Results 1 - 11 of 11
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | Reformer Joe | 53979 | ||
You wrote: "But the living of those principles are found in Rom-Jude. I'll never break one commandment if I follow the Holy Spirit." Of course, no one consistently does this, not even Paul (Romans 7). You wrote: "Many Christians who disagree on this are reading Matt-joh with hindsight. They already know the New Covenant and find it (sporatically) thorought the gospels. They think the Gospels are enough. However, Without knowing rom-jud they would be just like the disciples with Jesus, clueless." Try and keep in mind that the epistles are the teachings of the apostles given to them by Jesus. They may have started out clueless, but Jesus did not leave them that way. You are correct that the Gospels do not comprise the whole counsel of God, but neither does the rest of the New Testament. That is why God superintended the writing of 66 books, so that taken together they would tell His people everything we are to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of us. That's why the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone, but I don't think that anyone (least of all our Catholic friend Emmaus) is denying the importance of the apostles' foundational teachings. You wrote: "I'm not like Job. Job was not born again." What makes you say that? Don't fall into the trap that his friends did. And to say that Job was not redeemed is completely without basis in truth. --Joe! |
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2 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | In the Andes | 53997 | ||
I'm sorry, maybe I'm completely illiterate and ignorant of scripture. I thought to be born again, one must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as Lord. How stupid of me not to know Job was "Born Again". |
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3 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | McGracer | 53998 | ||
Andes, you are right, Job was not "born again". He was saved by faith (as were all OT saints), but he was not born again as we are. Born again, Jesus said, is born of the Spirit of God. God creates a new human spirit in the NT believer and indwells that spirit by His Holy Spirit - John 3 - Spirit gives birth to spirit. Job, while being saved by faith and "counted as righteous" was never regenerated by God's Holy Spirit. Because of sin, God did not dwell IN the OT believer. Because sins have been "taken away" by the Lamb of God, He does now dwell in the NT believer. McGracer |
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4 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | Reformer Joe | 54019 | ||
Can you explain to me how Job was able to please an infinitely holy God apart from the power of the Holy Spirit? If he did not have a new nature (instead of the old, depraved one), how was he able to be upright and blameless? --Joe! |
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5 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | McGracer | 54023 | ||
Joe, Job pleased God by his faith in Him - Heb 11:2,39 - For by it (faith) the men of old gained approval. OT saints placed their faith in God (and whatever His word was to them at the time) and their faith in God was credited to them as righteousness. Without faith, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. This is faith in Him and what He says, not faith in our efforts to keep the Law or "Christian principles." Job was ALREADY a believer in God when God said that he was blameless and upright. Because he was an OT believer, he feared God and turned away from evil. So it was Job's relationship with God, a faith relationship that allowed God to call him blameless and upright. We, as NT believers are called the same thing - Eph 1:4; Eph 5:27; Col 1:22. We are not holy and blameless because we don't sin. We are holy and blameless because we have placed our faith and turst in God and He now indwells us. McGracer |
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6 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | McGracer | 54025 | ||
Append, BTW Joe, I am not implying that OT saints were not influenced by or aware of the Holy Spirit. They very much were. I am just saying that the Holy Spirit did not indwell the average OT believer through out his (or her) whole life. The Spirit left Saul. David was very much aware that God's Spirit would leave him because of his sin. As NT believers, we should not live in that fear. Our sins have been dealt with once-and-for-all. Therefore, God re-creates us as new creatures in Him and indwells us forever - 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:24. McGracer |
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7 | rock foundation | Matt 7:24 | Reformer Joe | 54027 | ||
I guess my question/observation can be summed up in the following way: Is regeneration (being "born again") and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the same thing? I agree that both are true of "New Testament" believers, but I think it may be a mistake to rule out Old Testament saints having a new nature even if the Spirit didn't indwell them the same way He does us today. What do the rest of you think? --Joe! |
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8 | What do the rest of you think? | Matt 7:24 | McGracer | 54033 | ||
Joe, I'd like to hear some other opinions on this too so I'll also repost this as a question. While I'm not the "rest of you", I wanted to share this verse: Titus 3:4 - But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. I see lots of instances in the OT of the Holy Spirit coming upon someone to enable them to do what God called them to do but I haven't really found any instances of someone being "born again" or of them actually posessing eternal life. This doesn't mean that they didn't live forever because everyone lives forever in one place or another. But Daniel 12:2 says that "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt." Everlasting life, for OT believers starts at their resurrection. We are partakers, not of everlasting life (life which has a beginning but no end), but of ETERNAL life, Christ's life, which has NO beginning and NO end, for He is eternal. I believe that this is what the writer of Hebrews is saying in Heb 11:39 where he says that all the OT believers did not receive the eternal life that was promised them during their life-times. But, in verse 40, we have received something better than they, eternal life - here and now in Christ. In this aspect, the OT was never made perfect - see also Heb 10:1. We, in contrast, posess eternal life - Christ's life - and His completed sacrifice has made us, from God's viewpoint, perfect for ALL time - Heb 10:14. What do the rest of you think? Thanks, Joe. McGracer |
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9 | What do the rest of you think? | Matt 7:24 | Morant61 | 54039 | ||
Greetings McGracer! Great question! Don't forget the rest of Heb. 11:40 though! While it is true that the Old Testament saints did not physically receive the promise, verse 40 says that they were made perfect together with us. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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10 | What do the rest of you think? | Matt 7:24 | McGracer | 54042 | ||
Tim, Yes, thanks for the clarification. I believe they were made during at their resurrection. They just didn't receive it during their lifetime whereas we do through new birth. Thanks, bro. I know what I want to say but I can't always find the words, or, if I do find them, I forget where I leave them. :) McGracer |
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11 | What do the rest of you think? | Matt 7:24 | Morant61 | 54043 | ||
Greetings McGracer! I have the same problem, especially when I'm dealing with my kids! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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