Religiondumb

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 assumption 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.

God’s reconciliation to man is from God’s side only. God alone decided to make peace with man, while man is still very much ungodly, a sinner, and while man is an active enemy to God. This one-sided reconciliation on God’s part is self-evident proof of God’s superabundant love to man. As far as God is concerned, he loved man so much that he was willing to let his own son die for sinful man, and have his son pay all the penalties of their sins, forget their rebelliousness and overlook their hostility, while they were still sinners, still rebellious, and still hostile. God made up his mind to become completely reconciled to mankind before man made any signs of making peace with God. God has told the world through Paul’s teaching’s, that he has reconciled himself to them because of his love for them, and it was God alone who did this harmonious act; they have had nothing to do with it, all they have had to do is to receive the reconciliation that God has made with mankind. God has one-sidedly reconciled himself to mankind through what the death of his son accomplished; all sins and hostility are paid for as far as God is concerned.

Many people involved in religion’s domain are dealing with God on the basis of probation, rather than salvation. Then God must make a decision in their minds, whether or not to save that individual. Their suitability for heaven depends upon their turning away from all of their sins. If they will simply dedicate themselves to no longer to sin, that is the idea. God testing over and over again the validity of that dedication. Then God will know if they are truly devoted to him, then he will be able to finally make a decision as to whether or not they are heaven worthy. That is the idea in and in most people’s minds; it is the idea being promoted by ministers of righteousness. That is probation, not salvation. God is not testing or proving people today, in order to make a final decision as to whether or not to save them, or to keep them saved. All the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, in his mind, offering man the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Appreciation based on the reality of salvation, not apprehension based on religion’s message of probation. If Satan can keep that glorious message of Paul hidden by blinding people’s eyes to the reality of reconciliation through a message that keeps sin on the table of God’s justice where that sin has already been put away. Many people are living in their minds today with probation rather than salvation.


With Israel's earthly program being set aside, during this age of grace, no nationality enjoys special favor in the eyes of God; all must come alike to God today. God did not lift up the Gentiles, who had been without God, and put them on an equal or higher plain, than belonged to Israel. He concluded Israel in unbelief, as he had previously concluded the Gentiles in unbelief, both of them down on the same level, so that he might have mercy on all, and that is where it is today, according to Paul. It is man who needs to be reconciled to God, not the other way around. God is already reconciled to us, where our sins are concerned. It is not a sin issue, it is a son issue. 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.

God’s Reconciliation of Man, read more about it at godsreconciliation.blogspot.com...

reply to post by newnature


You copied and pasted the whole page straight from your source. It isn't your original writing; just pointing that out. You ought to make it clear it is not yours.
Otherwise, I disagree with the premise.
But, since you didn't ask any questions, I'll just leave it at that.
Interesting food for thought - bizarro title.

reply to post by newnature

. . . the only righteousness God can recognize is our position in Jesus Christ . . .

According to what or who?
Being "in Christ" actually means something, and not having Jesus like a disguise to hide behind, to appear righteous to God's scrutiny.
It means living to Christ's standards through the power of God which is available to us through Christ.
I think you are promoting a made-up philosophy for the complacent, that has nothing to do with the actual teachings of the Bible.

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 . . .

I think you have that backwards, where the reality is that the Jews had confidence in the flesh in that their genetics made them unconditionally saved.
Being a "Christian" can be like being a Jew was, in Jesus' day, thinking that because we believe in Jesus, we are then unconditionally saved.
Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees were lacking in true inner righteousness, and that their display of being of "the chosen ones" was not sufficient.

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.

What you are talking about is being Christians, and you can think of it as opposed to being Jews, where their birth flesh (in their own minds) made them somehow superior to other people with "ordinary" flesh.

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!

That is wrong because you have to act, meaning once you believe, then you repent and are baptized, since being "in Christ" means being a member of the church, and that isn't by just doing nothing.

God is not looking at our production.

Yes He is because we, as the church, are sanctified to good works. If we are not doing good works, then we are spewed out (figuratively speaking).

reply to post by newnature

God is not looking at how well we adhere to any standard.

That is what Paul calls "The Law of Faith".
That same spirit that gives us belief in the first place is the same spirit that gives us the standards of behavior, the one written on our hearts.

God is not looking at our behavior in order to view us as being in favor with him.

