No, it's love that saves, belief is the vehicle to that love because its the vehicle, or the means, to our union with God who is love. Faith, alone, won't cut it. It's impossible to obey the greatest commandments without faith, apart from God IOW, but as Augustine said,
Nope, not if they love as per the greatest commandments anyway.
Jesus didn't mean that the kingdom of God was actually within the person of the Pharisees. What He meant was that the fact of His presence with them showed that the kingdom of God is right there with them. Trying to equate this verse with the indwelling Holy Spirit within believers is forcing a meaning that isn't there.
Paul rightly points out that because no one can keep the Law, everyone has gone astray, and there is none righteous, no, not one. Absolute holiness means that one has to have kept the Law faultlessly from the age of accounting to the day he dies. One single fault in the keeping of the Law renders a person lawless and therefore unacceptable to God.
Oh, now we have narrowed it to the gospel. . .love of God and Jesus Christ.
What does that mean? It's one thing quoting a verse of Scripture, which is correct by the way, but it is quite another to expound it to show what it actually means for us.
What you seem to be suggesting is that if we choose to cooperate with God and do things to make ourselves acceptable to Him, He might be lenient toward us and relax his absolute standard to allow us into heaven. But the truth is that God is not a lenient Judge. When we come up before Him on the day of Judgment He is going to judge us on his absolute and impeccable standard of holiness and righteousness. But we know that we will not come up to that standard, so what will we do to be saved? When Peter heard Jesus express His absolute standard of righteousness, he cried, "Who then can be saved?"
How does that work? How does that make anyone as holy and righteous as God is? It is one thing giving the Christian jargon, but it is quite another being able to explain what the jargon actually means in every day English.
How does this explain how we can get into heaven when God requires that we be as holy as He is? If I was a seeker after Christianity, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of what you are talking about in your quotes.Looking at the kings, their wisdom is not perfect, so a greater more perfect than Solomon came to hear, which the law could never perfect.
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Hebrews 11:36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthythey wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
All know Peter denied three times, but do all know Peter then confessed Christ three times, and the third occasion that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples...
John 21:14 This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.
15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Judas had his future told before it all occured..
Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
Psalm 109:6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
That judgment of Judas goes on all men of perdition..
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2Corinthians5:21
What if a seeker says that he cannot do what is required and that all he can look forward to, according to your Scripture quote, that he will be devoured with the sword? (whatever that means).
Sinners won't be entering heaven, because only those who are as holy as God is will get there. For some that is a terrifying prospect, but for others it isn't. So what makes the difference?
But the truth is that we can't attain it. That's the problem. Paul pointed that out in Romans. Yet, as I said, I am totally holy and righteous without even trying to love God more or to follow any law, so how do you think I can say that?
Good teaching moment though, even for me. It isn't often we see ourselves as God sees us in our "clothed in Christ" state. We should see ourselves this way more often...
That's half of the story. He took the guilt and penalty of our sin, but we still have sin in our mortal body, so there is something more that Christ has done to complete His finished work. The clue is, how do we become the righteousness of God when we still don't have any righteousness of our own?
