“It’s interesting to me that when someone comes to faith in Christ for the first time we tell them that there is absolutely nothing that they can do to free themselves from their sins, and that they must fully trust Christ to save them and cleanse them. But when a believer confesses that they are entangled in sin, we tell them that they must try harder! Try harder? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh (Galatians 3:3)?
Your trying harder didn’t get you saved, your trying harder can’t keep you saved, and your trying harder definitely has no power to make you pure!
The real key to purity is not trying, but believing! That’s right; the same thing that got you saved when you came to Jesus for the first time will get you clean and keep you clean!”

http://www.benjaminisraelrobinson.com/living-sexually-pure/

“God’s law must be rethought, not only because of our renewed understanding of sin, evil, and good, but because the gospel gives us a perspective of law that is radically different from the concept that we acquire as we are acculturated into human society.”

Eyes That See, Ears That Hear: Perceiving Jesus in a Postmodern Context (James P Danaher) Kindle Edition, Loc. 1399-1403

“There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.”

When Jesus commands me to do something, I am learning not to question it. He told me “Resign from ubf and you will be crucified”. But I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be the one to engage in all the ugly conversations. I didn’t want to hurt my friends. I just wanted to live my life and be with my family. I didn’t want to get involved with all the mess. But Jesus said “Go.” So I went.

My Utmost For His Highest

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Oswald Chambers’ BioAboutUpdated EditionLogin

The Eternal Goal

11

17

2014

By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing…I will bless you… —Genesis 22:16-17

Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God.

My goal is God Himself…
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

“At any cost…by any road” means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.

There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.

God’s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God’s character.

’Tis because I am ordinary,
Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.

It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, “In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”

The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen…” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our “Yes” must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, “Amen,” or, “So be it.” That promise becomes ours.

I’ll repeat my contentions, which I stand by more and more passionately the more I learn:

1. Christians do not strive to obey God’s Law, but to follow Jesus.

2. God’s Law has a purpose: to teach a redemptive narrative about Jesus.

3. God’s Law is an all or nothing proposition. If you attempt to obey any part of it, you must obey all of it.

4. God’s Law is not binding nor unifying on Christians, but the Spirit of God is binding and unifying.

5. Any attempt to implement God’s OT law is an attempt to rebuild what Jesus fulfilled. If we try to do that, what sacrifice remains?

So then, how can our righteousness surpass that of the teachers of the law? How can we be perfect? The answer is as astoundingly deep as it is blatantly obvious: love.

I agree, and so does Scripture. Galatians 3:25 was massively healing for my soul. The law is no longer our school master! Our new master is grace and we are now bound to the Spirit!

A few things. First the law is a school master, it is like a mirror that shows us how bad we are, but in order to get clean I cannot use the mirror. I must find something else, and that something else is Jesus. My sin will continue to made me worse in worse if I in vain, attempt to be clean by the mirror. Secondly, theological issues turn into practical issues. I like to think of theology as a map. If my map is wrong I will end up in the wrong spot. I sympathize with the view that theology is unimportant compared to Christ. I understand it, it is like saying the best thing about climbing a mountain is reaching the top. The summit is the most important, but if my map brings me in circles around the mountain I will never get to my goal. Theology is a gift of God given though faith that allows people to avoid pitfalls and turnabouts in our climb to Christ. It is a weapon against the deceiver. But it is true. The map cannot be taken as the thing itself. The map might show the mountains summit, but that picture is not the summit itself.