gordon 2
Senior Member
Luke 5;32
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
So now... there were righteous individuals... before there were Christians. And I think the reference to the righteous was to people living when our Lord Jesus was about his ministry that would begin with the Wedding at Canaan and would end with the sending of the Holy Spirit to His disciples. It also suggests to me that there were righteous people before this time, as well.
Genesis 16:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
I submit that Abram believed the Lord to the extent that he acted on this belief. If Abram acted on this belief, then he walked with God. I personally find it difficult to not say that if Abram acted on God's will, he was not a participant in eternal life. And therefore the righteous in our Lord's days of ministry as indicated previously are equally to eternal life, even but especially before the jaw dropping sacrifice of the cross.
For some reason some people still had it in their makeup to walk with God, despite that the world about them which was filled with the lost in the fog of the curse-- the cumulative effects of original sin over the time spans of history.
Duet 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(I personally think the gentiles are the driven out people... the lost people... He called you to his eternal glory.)
John 17:3
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
(Did Moses not know the only true God, and Elijah and countless more!)
John 5: 24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
I submit that the words of Jesus are God's word and God's word is already know to man before Jesus provides the Holy Spirit to his disciples-- the saints...
1st Cor 2:11
For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
( The thoughts of God were made know to man long before there were Christians. Abraham is perhaps our greatest example of this. There are many more examples. The righteous have always heard and believed our Creator.)
Jesus did not come for them ( the righteous), he came for the not so righteous so that they-we like our now spiritual heroes, we-they who were unrighteous, lost, unable to hear, unable to see ( unable to live with eternal life), sick and living with evil spirits can now live with faith as the righteous live, as our spiritual heroes live and lived even before Jesus and since his loving ministry... as Messiah ( Saver-Savior), and Good Shepard to the lost. Us.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
So now... there were righteous individuals... before there were Christians. And I think the reference to the righteous was to people living when our Lord Jesus was about his ministry that would begin with the Wedding at Canaan and would end with the sending of the Holy Spirit to His disciples. It also suggests to me that there were righteous people before this time, as well.
Genesis 16:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
I submit that Abram believed the Lord to the extent that he acted on this belief. If Abram acted on this belief, then he walked with God. I personally find it difficult to not say that if Abram acted on God's will, he was not a participant in eternal life. And therefore the righteous in our Lord's days of ministry as indicated previously are equally to eternal life, even but especially before the jaw dropping sacrifice of the cross.
For some reason some people still had it in their makeup to walk with God, despite that the world about them which was filled with the lost in the fog of the curse-- the cumulative effects of original sin over the time spans of history.
Duet 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(I personally think the gentiles are the driven out people... the lost people... He called you to his eternal glory.)
John 17:3
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
(Did Moses not know the only true God, and Elijah and countless more!)
John 5: 24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
I submit that the words of Jesus are God's word and God's word is already know to man before Jesus provides the Holy Spirit to his disciples-- the saints...
1st Cor 2:11
For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
( The thoughts of God were made know to man long before there were Christians. Abraham is perhaps our greatest example of this. There are many more examples. The righteous have always heard and believed our Creator.)
Jesus did not come for them ( the righteous), he came for the not so righteous so that they-we like our now spiritual heroes, we-they who were unrighteous, lost, unable to hear, unable to see ( unable to live with eternal life), sick and living with evil spirits can now live with faith as the righteous live, as our spiritual heroes live and lived even before Jesus and since his loving ministry... as Messiah ( Saver-Savior), and Good Shepard to the lost. Us.