Do Vs Done

[SleepyEdwin]

The other day I was reading about what people tell you when they want to convert to any religion from the East or the New Age and so on. Most religions tell you that you must DO certain things to "save" you or become successful or live decent lives or to get temporary access to some unknown place. New Age is just about using an extra coat of makeup and apply that on the old lies the serpent told Eve to make us look as we were unconditionally divine or everything is the same or everything just depends on our own judgement and there is no reason why it should be the same for anybody else.

Jesus Christ tells us a different story, He came to earth as a baby human like any of us. Once He had grown up, He began preaching the Gospel for the Kingdom of God was near at first and then was already among us after His death and Resurrection.

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

After the crucifixion it was DONE! From that point onwards He had been granted the power to safe us, the believers, for He had done the Father's Bidding! He had proved He was a Faithful servant of God! Now He deserves to be called the Lord's High Priest! He is the only One able to intercede for us.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Contrary to what any religion tells you, the Lord has done everything for us to get access to the Father. Now our works are not required as a prerequisite to stay in communion with God as it was the case with the Mosaic Law. We only need to believe in Him according to...

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Of course, we can say that we need to bear fruits as a result of our conversion, our spiritual lives granted by Him through His Holy Spirit. The big difference here is that they come after we are saved, not before. Works are now a consequence or an effect instead of a cause.

Matthew 7:14 "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Right, it's not like everything has been finished. Salvation has been granted, yeah, Halelluyah! Even so we are called to let the Lord transform our lives to live godly lives for that pleases Him. That's how He will let us get closer and closer to the day when He will be able to reveal Himself in all His Glory! It's a HUGE privilege!

Acts 1:9-11
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

In OT times anybody getting close to Him would have been dropped dead immediately for He is Holy. Salvation and His Holy Spirit's Works now let us understand Him way better than anybody before the Church Age ever could. The only thing that surpasses our expectations will be the day when He will call us for resurrection! He will grant us eternal bodies without this sinful nature that has kept us all in captivity while living in the flesh, our minds won't be limited as they are right now!

1 Corinthians 15:52,54,55
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

We still need to make an effort to leave our past self behind, as it was the case for Israel (Jacob's spiritual side) but that's just a small price to pay for enjoying all the blessings of our salvation promised by Our Lord!

 

[Wired 4 Fishen]

Just believing is not enough.
You must be a doer of His Word.

There is a false doctrine being pushed that Jesus did it all and we don't have to do anything.

Blessings

 

[SleepyEdwin]

Just believing is not enough.
You must be a doer of His Word.

There is a false doctrine being pushed that Jesus did it all and we don't have to do anything.

Blessings

And I quote myself...

Right, it's not like everything has been finished. Salvation has been granted, yeah, Halelluyah! Even so we are called to let the Lord transform our lives to live godly lives for that pleases Him. That's how He will let us get closer and closer to the day when He will be able to reveal Himself in all His Glory! It's a HUGE privilege!

And I also stated before...

Contrary to what any religion tells you, the Lord has done everything for us to get access to the Father. Now our works are not required as a prerequisite to stay in communion with God as it was the case with the Mosaic Law. We only need to believe in Him according to...

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Of course, we can say that we need to bear fruits as a result of our conversion, our spiritual lives granted by Him through His Holy Spirit. The big difference here is that they come after we are saved, not before. Works are now a consequence or an effect instead of a cause.


So what I did say was that believing in the Lord and Savior is the prerequisite. The fruits come later on. Without faith nothing we could ever do in this life would be worth anything for the Lord.

What are those fruits? They are those things that come after we read His Word, meditate on it, and apply them to our daily lives, thus letting God change our hearts by teaching us what's His Will. One clear result of this would be spreading the Gospel, of course!

Perhaps what concerns you is that I left a detail out of my dissertation(?), repentance.

Matthew 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Of course, if you don't repent from your sins, I find it difficult you'll ever have faith in Jesus Christ.

 

[Wired 4 Fishen]

And I quote myself...

Right, it's not like everything has been finished. Salvation has been granted, yeah, Halelluyah! Even so we are called to let the Lord transform our lives to live godly lives for that pleases Him. That's how He will let us get closer and closer to the day when He will be able to reveal Himself in all His Glory! It's a HUGE privilege!

And I also stated before...

Contrary to what any religion tells you, the Lord has done everything for us to get access to the Father. Now our works are not required as a prerequisite to stay in communion with God as it was the case with the Mosaic Law. We only need to believe in Him according to...

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Of course, we can say that we need to bear fruits as a result of our conversion, our spiritual lives granted by Him through His Holy Spirit. The big difference here is that they come after we are saved, not before. Works are now a consequence or an effect instead of a cause.


So what I did say was that believing in the Lord and Savior is the prerequisite. The fruits come later on. Without faith nothing we could ever do in this life would be worth anything for the Lord.

What are those fruits? They are those things that come after we read His Word, meditate on it, and apply them to our daily lives, thus letting God change our hearts by teaching us what's His Will. One clear result of this would be spreading the Gospel, of course!

Perhaps what concerns you is that I left a detail out of my dissertation(?), repentance.

Matthew 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Of course, if you don't repent from your sins, I find it difficult you'll ever have faith in Jesus Christ.

Notice I did not quote you or tag you because I wanted to make that seen to other readers.

Now our works are not required as a prerequisite to stay in communion with God as it was the case with the Mosaic Law. We only need to believe in Him

Actually that is not so.
Works are very much indeed needed to Stay in Fellowship with the Father. One can not simply adapt the mindset it's all been done and I am not required to do anything but believe.

Yes I agree its not about our performance as in the old covenant But Faithfulness and Doing His Word is Required.

Blessings

 

[SleepyEdwin]

Notice I did not quote you or tag you because I wanted to make that seen to other readers.



Actually that is not so.
Works are very much indeed needed to Stay in Fellowship with the Father. One can not simply adapt the mindset it's all been done and I am not required to do anything but believe.

Yes I agree its not about our performance as in the old covenant But Faithfulness and Doing His Word is Required.

Blessings

The reason why I didn't emphasize Works as you suggest is because you can't really do all of them from the very beginning because as any newcomer you need to learn what's actually good and what's just a human custom that bears no fruit. Yeah, you can share your experience after obtaining salvation, but you aren't familiar with God's Word as to preach the Gospel in your own (without coming up with stuff of your own that's not written there). There's also the risk to end up telling those newcomers and people that has been living in faith for n number of years that it's a salvation of works when the Lord and His Apostles insisted on the contrary.

That's why I persisted in mentioning the works as bearing fruit. Just like trees need to grow up before it's mature enough to bear really good fruit, we learn from Him and then we reach a point when we can feel comfortable with doing His Bidding in a way that we finally (begin to) understand that everything we do is and should be presented to Him just as OT saints cared for their sacrifices.

Personally I won't tell people that their first works will be as good as the latter for knowledge of Scriptures will make us realize what we did wrong or what we need to improve. Still, there's also a chance we do certain works the right way from the beginning.

So we all shall recall that even converted Jews wanted to make people follow the Torah or still treat salvation as if it were based on works and how they were criticized for it. On the other hand there's a way to fall in a booby trap if we care more about works instead of nurturing faith regularly. One clear scenario would be to think that because I or you have tithed we pleased the Lord, but later on we remembered that we weren't loving any of our fellow believers or even any neighbor! Then the tithes were worth nothing because of our sinful attitude.