Romans 2:3-4 - The first characteristic of a self-righteous moralizer is arrogance. The guilty verdict that God has just declared upon the human race, do you think that you are going to escape that guilty verdict? Do you think for one moment that God is going to give you a non-wrath-worthy pass: that Christ need not have died for your sins; that your sins are of such a non-serious nature that you have no need of a Savior in the first place?
God is going to see you as having no need of the saving work of his son. God’s attitude toward ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of people is being revealed in scripture. People are guilty before God, he has decreed it. NO excuse will suffice to pardon it. It is such a shame that so many people today are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven. Paul wants us to understand that there is no refuge in human goodness. Judgment based on a righteousness people can produce for themselves can only lead to one verdict, GUILTY.
When we put our human hearts under the microscope of God’s truthful judgment, we are going to find out that we need much more than human righteousness to have a perfectly just standing before God. We need a Savior and Jesus Christ became that Savior. Do all people need to change their minds about the seriousness of sin and God’s answer to that serious dilemma people found themselves in? All people should change their minds about the way that God has provided and what his son accomplished where their sins are concerned, because not all people believe that those sins were done away with Christ’s payment.
God has held back the wrath you so justly deserve. God has been good to you in holding back that wrath. God has not held back his wrath because he is happy with who you think you are, or because he is satisfied with who you are trying to become. God has been long-suffering in holding back his wrath, because he hopes that you will consider his goodness through his son, his goodness on your behalf and flee to his grace, God wants you to change your mind about who you are from fleshly perspective apart from Christ. Romans 2:6-11 - God completely took works out of the equation, when it came to gaining or maintaining salvation! Paul has fenced us all in and it is a closed-in pen, in a manner of speaking of wrath worthiness, therefore, the human race is in need of a Savior, simple as that! All of the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Jesus Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, offering people the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished, we place our faith in Christ’s faithfulness, and that alone.
The Pastors roll is to prepare his people for the Bema, that is what teaching and pastoring is all about. The Bema has to do with the building project. The building is the Body of Christ. We as members of the Body of Christ, are co-labors with God in the building project. The blueprint for the proper construction of this building has been given to apostle Paul for the work crew of which we are apart. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christ will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motivations of the heart, not only what was done, but why it was done in connection with each believer’s work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. But understand, it is the value of the work itself that will be judged at the Bema, not the believer.
God has given the human race a God consciousness, the conscious perception that we could say that there is a God somewhere and that ultimately the human race is accountable to that God. God knows whether there is a hidden motivation even to ourselves, hidden by our pride nature to look good before others; to appear knowledgeable before others; to somehow elevate self in relation to others to gain the praise of others, God knows the motivations of the human heart. The issue at the Great White Throne Judgment will be those standing there in their own righteousness, and not in God’s righteousness.
Romans 2:5 - This is a chilling and sobering thought, when self-righteous moralizers harden their hearts and remain impenitent concerning their goodness, they are storing up to themselves wrath to be visited upon them in the day of wrath. They will one day stand at the Great White Throne Judgment where the merited righteousness they think they have will be put on display. It will be open for inspection. They will be standing at the Great White Throne Judgment having only their own righteousness to show for themselves.
Paul has taken on the role of prosecuting attorney seated at the plaintiff’s table. To illustrate just how bad things really are, Paul wants us to understand that all the human race are sitting at the table of the defense. The point that Paul makes as prosecuting attorney is to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, the reality that every person is worthy of the wrath of God. Making all of us wrath conscious is the point in Paul’s presentation. We have to understand the charges against us and that is precisely what Paul set out to do.
Paul as a wise prosecutor has pointed the finger at the entire human race and he has accused us of being guilty of the crimes of being ungodly and unrighteous. We need to be justified, because our own performance and our own production, even when accompanied by our most sincere promises and pledges to God is insufficient to accomplish for us a just standing in the eyes of a perfectly just God. Paul wants us first and foremost to come to a full assurance of understanding that when judged according to truth, we are all in the same boat. Each and everyone of us had a need for a justification to be provided for us; a justification that would come totally apart from anything we could merit through our own performance.
Romans 2:6-11 - God completely took works out of the equation, when it came to gaining or maintaining salvation! Paul has fenced us all in and it is a closed-in pen, in a manner of speaking of wrath worthiness, therefore, the human race is in need of a Savior, simple as that! All of the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Jesus Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, offering people the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished, we place our faith in Christ’s faithfulness, and that alone.
The Pastors roll is to prepare his people for the Bema, that is what teaching and pastoring is all about. The Bema has to do with the building project. The building is the Body of Christ. We as members of the Body of Christ, are co-labors with God in the building project. The blueprint for the proper construction of this building has been given to apostle Paul for the work crew of which we are apart. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christ will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motivations of the heart, not only what was done, but why it was done in connection with each believer’s work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. But understand, it is the value of the work itself that will be judged at the Bema, not the believer.
God has given the human race a God consciousness, the conscious perception that we could say that there is a God somewhere and that ultimately the human race is accountable to that God. God knows whether there is a hidden motivation even to ourselves, hidden by our pride nature to look good before others; to appear knowledgeable before others; to somehow elevate self in relation to others to gain the praise of others, God knows the motivations of the human heart. The issue at the Great White Throne Judgment will be those standing there in their own righteousness, and not in God’s righteousness.
Romans 2:12-13 - People who lived before the time of the law, as well as the nations who were never under the law, people today who are not under law, the Mosaic Law will not be cited against these people. The law itself was proof that Israel was unable to earn righteousness through their performance. Israel had a problem when it came to learning the lesson of their inability and the futility to gain righteousness through performance. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
When performance is the measure of a person’s righteous standing at the bar of God’s justice, only a patient continuance in well doing would cut it, and there is none that do good, not to that degree. What is a patient continuance in well doing? Keep the whole law if you want to obtain eternal life through law-keeping. Wrath worthiness if you fail in even one point of the law is the other side of the coin. Paul is proving the wrath worthiness of the entire human race, when it comes to a non-wrath-worthy self-defense plea before God.
The dilemma of the human race, just as religion did not save the Israelite during the time of the law contract, religion could not save the Gentiles during that time either, just as it cannot save the Israelite or Gentile today. Religion is an equally inadequate self-defense plea today for people to make, as it was in Paul’s day. No amount of rules and regulations, no observance of rites and rituals, no matter what they are would suffice when it comes to meriting a righteous standing before God. This will be the issue at the Great White Throne Judgment, people will be standing there not clothed in Christ’s righteousness, because they have rejected what Christ accomplished where their sin debt is concerned.
