Again, Jesus, hands down! And may God forgive me for anytime that I have or may in the future, held up my gift of salvation in Christ as that which they must earn by giving up their sin. May He be evident in me in the reality that it is His Grace only thorugh salvation in Jesus Christ that has ever freed me from any sin. I am not very good at reforming myself why should I expect that from another? Freedom from sin comes only through regeneration, new life in Christ.

Pam

JESUS. (as always). :^)

"Freely given;

freely offered; and

freely received."

- and it is (as always) 100% THE WORD OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: beginning to end.

"he/she who will come unto Me, I will *in no wise* cast out."

Certainly salvation is a free gift of God.

That isn't to say we are now allowed to behave immorally and sin freely now that we have salvation. That would be squandering the gift; trampling on the blood Messiah shed for us.

I think this is where area where some Christian folks mistakenly think Torah-observant folks like myself are misled; Christians often tell me, "but you're working to attain salvation! And that's wrong!"

But in reality, we do not believe we have to work to attain salvation, or follow the Torah to attain salvation. It's something we get for free -- a sheer gift! -- from God.

In regards to Torah, we believe that once we have salvation, it is pleasing to God to keep his commandments. It doesn't give us salvation, it just helps us walk rightly before God.

Hi Judah,

Do all Jews view the Torah as a gift rather than a pathway to salvation?

I think Christians today have a lot of superstitions about the Law because people don't read their Bibles as much. Somehow, they get the idea that the Law is bad. Now being under the curse of the Law is bad but the Law itself is Holy and in it are instructions for a very happy life.

Pam