Noah, says Hebrews 11:7c “became heir of the righteousness that is by faith”. Abraham (Abram) in Genesis 12 believed and obeyed God and in Gen 15:6 " And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness". In both cases, Noah and Abraham had their faith credited for righteousness.
True, and in both cases, Noah and Abraham “obeyed” after “believing.” God gives us righteousness by grace through faith. We maintain (remain in, continue to stand in) this grace through obedience. This is why James states “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only (alone).” James 2:24
The Law was given because they made a golden calf and worshiped it. It was punishment for their transgression. The Law entered so that their sins would multiply (due to their continued disobedience) in order to later show the abundant mercy of God through Jesus Christ in His power to atone for
all sins, both original sin and personal sins, and defeat death and open the gates of heaven.
Romans 5:19-21 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
James 2:21-26 “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
Of John the Baptist the Scriptures say in Luke 1:80 “and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit,and was in the dessert till the day of his showing unto Israel” and Matthew’s account of Jesus coming to John for water baptism: “but John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” (Matt 3;14). They all had original sin and personal sins, not born righteous. Romans tell us in 3:9 that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. Romans 5 is a good example as you pointed out: 5:1 “therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. As Abraham was justified by his faith so are we. The sin of Adam was certainly imputed to the human race and therefore death visited mankind, but 5:12 says that all had sinned (not sin, singular). The evil in mankind was evident from the beginning (Genesis 6:5) because we are all born with a fallen or sinful nature; Paul calls those unspiritual people unable to receive the things of the Spirit the ‘natural man’, this is not just from the original sin issue.(1Cor 2:14).
“All had sinned” because they all were born with original sin. This states nothing about personal sins. John was indicating that since he was inferior to Jesus, Jesus should baptize him instead of John baptizing Jesus.
“Sin” or “sinned;” really makes no difference whether we say the “sin of mankind” or “mankind sinned.” “Sin” is a condition that we are born with even though we have not yet committed any personal “sins.”
Men were evil through their own selfish free will choices. Their perception was according to the flesh (without God’s grace) rather than spiritually discerned (with God’s grace).
Romans 5:14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Death reigned over all men because of Adam’s sin, even if they were righteous and loved God. They could not enter heaven until Jesus defeated death and opened the gates of heaven for them.
Only Jesus knew not sin (2Cor 5:21). Evidence from experience shows that for as many people in all denominations who are baptized and cleansed of original and all sin, if they are made righteous, why is it that so few show evidence of a God-directed life? Why if they had no sinful nature, and having the Holy Spirit in them (1Cor 6 :19,20), why do they fall into sin and live in it most of the time?
Jesus was born without original sin. John the Baptist was sanctified before birth in his mother’s womb.
God did not limit our “free will” when we became justified through baptism. Until we die, we can either obey Him or reject Him.
Jesus said that if a child asks his father for a fish, he will not give the child a stone, therefore our heavenly Father will do much more when we ask Him. Jesus also said ‘be holy for I am Holy’ and ‘be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’. Man can do good but I understand Jesus by these words to say, man is not good e n o u g h. Luke 18:26,27 “who then can be saved? The things that are impossible with men are possible with God”. We all are in need of a Savior for we are not good enough otherwise to save ourselves or stay pure to the end because of our sinful nature. Tito
Man cannot do any good at all without the grace of God. Man cannot save himself. Only Jesus saves. However, God supplies grace liberally to those persons who desire to cooperate with His grace. We all have free will to reject His grace and do sinful deeds after we are baptized.
It would be helpful if you could put your posts into several “shorter” paragraphs rather than one “long” one.
