Thoughts on faith or works based salvation?

ralliann

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You make an excellent point about relating to our peers in terms of law rather than scriptures. This social aspect between people took quite a hit during the pandemic. I know I turned to my bible since social activities were decreased. And I can admit I occasionally relate to others in the hopes of being seen as righteous in God's eyes. It's nice to have wisdom from others with more experience to learn from. It's a shame we can't have apostles here in which to be taught in person. Yet people would ignore them now as they did nearly 2,000 years ago.

But since being blessed with faith I want to obey the commandments. I want to be kind to everyone. If we improve our relationship with our neighbors and show them love, doesn't this simultaneously validate the grace we have been given from God? Being a better person and improving myself is exciting. I know this is a gift from God and I truly want to maximize my spiritual potential.

What's more exciting to my imagination is God's plan for eternity. We will be part of something so special I can't even fathom the possibilities lol. At nearly 55 years old, it is fun to feel excited about something again.
There is an aspect of this duality concerning righteousness I believe to be found in scripture. There is righteousness of man vs man.
Natural law........ Israels righteousness as a nation both unto them, and above the nations round about...
24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

But.... It is not Israel's righteousness before God .

Deut 9:4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

The righteous live by faith..........
 
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Hvizsgyak

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There are some passages which emphasise that you only need to accept christ to go to heaven, whereas others emphasise that works are needed also to go to heaven.

I have heard that once you accept christ, he will work in you so that you perform the works needed to go to heaven. So technically both but accepting christ alone is what causes the works to happen.

However, there are people that accept christ but then end up falling off the path, some even dying before they stop backsliding and havent done any works.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

The one thing I've learned through the many decades of drawing closer to Our Lord Jesus Christ is to keep striving to learn the truth of God's Word. There are many good people here trying to guide you in finding the truth of God's Word and I would like to do the same for you. But I am not that eloquent to say it in my own words so I offer you some of the best apologists (both Catholic and Protestant) discussing Sola Fide). These people know their stuff so I hope the Holy Spirit guides you with the help of these videos. God Bless.






 
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Joseph Perry

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I have five questions I would like to have answered?

1 What is a Christian?
2 What position should God hold in your life?
3 What is the faith a Christian should hold in Jesus?
4 What ie re-birth?

1 What is a Christian?
The word Christian appears in the Bible three times,

A Acts 11:26
“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Who called them Christians and why were they call them Christians? It appears that Paul and Barnabas spent a year teaching and preaching them.

B Acts 26:28
“Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”

C. 1 Peter 4:16
“but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” This sounds a lot like what Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely
say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 7:24-29 is the end of the Sermon on the Mount

The Two Foundations
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed
against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the
rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, a
nd the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and great was its fall.”

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

2 What position should God hold in your life?

The Ten Commandments must have existed before Moses as his predeceases were judged by them, the two tablets presented to Moses must have been the first time they were written down. Taken from Exodus 20

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children,
on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but
showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep
My commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord
will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

The first three of the Ten Commandments define the position God should hold, and that is the most important position.

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 What is the faith a Christian should hold in Jesus?

Faith can be one of the most difficult concepts to define. In Hebrews 11:1 Paul defines faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
When using the word Faith I am amazed by the comments that are given. A reply is usually something like: “you can’t see it or touch it, it has no mass” Try asking:
“Do you love someone, anyone? You can feel it, you can see it, you can experience it, isn’t that the same as love?

Jesus has used two examples of faith, the mustard seed and the fig tree. We shouldn’t forget changing lives.

4 What is re-birth?
Re-birth is the result of repentance and commitment. John the Baptist preceded Jesus.
Matthew 3:1-3
“Now in those days John the Baptist *came,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’”

Jesus tells us what is necessary to become a follower in John 3:1-15
The New Birth
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You
have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do
unless
God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot
enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not
know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him,
“Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say
to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not
accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in
Him have eternal life.”

Matthew 16:24-27
Discipleship Is Costly
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world
and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels,
and will then repay every man according to his deeds.”

