What level of hard is it to achieve Salvation?

[Genenco]

Clearly not everyone has the same level of difficulty in achieving salvation. There are handicaps involved, and some people are born and raised in families with impeccable morals, and are trained at a young age to act holy, while some others, are born in what one might consider immoral environments, and are raised without morals. Others might have unbearable addictions or mental illnesses, like turrets syndrome, that cause them to curse at people or hurt their loved ones.

...So how heavy is the burden..? How hard is the yoke?

#1 if you know him
#10 if you don't

I've gotten away from 1 addiction, but fighting the second.

 

[stevevw]

By the foreknowledge of God, he saw that none of mankind would seek him (Psalms 53:2).

Because of this, he choose most them, numbering as the sand of the seashore, and the stars in heaven, before he ever formed the world (Eph 1:4), and predetermined that they would be adopted by Jesus as his children (Eph 1:5).

These are the people that God gave to his Son to be a sacrifice for their sins (John 6:37-40)

So are you saying that these people God knew would accept Him still chose to accept Him and others didn't choose to accept Him despite God knowing ahead of time. Was grace offered to all and then some chose not to accept God. Would this relate to the Parable of the Sower where receiving the Kingdom of Heaven is like seeds being planted in the ground (Mathew 13:1-23).

Some seeds fall on rocky ground where someone accepts God with Joy at first but because there is no soil for the roots to take hold when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seeds that feel among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Jesus then says some hear with their ears or see with their eyes but do not hear or see the Word. That even many prophets and righteous people longed to see what the disciples see but did not see it, and to hear what they hear but did not hear it. Was this because for the Prophets this was before Christ and Gods grace had not yet come.

 

[Frosty Cook]

So are you saying that these people God knew would accept Him still chose to accept Him and others didn't choose to accept Him despite God knowing ahead of time. Was grace offered to all and then some chose not to accept God. Would this relate to the Parable of the Sower where receiving the Kingdom of Heaven is like seeds being planted in the ground (Mathew 13:1-23).

Some seeds fall on rocky ground where someone accepts God with Joy at first but because there is no soil for the roots to take hold when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seeds that feel among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Jesus then says some hear with their ears or see with their eyes but do not hear or see the Word. That even many prophets and righteous people longed to see what the disciples see but did not see it, and to hear what they hear but did not hear it. Was this because for the Prophets this was before Christ and Gods grace had not yet come.

The answer to your first question; God saw, by his foreknowledge, that none of mankind would seek him.

Grace was given to all of those that he choose in Eph 1:4, which was a bigger part of mankind, (as many as the sand on the seashore, and the stars in heaven (Rev 5:9). but did not include all of mankind.

Pertaining to Matt 13; The kingdom of heaven is one of many names that the church that Christ is the husband of. Some of the others are The little flock, The new Jerusalem, The church in the wilderness, Zion, The church of Christ, The kingdom of God, etc.

All of the different types of soil, are the different levels of belief within the born again children of God.

 

[Frosty Cook]

Your scripture is not a salvation scripture but a scripture that teaches how christians should live. The OP is referring to how easy or difficult it is to be saved.

God bless

Yes my statement is referring to how God wants his born again children to live their lives as they sojourn here on earth.

A born again child of God is saved (delivered) from their non-fellowship with God, when they repent from the sin that separated them from his fellowship.

There are no degrees of being delivered eternally. It is entirely by God's grace.

The scriptures were not written for instructions as to how we can get eternally delivered, That was taken care of on the cross, when Jesus died to remit the sins, of those that his Father gave to him, but they are written to God's born again children as instruction as to how he wants them to live their lives as they sojourn here on earth, and how they can be saved (delivered) as they live here on earth, if they will repent of their sins.

 

[Frosty Cook]

When someone hungers for God's Righteousness, hungers for God's Word more than for gold,

they might look up "saved" in the Scripture/ God's Word, and discover what God Reveals to them.

