Not By Works

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
works and salvation do not belong in the same sentence. one has nothing to do with the other. you should stop pushing this lie.
How about created in Christ Jesus unto good works? DO they belong in the same sentence?
 

VCO

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2013
11,967
4,585
113
I anticipated this question...

Continual sin is not being overtaken in a fault in which you need the Grace of God and prayer and accountability of other believers to overcome. It is a state of PERSISTENCE, ie firm and obstinate continuance in a course of action.
Or, it is an Addiction to gratifying that partitcular sin, or sins.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
works and salvation do not belong in the same sentence. one has nothing to do with the other. you should stop pushing this lie.
How about created in Christ Jesus unto good works? DO they belong in the same sentence?
How about created in Christ Jesus unto good works? DO they belong in the same sentence?
)
ARE we to affirm that they which HAVE believed (past tense) might be careful to maintain good works? (Titus3 :8)

Are we to provoke one another to love and good works? Heb 10:24

Is faith without works dead?

Salvation first. Complete and unabridged salvation. Works follow. Simple and plain, it's easy to see.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
Or, it is an Addiction to gratifying that partitcular sin, or sins.
:
Jesus can break any chain, no matter how strong. But it takes putting into practice the second part of Romans 8:13. Like the Israelites were given the city of Jericho when they acted in faith and obedience to God.
 
Sep 6, 2014
7,034
5,435
113
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 11:6
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

Romans 4:4
Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 11:6
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

Romans 4:4
Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Yep, if it is of grace, then work is no more work. VERY GOOD scripture. KUDOS

And to Him that has received grace, work is no longer reckoned as meritorious work, it becomes an expression of gratitude and love. 1 JOHN 5:3.

AND no one has room to boast, for WHAT DO WE HAVE THAT WE DID NOT RECEiVE FROM GOD. 1 Corinthians 4:7

All of Grace, it is all of grace, naught of myself, but all from Him, it is all of grace, that is all.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
I red x'ed it because you said it.......I can play that game as well.....how you like it?
Quite humorous. Except I didn't x the posts of yours that I xed because you wrote them. I do not take a stand against God's Word because I don't like the person who sald it. That would be quite dangerous. And you xed a post that contained nothing except a truth and a scripture, so that makes you rather dangerous.

I xed them because they contain personal attacks and ad hominem, which is against the rules. I never attacked you personally, other than call you out on your misrepresentations and bad argumentation, but you resort to personal attacks, and you do not provide documentation for your accusations, like I am careful to do when I call you out on misrepresentations.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
Quite humorous. Except I didn't x the posts of yours that I xed because you wrote them. I do not take a stand against God's Word because I don't like the person who sald it. That would be quite dangerous. And you xed a post that contained nothing except a truth and a scripture, so that makes you rather dangerous.

I xed them because they contain personal attacks and ad hominem, which is against the rules. I never attacked you personally, other than call you out on your misrepresentations and bad argumentation, but you resort to personal attacks, and you do not provide documentation for your accusations, like I am careful to do when I call you out on misrepresentations.
You xed, 101,725. Quite interesting :unsure:
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
You just contradicted yourself and did not answer.........

YES the man is saved regardless of doing any works <-----that is an answer......the above reeks of deception and shows you cannot answer the question.......

Which is it....saved without ANY WORKS or SAVED but must have works........simple question....we are all waiting in suspense.......

See if you can come clean about what you really believe.....SAVED = must have faith and WORKS..........you stated as much above
You xed, disagreed with 101,725? Quite interesting
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
See there ya go.....proof you are a deceiver that embellishes faith with works for salvation...........not what I asked pal....you are such a fraud..the bible answers and you reject it

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness
Scripture and ad hominem, false accusation, and personal attack in the same post. Classic.