To walk after the flesh, is to assign righteous credit to your fleshly conduct, from Adam onward, people have been doing what seems right to a person in regard to having a relationship with God. Not one member of the entire human race has ever lived up to any system of rule-keeping for righteousness. Yet, how many are attempting today, to do what humankind before us was totally unable to do? How many people think they are measuring up to God’s standard today? Israel supposed they were producing sufficient righteousness through their performance for God to recognize their performance and call them just in his eyes.
Romans 2:14-15 - The Gentiles who were never placed under the law of Moses, do by nature the things contained in the law, the Gentiles determined for themselves their own right and wrong. The Gentiles were following what the Bible calls “the way of Cain” the WORK of the law was written in their hearts. Paul did not say the LAW was written in Gentile hearts. Writing the law in the heart is something God is going to do for the nation Israel in fulfillment of their New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:33-34.
The works of the law are written in the hearts of the Gentiles, in other words, God knows whether or not a person has placed their faith in the faithfulness of his son, or whether that person is still holding onto the notion that his good works will somehow merit them a position of righteousness in the eyes of God. God knows the motivation that resides in the human heart that underlies all the works that we call good.
Any kind of works at all, even if they appear to be good works in your mind, that are done for the purpose attaining salvation or for the purpose of maintaining salvation, and yes, even for the purpose of proving one’s salvation is a slap in the face of God who had to provide the gift of salvation, because people’s righteousness would be totally incapable of meriting it. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished.
Romans 2:16 - We seldom recognize the sin within ourselves. The most insidious evil present in the heart of people is a person’s refusal to recognize the evil that is present within self. This is what the pride of life is all about, it is always the other person who does the really serious sins. You see, we have a pretty good cause to justify ourselves, because the pride nature uses only relative righteousness as its reasoning. The pride nature rebels against and hates to accept the truth.
We do not want to see ourselves as unjust. We resist seeing ourselves as unjust and being in the same boat with those poor unfortunate souls we consider to be less just than we are. The prideful human nature convinces us that we possess some righteousness, some meritorious standing before God of our own doing, some goodness achieved by our own accomplishments. Paul has set out to prove to the human race that nothing we do and nothing we promise to do will have anything whatsoever to do with our righteous standing before a perfectly righteous God.
The dilemma of the human race, just as religion did not save the Israelite during the time of the law contract, religion could not save the Gentiles during that time either, just as it cannot save the Israelite or Gentile today. Religion is an equally inadequate self-defense plea today for people to make, as it was in Paul’s day.
Romans 2:17-23 - You see, the Law of Moses had a relationship claim on every member of the human race. If the law has a rightful claim on you, God cannot have a rightful claim on you. If Christ has a rightful claim on you, the law has no rightful claim on you whatsoever. People have such a hard time when their motivation is based on the false assumption that God gave to Israel a law contract in order to provide for them the motivation necessary for them to live righteously. God designed the law to make sin show its hand, to make sin abound, so that they could look at that picture of the law and look at themselves and say, “These pictures do not match up,” so that they could see that their sin was exceedingly sinful.
People must rid themselves of the tendency to think that God is dealing with people as he has dealt in time past, when the law program was the order of the day. Paul wants us to understand and understand fully that motivation to do righteousness is the exact opposite of what our natural minds suppose it to be. God did not design the law to enable Israel to live righteously unto him or to give them the motivation to do it. Take away the law Paul and you have taken away the motivation people need to do good and to avoid evil, that is the way the natural mind works.
Listen to the attitude of law orientation; an attitude that comes from a person, who is walking after the flesh: “I’m not going to do that, because that is bad,” or “I’m not going to do that, because I cannot do that and remain righteous,” or “I’m going to do this, because God demands I do it,” or I’m going to follow the rules, because God will accept me if I follow the rules faithfully.” If we are trying to satisfy God’s justice on a daily basis or however by conforming to a standard of rules and regulations, we are going to find that just the opposite becomes true in our flesh. We are going to find ourselves constantly focusing on the flesh. The milk of self-righteousness will sour under the divine heat of God’s justice.
Romans 2:24 - God did not design the law to enable Israel to live righteously unto him or to give them the motivation to do it. Take away the law Paul and you have taken away the motivation people need to do good and to avoid evil, that is the way the natural mind works. The nation Israel was given every visual opportunity to change their thinking about the identity of their messiah and their ability to perform up to the standard of God’s righteousness, when it came to the law contract. God proved how obstinate the hearts of Israel’s political/religious leadership were, in spite of all the visual evidences God placed before them.
A visual evidence given and a visual evidence rejected! Well, this is the case with Israel’s religious leadership, people were getting healed, people were coming to belief and many people were added to that earthly kingdom in that day, but God was looking for the leadership, the representatives of that nation to make their confession. It was a national promise and it is a national rejection as far as God is concerned.
Jesus Christ was no military giant in their eyes, much less a military genius, and that is what they were looking for. Israel’s leadership did not want a suffering servant as a messiah, they wanted a conquering hero as their messiah. The issue with God in his plan and program with Israel and their promised land was an issue concerning their need of, and acknowledgment of the source of their righteousness. Israel would need a righteousness that God could recognize. They had a righteousness that they could recognize as far as they were seeing things, but they did not have a righteousness that God could recognize.
A God recognized righteousness would be an absolute necessity for that nation, if they were to acquire and remain in the land promised to their fathers. Paul could never preach and never preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, because the kingdom was no longer at hand. When Israel’s leadership rejected the King, that kingdom was placed on the shelf to be reserved for a future fulfillment.
Romans 2:25-28 - Circumcision, or the setting aside of the flesh was simply the sign, according to the apostle Paul, that God gave to Abraham to point out that Abraham had placed his faith in God and in God alone, and not in himself. Abraham learned that it would not be his own fleshly production that would accomplish God’s purpose for him. It is significant when we think about Abraham’s faith, that God wanted Abraham to place no confidence in his flesh.
It is law principle that actually stirs up the sinful emotions. The law principle itself incites the sinful nature that is within the human race. Most people suppose that if you want to eliminate sin, simply put forth a little more law. Well, it is the other way around according to the apostle Paul, it is the law that stirs up the passions of the sin nature. The law actually ignites the passions of the sin nature. The law is a good thing, the problem lies not with a holy and just law, the problem lies in the fact that while the law is good, the flesh is weak.
