Hi Lori, I have hesitated contiuing with my description of TULIP because this is such an active thread right now, and TULIP has little to do with your OP. I will get back to it later though. That said, I'd like to join the ongoing conversation about how we are saved, IOW, saved by "Grace/Faith" verses being saved by the "blood of Christ". What does it mean to you that we are saved by the blood of Christ ..

IOW, how do you believe His blood saves us? How does that work? BTW, I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just trying to understand what you mean because you've established a dichotomy which simply does not exist (between God's grace and the work that Christ did on our behalf). Free Grace is also correct about another point, that the Bible is God's word. All of it is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), which tells us that it is not the words of men that God has influenced in some manner or another, but that the words contained within the Holy Writ are truly HIS words, words which proceeded from HIS mouth, words which He "breathed-out". As such, you cannot dismiss even a single instance of clear didactic teaching like, "By grace you have been saved through faith....", in favor of another teaching that you believe contradicts it. Rather, as FreeGrace2 insisted, you need to figure out how to harmonize all the verses and passages in the Bible. If your interpretation of the Bible leaves you with contradictions, you need to go back and try again because God does not contradict Himself. Yours and His, David