Put On Those Filthy Rags!

no doubt ... we all (for a time) must eat of our own tree ...

Surely we must be like those with oil in their lamps waiting for the LORD, not asleep as the foolish virgins.

Rom 2:6-11 who "WILL RENDER TO EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

FutureAndAHope said:

Surely we must be like those with oil in their lamps waiting for the LORD, not asleep as the foolish virgins.

Rom 2:6-11 who "WILL RENDER TO EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

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All the virgins were asleep. Foolish and wise.

The Lord clearly expects us to be workers but not expect to be justified by our works. ( Luke 17:5-10).

oldWorshipper said:

Put On Those Filthy Rags!

Just because "all our righteousness is as filthy rags"
- doesn't mean we shouldn't be wearing them

Sure, 100%, it isn't any holiness of our own that will get us into Heaven
- but we are still commanded to be holy

Sure, it says that all over the place, but none of it matters since "faith?"

The church today sees Paul's message as clear and easy to understand
- and sees Peter/James/John as harder to understand, needing more care...

But Peter says the opposite, that Paul's words are the ones hard to understand
- and Peter says that unstable people will wrest those words to their own detrim64ent

Further, Peter expresses the sum of "salvation by faith not of works" just a tiny bit differently..
- saying that "the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation"
- which is really the same exact thing, but makes it clear....
- no matter all this grace, He is just "tolerating" us in our failures

And it seems to me, to please Him, we should put on some filthy rags!

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In Isaiah 64:6, it is not God speaking, but rather it is the people hyperbolically complaining about God not coming down and making His presence known. If God viewed our obedience to His commands as being filthy rags, then that would mean that God commanded filthy rags, but God does not to that, but rather His commands are holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), and the reality is that the righteous deeds of the saints are like fine white linen (Revelation 19:8).

God is holiness, every holy action in obedience to His commands testifies about His eternal holiness and there is no holiness apart from the nature of who He is, so obedience to His commands has nothing to do with establishing our own holiness, but rather that is the way to have faith in God's holiness.

In Psalms 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, and he chose the way of faithfulness by setting it before him, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith. Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while the Bible denies that we can earn our salvation as the result of having first obeyed it, living in obedience to it through faith in Jesus is nevertheless intrinsically part of the concept of him saving us from not living in obedience to it. In Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so we are not required to earn our salvation as the result of having first done those works and we are not required to do those works as the result of having first been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to do those works is itself the content of His gift of saving us from not doing those works. Our obedience to God's law is about God giving us a gift not about us earning a wage from God.