(Still editing.)
17) 2 CORINTHIANS 3:7,11: “But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious …… which glory was passing away, …….. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. ……..” Briefly, what was passing away was the eternal death penalty for righteous Christians, the lack of certain promises, and certain Apostle itemized OT laws, ESPECIALLY the sacrifices which were still going on in the Temple when this epistle was written. Mainstreamers mistakenly assume ALL OR MOST OT laws were abolished, too, when the Old Covenant, which was separate from OT laws, was replaced with the New Covenant. The Old Covenant DID NOT offer the promises of 1) eternal life, 2) the Holy Spirit, or the complete forgiveness of sins. It did offer earthly protection and physical blessings for obedience, but it required the DEATH PENALTY, often automatic, for sinning, so the phrase “ministry of death” appropriately describes that now abolished part of the Old Covenant. Romans 8:2 reveals that righteous, law keeping Christians have been freed from the automatic death penalty (which temporarily killed Adam and Eve who will be given a second chance at salvation in the second resurrection), which is now part of the much improved Old Covenant, now called the New Covenant.
18) JOHN 10:27-29: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” Jesus is stating that no EXTERNAL power such as Satan, religious leaders, or other people could “snatch them out of His hand.” Jesus DID NOT say that His followers would live forever regardless of their own future behavior and actions. Many mainstream Christians believe in the man concocted “once saved, always saved, and law keeping is not necessary” idea, but the Bible does not support that belief. A number of verses reveal that baptized Christians CAN ultimately fail to be given eternal life if they deliberately continue to knowingly sin and do not later sincerely repent of those sins (Hebrews 6:4-6). The Bible says that salvation is guaranteed to righteous Christians, but that salvation is a CONDITIONAL salvation. Christians must put forth reasonable effort to remain righteous up to the very day of their death. 1 Corinthians 15:2:”By which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain.” Hebrews 10:36: “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have DONE the will of God, you may receive the promise.” Also, there are many itemized NT sins, of course, such as fornication, murder, theft, adultery, homosexuality, lying, disrespect for parents, working on the Sabbath (“keep the Sabbath”), coveting, drunkenness, and so on, which can in no uncertain terms jeopardize the salvation of a Christian. 1 CORINTHIANS 9:27: “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become DISQUALIFIED.” Paul admits that he himself could fail to be saved! The Greek word for “DISQUALIFIED” is adokimos, Strong’s 96, defined as unapproved, rejected, worthless, castaway, and reprobate.
19) EPHESIANS 2:8,9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Unless you believe (incorrectly) in a self contradictory Bible, you cannot just lift this verse up and make it stand on its own, ignoring what the rest of the New Testament reveals. Remember, grace requires the presence of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:18), but to acquire the Holy Spirit in the first place you must repent, sincerely, of your past sins (Acts 2:38). Sins are violations of the law (the Torah and NT magnified Torah laws) according to 1 John 3:4. So you must stop sinning to obtain the Holy Spirit, and obviously the only way to stop breaking God’s laws is to start obeying His laws. Ephesians 2:8,9 above does not directly or indirectly say that Christians can abandon law keeping. It does say that works, or law keeping, BY ITSELF, is not the main engine of salvation. Verses 8 and 9 are merely an observation, or a comparison of the 2 elements required for salvation, which are faith and works. Many dozens of other verses quite emphatically assert that law keeping is an integral part of the salvation process. As a reminder, in the NT two frequently mentioned failures to keep the law involve deliberate, repeated LYING and HOMOSEXUAL behavior. The Bible in no uncertain terms warns us that either one of those sins can cause a Christian to lose his salvation, if they are not later sincerely repented of. Lying homosexuals will not be saved, no matter how much “faith” they have! Therefore Christians must continue to obey the law. Paul apparently also wanted to remind or explain to hard core, “die hard” Jews that they cannot rely only on their own law keeping to save them from eternal death.
20) To be continued.