socalexile,
Your question: "Abraham was justified by his works to who?"
God was the one who tested Abraham in the first place... the test itself was AFTER Abraham already believed...!
Genesis 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that
God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Genesis 22:2 Then
He said, “
Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
So the answer to your question as to "who?" is found in Genesis 22 and verified here:
James 2:21 "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?"
I mean, "who" else are we to be found justified by other than God? Nobody...!
There is no other reason to be found justified (found NOT GUILTY) except that of which leads to eternal salvation with God. What other justification are you looking for in the Bible?
If you want to assume James was referring to some other justification other than what leads to eternal salvation, be my guest... That's not what I read.
James flat out argues in the beginning of Chapter 2 that if you sin against the royal law that Jesus gave, just by showing partiality, AFTER YOU ARE ALREADY A BELIEVER IN CHRIST, you broke the entire law and are guilty of all of it.
Where is grace in that?
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Now for your statement:"The problem is that you are saying that one can out-sin God's grace, which means that salvation is still by works, since works still are the deciding factor in salvation, not grace. It also means that there is a sin in which Christ didn't die for, bring Him to open shame. "
In the age of Grace (Paul's letters), where grace abounds, no.... One can not out-sin God's grace. You are sealed for eternity by the Holy Spirit.
This age of Grace ends at the rapture.
At that point,
after the rapture, when you believe in Christ:
1. That is your one and only shot to believe in Christ (Hebrews 6).
2. If you sin after becoming a believer in Christ, you are guilty of all of the law (James 2)
3. And you no longer get any more repentance (Hebrews 6).
4. You shamed God! (Hebrews 6)
5. You are then, and only then, justified by your works (Hebrews 6) because God is just and will not forget your good works.
Welcome to the Great Tribulation... Prepare for beheading or the mark of the beast. Do the work of your final choice!
Hebrews 10 shows you exactly what is in store for you if you became a believer and fell back into sin.
This for you believers who sin after believing in Christ: (Pay attention)
Hebrews 10
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Where is grace?
Here's a problem in your logic: Abraham was justified many decades prior to Genesis 22, BY FAITH, in Genesis 15:6.
So was he justified before God by faith and then justified again before God by works? Huh? How does that work in light of Romans 4:
4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
4:2 Because, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
4:3 Because what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
4:4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
4:6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
4:7 Saying "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
4:8 blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin."
4:9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? Because we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
4:10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,
4:12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while still uncircumcised.
4:13 Because, the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
4:14 Because, if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,
4:15 because, the law brings about wrath; because where there is no law there is no transgression.
4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, so that the promise might be certain to all the seed, 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
4:17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So will your seed be."
4:19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), nor the deadness of Sarah's womb.
4:20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God,
4:21 and being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
4:22 And therefore "it was imputed to him for righteousness."
4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
4:24 but also for us. It will be imputed to us, if we believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
4:25 who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again because of our justification.
Paul here, and elsewhere, removes the ENTIRE possibility of the Law justifying ANYONE. He's making it an either/or proposition between faith and works here. It is never a "faith + works" thing. EVER. Why? BECAUSE
NO ONE (ASIDE FROM JESUS) ACTUALLY KEPT THE ENTIRE LAW. That's the problem with your logic: you're saying that the Law will justify when the law NEVER justified, ever. Paul even clearly states so:
3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, because by the law is the knowledge of sin.
3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
3:22 even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, to all and on all those who believe. Because there is no difference;
3:23 because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
3:25 whom God foreordained to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, for the remission of sins that were previously committed, through the forbearance of God;
3:26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.
3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
3:29 Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
3:30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Galatians 2:21 I do not reject the grace of God; because, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
3:10 Because, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; because it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."
3:11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, because "the just will live by faith."
3:12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them will live in them."
3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (because it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),
3:14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
3:15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.
3:17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
3:18 Because, if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.
3:20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.
3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid! Because, if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
3:22 But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith, of Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
3:23 But before faith came, we were preserved by the law, preserved for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
3:24 Therefore the law was an instructor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
3:25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under an instructor.
The LAW IS DONE. It never made anyone righteous, not the Jews, not the Gentiles who pretend to be Jews. Christ made us righteous by faith, and perfect. But you're saying God is going to remove what made men perfect and re-institute what didn't. That is ludicrous.
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NOW. James 2:10 is using a principle clearly outlined in Galatians 3 and 5 to tell Jewish Christians that failing at their Christian witness to the lost in one part of the Law means that they've lost all credibility. YES, you can't witness to Jews if you claim to follow the Law and fail at one point. The concept applies to being justified by God by the Law and it also applies to being justified to men who try to be justified to God by the Law - the problem with your claim here is that no one has actually kept the law (except Christ).
So what you're saying about Hebrews 6 is that if someone rejects God they can't repent and believe again? That's the literal meaning of that passage when you ignore the context and add your own regarding salvation. You MUST conclude that NO ONE can ever come back to Christ after leaving Him. Yet I am an example of that. Ludicrous.
If you even watched the first video on this you'd see the context, that it is actually an eternal security verse. Christ died once for all sins, past, present, and future. Thus for Christ's atonement to have to be given again then it would put Him to open shame, since it means that His work was imperfect. However, Christ did atone for all sins, even for the backslidden, so therefore it is impossible to renew them to repentance, since they never fell out of grace in the first place. THERE IS GRACE RIGHT THERE.
On Hebrews 10, you need to read what was already said:
10:1 Because the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those same sacrifices, which they offered continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
10:2 Because then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because, the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
10:3 But in those sacrifices there is again a reminder made for sins every year.
10:4 Because it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
10:5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
10:7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.'"
10:8 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law),
10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10:10 By that will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
10:11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
10:12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
10:13 from that time waiting until His enemies are made His footstool.
10:14 Because by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
10:15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; because after that He had said beforehand,
10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"
10:17 "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."
10:18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Ergo: Christ made the final sacrifice (see verse 11-12). Therefore there is no more offering for sin (v. 18). Therefore the JEWS (this is written to them) who rejected Christ afterbeing given the knowledge of the truth (i.e. the Gospel was preached to them), and reject it, there is no more sacrifices accepted by God for sins. The old animal sacrifices are done, and now the Father only accepts the sacrifice made by Jesus (verse 18). Those who have accepted Christ, God doesn't remember their sins (v. 17), and by saying that He does remember sins to punish those who violate the Law willfully as if God lied about not remembering sins, you are calling God a liar. This isn't even about those who God has already forgotten the sins of; it's about those who reject the Gospel, having never believed it, and go back to the Mosaic sacrifices.
There again is grace.
Here's the thing that really upsets me. You're trying to lecture me on James and Hebrews, when you obviously haven't given the time to actually watch any the short videos or read the short essay on James, because they explain those verses already. It looks to me that you aren't an honest seeker of the Truth, and are nothing but trying to push your agenda on a false gospel that is not the Gospel.
