The Invitation To Heaven

You were talking about the Ninevites and Jonah. Law cannot save.

 

“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34–35 (KJV 1900)

Only the saved (born again) can please God. This is what I'm proving. That the gospel is meant to tell them of their salvation.

 

How is that ANY different than what I said? It's not.

 

How does this change anything? Again this shows it is not for Jew alone.

 

SBG, I'd like to make one more set of replies, ( even though I'd stated previously my intention not to ), as to me this is a very important subject;
I saw the above and felt the need to address it.

According to God's word,
No one, no matter how "godly" they seem, is above the declarations of God when He says this:

" What then? are we better [than they]? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips:
14 whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness:
15 their feet [are] swift to shed blood:
16 destruction and misery [are] in their ways:
17 and the way of peace have they not known:
18 there is no fear of God before their eyes." ( Romans 3:10-18 ).

There is no such thing as a person who is worthy of anything in God's eyes,
and no such thing as anyone who loves the Lord in and of ourselves.

If you are under the impression that we as human beings "aren't so bad", then I implore you to look carefully at what God says about us...
Yes, I agree that to us we are not God's enemies ( at least not most of us ), and we don't consider ourselves to be in active rebellion to Him.

But passive rebellion ( ignoring God and doing what we want without seeking Him and His will ) is still rebellion.
A God that commands us to love Him above all else, and our neighbors as ourselves ( Matthew 22:37-40 ), is not only worthy of our active attention and thanksgiving, but of our worship as well...

Which we as, men will not do in and of ourselves.

 

@SavedByGrace

So, if you see anywhere in the Bible where it declares that a person is a worshiper of God, that should tell you something.
Something about His grace towards that person.

That said,
Born again Christians are made so by the Lord Himself.
The only thing that they stand on is His mercy and grace, and their performance was never what made them righteous in the eyes of God...
His Son's performance on their behalf is what did.

That is what imputed righteousness ( Romans 5:19 ) is all about...
Christ's righteousness given to those He has saved.
Anyone outside of that is not righteous is God's eyes,
no matter how nice, well-intentioned or full of good works ( by our standards ) that they may be.


No one outside of the body of Christ will be afforded any mercy.
God's mercy to us as rebellious human beings is only through Him and His Son.

 

Red Herring to the discussion. It literally has no bearing on the topic we are discussing. You get caught up on things taken out of context and that is where you err.

 

Read what I quoted, and allow God's words to sink in...

None of us are regarded by the Lord as anything other than fit for the Lake of Fire, except for His grace.
Whether or not we are knowingly His enemies, He says that we are.

Even those He has saved were His enemies:

" And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" ( Colossians 1:21-23 )

See Romans 1:18-32.

 

You have completely missed what God is saying, SBG.
No one is the friend of God without Him making it so.

But God says that anyone outside of Christ, is His enemy.

He makes friends with His enemies through saving them and making them born again.
Otherwise, we stay that way...
Lost and enemies against God.

Do you not see that when you read His words, my friend?
That is the real difference between those who are saved and those who are lost.

Reconciliation to God by the death of His Son.

 

God has us give forth the good news, and then the Holy Spirit does His work to save out all those whom God intended to get saved!

 

Except the truth is that all of us were in rebellion until God saved us!