You legalists are a bag of trouble!
You have it exactly backwards!
I took some time before I responded to your post. You call me "Legalist", which I find refreshing. Because I normally get called a "Antinomian". So you have it backwards in regards to the caricature itself. This is why do you not understand the Reformed Faith position. For the record we are not "Legalists". You are way off base.
The idea is to do love through, eg by means of, God's Law, and in our imperfect and even pathetic endeavors in this regard, God will make perfected what we cannot perfect ourselves - Which is most all of it... We make the endeavor to do Good and turn from evil, and God makes it right with us... Yes, synergy... I thought the very sound of the word - synergy - was ANATHEMA to the purity of Calvinic ears!
The Great Commandment
34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38This is the great and first commandment.
39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
So to put it to rest, about what God commands, here it is. So no matter what you say, here it is. Now, in regards to Synergy, you again have it incorrect. I will provide excerpts to what Synergism is:
1) Theologically, synergism is the belief that salvation requires a combination of divine grace and conscious human agency. Synergism is a characteristic of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic religious traditions. Synergism is espoused in Arminian Protestant theology.
2) In
Christian theology,
synergism is the position of those who hold that salvation involves some form of cooperation between divine grace and human freedom. It stands opposed to
monergism, a doctrine most commonly associated with the
Lutheran and
Reformed Protestant traditions, whose soteriologies have been strongly influenced by the North African bishop and Latin
Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430).
Lutheranism, however, confesses a monergist salvation and synergist damnation (see below). Synergism is upheld by the
Orthodox and
Roman Catholic Churches, and by the
Methodist and
Pentecostal traditions of Protestantism. It is an integral part of
Arminian theology.
Synergism and
semipelagianism each teach some collaboration in salvation between God and man, but semipelagian thought teaches that the beginning half of faith is an act of human will. The
Council of Orange (529), Lutheran
Formula of Concord (1577), and other local councils each condemned semipelagianism as heresy.
The Reformed Faith believes that Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). God made a Covenant with Adam & Eve, and Abraham, on what God "WILL DO" to save His people from sin, death and damnation. That He will destroy Satan and His evil kingdom, on the Cross! This is all of God's doing, not ours! Am I denying good works or an repentant life? No, this is what you are overlooking.
You have the means and the ends reversed, my Friend...
The Law is but one MEANS of becoming God-like...
And you must remember, God IS Love...
That is why the Law cannot Perfect the person...
Arsenios, I understand what you are saying. But you have it reversed my friend. Here's an example for you to hopefully read and understand. Why did God give the commandments to Israel? Think before you reply.
But it CAN DISCIPLE that person...
The Jews needed but to believe in Christ in order to be perfected by God...
The Gentiles needed the discipling of the Faith of Christ for the same...
That is why Christ is recorded in Scripture, in the Great Commission, when He instructs His Apostles:
Go, DISCIPLE all the Nations...
TEACHING them all that I have commanded you...
To be carefully OBSERVING...
And BAPTIZING them...
(my literal, and rather wooden, translation)
You say to be Perfected by God. The Reformed Faith believes that we are Perfect in Christ, because He is Perfect. That's the difference.
Your point was that GOD DEMANDS US TO BE PERFECTLY HOLY... That is what you said... If you didn't mean that, then OK, we can move on... But I think you agree with my CAPS...
Okay, I will try to water it down so that you can understand it. When God gave the commandments to Israel, they swore to God all of this we will do. Paul says in Galatians that they had to keep the whole Law to live. And if you break one of these, you break all of them. But no flesh will be justified through the Law, because we are 'ALREADY' condemned under the Law for sin. That's why Christ became a curse for us! To free us from its curse. But you make no mention about this. Like the Pelagians you believe people are good, and God loves them, so it does not matter if we break the Law. Because essentially God is Love and nobody goes to eternal punishment for any crimes.
You make no mention of what God did for US in CHRIST, because He loves us! It all now depends on what I do??? How did that play out with Adam? We need a Merciful Savior to save us from this plight, and not just save us halfway, but all the way!
God commands us to love - He does NOT DEMAND that we love... Nowhere does He DEMAND that we BE Holy... Show me chapter and verse for THAT!
You like to split hair don't you? I googled synonyms for command here you go.
synonyms
order ·
instruction ·
directive ·
direction ·
commandment ·
injunction ·
decree ·
edict ·
demand ·
stipulation ·
requirement ·
exhortation ·
bidding ·
request
For God??? We do not repent for God's sake... We repent for OUR sake... And you may trust me when I tell you that God KNOWS when we are repentant enough for Him to extend His Grace to us...
Repent of what???????????
Of course He does, yet that "punishment" is itself a great Mercy done out of His flagrant Love for mankind...
Finally you admit there is punishment against sin. One step closer. Now explain God's wrath against sin, please.
