ALL – Believing ALL in the Bible
In particular, Believing Universal Reconciliation in Christ – Is it Important to the Work of God?
Christian Orthodoxy in Universal Reconciliation in Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Savior of the World! (is glimpsed in the article in website link posted later below):
A Snippet from the article below (which contains both Verses-first and a historical outlook on this too):
St Gregory of Nyssa
Even after the sixth century condemnation of Origenism, commonly attributed to the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553), the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) referred to St Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-c.395) as “father of the fathers” and “divine luminary of Nyssa.” Notably, no council ever condemned Gregory or his revised apokatastasis. In On the Soul and the Resurrection he taught ultimate redemption more boldly than Origen. And far from being a minor blemish on the fringe of his theology, Gregory’s universalist theosis permeates the whole and is central to it. For those who care to hear his blessed hope, this sample from his treatise on 1 Cor. 15:28 is typical:
What therefore does Paul teach us? It consists in saying that evil will come to nought and will be completely destroyed. The divine, pure goodness will contain in itself every nature endowed with reason; nothing made by God is excluded from his kingdom once everything mixed with some elements of base material has been consumed by refinement in fire. Such things had their origin in God; what was made in the beginning did not receive evil. Paul says this is so. He said that the pure and undefiled divinity of the Only-Begotten [Son] assumed man’s mortal and perishable nature. However, from the entirety of human nature to which the divinity is mixed, the man constituted according to Christ is a kind of first fruits of the common dough. It is through this [divinized] man that all mankind is joined to the divinity.[4]
Those who think to deny the Orthodoxy of the final editor of the Nicene Creed ought not tread where the 5th council dared not. As for me, at the least, St Gregory of Nyssa permits me to hope.
St Isaac of Nineveh
St Isaac (c.613-c.700) represents a Syrian monasticism filled with love, derived from the monk’s own mystical encounters with God. When Kallistos Ware dips most deeply into the well of hope, he draws from the words of St Isaac (citing Isaac from Ware’s “Dare We Hope?”):
It is wrong to imagine that the sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God … [But] the power of love works in two ways: it torments those who have sinned, just as happens among friends here on earth; but to those who have observed its duties, love gives delight. So it is in hell: the contrition that comes from love is the harsh torment.[5]
Isaac believes the scourgings of love will come to a good end and “wonderful outcome”—for two reasons. First, because retribution is foreign to God’s nature. “Far be it, that vengeance could ever be found in that Fountain of love and Ocean brimming with goodness!”[6] And second, God’s love is unquenchable and all-powerful, so it is able to overcome evil and extend to all creation and through all eternity to everyone: “No part belonging to any single one of [all] rational beings will be lost.”[7]
Website link for the snippet above, please consider:
Conclusion
1) Work of God
The ONLY Biblical Definition (VERSE) of the “Work of God” is this which is Uttered by our Blessed Savior Himself:
“Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29, NASB)
Context: The ones questioning Christ in Verses above were “religious Jews” who have “many works of the Law of Moses (Torah)” but did NOT believe in Lord Jesus Christ.
So, if “believing” (before seeing, “faith”) is the “Work of God” as per the Verse above, isn’t doing “ALL the Work of God” would be synonymous with “BELIEVING ALL as it is Written about God in the Bible (Holy Scripture)?”
Example: “Believing Alone” with NO WORKS of the LAW (e. g. charity or religious works etc.) still GAINS RIGHTEOUSNESS through “a believer’s faith” (hence afterlife rewards accordingly, implied) as the Rarely Understood Verse below Reveals Majestically:
“But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,” – apostle Paul (Romans 4:5, NASB)
2) Works of the Law
A Verse:
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” – apostle Paul (Galatians 2:16, KJV)
Firstly, please note carefully the distinction between the “Faith of Jesus Christ” [i. e. The 100% Perfect Faith of Christ] and the phrase “even we have believed in Jesus Christ” (a believer’s faith in Christ – Romans 3:26) mentioned distinctly in Verse above only in a more accurate translation.
