How can you beautifully write about the law being nailed to the cross and insist that salvation comes through obedience?
Question:
How can someone write a beautiful article like "What Was Nailed to the Cross?" and then insist that salvation comes through obedience to a new set of commands?
Answer:
Because it is what God stated. See "Doing Our Duty" and "In Word and Deed."
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled" (II Corinthians 10:4-6).
"And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9).
The problem is that you make a false assumption that because God removed His old set of laws that He did not replace them.
"He takes away the first that He may establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9).
"Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God" (Romans 7:4).
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
There is another law, Christ's law, which if we love Christ, we will obey (John 14:15).
"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:21-25).
"If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (I Peter 4:11).
Question:
No false assumption was made on my part. You write a beautiful article, then finish it with a new system of law-keeping. Yes, the old law was nailed to the cross because no law was ever intended to save us. You church of Christ boys are good at that, you lead us down the right path until switch gears, right back into reverse.
I know a lot about the church of Christ's legalistic system. It generally says "we teach and believe we are saved by grace," then you proceed to butcher it.
"For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:21-22)
If you have an ounce of honesty, you know that this refers to any law on either side of the cross. Salvation is never by obedience re-generation of anything physical that we do to achieve our part. Salvation is all of God's doing.
I have no interest in continuing this conversation.
Answer:
Odd how a person asks a question and then becomes so upset with the answer that he writes to say, "Don't write back."
Notice how he admits that law exists both before and after Jesus Christ, but insists that whether a person keeps God's law has no effect on his salvation. I agree that law-keeping, by itself, does not save a person from sin. But this does not mean that disobedience won't cause a person to lose their salvation which comes by the grace of God. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).
If you take the argument that salvation is completely by the grace of God to the extreme, then every person in the world is saved, since Jesus dies not for a few but for all. "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God" (Romans 6:10). But that leads to a falsehood since Jesus stated that the majority will end up in hell (Matthew 7:13-14).
Further, if no law of God is to be obeyed in order to be saved, then the command to believe isn't required. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is something a person must do. Faith cannot be done for a person. Again, this leads to a contradiction as faith is a necessary condition for salvation. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Sadly, this man knows he has taken a position contrary to the teachings of God. That is why he doesn't wish to discuss it. That is why is he rather disparage those who teach God's word. He knows he cannot face James.
"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:14-26).
Are we saved by works alone? No. But, are we saved without works? The answer, too, remains "No," for we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.
"If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
