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They were saved through faith.
Nope. Read what Paul said about it. I am obviously not making it very clear.
As long as we understand what faith implies, that faith is the means to salvation, not the end of it, or the equivalanet of it. We're saved by faith, via faith, through and on the basis of faith. A person exists in a state of injustice until and unless they believe in God, as revealed by His Son: revealed by God the Son. That's what it's about, and that's why it's so important, that we believe in Jesus-because that faith means that we're now meeting, acknowledging, and entering into fellowhip with the true and living God. And more than faith, alone, is required in this as John makes clear in his first letter where he`maintains that love and it's fruit including the overcoming of sin means that we're God's children, just as James makes it clear that faith without works would be incomplete. Faith embraced, acted upon, expressed, maintained, nurtured, and grown will result in faith working through love, which is the only thing that counts as per Gal 5:6.
Agreed. Those who believe will leave their sin. They leave their sin not as a way to earn eternal salvation but as a result of true belief. Belief has actions with it. Some say that we are saved simply by believing and there does not need to be any evidence with it. But belief without actions is no belief at all. How we act in life is based on our beliefs. Here are examples of how our beliefs shape the way we act:
And in Christianity God also enables and assists our loving of God and neighbor, our prayer, our virtue in general as faith has very much to do with our acknowledging that we cannot do this-be righteous- on our own, apart from God. Either way I don't believe that salvation and righteousness can be separated, as if we could have one without the other-and I agree that faith doesn't mean forgiveness only. But I'd also say that turning to God in faith is simultaneously a turning away from the world and its sin, even as that's not likely to fully happen in one fell swoop-or absolutely in this life.
Right, we must confess that Jesus is Lord and put our faith in Him and then we are born again/saved.
No, that's not what that means. It means we do not sin willfully and habitually when we are born of God. We have repented of our sins, so we don't want to sin anymore and want to serve God instead. It doesn't mean we don't mess up sometimes and sin, but we don't want to and we are quickly repentant when we do sin.
But, you know we are not saved by our works, right (Ephesians 2:8-9)? So, what are you intending to say here exactly when you say more than faith is required for salvation? How many works did the thief on the cross do? None, right? Yet, he was saved.
The thief on the cross did everything he could, everything he had opportunity to do which in his case was simply to recognize the supreme goodness of and express faith in the Son of God there at his side. If he'd been allowed down from that cross then he'd be expected to pick up his cross daily and follow Jesus, doing His will the best he could. That's what all of us are expected to do-the best we can do with whatever we've been given-the Parable of the Talents sheds great light on this. Righteousness is a gift of God as He justifies us: forgiving, cleansing, and making us into new creations. Most of us as believers will have the opportunity and the power by the Spirit to now express and grow in the holiness, the love, we've been shown and given, as per the following passages as examples:
AAND HERE what I see in Gen 3:21 .
I have NEVER heard of Regeration in the OLD TESTAMENT and just give me a verse , PLEASE ?
Agree, but just don't forget about God's grace. It's not about us proving our faith by our works, but about relying on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Remember that we can't bear fruit apart from Jesus, so it's all about submitting to Him and allowing Him to work through us (John 15:1-6).
Agreed. In fact that's a major point of the New Covenant, not solely to forgive us of sin, but to make us overcomers of it now by virtue of union with Him, 'apart from whom we can do nothing', John 15:5.
1 John 3
www.blueletterbible.org
John 7:
