I agree with what you have said. The work of the cross is finished 🙌🏻. The love and work of God is unconditional and we can earn nothing. That being said that is only the beginning of a life in Grace with Jesus that gives us eternal life. That work is by believing. The whole book of John explains eternal life as does Romans. It is the promises of God that we work out through our sanctification. The Word IF is used in the Bible over 1800 times. IF my people will humble themselves then… or IF you abide in me I will abide in you. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. As examples. The promises of God are conditional and we play the major role in how we are judged on that day. This is a Kingdom principle. This is why it says WE will give account for what we have done good or bad. Jesus says we will either be given more or what has been given will be taken away. Some will be given crowns while others will just be servants in the house of God for eternity. I no longer call you servants but friends. There is to much on this topic for a quick discussion however. Just know there is another side to your article that one MUST understand to get the FULL gospel of Jesus Christ. Blessings to you and please know that this message is to encourage you in the Lord not criticism 😊❤️✝️
I greatly apologize that I missed this comment so long ago. I thought I would get an email notification for these things and I did not. But I was poking around my site and found this today. Hopefully you see my response after all this time.
First, I commend you on your attitude which even came through in your written words. You seem to be humble and that is always needed in any discourse. I also agree that these matters require a lot of discourse which is difficult in a forum like this. I will respond to your assertions with what I know to be truth, but ultimately it is between you and God of course. I am quite certain you are a child of God, but I have a feeling from what you have said you might struggle to truly walk in His power.
There are two major issues with your comments. One is that you put “conditions” on God's promises beyond faith. And the other is that to justify these conditions you primarily referenced scripture that is before the cross and thus before the new covenant was enacted. These are serious flaws in your argument. Yes, the old covenant had many conditions. But, the new made it obsolete. (Hebrews 8:17)
One of Paul's most brilliant defenses of the new covenant vs. the old covenant is in the middle of Galatians, specifically chapter 3. The Galatians were trying to put Law type moral behavior conditions on the new covenant and Paul is wants them to see the new covenant only has one condition: faith. He writes this in Galatians 3:15:
“Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.” (NASB) He goes on to relate this to adding conditions to God's new covenant and how it makes it null. God's promises will be of little to no benefit if there are conditions we have to meet beyond becoming His child by faith. Any conditions, like behavior, can only be met once you are gifted God’s promises and respond to them with a no condition mindset. This is a chicken and egg scenario.
Further, to distinquish the new covenant from the old in Hebrews 6:13-18, the author shows that the covenant given to Abraham was not conditional upon Abraham. God swore the oath of the covenant with Himself. This is why Abraham could sleep with his wife's maid to try to fulfill part of the covenant yet God still fulfilled it despite Abraham’s failures. The covenant was never conditional upon Abraham at all, God was going to fulfill His promises despite Abraham's behavior.
The author goes on to say that for the new covenant, to all believers, He did the same thing. The covenant is not between us and God though we benefit from it by faith. It is still between “Two Unchangeable Things”, God to God. Which means, there is nothing for us to do but receive God’s new covenant promises by faith. That is the only condition. And to add other conditions, like behavior, calls God a liar and negates the covenant. For an unbeliever, trying to enter into the covenant by works means you will never do it. For a believer, trying to act as if you must do good works so God acts also negates the covenantal benefits.
And this leads to your justification passages for conditions on us to receive the benefit of God's promises. There is a serious error among traditional teaching that the new covenant started at Christ’s birth rather than His death and/or that all of Christ's teaching was the new covenant or gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am writing an article about this I hope to publish soon. But every passage you mention in the gospels is evangelistic. It is how to get into the Kingdom, not how you relate to God once you are His child and in the Kingdom. These are two very different things.
Your old testament reference is obviously old covenant and conditional, but it has been replaced with the new, and we are not under the old so those conditions don't apply to us. But even Christ's words are to show that the old covenant cannot get you into the kingdom. This has gotten lengthy so I will discuss “abiding”. Abiding is also evangelistic. When you abide or live in Christ (and He in you), then you are saved - a new creation and child of God. So yes, when speaking to unbelieving Jews (even His disciples at the time), getting saved or entering the Kingdom was conditional upon “living in Him”. But this is not our work - our work is faith - then He causes us to abide in Him at salvation. And what He does is permanent and good.
If you doubt me, the same author clarifies this in 1 John 3:15: “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” BSB Since the faith path to salvation is also described as “confessing Christ” this is just another way to describe salvation. This is what Christ prayed for in John 17:20-21 for all believers - that they would become one with the Trinity. And because of His finished work, that prayer was answered. All true believers already and forever abide in Christ and He in them no matter what they do or don't do.
