So you ask how much obedience does it take? You know the difference between visiting a place and living there. Well, sometimes Christians visit sin, and that is covered by Christ's blood. But LIVING in sin is not covered by Christ's blood. Example...
A Christian who does not drink alcohol goes to a New Years Eve party. They convince him to participate in a toast. He does, and he keeps sipping his champagne until he is poured another glass, then another. Finally he realises he's drunk. It is a sin, he didn't make sure not to get drunk. He feels bad, prays for forgiveness, and makes plans of how to avoid that sin next time. He did not plan on it, he did not go there with the intention to get drunk. This sin is covered by Christ's blood.
The next Christian heads to the store to get lots of beer because he plans on getting drunk with his buddies on the weekend- which is his practice. He gets drunk every weekend, sometimes during the week, and has for years, and plans to for more years to come. This is premeditated sin. He planned to sin, has no goal to stop, and puts forth no effort to stop. He is living in sin on a regular basis. His sin is not covered by Christ's blood because he's not even trying to quit. This is trying to use Christ's blood as as licence to sin- which does not work because in such cases God revokes Christ's sacrifice on their behalf. "But if you sin deliberately there no longer remains a sacrifice for your sins." Can he repent and come back to God like the prodigal son? Yes, but he is spiritually unsafe if he dies in the meantime. (Jesus- do not leave this life without him.)
Yet the
unrighteous practice (willful, habitual lifestyle with no effort to stop) sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21);
not the righteous who are born of God (1 John 3:9; 1 Corinthians 6:11).
You say "everyone who believes in Him."
Jesus said "everyone who believes in Him." I believe Jesus. I don't try to "add" additional requirements to "believes in Him."
Jesus did not put everything we need to do into one verse. There are things other than belief that are connected to salvation- repentance, confession, baptism, being faithful even unto death and until death. You cannot pick the one you want and ignore the rest, you need all of them. Jesus did not give us only one thing to obey.
Repentance is a change of mind which precedes saving belief in Him (Acts 20:21). Confessing with out mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead are not two separate steps to salvation, but are chronologically together (Romans 10:8-10). Water baptism FOLLOWS "believes in Him unto salvation" (Acts 10:43-47; 11:17,18).
If Revelation 2:10 teaches that we must be "faithful enough" in addition to believing in Him/placing faith in Him for salvation, then just "how faithful would you have to be?" Where do you draw the line in the sand and say that you were "faithful enough" so now the Lord will be able to save you? That is vague and could include ANY number of good works.
This verse is meant to be an encouraging statement from the Lord to Christians at the church of Smyrna who were being persecuted, even to the point of death. Jesus was not telling these Christians that if they are not "faithful enough" in addition to believing in Him/having faith in Him for salvation that they will not receive eternal life. That is salvation by works! The Lord was telling them that they will receive the crown of life after death, be faithful, hang in there!
*In the very next verse, Jesus said - "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." 1 John 5:4, we read - "For
whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And
this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. ONLY BELIEVERS are saved, overcome, and are faithful unto death (Ephesians 2:8; 1 Peter 1:9). Unbelievers are not saved, do not overcome and are unfaithful unto death.
I know you have a hard time with the word 'obey' (and 'do' and 'if').
Actually I don't, as long as passages of scripture that contain the words (obey/do/if) are not being misused to teach salvation by works.
But faith itself is obedience.
Choosing to place our faith (belief, trust, reliance) in Christ for salvation is an act of obedience in which we obey the gospel by choosing to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16; 10:16). *Not to be confused with multiple acts of obedience/works which FOLLOW and are produced "out of" faith.
In Hebrews 3:18 and 19 'disbelief' and 'disobey' are used interchangeably. Therefore if you say you must believe to be saved, it is the same as to say you must obey to be saved.
I hear this same argument from Roman Catholics who basically define belief as obedience/works. I was once in a discussion with a Roman Catholic about faith and he made this erroneous statement below:
That Roman Catholic also made this statement:
We ARE saved by faith - as long as you properly define "Faith". Faith is NOT simply "believing". Faith INCLUDES: Being baptized, eating His body and drinking His blood/partaking the Lord's Supper during Mass, works of mercy and charity, obeying his commandments, doing the will of the Father etc..
His argument about faith being "defined as" and INCLUDES this list works above equates to salvation through faith (his version of faith) + works. Sound familiar?
Here is why belief and obey are sometimes used interchangeably. In John 3:36 in the NASB, we read - He who
believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not
[a]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
In regards to
"does not obey the Son" in the New American Standard translation of the Bible, this does not mean that receiving eternal life is received based on the merits of our obedience/works which follows believing in the Son, but
obey by choosing to believe in the Son. *If John wanted to make obedience the central theme in salvation here, he would have said: "He who believes
and obeys the Son has eternal life," but that is not what John said. *To obey the Son here is to believe in the Son.
The King James Version renders this same verse as: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
"believeth not the Son" shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. The NKJV says
"does not believe the Son" and the NIV says
"rejects the Son." The Greek word translated as "believeth not" in that verse is
apeitheo and it means:
not believe, disobedient, obey not, unbelieving. Strong’s definition of apeitheo is
"to disbelieve willfully and perversely." *So in the context of 3:36,
to not obey the Son means to reject His message by refusing to believe in the Son.
I have often heard works-salvationists (including Roman Catholics) cite John 3:36 in the NAS translation of the Bible and stress the word "obey" the Son, then write a blank check with the word "obey" and fill out whatever amount of works they feel are necessary to be saved (water baptism, partaking of the Lord's Supper during Mass, obeying the commandments, performing works of charity etc..) and call that believing in the Son,
yet they are actually believing in their works and
not IN THE SON.
And I'd agree with you, the only difference being that I believe you must obey the whole time, not just once, and not just one thing.
You misuse the word "obey" in scripture in such a way that the end result is salvation by works. Faith + works is still salvation by works. In contrast, Faith IN CHRIST ALONE is NOT OF WORKS (Ephesians 2:8,9).
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