JDS, is your soteriology Arminian or Traditionalist?
Lest you think I teach one can be justified and then unjustified, I will provide this;
Justification is always by faith in what God reveals. When God justifies a man he will always be a just man. God is the judge of all the earth and contrary to what many want to believe, God desires to save men. I am going to give you an example from the scriptures of how God justifies a sinner, and counts him just, in spite of the fact he may fall into serious sin later. I will quote from 2 Peter 2.
7 And delivered
just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that
righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
I assume you know the story of Lot and how he lost fellowship with Abraham, his testimony, his sanctification, his reputation, his influence with his family, his city, his wife, and his peace and fathered two nations from his two daughters while drunk who would be enemies of Israel to this very day, but he did not lose his justification before God. God called him 1) just, 2) righteous, 3) godly. This is how a sinner is delivered by the blood of Christ, which is the blood of the New Testament, having been justified by God and his faith imputed to him for righteousness. He knew nothing about the name of Jesus Christ and had believed nothing about the cross. He had believed what God said to him.
In John 6, Jesus said all who would come to him shall have eternal life. What he required of those to whom he spoke was that they believe two things about him. 1) that he is the Messiah of Israel who was promised in the OT, and 2) that he was the Son of God. If you study John's gospel you will find that everyone who was justified in his book had the same testimony that they believed that Jesus was the Son of God. It was the reason John said he wrote the book and included the 7 miracles. He said it here;
Jn 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
John stated what these Jews must believe during the time of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ in order to have eternal life. This is not the same thing that was required of Lot.
Now, here is the kicker; not a single person in John 6 believed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and they confessed, even the 12 apostles and 70 elders, that they knew nothing about him having to die and rise again, and they did not believe it after it was told them. If this does not make my case then nothing will. That was not the subject of the preaching of Jesus Christ during his time on earth.
John 6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
This will need to be proven, so bear with me here while I do it.
Matthew wrote:
16:20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mark wrote:
9:9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.
10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.
31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.
Luke wrote
9:43 And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples,
44 Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.
45 But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.
18:31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
John wrote
20:6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
All these verse above are in the last days of the ministry of Jesus on earth.
Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
10 And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
11 And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.
12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.
13 And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.
14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
The ministry of Jesus in the gospels was to preach "The Gospel of the Kingdom." Most people here do not even believe in a kingdom.
I challenge you to think differently and biblically and to forsake the T.U.L.I.P.
In the New Testament Jesus Christ IS our justification because he is in our bodies in the person of his Spirit. He is our righteousness.