Jonathan Legaz

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

I never said believing is “I think Jesus is a real person.” I said the one who believes hath everlasting life (John 5:24) and then bears fruit (Matthew 7:17).

The Sermon on the Mount is how the new heart lives. It is not the price of the new heart.
Matthew 25 still starts with, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” Then the doing is named.

You are done talking because you will not answer that order, and because you still say Paul is in hell. I do not agree. The faith once delivered includes Jesus’ ransom, living faith that works, and the witness of Luke, Mark, and Paul. I will leave it there.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

I never said believing is “I think Jesus is a real person.” I said the one who believes hath everlasting life (John 5:24) and then bears fruit (Matthew 7:17).

The Sermon on the Mount is how the new heart lives. It is not the price of the new heart.
Matthew 25 still starts with, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” Then the doing is named.

You are done talking because you will not answer that order, and because you still say Paul is in hell. I do not agree. The faith once delivered includes Jesus’ ransom, living faith that works, and the witness of Luke, Mark, and Paul. I will leave it there.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

Genesis 15:6
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
John 5:24
“He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
John 11:26
“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
Mark 2:17
“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Mark 8:36
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Mark 10:45
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 7:17
“Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.”
Luke 7:50
“And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
Luke 18:13–14
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.”
Luke 19:10
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Luke 23:42–43
“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Acts 17:28
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being.”
Now Paul, book by book:
Romans 5:1
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Galatians 2:16
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 2:8–10
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”
Philippians 2:13
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Colossians 2:13–14
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.”
1 Thessalonians 1:3
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 2:16–17
“Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.”
1 Timothy 1:15
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Titus 3:5–8
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us… that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.”
Philemon 6
“That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

That is the order in the Gospels, Acts, and every letter: life in Christ first, then good works. The publican went home justified. The thief was promised paradise. The believer hath everlasting life.

Then the workman labors, because we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
Your version makes the works the savior and throws Luke and Paul into hell. That is why we do not agree.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

No, we do not agree.
We agree on this much: a living faith is not idle. A good tree brings forth good fruit. Nobody is saved by a dead opinion that never loves the hungry or the broken.

We do not agree on the rest.

You have said Paul is burning in hell, Luke’s writings should be thrown out, Mark is with them, the thieves were not there, action transforms the heart into salvation, and Matthew 25 will damn the man who trusts Jesus for life. That is not “hand in hand.” That is works as the root and whole books of Scripture as the enemy.

Luke and Paul are in heaven. Their writings are Scripture. Peter, whom you claim to accept, calls Paul “our beloved brother” and treats his letters as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16). Paul is not against righteous works. He is against using works as the thing that makes a sinner righteous before God.

Genesis 15:6 still says, “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

John 11:26 still says, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

Matthew 7:17 still says the tree is good first, then the fruit.

So, faith without works is dead. Works without the new birth are not salvation. You keep collapsing those into one sentence so it sounds like we landed in the same place. We did not.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

@DiscipleOfYHVH @rabbriansamuel John 11:26
“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

No, a man is not saved by righteous acts.

No, saving trust in Yeshua is not a dead opinion that never acts.

That is not “yes yes” or “no no.” That is the Bible’s order.

Genesis 15:6
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

John 6:29
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

John 3:16
“whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Matthew 9:13
“I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Matthew 7:17
“Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.”

So, can someone be saved without using acts as the payment? Yes. Abraham was counted righteous when he trusted the promise.

Can someone be saved and then live as if mercy, hunger, and the broken do not matter? No. That is a dead profession, not a good tree.

You said if someone is truly saved their actions naturally mirror the Shepherd. I agree with that sentence. That is fruit. You keep treating the fruit as the door.

Putting trust in Yeshua is not a boast about my purity. It is a sinner taking the physician. Then the saved man looks outward. He does not look outward in order to become a sheep.

If you only accept a single yes or no, the honest answer is:
Saved without acts as the cause: yes.
Saved with a faith that never acts when it has life to act: no.