Of course you will never produce a single Bible verse to support this because it is just a man-made theory.

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.

So is this your way of absolving yourself of all responsibility for your behavior?

God’s reconciliation to man is from God’s side only.

God wants people to come to godliness, but before people can do that, they needed to be shown that such a thing was possible by a human being, so He sent His son to show us the way.

let his own son die for sinful man, and have his son pay all the penalties of their sins, forget their rebelliousness and overlook their hostility, while they were still sinners, . . .

What the actual verse says is that Jesus died, you added in your own philosophical theory into it to create your own made-up pseudo-scripture.
It nowhere in the Bible says anything about Jesus paying for sins.

God has one-sidedly reconciled himself to mankind through what the death of his son accomplished; all sins and hostility are paid for as far as God is concerned.

God offers to us a gesture of reconciliation, and if you read the verse, it says that God will do even greater things to those who become righteous by making use of what has already been made available.

reply to post by newnature

Many people involved in religion’s domain are dealing with God on the basis of probation, rather than salvation.

You can not separate the two things as long as you are alive because "salvation" as the word is used in the Bible, means being in the church, which is God's kingdom.
What modern pop-culture religion means by "salvation" is something different, which is really the reward that one gets for passing probation, which is to go to heaven.
What your man-made philosophy does is to take the word "salvation" out of context and define it differently than it was intended to be understood by the biblical writers, to preach a message that just by believing, we are somehow given a guaranteed free ticket to the Rapture.

All the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Christ.

Saving the world is not individually taking a person here and a person there and sending them off to heaven, but it is people becoming righteous with the help of the spirit of God that comes through Christ to make the world a better place to live in.
Your theory is completely worthless towards that goal and is nothing but pure narcissism.

Appreciation based on the reality of salvation, not apprehension based on religion’s message of probation.

God's spirit drives out fear, not human theories for complacency.

If Satan can keep that glorious message of Paul hidden by blinding people’s eyes to the reality of reconciliation through a message that keeps sin on the table of God’s justice where that sin has already been put away.

What do you think "putting away sins" means?
Putting away sins according to the Bible means not sinning.
It is only in man-made philosophy that it means just having a hypothetical "sin guilt" removed.

reply to post by newnature

God did not lift up the Gentiles, who had been without God, and put them on an equal or higher plain, than belonged to Israel.

You can say that, but it goes directly against the teachings of the New Testament.

He concluded Israel in unbelief, as he had previously concluded the Gentiles in unbelief, both of them down on the same level, so that he might have mercy on all, and that is where it is today, according to Paul.

"According to Paul" where?

It is man who needs to be reconciled to God, not the other way around. God is already reconciled to us, where our sins are concerned.

Through Jesus, meaning here is a man, born with the same human nature as us, who lived righteously, and was vindicated by Him at the resurrection, so we know that even as sinful humans, if we live righteously as Jesus did, we can be adopted as sons of God.

it's not complicated..

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (james 2:26)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted (james 1:27)

jmdewey60... Jesus like a disguise to hide behind, to appear righteous to God's scrutiny.It means living to Christ's standards... .

the Jews had confidence in the flesh in that their genetics made them unconditionally saved.
Being a "Christian" can be like being a Jew was, in Jesus' day, thinking that because we believe in Jesus, we are then unconditionally saved.

The christian idea of being ''saved'' revolves around the removal of ''sin''. Many christians believe they can simply send all their sin-bills to Jesus, who would pay for it all and clear them for entry into heaven. The logic behind this thinking, as I've been told, is that we are - by default - headed towards hell and that in order to avoid hell, we need to have our sin-dues cleared by believing an innocent man died for those sins and everybody elses sins, ...even those born 2000 years after his ''death''. _________________________________________ As for being Christians being saved ''unconditionally'' just by believing in Jesus..... Jesus himself makes it clear that he would drive away many who call him ''Lord, Lord''. Its self evident that those people will not be Jews or Muslims or Buddhists, but rather those who believed in him...Christians.

reply to post by sk0rpi0n

Its self evident that those people will not be Jews or Muslims or Buddhists, but rather those who believed in him...Christians.

I think that was the point, and how people can avoid that conclusion is beyond me, unless it is a cult thing, where you are devoted to some system that does something that simulates what people might think the spirit is.