Is it not interesting that the Gentiles had been considered dogs? Now you come to Paul speaking to the saints in Philippi, and it is the unbelieving Israelites who are considered dogs. Beware of Dogs; Beware of Evil Workers; Beware of the Concision. Just the fact that they were of the physical linage of Abraham did not cut the mustard as far as their righteous standing with God was concerned. Paul’s point here is circumcision apart from faith is nothing more than concision. It is nothing more than mutilation. You see, the concision, although it sounds like the word circumcision, the concision is a reference to those false teachers who thought that ritual, who thought they could do something, perform something and the ritual was circumcision.
People placing confidence in their performance, not realizing that the law was designed to teach them not to place confidence in their performance when it came to earning their righteousness before God through their performance. Otherwise, God would not have provided for a sacrificial system within the law program in the first place, he would not of needed it. Paul wants us to be sitting in our thinking, in the place where Job was sitting, when Job asked a question, “But how should man be just with God” because Paul understood that the heart of people will go to great lengths to establish its own righteousness.
TMVP, try checking in one of the online Bibles, for "Adam". You will find almost all of the 27 occurrences refer to the person of what we are told is the first man (Eve's hubby) although Gen 5:2 says:
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.[emphasis added]
A further reference is to a city (in the book of Joshua, when crossing the Jordan).
And then there is this ONE reference, in 1 Cor 15:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [live-giving] spirit.
Not "the second Adam" but "the last Adam." Second Adam implies there might be another after him, the third Adam. There are NO MORE "Adams" to be referenced.
From Blue Letter Bible (online resource):
"Quickening" - Strongs G2227: Strong's Number G2227 matches the Greek ζῳοποιέω (zōopoieō),
Outline of Biblical Usage:
to produce alive, begat or bear living young
to cause to live, make alive, give life
by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate
to restore to life
to give increase of life: thus of physical life
of the spirit, quickening as respects the spirit, endued with new and greater powers of life
[*]metaph., of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
The first Adam was a "living soul" - the last Adam is "a life-giving spirit." Does that make any difference to your theology, TMVP?
TMVP, try checking in one of the online Bibles, for "Adam". You will find almost all of the 27 occurrences refer to the person of what we are told is the first man (Eve's hubby) although Gen 5:2 says:
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.[emphasis added]
A further reference is to a city (in the book of Joshua, when crossing the Jordan).
And then there is this ONE reference, in 1 Cor 15:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [live-giving] spirit.
Not "the second Adam" but "the last Adam." Second Adam implies there might be another after him, the third Adam. There are NO MORE "Adams" to be referenced.
From Blue Letter Bible (online resource):
"Quickening" - Strongs G2227: Strong's Number G2227 matches the Greek ζῳοποιέω (zōopoieō),
Outline of Biblical Usage:
to produce alive, begat or bear living young
to cause to live, make alive, give life
by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate
to restore to life
to give increase of life: thus of physical life
of the spirit, quickening as respects the spirit, endued with new and greater powers of life
[*]metaph., of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
The first Adam was a "living soul" - the last Adam is "a life-giving spirit." Does that make any difference to your theology, TMVP?
Answer me this first, what theology did you use to get out of the boat, the human race is in the same boat, GUILTY?
And I'm not answering anything. Just adding something to your assertions for you to consider, that you seem to have overlooked. Whether you choose to consider it or not is up to you.
Romans 2:29-3:9 - A Israelite had to be a Israelite both inwardly and outwardly for God to consider that person a true Israelite. Do you think those with a Israelite heritage who were readily willing to accept Paul’s indictment of the Gentiles as being wrath worthy, were now equally as ready to admit their own wrath worthiness, to accept that indictment against themselves?
First came that plea of ignorance, “We Gentiles just did not know there was a God, why didn’t God tell us about himself?” Paul quickly dispensed with that notion, they knew all about God according to Paul. God had shown them all about himself and told them about himself. It would be easier for them to dispense with the God they knew about, than to have to be accountable to that God.
The second plea of ignorance came, the self defense motion of relative righteousness; the plea that went along these lines, “I do some pretty good things from time to time, surely my righteousness is worthy of God’s consideration.” When it comes to our failures at rightness, our pride nature will not let us see what is in the room.
The third self defense plea of natural righteousness, the Israelites were entertaining in their minds a rightness that they supposed came along with their physical heritage; their lineage. The Israelites identified themselves as being the offspring of Abraham and God certainly honored Abraham. He was a great man in God’s eye, so they felt that that linkage to Abraham made them great in God’s eyes. Their is a very real difference in taking pride in a privileged position God has provided and thinking you are worthy of holding the position God has given.
Romans 3:10-17 - No one has a self defense plea that will successfully excuse them from being counted worthy of God’s wrath. The natural person is the person who can only perceive things that fit in with their own human reasoning. The natural person has their mind tuned in only to the channel of their own human perspective; satisfying the lust of their flesh; the lust of their eyes; and the pride of life. If something is not logical to the natural person’s way of thinking, they refuses to believe it, whether God said it or not, they want to remain in their comfort zone.
The human race has become quite adept at mixing poison with their speech. They lace their poison with perfume, but it is poison, nonetheless. The words come out designed to appear innocuous, but lo and behold, there is something hidden under the lips of sinful people. While their words may appear harmless and unoffending, oftentimes these words are not benign words at all. They are insidiously designed by the speaker to be laced with character venom so as to contaminate the object of the speech.
Swearing is not the meaning of the word, this word cursing has more to do with wishing harm on another; wishing ill will toward another person; bringing another under the condemnation of ill will due to the bitterness or animosity in our hearts. Every where a person goes, you can see the results of their having been there. Destruction and misery line the pathway of the human race. We could say that the footprint of sin is easily traced to the sinner. Sin renders lasting peace impossible.
Romans 3:18 - People have a lack of proper alarm when it comes to the judgment of God. The pride of the Israelite people, there are many parallels between the pride of these Israelites and the pride that take place in Christianity today. The programs have simply been intertwined in the minds of the religious world. Christianity, they have mixed God’s program with Israel and his program with the Body of Christ and mixed dispensations together; dispensations that do not mix together and as a result, they think they have taken on Israel’s role from the point where Israel left off.