That is not endless debate. That is Matthew and John. The endless part is only if you keep asking the same question until works become the root.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

Matthew 9:13 does not teach that some people are already righteous and therefore already saved.
Read the verse before it.

Matthew 9:12–13
“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

He said that while sitting with publicans and sinners, and the Pharisees were offended (Matthew 9:10–11). The “righteous” in that sentence are people who think they do not need a physician. They have not “arrived.” They have shut the door by refusing to be treated as sick.

That is the opposite of your reading. You are using the verse to protect people who already consider themselves righteous by practice. Jesus used it to expose them.

Matthew 18 also has the sheep:

Matthew 18:12–14
“How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.
Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”

The Shepherd seeks the lost. He does not tell the lost to volunteer until they feel transformed and then climb back into the fold. The ninety and nine are not a club of people who saved themselves by action. They are the Shepherd’s sheep.

So your comment actually proves the warning. “Those who consider themselves already righteous have closed the door to transformation.” Yes. That is the Pharisee problem in Matthew 9. The sick need the physician. Sinners need repentance and mercy. They do not need a lecture that the healthy have already arrived by works.

Jesus came to call sinners. If a man can make his own heart good by serving, he is not a sinner who needs a physician. He is the man who thinks he is whole.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

Matthew 25 is not a surprise quiz for people who trusted Yeshua and then refused to love the poor. It is the King separating sheep He already owns from goats He never knew.

Read the first word to the sheep:

Matthew 25:34
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

The kingdom was prepared for them first. Then He describes their fruit. They are even surprised that their care of “the least of these” was done to Him. That is not a man presenting a volunteer log to buy entry. That is a man whose life followed a heart the King had already claimed.

The sentence you quoted is spoken to the goats (Matthew 25:41–45). They are not people who believed on the Son and were born again. They are people who never belonged to Him. That matches what He says elsewhere: “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23) and “I know you not” (Matthew 25:12).

So no. That is not “what is going to be said to you on judgement day with your mentality.” My mentality is John 3:16, John 6:29, Matthew 9:13, Matthew 26:28, and Matthew 7:17: believe on the One God sent, receive life, become a good tree, then bear fruit. A living faith feeds, clothes, and visits. A dead profession does not.

You are preaching that a man must manufacture the fruit until God owes him the tree. Yeshua preaches that the King makes sheep, then the sheep serve. If you turn Matthew 25 into a threat against everyone who will not let works create the new heart, you are not warning the goats. You are denying the order of the passage you just posted.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

That illustration is not the gospel. That is moral self-improvement.

Feeling good after volunteering is common even among people who do not know God. Proverbs 12:10, which you already quoted, says the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. A warm feeling after a shift at a shelter does not mean the heart has been made new.

Yeshua does not say, “Change your heart by doing things.” He says, ��Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27).
Matthew 6:33 does not teach that action creates righteousness.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

It says His righteousness, not yours manufactured by hours in a kitchen. Seek the King and the righteousness that belongs to Him. That is not the same as, “Work until your heart upgrades.”

No one here said, “I help no one and I am righteous.” A living trust acts. A good tree brings forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17). You are still reversing the order. You have a man making the tree good by forcing fruit. Yeshua has God making the tree good, then fruit follows.
Genesis 15:6 still stands: “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” God counted the trust. Abraham did not cook his way into being counted.

If the heart is changed by practice, sinners do not need to be born from above. They only need a schedule. That is not Matthew. That is not John. That is not the Torah verse you raised.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

I am not missing the Hebrew. Genesis 15:6 does not say the noun emunah. It uses the verb he’emin, from the same root: Abraham placed his weight on the LORD. Then the text says God counted it to him for righteousness.

“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

The issue is not English versus Hebrew. The issue is the order of the sentence you will not deal with. God counts the trust first.
Circumcision is Genesis 17. The offering of Isaac is Genesis 22. Righteousness is credited before those acts, not purchased by them.

