God and Roads Less Traveled

[newton3005]

God is with you wherever you go, even if you don’t know where you’re going. Joshua 1:9 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

As the Cheshire Cat has been summarized from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Whatever road you choose has its consequences, good or evil. And by “roads,” it is not only meant the physical kind, but the symbolic and metaphysical as well.

Since Genesis, man has had the urge, with God’s approval, to go where no one has gone before. God in Genesis 1:26 commands us to “have dominion...over all the earth.” Well, that requires some traveling, does it not? Since then, man has hungered to explore and to find out, with the adventure overshadowing the possible pitfalls. Explorers have gone before knowing where they’re going and what lies ahead. How many times, in this day and age, have you heard the expression ‘Let’s just go’? It could be either to find a shopping mall, or to find the ruins of a long-lost civilization. It could be to the top of a mountain, or to start college or a new job. It could be risking your life for someone. It could be getting married to someone you never lived with before. One may wonder which of these things is more challenging!

But God is with you wherever you go and whatever you do. Psalms 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” 1 Peter 2:16 says, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” So, live as servants of God through Lord Jesus.

If you get lost, how do you find the way? So long as you have faith in God, He is with you. If by chance you never find the way, God is still with you, preparing you to pass on to Heaven if it comes to that and He has judged you to be good enough for it. Of course that implies for you to strive be to be good under His Eyes before going to your unchartered territory, wherever that is.

Whatever you undertake, God in His Wisdom keeps your path lit so you don’t end up not being able to go any further.

 

[Carl Emerson]

So long as you have faith in God, He is with you. If by chance you never find the way, God is still with you, preparing you to pass on to Heaven if it comes to that and He has judged you to be good enough for it. Of course that implies for you to strive be to be good under His Eyes before going to your unchartered territory, wherever that is..

That sounds like salvation by works rather than the finished work of the Cross...

 

[newton3005]

That sounds like salvation by works rather than the finished work of the Cross...

James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good2 is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

 

[Carl Emerson]

James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good2 is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

This is of course correct but the works DO NOT secure salvation - only His finished work on the Cross does this.

Also any valid 'works' are His works not ours. Motivated by the Love of Jesus - not us...

 

[newton3005]

This is of course correct but the works DO NOT secure salvation - only His finished work on the Cross does this.

Also any valid 'works' are His works not ours. Motivated by the Love of Jesus - not us...

So it comes down to who will receive salvation because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

When one of the convicted men on the cross next to Jesus in Luke 23:40-43, acknowledges God and says to Jesus to remember him when Jesus goes into God’s Kingdom, that was enough for Jesus to tell him he would join Jesus in Paradise. Jesus doesn’t say that to the convict who told Jesus to save himself IF he’s “the king of the Jews,” and save him and the other convict on the cross.

Point is not everyone benefits from Jesus’ finished work on the cross. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER who is in Heaven.” Is doing the will of the Father not a matter of works? If salvation is a matter of faith without works, seems we’d have a hard time showing our faith in God through Jesus if we just sit around and say “Lord, Lord.” At the very least, for whatever reason, Jesus makes it plain that salvation isn’t ours if we merely say “Lord, Lord.”

How do you reconcile Salvation, faith and works? Where does God’s Grace fit in? What is the relationship between the four? Jesus died for man’s sins, but not everyone goes to Heaven. There will always be sin in the world after Jesus eradicated man’s sins at the time of his crucifixion. Those who have faith in God may ask for His Forgiveness. That goes at least one step further than just saying “Lord, Lord.” Would God forgive and give us salvation if we don’t SHOW that we’re washed from our sins, by how we act?

 

[Carl Emerson]

The critical issue is 'works' must be His not ours...

 

[Bob Crowley]

I think we often get sidetracked when we talk about "works". In his injunctions about not being justfied by "works", St. Paul was always referring to "... works of the law...", which was the "the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the Torah, such as Jewish prohibitions against eating pork, the mandate of circumcision, and the observance of Passover ... " to quote from the following article.

What did St Paul mean by Faith and Works of the Law? - Taylor Marshall

He was not specifically talking about works of charity. On a more positive note, he mentioned that "... in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love." (Galations 5:6). Again the background ethos was a reference was to Jewish customs.

His audience at the time were recent Christian converts who wondered if they should obey the Jewish ceremonial laws since the first Christian converts and evangelists were all Jews. He wasn't writing to prevent Christians from performing acts of charity, or loving their neighbour.