heavenlymann

I understand Gal. 5:19-21 to describe those of the "world" who are walking in darkness neither knowing nor believing into the Lord. They have NOT the Light so they continue in darkness. And in Ephesians we are told..."and such WERE some of you." I don't believe the scriptures anywhere describes a salvation by any kind of works...therefore we can't earn salvation by being holy. Being holy by our own effort would just lead to pride. I believe according to scripture that it's our relationship with Christ whereby God is able to, increasingly, undo sin in our life and begin the work of holiness within us(Romans 8:29). Having said that a Christian is still prone to walk in the old ways by habit or decision from time to time. I think that is what those passages are warning us not to do. It's a long process but time has no meaning in eternity. Habitual sin will only deprive the "worldling" of heaven. And that only because of their rejection of the Savior. Rejecting the Savior is rejection of the God of Jesus. They reject Him and his payment for their sin therefore they must pay for their own sin. "It is by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2: 8-9

I understand Gal. 5:19-21 to describe those of the "world" who are walking in darkness neither knowing nor believing into the Lord. They have NOT the Light so they continue in darkness. And in Ephesians we are told..."and such WERE some of you." I don't believe the scriptures anywhere describes a salvation by any kind of works...therefore we can't earn salvation by being holy. Being holy by our own effort would just lead to pride. I believe according to scripture that it's our relationship with Christ whereby God is able to, increasingly, undo sin in our life and begin the work of holiness within us(Romans 8:29). Having said that a Christian is still prone to walk in the old ways by habit or decision from time to time. But we did nothing to earn our salvation and we can do nothing to "give it back". It's all God's work. And He is able and willing to keep hold of us. I think that is what those passages are warning us not to do. It's a long process but time has no meaning in eternity. Habitual sin will only deprive the "worldling" of heaven. And that only because of their rejection of the Savior. Rejecting the Savior is rejection of the God of Jesus. They reject Him and his payment for their sin therefore they must pay for their own sin. "It is by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2: 8-9

It is wearying because it acts as sand in the gears of our nerves, mind and spirit. However, the Lord , when we persevere will give us comfort like oil that will enable us just enough to carry on. It is very important to carry on to the end because satan never ceases for very long to come against the works of God(us). I have been overcome by the evil one. Just enough to cause me to desire to persevere in the Lord more and more. it has caused a stubborness in me to stand and having stood to stand firm. Fear of falling can be a great impetus to stay away from the edge.

Christ mediates, brings together, that which had been separated, Almighty God and sinful man. He is a ransom in that as man sold himself into captivity of sin, the Lord paid the ransom to redeem him.

Christ's sacrifice of Himself PAID the cost of all my sin. Animal sacrifice only DEFERRED the cost of sin for the obedient. (Romans 3:25)

The old failed because man in his fallen nature was incapable of keeping it. God in us. via Spirit of the Holy God and His people dwell together. We know the LORD personally. We are forgiven our sin debt by way of Jesus our Mediator.

Jesus is mediator in that He brought peace between us and God while we were still at war with Him by paying the penalty of death in our stead. He shed His own blood on the cross that we may have peace with God. That is the New Covenant. Jesus is our peace with God to everlasting life with God in Christ.

In both cases Jesus learned about the human suffering that often comes with obeidience to God. He didn't need to learn to obey God the Father, as so often we do by learning the results of sinfull action. But He did experience, first hand and personally, what personal suffering often results when we obey God the Father in a sin saturated world. As did so many of the prophets in the old testament and the apostles in the new. He learned what human suffering felt like by Personal experience.

to bring us to perfection where He is at. He was made perfect in that He completed His own mission through His suffering in His humanity. In our own lives He calls us to follow His lead daily. He went before us and showed us the Way and He does this on a daily basis.

His death was sufficient atonement to cover all sin that ever was or will be. And it does cover all for the believer. This is totally dependent on God's unmerited favor(grace) in that we have done nothing, nor can do, anything to deserve His grace. And Christ died for my blackest and most stubborn sin. this implication is Christ is all sufficient to see me home to Glory. It also implies a response from me. So perfect a love calls me to follow and serve Him daily.

The Hebrews says Jesus learned obedience through suffering. And we can expect the same. If we experience only prosperity and sunshine maybe we should be more concerned than when we experience suffering.

