The institutionalized church leaves out grace. They leave out the truth that no matter what happens, no matter how bad you perform you still are the righteousness of Jesus Christ and God always sees you as such. They take that truth out and replace it with the poison that you have to perform to gain favor, perform to be in fellowship, perform to be close, beg for the spirit to work, repent to have communion, do good deeds to be accepted. They make you into a dancing monkey too stupid to know that they are killing you spiritually and that the only thing that will liberate you is the knowledge that none of it matters! Only grace, the spirit, and the knowledge of being the perfect righteousness of God can ever bring true and pure liberation. Anything less is utter enslavement to a dead system God takes no delight in.
Templar of Truth
God, family, country. A discussion on faith-based philosphy, religion, and intellectual politics.
Templar of Truth 
‘ Faith without works is dead.’
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Yes, but not to God. In context James says that the kind of faith that says, “I have faith in Christ but I will not help my fellow human.” Is useless and of no value to humanity as a whole or the person you were talking to. It is not dead to God because the cross is more powerful than good or bad deeds. It is dead to humanity because it doesn’t help anyone.
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But God loves humanity as a whole; so if we fail in acts of kindness we fail God’s will.
The Cross shows the love of God through action and we need to try and emulate that action.
That is what all mainline churches teach to a greater or lesser degree.
We must despise the efforts of know one. Forgive me for saying but you are despising the effort of good works.
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Yes I am despising the effort of good works if they are done to try and affect how God views the Christian instead of the Christian having faith in the finished work of the cross. Good works are of no value to God in changing the way he sees you. Nothing will change the fact that we “are the righteousness of God in Christ” and “just as Christ is NOW so are we in this world.”
The cross was more than a showing of love, it was a payment of our debt and the adoption fee so we can be sons of God.
I am not downplaying good works. I’m trying to highlight the finished work of Jesus because it’s only knowing that you are unconditionally loved by God and unconditionally righteous before God that you can unconditionally show love and grace to humanity.
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The word unconditionally shows you are preaching perfection. It is a dangerous doctrine and more likely to make people give up than draw them into the church. Above all else we need to be humble and accutely aware we fall a long way short.
I’m not trying to belittle you but you must reconsider your extreme position.
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I am preaching that our spirit, our essence is perfect in Christ because He has made us a new creation endowed with His very own righteousness. Now, it is true that who we really are doesn’t always show out in our actions but just because we don’t always act like sons doesn’t mean that we aren’t sons.
This doctrine is not dangerous at all. In fact it has made me love Jesus all the more and helped me sin less and grow as a son of God and as a mature human. There is nothing about this doctrine that will make people want to go sin. Let me put this into illustration. You’re on your wedding night. You carry you’re wife into the bedroom and you ask her, “sweetie, do you love me no matter what?” Her response would is, “yes, of course I love you no matter what. That’s why I married you.” This continues for about ten minutes until you say, “I’m so glad you love me no matter what because there was a really hot prostitute I saw outside and I’m going to go have sex with her.” You open the door and leave.
Essentially this is what you are saying this doctrine would make people do. That when people find out that God actually loves them unconditionally, that he died so they would be righteous and perfect in his eyes, and that he adopted us as sons. Are you saying that when they understand that truth that that’s going to push them to go sin? Time and time again I have found the opposite to be true. When you hear that God is radical with his grace you don’t want to run after sin, you run to Christ because you know he loves you and that he has made you better than sin. Sin is dead, conquered by the cross, and we Christians reap the benefits.
I’m not saying don’t be aware of your shortcomings. What I’m saying is don’t beat yourself up over them because God doesn’t take them into consideration when he thinks about you. Understand that you are perfect before God and let the essence of who God at the cross made you flow out into your everyday life.
I have reexamined this position over and over again and have found it to be true over and over again. It has given me a new life with God I actually enjoy because I know he is my dad who loves me. He’s there not to beat me when I do wrong but to care for me. The bible shows that God delights in his kids. I for one will believe that to be true.
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Thanks for making your position clear. I can’t help feeling you are out on a limb but I follow your reasoning. Do you not feel you are using scripture to avoid judgement?
It’s an easy thing to do a bit like continually going to confession.
We do tend to repete our faults again and again and kindness and goodness often seems to elude us.
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Romans 8:1 shows that we are not condemned. Thus if we are not condemned we are not judged. Rather Jesus on the cross was judged and condemned on our behalf if we accept Christ and in return he has made us the righteousness of God in Christ. How can God condemn righteousness?
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