If you ever want Please God, Brag on His Son.

Do you mind if I brag on God's Son a second?

Abraham, as one who had come to understand from the Lord
that he was, "ungodly",

5 "But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness."

Abraham was preached "the gospel";

"And the scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith,
preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Galations 3:8.

in the New Birth, Abraham was granted Repentance and Faith
in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus;

Repentance 'granted';

"“When they heard these things, they held their peace,
and glorified God, saying,
Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”
Acts 12:18.

Faith also a 'gift';

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:" Ephesians 2:8

The Gift of Eternal Life is Given by the Holy Spirit
Who bares Witness to the preaching of the Gospel, above,
and Works Salvation into the soul, by the New Birth,
at which time the soul is granted and given Repentance and Faith

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Romans 10:17.

The Holy Spirit Gives the soul the New Birth,
upon "hearing the word of God", the Gospel
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received,
and wherein ye stand;

2 "By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 *For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 "And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."
I Corinthians 15.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what God uses
to Empower the soul with Salvation, in the New Birth,
when the Holy Spirit Accompanied and Blessed the "hearing" of it.

The Righteousness that Abraham received
was the Righeousness of the One Who
was the Object of Abraham's Faith,
that He had been given by the Holy Spirit
when he was given the Spiritual Enablement in the New Birth to believe
that when Jesus died, He died for his sins and God buried those sons away,
and on the third day what happened?

Jesus rose from the dead, proving that God had accepted Jesus' payment to Save Abraham's soul.

Abraham then had that Righteousness of Jesus "counted to him",
or imputed to His soul, reckoned totally of grace.

3 'For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

4 "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace,
but of debt."

So, Abraham was an ungodly sinner, who was preached the gospel,
and given Repentance and Faith in the New Birth, to believe in Jesus

and it was the Righteousness of the Object of his faith, Jesus Christ,
that was "counted to him", or imputed to His soul
That Then Became HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

When God sees a saved soul who has had their sins pardoned
by the Work of Salvation Accomplished by Jesus,
that have been given the Righteousness of Jesus Christ
and the Perfect Life that He had lived,
God see it as THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

He sees them Righteous, without sin.

Then what happens?

God JUSTIFIES them, why?

Because their "slate" has been wiped clean of any guilt.

They are Righteous before Him.

Jesus is the Savior.

It was not 'faith' which Abraham had he had
that was inherent within himself,
but faith that was given him to believe
what Jesus had done to save his soul

and the Righteousness that was "counted to him"
was that of the Object of his faith,
The Savior, God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ

 

I hope you are not implying that Abraham's faith came from himself.

You're just attempting to eradicate "faith" from the passage in Ephesians 2:8
and divorce it entirely from the passage reading,
"For by grace are ye saved through faith", for all time and eternity,
as if the words, "through faith", were floating off in some distant galaxy?

And in the process bring down the Eternal Doctrines of Grace
in one fell swoop of expert linguistic prowess?

I've never seen the like.

Who sent you?
...

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:" Ephesians 2:8

Repentance and Faith are Twin Doctrines and Inseparable Graces.

When Repentance is Granted as a gift, Faith is likewise Inseparably Granted
as a Gift along with it, as a Twin Doctrine.

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 20:21.

REPENTANCE IS A GIFT OF GOD

The three following passages prove this:

"Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,
to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins" (Acts 5:31).

"And when they heard these things, they held their peace,
and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also
hath God granted repentance unto life" (Acts 12:18).

"The Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all,
apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them
that oppose themselves;
if peradventure God may give them repentance
unto the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:24,25).

The meaning of this is simply that repentance is wrought in man
by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit.

When a soul is saved by grace,
by the Quickening power of the Holy Ghost,
they are given Repentance and Faith.

That is what salvation is.

Ephesians 2:1 "And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins".

2:5 "Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved".
...

Faith is also a gift:

"through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God"

"salvation is through faith, not as a cause or condition of salvation,
or as what adds anything to the blessing itself;

"but it is the way, or means, or instrument, which God has appointed,
for the receiving and enjoying it, that so it might appear to be all of grace;

"and this faith is not the produce of man's free will and power,
"but it is the free gift of God;

"and therefore salvation through faith is consistent with salvation by grace;

"since that itself is of grace, lies entirely in receiving grace
and gives all the glory to the grace of God:

"the sense of this last clause may be, that salvation is not of ourselves;
it is not of our desiring nor of our deserving, nor of our performing,
but is of the free grace of God:

"though faith is elsewhere represented as the gift of God, John 6:65
see below.

from: Ephesians 2 Gill's Exposition

FAITH IS A GIFT OF GOD

"This is proved by the passages already quoted
that designate repentance as a gift of God;
for as we shall see, repentance and faith are inseparable graces.

"Each one, when appearing alone in the Scriptures, embraces the other;
for, if this were not true, the passages which mention only the one
or the other would teach that one may be saved
without both repentance and faith."

"This is proved by passages which teach that our coming to Christ
and believing on Him are the result of the working of God's power.

See John 6:37, 65;
37 "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

65 "And he said, Therefore said I unto you,
that no man can come unto me,
except it were given unto him of my Father."