Matthew 25 does not cancel that. The sheep are not people who created their own standing by a checklist. They are people the King already calls “ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Then He describes the fruit of that life. The goats are not rejected for missing a few errands. They are rejected as people He never knew in the way that saves. That matches Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25:12: “I never knew you” / “I know you not.”

The parable of the two sons (Matthew 21:28–31) is about which son actually did the Father’s will after saying yes or no. It is not a tract that says a corrupt tree can manufacture good fruit until God owes it life. Jesus already told you the tree is made good first (Matthew 7:17–18).

“Righteousness cannot exist without action” is a slogan. Living faith acts. Nobody denied that. What you still have not shown from Genesis, Matthew, or John is that action is what creates the standing God counts. Genesis 15:6 says the opposite: trust counted as righteousness, then the walk.

You can keep saying I do not understand because I quoted English. The Hebrew verb is still there, and the order is still there. Until you answer that order, you are not teaching emunah. You are using a Hebrew word to dodge the verse.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

One more thing. You still have not supported your position with Scripture. You have defined emunah and said faith and works go “hand in hand.” That is not the same as showing from Genesis, Matthew, or John that a man is made righteous by first acting righteous.

The verses already on the table still stand:

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

John 6:29 “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

John 3:16 “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Matthew 26:28 “shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Matthew 9:13 “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Matthew 7:17 “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.”

Until you answer those texts, you are not defending Yeshua from the Hebrew Bible. You are defending a theory and asking the Bible to step aside.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

I agree that emunah is not a shrug in the head. It is trust that holds. Amen. Nobody is defending a dead opinion.

That still does not get you where you want to go.

Genesis 15:6 is the text you quoted:
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
Look at the order in the Torah you claim.

Genesis 15: God counts Abraham righteous when he trusts the promise.

Genesis 17: circumcision comes later.

Genesis 22: offering Isaac comes later.

God did not wait for Abraham to finish a list of kingdom acts and then call him righteous. He counted the trust itself as righteousness. The later obedience proved the trust was real. It did not create the standing God had already given.
That is the same order Yeshua gives.

John 6:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Matthew 26:28: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Matthew 9:13: “for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Matthew 7:17: “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

So yes: faith and action go together the way root and fruit go together. They do not go together the way payment and purchase go together.

If emunah already means “I place my weight on the promise,” that is exactly why righteousness is counted to the one who trusts, not to the one who tries to become reliable enough first. Abraham placed his weight on the LORD. God counted that. Then Abraham walked.

You keep saying “hand in hand” as if that erases the order. The Torah you cited keeps the order. Trust is counted. Loyalty follows. Fruit does not invent the tree.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

You have it completely backward.

You don't act righteous to become righteous; you act righteous because God already made you righteous.

If you try to act righteous to get into heaven, you are presenting your own filthy rags to God. But if you let the Messiah change your heart first through faith, then the righteous actions follow naturally because it's who you are.

As Yeshua said in Matthew 7:17

17 “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”The tree has to be made good before it can produce good fruit. Faith makes the tree good; actions are just the fruit.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

The foolish virgins are not shut out for lacking extra chores. They are shut out because He says, “I know you not” (Matthew 25:12). That is relationship, not a scorecard.

You can reject Paul. You cannot pretend Matthew, John, and Peter agree with you while you do it. They preach a Savior who saves the helpless. You are preaching a system that saves the already righteous and then anoints that system “team Yeshua.”

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

John’s warning about antichrist is about people who deny the Father and the Son, not a secret code for Luke, Mark, and Paul (1 John 2:22–23; 4:2–3). Calling evangelists “antichrist” is slander, not exegesis.

Peter, whom you accept, does not call Paul a sorcerer. Peter calls him “our beloved brother Paul” and treats his letters as Scripture that unstable men twist to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:15–16). An unnamed “old text” does not outrank Peter.