We look at the Old Testament scripture, and we see God’s judgment being rained on those who walked contrary to his law, and it is hard for us to understand God’s love in light of those passages. We tend to think that a God who is love is totally incapable of being a God who will judge. One of Satan and his forces goals accomplished through the heart of sinful people is to humanize God. That is precisely what the human race has done, God is our great big buddy in the sky, Jesus has simply become our best friend. Many think that salvation comes to those who can maintain a sufficient camaraderie with Jesus, their friend.
Where do people go to see how far they have removed themselves through their behavior from God’s favor? More often then not, they go right back to the Law of Moses taught in the halls of religianity by ministers of righteousness. That can only lead in one direction, instability. The religiously minded begin to believe they are indeed measuring up as righteousness becomes relative to those people. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people walking away from a God they perceive as being unfair in having created them to fail in the first place.
Some take it to the extent of a total denunciation of God altogether. If God does exist, how can he demand perfection? If God does exist, the fact of his fairness or unfairness does not really matter, does it? You see, no matter where on the performance spectrum one happens to sit, whether it be the perceived safe haven of religion or avowed atheism on the other end.
Romans 3:19-20 - That every mouth may be stopped; and here it is, the jury foreman is rendering the jury’s verdict and the judge brings down his gavel and pronounces the human race guilty. The law was never given as a standard by which people could live their life and achieve righteousness. It was given to be a mirror, so that those who were placed under the law might gain a better glimpse of themselves. It allowed the human race to stand back when looking at that law and see themselves in a proper light. It was given in order to reflect a perfectly clear picture of how sinful the human race really is.
What God wanted Israel to see was her shortcoming, her sin. The law was given to manifest or to bring to light the indisputable reality of sin; the undeniable truth of the existence of sin, even in a person who thought they were performing sufficiently righteously to merit a justified standing before God. Now if a religious Israelite was sinful, what does that say about the rest of the world? The law was given to Israel and that condemned the entire world.
Everyone has done exactly like Israel, it condemned the entire human race according to Paul, for all have sinned. God alone decided to make peace with the human race, while the human race is an active enemy to God. Certainly the bible shows that God does not like the actions of the human race, but God reconciled himself to his enemies while they are still in hostility.
These are important words; God’s reconciliation to the human race took place when the human race was actively his enemy, not after the human race repented. The entire human race is guilty when it comes to human merit, performance, and production and all fall short continually coming short of the righteousness of God himself. All of the human race are in need of a justification that will come totally apart from anything that they do. Paul wants the human race to know at one point in time something was true, but now something else is true.
Romans 3: BUT NOW, no longer does the human race have to strive to attain and maintain God’s acceptance on the basis of who they are and what they can do. Our decree of judicial perfection in the eyes of God comes not through Christ’s death for our sins, but through our union with Christ’s resurrection life. If a person believes Christ died for their sins, but does not believe that God’s justice was satisfied, when Christ died for those sins, that person has not believed Christ died for their sins. God purchased the human race out of sins dominion, never to be returned to the market place of sin again.
By removing the sin issue from the table of God’s justice, God effectively canceled Satan’s ownership of all the human race. Satan can lay claim to no person based on that persons sinfulness. If we misunderstand justification, we are going to have a difficult time understanding the cornerstone that comes prior to sanctification. Since people link a justified standing before God with performance of their own, they also link a sanctified standing before God with their own performance. And as a result, they believe the degree to which they stand sanctified in God’s eyes depends entirely upon the degree to which they remain holy in behavior.
If they do not see themselves as being holy in conduct, they do not believe that God sees them as being holy, either. We need to understand that forgiveness was all upfront and all-inclusive, but when we accept this idea of conditional forgiveness/forgiveness on the installment plan; a little forgiveness here, a little forgiveness there, the need for new forgiveness for new sin, that is the atonement program of Israel. The truth is, our deeds do not determine our destiny, our faith in Christ’s faithfulness determines our destiny.
Today people think they have to ask God to forgive them for the sins that God is no longer charging to their account in the first place. Ministers of righteousness would have people believe God is not totally reconciled in his mind. Satan and his forces want to keep sin on the table of God’s justice today, as much in the Age of Grace as he has in the other ages. If Satan had known what Jesus Christ would actually accomplish where the sins of the world are concerned, Satan would not have had Christ crucified.
Romans 1:11 - Dealing with Satan and his forces is not a power encounter; it is a truth encounter. You can not expect God to protect you from Satan and his forces influences if you do not take an active part in his prepared strategy. The armor that we must take up to protect ourselves from Satan and his forces attack, the first three are established because of our identity in Christ, the last three help us continue to win the battle. It is critical that when we put on the armor of God, we start with the belt of truth. If Satan and his forces can deceive us into believing a lie, they can control our life in that area.
It is absolutely vital that we put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that we can resist the persistent accusations of Satan and his forces, they never give up trying to get us down and keep us down by hurling one false accusation after another. We put on the shoes of peace, because we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, and we must base our relationships with others on the same criteria. If we fail to speak the truth in love and manage our emotions, anger which turns to bitterness and unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan and his forces.
The important process of renewing our mind includes managing our emotions by managing our thoughts and perceptions. Satan and his forces are always hurling their fiery darts of fear, doubt and worry in our direction, but the only time they can hit us is when we let our shield of faith down. The fact that the helmet is related to salvation indicates that their blows are directed at the believer’s security and assurance of being placed into Christ. This helmet covers our mind, intellect or reasoning. The two dangerous edges of Satan and his forces broadsword are discouragement and doubt.
In addition to believing it and thinking it, the Word of God is the only offensive weapon mentioned in the list of armor. If you are going to resist Satan and his forces, you must do so outwardly so they can understand you and be put to flight. That is why Paul insists that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Satan and his forces have no power over us except what we give them by failing to take every thought captive and thus being deceived into believing their lies.
I had to rewrite this post, forgot two pieces of Armor.
TMVP, try checking in one of the online Bibles, for "Adam". You will find almost all of the 27 occurrences refer to the person of what we are told is the first man (Eve's hubby) although Gen 5:2 says:
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.[emphasis added]
A further reference is to a city (in the book of Joshua, when crossing the Jordan).
And then there is this ONE reference, in 1 Cor 15:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [live-giving] spirit.
