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 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
Fine thank you DC. How are things with you in Aussie?

Are you a citizen or just visiting?
Good, just visiting at the moment....my 22nd trip down......have a house here and 10 in the U.S....so....spending about 50/50 in each country.....750 PM Thursday and raining...on CC and catching a "footy" game on the tube haha
 
Jan 25, 2015
9,221
3,200
113
Good, just visiting at the moment....my 22nd trip down......have a house here and 10 in the U.S....so....spending about 50/50 in each country.....750 PM Thursday and raining...on CC and catching a "footy" game on the tube haha
Wow that is incredible. 22nd trip! A real jet setter :)

Aaah the Aussies and their footy :) do you watch the Super Rugby at all? The world cup is also on this year. Going to be difficult for anybody to beat the All Blacks... Can't believe I just admitted that in public :cry:
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,402
113
Wow that is incredible. 22nd trip! A real jet setter :)

Aaah the Aussies and their footy :) do you watch the Super Rugby at all? The world cup is also on this year. Going to be difficult for anybody to beat the All Blacks... Can't believe I just admitted that in public :cry:
Oh yeah....became a Rugby fan since learning about it...bought a couple tickets to game on Sunday afternoon....excited to go...1st game....yeah...haha I have flown like 650,000 km last few years haha crazy
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
No one is saved until they obey by repenting of sins.
What?! Your heart is polluted? You are in big trouble.
Forgiveness of sins has to do with repenting of your sins and saying you will die to pleasing your flesh and live to please Jesus.
There is always a response in christian theology with grace.
Faith keeps us safe in Christ, not behaviour. Our behaviour reinforces our faith or kills it.
Without this grace no one could ever walk the way, because acceptance or salvation would
only be if we become perfect, which is an aspiration which only God knows.

The thief on the cross is a good example of this. Purified and made Holy before God through
his conviction of sin, repentance, accepting forgiveness and faith in Jesus, along with his
confession of faith.

Though we can as far as we tell walk in the way of Jesus, it does not make us guiltless.
Paul said it like this

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
1 Cor 4:4
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
So much confusion about obey or not to obey, and how to say it without condemning yourself.
OBEY! It is right and good all the time!
It is interesting to me, though we may not communicate well, and obviously your approach
is not conventional, some have declared you "utterly lost".

If someone rejects Jesus that would make sense, or stays in wilful sin and refuses to repent.
Communicates their faith in an unconventional way? Not guilty, and could well be a brother in Christ.

This behaviour by others demonstrates to me their insecurity. Does it matter to them who
is lost before God and who is not, which they cannot determine anyway?

Press certain buttons, and out come the condemnations. As long as I know the Lord, the rest is up
to others, Amen.

So obeying Jesus. Is there a downside? There is the problem of miss-interpretation.
People have chopped their hands off, thinking their guilt would be sorted out by this and they would
enter heaven. They may have been also slightly nuts. Others invent OCD tight rules of self condemnation
where anything good they can think of, if they do not do, is sinful. Or they are obligated to follow anybody
elses request of their time over their own needs.

So yes there can be problems understanding what obeying Jesus is.
But at the level you are talking, people are very sensitive about starting to look at the issue, :)

Guilt and self condemnation is triggered by such considerations :)
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
Good, just visiting at the moment....my 22nd trip down......have a house here and 10 in the U.S....so....spending about 50/50 in each country.....750 PM Thursday and raining...on CC and catching a "footy" game on the tube haha
Sounds quite a lonely lifestyle without roots. If you travel so much what about christian fellowship?
But then as the mainline christian church has got it so wrong, maybe cc is your only refuge :)
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
I watched a series about the massively rich who wander the world, from house to house.
Often their staff are the closest to them, having occasional interaction but almost no friends,
because they move so much, no one can get close, and they are so scared of exploitation.

Jesus had great interaction and friendships. He lived in community for 3 years and implied
we are a real family. In Christ we have brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, linked in love
and sharing at a deep emotional and spiritual level. This is the body of Christ, the Kingdom
that is eternal and conquers the worlds ways through Christ.
 

PennEd

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2013
13,584
9,102
113
See John 1:13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Did you read how the scripture says 'not of natural descent'?

Natural decent is about those to whom we are blood related.

The written Word of God says NOT of natural descent. That means it does not matter if someone is blood related to Abraham.

See how the scripture says not of human decision?

That is about a human cannot say they are saved by just saying it.

See how the scripture says not of a husband's will?

That is about a husband not being able to have his wife become a Jew, or even a Christian, by converting her with certain rituals.

In the past, a Jew could marry and she performs the practices of Judaism, and so become a Jew and a child of God...this is no more now since Jesus.

Being born of God is how we are now saved. We are born of God by receiving the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit by asking Jesus to save us, after we repent of our sins and call on him. When Jesus saves us and gives us his Holy Spirit that is when we are born again.

You skipped the part that says WE don't will our way to be a Child of God. It is by GOD'S Will that we become His Child. Very inconvenient for those that think they can work their way to the Father. Here is Jesus saying the same thing again:

John 6:44 New King James Version (NKJV)
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
We need to teach people that they can search for God on their own and we need to tell them how to find God on their own.
We do teach each find God individually, without church or priest.
It is part of the protestant confession, no intermediary between us and God.