Eph. 1:19, 20;
19 "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20 "Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,"

"This is further proved by the fact that faith
is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith,"

REPENTANCE AND FAITH CONSIDERED TOGETHER

Repentance and faith are inseparable synchronous graces.

"We have reference here, of course, to that repentance
(signified by "metanoeo" and "metnaoia") which is unto salvation,
and not to the kind (signified by "metamelomai") that Judas experienced.

"That repentance and faith are synchronous or simultaneous
is evident from the fact that when a man is quickened into life
there can be no lapse of time before he repents,
nor can there be any before he believes.

"Otherwise we would have the new nature in rebellion against God
and in unbelief.

"Thus there can be no chronological order in repentance and faith.

"Another thing which shows the inseparableness of repentance and faith
is the fact that the Scripture often mentions only one of them
as the means of salvation.

"Because of this fact we must think of each one, when used alone,
as comprehending the other.

"In repentance and faith, ...the will is brought to choose righteousness
as an ultimate end."

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 20:21.

 

I take it that you all do mind that I brag on God's Son.

I see Jesus Christ as being the Savior.

Ephesians 2:8, despite popular demand that it originated from the Internet
is in the Bible, Ephesians 2:8 is a discription of Christianity
and how God saves souls.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:" Ephesians 2:8.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith" is God's definition
of what He says He gives the lost sinner in Salvation.

If you are saying that "faith" is inherently contained within the lost soul
which may be Enabled by them to initiated
and Generated their own Quickening to Eternal Life,
I have to say that that is not a description of Christianity,
but that it describes Paganism, instead.

Otherwise, as long as we are in Ephesians 2, the Bible would not say,
in Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins;".

I realize that for lack of a more disparaging delineation,
there are those with such an extent of expert linguistic prowess, as I'd said,
that they don't recognize a sentence when they see one,
or don't know what a sentence is, but as a sentence,
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:" Ephesians 2:8, God does not represent "faith"
to be "of yourselves".

That would be Paganism, not Bible Christianity.

Then, to take the lead from those who base their theology
and testimony of salvation on the misinterpretation of a preposition,
for them to be forced to say that "faith" is "not of yourselves", to not be Pagan,

AND that "faith" is not "the gift of God", at the same time,
to be sure to proclaim their distain for God being credited
with what He says is as how He quickens and saves a lost soul,

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; then,
that is going to need to be called The Religion of Retardation,
or some equally stringent criteria, isn't it?

"faith" is "not of yourselves",
AND "faith" is not "the gift of God", at the same time?

Then, what is it?

Setting around saying , "I have faith that maybe I'm the Elect
and maybe I'm not, so we'll just wait and see"?

Fatalism is also not Christianity, either.

When God saves a soul, Jesus said,
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Luke 19:10.

If you say the lost soul has some prerogative
to decide on whether they will Quicken themselves to Eternal Life,
by having "faith", STOP.

You've missed the message of the Bible and Christianity.

"faith in that verse, that is the salvation done in the cross by Jesus Christ".

So, do you know what you believe or not?

If that is what you are saying, you'd be agreeing with God(?)
and you'd be consenting to what God said in His Own Words, as being TRUE(?)
"For by grace are ye saved through faith"!!!

Are you SURE you want to do that?

How about not basing your bright ideas about what salvation is
and what it is not, by your dependence on the misinterpretation of a preposition.

And try not to brag on your ignorance, in general.

 

John 3:33;
"He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true."

Those who have already received His testimony, in Salvation,
"hath set to his seal that God is true".

"ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise",

or, "your conviction was sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise
(which you had already received when the Lord saved you, in the New Birth),

as in, "you had confirmation witnessed into your own conscience and soul
of your possession of Salvation and the blessing of Salvation, personally,
by the presence of the Holy Spirit, after you were saved, in the New Birth,
AND THESE CONFIRMATIONS ARE WITNESSES THAT SEALS IT FOR YOU."

Ephesians 1 Gill's Exposition

"...it is to be understood of
the confirming, certifying, and assuring the saints,
as to their interest in the favour of God, and in the blessings of grace,
of every kind, and their right and title to the heavenly glory;
See Gill on 2 Corinthians 1:22,

2 Corinthians 1 Gill's Exposition

2 Corinthians 1:22
"Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."

"... a seal is used to certify, make sure, or assure the truth of a thing;

see John 3:33;
"He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true."

in which sense the word "sealing" is used here,
and intends that assurance which God gives his people
of their interest in his love,
and the covenant of grace;
of their election of God,
and redemption by Christ;
of their interest in Christ, and union with him;
of their justification by him, and adoption through him;
of the truth of grace in their hearts, their perseverance in it,
and sure and certain enjoyment of eternal glory."


"the Spirit of God also is sent down "into our hearts" as a pledge of it;
where he dwells as in his temple, supplies us with all grace,
witnesses to us our sonship, and assures us of the heavenly glory:

"and as such he is "given"; and an unmerited free grace gift he is;

"for him to be given in this manner, and for such a purpose,

is a wonderful display of the love of the Father,
and of the Son,

and is a surprising instance of his grace
and condescension of the Spirit,

and for which we should be abundantly thankful."