✝️Shalltear🦇Stan💒 on Nostr: The positions of churches of merit are quite often unknown to the greater body of the ...
The positions of churches of merit are quite often unknown to the greater body of the adherents. Which is why it's not surprising to me that I can state an official position, to which there is a decreed anathema pronounced against anyone who does not follow and find ordinary self professing Christians who do not affirm and if questioned would say so in complete ignorance
The greatest example of this is the official council of trent, which anathematizes anyone who states that we are saved by faith alone by the grace of God, that is not of works or of ourselves lest any man boast. The bible says this unambiguously in multiple passages, chapters, and books. Ephesians 2:8-10 literally says: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Any person who is being honest knows when you read that it says bluntly that you have nothing to do with salvation, you have nothing to do with grace, and it even follows up stating that all good works were already prepared by God beforehand so they aren't your choice nor your doing for you to merit. You cannot walk away from that verse concluding the idea of cooperated grace which is a state of holiness granted via the cross which is a continual purging of sins that has some arbitrary measure that good works cleanses and sin erases. Paired with other passages such as John 6:37 that states that Christ is given all power by the Father, and anyone who comes to the Lord Jesus shall never be cast out, it makes no sense as to how you could "lose" grace like it's a substance
Grace is not a substance, it's not a state of being, it is everything God has gifted you that you would not have otherwise. The wisdom of your salvation, the Law, the conscience you have that has you act according to His will rather than your own. Nobody is "full of grace", you are graced by God or you are without His grace. Is God's love conditional? That would be a nightmare for if the Lord truly tested us on our merit none of us could stand and every last one of us deserves to be struck down and thrown into the pit
The greatest example of this is the official council of trent, which anathematizes anyone who states that we are saved by faith alone by the grace of God, that is not of works or of ourselves lest any man boast. The bible says this unambiguously in multiple passages, chapters, and books. Ephesians 2:8-10 literally says: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Any person who is being honest knows when you read that it says bluntly that you have nothing to do with salvation, you have nothing to do with grace, and it even follows up stating that all good works were already prepared by God beforehand so they aren't your choice nor your doing for you to merit. You cannot walk away from that verse concluding the idea of cooperated grace which is a state of holiness granted via the cross which is a continual purging of sins that has some arbitrary measure that good works cleanses and sin erases. Paired with other passages such as John 6:37 that states that Christ is given all power by the Father, and anyone who comes to the Lord Jesus shall never be cast out, it makes no sense as to how you could "lose" grace like it's a substance
Grace is not a substance, it's not a state of being, it is everything God has gifted you that you would not have otherwise. The wisdom of your salvation, the Law, the conscience you have that has you act according to His will rather than your own. Nobody is "full of grace", you are graced by God or you are without His grace. Is God's love conditional? That would be a nightmare for if the Lord truly tested us on our merit none of us could stand and every last one of us deserves to be struck down and thrown into the pit