No, theologically speaking (not a secular definition), Christianity is not a religion but a “relationship” with God the Father based on grace (a gift-unmerited favor unattainable by human effort) through “faith” (alone), “trusting-believing” in Jesus Christ as God, Messiah, Mediator for our sin i.e. believing that Jesus is God who died to pay our sin-debt (Romans 10:9-10).
Religion v. Christianity
Religion, theologically speaking, is based upon works; that is, the individual must perform to an exacting standard in order to “earn” God’s favor (Deuteronomy 27:26). In Christianity, God did the work for us; we must “believe” in what God did to have God’s perfection imputed into our lives (by faith), see: (John 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Judaism (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10), Islam, Christian cults (SDA, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses), are “religions” based upon works of righteousness, keeping a Law to earn God’s approval; whereas, Christianity is a “relationship” based on faith in what God has done for us (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16; Genesis 3:21).
The uniqueness of Christianity,
The ONE exacting differentiation between Christianity and every religion, cult, existing in the World today is the Christian knows Jesus Christ as Messiah, He is Deity-God Eternal who took-on flesh some 2020-years ago via a virgin birth in order to circumvent the sin-nature of Adam’s seed (Matthew 1:26; Genesis 3:15; Romans 5:12) and Jesus lived a sinless life before the Father and offered Himself to God the Father as a sacrificial Lamb upon the altar (the Cross) to pay the sin-debt of mankind, a sin-debt mankind could not pay himself (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16-18).
Question was asked: Can you explain James 2:10-11?“
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”[a] also said, “You shall not murder.”[b] If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”
Christian response,
The theme of James 2:10 is reiterated in Galatians 3:10 and Deuteronomy 27:26.
The Covenant of Law mandated that anyone seeking righteousness through the Law must keep that Law in perfection; otherwise, they are cursed and the Law condemns them void atonement (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10); problem is, we’re all under the condemnation of sin (Romans 3:23) as we’re all born of the seed of Adam (Romans 5:12) and the Law can never provide righteousness as the Law only defines sin (Romans 3:20); but the Father did not leave mankind in a hopeless condition but from the beginning, God has honored “faith” as the “key” to unlocking the gates of the Kingdom (Hebrews 11); unfortunately, Israel failed to understand the veracity of “faith” and pursued a Law of Works in self-righteousness/narcissism (Romans 11) and they stumbled over the Stumbling Stone, the Rock of Offense, laid-up in Jerusalem (Romans 9:32); therefore, only a remnant of Israel’s children will be saved and that salvation will manifest in the last days of the Tribulation era when Messiah arrives at the Mount of Olives, conquers the enemies having fought against Jerusalem, and subsequently establishes His Millennial Kingdom i.e. His second-Advent…at this time, all of Israel…those living in that dispensation, will be saved (Romans 11:26).
The New Covenant,
Messiah and the New Covenant points to grace (unmerited favor-a gift you cannot earn) through faith (trusting-believing) in Jesus as your God and Messiah who died to pay your sin-debt…a debt you could not pay yourself (Ephesians 2:8-9)…and the one who has faith in Jesus as Messiah enters into Covenant relationship with the Father (John 3:16), forever (John 10:28-30), and this Covenant is sealed and guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) who walks the faithful in Jesus in obedience to God’s will for their life i.e. the process of sanctification and the Holy Spirit prepares them for service in the Kingdom of God i.e. the New Jerusalem that will appear subsequent to the Millennial Reign of Messiah when our God destroys this Earth and the Heavens by fire and purifies it (2 Peter 3:7-10, remolds it, and places His Kingdom upon a New Earth within a New Heaven (Revelation, chapters 20-22).
If one is under Law in Judaism they are commanded to keep the Sabbath lawfully as they are commanded to keep the whole Law in absolute perfection (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10); unfortunately, law keepers have already broken the Law of God and they are therefore condemned by same void atonement (Romans 3:20-23). Law Keepers live in futility and hopelessness when they trust in their own righteousness to save them from the “second death” in Hell (John 14:6).