Not "the second Adam" but "the last Adam." Second Adam implies there might be another after him, the third Adam. There are NO MORE "Adams" to be referenced.
From Blue Letter Bible (online resource):
"Quickening" - Strongs G2227: Strong's Number G2227 matches the Greek ζῳοποιέω (zōopoieō),
Outline of Biblical Usage:
to produce alive, begat or bear living young
to cause to live, make alive, give life
by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate
to restore to life
to give increase of life: thus of physical life
of the spirit, quickening as respects the spirit, endued with new and greater powers of life
[*]metaph., of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
The first Adam was a "living soul" - the last Adam is "a life-giving spirit." Does that make any difference to your theology, TMVP?
I happen to disagree with your parsing of these verses. Saying the "second Adam" is accurate, unless you think Jesus was the third or fourth Adam. Saying he is the second Adam in no way whatsoever implies there will be any more. It so happens that the second Adam is the last Adam.
I commend the greasespotters who actually spent their time reading and attempting to make sense of your overwhelmingly lengthy, verbose, posts throughout this thread which you started. I also commend them for taking the time to respond.
I have not read much of anything you post. Why? Because I find everything you post to be offensive to genuine Christianity. It appears to me that EVERYTHING you meander on about is some form of the same irresponsible garbage theology Wierwille preached. Only difference is, you think that somehow, your take on that same old plagiarized mish-mash from 60 years ago is revelatory in some cryptic way. For me, your posts have no point and make no point. Like the OP of this thread for example. I was completely gone from everything after the first 2 paragraphs, and never read one more word of any of your posts on this thread, because I don't really crave headaches and nausea.
I just want anted to let you know that I'll never read or comment any anything you post ever again. Thank you much.
Maybe. I choose my phrasing on my own, as I'm sure you do. I just don't spend much time on style. I prefer discussing content. TY.
Yes, content.
So many times (I'm not singling out any one poster or topic.) we see people come on to these boards and essentially regurgitate PFAL, using new phrasing and previously not seen grammatical devices. You take off the disguise and whatta ya got? PLAF (The Wonder Class) all over again.
Surely Jesus Christ had fingerprints...i guess God didn't stick to the plan.
I think what Teach is saying here is that mankind can't (or shouldn't) take credit for his own salvation. It seems to make more sense if I interpret it that way.
I think what Teach is saying here is that mankind can't (or shouldn't) take credit for his own salvation. It seems to make more sense if I interpret it that way.
Understood and it makes sense that way....my comment focused on the humanity of Jesus Christ - - as Philippians 2 mentions he emptied himself - intending to take on the limitations of man - he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death for our salvation.
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teachmevp
Romans 2:3-4 - The first characteristic of a self-righteous moralizer is arrogance. The guilty verdict that God has just declared upon the human race, do you think that you are going to escape that guilty verdict? Do you think for one moment that God is going to give you a non-wrath-worthy pass: that Christ need not have died for your sins; that your sins are of such a non-serious nature that you have no need of a Savior in the first place?
God is going to see you as having no need of the saving work of his son. God’s attitude toward ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of people is being revealed in scripture. People are guilty before God, he has decreed it. NO excuse will suffice to pardon it. It is such a shame that so many people today are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven. Paul wants us to understand that there is no refuge in human goodness. Judgment based on a righteousness people can produce for themselves can only lead to one verdict, GUILTY.
When we put our human hearts under the microscope of God’s truthful judgment, we are going to find out that we need much more than human righteousness to have a perfectly just standing before God. We need a Savior and Jesus Christ became that Savior. Do all people need to change their minds about the seriousness of sin and God’s answer to that serious dilemma people found themselves in? All people should change their minds about the way that God has provided and what his son accomplished where their sins are concerned, because not all people believe that those sins were done away with Christ’s payment.
God has held back the wrath you so justly deserve. God has been good to you in holding back that wrath. God has not held back his wrath because he is happy with who you think you are, or because he is satisfied with who you are trying to become. God has been long-suffering in holding back his wrath, because he hopes that you will consider his goodness through his son, his goodness on your behalf and flee to his grace, God wants you to change your mind about who you are from fleshly perspective apart from Christ. Romans 2:6-11 - God completely took works out of the equation, when it came to gaining or maintaining salvation! Paul has fenced us all in and it is a closed-in pen, in a manner of speaking of wrath worthiness, therefore, the human race is in need of a Savior, simple as that! All of the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Jesus Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, offering people the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished, we place our faith in Christ’s faithfulness, and that alone.
The Pastors roll is to prepare his people for the Bema, that is what teaching and pastoring is all about. The Bema has to do with the building project. The building is the Body of Christ. We as members of the Body of Christ, are co-labors with God in the building project. The blueprint for the proper construction of this building has been given to apostle Paul for the work crew of which we are apart. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christ will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motivations of the heart, not only what was done, but why it was done in connection with each believer’s work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. But understand, it is the value of the work itself that will be judged at the Bema, not the believer.
God has given the human race a God consciousness, the conscious perception that we could say that there is a God somewhere and that ultimately the human race is accountable to that God. God knows whether there is a hidden motivation even to ourselves, hidden by our pride nature to look good before others; to appear knowledgeable before others; to somehow elevate self in relation to others to gain the praise of others, God knows the motivations of the human heart. The issue at the Great White Throne Judgment will be those standing there in their own righteousness, and not in God’s righteousness.
Romans 2:5 - This is a chilling and sobering thought, when self-righteous moralizers harden their hearts and remain impenitent concerning their goodness, they are storing up to themselves wrath to be visited upon them in the day of wrath. They will one day stand at the Great White Throne Judgment where the merited righteousness they think they have will be put on display. It will be open for inspection. They will be standing at the Great White Throne Judgment having only their own righteousness to show for themselves.
Paul has taken on the role of prosecuting attorney seated at the plaintiff’s table. To illustrate just how bad things really are, Paul wants us to understand that all the human race are sitting at the table of the defense. The point that Paul makes as prosecuting attorney is to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, the reality that every person is worthy of the wrath of God. Making all of us wrath conscious is the point in Paul’s presentation. We have to understand the charges against us and that is precisely what Paul set out to do.
Paul as a wise prosecutor has pointed the finger at the entire human race and he has accused us of being guilty of the crimes of being ungodly and unrighteous. We need to be justified, because our own performance and our own production, even when accompanied by our most sincere promises and pledges to God is insufficient to accomplish for us a just standing in the eyes of a perfectly just God. Paul wants us first and foremost to come to a full assurance of understanding that when judged according to truth, we are all in the same boat. Each and everyone of us had a need for a justification to be provided for us; a justification that would come totally apart from anything we could merit through our own performance.