Salt water and freshwater should not come from the same fount.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
See there ya go.....proof you are a deceiver that embellishes faith with works for salvation...........not what I asked pal....you are such a fraud..the bible answers and you reject it

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness
Yes, Justification is by FAITH ALONE. But we are talking about what follows justification. The work of GRACE does not end in our lives at justification, it is only beginning. I am not talking about what we need to do to be saved or justified, I am talking about what God PROMISED HE would do after we are saved. He will complete the work He began in us, and that work INCLUDES and continues all the way to GLORIFICATION. When we believe, we cease from our own works and enter into His program of working IN US.

Salvation is not just justification. It is also regeneration, adoption, sanctification, preservation, and glorification. You are conflating justification with salvation. Justification is but ONE ASPECT of sanctification. ANd none of it has anything to do with OUR WORKS. THat is a misrepresentation of my position. I have always and constantly affirmed that ALL of it has to do with what God HAS DONE, IS DOING, and WILL DO

So you post was a mixture of scripture, adhominem , false accusation, and personal attack. Basically trying to make salt water and fresh water flow from the same source. That is why I xed this post, FYI.

Cheers.
 

VCO

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2013
11,967
4,585
113
Like I said, WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION

Did you happen to miss that? The crux of the entire post?

Justified by faith ALONE, works follow out of love and gratitude

Just like fire produces smoke

Your post is a textbook example of what GB9 calls being proved wrong. You say exactly what I said, and then accuse me of not saying it. :LOL:

I STILL THINK YOU BOTH are confused about what the other is Actually saying, thinking it is trying to justify works righteousness, AND I DO NOT SEE THAT IN EITHER OF YOUR POSTS.

IN Macabeus's POST: When you say WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION; but don't you mean that SALVATION COMES FIRST, without any works. Then if someone wants to see if you REALLY WERE SAVED, all they have to do is examine the LOVE you reflect to GOD and OTHERS, and they WILL KNOW. I picked that up because YOU SAID: Justified by faith ALONE, works follow out of love and gratitude.

Matthew 7:20 (HCSB)
20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. [ LOVE being the PRIMARY FRUIT.]

1 John 3:14-19 (HCSB)
14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his ⌊need⌋—how can God’s love reside in him?
18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
19 This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,


Now the FACT is, we have SEEN numerous people who used the exact same expression: WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, BUT MEAN THE EXACT OPPOSITE, which has caused dcontroveral to MIS-UNDERSTAND what Macabeus is saying. THEY literally mean by the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION that SALVATION IS COMPLETED BY WORKS, which is false doctrine. We have been fighting this battle with those who what to believe that SALVATION is not complete until AFTER THOSE WORKS. And I did not join this THREAD until at least page 300 or later, so dcontroversal has been confronting these that believe SALVATION is not complete until so many works have been done (TOTALLY FALSE DOCTRINE).

Now Macabeus, if I have discerned YOUR position correctly, and you DO NOT BELIEVE what most have meant by WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, please let me Know. Because, I have a simple SOLUTION for you. Stop using the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, instead, USE THE EXPRESSION: WORKS FLOW OUT OF GOD GIVEN LOVE. That is the Expression that I use, and I think it is the same meaning that You applied to your WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION.
 

VCO

Senior Member
Oct 14, 2013
11,967
4,585
113
Did you miss the part about the one that DID NOT WORK or just ignoring it because it does not fit your MUST follow rigmarole?

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness

NOTE ----> DOES NOT WORK <--what tense is that


I STILL THINK YOU BOTH are confused about what the other is Actually saying, thinking it is trying to justify works righteousness, AND I DO NOT SEE THAT IN EITHER OF YOUR POSTS.

IN Macabeus's POST: When you say WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION; but don't you mean that SALVATION COMES FIRST, without any works. Then if someone wants to see if you REALLY WERE SAVED, all they have to do is examine the LOVE you reflect to GOD and OTHERS, and they WILL KNOW. I picked that up because YOU SAID: Justified by faith ALONE, works follow out of love and gratitude.

