I no longer believe I 100% know the correct interpretation for the bible. I no longer 100% know what is required for salvation because I am being confused by the texts the more I read. I don't know whether faith is required for salvation, or faith and obedience, and if obedience, is that works and is continued repentance followed by obedience a work?

If so, then it is no longer by faith, but of works. If not, then how? Because, if we are being obedient, we are following the law. However if we are justified by keeping the law, the it is no longer of grace, through faith in the redemption of Jesus alone, then it is faith and works since if being justified by the law then faith has been made to no effect.

Do you see my confusion? I hope I was being clear and understandable because I would love to hear answers. This is leading down a road of doubts and insecurity.

Don't let this trouble your faith. Also, don't fall into the rabbit hole here. Believe the gospel and trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8‭-‬9

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James 2:24

This appears to be a contradiction but it's not. When James used the word justified, he was talking about how other people view the Christian. For example, if I tell you that I'm a Christian and you are hungry and can't afford food, and I can afford to help you but I don't, you would probably think that I wasn't really a Christian. But if I showed you love and went out of my way to help you, my Christianity would be justified in your eyes. Therefore, I was justified by my works.

There's a huge difference in being justified in God's eyes and being justified in man's eyes. Being justified in God's eyes gets us into heaven. We're justified in God's eyes through faith in Jesus. Justified in this sense means being made right with God.

1 John 3
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

This is a contradiction to faith only. Since if you sin, then the wrath of God abides on you, whether or not you have faith does not matter by itself.

This post was edited by DCEVO on Jun 14 2023 10:39am

What do you think abut this then? Same book of the Bible, same author:

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
1 John 1:10

Edit: the same author of the same book says that if we claim that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. So it's obvious (when taking in the context of this book) that John isn't preaching sinless perfection. He's talking about a lifestyle marked by sin.

This post was edited by wraps on Jun 14 2023 10:58am

Those verses still don't support continual sin. God wants us to repent and go back on the straight path.

1 John 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

The blood of Jesus only cleanses those who have repented and continue to walk in light. If we repent, the continue to sin everyday, then the wrath of God is our wages.

1 John 2:3-6

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Basically we are condemned by the law, but if we repent, and stop sinning, and believe in Jesus, then were good. However I find that the law is impossible to follow.

Also, I want to encourage you. It's good to have these questions and it's good to search for the answers. All of us Christians run into these difficult parts of the Bible and to be completely honest, none of us have a perfect understanding of the Bible. God is so big and so complex that it's impossible for us to completely understand Him on this side of eternity. God made what we need easy enough for us though by sending His own Son to die on the cross for our sins. That is all we need to be in heaven one day.

Whenever you feel like your faith is crumbling, remember these words from Jesus and Peter:

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:66‭-‬69

There is nowhere else to go. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life.

I know. Im not losing faith. Im only realizing I might not be going to heaven. I do not obey his commands. I follow my own. I am not going to die perfect.

No those verses don't support continual sin. No part of the Bible supports continual sin. We are supposed to repent of our sins and try to do better. Repentance of sins is a change of mind about sin. Before Christ, we loved our sins and embraced them. Once we believed in Jesus and the Holy Spirit came to live in us, we now hate sin and we try to avoid sin. The only problem is that we still have this sin nature (aka the flesh). There's a war going on inside of us between the Spirit and the flesh. Read Romans 7. So we still sin but now we hate it when we sin. So we confess our sins to remain in a healthy relationship with God. When we confess our sins, we're bringing our sins to the Light of God. Therefore we are walking in the Light. As opposed to hiding our sins and walking in the darkness.

That makes sense. Im going to have to think about this.

Praise God that salvation isn't dependent on our obedience to God's commands. It's dependent on God's grace through faith. If it was dependent on our obedience, then we would have something to boast about in heaven. We could say, I was such a good person that I deserve to be in heaven! When the Bible says, no you don't deserve heaven but you get heaven because God is merciful. Because God had mercy on you, you believe the gospel and because of what Jesus did for you, you get heaven. Only God gets the glory.