Romans 2:6-11 - God completely took works out of the equation, when it came to gaining or maintaining salvation! Paul has fenced us all in and it is a closed-in pen, in a manner of speaking of wrath worthiness, therefore, the human race is in need of a Savior, simple as that! All of the saving work that God could possibly do, he has already done through Jesus Christ. God now holds forth the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, offering people the choice to either accept or reject that gift of salvation. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished, we place our faith in Christ’s faithfulness, and that alone.
The Pastors roll is to prepare his people for the Bema, that is what teaching and pastoring is all about. The Bema has to do with the building project. The building is the Body of Christ. We as members of the Body of Christ, are co-labors with God in the building project. The blueprint for the proper construction of this building has been given to apostle Paul for the work crew of which we are apart. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, Christ will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motivations of the heart, not only what was done, but why it was done in connection with each believer’s work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. But understand, it is the value of the work itself that will be judged at the Bema, not the believer.
God has given the human race a God consciousness, the conscious perception that we could say that there is a God somewhere and that ultimately the human race is accountable to that God. God knows whether there is a hidden motivation even to ourselves, hidden by our pride nature to look good before others; to appear knowledgeable before others; to somehow elevate self in relation to others to gain the praise of others, God knows the motivations of the human heart. The issue at the Great White Throne Judgment will be those standing there in their own righteousness, and not in God’s righteousness.
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teachmevp
Romans 2:12-13 - People who lived before the time of the law, as well as the nations who were never under the law, people today who are not under law, the Mosaic Law will not be cited against these people. The law itself was proof that Israel was unable to earn righteousness through their performance. Israel had a problem when it came to learning the lesson of their inability and the futility to gain righteousness through performance. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
When performance is the measure of a person’s righteous standing at the bar of God’s justice, only a patient continuance in well doing would cut it, and there is none that do good, not to that degree. What is a patient continuance in well doing? Keep the whole law if you want to obtain eternal life through law-keeping. Wrath worthiness if you fail in even one point of the law is the other side of the coin. Paul is proving the wrath worthiness of the entire human race, when it comes to a non-wrath-worthy self-defense plea before God.
The dilemma of the human race, just as religion did not save the Israelite during the time of the law contract, religion could not save the Gentiles during that time either, just as it cannot save the Israelite or Gentile today. Religion is an equally inadequate self-defense plea today for people to make, as it was in Paul’s day. No amount of rules and regulations, no observance of rites and rituals, no matter what they are would suffice when it comes to meriting a righteous standing before God. This will be the issue at the Great White Throne Judgment, people will be standing there not clothed in Christ’s righteousness, because they have rejected what Christ accomplished where their sin debt is concerned.
To walk after the flesh, is to assign righteous credit to your fleshly conduct, from Adam onward, people have been doing what seems right to a person in regard to having a relationship with God. Not one member of the entire human race has ever lived up to any system of rule-keeping for righteousness. Yet, how many are attempting today, to do what humankind before us was totally unable to do? How many people think they are measuring up to God’s standard today? Israel supposed they were producing sufficient righteousness through their performance for God to recognize their performance and call them just in his eyes.
Romans 2:14-15 - The Gentiles who were never placed under the law of Moses, do by nature the things contained in the law, the Gentiles determined for themselves their own right and wrong. The Gentiles were following what the Bible calls “the way of Cain” the WORK of the law was written in their hearts. Paul did not say the LAW was written in Gentile hearts. Writing the law in the heart is something God is going to do for the nation Israel in fulfillment of their New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:33-34.
The works of the law are written in the hearts of the Gentiles, in other words, God knows whether or not a person has placed their faith in the faithfulness of his son, or whether that person is still holding onto the notion that his good works will somehow merit them a position of righteousness in the eyes of God. God knows the motivation that resides in the human heart that underlies all the works that we call good.
Any kind of works at all, even if they appear to be good works in your mind, that are done for the purpose attaining salvation or for the purpose of maintaining salvation, and yes, even for the purpose of proving one’s salvation is a slap in the face of God who had to provide the gift of salvation, because people’s righteousness would be totally incapable of meriting it. Our good works must be done solely out of appreciation for what God has already accomplished.
Romans 2:16 - We seldom recognize the sin within ourselves. The most insidious evil present in the heart of people is a person’s refusal to recognize the evil that is present within self. This is what the pride of life is all about, it is always the other person who does the really serious sins. You see, we have a pretty good cause to justify ourselves, because the pride nature uses only relative righteousness as its reasoning. The pride nature rebels against and hates to accept the truth.
We do not want to see ourselves as unjust. We resist seeing ourselves as unjust and being in the same boat with those poor unfortunate souls we consider to be less just than we are. The prideful human nature convinces us that we possess some righteousness, some meritorious standing before God of our own doing, some goodness achieved by our own accomplishments. Paul has set out to prove to the human race that nothing we do and nothing we promise to do will have anything whatsoever to do with our righteous standing before a perfectly righteous God.
The dilemma of the human race, just as religion did not save the Israelite during the time of the law contract, religion could not save the Gentiles during that time either, just as it cannot save the Israelite or Gentile today. Religion is an equally inadequate self-defense plea today for people to make, as it was in Paul’s day.
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Steve Lortz
Are you saying that Jesus Christ was NOT a human being?
Love,
Steve
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teachmevp
Jesus was the second Adam, yes he was human. First Adam was human, the second Adam was human.
Jesus was everything the first Adam was before the first Adam ate of that tree.
The human race after the fall, those finger prints will not be found on humankind's salvation.
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teachmevp
Romans 2:17-23 - You see, the Law of Moses had a relationship claim on every member of the human race. If the law has a rightful claim on you, God cannot have a rightful claim on you. If Christ has a rightful claim on you, the law has no rightful claim on you whatsoever. People have such a hard time when their motivation is based on the false assumption that God gave to Israel a law contract in order to provide for them the motivation necessary for them to live righteously. God designed the law to make sin show its hand, to make sin abound, so that they could look at that picture of the law and look at themselves and say, “These pictures do not match up,” so that they could see that their sin was exceedingly sinful.
