Unfortunately, BAB2 does not even have the gospel for today straight - I mean, he warned me about being in danger of hellfire just a few posts ago.
Meaning, he either once believed he was justified freely by His grace, in which case he still is, but somewhere along the way he fell from an understanding of God's grace to him in His Son, and needs to have this understanding of Christ formed in him all over again - saved but confused.
Or, he never understood that, in which case he is basing either his salvation, or its continued assurance, on his works, and is actually still lost!
Since he just now quoted Galatians to me, perhaps he'll actually heed its one gospel, in contrast to this "another [heteros], which is not another" at all.
Galatians 3:
1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
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?
1 Corinthians 6:
11. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Galatians 5:
5. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
We who were once without hope have a hope now - we have righteousness - through what the Spirit accomplished the moment we trusted in the Son - He declared us justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.
As for Stephen, note what the Spirit declared through him unto Israel as to their spiritual status before God just before they murdered him - Acts 7:
51. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
In Matthew 12, the Lord had warned them against that very act of disobedience:
30. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
31. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
In John 5, He had warned:
43. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
44. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
45. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
46. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.
47. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
And now, in Acts 7, the Spirit they were warned against resisting was accusing them of not having kept the law, due to the Uncircumcision of their heart and ears.
The Lord would later shed further light on this through the Apostle Paul, Romans 2, where the issue is the same - how things operated under the Law:
17. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
18. And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
23. Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
25. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27. And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
The issue there is how that even the far off Gentiles at times performed the righteousness of the law better than the Jew; who had the Law, and by that, putting the Jew to shame before God.
Note this account of a Gentile, who, like Cornelius, was blessed for obeying the Abrahamic Covenant's "And I will bless them that bless thee," Genesis 12.
Note what the Lord said about him in contrast to those who, having the Law, should have known Who He was - Luke 7:
1. Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
2. And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
3. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
4. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
5. For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
6. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
7. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
8. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
9. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
10. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
People thing these are all just cool Sunday Bible Study stories. They are not - they are meant to serve as a record of important principles at work.
Continuing on... Stephen died a martyr just as the Spirit concluded that nation under sin - not better off than the Gentiles as to this difference between them in God's eyes. They "were nigh," Eph. 2:17; "Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles," Galatians 2:15.
Stephen was saved under that prior economy, when that difference between Jew and Gentile as to their spiritual status before God had been the Oiconomia, House Rule, or Dispensation.
And it had continued for a while as God transitioned things from that to "But now, the righteousness of God without the law is made manifest," Romans 3:
19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
The first passages in Acts 11, reveal that Cornelius was blessed for having blessed Israel; for that was what a God fearing Gentile did, as shown above - and that was then still in effect - Acts 10:
1. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
2. A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.
3. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
4. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
5. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
6. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.
What does Peter tell him?
34. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35. But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Which was exactly what Cornelius did - fearing the God of Israel he had given much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway, v. 2, 4.
Much, much, more could be said on all this...
As for the thief on the Cross, he acknowledged He was Israel's promised King - Luke 23:
42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Meaning, John 1:
45. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
48. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
49. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
John 20:
30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Repeatedly throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the gospel requirement at that point is that they believe He is Israel's prophesied Messiah; Christ, the Son of God - David's rightful heir, thus the faithful every now and then depicted as referring to Him as "Jesus, son of David."
John 12:
12. On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13. Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Matthew 21:
4. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7. And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
9. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
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