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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    God, in His wisdom, can reconcile the fact of His soveriegnty with the ability to make man a morally accountable being. So it's not either/or but both/and, with man's participation required. The church came to the understanding that God, existing in eternity and in His omniscience, knows our...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    Yes, reconciliation must take place beforehand, along with the grace to draw us to the God Jesus died to reconcile us with. Now, will we care? Will we come when He calls, or open the door when He knocks? Will we accept that reconciliation; do we want it,? And will we remain in that state?
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    Faith without woks explained

    Thank you for not meaning to embarrass me. So, are you saying that a person who becomes born again never sins, becomes perfectly sinless, such that this should be quite observable in their lives, for instance? And, BTW, you wouldn't be embarrassing only me but also the historic Christian Church...
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    The 2 great commandments and self hatred

    Jesus doesn’t want us to hate ourselves, but to love God even to the willingness to give up the empty pursuits of this life, to give up this life, itself, to die to self, to our egos/pride that are actually the true source of self-hatred because they always raise standards for us to live by that...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    The fruit, itself, is the result of grace, the life of God in us now. It’s His work, that we cooperate in, or not. So, again, life through the Spirit: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the...
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    Parallels and divergences, Calvin, Luther, and Saint Augustine

    Doesn't sound like too much of a difference really. Either way, as asked, is this imputation/reckoning of righteousness real personal righteousness that’s actually given to us, so that we might now become more just and live more justly than before, or simply a change in status before the eyes of...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    That's just novel theory. We can't be raised apart from Him but we're still morally accountable beings, not inanimate objects or beasts-and, again, He's not into producing automatons- beggining in Eden. But when we turn, when we respond in faith to His drawing, He's very, very pleased-because we...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    You can be confident that that is God's purpose and yet Paul knew full well that it's still contingent on our remaining in Him. That's why we're told to remain in Him, and to strive, to be vigilant, persist in doing good, make effort, persevere, etc , etc. Again, both carrots and sticks are...
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    Faith without woks explained

    Well, I quote a lot of verses more than those, but chose those here because you wish to reduce good fruit to nothing more than having faith. Anyway, it appears you already answered the question; there aren't too many options there.
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    Faith without woks explained

    Of course. Any gift can be rejected. We don't work for the gift, we only turn to God in faith. But we can fail to care after tasting of the heavenly gift: we can fail to care about Him, and return to the flesh.
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    Faith without woks explained

    The works God desires of us such as those prepared for us in advance, Ephesians 2:10, are works of grace and most definitely not works of the law.
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    Faith without woks explained

    Nonsense, not to mention unscriptural. As John tells us. "Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the...
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    Faith without woks explained

    Good, and it's a choice that must be made, daily as we pick uop our cross and follow. Righteousness is not merely forensically declared as some say, and the old man cannot hold sway over the new, or we're not His according to the 1st letter of John, for one.
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    Faith without woks explained

    No, it's both. Turning to God is a turning away from sin and the world while knowing our sins are forgiven. I returned to Christianity when I realized that my efforts at being good, based on the law or anything else, were futile, apart from Him. That realization came when I read this new...
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    Faith without woks explained

    I see that as pretend righteousness unless it means righteousness born of love with fruit that naturally follows from that.
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    Faith without woks explained

    You're making it bad to simply know of our obligation, the part we play. The bible wouldn't even be necesasry if not for that need. To put it another way: love is both a supernatural gift, and a human choice, to accept, embrace, and express that gift. Man's most basic obligation is to love, as...
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    Faith without woks explained

    Apart from Jesus we can do no authentically good works. With Him the righteous requirements of the law can be met in us (Rom 8:4). That's the primary difference between the old and new covenants, being with vs being apart from God, being engrafted into the Vine or not.
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    Faith without woks explained

    Yes, he needs to be "good enough" in this life, according to God's wisdom who knows and judges by the heart; not everyone is given the same amount of gifts and opportunity but all are expected to give a return (Matt 25:14-30), with more demanded of those given more (Luke 12:48). We love because...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    I take the whole counsel of Scripture into account, the carrots along with the sticks. I certainly wouldn't have a great deal of confidence either way if I were engaging in truly serious sin, "sin that leads to death" as it were. The notion of reducing all good fruit to no more that having faith...
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    No person can come to Christ by their own freewill !

    It doesn’t work that way. Scripture portrays fallen man with many metaphors: lost, in need of being found/saved, captive, in need of being freed, sick, in need of being healed, asleep, in need of being awoken, dead, in need of being raised. The church has never taken this in any kind of wooden...
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