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Hi Hiswitness, I see you are yet another Calvinist who does not read well. So by the numbers,Are we saved by grace through faith? If you agree with the inspired word you will say yes. If you cannot read, you will say no.
If we are saved by grace through faith, does that mean our faith existed before we were saved? Look at it this way, if you enter a room through a door, did you go through the door before you were in the room? If you can read you will say yes, but you will say no because that is what Calvinism teaches. Hence saved by grace through faith becomes saved by grace and given faith. Not what it says.
If I come to faith does that save me, or does God only save those whose faith He credits as righteousness? If you can read, Romans 4:4-5/24, you will say yes, but you will say no because that is what the mistaken view of Calvinism teaches.
But I am going to take a chance you actually want to learn what scripture teaches, so I am going to explain "faith of Christ" to you.
In the Greek, and you can look at it if you Google an online interlinear, you will see where the KJV reads faith of Christ, the Greek just reads faith Christ. So the translators added of or in because of their understanding of the Greek Grammar. Now if the phrase is in the genitive, which you can also see in the online interlinear, then "of" is the correct translation according to modern scholarship, i.e. Dr. Daniel B. Wallace.
So where does this phrase appear in the text, where both "faith" and the following words (i.e Christ, Jesus Christ, Son, etc) are in the genitive? Here they are:
Romans 3:22 (NASB) “[the righteousness of God has been manifested] even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;” If we look at the phrase “faith in Jesus Christ” we see in the Greek no connector, no “en” but simply that faith and Jesus and Christ are all in the genitive case. Thus, other translations (YLT and the KJV) render the same construction, “faith of Jesus Christ.” What I suggest is the actual idea Paul had in mind is “Christ’s faithful faith or faithfulness.” Hence, I offer the possible translation, “even the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faithfulness for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.”
This rendering places more glory upon Jesus Christ, is consistent with the grammar, and does not detract from the idea that our belief in Christ helps to gain access to God’s righteousness which was made available through Christ’s faithfulness, His sinless obedience to God’s will, including laying down His life on the cross.
In Romans 3:26, the ending of the verse usually reads “…who has faith in Jesus.” Actually the Greek reads “…the one of the faith of Jesus.” So the idea here is to up the ante, and indicate our faith must be “of” the same kind of faithful faith as Jesus displayed.
When Paul uses the word “faith” he is referring to faithful faith, the live faith of James and not the dead faith of James.
Galatians 2:16 (NASB), “nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” Here we see the phrase “in Christ” three times with two of them missing Paul’s idea in my opinion. Here is my alternate rendering: “nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through Christ’s faithfulness, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by Christ’s faithfulness, and not by works of the Law, since by the works of the Law, shall no flesh be justified.” I think this was Paul’s actual message.
In Galatians 3:22, we find “promise through faith in Jesus Christ” but would better rendered “promise through Jesus Christ’s faithfulness.”
As you can see, the "faith of Christ" or Christ's faithfulness should only appear in these five examples. Where the two words are not both in the genitive, then faith in Christ is the proper translation according to modern scholarship. Thus, the actual text provides absolute no support for the Calvinist doctrine that Christ's faith is in view where the text reads "faith Christ" (not both in genitive) or when the text has the word meaning "in" between them (i.e. faith (en)in Christ. No way to translate that accurately as anything but faith in Christ.
So where "faith of Christ" appears in the text, it should be translated as Christ's faithfulness or "faithfulness of Christ." Note the KJV also translates "faith of Christ" in other verses but in those cases, both words are not in the genitive and should be translated faith in Christ.
I hope I did not waste my time.
"Nice" way to encourage and react to a new poster van!
the very reason that we as sinners MUST have God granted faith, is that we have NO spiritual life in us until the time of being reborn in Christ, so we cannot come to Christ by ourselves, nor have "inherit faith!"
That is what Calvinists mean by knowing totality of the scriptures, as we must take into account the spiritual state of man before even getting into faith in Christ!
Yet another fiction, Yeshua1. More assertions with no reference to supporting scripture. Matthew 13:1-26 teaches fallen men, when presented with the gospel can receive it if they have not been hardened by the practice of sin or God for His purpose. Your doctrine has no support in scripture. What about no one seeks God? Does this mean no one seeks God at any time as Calvinism claims? Nope. No one seeks God when they are sinning is the contextual meaning. Thus since no one seeks God [when they are sinning] all men fall short of the glory of God. But you need to be able to read.
Y Matthew 13:1-26 teaches fallen men, when presented with the gospel can receive it if they have not been hardened by the practice of sin or God for His purpose.
Wow, talk about fiction. There is no foundation for asserting that Matthew 13 teaches such.
I see where Matthew 13:1-26 does not teach fallen men seek God and receive the gospel with joy. As I said, Calvinists pretend they cannot read. Folks, just read it.
Notice the nullification tools, claiming a parable cannot be used for doctrine. However, they do not seem to be able to read the very words of Jesus that explained the parable, for they would say an explanation of a parable cannot be used for doctrine if it conflicts with Calvinism. LOL
Next I see Yeshua1 has once again posted that Paul teaches natural men cannot receive the spiritual things of God. This assertion has been demonstrated false numerous times, yet the Calvinist simply repeats the assertion and never addresses the rebuttal.
You see, Calvinists read "the spiritual things" as "all the spiritual things" of God, but that conflicts with Matthew 13:1-26 yet again. They simply add to scripture (all) and ignore that that addition creates a conflict with many other passages. If you read the entire passage, 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3 you see the idea is that natural man cannot accept the spiritual things Paul refers to as "solid food" but natural men are able to understand the spiritual things Paul describes as "milk." How is it that this plain truth has escaped all Calvinists for 400 years? Any time a verse or passage conflicts with Calvinism they ignore it or nullify it. Note that both men of flesh and babes in Christ are not able to accept "solid food" but are able to accept "milk."
The simple truth is Calvinism is a mistaken view of scripture that conflicts with passage after passage and takes verse after verse out of context to create doctrine not actually present in scripture.
Jesus showed in that parable that ONLY the 4th group actually was saved by the Gospel!