Fuller Context

When I voiced interest in becoming child of G-d, an appointment was made with the pastor.  When that time came, we met and he shared the "salvation Scriptures" with me, we prayed, and planned the baptismal ceremony.  It was more than "the Romans Road" and before the era of "the sinner's prayer."  Coincidentally, or not . . . that was a few days before Passover.  What stands out most, in my memory are the Scriptures II Peter 3:9, and Ephesians 2:8-9, as the rest of the Scriptures he shared were immediately intertwined with interpretive doctrine.  Such as Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.    Was explained to mean "going forward at church to make a public profession of faith."  I mean no disrespect to that man who introduced me to Messiah, he was simply sharing what he'd been taught.  It isn't that the concept is wrong, it's just Romans 10:9 means so much more than that . . .

As stated above, the Scriptures that really stood out to me also touched my spirit.  I was thrilled that G-d didn't want anyone to die and I didn't fully understand what coming to repentance meant, but my parents explained that meant since I was a kid, it meant more honor and greater obedience to them . . .  Since I was a kid, disobeying them was about my only sin to that point . . .  I loved to read and II Peter 3 really got exciting after verse 9.  Adrenaline pumping exciting!  Within a very short time, I was seeking the Old Testament as to what it was to be holy.  I knew that's how Messiah had lived on earth.  He was perfect, so that had to mean holy.  Next thing you know, I'm called legalistic, by church people!  I was still young and needed to more fully understand grace.

Within a couple more years, the movie "Thief in the Night" came out and although the title was said to be from I Thessalonians 5, I remembered it from II Peter 3.  After viewing the movie I understood grace to be peculiarly cheap.  Say a prayer and "when the going gets tough, the saved are up and out."  Besides no one is perfect and if you try to live by Torah, you fall from grace, and if you fall from grace, you cannot get back.  And as for the Holy Spirit, more misinterpreted teaching from Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,  and Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of G-d, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  It was then explained what the Apostles experienced in the book of Acts was a one time deal for then.  We got all the power we were going to get when we got saved, that was all there was until you die.  I was a young teen at the time, early 70s and I questioned all these teachings.  Something just didn't seem right.   . . . Thus began my wilderness journey.

I clung to what I thought I knew, which were some memorized verses and a lot of misinterpretation of Scripture, but I kept track of my taped up study Bible from my youth.  I lived a struggling life clinging to Romans 8:28, and waiting for the "work together for good" to happen.  I just didn't know how to follow Messiah without Instructions or Holy power.  I truly believed the Bible divided between Malachi and Matthew.  It would be years later before I realized the only Bible the apostles had!

Ephesians was a very strugglesome book for me, as I realized once I truly entered a relationship with YHWH in Messiah, the Second Chapter of Acts was and is a real possibility.  So I went back once again, to that little book that follows Galatians, and asked for a new understanding.  The fullness of the context was amazing.  Obedience to the commandments and good works don't earn salvation; good works and obedience are evidence of salvation.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of G-d:  Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Y'hshuwah unto good works, which G-d hath before ordained that we should walk in them . . . And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.  Ephesians 2:8-10, 20-22