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Originally Posted by
Saxon
Salvation is not doing; it is believing! It is counting what God believes to be true for you and about you as true for you and about you. Our performance is not the source of our righteousness before God; the only righteousness God can recognize is our position in Jesus Christ when it comes to mankind and mankind’s indwelling sin nature in the flesh. To believe that what you are doing and what you are restraining yourselves from doing is the way you are earning your righteous standing with God, you have got to put a lot of confidence in your flesh to do that; religiondumb is doing that! Those who are IN Jesus Christ are those who are NOT walking after the faulty ***umption that their righteousness is related to their performance, that was Israel’s problem. Those who are IN Jesus Christ are those who place no confidence in their flesh, but understand, as Paul understood, that in their flesh dwells no good thing. The sanctification that comes by way of being placed INTO Christ - joined to Christ - is positional truth. A sanctified position IN Christ comes not as a result of behavior, it comes as a result of belief! God is not looking at how well we adhere to any standard. God is not looking at our production. God is not looking at our behavior in order to view us as being in favor with him. What a marvelous plan God had for us! God has kept the fingerprints of the guilt-worthy off of the righteousness he designed for the guilt-worthy.
You seem to think that all that is required of the lost human is to become saved and all is well. There is a point in life that a person accepts the free gift of salvation and becomes a new creature in Christ. Is that all there is?
You also have written about those that are “in Christ” doing and restraining. Getting in Christ and being in Christ are two different things. Consider Ephesians 2:8 to 10. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 explains how we are to get into Christ. It also affirms that it is grace that saves a person through faith in Christ. There is also the fact that salvation is a gift. Verse 9 clearly states that it is not of works that we are saved in Christ. Now this is the way to get in Christ (saved) but what about when you are in Christ? Do you become like a plate of water waiting for the sweet by and by?
Ephesians 2:10 indicated that our time of work is upon us because we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Once we are in Christ Jesus we are expected to do works. This is not to save us, as it is clear that salvation has been bestowed upon us before the works are required.
My question to you is what happens if we do not do what God expects Christians to do? If you are going to be a Christian you have to do what a Christian is created to do. If a truck driver stops driving a truck, soon that person is no longer considered a truck driver. Performance has now become a factor (See John 15:1 to 10)
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
John 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.