Matthew 7:20 (HCSB)
20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. [ LOVE being the PRIMARY FRUIT.]

1 John 3:14-19 (HCSB)
14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his ⌊need⌋—how can God’s love reside in him?
18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
19 This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,


Now the FACT is, we have SEEN numerous people who used the exact same expression: WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, BUT MEAN THE EXACT OPPOSITE, which has caused dcontroveral to MIS-UNDERSTAND what Macabeus is saying. THEY literally mean by the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION that SALVATION IS COMPLETED BY WORKS, which is false doctrine. We have been fighting this battle with those who what to believe that SALVATION is not complete until AFTER THOSE WORKS. And I did not join this THREAD until at least page 300 or later, so dcontroversal has been confronting these that believe SALVATION is not complete until so many works have been done (TOTALLY FALSE DOCTRINE).

Now Macabeus, if I have discerned YOUR position correctly, and you DO NOT BELIEVE what most have meant by WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, please let me Know. Because, I have a simple SOLUTION for you. Stop using the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, instead, USE THE EXPRESSION: WORKS FLOW OUT OF GOD GIVEN LOVE. That is the Expression that I use, and I think it is the same meaning that You applied to your WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
I STILL THINK YOU BOTH are confused about what the other is Actually saying, thinking it is trying to justify works righteousness, AND I DO NOT SEE THAT IN EITHER OF YOUR POSTS.

IN Macabeus's POST: When you say WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION; but don't you mean that SALVATION COMES FIRST, without any works. Then if someone wants to see if you REALLY WERE SAVED, all they have to do is examine the LOVE you reflect to GOD and OTHERS, and they WILL KNOW. I picked that up because YOU SAID: Justified by faith ALONE, works follow out of love and gratitude.

Matthew 7:20 (HCSB)
20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. [ LOVE being the PRIMARY FRUIT.]

1 John 3:14-19 (HCSB)
14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his ⌊need⌋—how can God’s love reside in him?
18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
19 This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,


Now the FACT is, we have SEEN numerous people who used the exact same expression: WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, BUT MEAN THE EXACT OPPOSITE, which has caused dcontroveral to MIS-UNDERSTAND what Macabeus is saying. THEY literally mean by the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION that SALVATION IS COMPLETED BY WORKS, which is false doctrine. We have been fighting this battle with those who what to believe that SALVATION is not complete until AFTER THOSE WORKS. And I did not join this THREAD until at least page 300 or later, so dcontroversal has been confronting these that believe SALVATION is not complete until so many works have been done (TOTALLY FALSE DOCTRINE).

Now Macabeus, if I have discerned YOUR position correctly, and you DO NOT BELIEVE what most have meant by WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, please let me Know. Because, I have a simple SOLUTION for you. Stop using the expression WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION, instead, USE THE EXPRESSION: WORKS FLOW OUT OF GOD GIVEN LOVE. That is the Expression that I use, and I think it is the same meaning that You applied to your WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION.
IN Macabeus's POST: When you say WORKS FOLLOW SALVATION; but don't you mean that SALVATION COMES FIRST, without any works.

In answer to your question, the answer is a resounding yes. DC knows this is my position. I have stated it dozens of times. If Mailmandan says the same thing I say, (and ask him, he does),that works follow/come after salvation, no one disagrees with him, and he will get thumbs up all around. But if I say it, I get dogpiled. :)

Much of the disagreement is personal, and I will show that later. If I cannot, I will apologize for wrongly suggesting such a thing.