Concerning the Sabbath and stubborn Sabbath Keepers who condemn those living in Messiah’s freedoms provided by faith in Him as God and Redeemer…
At no time was the Sabbath edict given to a Gentile, prior to and subsequent the Old Covenant. The Genesis 7-Day Sabbath was humanitarian, not Law. The first Sabbath edict was given to Israel’s children via Elohim via Moses in Exodus 16 and we know that the Sabbath was not codified prior to this time because there is no record of codification in conjunction with the truism that Moses required thorough instruction by God concerning how the Sabbath was to be honored as a ceremonial law; had the Sabbath been codified prior to Exodus 16, such instructions would not have been necessary as experiential relevance would have been extant.
Also, we see the Sabbath, once again, given specifically to Israel’s children at Sinai (Exodus 20) and once again, through Moses. The Sabbath was given only to the children of Jacob and was relevant to them specifically and all converts to Judaism…no one else. Later, in Isaiah, chapter one, we see God nullifying the Sabbath, hating its celebration by apostate Israel. Could our immutable and Holy God ever nullify a moral law by which He will judge the World? During Messiah’s 33.5-year ministry, Jesus infused nine of the ten Commandments into the New Covenant as moral law to be administered by the Holy Spirit yet the Sabbath (a ceremonial law) is absent.
The Apostle Paul, narrating by the Holy Spirit, commands us to not allow anyone to judge the faithful in Messiah concerning Sabbaths, New Moon celebrations, festivals (ceremonial law) as these were a “shadow” of Him who was to come and these have been fulfilled in our Messiah and yes, the Sabbaths spoken of by Paul in his letter to the Church at Colossae (Colossians 2:16) includes the sabbaton: the Sabbath, i.e. the seventh day (of the week), Strongs Greek #4521.
The Church Council at Jerusalem never placed the burden of Law or the Sabbath or circumcision upon the Gentile Christian, Acts 15. In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul, narrating by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, forbids judging anyone concerning food and a day of rest or worship; in fact, it is apparently disobedience, sinful, to suggest that one must keep the Sabbath Day if one is redeemed by Messiah; Jesus is our Sabbath’s Rest (Hebrews 4)…as we’re free in our Messiah to rest or worship on any day or everyday we choose.
As one who loves Jesus Christ and believes that He is God and Messiah, I don’t think my Lord is concerned about days, feasts, festivals, food, denominations, but I do believe my Lord is most concerned about “relationship” with His created human beings and intimacy with those who truly love Him and His Father and the precious Holy Spirit. When all is said and done, it is our “relationship of love” with Jesus that will last into eternity…all other things are a distant second.
In closing,
If you feel led by the Holy Spirit to keep the Old Covenant “Sabbath”…feel free in Messiah Jesus to keep the Sabbath but understand your obedience relevant to this issue of the heart has no bearing in your eternal positioning with God and also understand that you have NO AUTHORITY or right to suggest others keep a Sabbath nor do you have the right to suggest others are somehow living in sin when they don’t keep a Sabbath. Law Keepers, SDA, Legalists…please go your way and leave the faithful in Messiah alone…you are burdensome, you are a stumbling stone in the path of joy and freedom in Jesus.
Was the thief suffering by Messiah’s side saved by faith or works?
Upholding Messiah’s Law is only possible by the one redeemed through faith in Jesus as Lord and possessing the Spirit of God as Teacher, Intercessor, Guarantor of relationship, forever. Until such time relationship is established by faith, alone, in Messiah, it matters not works or laws or ideology one follows.
Jesus must be first and He can only become Lord, Messiah, God, by faith…just as the thief on the Cross discovered, there is nothing we can do to garner God’s favor but believe in Jesus as God who died to pay our sin-debt (John 3:16). Our good works will follow when the Spirit is our Sanctification and our Guarantor of relationship (Ephesians 1:13-14).
If man could find righteousness with the Father through obedience, Jesus would not have needed to suffer and die (Galatians 2:21).
