Are you saying you get to walk through a door called "grace" and have to work until you are guided to the door called "salvation"?
ummm you don't work for your salvation. You work because you already have been saved and born again of the Holy Spirit....
, not sure if that is what you meant but your words seem to convey that you have to work for your salvation and that you have to be perfect and sinless and never stumble.
However you do allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify you and conform you into the image of Christ. this is called sanctification not salvation by most people.
Justification and Sanctification are two different things and should remain separate.
We are Justified through Christ and not our works.
We are sanctified through chastenment and repentance and learning God's will.
Salvation is past, present and future.
We were saved by Christ death on the cross, we are being saved by the leading of the Holy Spirit and we will be saved upon resurrection and when we are given our new bodies in the future.
You are correct in all of this, however it does not mean that we can just do whatever we want either. Our Lord has written His laws on our hearts and in our minds. So, while we are not under the law of Moses (actually we Gentiles have NEVER been under the law of Moses), we do have to allow the Lord to lead us through the heart and mind. We know through the Holy Spirit, what is right and what is wrong. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness. My wife recently left me for another man under the conclusion that sin no longer exists because of grace. She left me and our two daughters, destroying a family and is in full blown adultery. The bible clearly condemns this behavior saying that those who practice such behavior will not enter the kingdom of God. Please make the distinction that I quoted "practice". Anyone can fall and our Lord covers this, but if you think you can simply ignore the Holy Spirit indefinitely, doing whatever you want even when you know in your heart it's wrong, you are decieving yourself. What I have always taught my daughters... if love wouldn't do it, don't do it. I am not talking human sexual love, I am talking about the same love our Lord showed to us when He died for us.
Titus 2:
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.
2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.
7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness
8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,
10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
Romans 2:
12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
