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NASB | Romans 11:22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 11:22 Then appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God: to those who fell [into spiritual ruin], severity, but to you, God's gracious kindness--if you continue in His kindness [by faith and obedience to Him]; otherwise you too will be cut off. |
Subject: cut off |
Bible Note: Brother Curt: Thank you for your response. The forum would be very boring if we simply agreed on everything. I think that it is God’s will that we follow the example of the Bereans’ “ They searched the scriptures daily, whether these things be so” (Acts 17:11) I am sending this in two parts, since I am having trouble losing my posts when I go to preview. Your struggle regarding God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is common to most Christians. We know that God will bring about his plans and purposes as he will. As our creator we have no right to accuse him (Rom.9:20). When humankind fell into sin, God could have wiped them from the scene. However, this was not his will. His will was that he might bring sinful humans back into fellowship with himself through Christ. I think the example of Adam is helpful in understanding God’s workings with us. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. There sin broke the communion which they once had with God and they hid in the garden from him. God knew this! Yet in his grace he calls Adam “Where art thou?” and asks “what hast thou done?” It seemed that before God would do anything regarding his sin he wanted an honest confession first. We find that after this that God clothed them with the skins of animals which is the first instance of atonement by blood. As I am sure you know that from that time onward, in order to cover their sin, humans were instructed to offer an innocent, living sacrifice unto God. In Hebrews 10 we read that those sacrifices of old were only types and shadows of Christ. “But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Ephesians is a book which was written to those “in Christ” to tell them of what they had come into in Christ. That all believers are part of the church which is his body Eph. 1:23 (there are no counterfeits here) This positional truth makes it clear that all we have in Christ is due to God’s grace alone. In v3. we find that “he hath blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ” In v.5 amazingly we find that his eye was on us before the world was made “chosen in him before the foundation of the world” to what purpose? “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” In addition, he has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ...”V.5 This family relationship places us as sons in the family of God. Paul expands on this in Romans 8:17 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together”. In Eph. 1:6 we find that our acceptance to God is based on his acceptance of his own son, “wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” This positional truth is not dealing so much with our failures within ourselves, but would raise us up and make us appreciate in a measure what we have in Christ. This position which is assured by his acceptance is unalterable. I will send part 2 in a few minutes Robert |