The term "Son" is used as a metaphor in that God , being spirit, uses human terms to describe His incarnation. As biological relationship Jesus was born into this world by the God the Fathers will directly, not man's will. He created for Himself a human body. The personal representation of the Son possesses all true authority of the Father. Not only representitive authority such as the prophets.

The world will see it (the full effects) when the Lord returns. The congregations will see it when we get home to heaven. Untill then let us strive to continue ever upward with perseverance.

I think this is an ongoing, continual reality. To be filled with the Spirit is to not quench the Spirit(after having received Him thru salvation) but be led by Him more and more(sanctification process). To the degree we do this is the degree we experience the fulness of God more and more in our inner selves which is translated to our outer actions and demeanor. "(we) are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." II Corinthians 3:18

Christ's love isn't natural to the natural mind so I would say our own weak flesh prevents our understanding. We are born and live in a totally depraved, sin filled fallen world and there is none to demonstrate this love but one...Christ Himself... and we, His emissaries, as He imparts this knowledge to us. To that degree which we put into effect what we have been given He imparts more. And the more we do comprehend the all encompassing love of Christ toward us the more the renewed mind allows us to view others, and life, from a completely new perspective.

I think as we are strengthened by power thru His Spirit in our inner being we are increaingly aware of Christ's presence in our heart more and more. Such as when we go thru trials.

I think to pray in this manner is God's given right to the Christian. We are His adopted family. If we pray without these qualities it demonstrates our lack of understanding of our identity in Christ.

Paul is humble about his apostleship because he always remembered where he came from. In his religious zeal he began actively persecuting the church. When the Lord appeared to him he suddenly and completely realized how much of a rebel he had been toward God in his zeal. We can learn from Paul by remembering we, too, in our natural conduct were rebels toward God. And like Paul we also deserve to spend eternity in hell. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us..." Eph. 2:4 Praise to His Holy Name!

The "mystery" is that the gentiles are joint heirs with the Jews thru Christ. One body of believers, co-equal, heirs to God's promises. It was important to Gentile Christians of Pauls day because the Jews tried to make gentiles second class citizens even in the church. Paul made it clear they were equal not inferior.

God made known His instruction and message thru "His holy apostles and prophets" so that what they reveal to us is by God's authority. The danger of minimizing or straying from that is to become apostate or following "another gospel" which is a lie because there is no other gospel. To supercede that revelation would mean following man, our own desires and in doing so serving Satan. The danger of denying that God reveals Himself to us and the chirch today is to deny the POWER of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In which case we become mere flotsam and jetsum blown about by the chaos of this dark world as is the child of the world.

God is always with the individual believer but when we congregate together it looks like He is amonst us in a special(peculiar?) way. As when we join together to participate in the Lords Supper He is there in a special presence amonst us. I don't fully understand it but I know it's true.

Access to the Father means we can aproach the throne of grace boldly and personally without a "go-between". the Holy Spirit facilitates this access directing us always to Christ. He is also our "down payment" or guarentee for the completion of our salvation. Through Him we have our identity in Christ testifying we are the sons of God. Jesus enables this access by way of His atoning death on our behalf and He is even now interceding for us before the Father against all Satan's accusations about us.

Jesus Messiah fulfilled the Mosaic Law by being the perfect sinless man, the atoning sacrificial Savior once and for all time, and the king above all kings. For the Jew it means their religion, race, and long heritage is summed up and completed in Jesus Messiah. For the Gentile it means an end of futility and beginning of new life.

Forgetting where we came from sometimes makes us forget that people are still lost in that place. Some who are spiritually lost are deceived into thinking they have everything they need. Some are lost and know they are lost, without hope and in a dark and very hopeless situation. those who know are the closest to the light.

Faith is the conduit by which God works in us. This conduit is also provided by God. I believe the scripture makes this clear. It is a conduit much like the mouth is a conduit for the body to receive nurishment for the body. In the account in Exodus we can see how Pharoh hardened his own heart at first and after doing this it says God did the hardening of Pharoh's heart. It appears that God finally confirmed the hardness of heart that Pharoh initiated himself. But yet God says, "for this very reason I raised you up." Exodus 9:16...that is that God's power and Name may be made known. I do believe that God will not accept a "no" from His elect...the hound of heaven will stay on our trail till we "decide" for Christ (that is surrender to Him)... a decision that was already made in heaven and we finally agree to. It did include our free-will...when we feely gave our will up to what God decided. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."