wrong as usual. it is BELIEF in the Lord Jesus Christ that saves. His imputed righteousness makes us worthy to eneter the Kingdom. ( you know, the thing you call a neat little trick that does not work).
your salvation is not a joint operation between you and Jesus. it is all Him. Titus 3.
Greeting gb9,
Can you accept you are called by God to live a Holy life?
Or are you going to reject Gods clear word?
Do you know what Peter said to God when God commanded him to eat unclean animals?
He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "
Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
Acts 10:11-15
Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
Acts 11:16-18
Now your whole premise is we are unclean. The premise of Peter was that he was clean
and full of the Holy Spirit. God was commanding him to go and preach to unclean gentiles
who were then cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit.
So will you listen to God and what He regards as cleansed and what is defiled? If the Holy
Spirit falls on people, God regards them as cleansed and purified. But this does not mean
people cannot then become later defiled and rebellious, except I think your theology would
not allow for that. This tension is why John writes as he does, grappling with our walk after
meeting Jesus and being cleansed and then failing, maybe.
Paul talks of handing people over to satan for a rebuke, which means he believed they were
"saved" or would be saved if the were rebuked and returned to faith.
The problem for me, is seeing people not accepting God calls them Holy, cleansed, purified and
yet some deny this is possible. But then maybe these believers have not yet really reached out
to God the Holy one, knowing that He speaks to our hearts and literally remakes us, sorting out
issues we believe are unresolvable. All I know, is the Lord can do the impossible, and so I have
faith in Him. Amen.