True Salvation

Crosssword said:

God's true goal is to establish a world of righteousness. A Utopian reign of Christ. Now in seeking ye first this awesome kingdom of Heaven, obviously the most important thing is being someone who can be counted on not to cause any of the problems which make this world corrupt. We need to bring our hearts into alignment with the kingdom.

I am of the mind that true salvation does not occur until you are willing to go 100% of the way for Jesus. It is also at this full level of understanding that falling away would have to be deliberate, such as to avoid persecution of death. Jesus will forgive sins, but the goal is to go from needing him on the cross, to being raised a new creature. It is indeed possible to be taught Christ and not have a genuine born again experience. In other words, once you know him, you know him.

It's not just about living a good life and making it somewhere in this world. Actually, salvation is for both the good son and the prodigal son, but the prodigal son is crushed by the weight of his many sins. What will he offer in exchange for forgiveness? He does not ask for status or heavenly rewards, but to serve. His conviction drives him that much harder. The father does not delight in punishment, but celebrates his conclusive state.

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Not that I don't laud your ambition: I think it's one of the things most of us resolve to do, but often personally and existentially realize after awhile that we're not cutting it.

MacArthur actually appears to be pleading the reverse -- 100% reject your commitment to your own abilities. Then bring that broke recognition to Jesus to forgive and re-create (2 Cor 5:17). The goal is never to leave needing Jesus and His Cross, through whom I was crucified to this world (Gal 6:14). The goal is always to rely more and more on Jesus and His Sacrifice for us (Heb 12:2-3).

In 1 John 1:8-10 John points out, if we think we're getting out of this situation in this creation, we're lying to ourselves and God; it's only when we accede to the reality of the situation that God wishes to faithfully and righteously cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Paul told the Ephesians they had been saved -- past tense -- through faith (Ep 2:8).

Jesus did indeed come here to put away -- to get rid of -- sin. And we do honor Him whenever we cease from any and every sin. So again, I applaud your desire. It will result from the motivations God puts in our hearts, as God continues to save us from sin. We can look forward to an absolute perfection when Christ returns, a perfection that doesn't get corrupted by the sinfulness we have now.

acts 2:38 peter said unto them , repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost

Mister_Al said:

When Jesus told the thief on the cross that today he would be with Him in paradise He wasn't giving him salvation, He was merely stating a fact.

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If by "paradise" Jesus meant heaven, the word "today" is redundant seeing he was obviously speaking to him that day!

That day Jesus was NOT in heaven, he was buried in the tomb in a garden
("paradise" means garden), he later appeared to Mary and she though he was the gardener. In other words Jesus was just saying you will also be buried in the garden tombs.

If the thief was sincere and understood that Jesus had a coming kingdom that he would reign over then he had a greater revelation that Jesus 12 disciples! (They were scattered in fear).

Also if he was sincere thios would be a great comfort to Jesus that someone appreciated his victory over sin & death ... surely this breaks the prophecy:
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalm 69:20-21)

It must also be worth mentioning that Matthew & Mark's accounts say that both thieves spoke mockingly immediately before the darkness came, suggesting that there was no true repentence, just insincerity.

The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness . .. (Matthew 27:43-45)

they that were crucified with him reviled him. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
(Mark 15:32-33)

Even if Jesus was promising the thief salvation, it is still irrelevant to people alive today since he died before the New Covenant began with the giving of the new Life (The Spirit) at Pentecost (Acts 2), not before.

To use Luke 23:39-44 to teach that people don't need water & Spirit baptisms seems like a thief's gospel to me!