Those practicing righteousness are the righteous!

[Samuels]

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Your righteousness will not get you in the gate... God the Father looks through his Son Jesus Christ who is your righteousness and imputes his righteousness to you... Your righteousness couldn't save a flea!... Brother Glen

Bro Glen, then what are the verses in the OP for?

Initially, God does everything for us.
Then, it's up to us to do our part.
E.G. remember the call to do "our reasonable service" in Romans 12:1?

 

[Dave G]

How many times do I need to say that ...
obeying Jesus out of love is NOT doing good works/deeds?

It is for me.

Jesus FORGIVES born-again believers for all of their PAST sins

God the Father forgives born again believers of all their sins:

" And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" ( Colossians 2:13-14 ).

Not just the ones they committed before they believed.

“… they have been cleansed from their old sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)
(“old” NKJV, RSV, NLT ●●● “former” NASB, ESV ●●● “past” NIV, NCSB)

You may wish to read the context of that again:

" And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ." ( 2 Peter 1:8-11 ).

This passage describes a believer that has forgotten that he was cleansed of His old ( God no longer looks at them ) sins...
All of them as Colossians 2:13-14 states.

It encourages them to give diligence to make their calling and election sure, Samuels.
Do you know what "calling" and "election" are?

 

[Dave G]

My offer to send you a NT free of charge still stands.
In the NT you will find the KEY to eternal life.
This is NOT found in any denomination.

Thanks, but again, I already have a Bible which I read most every day.

It tells me that the key to eternal life is not "in the New Testament" ( i.e. through studying His word )...
It's in a Person, the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ ( John 14:6 ).
The Scriptures bear witness of Him.

He tells us to study His word, not to know Him, but to know more about Him ( and to rightly divide His words, 2 Timothy 2:15 ) and because we already know Him.

Finally, I'm not a "denominational Christian".
I'm a child of the living God, saved by His grace and mercy.

The NT + Holy Spirit leads to spiritual understanding and eternal life.

Spiritual understanding is something granted by God through the new birth and the Holy Spirit's indwelling ( Matthew 13:10-11, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 ).
The Bible does not lead to it, God does ( Proverbs 9:10 ) through His power, and using His word.
See James 1:18.

Eternal life is to know God and His Son ( John 17:2 )...
It is a spirit-to-spirit relationship, not something that someone can "jump start" by reading God's word.
The Lord does the "jump-starting" by calling His elect through His word and by the power of the Spirit.

Which leads me to a question...

Have you been "called", Samuels?
It happens all-of-a-sudden-like, when someone is sitting in front of the preaching of God's word and they realize that His words are true and that they are a sinner in need of a Saviour...
And they believe on Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

I've never forgotten that moment;
It was in May of 1978.

But, you must be OPEN ... and NOT have any false pre-conceived ideas, doctrines, etc

No man is open to God's word unless they are "of God" ( John 8:43-47 ).
Outside of God opening the heart ( Acts of the Apostles 16:14 ) we will not hear His words.

Again, may He bless you greatly in your studies, my friend.

 

[Titus Tarnum]

.

Can a BAC get away with being a habitual sinner (and dying w/o repentance)
... and goes to heaven
whilst
a non-believer CANNOT get away with being a habitual sinner (and dying w/o repentance)
... and goes to hell?

Now, there's a question for you to ponder!

ALSO, please forgive the head-scratcher in Revelation 21:8 above ...

You might notice that the "unbelieving" are placed in their own category.
So, just who are the rest of those folks going into the lake of fire?
It appears to me that they're NOT unbelievers!

