Forgiveness and/or Remission

[Adino]

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

A person CANNOT separate the obedience and faith. One without the other is in vain. If Moses said he believed God but did not place the blood on the post of the door he would not have been spared the judgment. One can go through the motions of obeying yet NOT believing it is in vain. Obeying from the heart that form of doctrine is what delivers from sin.

Notice the following, Steve:

1Jn 5:12-13 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Now one of the passages I've already offered:

John 20:25-31 "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Christ appears and says to Thomas, "...be not faithless, but believing." Thomas then believed and Christ continued, "...because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." The author of John continues, "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

Christ identified the heart conversion of Thomas as faith ("..be not faithless, but believing"). He went on to say those who have faith (i.e., those whose hearts convert to faith in Him as did Thomas) are the blessed.

The author of the Gospel of John and of 1John identifies faith as that moment the heart converts to belief in Jesus Christ. This same author states that the man who believes is the man who has eternal life (1Jn 5:13; Jn 20:31) and is the man who has passed from death unto life (Jn 5:24).

Are you suggesting that Christ and the author of John's gospel and epistle did not know what they were talking about?