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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Are Positional and Practical truths true | Ex 1:1 | Aliehs | 22122 | ||
(post continued from the previous post).... So, he goes on to talk about pressing on. Did he give an idea as to WHAT he wants to press on to? Yes, he did. In the NIV version, a new sentence starts at verse 10: "10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this,..." - that is, he doesn't know Christ enough yet, "...or have already been made perfect,..." - that is, his present body is still not the glorious body which Christ has, since that's the only imperfect "part" left of him still. Then he presses on and presses on to take hold of "Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death," for which Christ took hold of him. And he doesn't consider himself to have taken hold of that total knowledge and that total understanding of Christ yet. In other words, he's still learning. Nothing about "pressing on for righteousness" here at all. Not even anything by law. How can he press on to take hold of this? The only ways I know how is through the word and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. "in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Which is to say, till the point when he gets his newly resurrected body which agrees with his already righteous nature but which unfortunately, has not been obtained yet, since further down the chapter in verse 20 - 21, he ends with "20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Paul, not once in Philippians 3, wrote about obtaining/attaining righteousness, since he already said that his righteousness is through faith in Christ, not through law. After stating that, there was no more mention of righteousness or law, but about pressing on to having greater knowledge and understanding of Christ, etc. He said he wanted to know Christ, etc..... so for him to do that, the only way is to "press on". To continue. To push forward and know Christ deeper. How do we LEARN how to BEHAVE righteously (since we ARE already righteous)? Once we receive Christ, the LAW is no longer our "schoolmaster" or "tutor" : Gal 3:23-26 "23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." We don't NEED the law anymore in order to learn since we are NO LONGER under a tutor for every area of our lives ("no longer" sounds very absolute to me). Who do we need? Jesus. And His Spirit works in us, not us in us. Hebrews 13 "20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." It is HE who works in us and the MEANS is the blood ("through the blood of the everlasting covenant"), NOT the LAW. But, but, but....isn't there SOMETHING we can DO??? We have to have our RESPONSIBILITIES as Christians too, right? Well...yes and no. We can't DO anything to grow the fruits of the Spirit on our own. How do we GROW then? Eat. Just eat. Feed on the Word of God, get to know Him more (like what Paul was pressing on to do) so that His righteous nature (which is also now made OUR righteous nature) will REFLECT on us and His Glory will SHINE on us. And then, give HIM all the glory for it ("to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."). THAT'S our "RESPONSE-ABILITY" - the ablity to respond to His grace. Look back at the cross and respond accordingly. The law DEMANDS that we put in our self-effort, and the Holy Spirit cannot operate once "self" comes into the picture. We frustrate His work. And once we bring the law into the new covenant of grace, even just a little bit, we're trying to put new wine (new covenant) into old wineskin (old covenant) which will cause the old wineskin to burst (due to the expansion of the new wine and the inflexibility of the old wineskin) - when that happens, we lose BOTH the new wine and the use of the old wineskin. Grace becomes ineffective, law becomes diluted from it's original standard. (post continued in the following post).... |
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2 | Are Positional and Practical truths true | Ex 1:1 | Reformer Joe | 22147 | ||
All you have managed to do here is take verse 10 and sandwich it in the middle of verse 12 and say that THAT is what Paul is pressing on toward. And it doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the chapter. In verse 14 he is not pressing on toward any type of knowledge, but he is pressing on in answer to God's upward call. This is the thing for which he has been laid hold of. In verses 16-19 he is talking about nothing else but living to a standard (notice how many times he talks about the "walk" of individuals), contrasting himself and other true believers with those whose end is destruction (and he isn't talking about the "unchurched" here, either). What we see here, as in a number of passages theoughout the New Testament, is the end being sure for those who are truly believers in Christ, but at the same time there is indeed labor and striving on the part of the Christian to attain to that future reality. All of this is accomplished by the Spirit's work in our hearts, but nowhere are we called to "sit back, take it easy and enjoy our already attained righteousness." The apostles' lives and direct teachings convey the opposite. You wrote: "We can't DO anything to grow the fruits of the Spirit on our own." Of course not. But that doesn't mean we just sit back and watch as God does everything. We work out our salvation as God works within us. We labor and strive and press on just as Paul did. Why? To earn our salvation? No way. But we do need to take the words of Scripture seriously that say: " For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end," --Hebrews 3:14 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." --John 14:15 Works are not the basis of our salvation, but rather the evidence of it. In other words, if the Spirit of Christ truly indwells us, it will show in our lives. John elaborates on this throughout his first epistle, and James chapter 2 points out that we are indeed shown to be God's children by our God-honoring works. You wrote: "The law DEMANDS that we put in our self-effort" How so? Scriptural support, please. The gospels tell us that even Jesus fulfilled the Law by relying completely upon the Father's leading and the Holy Spirit's power: "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." --John 5:30 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." --Mathhew 12:28 "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness." --Luke 4:1 "until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen." --Acts 1:2 Lastly, how do you come to the conclusion that the new wine and old wineskins represent what you say they do? If they represent the new and old covenants respectively, what do the old wine and new wineskins represent in Jesus' parable? --Joe! |
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