John did not write, “these are written so you can perform enough kingdom acts.” He wrote, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). Jesus came for sinners, not for people who already have a heart of gold (Matthew 9:13). He gave His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Peter says we are born again by the resurrection and kept by the power of God through faith (1 Peter 1:3–5).

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

You are not applying 1st-century court rules. You are inventing a filter so you can throw out witnesses you do not like.
Matthew, whom you say you trust, already records two thieves crucified with Jesus (Matthew 27:38, 44). John not repeating every detail does not erase Matthew. The Gospels often focus on different things without canceling each other.
Jesus did not limit His authorized witnesses to “only if I looked you in the eye before the cross.” After the resurrection He sent the Eleven to make disciples of all nations and promised to be with them (Matthew 28:18–20). He also promised the Spirit would teach them and bring His words to remembrance (John 14:26; 16:13). That is how apostolic witness works. It is not a Sanhedrin hearsay manual you wrote.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

It sounds like you've been reading some of the old theories from the internet, but they actually collapse when you look closely at history and the very scriptures you accept. Let's look at the facts.

First, your claim that Matthew and John don't record a Passover meal or a lamb at the Last Supper is completely incorrect. Matthew explicitly states that Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover meal. In Matthew 26:17, it says:17 “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?”

In Matthew 26:19, it says:19 “And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.” By definition under the Torah, you cannot eat a Passover meal without a lamb. Matthew and John don't need to write the word "lamb" separately because saying they "made ready the passover" automatically includes it. Mark and Luke are simply matching Matthew perfectly.

Second, your quote from John about the antichrist completely backfires. You said John was talking about Luke, Paul, and Mark. But John explicitly says the antichrists left the church.
In 1 John 2:19, it says:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
Luke, Paul, and Mark never left the church or separated from the original apostles. In fact, the Apostle Peter whom you accept explicitly calls Paul his "beloved brother" and calls Paul’s writings Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16. Peter warns that people who twist Paul's writings do so to their own destruction.

Third, the "old text" you mentioned where Peter calls Paul a sorcerer is from a well-known 4th-century fictional writing called the Pseudo-Clementines. It is an unbiblical, historical fake that serious scholars both Jewish and Christian reject as hearsay. It's ironic to call Luke and Paul hearsay while relying on a fictional text written 300 years later to form your doctrine.

Finally, you said Paul and Luke wouldn't be accepted in Jerusalem. But the book of Acts (which was accepted by the early church) shows that the leadership in Jerusalem, including James (Jesus's brother, whom you accept), gave Paul the right hand of fellowship.We can definitely agree to disagree, but it’s important to realize that to maintain a works-based salvation, you are having to throw out Matthew, rewrite John, ignore Peter's defense of Paul, and rely on 4th-century fiction. If we stick to the text of Matthew and John, Yeshua's blood is our only ransom, received through faith alone.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

I didn't quote anyone after Yeshua's ascension to prove my point. You can’t defend your position even with the parameters you want to put. Every single verse I gave you came directly from the Hebrew Prophets and the words of Yeshua Himself from Matthew and John the exact books you said you trusted.

If you take Yeshua literally when He speaks, then you have to take Him literally in John 6:29 when the crowds explicitly asked Him what actions they needed to perform to do the works of God:

29 “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

You have to take Him literally in John 3:16 when He says that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

And you have to take Him literally in Matthew 26:28 when He says His blood was shed “for the remission of sins.”

I am team Yeshua all the way too. That is exactly why I trust His finished work on the cross to save me, rather than pointing to my own righteousness or my own "kingdom acts."

If my own actions could save me, then Yeshua died for nothing. I’m content to leave it here and agree to disagree as well. You’re 100% wrong on this. I appreciate the discussion, and I genuinely pray that you rest completely in the grace and finished work of the Messiah.

[Jonathan Legaz @JLegaz94]

@DiscipleOfYHVH @rabbriansamuel Matthew 10:30 “But the very hairs on your head are numbered”