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NASB | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. [Luke 6:47-49] |
Subject: What is perfected for all time? |
Bible Note: You wrote: "Where does the NT say that we, who are indwelt by the living Jesus Christ are DECLARED anything?" You are missing Paul's entire point in Romans 4. Our justification is identical to that of Abraham and David. He even states this dirctly in Romans 4:5, using the present tense. That is the whole reason he brings it up! You wrote: "Joe, you misunderstand what I am saying. I have never said that we are righteous solely in our own right or apart from Christ. NEVER! Quite to the contrary, I am saying that we are righteous BECAUSE of our union with Him, not apart from Him. We are no longer apart from Him and, indeed, never can be." Well, you seem to be saying that the righteousness that saves us is now a natural one of our own (even if given by God) rather than Christ's righteousness applied to us. There is a big difference there. As far as 2 Corinthians 5:21, many translations indicate that an alternate rendering of the verse would be "a sin offering." Again, the Greek is still Greek to me, but that would be in keeping with the OT sacrifices which prefigured Christ, in which the offering did not become sinful itself, but rather the sins of the people were laid upon the animal. See Isaiah 53:6,11. Your quote of 1 Peter 2:24 supports this as well: Jesus bore the sins (carried them) in His body. That is not to say that He became sinful Himself. God reckoned Him so on the Cross, but to say that God became sinful is to say that God ceased to be God. You wrote: "So I agree that I have NO righteousness of my own apart from His that has been given to me. But the fact remains that His righteousness is now mine, this is NT justification. God declares what is so. It is finished!" His righteousness is now indeed ours. You have yet to show from Scripture, however, that His righteousness, earned during His earthly life, now means that we have been transformed into righteous beings. If I receive a billion dollars earned by someone else, that makes me a very rich man, but it doesn't make me either the billion dollars or by nature the kind of person who has earned a billion dollars. And the word "credited," which Paul applies to US in Romans 4, implies the same kind of transaction. You wrote: "We need an intercessor because we still have an accusor, don't we?" Not if the Judge "sees no sin at all" in those already justified. An accuser would have no evidence to present. And since righteousness entails the complete absence of sin, a God who has already MADE us righteous in nature wouldn't need someone to present us as righteous before Him. And you yourself have already quoted the verses that show that Jesus is active in presenting us as righteous. If we were already made righteous, we could present ourselves at this point in time. That is the inescapable conclusion I am wanting you to see. If we see justification as us being now righteous in nature, we no longer need Jesus Christ. Perfectly righteous people no longer need advocates or mediators between them and God. And that is the problem. As believing Christians we still do need Christ to continue His priestly role, continuously pointing to His one sacrifice on our behalf. We cannot say at the same time that we are righteous because of our union with Christ (which, understanding it differently from you, I can readily accept) and that we are perfectly righteous in our new natures and therefore now in a state fit to stand before the Father on our own. "We are righteous solely because of Christ and His finished work. Wouldn't you agree?" No, I thought that was the heart of our argument. :) We are credited with Christ's righteousness because of His finished work by means of faith. We will certainly BE righteous according to the Father's forewknowledge and plan, because of Christ's finished work and the transforming work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a work of God's free grace that is going on our lives now. "Or are you seeking your righteousness apart from Him?" Now that is something I wish YOU would stop saying. When have I ever suggested that I am going to earn a righteousness of my own? When have I ever stated or implied that our ongoing sanctification occurs apart from the work of the Spirit? When have I suggested that the glorification you and I will share in one day is in any way contingent upon my puny self? With love and respect, I have to point out that the fallacy you are making is that because I hold that God has not already made us righteous, you seem to think that I believe that it is up to me to do it apart from Him. Nothing could be further from my views or that of classical Protestantism. God is the author of my salvation. Christ is the author and perfecter of my faith. HE will perfect. It WILL happen. It just hasn't YET. --Joe! |