That would be you, not me.
"... for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one."
Paul is clear, and goes against your faulty view of man. There is no one who does good. There is no one who is righteous.
First it was love is impossible for the unsaved, then it was "many people performed acts of love and righteousness", and now we are back to there is no one who does good.
Which is it Mystery? Its sort of difficult to debate someone who waffles back and forth like this.
Further, why do you feel it necessary to debate with such dishonest tactics as this. Do you really believe that I disagree with Paul and that your having quoted him is somehow some new revelation for me? I do not disagree with Paul and if you think my position is in opposition to his then you misunderstand one position or the other (or both).
You want to say that man is righteous because he is not always as bad as he can be, or that he loves because he is not always apathetic. It does not matter if man does those things that YOU judge as love or as righteous, because without the Spirit of God in them, they are worthless (useless).
Not so! They are useless in the sense that they do nothing to undo the wrong they've done or to bring a person into a right relationship with God but that does not mean that a Mother providing for her children isn't doing a good and righteous thing!
[quote[Man is literally dead to God, and nothing man does qualifies him to be righteous, no matter how many "acts" you attempt to attribute to him.[/quote]
That I attempt to attribute to him? What is going on here Mystery? It's like when you get backed into a corner, you just flip a switch and your brains stop function and you just start spewing out this nonsense refuting things that no one said and arguing against things no one has advocated.
What do I have to do with attributing anything to anyone? I QUOTED THE BIBLE MYSTERY!!!
Did I write 1 Kings? I don't remember writing 1 Kings! Can someone confirm for me and Mystery here that it wasn't Clete Pfeiffer who inspired the writing of 1 Kings chapter 3! It's only a rumor but I think it might have been God who did that.
Forgive my sarcasm Mystery but this is just a little too much for me to take. You're trying to stretch Paul's words to an extreme that was clearly never intended and which directly contradicts whole sections of Scripture. If an unsaved, unregenerate, unbelieving prostitute unconditionally offering her own life in exchange for her child's isn't an act of love then I don't know what is.
You can deny or dispensationalize away 1 John all you want, but the fact remains...
"The one who does righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous"
Thanks for conceding the debate Mystery. This quote states my whole position in a single sentence.
I really wish you could figure out how to debate this stuff without all the emotionalism. It clouds your thinking. I do not disagree with either Paul or John.
John says that those who do what is righteous are born of God. Some it was accounted (by faith) until the seed should come (Abel, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Enoch, Rahab, Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) However, The promise of life was not given until Jesus was glorified. Without His life, righteousness is only accounted to those who believed God, until they are born of God.
You and I are not discussing the same topic. How is it possible that you would think that I would disagree with this?
Simply because man is dead to God does not mean that he is inanimate. Man can still choose to perform moral or immoral acts (none of which makes a man righteous).
No kidding! But that doesn't mean that what does make them righteous is divorced from the one Man's righteous ACT.
I'm out of time for now but I think we should stop now anyway. I have no desire to make an enemy unnecessarily and it seems to be becoming more and more difficult for you to keep focused on the actual point I am making. Perhaps that's my fault but whether it is or not, I doubt that going any further would be at all fruitful for either of us.
Resting in Him,
Clete