What REALLY Saves a Person ? Words or Christ ?

Silver Surfer

Many people will say: "Jesus Christ Saves me".
Or, "God saves me".

I'm now going to make a statement:

It is the words, found in the Bible ONLY, that saves a person.

I'm now also going to back up that statement with Bible verses.

#1.) James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

#2.) 1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

#3.) Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

#4.) Matthew 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ?

19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
QUESTION: Where else in all the world can God commandments be found, BUT in the Bible ?

My Point ?

Without intense Bible study, each and every day, to honestly find out God's requirements for Salvation....there can be no eternal life, to happen in the future.
_________________
Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

HeKkLeR · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:35 am Post subject:

What is that all about? April fools was 4 days ago...
_________________
Peace

The HeKkLeR

JB · Lion King Joined: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 1042

Silver surfer,

1 Peter 1:23 the Greek word chosen in this text for word is LOGOS.
Matthew 4:4 The Greek Word for Word is Rhema.

Which word are you talking about?

In Christian Love

JB

bobf · Alley Cat Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 177

Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.

Brother John · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:48 am Post subject:

Brother-

I totally appreciate your fervor for the word of God!! It is THE crucial tool in our hands! We are to place it’s words in our heart that we might not sin against God and it is the Power of God unto salvation, active & dynamic in our minds when quickened by God the Holy Spirit within each believer! The spirit of your words here is like music to my ears and rings true with my own heart.

But; I think you’re slightly off in your reasoning. Please understand, your conclusion that you reached…that the “words of life” are only in the Word of God, is true, but HOW things happen in the soul of the believer is what’s missing the mark, I believe. Please be patient with me while I try to explain myself.

The Word of God, the Holy Bible, is the conduit; the crucial channel through which we learn the Good News that God saved us all by the sacrifice of his son. Without it, we surely would be ignorant unto death! But it’s not the book that saves us. But, my brother, salvation is of God, by the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ; receiving in himself our condemnation and guilt, so that there’s none left for US. But just as death could not hold Him, neither could the ‘guilt’ remain upon Him…but he was raised and given the Glory that he’d had before the foundation of the Earth at the right hand of His Father in Heaven. THIS, and your real faith (which is also a gift from God) is what saves you and I from the judgment that we actually deserve….but now won’t get. It is by faith, in Christ and His atonement, that you have been saved. Not by a book. The book is CRUCIAL, and you are TOTALLY correct that we MUST seek the heart and mind of God there persistently as though our very souls depended upon it, but they don’t. They depend upon the person of Jesus Christ, our High Priest and King forever.

The implanted word that saves our Souls is Jesus Christ. His are the “Words of Life”, and we must hear them and know them in order to come to faith IN them, and grow in this knowledge and enlightenment so that we can be equipped for the good works that God has crafted for us before he even crafted the Universe from nothing. But we cannot exalt the message above it’s origin. We cannot praise the message, we must give credit instead to the truth’s it conveys and the person who inspired it to be written in the first place.

If I write you a letter detailing to you where I’ve hidden my 2 million dollars and write in that letter that I’m giving it all to you for NO reason other than that I Love you…then you can’t hold up the letter and tell it thank you to it. You would need to thank the giver. KEEP the letter and learn what it says so that you can seek out and find the money that I’ve surely hidden well, but don’t mistake that it’s the letter that’s given it to you, but me…from my love.

If we place our emphasis on God’s book and say that IT gives us eternal life, we are wrong…and ascribing something for which GOD should receive credit for to something else is fetishism and turning a ‘thing’ into an idol. We must not make the Bible an idol. We cannot raise the worth of a message higher than the original author of that message.

John 3:16 ((doubt I need to quote it for a student of the Bible such as you)) tells us that it was God’s choice, motivated by His Love for the World…that gave us this gift; for God so Loved, that he gave…that we may have…eternal life in His son Jesus Christ.

We learn of it fully when God the Holy spirit enlightens our minds to the veracity of the Scriptures! You are correct. But we can’t place the emphasis on the medium of the message when really, it belongs to the author of that message. Lets not praise the redeeming message, and not even the redemption itself, but the REDEEMER that both exist for.

Please just think about what I’ve written.

I wish all that claim the name of Christian was as motivated as you to HUNGER & THIRST for the meat of the Word of God!!!! This world would be totally renovated if even a small portion of the Earth had that! But until God moves His mighty hand to bring that work about, all that honest brothers and seekers after Him, like you and I, can do … is to seek his face daily in the Love letter that He’s written and preserved for us!
May we persevere in it, but for HIM...not it!

Your Brother
John

PS: I Love the Silver Surfer comic books! I was (am) a MARVEL fan, and he was one of my favorites.
Same with Spock/Star-Trek!! I have a feeling you and I could be good friends! Wink

Silver Surfer · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:48 am Post subject:

Silver Surfer · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:56 am Post subject:

Zathrus

JB · Lion King Joined: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 1042

Romans 10:17
Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word or Rhema of God.

Rhema is one Greek rendering for word. Rhema isn't the written word but the Spoken word. It isn't what you read in the book that saves you, it is the Rhema of God speaking to your inner man and revealing His truth that saves you. You don't need the book to be saved. If you did , then many people in the world are toast because they don't have or can't afford the Book.

Listen to God in the inner man, you might be suprised at what you will hear.

God Bless and keep seeking the truth.

JonMarie · Grizzly Bear Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 727 Location: Pa.

John 1:1-3 KJV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:14 amp ver
And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God( Jesus), which liveth and abideth for ever.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

JonMarie · Grizzly Bear Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 727 Location: Pa.

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17 Amp ver
17So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).

Psalm 119:11
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

JonMarie · Grizzly Bear Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 727 Location: Pa.

JB wrote

JonMarie · Grizzly Bear Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 727 Location: Pa.

PS to JB

if you are hearing something that is notin the bible then I strongly recommend that you stop listening otherwise you open the door for destruction to enter your life.

JB · Lion King Joined: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 1042

JonMarie,
I have never suggested that the Scriptures are unimportant. But the scriptures aren't living until the eyes that behold them are living. Many people in history have studied the word of God, but weren't saved. A matter of fact many philosophers in history refer to the scriptures often int their development of philosophy. To them, the Scriptures, or the Bible (Biblos) is just another book. It is a series of historical facts that mean nothing. Only when God reveals truth to the reader of the Scriptures, does it become the LIVING Word OF GOD. I don't think that we are in disagreement on this issue. I just don't see the scriptures as the Living Word, until the readers heart is regenerated by the Works of God.

How many people have you heard in your life time that said, "I read their Bible, but I don't understand it"?

The Bible is a book. The Holy Spirit is the power that makes the book a living essential.

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding that we have.

Faith comes from hearing. And hearing from the WORD (Rhema)

You can't hear with out the Living God.

Why do people assume things that just aren't there?

JB · Lion King Joined: 16 Feb 2008 Posts: 1042

JonMarie,
If you would like me to share more scriptural substance for my argument, I will. But I don't think that this is necessary.

God Bless and keep seeking the King.