By Works of Law...

Human law seeks to promote or limit: • Behavior • Speech Divine law (as interpreted by man) seeks to promote or limit: • Behavior • Speech • Belief • Thought • Feeling • Intent • Choice • Emotion • Relationships because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 If salvation is not dependent on law: then we are saved by neither: • Doing nor not doing; • Saying nor holding the tongue; • Believing nor doubting; • Good nor bad thoughts • Intent nor motive; • Correct nor incorrect choice • Good nor bad feelings • Correct nor incorrect companions • Correct nor incorrect doctrine • Gluttony nor abstinence • Poverty nor wealth • Promiscuity nor abstinence • Eating nor abstaining from food or drink • Temperance nor intemperance • Conservative nor liberal politics • Generosity nor miserliness • Keeping nor not keeping the Ten Commandments • Loving nor hating • Divorce nor marital stability • Preserving nor taking life It is ALL of grace which is a gift. It is without effort, exercise of will or behavior; this is freedom. We are free: free from effort, free from sweat; free from coercion, free from toil. Free from burden; It is only when all is of grace that all are forgiven, all reconciled, all rescued, all redeemed, all justified, all made righteous, all returned to the fold; free from earning, trying and commandment-keeping. Salvation is all of grace; all of Him. Romans 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, Galatians 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. Galatians 3:10 ¶For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. Ephesians 2:9, 10 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Hebrews 4:10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Acts 15:11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are. Acts 20:32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Romans 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, Romans 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; Romans 4:16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Romans 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, Romans 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Ephesians 4:7 ¶But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 1 Timothy 1:14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, Titus 2:11 ¶For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, Titus 3:7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Note: In recognizing that salvation is not of our effort, I am not saying that behavior, thought, speech etc are not important to the Christian. Common sense and much of the New Testament are devoted to behavior, speech and relationships. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor .” Warnings and exhortations abound about drunkenness, theft, murder and adultery. But doing or not doing any of these things is not salvation. Too many of us, too many of our religious institutions, too many of us who are parents, equate and teach behavior first, with salvation as a result. It may be blatant or subtle, explicit or implied, but the net result is a belief in our own goodness, our own behavior as the key to salvation. May we come to know, to teach, to live, to share salvation’s true Source and the result of that salvation: behavior that springs from within, by the Spirit, not from an outward law.