I agree with your summation that works flow out of God given love. If you go back over my posts that I posted today, you will see that I said this numerous times this afternoon, but people disagree out of personal dislike for me. That is OK, I've probably earned it. But it is foolish to disagree with someone just because you don't like them.
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
Faith that remains alone -- barren of works is dead and that faith is not genuine faith, but a bare profession of faith. James is simply stating faith that is not accompanied by evidential works is dead. If someone says-claims he has faith but lacks resulting evidential works, then he has an empty profession of faith/dead faith and not authentic faith. (James 2:14-20)

Faith is activated the moment that we place our faith (belief, trust, reliance) in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Ephesians 2:5 - even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)... 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

A distinction without a difference. In James 2:15-16, the example of a "work" that James gives is: "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" To give a brother or sister these things needed for the body would certainly be a "good work" yet to neglect such a brother or sister and not give them the things needed for the body is to break the second great commandment "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39) as found written in the law of Moses (Leviticus 19:18). Teaching that we are saved by faith + works in general would be works that earn salvation. You can't have it both ways.

..made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved through faith, not works... (Ephesians 2:5-9) Works of obedience FOLLOW faith being activated and made alive with Christ. You have it backwards.

Faith is not dead UNTIL it produces works, which is like saying that a tree is dead UNTIL it produces fruit. Works are not the source of life in faith; rather life in faith is the source of works. Something that is dead cannot produce anything.

In James 2:21, notice closely that James does not say that Abraham's work of offering up Isaac resulted in God's accounting Abraham as righteous. The accounting of Abraham's faith as righteousness was made in Genesis 15:6, many years before his work of offering up Isaac recorded in Genesis 22. The work of Abraham did not have some kind of intrinsic merit to account him as righteous, but it showed or manifested the genuineness of his faith. This is the "sense" in which Abraham was "justified by works." He was shown to be righteous.

In James 2:22, faith made perfect or complete by works means bring to maturity, carry to the end, to complete like love in 1 John 4:18. It does not mean that Abraham was finally saved based on merits of his works after he offered up Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. When Abraham performed the good work in Genesis 22; he fulfilled the expectations created by the pronouncement of his faith in Genesis 15:6.

*James is discussing the evidence of faith (says-claims to have faith but has no works/I will show you my faith by my works - James 2:14-18), not the initial act of being accounted as righteous with God (Romans 4:2-3).

Romans 5:1 - Therefore, having been justified by faith plus works? NO by faith "apart from additions or modifications" (faith rightly understood in Christ alone) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

My challenge for you: *Please post a scripture that says we are "justified by faith and works" or "saved by faith and works."
See, right here, Mailmandan said the same thing I am saying, works come after salvation, and DC LIKED his post.

Look AT the bolded and enlarged part in red

Works of obedience FOLLOW faith being activated and made alive with Christ. You have it backwards. Mailmandan

Now follow the post to the link and see that DC LIKED this post. He is not disagreeing with me because I said works follow salvation, it is because he has a personal vendetta.

Faith being activated and made alive would be saving faith, would it not?
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
As I believe Scripture states,

Eph 2 10, We were created (anew) for good wrks.

In our new nature, Works are the norm and we are fed off of those works. Sin is like poison, and it damages us, Not like when we were of the world when the opposite was truth, Its why a child of God can not continue to live as he always did, because he could not handle it. Sin does not bring the same joy or confort. It brings pain and suffering (then add to that chastening from God)

Its why I laugh at those who say we MUST work to be saved, its impossible for a true believer not to work. There is no must about it. It is their new nature.
Look at the last line of this post. EG said "it's impossible for a true believer not to work. There is no must about it. It is their new nature. Follow that link and see who liked this post. including DC AND GB9
 
Dec 27, 2018
4,170
876
113
As I believe Scripture states,

Eph 2 10, We were created (anew) for good wrks.

In our new nature, Works are the norm and we are fed off of those works. Sin is like poison, and it damages us, Not like when we were of the world when the opposite was truth, Its why a child of God can not continue to live as he always did, because he could not handle it. Sin does not bring the same joy or confort. It brings pain and suffering (then add to that chastening from God)

Its why I laugh at those who say we MUST work to be saved, its impossible for a true believer not to work. There is no must about it. It is their new nature.