That word is obviously not in the Bible.
There's probably a good reason for that.
The doctrine of righteousness as far as receiving it as a gift and walking in it is throughout scripture.
Yes, it is. And it has nothing to do with your works and everything to do with His Grace.
Righteousness involves giving heed to what God says. In the case of the believer, he must receive Jesus as Lord (doing what He says, or at least having a readiness to do so) and believing what He has said. You know what to do. Jesus equates obedience with loving Him. Righteousness or right standing is a condition when the repentant covenant believer enters into and then abides in that covenant. It is a conditional agreement whereby both parties give each other's all. It can be broken and if it is, that right standing is broken.
Righteousness is not conditional. It is not an agreement. It is imputed to you by God through Jesus Christ. You don't earn it, you don't work for it, you don't keep it. It is God's view of you as being in right standing, or being holy, and is ONLY granted you through the Blood of the Lamb.
Righteousness is directly connected to your salvation: saved men are imputed righteousness; unsaved men are not seen as righteous. Whether you believe in OSAS or lost salvation this definition remains the same.
Your words are walking dangerously close to a salvation by works message (which most 'lost salvation' advocates do not preach). And the apostle warned us strongly against those who preach salvation by works.
Doing what He says to your heart is working righteousness. It's the same when you get "saved". You repent and believe. That's step one. It's not our own works, it's the work of grace from the rest of fiath.
That didn't answer the question you quoted.
The "we" here is ourselves. Our own ability. We enter into grace (His righteousness). God sees Jesus as we are His body. We are one. That unity comes with a price. Your submission to His Lordship. Granted, we're all learning and making mistakes and our covenant includes correction and we must respond to that correction.
God understands who we are. He is sanctifying us; we don't sanctify ourselves. We do obey His principles and commandments.
You're not "obtaining" salvation.
This is true; works can not obtain salvation.
Not by any works you have done.
You must walk according to your righteous nature in your spirit.
Yes.
You really can go outside of that in your flesh. Those works are unrighteous.
Yes and yes.
You can break the covenant and be removed from His righteousness.
No you can't.
Repentance restores the breach of covenant.
Repentance for the believer puts him back in the will of God for his life. It is necessary for us to "run the race which is set before us." Without this repentance we are walking in the curse of the world and not in God's full blessing. The New Covenant was not cut by man and God, it was cut by Jesus on the cross. His was the only blood shed for this covenant, shed for us, in our place, to impute righteousness upon us. Once we accept the GIFT we are covered by the Blood and this covenant cannot be breached.[/quote]
If you believe in Him, you believe what He says. He said that workers of iniquity will depart from Him. That's pretty up front!
I dislike bringing up this teaching in a discussion about 'lost salvation,' for it can be carried away in the wrong context by those predisposed to the 'lost salvation message. But, the Lord is nudging me, so:
Hebrews 6:1-6
1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
If you are right, AA, then verse 6 says that one you fall from righteousness you are done. "(4) For it is
impossible...(6) if you fall away, to renew yourself again to repentance." If you fall, you are lost. Some teach this is the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit (but the context Jesus uses to describe the blaspheme is clear, and it isn't this).
Others attempt to twist this and say that "simple" sin, or backsliding, is not the end and you can repent; but this set of verses must be talking about some bigger renouncing of the faith. Sorry, but this verse does not make such a distinction. It simply says that if you were "once enlightened" and you fall away (ie: your not enlighted any longer, or not saved) then you are lost forever, for it is imposssible to renew repentance.
But to the hopeful, we can see that this is not what Paul is saying. In verse 1 he is saying that it is time to stop worrying about the elemetary principles -- quit bickering over the fundamental aspects of your faith and salvation -- "not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works (repenting each time you sin -- and also of baptisms, laying on hands, etc.) Quit bickering about this, because if you were to sin such that you could be lost and in need of repentance (which can't be done!!) you would have crucified Christ again,
and this will never happen; Paul says clearly that it would be "impossible [for them]...[if] once enlightened...[to] fall away...[then] to renew them again to repentance."
If you
could lose your salvation and you fall away...you are lost.
I praise God that it is not possible, for he has sealed me with the Holy Spirit and given Him to me as a guarantee of my redemption.
