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By learning to obey God. The issue is not whether to obey God or not. If He is God, we obey. The issue is the order. Let's take sabbath keeping. If I say that I come to Jesus, then repent and keep the sabbath, I will receive salvation; I am in danger of losing it. However, if one says, Jesus comes to me and grants me repentance and salvation, so, I will keep His sabbaths by His power, that person is not in danger. They are in Christ.
Amen. "Narrow is the way that leads to salvation and few there are that walk therein."
I just recently learned something. I didn't hear it from anyone else, I just recognized it as being something we all should consider. Jesus commissioned His disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation". The Gospel is the Good News that this life is not the end because Jesus died for all mankind so that we might have eternal life. John in 1Jn3:19-24 tells us that if we believe in Jesus and love others as He loves us, we will be in the Kingdom, which is the truth. There is no evidence of the disciples teaching the Sabbath to any nation, so it is very evident salvation does not require Sabbath observance. If it did, I am quite sure that message would have been part of the Good News. There is no evidence in scripture that Gentiles have ever been required to observe a day. If a Gentile decided to convert to Judaism then observance of all the old covenant laws would apply to the convert. To say that Sabbath observance is required for salvation is very much a misnomer.
Correct. Salvation comes before any work. Salvation is God's first work in us, and we have done nothing to deserve it. Praise The Lord!!!
I think keeping sabbath/not keeping sabbath is the wrong language. I don't keep the letter of the law as it pertains to the 4th commandment (and personally I don't think anyone does) but I do keep Sabbath and I see those as different things. verses like Gal 5:14, Rom 13:8-10 show us Christ's law fulfills the Sabbath (as it fulfills the entire law which includes the Sabbath), Christ himself says doing good fulfills the Sabbath (Mat 12:12), Christ tells us all the law hangs on these laws of love (Mat 22:40) and I could go on, so why is it I can't also cross the line and be on the side of those who keep Sabbath? Sabbath to me is one of the most important concepts of scripture declared since the beginning and I highly value it. I'll protest to anyone who would say I do not keep it.
Yes, God sees all those in Christ as perfect lawkeepers. By Christ's one sacrifice, He has perfected us forever while we are still being made holy.
You might want to reword that. To me it seems you are saying you are not in Christ. I don't think that is what you intended.
In Christ we cannot practice sin because His seed remains in us. This is what John was expressing in 1 John 3:9
Amen! We now do because of who He is and who we are in Him. But if we are willfully sinning after WE receive the knowledge of the truth, the law in our hearts and minds their remains no more sacrifice for sin. Only a certain fearful waiting for Judgement and fiery indignation.
Only if we are perfect law keepers in and through Him. For he that does righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous.
The Law, as it is written in Holy Scripture, exists between God and the descendants of the man first named Jacob, whom God renamed to Israel.
Another point is the fact that the actions of sin come from sin within us. We are disposed to be our own gods until Christ comes in.
As Hebrews says, we are perfected by His one sacrifice forever while we are still being made Holy. perfect law keeping is Christ's perfect law keeping imputed to us. But as long as we remain in him we will be in the process of learning to be Holy by the power of God.
No that is not what Hebrews says. Sanctification and perfection are two different things. It says, If the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who offered Himself without spot, purge our conscience, who we are from dead works, sin; to serve the living God. For all vessels of the ministry, the heavenly things, the Temple of the Living God, us are purged with better things, Christ Jesus. For it was not possible for those sacrifices they offered year by year to take away sin, purge us. For if they had, would they not have ceased to be offered. But in those sacrifices there was a remembrance of sin year after year. But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. He taketh away the first that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, purged through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Who being the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And this perfection the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us. For He saith before. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.
We who have been Baptized into Christ Have put on Christ. There is no Jew or Gentile we are all one in Christ and heirs unto the promises.
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:14