When I look up "saved" in Strong's concordance, it tells me that "saved" means delivered.

 

[Clare73]

The answer to your first question; God saw, by his foreknowledge, that none of mankind would seek him.

Actually, divine foreknowledge (prognosis) as used in Scripture refers to God's foreknowledge of what he will do (which he knows because before the foundations of the world he decreed that he would do it).

Grace was given to all of those that he choose in Eph 1:4, which was a bigger part of mankind, (as many as the sand on the seashore, and the stars in heaven (Rev 5:9). but did not include all of mankind.

Pertaining to Matt 13; The kingdom of heaven is one of many names that the church that Christ is the husband of. Some of the others are The little flock, The new Jerusalem, The church in the wilderness, Zion, The church of Christ, The kingdom of God, etc.

Yes, the never-ending (Lk 1:33) kingdom of God is now (Lk 11:20),
it is not of this world (Jn 18:36), it is spiritual,
being invisible (Lk 17:20) and within (Lk 17:21) the hearts where he reigns and rules.
There is no other kingdom, this one being never-ending, for God has only one kingdom, that of his Son (Lk 11:20).

All of the different types of soil, are the different levels of belief within the born again children of God.

Actually, only one soil is the born again, the one that produces a crop. (Lk 8:11-15)

 

[Frosty Cook]

When God saw, by his foreknowledge, that none of mankind would seek him,( Psalms 53:2) by his foreknowledge (what He would do) was to choose a larger portion of mankind and adopt them as his children (Eph1:4-5).

 

[Frosty Cook]

Yes, the never-ending (Lk 1:33) kingdom of God is now (Lk 11:20),
it is not of this world (Jn 18:36), it is spiritual,
being invisible (Lk 17:20) and within (Lk 17:21) the hearts where he reigns and rules.
There is no other kingdom, this one being never-ending, for God has only one kingdom, that of his Son (Lk 11:20).

Yes, one kingdom, which is called by several different names.

 

[Frosty Cook]

Actually, only one soil is the born again, the one that produces a crop. (Lk 8:11-15)

The house of Israel turned away from God and worshiped idols, They were God's people, but produced no crop.

The remnant of the house of Israel was the one soil that produced a crop. (Zeph 3).

 

[Clare73]

The house of Israel turned away from God and worshiped idols, They were God's people, but produced no crop.

The remnant of the house of Israel was the one soil that produced a crop. (Zeph 3).

Were not the parables about the NT Messianic kingdom of God?

 

[fhansen]

Clearly not everyone has the same level of difficulty in achieving salvation. There are handicaps involved, and some people are born and raised in families with impeccable morals, and are trained at a young age to act holy, while some others, are born in what one might consider immoral environments, and are raised without morals. Others might have unbearable addictions or mental illnesses, like turrets syndrome, that cause them to curse at people or hurt their loved ones.

...So how heavy is the burden..? How hard is the yoke?

The burden is easy. It's pretty simple-and nothing has changed. There are many ways to phrase it but here's one:

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

The difference is that, under the new covenant, we have the abilty to do this now, under grace, no longer under the law, by the Spirit, in union with God.

 

[atpollard]

I believe in salvation based on works ... it is just not MY works that saved me - it was the finished work of Jesus Christ.
It is an utterly IMPOSSIBLE hill for me to climb. (10)
God requires no more effort FROM me than the Potter required FROM the clay. (1)

So, I voted both (1) and (10).

 

[Clare73]

I believe in salvation based on works ... it is just not MY works that saved me - it was the finished work of Jesus Christ.
It is an utterly IMPOSSIBLE hill for me to climb. (10)
God requires no more effort FROM me than the Potter required FROM the clay. (1)

So, I voted both (1) and (10).

I vote > (10); i.e., greater than 10, because at (10)it is only nearly impossible, whereas in the gospel it is utterly impossible for me to achieve salvation (Eph 2:8-9).