steve-b:
Jesus public ministry was only 3 yrs. Not a lot of time. Yet Jesus would see that Everyone would learn AFTER that 3 yr period , what the future fix , is all about
Yet, our fix is by gracious faith, as was before for OT saints. That has never changed.
However we know changes occurred,
And the changes, that
DID occur, was Jesus, His Church HE established, His sacraments, that HE established, for our salvation, …
AND THEYALL
are necessities not suggestions. As you know, that’s (
Not me talking) that’s from scripture and Tradition.,
mcq72:
At the time of Nicodemus discourse, many had such faith ( Mary, Joseph, Zach, John, apostles, other disciples).
Nocodemus did not. He needed to be born of the Spirit, drawn by the Father, like all the aforementioned faithful.
True. And so we don’t look at sacraments as some magic potion, while we don’t see with human eyes the sacramental change and graces that is there, before and AFTER a sacrament has been administered, WE need to cooperate with the grace that the sacrament administers.
Example:
Faith is a gift from God. Yet Paul makes a distinction, when writing to the Church of Rome about those in faith. He opens his mention of faith by complementing them on their
"obedience of faith",
Rom 1:5-8 and Paul closes the subject of faith in Romans
16:25-26 by saying again,
"obedience of faith" . In between ch 1 and ch 16, are the particulars.
IOW, Paul is saying faith is
in action. As James would say, faith with no action is a said faith, and
a said faith is a dead faith, and it won’t save.
Jas 2:14 AND Jas 2:26
mcq72:
I disagree with those that say you can have gracious faith without gracious regeneration of spirit ( now or in OT).
As I previously stated, one needs to show they have true faith by their
obedience to the true faith. They can’t just
"say" they have faith
mcq72:
Jesus was kind of saying, “today is the day of salvation Nicodemus…be born of God today…and believe, like these others, and you wont have to come to me by night anymore”.
And Nicodemus ultimately did follow.