It is implicit with our repentance to God.
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
You skipped the part that says WE don't will our way to be a Child of God. It is by GOD'S Will that we become His Child. Very inconvenient for those that think they can work their way to the Father. Here is Jesus saying the same thing again:

John 6:44 New King James Version (NKJV)
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
You seem angry. What are you angry about?
Is anger the way we witness?
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
Faith that trusts in Christ alone for salvation and not in works saves (Ephesians 2:8,9). An empty profession of faith/dead faith that remains alone - "barren of works" does not save. (James 2:14) Until you understand the difference and place your faith (belief, trust, reliance) in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, you will remain on this merry go round of works salvation.
MMD, funnily for me, we probably agree theologically though express things differently.
I wonder if your approach bears fruit, with those who truly believe they are good and stand as
good before the Lord.

My experience is talking about faith and relationship, the heart and resolving impurity and sin
within is the best way to approach things.

On these forums, the extreme grace groups often are like the self righteous groups, refuse to
look at the heart. But I am interested in your approach because I know it takes so much effort
I admire your commitment. God bless you.
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
porc.jpg
I only hurt if you get too close :) lol

I wonder if this is how we behave if people touch issues our
hearts do not like.
 
N

NoNameMcgee

Guest
lol look at the last few pages with the heretic trolls....(he has many accounts ... devotes a lot of his effort towards cowardly hiding and posting emotes from private accounts....)


notice how no work salvationist gets the negative emotes😂


it is most likely one of the posters here who hates eternal security or the fact God gets the glory for it




(now that it has been mentioned i wouldnt be surprised if he/she will change their approach so check the time the angry face was recieved if it is directed at a works salvationist and see if it is posted after i posted this)
 

mailmandan

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2014
25,475
13,419
113
58
Jesus tells us what to do to get saved. How do you ever get that it is a wrong motive when it is Jesus who says it?
Yes, Jesus does tell us what to do to get saved:

John 3:14 - And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 6:40 - For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day ... 47 - Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

These many people in Matthew 7:21-23 had the wrong motive as do all works-salvationists.
 

gb9

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
12,317
6,689
113
You seem angry. What are you angry about?
Is anger the way we witness?
no. we should not be angry witnesses . ( though I saw no anger in penned's post, he was just debunking a false teacher, as I am doing here with you ).

neither should you attempt to use your musings about your emotional experiences and your opinions as ways to witness.

this is a Bible discussion forum , not a psychiatrist's office.

feelings and emotions do NOT determine reality. facts do.

and, until you accept the proper definition of sin, then your opinions of whether you sin or not is not valid, since you are using your private opinion, not the actual definition.
 

mailmandan

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2014
25,475
13,419
113
58
We have to obey to get saved in the first place; and, not everyone obeys after being saved, but they have to. It is not a false gospel to do what Jesus says to do to get saved and to stay saved.
You could not make it any more obvious that you teach salvation by works. :(

The gospel is not about obtaining and maintaining salvation by works. That is a "different" gospel. (Galatians 1:6-9)

The gospel is the "good news" of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that BELIEVES.. (Romans 1:16). To “believe” the gospel is to trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the ALL-sufficient means of our salvation.

The gospel is a message of grace to be received through faith. The gospel is not a set of rituals to perform, a code of laws to be obeyed or a check list of good works to accomplish as a prerequisite for salvation or to maintain salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:21 - For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who BELIEVE.
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
Yes, Jesus does tell us what to do to get saved:

John 3:14 - And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 6:40 - For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day ... 47 - Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

These many people in Matthew 7:21-23 had the wrong motive as do all works-salvationists.
wrong motive - meaning obeying Jesus to try and earn ones way to heaven without faith in the cross.

In this way of thinking, here is an individual, labelled a works-salvationist.
They do everything to prove they are good, holy before God so will not be judged not resting on
the cross and the forgiveness of their sins that comes from this.

Implicit in this "wrong motive" is actually failure to obey Jesus, because if we could be perfect without
the Lord, sin would not be present and so no judgement.

So the criticism is not people are obeying Christ, it is they are trying to obey Christ for the wrong objective.

Funnily people have come to faith, by trying to obey Christ without faith, and coming to realise Jesus
was speaking the truth and through faith in Him, a changed heart, it is actually possible.

So I would never condemn anyone who is trying to obey Christ, Amen to any righteous deeds whoever
does them for whatever reason.

I am worried that people who think themselves following Christ want to discourage people from trying
to do such a thing.
 

FollowHisSteps

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2019
3,674
1,201
113
no. we should not be angry witnesses . ( though I saw no anger in penned's post, he was just debunking a false teacher, as I am doing here with you ).
neither should you attempt to use your musings about your emotional experiences and your opinions as ways to witness.
this is a Bible discussion forum , not a psychiatrist's office.
feelings and emotions do NOT determine reality. facts do.
and, until you accept the proper definition of sin, then your opinions of whether you sin or not is not valid, since you are using your private opinion, not the actual definition.
Hi gb9,

Do you love Jesus? Can you love without emotion? Can we breath without emotion?
Can we face any fact without emotion? No.

Emotions are who we are, how we are born. Facts and intellect attempt to make sense of
our emotions, but they drive everything in us.
You are even speaking with emotion as you write.

You call this debunking, while failing to do the thing you claim to want to do, because
to you emotions are just the extreme out of control expressions of emotion which you
try and control as you repress everything in sight. God bless you, but what you leave out
says more about you, than what you say.
 

mailmandan

Senior Member
Apr 7, 2014
25,475
13,419
113
58
wrong motive - meaning obeying Jesus to try and earn ones way to heaven without faith in the cross.
That is certainly a wrong motive. There are many people who have faith in the fact that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus "happened." The problem is they are not trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the ALL-sufficient means of their salvation and are instead trusting in works as the means of their salvation anywhere from "in part" to "for the most part."

Believers obey Jesus BECAUSE they are saved and not in order to remain saved and their motivation is love, not pride. Obedience is not forced or legalistic for those who are born of God.