Here's a spiritual bomb. The bible says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. AND it says that there is not one righteous person.. It also says that we are not to boast..of our works or anything else. The bible also says that God came to save the sinners, not the sinless workers.. ahem, I mean the righteous.. lol
Man is flesh and flesh is unholy and always will be...hence flesh will always have a death judgement.. So there is no righteous individual (Self), independent from Christ. However, the good news is that Jesus became sin for us and paid the penalty of sin becoming flesh and being spotless from sins.... enabling us to be able to follow His life as He lived for His Father's purpose over His own (you say we are not to boast of anything else); well how can I not boast in Christ? He has made me innocent with God once more, but remember, not the Self me but the new me, the me hidden in Christ Jesus.... but that makes all things new and all old things gone! ...(you also say Jesus came to save sinners...); that's right, but what is the other half of the story - why did He come to save sinners? what did He save them from? Sin! thus, ask the second question..."What has He saved you for?" This thread speaks of half of Salvation. So, Yes, works have no part of Christ's victory in the victory over Sin (But it is our responsibility, now, to conquer sin(s); the particulars from Sin thru Jesus' victory merging us to Himself, giving us His victory thru faith to stand on on the victory He has given me in innocence made real. Him being the (Spirit; enlivening our spirit or 'living soul') that rules our (soul) that by (the choice) of our soul outcomes our (body.)!)
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. But, to be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith - the Lord Jesus Christ.
For many of us here, God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.
The gift of grace is free - but Satan doesn't mind letting us think that.....what he will fight tooth and nail not to let us know, in truth, is: if a person cannot go to God, and become Christ-like in purity in their own life, based on Jesus' victory on a Cross - it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up....This is the "closet secret" Satan never wants His enemy to highlight, and comforts those involved in so thinking to pompous-piety by attacking those Saints who stay true to His Word..
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