The reason I asked you if you believe you can regain your salvation is important; if you believe that a saved person can lose their salvation and their name is removed from the book of life and the Holy Spirit is removed from them, then fine, but most people who believe in freewill and prevenient grace believe that all you have to do is repent to get your salvation back so you fall in and out of salvation and if you're lucky you die while you're in a state of repentance. It is my understanding though that per Hebrews 6:6, that if you fall away you can't get your repentance back. This in a way is comforting to me believe it or not because there's been many times that I have been worthy of damnation as a Christian but yet my name was never removed from the book of life. That makes God sovereign over your salvation because you can't remove your name from His book… I don't recommend it but you can sin all your life but unless God wants to remove your name from His Book it's going to stay there, you can beg him to remove your name from the book of life but it's His choice. The book of life was written before the foundation of the world with your name in it, it had everyone's name in it because it's a book of creation, so if your name is removed from that book it can't be put back in because it was written a long time ago. Hopefully this won't send the conversation in a different direction because you don't agree with me about the book of life, but there isn't a place that says "he who overcomes I will write his name in the book of life", God says to he overcomes I will not blot his name out of the book of life meaning it was already in there, Saved or unsaved. Whether or not you believe what I say about the book of life you have to agree that until your name is removed from it there is still hope for you, when a Christian is told to repent it means repentance can help them in their walk, it doesn't mean repentance puts them back into Salvation. You have a misunderstanding of what happens at the cross. Hebrews 10:26 says that if we sin willfully there is no more sacrifice for sin, have you ever sinned willfully lately? Do you think that at that point you are no longer under the blood and have to have the blood of Christ on you again? The blood of Christ was spilled at the cross where all your sins were paid for if you need more blood from Jesus I'm sorry for you He's not on the cross anymore and He's not bleeding anymore… Abraham and all the patriarchs died with the promise of salvation but they had to wait for their sins to be covered by the blood of Jesus on the cross. All of their sins were paid for at the cross just like all of ours are paid for at the cross, they look forward we look behind.
Luckily for us, Hebrews 10:27 describes trying to re-sacrifice Christ but if you go back to Hebrews 10:17 you will see that once the sacrifice is applied to you God doesn't remember your sin anymore and there is no sacrifice for sin needed. In the space of 10 versus God says there is no more sacrifice for sin the first time in a positive way and the second time in a negative way I believe in the first

 

[Samuels]

It appears that DaveG and Titus have no need for 1 John 1:9
as a means of Jesus' cleansing them from their recent sin(s).

It appears that they believe they have been forgiven
for ALL of their sins (past, present, and future).

Thus, and therefore, they believe they are free to sin and still go to heaven.

BTW, they must also ignore and reject ALL of the Lord's dire warnings
in the NT about the possibility of losing their salvation.

 

[AustinC]

It appears that DaveG and Titus have no need for 1 John 1:9
as a means of Jesus' cleansing them from their recent sin(s).

It appears that they believe they have been forgiven
for ALL of their sins (past, present, and future).

Thus, and therefore, they believe they are free to sin and still go to heaven.

BTW, they must also ignore and reject ALL of the Lord's dire warnings
in the NT about the possibility of losing their salvation.

Does the Spirit of Christ indwell the believer, Samuel? If so, will the Spirit be so weak as to not convict the children of God regarding their sin?

The problem is you are acting as though the person whom God redeems does all the work by his own, apart from God working in them. You actually sound like a Roman Catholic who would say they are justified by faith plus works, especially the work of partaking in the sacraments to maintain salvation.

Why do you live and teach as though God's Spirit is non-existent?

 

[Brightfame52]

God does NOT practice righteousness for the BAC;
the BAC must do the practicing of righteousness for him/her self.

"If you know that He is righteous,
you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him."
1 John 2:29

"Little children, let no one deceive you.
He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous."
1 John 3:7

"In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest:
Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God,
nor is he who does not love his brother."
1 John 3:10

Of course, we need to understand ...
God only invites into heaven those whom He sees as being righteous.

God sees as righteous and declares righteous those whom Christ rendered obedience for, for its written Rom 5:19
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

 

[Samuels]

Why do you live and teach as though God's Spirit is non-existent?

How does thou knowest how I liveth? ... Are you out of your mind?
I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit (with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues).
And you think I don't know all about the Holy Spirit.

 

[AustinC]

Bro Glen, then what are the verses in the OP for?

Initially, God does everything for us.
Then, it's up to us to do our part.
E.G. remember the call to do "our reasonable service" in Romans 12:1?

