Quoted by MamaZ:
If Christ saves you how can you be unsaved? For it is not by works of righteousness that any man can say he is saved.. Christs rightouesness is imputed to us. It is when one falls from grace that they think they have to work to stay saved.
Hi, "MamaZ".
Welcome! 
Please read Heb3:6-14; that is the dynamic. Add to this James1:14-16 (and consider Col2:6-8); return to Hebrews and read 4:11. It becomes clear ---
there are deceivers, and they always have the intent to move us away from Christ.
"Deceivers" are people, sins,
or our own lusts. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these verses...
Quote:
Does the scriptue say we need to get the mind of Christ?
It says things like "build yourselves in holy faith,
keep yourselves in the love of God". (Jd20-21)
It says "keep seeking the things above, and not the things below" (Col3:1ff).
Quote:
Well from what I understand is that we have the mind of Christ. Not that we seek the mind of Christ. I also see that we are to renew our minds to rid it of the worlds way and bring our minds into subjection to the written scriptures..
Those of us who are born again children of God have the minds of Christ. Why do we? Because we are new creations in Christ.. The old has passed away and all things have become new..
That we
sin, (and knowing God does not WANT us to sin),
proves God is resistible. The Greek tense of the verse you're quoting (2Cor5:17 --- good job too, it's a great verse!) --- reads
"The old is PASSING away, behold new things have COME".
Please also read Peter's words in 2:1:5-10; first he lists things that ACCOMPANY salvation ("supply IN your faith", not "add TO your faith") --- they are
not optional. Second, he presents a man who WAS purified (can only mean "was saved"), but now LACKS godly qualities, has forgotten former purification from sins (can only mean impure/no-longer-saved).
Against this man, Peter says:
"THEREFORE be all the more diligent to be certain of your calling and election; as long as these attributes are yours, you ...will not stumble/ptaio/become-wretched; in THIS way the gates of Heaven will BE ...provided to you."
Quote:
When it comes from a form of if you do not do this that you can be lost then is it works of righteousness or is it works for justification? It depends on the motive of the heart. If one goes and does a work being spurred by the Love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit then that is the fruit of our salvation. But if these works are to done to prove that you are more holy than the others then as Jesus said.. The one that bowed His head and prayed God forgive me a sinner. He went away more justified than the one who because of his works of righteousness thought he had it in the bag.
You are
100% right. Works are NOT part of salvation.
...but they are very much
part of BEING saved. Jesus said, "No good tree produces bad fruit, no bad tree produces good".
What you're missing,
is that "abiding in Christ", is always a choice. Belief can be deceived to unbelief; and Christ-in-us is WHY we do good works, but by unbelief Christ-NOT-in-us is why we return to evil deeds. (Please read Ezk18:21-24, and 32!)
Thus all our
diligence is towards "abiding in Christ"; as James says,
"submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." 4:6-8
Our deeds are nothing more than a reflection of our hearts; but our hearts follow Jesus IF He dwells there, and follows sin if He does not.
We have the choice to sin; but it is not the SIN that endangers our place in Christ --- it is the "AGAIN". We do not walk in sin, because of faith (which always leads to remorse and repentance). But if faith can become deceived to unbelief, then "sin" becomes "again and again", and our fruit expose us to be departed from Christ.
Make sense?