People must rid themselves of the tendency to think that God is dealing with people as he has dealt in time past, when the law program was the order of the day. Paul wants us to understand and understand fully that motivation to do righteousness is the exact opposite of what our natural minds suppose it to be. God did not design the law to enable Israel to live righteously unto him or to give them the motivation to do it. Take away the law Paul and you have taken away the motivation people need to do good and to avoid evil, that is the way the natural mind works.
Listen to the attitude of law orientation; an attitude that comes from a person, who is walking after the flesh: “I’m not going to do that, because that is bad,” or “I’m not going to do that, because I cannot do that and remain righteous,” or “I’m going to do this, because God demands I do it,” or I’m going to follow the rules, because God will accept me if I follow the rules faithfully.” If we are trying to satisfy God’s justice on a daily basis or however by conforming to a standard of rules and regulations, we are going to find that just the opposite becomes true in our flesh. We are going to find ourselves constantly focusing on the flesh. The milk of self-righteousness will sour under the divine heat of God’s justice.
Romans 2:24 - God did not design the law to enable Israel to live righteously unto him or to give them the motivation to do it. Take away the law Paul and you have taken away the motivation people need to do good and to avoid evil, that is the way the natural mind works. The nation Israel was given every visual opportunity to change their thinking about the identity of their messiah and their ability to perform up to the standard of God’s righteousness, when it came to the law contract. God proved how obstinate the hearts of Israel’s political/religious leadership were, in spite of all the visual evidences God placed before them.
A visual evidence given and a visual evidence rejected! Well, this is the case with Israel’s religious leadership, people were getting healed, people were coming to belief and many people were added to that earthly kingdom in that day, but God was looking for the leadership, the representatives of that nation to make their confession. It was a national promise and it is a national rejection as far as God is concerned.
Jesus Christ was no military giant in their eyes, much less a military genius, and that is what they were looking for. Israel’s leadership did not want a suffering servant as a messiah, they wanted a conquering hero as their messiah. The issue with God in his plan and program with Israel and their promised land was an issue concerning their need of, and acknowledgment of the source of their righteousness. Israel would need a righteousness that God could recognize. They had a righteousness that they could recognize as far as they were seeing things, but they did not have a righteousness that God could recognize.
A God recognized righteousness would be an absolute necessity for that nation, if they were to acquire and remain in the land promised to their fathers. Paul could never preach and never preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, because the kingdom was no longer at hand. When Israel’s leadership rejected the King, that kingdom was placed on the shelf to be reserved for a future fulfillment.
Romans 2:25-28 - Circumcision, or the setting aside of the flesh was simply the sign, according to the apostle Paul, that God gave to Abraham to point out that Abraham had placed his faith in God and in God alone, and not in himself. Abraham learned that it would not be his own fleshly production that would accomplish God’s purpose for him. It is significant when we think about Abraham’s faith, that God wanted Abraham to place no confidence in his flesh.
It is law principle that actually stirs up the sinful emotions. The law principle itself incites the sinful nature that is within the human race. Most people suppose that if you want to eliminate sin, simply put forth a little more law. Well, it is the other way around according to the apostle Paul, it is the law that stirs up the passions of the sin nature. The law actually ignites the passions of the sin nature. The law is a good thing, the problem lies not with a holy and just law, the problem lies in the fact that while the law is good, the flesh is weak.
Is it not interesting that the Gentiles had been considered dogs? Now you come to Paul speaking to the saints in Philippi, and it is the unbelieving Israelites who are considered dogs. Beware of Dogs; Beware of Evil Workers; Beware of the Concision. Just the fact that they were of the physical linage of Abraham did not cut the mustard as far as their righteous standing with God was concerned. Paul’s point here is circumcision apart from faith is nothing more than concision. It is nothing more than mutilation. You see, the concision, although it sounds like the word circumcision, the concision is a reference to those false teachers who thought that ritual, who thought they could do something, perform something and the ritual was circumcision.
People placing confidence in their performance, not realizing that the law was designed to teach them not to place confidence in their performance when it came to earning their righteousness before God through their performance. Otherwise, God would not have provided for a sacrificial system within the law program in the first place, he would not of needed it. Paul wants us to be sitting in our thinking, in the place where Job was sitting, when Job asked a question, “But how should man be just with God” because Paul understood that the heart of people will go to great lengths to establish its own righteousness.
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Twinky
TMVP, try checking in one of the online Bibles, for "Adam". You will find almost all of the 27 occurrences refer to the person of what we are told is the first man (Eve's hubby) although Gen 5:2 says:
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.[emphasis added]
A further reference is to a city (in the book of Joshua, when crossing the Jordan).
And then there is this ONE reference, in 1 Cor 15:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [live-giving] spirit.
Not "the second Adam" but "the last Adam." Second Adam implies there might be another after him, the third Adam. There are NO MORE "Adams" to be referenced.
From Blue Letter Bible (online resource):
"Quickening" - Strongs G2227: Strong's Number G2227 matches the Greek ζῳοποιέω (zōopoieō),
Outline of Biblical Usage:
[*]metaph., of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
The first Adam was a "living soul" - the last Adam is "a life-giving spirit." Does that make any difference to your theology, TMVP?
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teachmevp
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Twinky
????????????????
What are you talking about??????????
And I'm not answering anything. Just adding something to your assertions for you to consider, that you seem to have overlooked. Whether you choose to consider it or not is up to you.
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teachmevp
That word spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is a resurretion body, a living resurrection body?
Are you still in that guilty boat, or do you have your identity in this last Adam?
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teachmevp
Romans 2:29-3:9 - A Israelite had to be a Israelite both inwardly and outwardly for God to consider that person a true Israelite. Do you think those with a Israelite heritage who were readily willing to accept Paul’s indictment of the Gentiles as being wrath worthy, were now equally as ready to admit their own wrath worthiness, to accept that indictment against themselves?
First came that plea of ignorance, “We Gentiles just did not know there was a God, why didn’t God tell us about himself?” Paul quickly dispensed with that notion, they knew all about God according to Paul. God had shown them all about himself and told them about himself. It would be easier for them to dispense with the God they knew about, than to have to be accountable to that God.
The second plea of ignorance came, the self defense motion of relative righteousness; the plea that went along these lines, “I do some pretty good things from time to time, surely my righteousness is worthy of God’s consideration.” When it comes to our failures at rightness, our pride nature will not let us see what is in the room.