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
~ Galatians 3:3

 

[AustinC]

How does thou knowest how I liveth? ... Are you out of your mind?
I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit (with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues).
And you think I don't know all about the Holy Spirit.

Yes, I think you know nothing about the Holy Spirit and live by your flesh.

 

[Samuels]

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ~ Galatians 3:3

Those Galatians were trying to ADD some of the works of the old law to the finished work of Christ.

Me, I'm trying to convince people to obey Jesus' commandments. For example ...
John 14
15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.
And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father
23 If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;
and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words ...

Do you think loving Jesus is necessary to go to heaven?
Ergo, what about obeying His commandments?

 

[Samuels]

God sees as righteous and declares righteous those whom Christ rendered obedience for,
for its written Rom 5:19
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Please understand that one's initial condition after first being saved can be altered.
E.G. Romans 6:16-19
slave of sin >>> eternal death
slave of obedience >>> righteousness
slave of righteousness >>> holiness

Does God FORCE any BAC to NOT be a slave of sin?
Does God FORCE any BAC to be a slave of obedience?
Does God FORCE any BAC to be a slave of righteousness?
Don't all BACs have free will?
If a BAC chooses to be a slave of the right thing(s), is this works-salvation?

 

[Brightfame52]

Please understand that one's initial condition after first being saved can be altered.
E.G. Romans 6:16-19
slave of sin >>> eternal death
slave of obedience >>> righteousness
slave of righteousness >>> holiness

Does God FORCE any BAC to NOT be a slave of sin?
Does God FORCE any BAC to be a slave of obedience?
Does God FORCE any BAC to be a slave of righteousness?
Don't all BACs have free will?
If a BAC chooses to be a slave of the right thing(s), is this works-salvation?

Sorry, I dont know what you talking about friend !

 

[Yeshua1]

Those Galatians were trying to ADD some of the works of the old law to the finished work of Christ.

Me, I'm trying to convince people to obey Jesus' commandments. For example ...
John 14
15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.
And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father
23 If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;
and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words ...

Do you think loving Jesus is necessary to go to heaven?
Ergo, what about obeying His commandments?

Is the Sabbath included among them to be kept?

 

[Samuels]

Dis is just another one of my favorite passages ...

Galatians 5:1-4 (NKJV)
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ
has made us (BACs) free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage
… You (BACs) have become estranged from Christ
… you (BACs) have fallen from grace.”

To be estranged from Christ and fallen from grace
means you have lost your salvation.

 

[Samuels]

Romans 6:16-19
slave of sin >>> eternal death
slave of obedience >>> righteousness
slave of righteousness >>> holiness

Sorry, I dont know what you talking about friend !

Then, you are in bad bad shape, friend.
But, thou artest NOT alone, friend.

 

[37818]

To be estranged from Christ and fallen from grace
means you have lost your salvation.

By never having Christ in you. 2 Corinthians 13:5, Hebrews 13:5.

 

[Yeshua1]

Dis is just another one of my favorite passages ...

Galatians 5:1-4 (NKJV)
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ
has made us (BACs) free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage
… You (BACs) have become estranged from Christ
… you (BACs) have fallen from grace.”

To be estranged from Christ and fallen from grace
means you have lost your salvation.

Nope, paul was stating that if one wants to get yoked up again in the law, then fallen from grace, in the sense cannot have freedom while chained up like that, but still saved!

 

[AustinC]

Dis is just another one of my favorite passages ...

Galatians 5:1-4 (NKJV)
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ
has made us (BACs) free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage
… You (BACs) have become estranged from Christ
… you (BACs) have fallen from grace.”

To be estranged from Christ and fallen from grace
means you have lost your salvation.

Do you realize that it is your theology that is attempting to put a yoke of bondage on believers? You are the one attempting to estrange believers from Christ. You are the person believers must be wary of because you are attempting to bring them back under slavery to sin.

 

[Yeshua1]

Do you realize that it is your theology that is attempting to put a yoke of bondage on believers? You are the one attempting to estrange believers from Christ. You are the person believers must be wary of because you are attempting to bring them back under slavery to sin.

Peter was smart when he stated that do not seek to put us back under that yoke of bondage that even the Jews could not keep!