Please also note carefully the phrase “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ,” in Verse above to realize that the “works of the Law” remain separate from the “Faith of Jesus Christ” where the former ‘leads to rewards’ but only the Latter yields Salvation.
Doing the “works of the Law” without “our faith in Christ” makes the work imperfect and may “include sin” whenever it is “not fully based on faith alone” as the word WHATEVER in the phrase “whatever is not from faith is sin” in Verse below reveals this Principle from Scripture: (Agreeing to Romans 3:23 and 1 John 5:16 – 17 too where “sin” in Greek means “missing the mark” of the Perfection of God, implied):
“… and whatever is not from faith is sin.” – apostle Paul (Romans 14:23, NASB)
Hence, “Justification unto Salvation” is only by the Faith of Jesus Christ Alone (His Work Alone – Romans 3:22) while “justification unto rewards by our faith which is not dead” (as apostle James writes too toward “Jews” who generally have “many works of the Law (Torah)” – James 2:24, James 2:26) are TWO DISTINCT TRUTHS in Holy Scripture agreeing Perfectly to the Verse below as well:
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” – apostle Paul (Romans 3:20, KJV)
The works of the Law is NOT the Work of God because God is NOT the Law and neither is the Law, god; In fact, the Lawgiver (God in Lord Jesus Christ) is Greater than the Law itself:
“There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?” – apostle James (James 1:12, NASB)
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” – Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:19, NASB)
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” – apostle Paul (Romans 6:14, NASB)
“For the Law was given through Moses; Grace and Truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” – apostle John (John 1:17, NASB)
P/S:
“wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,” – apostle Paul (1 Timothy 1:7 – 8, NASB)
As Christians, do we dare believe that Lord Jesus Christ is Truly Able abundantly above what we can think or imagine?
“that the Christ may dwell through the faith in your hearts, in love having been rooted and founded, that ye may be in strength to comprehend, with all the saints, what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, to know also the love of the Christ that is exceeding the knowledge, that ye may be filled — to all the fulness of God;
and to Him who is able above all things to do exceeding abundantly what we ask or think, according to the power that is working in us, to Him [is] the glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.” – apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:17 – 21, YLT)
I hope we don’t hear something like this from Him, one day:
“He [Lord Jesus Christ] said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? …” (Matthew 8:26, NASB)
What is FAITH made up of?
ONLY the WORD OF GOD (the Bible) as the Verse below Reveals Beautifully:
“So FAITH comes from hearing, and hearing by the WORD of CHRIST.” – apostle Paul (Romans 10:17, NASB)
So, believing in doctrines of men (as Christ warned against the leaven of the Pharisees too in the past) may NOT be counted as “faith” at all.
So, ‘let us be careful regarding what we believe about Him and strive to believe in things Written in the BIBLE ONLY as CHRISTIANS’.
Let us not be deceived otherwise.
Last but not least, even LOVE is greater than the LAW being the GREATEST (1 Corinthians 13) and there is NO LAW against the ALL OVERCOMING, ALL EMBRACING LOVE of GOD (Galatians 5:22 – 23) which will RECONCILE ALL CREATED THINGS (Colossians 1:16) back to Himself eventually (Colossians 1:20)!
Blessed be the Saviour of the World!
Peace to you
P/S 2:
‘Hate barks, Love Speaks’ – Anonymous
‘Dog barks, God Speaks’ – Unknown
Can you see it?
It is strange thus that men love a ‘dog’ which “barks” more than a ‘GOD’ Who “Speaks”.
Truly, we are in ‘reverse’ when we lack Wisdom.
Thus, let us strive to be GOD-like in His Image of SPEAKING-LOVE and not DOG-like in BARKING-HATE as the Verses below Demand:
“do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the INTERESTS of OTHERS. Have this ATTITUDE in yourselves which was also in CHRIST JESUS, Who, although He EXISTED in the FORM of GOD, did not regard EQUALITY with GOD [the Father] a thing to be grasped, but EMPTIED Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He HUMBLED Himself by becoming OBEDIENT to the point of DEATH, even death on a cross.” – apostle Paul (Philippians 2:4 – 8, NASB)
