Like most when you put the picture together you leave out grace....
I don't leave out grace. I have quoted Ephesians 2:8 several times in my posts and said by
grace you have been saved through faith. The whole picture is saved by grace through faith, not works, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.. I didn't spell out grace this particular time because I was addressing your comment - "
Do you see faith here...you put it in...."
How are you enabled?...Where did you get faith from?....
We are enabled by God's enabling power, which is His grace. This grace is unmerited favor. We did nothing to earn it. The impulse to faith comes from God. He draws us in and enables us to believe then we choose to believe. If God did not draw us or enable us then NONE of us would come to saving faith in Christ. No one comes to Me unless the Father draws him. This implies that no human being on his own, has the moral or spiritual ability to come to Christ unless the Father draws him, that is, gives him the desire and inclination to come and the ability to trust exclusively in Christ for salvation.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Yet how many come to Christ and believe on His name who are not first drawn and enabled by the Father? 0
How can you say that? God gives us faith we choose to act on it....hence the reason I said Grace is left out.
God automatically gives faith to everyone? No. God gives a differing measure of faith to His children, not to unbelievers, (Romans 12:3). Paul goes on to say 4 - For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy
in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Notice in 1 Corinthians 12:9 -
to another faith by the same Spirit.. This is concerning spiritual gifts (vs. 1). This is not the faith that all believers have in Christ for salvation, since Paul implies that some believers have it and some do not. This is a special endowment of faith for accomplishing certain tasks.
It is by God's grace we stand...because of his grace we were called, He gives us faith by which we have access into His grace after we respond to His call. We now live in His grace through the faith He has given us.
God's enabling power, which is unmerited, not merited favor, is a part of it all. We have access by faith into grace by which we stand (Romans 5:2).
If we are to remain in God's grace we must continue in faith. Faith without works is dead.
From beginning "have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8) to end "the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:9) salvation is through faith and is not by works. If someone claims to have faith, but they have no works, they demonstrate that their faith is dead (James 2:14). Good works demonstrate that our faith is alive.
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Good works glorify God, but we are saved FOR good works, NOT BY good works (Ephesians 2:8-10).
what other way are you talking about?
We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The other way around would be created in good works unto Christ Jesus.
This is what I have been trying to show you...
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[SUP][
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have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [SUP]2 [/SUP]
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Show me? I already understand this. Where do works fit into the equation here in Romans 5:1-2? They don't. They are the fruit of being justified by faith...having access by faith into grace. Works bear out the justification that comes by faith. That is the sense in which we are justified by works (James 2:24). Not saved by works, but good works SHOW or manifest the genuineness of our faith (James 2:14-24).
It is by God's grace we stand...because of his grace we were called, He gives us faith by which we have access into His grace after we respond to His call.
God draws us and enables us, yet we choose to place our faith in Christ for salvation. God forces nobody to believe.
We now live in His grace through the faith He has given us.
He automatically gave it to us against our will or we chose to place our faith in Christ for salvation?
The faith does not produce good works..... you have to do good works ...
These works are produced out of faith. Notice in the parable of the sower, Matthew 13:23 - And the one on whom seed was sown on the
good soil, this is the man who
hears the word and understands it; who
indeed bears fruit/produces a crop and brings forth,
some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. What does
good soil/hear the word and understands it and indeed
bears fruit/produces a crop represent? You have to do good works in order to become saved or you will do good works if you are truly saved? See what your faith is in for salvation? "Works" and not Christ alone.
you are changing the word
What did I change? You are the one placing the cart before the horse.
if you do not understand the meaning of ...by and ...through you cannot understand this passage.
If you do not understand that salvation is by grace
through faith and is not by works, then you will not understand this passage and will continue to try and "shoe horn" works into saved through faith, not works.
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
You need to read James 2:24 in context. In James 2:14, we read of one who
says/claims he has faith but has
no works. This is
not genuine faith, but a
bare profession of faith. So when James asks, "Can
that faith save him?" he is saying nothing against genuine faith, but only against an
empty profession of faith. James gives us the test for genuine faith: like the faith of Abraham, it results in works. Works are the demonstrative evidence of genuine saving faith, not the actual means of our salvation. James
does not teach that we are saved "by" works. His concern is to SHOW the reality of the faith professed by the individual (James 2:18) and demonstrate that the faith claimed (James 2:14) by the individual is genuine. I will SHOW you my faith by my works. We are saved by the kind of faith that is accompanied (confirmed, authenticated) by works. We are justified by faith but only by a true faith, a faith proved to be true if it is followed by good works. Believers are not doing good works in order to become saved, we are doing good works because we have already been saved by authentic faith in Jesus, which trusts exclusively in Him for salvation. Christ saves us through faith based on the merits of His finished work of redemption "alone" and not on the merits of our works. It is through faith "in Christ alone" (and not by the merits of our works) that we are justified on account of Christ (Romans 3:24; 5:1); yet the faith that justifies is never alone (solitary, unfruitful, barren) if it is genuine (James 2:14-24). *Perfect Harmony.*
In the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the Greek word for justified "dikaioo" #1344 is:
1. to render righteous or such he ought to be
2. to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
3. to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be
In Matthew 12:37, "For by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned." This is because our words reveal the state of our hearts. Words will appear to be evidences for, or against a man's being in a state of grace and righteousness.
God is said to have been
justified by those who were baptized by John the Baptist (Luke 7:29). This act pronounced or declared God to be righteous. It did not make him righteous. The basis or ground for the pronouncement was the fact that God IS righteous. Notice that the NIV reads,
"acknowledged that God's way was right.." The ESV read,
"declared God just." This is the sense in which God was justified, "shown to be righteous," not accounted as righteous. So James is not using the word "justified" to mean "is made righteous" but is "shown to be righteous." James is discussing the proof of faith (I will SHOW you my faith by my works),
not the initial act of being accounted as righteous with God (Romans 4:2,3). You need to rightly divide the word of truth.
Matthew 11:19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is
justified/vindicated/shown to be right by her deeds."
Are you beginning to get the picture yet?
