Quote (Saucisson6000 @ 1 Apr 2020 04:57)
Sorry to ask, you are yourself a self made pastor isnt'it ?
Congrats, but what about being a priest ?
A self made pastor. I wouldn't dare to call myself that, that's not my intention what so ever. However, the Bible does teach in some regard that all believers are priests before God and our fellow man.
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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
But I don't consciously think of myself as any of those.
Quote (inkanddagger @ 1 Apr 2020 04:49)
Paul is the one who taught salvation by faith, Jesus taught salvation by works.
As IceMage is saying. The way I have been taught and understand the gospels is that both works and faith are taught indeed. However, The teachings of the law is to open your eyes that you're a sinner. While Jesus is telling his followers not to sin and be holy he also forgives. When people comes to Him, It's by their faith they are cured from the bondage of their sins. When Jesus hangs on the cross, He is telling one of the thiefs, also being crucified, that by His faith he will enter Heaven with Him on the same day.
There are many other examples of Jesus forgiving the outcasts of society. He is heavily accusing the established Jewish synagogue that taught salvation by works and became hypocrites in thwir own blindness. Jesus died on that cross as a final message of the depravity of the human race and the grace and love of God towards mankind. Jesus was resurrected and by his blood we are washed clean - he paved the path towards a living relationship with God, that by faith in Him we are forgiven, blessed in righteousness. Even David in the old testement taught this doctrine of truth, "blessed is the man that God forgives".
Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus profetized of the Son of God who would come to earth, being ripped apart by hungry lions, hung on a tree, pierced for our transgression, you can read the whole thing here and f you want.
And let me end with John verse 3.16 that says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
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Who has believed what he has heard from us?[a]
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows[c] and acquainted with[d] grief;[e]
and as one from whom men hide their faces[f]
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;[g]
when his soul makes[h] an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,[j]
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,[k]
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.