Now, the elephant in the room is behavior. I'm sure this is your main concern. Because I don't call our lists of behaviors required to please God then I don't have a complete gospel. “Christ in you” has an impact on your behavior. But oneness with Christ must come first. It is the source of power to love others which is the basis for all faith based good behavior. If we think we must achieve some level of behavior in order for God to act then we will be going to flesh power to make ourselves good enough for God to act. This is a vicious cycle - it will never work. We may have a strong moral flesh that can obey God's rules really well, but it is only a form of godliness without God's power if we are doing it to earn God's promises or other Kingdom things.
So, we must have a mindset of no conditions for God's power to work in and through us. By adding conditions we quench the Spirit. God's promises are available all the time. On our best days and our worst days. Without Christ we can do nothing. Trying to be good enough so that Christ will act is hubris. We can only ever be truly good because Christ has already acted within us to make us good at the core. By faith, we can access that power within and walk well. Often it is when we are in a failure pattern we need God's promises the most! How hopeless is it to think that because are not behaving good enough then God is holding out on us. Wow!
I know that was a lengthy answer and may open more questions than answers. If you do see this, I hope it spurs you to additional consideration about the gospel and what salvation really means. The Kingdom of God is black and white. You are either in or out. The condition to enter is faith in Christ - that's it. Then we learn to walk in a Kingdom way which is still by faith in Christ. But if we are stupid and learning takes a long time, Christ doesn't kick us out. Because we are God's child, period, and He doesn't abort His kids for bad behavior. But, we can certainly be really miserable as we do things that go against our Kingdom nature. And God as our loving Father will allow us the misery and destruction that come from quenching Him so that we hopefully eventually learn how to walk by the Spirit and avoid the pain and misery of sinning.
But the key to walking by the Spirit is faith and trust that all of God’s new covenant promises are true and available for us at all times and not dependent upon us and our track record. Again, it is at the point of our worst stumbles that we need His promises to be true the most. It is where we go to get back on our feet and keep growing and learning.
Thanks again for your humility and proclamation of love. I send God's love He has filled my heart with back to you. I have no desire for arguments. My only desire is that you walk well in God's promises and as His child. I believe we both want that, but have radically different ways to achieve it. Only when we stop trying to earn God's promises can we receive and be empowered by them by faith. Walk well in God's blessings my brother.
I agree with what you have said. The work of the cross is finished 🙌🏻. The love and work of God is unconditional and we can earn nothing. That being said that is only the beginning of a life in Grace with Jesus that gives us eternal life. That work is by believing. The whole book of John explains eternal life as does Romans. It is the promises of God that we work out through our sanctification. The Word IF is used in the Bible over 1800 times. IF my people will humble themselves then… or IF you abide in me I will abide in you. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. As examples. The promises of God are conditional and we play the major role in how we are judged on that day. This is a Kingdom principle. This is why it says WE will give account for what we have done good or bad. Jesus says we will either be given more or what has been given will be taken away. Some will be given crowns while others will just be servants in the house of God for eternity. I no longer call you servants but friends. There is to much on this topic for a quick discussion however. Just know there is another side to your article that one MUST understand to get the FULL gospel of Jesus Christ. Blessings to you and please know that this message is to encourage you in the Lord not criticism 😊❤️✝️
Kenny,
I greatly apologize that I missed this comment so long ago. I thought I would get an email notification for these things and I did not. But I was poking around my site and found this today. Hopefully you see my response after all this time.
First, I commend you on your attitude which even came through in your written words. You seem to be humble and that is always needed in any discourse. I also agree that these matters require a lot of discourse which is difficult in a forum like this. I will respond to your assertions with what I know to be truth, but ultimately it is between you and God of course. I am quite certain you are a child of God, but I have a feeling from what you have said you might struggle to truly walk in His power.
There are two major issues with your comments. One is that you put “conditions” on God's promises beyond faith. And the other is that to justify these conditions you primarily referenced scripture that is before the cross and thus before the new covenant was enacted. These are serious flaws in your argument. Yes, the old covenant had many conditions. But, the new made it obsolete. (Hebrews 8:17)
One of Paul's most brilliant defenses of the new covenant vs. the old covenant is in the middle of Galatians, specifically chapter 3. The Galatians were trying to put Law type moral behavior conditions on the new covenant and Paul is wants them to see the new covenant only has one condition: faith. He writes this in Galatians 3:15:
“Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.” (NASB) He goes on to relate this to adding conditions to God's new covenant and how it makes it null. God's promises will be of little to no benefit if there are conditions we have to meet beyond becoming His child by faith. Any conditions, like behavior, can only be met once you are gifted God’s promises and respond to them with a no condition mindset. This is a chicken and egg scenario.
