Love One Another and the Cross

[votivesoul]

Until I experienced the cross, I didn't love anyone. So at least for me, no cross = no love, and of course, no salvation.

[shazeep]

i will suggest again that those are two words that most people have only a ritualized definition for.

Originally Posted by votivesoul

Until I experienced the cross, I didn't love anyone. So at least for me, no cross = no love, and of course, no salvation.

well that is great, but there is no denying that people have different reactions to Christ, some more religious, or ritualized, than others, and this becomes an examination of the fruit of an approach.

JD reflects a reality that can often occur, and that Scripture provides multiple warnings about. Simply denying this out of hand is to ignore a virtual cliche`. This is def not about denying the cross. More about recognizing that strong men seek to control the kingdom, and we are usually led to the cross by them.

If love one another is 9/10ths of the law and the prophets, Acts 2:38 adherents must rethink which is the cart, and which the horse.


"A new command I give you: Love one another."
"if we love one another, God lives in us"
"whoever loves others has fulfilled the law"
"For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another"
"everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another"
"may the Lord teach you to love one another and all men"
"This is my commandment, that you love one another"
"Above all continue to love one another"
"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another"
"This old commandment--to love one another--is the same message you heard before"
"Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning"

So the reality that you most likely heard Acts 2:38 from the beginning, and not this, simply becomes something else you must overcome. This does not mean that that isn't a great verse for personal application, but that if you have resistance to the first sentence in this paragraph, you have "taken a different gospel, and are not welcome."

[mfblume]

Shazeep, please please consider this as well, that you are overlooking something. Maybe ritualized Acts 2:38'ers turned you off. Not sure. But there is no salvation by works, which is the case if "love one another " does not follow salvation but instead causes it. There is simply no salvation by works, no matter how much you love. Just because some have ritualized Acts 2:38 does not mean it is not the beginning in the real sense it's meant to be. Just because people say it's the plan of salvation, doesn't mean they ritualize it. But again there is no way that salvation by works is possible and no one can be saved outside the work of the cross.

Acts 2:38 is the way to apply the cross to our lives, but not ritualistically. Ritualism does nothing. So when someone says Acts 2:38's the plan, it does not mean they are bypassing the application of the cross in a genuine heart experience of faith and real, living self-denial.

You simply don't seem to give a person the chance to talk about it, since you seemingly cut someone off as soon as they say things like muslims are lost,. But if the cross is the only means to God, as Jesus and the apostles said it was, then there is no salvation aside from the cross, and that is not a judgment call either. It's stating facts without prejudice.

Acts 2:38 takes the death of Christ, only when a true heart of faith gets the concept of the need for salvation, and baptizes someone into that death. And when they come to God as one who is alive from the dead, as Ro 6:13 states we should, God sees the genuine faith in a person who obviously knows they died in Christ, freeing them from the old man, fully believing that self could do nothing more than die, due to our depravity in sin. And that faith that we died is also aware that we arose with Christ. And when God sees that faith, He moves upon the person and empowers them supernaturally. I've experienced it.


But again, love one another, without the cross first, is salvation by works. And I hope you realize salvaiton by works is impossible.