Hi bcbsr,
You write:
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So what you're saying is that a person's salvation status is indeterminate in the present, rather it's dependent upon his ongoing performance.
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In contrast to your position that a person's salvation status is indeterminate in the present, rather it's dependent upon his ongoing performance, the scriptures say:
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24 Notice that Jesus speaks of a person's salvation status as being finalized just as if they had already passed from death to life. They have eternal life. It's already determined and they have to wait for some future event to gain eternal life. They are not subject to condemnation, as it also affirms in Rom 8:1,2
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." The law of sin and death is the law whereby one's eternal destiny is a function of whether one sins. Not the case for those who are in Christ. For under the New Covenant it says
, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Heb 8:12 Thus sin no longer impacts the destiny of those who are in Christ.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Eph 2:8,9 Whereas you make dependent upon the person's performance. And again "have been saved" indicates is already a done deal. This as opposed to your theory that a person's salvation status is indeterminate till the end, and that based upon a person's performance. So as you have it it's the person's works that save them.
1John 5:13
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." Again indicating eternal life is something they already have.
And while Salvation-by-Works Christians view salvation as contingent upon behavior, such as how you've misconstrued a number of verses along that line, Epistles like 1John teach us that behavior is an effect, not a cause, of salvation. For example there's 1John 3:9
"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God." It's "because he has been born of God" that such people have lost the ability to continue to sin. Whereas Salvation-by-Works Christians get it backwards claiming that to be saved a person must change their behavior. While behavior is an indicator whether one has been born of God, as also the verse that follows that says,
"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." 1John 3:10, because is not cause of a person's salvation.
The condition of the saved is not the condition to be saved.
You misconstrue verses to be teaching salvation by works.
Take you're reference to Gal 6:7-9
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. What Paul is talking about is what Jesus was talking about in John 4
"Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together." John 4:35,36 He's talking about gaining eternal life for OTHER PEOPLE, by sharing the gospel with them.
Or 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
"Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." Disqualified for rewards for services rendered, not loss of salvation. (See 1Cor 3:11-15)
1Tim 4:16
"Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" Saves himself from the pollutions of the world and from false doctrines which he previously spoke of in the same chapter. This as opposed to the view of that he was talking about gaining eternal life by his own effort. Timothy was already saved and had eternal life through faith.
The Revelation verses about overcoming are to be interpreted in light of 1John (scripture interprets scriptures), which says,
"everyone born of God overcomes" 1John 5:4 And
"Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." 1John 5:5 So if a person actually believes in Jesus, he has been born of God, and he will overcome I take it that not all the Christians who go to a church (or even on these forums) have been born of God or have ever grasped what the gospel is, let alone believe it, and thus the warnings.
Rom 6 and Rom 8 is to be read in light of having already been saved. Rom 6:11
"reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." So in obedience that command I consider it a fact that I am dead indeed to sin but alive to God. To not reckon that to be the case is to be disobedient. Salvation-by-Works Christians don't reckon themselves, or anyone else, to actually be dead to sin but alive to God. They just don't believe it and thus they are unbelievers. I already pointed out verses in Romans 8 they also don't believe and so misconstrue the rest of it as teaching salvation by works whereas the theme of Romans 8 is sanctification and eternal security.
And you mentioned a number of other verse to which you append the idea "in order to be saved". In fact one of the Salvation-by-Works Christians on this forum admits adding the phrase 'in order to be saved" to every command in the New Testament.
You claim that it is OUR responsibility to fulfill the requirements of the whole law, referencing Rom 8:3,4 which speaks of the law of Moses. Yet Paul says,
"All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." Gal 3:10-12 You position, making salvation contingent upon obeying the whole law, is much like that of those whom Paul wrote,
"I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law." Gal 5:3
As for you spin on the "Rest" of Heb 4 only referring to the future, it says,
"those to whom it was first preached did not enter" Gal 4:6b clearly using the past tense. And again in verse 10
"the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." "has entered" is past tense.