That's a fail.
Eph 2:8-10 - "For it is by grace (not by obedience) you have been saved, through faith (not through obedience),
--and this (salvation) not from yourselves (not because of your obedience), it is the gift of God--
not by works, so that no man can boast. For we are God's workmanship (we are the clay in which
the potter alone forms the image)." (Eph 2:8-10)
If my obedience is the reason God saves me, then I can boast that I did what my own brother did not do, I obeyed or believed, and he did not.
However, NT apostolic teaching is that it is all the gift of God so that I cannot boast,
for there is not one thing in all of it that I can boast about.
God gets all the glory, I get none based on my part, for I had no part.
There are no "works of merit" in the NT.
That is your own invention.
Nope. . .your misuse of the word "work" sets the Scriptures against themselves.
In the NT, "works" refer to the works of the law (Ac 13:39; Ro 3:27-28, 20-21; Gal 2:16),
which do not save.
"Works" does not refer to the obedience/deeds of faith, and there are no deeds which result in faith.
The "work of faith" of 2Th 1:11 is the work produced by faith, not faith itself.
"We pray always for you, that our God would. . .fulfill. . .the work of (every act prompted by
your) faith with power; that the name of Jesus Chist may be glorified in you (by God's power through
your works/deeds of faith)." (2Th 1:11)
Faith itself is not a work, the obedience of faith, resulting from faith, is the work.
Faith is a free gift (Eph 1:29, 1Pe 1:1; Ac 18:37; Ro 12:2).
Repentance is a gift (2Tim 2:25; Acv 11:18, 5:31).
Righteousness is a gift (Ro 5:17, 1:17, 3:21-24, 4:6, 9:30-31).
None of the above are works.
Now please, do not make it necessary to repeat this apostolic teaching to you again.
That's a fail.
You do not even know the meaning of justification.
Your fails in understanding "works," "justification," "righteousness from God/justification," etc.
result in your setting the Scriptures against themselves.
You neither know, nor understand, the Scriptures well enough to represent them correctly.
1 Jn 3:17 "
Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous"
Acts 10:35 "But
in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him"
The bible says righeousness is
something one does. It is a work one does in order to be righteous/accepted with God. So your argument is not with me, but with the bible. As in Rom 10:3, righteousness is something one submits to/obeys.
Again, EPh 2:9 "not of works" refers to works of merit. If you could work to earn your salvation that is something to boast about. Yet obedient works do
NOT earn salvation..."
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." Lk 17:10 So even after one obeys God's commands,
which is do his duty, he is still an unprofitable servant in need of grace. Why? Because one's obedience is not perfect leaving a gap between God and man and grace is needed to cover that gap.
NOT working righteousnes, not doing righteousness means one is DERELICT in his DUTY to obey God's commands/righteousness and will not receive grace.
Rom 10:3 shows two different works:
1) going about to establish their own righteousness
The Jews were lost for they would not obey Christ's NT gospel, Rom 10:16. Instead they thought they could merit savlation by doing thier OWN righteosness. Jews would sometimes replace God's law with thier own traditions and think they could be sved by keeping thier own traditions.
2) have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God
The Jews were lost for they "have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" This means the Jews were lost for they would not "
obey the gospel" by believing, confessing, calling upon the name of the Lord, Rom 10:9,10,13,16..."
But they have not all obeyed the gospel"
Your holding to that false man-made teachings will not allow you to understand the simplicty of Rom 10:3 and that is truly a shame. Hopefully others will see it.
1 Thess 1:3 says "WORK OF FAITH". Faith describes the work being done. You reject this verse and try to change it, so I cannot help you anymore here.
Mk 2:5 Jesus
SAW THEIR FAITH. What Jesus saw is the men doing
WORK in removing the roof and lowering a sick man down to Him and this work is clearly called
FAITH. If you still object to work being called faith, then what does faith look like that Jesus saw? What color is faith? What shape is faith? What size is faith? What texture does faith have which Jesus saw?
Repentance is work and one cannot biblically repent without works..."
But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Acts 26:20 no works = no repentance.
Jesus speaking to the Pharisees said "
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." Mt 21:41
Nineveh repented. Looking at Jonh 3 the king of Nineveh lead to city to repent in sackcloth and ashes and verse 10 says "And
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not"
Get that? Repentance was a
WORK that God saw just like faith was a
work Jesus saw in Mk 2:5.
You have not/cannot show a single verse where Paul said faith only justifies. I will show you this again, you will most likely reject it again.
Look at the
ORDER OF EVENTS in Rom 6:17,18:
First, they were servants of sin.
Secondly, they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
Thirdly, then they were freed from sin/justified.
The order of events has OBEDIENCE
BEFORE justification. That is why Paul says in verse 16 "
obedience UNTO righteousness". You are simply trying to wrest scripture and change the order of events.