The Gospel IS the Gospel of repentance unto Grace...
I beg to differ. The Gospel of Grace is what God did in Christ for the ungodly. We repent because we are NOW made alive in Christ through Faith.
By fulfilling the Law of Moses Christ opened the Way to man's entry into the Kingdom of Heaven...
Christ IS the Kingdom of Heaven...
Why did Christ fulfill the Law of Moses?
I love your faith, Bro, but I see a ton of unrepentant believers claiming faith...
Well, I will not judge anyone, because I condemn myself. Instead of us judging others, let's help them. Pray for them, teach them, show them. Proclaim the Law & Gospel with them. Lift them up, instead of kicking them when they are down. We all sin, brother. We all stumble along the way. But Christ who is our Savior and died for us! Lifts us up, because of His Gracious Love for us. Knowing that even these sins as believers; He died for those too! Am I denying being Repentant here? We need to help them through Love, my brother! By Grace Alone we stand us in Christ
Turning to Christ in this fallen life is always an effort...
Turning away from evil in this fallen life is always an effort...
Praise be to our Father in heaven, who saves the ungodly in His Son for accomplished His Father's will, in saving His people from their sins. Christ final words on the Cross, was, "It Is Finished"!!! He fulfilled the Covenant of Grace.
What is the Covenant of Grace?
Reformed Christians speak of Scripture as the unfolding drama of God’s covenant of grace. We do this because the apostle Paul speaks of the Israelites, saying, “To them belong … the covenants” (
Rom. 9:5). The Bible is a covenantal story, and one that Paul, again, describes as “the covenants of promise” (
Eph. 2:12).
The essence of the covenant of grace is the same throughout the Old and New Testaments—God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But its historical administration has varied by time and place. For example, the covenant of grace widened from the Old Testament to the New Testament, as it was administered first with small families (e.g., the families of Noah and Abram), then with the nation of Israel, but now with the church, which is made up of people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (
Rev. 5:9). Also, it was administered in the Old Testament through what the New Testament authors describe as “types” and “shadows” (
Heb. 8:5;
10:1), such as sacrifices, the priesthood, and the temple, all of which pointed to their reality, Jesus Christ (e.g.,
Col. 2:17).
The Reformed creeds and confessions express the continuity of God’s covenant of grace despite its many historical variations. For instance, the Heidelberg Catechism says: “… God himself first revealed [it] in Paradise, [and] afterwards [it was] proclaimed by the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law, and finally fulfilled in his well-beloved Son” (Q&A 19). This means the Bible is one story of the gospel, which God has spoken “in many times and in many ways” (
Heb. 1:1), whether in Paradise to Adam; during the days of the patriarchs, such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses; through the ministry of the prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Joel; or through the ceremonies of the Levitical sacrifices. All of this came to fruition in Jesus Christ.
Likewise, while recognizing the variations in the administration of the covenant of grace between the Old and New Testaments, the Westminster Confession of Faith affirms the continuity of the covenant in the promise of Christ and His fulfillment of it:
This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all fore-signifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation; and is called the Old Testament. Under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; which, though fewer in number, and administered with more simplicity and less outward glory, yet in them, it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy, to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles; and is called the New Testament. There are not, therefore, two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations. (7.5-6)
When our Lord Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and was raised from the grave, the covenant of grace reached its zenith in what the Bible calls “the new covenant” (
Jer. 31:31;
Luke 22:20;
1 Cor. 11:25;
2 Cor. 3:6;
Heb. 8:8,
13;
9:15;
12:24). Under the covenant of grace, Christ accomplished what Adam failed to do in the covenant of works, so we receive grace:
Man’s work faileth, Christ’s availeth;
He is all our righteousness;
He, our Savior, has forever
Set us free from dire distress.
Through His merit we inherit
Light and peace and happiness.(Praise the Savior)
What you call the hamster's exercise wheel Paul calls "persevering to the end" that we SHALL be saved...
The Peace of Christ is Joy amidst afflictions...
Arsenios
The hamster wheel is what people tell you do to be saved. Its a constant checking to see if you have done enough to be saved. Its a checking hour by hour, minute by minute to see if you have done enough to maintain your Salvation through Love or repentance. This is not the good news for sinners or believers! There is no hope or assurance here! Only despair and hopelessness, because we will never have enough Love or repentance to save ourselves or maintain our Salvation.
We Persevere because of Christ. Of who He is, and what He accomplished for us! He is our Hope; Our Assurance; Our Justification; Our Sanctification; Our Salvation! Here we can stand assured that Christ has saved us from our sins. Trusting in what God Promised Adam & Eve, and Abraham what He will do for us! In God and His Word we can rest assured that we ARE SAVED, NOW IN CHRIST!
We Persevere in Christ and what He has done and finished on the Cross for the ungodly!