Grace (unmerited favor) by faith (trusting-believing) in Jesus as God and Messiah, alone, apart from works, will one find a covenant relationship with God the Father that is sealed and Guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 3:16). No man or woman possess the righteousness or the capability to work themselves into relationship with God through the mediation of one’s sin as we’re all sinners condemned by the Law void atonement (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:16); therefore, Jesus, alone, is God who entered Time via the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15) in order to circumvent the seed of Adam (the sin-nature) (Romans 5:12) and Jesus kept the works of the Law for you and promises to give you HIS perfection via the imputation of HIS righteousness if you will believe-trust in Him, alone, as God and Messiah (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
It is your faithfulness and obedience subsequent to salvation that validates your faith but your works cannot supplant the sufficiency of faith in Messiah (Ephesians 2:8-9)…ALONE!
ONCE SAVED – Always Saved? The Controversy – a discussion…
The Legalist – the Law Keeper – those who deny the sufficiency of Messiah Jesus to save by grace, alone, by faith, alone, and the Father’s omnipotence and faithfulness to keep securely those who are in Covenant with Him, please allow me to succinctly vent my frustration with your absence of faith in my God.
The Scripture you quote, repeatedly, in vain, attempting to nullify God’s promises of security concerning the one who loves Him via Covenant in Jesus as Lord are prejudiced by your legalism and false doctrine resulting from false teaching, cult compromise and an absence of the Spirit as your Tutor/Teacher (Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 John 2:27). Scriptures that speak of “those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,” (Hebrews 6:4) for example, never suggest that the one who has denied my Lord as their God and Messiah were ever in Covenant relationship with Him by faith nor do these Scriptures suggest that the one who has “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4) ever possessed the indwelling Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit given to the faithful as the Seal and Guarantor of Covenant relationship with the Father relevant to everyone who believes in Jesus as Messiah and God over their life (Ephesians 1:13-14).
These controversial Scriptures do imply that the one who has walked away from Jesus as their Lord were knowledgeable concerning the Gospel; they understood the message of grace through faith as preached; they tasted and experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, in the personal lives of others who truly believed; they observed the work of the Spirit in Jesus during His ministry, in the Apostles, in the servants of God in all the Churches; they felt the joy of the Spirit’s presence within the congregation of believers; yet, they denied the sole sufficiency of Messiah Jesus to save by faith, alone, and they returned to a “works salvation,” the eternal Jewish error; they sought righteousness through Law and the works of their own hands in religious narcissism (Romans 9:30) while rejecting the simplicity of the Gospel; that is, Jesus, alone, by faith, alone, concerning a Covenant relationship with the Father, forever.
In closing,
IF one is born again by the Spirit, they belong to the Father through a Covenant relationship, forever (John 10:28-30). Though the faithful in Messiah Jesus possess free will, both now and in Eternity, their heart’s desire no longer aligns with the World but with God and His Truth; these faithful in Jesus will not compromise void conviction/repentance; they will not walk away, they will never deny grace and they will love our God, forever, because they are a “new creation,” forever (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Though the sinful nature lurks at the door (Genesis 4:7; 1 John 3:4; Romans 7:14-25), the faithful seek to walk in the Spirit and eschew the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). No man or woman born of the Spirit can live in willful disobedience or deny the Truth of Jesus as Lord by grace through faith as these eternal truths are inextricably ingrained within the spirit of those who belong to Jesus.
Question was asked: “What has religion done for the World?”
Christian response,
Religion places burdens upon mankind that he/she can never conquer or overcome. It is Jesus that destroyed the burdens and condemnation of religion through His perfection/sinlessness and made those who trust in Him “worthy” of eternal life through the imputation of His own perfection – righteousness earned for us at Golgotha and we can access that perfection by believing in Jesus as our God and Messiah who died to pay our sin-debt for us…a debt we could not pay ourselves due to our sinful nature (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 3:16-18; Romans 8:1).
So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
A warning to every Jew who trusts in the Torah for righteousness and rejects Jesus Christ as Messiah…
Unless you repent of your sins and humble yourself before the Father and sincerely believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is God who died to pay your sin-debt, you will not be named among the remnant and you will suffer the “second death” in Hell along with a majority of Jacob’s children who have died in their sins rejecting their Messiah (John 8:24).
