 and Luke 7?

-CryptoLutheran

Nonsensical.

Rather, correct view:

Quote
One that is least in the kingdom of heaven.--The Greek gives the comparative, not the superlative--he whose relative position in the kingdom of heaven is less than that of John. Very many commentators have thought, strangely enough, that our Lord referred in these words to Himself. He in the eyes of men was esteemed less than the Baptist, and yet was really greater. But this is surely not the meaning of the words. (1) It would be but a poor truism to have declared that the King was greater than the herald; and (2) there is no example of our Lord's so speaking of Himself elsewhere. On the other hand, He does speak of His disciples as the "little ones" who believe on Him (Matthew 10:42), and as applied to them the words have a meaning at once natural and adequate. The least of His disciples, rejoicing in His presence, in communion with Him, in His revelation of the Father, though less than John in fame, work, the rigour of ascetic holiness, was yet above him in the knowledge of the truth, and therefore in blessedness and joy.

http://biblehub.com/matthew/11-11.htm
 
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TheSeabass

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The truth is that God loves you with an everlasting, unconditional and unrelenting love whether you feel it or not. He is for you and not against you. Let me say it again, He is for you and NOT against you. He always seeks what is good for you and you can trust Him even when it looks like you cannot. Your sin is as far from you as the east is from the west, and I'm not talking about this planet. I'm talking about from one side of eternity to the other. He has already walked your life with you from the beginning to end, so He who has started a good work with you He will bring it to completion. You are His adopted child, and bought with a price at the same time. A child of God. All of your sins, past, present and future were placed on Him at the cross and they were paid for forever. Jesus' perfect righteousness was placed upon you in Him at the cross as all believers are "in Him". You want to know the truth?

--God's love is not unconditional. Jude commanded "keep yourselves in the love of God" Jude 1:21. As long as one conditionally keeps Gods commands, one abides in the love of God, John 15:10.

---all sins, past, present and future are not unconditionally, automatically forgiven. One must obey the gospel by submitting to water baptism where the blood of Christ washes away all past sins. From this point onward, the Christian must then continue to walk in the light for Christ's blood to continue to wash away all sins the Christian may commit, 1 John 1:7.

--The Philippian Christians remained faithfully "in the gospel from the first day until now" and this faithfulness was why Paul was confident "that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" So when Paul speaks of salvation by grace though faith, grace is God's role and faith is man's role and man must continue to be faithful unto death Revelation 2:10
 
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StevenBelievin

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--God's love is not unconditional. Jude commanded "keep yourselves in the love of God" Jude 1:21. As long as one conditionally keeps Gods commands, one abides in the love of God, John 15:10.

Ohh, then you believe in a salvation by works and not grace.. It's either works or grace, it cannot be both. The problem is that no one keeps His commands perfectly.. The old covenant of works was faulty (Hebrews 8:7) and God made a new covenant through the precious blood of Jesus to save His people. And how does one keep themselves in the love of God? (John 6:29) This is the work of God that you should believe on the one whom He has sent. To believe in His love and grace is the work that which is required. And the good works and resistance of sin follows from that.

---all sins, past, present and future are not unconditionally, automatically forgiven. One must obey the gospel by submitting to water baptism where the blood of Christ washes away all past sins. From this point onward, the Christian must then continue to walk in the light for Christ's blood to continue to wash away all sins the Christian may commit, 1 John 1:7.

Wrong. According to Hebrews 10:11-14 "11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

--The Philippian Christians remained faithfully "in the gospel from the first day until now" and this faithfulness was why Paul was confident "that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" So when Paul speaks of salvation by grace though faith, grace is God's role and faith is man's role and man must continue to be faithful unto death Revelation 2:10

Let's not make a works based salvation out of the new covenant which is a grace by faith salvation. Paul was specific that anyone who preached a different gospel was anathema. Jesus said the sons are free (Matthew 17:26). If you try to earn your way then the grace of God is in vain.
 
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