No, I didn’t forget the 5th question. Read John 14.
5 How well are you responding to the statement of Jesus?
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.“
 
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Strong in Him

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There are some passages which emphasise that you only need to accept christ to go to heaven, whereas others emphasise that works are needed also to go to heaven.
We can't get to heaven by OUR works, Ephesians 2:8-9.
The only work which reconciles us to God and gives us eternal life is the work that Christ did - laying down his life for sinners, John 10:11, Romans 5:8.
Accepting God's free gift of eternal life in Christ is not a work.
 
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Strong in Him

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14What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? 17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action,f is dead.
We show our faith by our works, or deeds. If we didn't have faith, we wouldn't be doing the deeds in Christ's name and in his strength.
Atheists, Muslims, cult members can do good deeds - that doesn't mean they know Christ and have eternal life.
 
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Strong in Him

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No amount of good works will get you into heaven if you are doing those works and not accepting that Jesus kept the laws perfectly for you because you couldn’t.
No, Jesus didn't keep the laws perfectly because I couldn't.
Jesus lived a life of perfect love and perfect obedience to his Father. It was his Father's will that his Son, the Lamb of God, John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19-20, offer his life as a perfect sacrifice to reconcile us to God.
If we accept Jesus we have eternal life and become children of God, John 1:12, John 3:16, John 3:36, John 6:29, John 6:40, Romans 6:23, Romans 8:16-17, 1 John 5:12. We are told to live IN Christ, John 15:5-7. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ, Ephesians 1:3. We are baptised into Christ which means that we are dead to sin, Romans 6:3-7.
We were not given the Jewish law. Before they had this law, sin was still in the world.
 
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DragonFox91

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In Answer to OP: Faith leads you to works. God working in your life s/ motivate you to works. Just like you learn to love people in your life you weren’t intending to, & reciprocate their selfless love, so you learn to love God & do what he asks.

I believe works earn you rewards, whether it be in heaven / new earth or on earth now, but salvation itself is not works based.

It can’t be merited. When I try to merit people’s favor, it doesn’t always work. How much more is God’s standard for my works!
 
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Soyeong

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We can't get to heaven by OUR works, Ephesians 2:8-9.
In Ephesians 2:8-10, we are new creations in Christ to do good works, so while it denies that we can earn our salvation as the result of our works lest anyone should boast, doing good works is nevertheless intrinsically part of our salvation from not doing good works. In Psalms 40:8, the Father has made His will known through what He has commanded through His law, and in Matthew 7:21, only those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so while we do not earn our entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven as the result of our works that does not mean that our entrance does not require us to do those works in accordance with the will of the Father. Works can be done for any number of reasons, so our entrance and require us to do works for certain reasons and not for others.

The only work which reconciles us to God and gives us eternal life is the work that Christ did - laying down his life for sinners, John 10:11, Romans 5:8.
in Matthew 19:17, Christ said that the way to enter eternal life is by obeying God's commandments, and in Luke 10:25-28, he said the way to inherit eternal life is by obeying the greatest two commandments, so while we do not earn eternal life as the result of obeying God's commandments, the gift eternal life nevertheless still requires us to choose to obey them. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law is the way to receive the gift of eternal life through the work that Christ did (Acts 21;20).

Accepting God's free gift of eternal life in Christ is not a work.

The content of a gift can itself be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari for an hour, where the gift requires them to do the work driving it, but where that gift is not earned as the result of driving it. In a similar way, the content of God's gift of eternal life is the experience of knowing Him and Jesus (John 17:3) and the gift of God's law is His instructions for how to have that experience (Exodus 33:13, Matthew 7:23).

We were not given the Jewish law. Before they had this law, sin was still in the world.
Sin was in the world before God's law was given, so there were no actions that became righteous or sinful when it was given, but rather the His law revealed what has always been and will always be the way to do that.
 
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zoidar

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It is by grace through faith that we enter into salvation. It is our works afterwards that determine if we remain in that salvation.
Is that the teaching of the Eastern Orthodox church, or do you get it from somewhere else?
 