Are the Ten-Commandments and the 613-Levitical Laws of the Covenant of Law applicable to the New Covenant established in Messiah’s blood?
Christian response,
If I never possessed a copy of the Torah, the Decalogue, the Covenant of Law, I can be redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ as my God and Messiah and I can know the will of my Heavenly Father through the Law of Spirit; that is, the Holy Spirit that lives within me subsequent to trusting in Jesus as my Lord and the Law of God that is written upon my heart, not etched in stone or scratched upon parchment (Hebrews 10:16).
God’s moral law has been extant within every human being since the 6th-Day of Creation as we are created in the spiritual image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) and have been endowed with certain communicable attributes of God; morality – the natural law – the law of conscience (Romans 2:15) is integral within every man and woman and we become culpable for violating that law subsequent to attaining an age of reason/accountability.
Human kind has been governed and constrained by natural law from the beginning and will be judged by God’s moral law that is extant from Eternity past; this same moral law will convict both Satan/the fallen angels and unredeemed mankind in the Judgment; The Holy Spirit tells us that all of mankind, those having rejected the truth of God, will be “without excuse” (Romans 1:18-32); this, apart from the Commandments/the Torah given the children of Israel thousands-of-years subsequent to the 6th-Day of Creation.
The Jew, the cult members, the law keepers, inundating these religious oriented forums refuse to acknowledge God’s truth that in conjunction with the shed blood of Messiah poured-out for the forgiveness of sin (Matthew 26:26-28), the Covenant of Law was made obsolete, nullified, replaced with something eternally superior; that is, the New Covenant, where the condemnation of Law (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10) was replaced by grace and the hopelessness of Law that is absent atonement (Romans 8:3) was replaced by a Mediator for sin, Jesus Christ, who did, indeed, fulfill the promises of the Old Covenant through perfect obedience, sinlessness (Matthew 5:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 8:46).
As a Gentile, I was never obligated to the Torah or the Commandments, but God’s moral law was present in my heart from conception (Romans 2:15) and had I never trusted in Jesus Christ as my God and Messiah, that natural law (Romans 2:15) would have convicted me at the Judgment of the Condemned (Revelation 20:11-15). I do not need the Torah, the Commandments, to know God’s will for my life nor do I require them to know His moral law concerning my relationship with my fellowman. I need Jesus in my life in order to walk in obedience to God’s will as His Spirit is my strength, my LAW, and that Law is written upon my heart and the Spirit continually, daily, guides me in that Law through sanctification as He prepares me for service in the New Jerusalem.
In closing,
I do NOT need the Torah, the Commandments, to know God’s will. God gave the Commandments/the Torah specifically to the children of Israel for a sundry of reasons; primarily, the Law defined sin (Romans 3:20) via codification, enhanced culpability, as the children of Israel were set-apart specifically by God for His purposes and they were to be Holy as God is Holy. The Law was given Jacob’s children as they were to be different, holy, apart from the pagan tribes that would tempt them with apostasy and war against them to the death. The Law specifically pointed Jacob’s children to the coming Messiah as that Law demonstrated man’s inability to please God through obedience as mankind is sinful by nature in Adam and the Law demonstrated the necessity for a Mediator that was to come through the Tribe of Judah. Law keepers, SDA, Jews, keep your Law and your Torah, it’s beautiful, it’s worthy, it’s an excellent teaching tool. I’ll keep Jesus as my God and the precious Holy Spirit as my Law, for life.
Law Keeper mistakenly suggests the BEMA-Judgment of Christ corresponds to a works salvation.
Christian response,
The BEMA-Judgment is relevant to “believers” works; that is, those works done SUBSEQUENT to salvation during the sanctification process; these works of obedience are judged for authenticity; that is, a differentiation between works done in selfishness from works done via the Spirit.
Works play no role in salvation as our God, Jesus Christ, is more than sufficient to save the one who trusts in Him as God and Messiah, alone. It is heresy and an absence of faith to believe that one must “help” Jesus save via works.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 