Subject: Is sanctification a joint effort? |
Bible Note: Zach, I love the way you phrase your questions. (By the way, they ususally end with a question mark - ? .) Growing is a process, agreed. As our conversation continues, you seem to be wanting to be steered in different directions. Originally I might have sent you towards Romans 6-8. Now, however, I hear a lot of 1 Corinthians in your "questions". In Corinth, there were many who had been believers for some time, and they should have grown. Paul, however calls them "still fleshly". They should have been ready for solid food, and yet they were not. They still needed milk. (1 Cor 3:2ff) It should be noted that Paul rightly rebukes them for this. At the same time, it is not the planter, nor the waterer, but it is God who causes the growth. I still see the Bible preaching both 1) that it is God's work entirely 1 Thess 5:23-24; Phil 1:6; Rom 8:28ff; Gal 5:22-23; Eph 2:10 2) that it appears that we must have some part in it. (Otherwise, why the rebuke in 1 Cor 3?). cf. 1 Peter 1:13-16; 2 Cor 5:10; etc. (not meant to be "unbalanced" - but it is getting a little late) To answer Tozer's quote, "Tanning salons aside, one cannot get a suntan at night." (I must have heard it from someone, but I don't remember from whom.) In Him, Benjamite |