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Soyeong

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In Answer to OP: Faith leads you to works. God working in your life s/ motivate you to works. Just like you learn to love people in your life you weren’t intending to, & reciprocate their selfless love, so you learn to love God & do what he asks.

I believe works earn you rewards, whether it be in heaven / new earth or on earth now, but salvation itself is not works based.

It can’t be merited. When I try to merit people’s favor, it doesn’t always work. How much more is God’s standard for my works!
Someone can do works for any number of reasons, such as because they love someone, they have faith in someone to rightly guide them, they want to experience something, they want to look pious, they want to earn a wage, and so forth, so our salvation can require us to do works for correct reasons like faith, but not for incorrect reasons like trying to earn it as a wage. Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while we do not earn our salvation as the result of obeying 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.
 
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There are some passages which emphasise that you only need to accept christ to go to heaven, whereas others emphasise that works are needed also to go to heaven.

I have heard that once you accept christ, he will work in you so that you perform the works needed to go to heaven. So technically both but accepting christ alone is what causes the works to happen.

However, there are people that accept christ but then end up falling off the path, some even dying before they stop backsliding and havent done any works.

What are your thoughts on this matter?
some people can do amazing things through force of will, but force of will is not the grace of God.

There is no effective litmus test for a Christian, since only God really knows those who are His.
 
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Joseph Perry

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We can't get to heaven by OUR works, Ephesians 2:8-9.
The only work which reconciles us to God and gives us eternal life is the work that Christ did - laying down his life for sinners, John 10:11, Romans 5:8.
Accepting God's free gift of eternal life in Christ is not a work.
Salvation is by Faith, but we need to define faith, realizing your state and Repentance are necessary. Jesus tells us we must be born again and the gift is a different attitude that allows you to respond to the things some call works or Good deeds, Conversion brings about a change.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." This is the result conversion.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

Honesty, ethics, compassion, and turning the other cheek, are no longer work. They are the result of conversion.
 
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Strong in Him

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Salvation is by Faith, but we need to define faith, realizing your state and Repentance are necessary. Jesus tells us we must be born again and the gift is a different attitude that allows you to respond to the things some call works or Good deeds, Conversion brings about a change.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." This is the result conversion.
His commandment was to love as he loves us.
No one can love with Jesus' divine, Agape, love until they have first received it from him. We love because he first loved us 1 John 4:19.

Conversion certainly does bring a change. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 - new birth, new heart, new life.
That happens in a person first; then the works follow, from love and gratitude. But if someone dies before they can do good works, they still have salvation.
The work that God wants us to do is that we believe in Jesus, John 6:29.
 
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Halbhh

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some people can do amazing things through force of will, but force of will is not the grace of God.

There is no effective litmus test for a Christian, since only God really knows those who are His.
On just the one bit on the 'litmus' test, it came to mind that Christ did actually give a public way for all people to distinguish whether or not other people are His disciples though, and that's pretty close to being like a 'litmus test' really in a way, it seems to me, since it's observable. (a 'litmus test' (we actually used to used those in high school in chem class), is observable). You can look to see, and the outcome is visibly indicated. Just a note on that. You have the big picture right, and we agree on the rest. I found out that it's vastly easier to love enemies with Christ, abiding in Him, than just on my own!! That's a direct experience. :)
 
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I have five questions I would like to have answered?

1 What is a Christian?
2 What position should God hold in your life?
3 What is the faith a Christian should hold in Jesus?
4 What ie re-birth?

1 What is a Christian?
The word Christian appears in the Bible three times,

A Acts 11:26
“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Who called them Christians and why were they call them Christians? It appears that Paul and Barnabas spent a year teaching and preaching them.

B Acts 26:28
“Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”

C. 1 Peter 4:16
“but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” This sounds a lot like what Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely
say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 7:24-29 is the end of the Sermon on the Mount

The Two Foundations
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed
against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the
rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, a
nd the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and great was its fall.”

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
A Christian is someone who seeks to follow what Christ taught and Christ spent his ministry teaching his followers how to follow God's law by word and by example.