Further, to distinquish the new covenant from the old in Hebrews 6:13-18, the author shows that the covenant given to Abraham was not conditional upon Abraham. God swore the oath of the covenant with Himself. This is why Abraham could sleep with his wife's maid to try to fulfill part of the covenant yet God still fulfilled it despite Abraham’s failures. The covenant was never conditional upon Abraham at all, God was going to fulfill His promises despite Abraham's behavior.
The author goes on to say that for the new covenant, to all believers, He did the same thing. The covenant is not between us and God though we benefit from it by faith. It is still between “Two Unchangeable Things”, God to God. Which means, there is nothing for us to do but receive God’s new covenant promises by faith. That is the only condition. And to add other conditions, like behavior, calls God a liar and negates the covenant. For an unbeliever, trying to enter into the covenant by works means you will never do it. For a believer, trying to act as if you must do good works so God acts also negates the covenantal benefits.
And this leads to your justification passages for conditions on us to receive the benefit of God's promises. There is a serious error among traditional teaching that the new covenant started at Christ’s birth rather than His death and/or that all of Christ's teaching was the new covenant or gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am writing an article about this I hope to publish soon. But every passage you mention in the gospels is evangelistic. It is how to get into the Kingdom, not how you relate to God once you are His child and in the Kingdom. These are two very different things.
Your old testament reference is obviously old covenant and conditional, but it has been replaced with the new, and we are not under the old so those conditions don't apply to us. But even Christ's words are to show that the old covenant cannot get you into the kingdom. This has gotten lengthy so I will discuss “abiding”. Abiding is also evangelistic. When you abide or live in Christ (and He in you), then you are saved - a new creation and child of God. So yes, when speaking to unbelieving Jews (even His disciples at the time), getting saved or entering the Kingdom was conditional upon “living in Him”. But this is not our work - our work is faith - then He causes us to abide in Him at salvation. And what He does is permanent and good.
If you doubt me, the same author clarifies this in 1 John 3:15: “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” BSB Since the faith path to salvation is also described as “confessing Christ” this is just another way to describe salvation. This is what Christ prayed for in John 17:20-21 for all believers - that they would become one with the Trinity. And because of His finished work, that prayer was answered. All true believers already and forever abide in Christ and He in them no matter what they do or don't do.
Now, the elephant in the room is behavior. I'm sure this is your main concern. Because I don't call our lists of behaviors required to please God then I don't have a complete gospel. “Christ in you” has an impact on your behavior. But oneness with Christ must come first. It is the source of power to love others which is the basis for all faith based good behavior. If we think we must achieve some level of behavior in order for God to act then we will be going to flesh power to make ourselves good enough for God to act. This is a vicious cycle - it will never work. We may have a strong moral flesh that can obey God's rules really well, but it is only a form of godliness without God's power if we are doing it to earn God's promises or other Kingdom things.
So, we must have a mindset of no conditions for God's power to work in and through us. By adding conditions we quench the Spirit. God's promises are available all the time. On our best days and our worst days. Without Christ we can do nothing. Trying to be good enough so that Christ will act is hubris. We can only ever be truly good because Christ has already acted within us to make us good at the core. By faith, we can access that power within and walk well. Often it is when we are in a failure pattern we need God's promises the most! How hopeless is it to think that because are not behaving good enough then God is holding out on us. Wow!
I know that was a lengthy answer and may open more questions than answers. If you do see this, I hope it spurs you to additional consideration about the gospel and what salvation really means. The Kingdom of God is black and white. You are either in or out. The condition to enter is faith in Christ - that's it. Then we learn to walk in a Kingdom way which is still by faith in Christ. But if we are stupid and learning takes a long time, Christ doesn't kick us out. Because we are God's child, period, and He doesn't abort His kids for bad behavior. But, we can certainly be really miserable as we do things that go against our Kingdom nature. And God as our loving Father will allow us the misery and destruction that come from quenching Him so that we hopefully eventually learn how to walk by the Spirit and avoid the pain and misery of sinning.
But the key to walking by the Spirit is faith and trust that all of God’s new covenant promises are true and available for us at all times and not dependent upon us and our track record. Again, it is at the point of our worst stumbles that we need His promises to be true the most. It is where we go to get back on our feet and keep growing and learning.
Thanks again for your humility and proclamation of love. I send God's love He has filled my heart with back to you. I have no desire for arguments. My only desire is that you walk well in God's promises and as His child. I believe we both want that, but have radically different ways to achieve it. Only when we stop trying to earn God's promises can we receive and be empowered by them by faith. Walk well in God's blessings my brother.