The Free Gift of Righteousness/Justification !

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Prizebeatz1

Prizebeatz1

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What do we mean by the word "free"? What is this word supposed to represent? It seems the gift is contingent upon a belief, being born again, confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in God, accepting the gospel, reading the bible, taking the eucharist, doing good deeds, baptism, redemption by crucifixion or some kind of action either on our part or someone else's. The list goes on and on. Are not all these actions based on the idea that we must earn our salvation somehow? How can we place limits, restrictions and conditions on what is supposed to be unconditional? Isn't the traditional version of Jesus based on someone somewhere paying a price? In that case how can the gift be free? This seems more like bondage to me.

Perhaps the word "free" is meant to point to freedom from attachment to the personality and its desires. In that case there is nothing that needs to be done. It's more like there is something that needs to be undone. And that something is the unraveling and reversing of the personality along with its desires. This is what leads to true freedom and liberation. The free gift of righteousness and justification is unconditional in that we need do nothing. Any desire to hold on to a belief is a temptation that takes us away from what IS right here and right now. We often judge what IS right here and right now in this exact moment as not good enough so off we go trying to find something better to replace it. In this way we are exactly like that first angel in heaven to fall. We are roaming about trying to find the missing feeling of self-worth that we've disowned and displaced with something less than infinite and eternal. The truth is inconvenient isn't it?
 
beloved57

beloved57

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Robert Pate said:
You are a deceitful devil. You sound like a Christian, but you are not one. All devils know how to quote scripture, you are no exception.

If salvation is a free gift from God then it must be received. We receive the free Gift of salvation by hearing, believing and embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our only means of salvation.

Not by being zapped by the Holy Spirit out of a clear blue sky.
Click to expand...

Did you understand the points I made ?
 
beloved57

beloved57

Well-known member
Nanja said:
Yes, just as you have perfectly explained, it was actually a Legal transaction.

God's Law and Justice was Satisfied for all His Elect Children Eph. 1:4-5 by His Imputing their sins to Christ their Surety Heb. 7:22, and Imputing His Righteousness to them, to their account, as a Gift, because of His abundant Grace Rom. 5:17 toward them from everlasting 2 Tim. 1:9. It was solely by the Work of Christ on their behalf, that they have been freed from the debt of sin even while being ungodly Rom. 4:5. And that was before they ever believed, received, called upon, or responded to Him in any way.

~~~~~
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Amen!
 
beloved57

beloved57

Well-known member
Robert Pate said:
God does not justify condemned sinners that have not called on Christ to save them. This scripture is in the Bible for a reason.

"Whosoever that shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" Romans 10:13.

The whole world stands guilty before God's Holy Court, Romans 3:19.

Including you.
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Those sinners Christ died for are reconciled to God by His Death while they are enemies and unbelievers Rom 5:10!
 
beloved57

beloved57

Well-known member
Prizebeatz1 said:
What do we mean by the word "free"? What is this word supposed to represent? It seems the gift is contingent upon a belief, being born again, confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in God, accepting the gospel, reading the bible, taking the eucharist, doing good deeds, baptism, redemption by crucifixion or some kind of action either on our part or someone else's. The list goes on and on. Are not all these actions based on the idea that we must earn our salvation somehow? How can we place limits, restrictions and conditions on what is supposed to be unconditional? Isn't the traditional version of Jesus based on someone somewhere paying a price? In that case how can the gift be free? This seems more like bondage to me.

Perhaps the word "free" is meant to point to freedom from attachment to the personality and its desires. In that case there is nothing that needs to be done. It's more like there is something that needs to be undone. And that something is the unraveling and reversing of the personality along with its desires. This is what leads to true freedom and liberation. The free gift of righteousness and justification is unconditional in that we need do nothing. Any desire to hold on to a belief is a temptation that takes us away from what IS right here and right now. We often judge what IS right here and right now in this exact moment as not good enough so off we go trying to find something better to replace it. In this way we are exactly like that first angel in heaven to fall. We are roaming about trying to find the missing feeling of self-worth that we've disowned and displaced with something less than infinite and eternal. The truth is inconvenient isn't it?
Click to expand...
Did you understand the OP ?
 
Nanja

Nanja

Well-known member
beloved57 said:
He is promoting salvation by works, by what a person does.
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You are Right, Brother!

He and most all others here, find it inconceivable how one can become Born Again without them doing something.
It's all they know and have been taught that for years by false religion, and are unable to come to the Truth
because it's not God's Will for them: He hasn't Chosen them to Salvation and Belief of the Truth as those, for instance,
Paul speaks of in 2 Thes. 2:13.

~~~~~
 
musterion

musterion

Well-known member
A gift is anything that is freely given, which the recipient may want or may not, may accept or may refuse, and for which the giver can demand nothing in return (gratitude is just good manners but is entirely up to the recipient).

A gift that cannot be refused is not a gift.

The best antonym I can find for biblical sense of gift is imposition...something that is imposed or forced regardless of the recipient's choice.

The apostle Paul taught salvation as a genuine gift -- not an imposition, not forced. Voluntary.

Calvinism teaches salvation not as a gift but as a forced imposition from eternity past upon the elect, who will be MADE to receive it.

Those are mutually exclusive concepts. One of them is false.
 
B

Ben Masada

New member
The Free Gift of Righteousness/Justification.

The Free Gift of Righteousness/Justification.

There is absolutely nothing free about reconciliation with the Lord as well as justification. The only thing free as salvation is concerned, is salvation from universal catastrophes. That's free because it is part of God's promise to Noah never to allow again universal catastrophe. Israel had risen and universal salvation had been guaranteed with the presence of Israel.

Personal salvation has never been free. To achieve it, we must set things right with the Lord so that our sins from scarlet red could become as white as snow through repentance and obedience to God's Law. (Isaiah 1:18,19) Of the two categories of salvation, it was about the universal salvation that Jesus referred to when he said that it came from the Jews. (John 4:22)
 
musterion

musterion

Well-known member
Ben Masada said:
Personal salvation has never been free. To achieve it, we must set things right with the Lord so that our sins from scarlet red could become as white as snow through repentance and obedience to God's Law. (Isaiah 1:18,19)
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Then you count Christ as having died in vain and you trample His blood as an unholy thing. Just come right out and say what you mean.
 
B

Ben Masada

New member
musterion said:
Then you count Christ as having died in vain and you trample His blood as an unholy thing. Just come right out and say what you mean.
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If you are ready for the truth of reality, be my guest! Yes, you are right because, indeed, Jesus died in vain as a result of his own disciples' stupidity. At a time like that and, at the entrance of Jerusalem, a Roman province at the time, his disciples were acclaiming Jesus king of the Jews. Then, in an act of insurrection, soon afterward, Jesus was arrested and taken to Court before Pilate and condemned to the cross on the political charge of INRI. Read Luke 19:37-40. That's how Jesus died in vain.
 
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