Thanks, Clare.
I've shown grammatically that LGW did not say what you've written & that you've mischaracterized the structure of his statement. LGW has told us he doesn't agree with that statement that originated with your error. I've seen no one, including you, agree with that statement. I think it's safe to move on in agreement at least on that matter. Whether or not you want to admit your mistake is entirely up to you. We all make them. Thanks for showing where it came from.
God's Law, correctly understood, reveals to us what Love is according to Him. God is Love. So, God is revealing His character to us by telling us what Love is. If we desire to imitate God, to become more and more like Him, then we can read His commandments and check ourselves to see if we are thinking, speaking, acting as He does in Love. Love for us is keeping God's commandments, His Law that is being written on our hearts, so we function as He does naturally, as He conforms us to the likeness of His first-born Son, our eldest Brother and Lord, to be keeping God's commandments from a new heart, by His Spirit in us. In Christ Jesus, God's commandments in God's Law will not be a burden for us, but simply a part of who we are by God's grace, through Faith that is being developed in us as greater and greater faithfulness to God as we work with Him to be developed from infancy to maturity and beyond, as Christ is formed in us. If we see a sibling in Christ caught up in sin, then those of us who have become mature enough (spiritual as Paul puts it) to see this, are commanded by God to help restore him to the narrow path of walking as Jesus walked and to carry his burden and thereby fulfill Christ's Law to love another as He loved and loves us, by carrying our burdens to His death on the cross.
If we'd just wake up and take a stand against sin, which is taught to us in God's commandments in God's Law, then we'd be further on our way to conforming to what God is actually doing in His Salvation Plan instituted by Him through His Son by His Spirit.
We Love God when we Obey God. When we Obey God by His Spirit and remaining in Christ, we Love God and our Christian siblings and we are enabled to fulfill and are fulfilling Christ's Law. This brings fulfillment to why He was sent by our Father to ultimately be put to death by His creation, so He could be raised and raise Himself to Life as and in the New Creation wherein we are created in righteousness to become more and more righteous in thought, speech and actions from a new heart, having God's commandments written on our hearts, not being enslaved under subjection to law, but being willingly and obediently enslaved under subjection to God's Grace in Christ with God's Spirit in us. Within this we will come to increasingly know Love and actually and Biblically Love according to the criteria for Love written in God Word, more specifically in God's Law, more specifically in God's commandments. Love for God and neighbor and for one another as Children of God and followers of Christ - Christians - is keeping God's commands and His commands no longer being a burden we can't carry. Anything else is sin, which is lawlessness, which is unrighteousness, which is simply disobedience to God.
NKJ 1 John 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
NKJ Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being
abominable (detestable, repugnant, disgusting),
disobedient, and
disqualified for every good work.
"Active Sinner" and "Christian" just do not go together. Love and disobedience to God are contradictory terms. Love is active obedience to God from the heart, by God's Spirit, in Christ Jesus. God's Law never ends. It is a revelation of the eternal God's character. He has changed His Law in ways to facilitate His New Creation in Christ Jesus, but He has not and never will change those commandments that ultimately detail His eternally Righteous character that He is conforming us to in His Beloved First-Born Son. God is Love and Righteous and Holy and..., and God does not change. We do.
Can we Lose our Salvation? Try walking away from the above, the narrow way, go back through the narrow gate, fall from grace, become detached from the nourishing root, remove your hands from the plow, effectively leave The Faith, cease obeying God, which is to cease loving God and neighbor and one another, etc., etc., and then try to tell some of us why you're a Christian and you think you love God. Sorry, we have and read God's written criteria for that statement. In fact, some to much of it has been written on our hearts. It's who and what we are. And we're new and different from you and can see your error.