2 What position should God hold in your life?

The Ten Commandments must have existed before Moses as his predeceases were judged by them, the two tablets presented to Moses must have been the first time they were written down. Taken from Exodus 20

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children,
on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but
showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep
My commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord
will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

The first three of the Ten Commandments define the position God should hold, and that is the most important position.

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.
The position that God should have in our life is that which is our highest goal to be like, so we worship God by emulating Him. God is holy, righteous, good, just, merciful, faithful, and so forth, so our highest goal should be to live in a way that expresses, experiences, loves, believes in, and testifies about these and other aspects of God's nature. For example, by doing good works in obedience to His law we are testifying about God's goodness, which is why they bring glory to the Father (Matthew 5:13-16). All of God's commands teach us how to act in accordance with aspects of His nature, so all of God's commands have exists for as long as His nature has been eternal regardless of when they were first given as a gift to man.

3 What is the faith a Christian should hold in Jesus?

Faith can be one of the most difficult concepts to define. In Hebrews 11:1 Paul defines faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
When using the word Faith I am amazed by the comments that are given. A reply is usually something like: “you can’t see it or touch it, it has no mass” Try asking:
“Do you love someone, anyone? You can feel it, you can see it, you can experience it, isn’t that the same as love?

Jesus has used two examples of faith, the mustard seed and the fig tree. We shouldn’t forget changing lives.
Following any set of instructions is about putting our faith in the one who gave them, which is why there are many verses that connect our faith in God with our obedience to His word. In Proverbs 3:5-6 it says to trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your way. Our desire clouds our judgement so that in ourselves we can't be sure if something is truly good or if we just think that it is good because we desire it, so we have a choice of whether we are going to lean on our own understanding of right and wrong or whether we are going to trust God with all of our heart to correctly make that division through His word in accordance with His nature. Jesus embodied God's word by living in sinless obedience to it, so he is God's word made flesh so so us also embodying God's word through following his example is the way to have faith in him.

4 What is re-birth?
Re-birth is the result of repentance and commitment. John the Baptist preceded Jesus.
Matthew 3:1-3
“Now in those days John the Baptist *came,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’”

Jesus tells us what is necessary to become a follower in John 3:1-15
The New Birth
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You
have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do
unless
God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot
enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not
know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him,
“Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say
to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not
accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in
Him have eternal life.”

Matthew 16:24-27
Discipleship Is Costly
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world
and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels,
and will then repay every man according to his deeds.”
A chip off the old block is someone who has the same character or nature as their faith expressed through doing the same works as them, and this is the concept of sonship in the Bible, which is why Jesus said in John 8:39 that if they were children of Abraham, then they would be doing the same works as him. So this is the sense that Jesus is the Son of God insofar as he is the radiance of God's glory and the exact image of His nature (Hebrews 1:3), which he expressed through setting a sinless example of obedience to God's law, which means that it is also the sense that we are born again as children of God when we are partaking his nature through following his example. This is why those who do not practice righteousness in obedience to God's law are not children of God (1 John 3:4). Likewise, the fruits of the Spirit are aspects of God's nature, which is why those who are born again of the Spirit are contrasted with those who have minds set on the flesh who refuse to submit to God's law (Romans 8:4-14).

No, I didn’t forget the 5th question. Read John 14.
5 How well are you responding to the statement of Jesus?
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.“
When we act in accordance with aspects of God's nature through our obedience to His law we are expressing our love for those aspects of who God is, which is why there are many verses in both the OT and the NT that connect our love for God with our obedience to His commandments. In other words, everything that God chose to command was specifically commanded in order to teach us how to love a different aspect of who He is. For example, when we act in accordance with the righteousness of God by obeying His law, we are expressing our love for God's righteousness. Obedience to God's law has never been about trying to do a good enough job, but about expressing, experiencing, loving, believing in, and testifying about His nature.
 
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HTacianas

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Is that the teaching of the Eastern Orthodox church, or do you get it from somewhere else?

That has always been the teaching of Christianity and is the belief of the Orthodox Church.
 
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