The third self defense plea of natural righteousness, the Israelites were entertaining in their minds a rightness that they supposed came along with their physical heritage; their lineage. The Israelites identified themselves as being the offspring of Abraham and God certainly honored Abraham. He was a great man in God’s eye, so they felt that that linkage to Abraham made them great in God’s eyes. Their is a very real difference in taking pride in a privileged position God has provided and thinking you are worthy of holding the position God has given.
Romans 3:10-17 - No one has a self defense plea that will successfully excuse them from being counted worthy of God’s wrath. The natural person is the person who can only perceive things that fit in with their own human reasoning. The natural person has their mind tuned in only to the channel of their own human perspective; satisfying the lust of their flesh; the lust of their eyes; and the pride of life. If something is not logical to the natural person’s way of thinking, they refuses to believe it, whether God said it or not, they want to remain in their comfort zone.
The human race has become quite adept at mixing poison with their speech. They lace their poison with perfume, but it is poison, nonetheless. The words come out designed to appear innocuous, but lo and behold, there is something hidden under the lips of sinful people. While their words may appear harmless and unoffending, oftentimes these words are not benign words at all. They are insidiously designed by the speaker to be laced with character venom so as to contaminate the object of the speech.
Swearing is not the meaning of the word, this word cursing has more to do with wishing harm on another; wishing ill will toward another person; bringing another under the condemnation of ill will due to the bitterness or animosity in our hearts. Every where a person goes, you can see the results of their having been there. Destruction and misery line the pathway of the human race. We could say that the footprint of sin is easily traced to the sinner. Sin renders lasting peace impossible.
Romans 3:18 - People have a lack of proper alarm when it comes to the judgment of God. The pride of the Israelite people, there are many parallels between the pride of these Israelites and the pride that take place in Christianity today. The programs have simply been intertwined in the minds of the religious world. Christianity, they have mixed God’s program with Israel and his program with the Body of Christ and mixed dispensations together; dispensations that do not mix together and as a result, they think they have taken on Israel’s role from the point where Israel left off.
We look at the Old Testament scripture, and we see God’s judgment being rained on those who walked contrary to his law, and it is hard for us to understand God’s love in light of those passages. We tend to think that a God who is love is totally incapable of being a God who will judge. One of Satan and his forces goals accomplished through the heart of sinful people is to humanize God. That is precisely what the human race has done, God is our great big buddy in the sky, Jesus has simply become our best friend. Many think that salvation comes to those who can maintain a sufficient camaraderie with Jesus, their friend.
Where do people go to see how far they have removed themselves through their behavior from God’s favor? More often then not, they go right back to the Law of Moses taught in the halls of religianity by ministers of righteousness. That can only lead in one direction, instability. The religiously minded begin to believe they are indeed measuring up as righteousness becomes relative to those people. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people walking away from a God they perceive as being unfair in having created them to fail in the first place.
Some take it to the extent of a total denunciation of God altogether. If God does exist, how can he demand perfection? If God does exist, the fact of his fairness or unfairness does not really matter, does it? You see, no matter where on the performance spectrum one happens to sit, whether it be the perceived safe haven of religion or avowed atheism on the other end.
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teachmevp
Romans 3:19-20 - That every mouth may be stopped; and here it is, the jury foreman is rendering the jury’s verdict and the judge brings down his gavel and pronounces the human race guilty. The law was never given as a standard by which people could live their life and achieve righteousness. It was given to be a mirror, so that those who were placed under the law might gain a better glimpse of themselves. It allowed the human race to stand back when looking at that law and see themselves in a proper light. It was given in order to reflect a perfectly clear picture of how sinful the human race really is.
What God wanted Israel to see was her shortcoming, her sin. The law was given to manifest or to bring to light the indisputable reality of sin; the undeniable truth of the existence of sin, even in a person who thought they were performing sufficiently righteously to merit a justified standing before God. Now if a religious Israelite was sinful, what does that say about the rest of the world? The law was given to Israel and that condemned the entire world.
Everyone has done exactly like Israel, it condemned the entire human race according to Paul, for all have sinned. God alone decided to make peace with the human race, while the human race is an active enemy to God. Certainly the bible shows that God does not like the actions of the human race, but God reconciled himself to his enemies while they are still in hostility.
These are important words; God’s reconciliation to the human race took place when the human race was actively his enemy, not after the human race repented. The entire human race is guilty when it comes to human merit, performance, and production and all fall short continually coming short of the righteousness of God himself. All of the human race are in need of a justification that will come totally apart from anything that they do. Paul wants the human race to know at one point in time something was true, but now something else is true.
Romans 3: BUT NOW, no longer does the human race have to strive to attain and maintain God’s acceptance on the basis of who they are and what they can do. Our decree of judicial perfection in the eyes of God comes not through Christ’s death for our sins, but through our union with Christ’s resurrection life. If a person believes Christ died for their sins, but does not believe that God’s justice was satisfied, when Christ died for those sins, that person has not believed Christ died for their sins. God purchased the human race out of sins dominion, never to be returned to the market place of sin again.
By removing the sin issue from the table of God’s justice, God effectively canceled Satan’s ownership of all the human race. Satan can lay claim to no person based on that persons sinfulness. If we misunderstand justification, we are going to have a difficult time understanding the cornerstone that comes prior to sanctification. Since people link a justified standing before God with performance of their own, they also link a sanctified standing before God with their own performance. And as a result, they believe the degree to which they stand sanctified in God’s eyes depends entirely upon the degree to which they remain holy in behavior.
If they do not see themselves as being holy in conduct, they do not believe that God sees them as being holy, either. We need to understand that forgiveness was all upfront and all-inclusive, but when we accept this idea of conditional forgiveness/forgiveness on the installment plan; a little forgiveness here, a little forgiveness there, the need for new forgiveness for new sin, that is the atonement program of Israel. The truth is, our deeds do not determine our destiny, our faith in Christ’s faithfulness determines our destiny.
Today people think they have to ask God to forgive them for the sins that God is no longer charging to their account in the first place. Ministers of righteousness would have people believe God is not totally reconciled in his mind. Satan and his forces want to keep sin on the table of God’s justice today, as much in the Age of Grace as he has in the other ages. If Satan had known what Jesus Christ would actually accomplish where the sins of the world are concerned, Satan would not have had Christ crucified.
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WordWolf
Tone it down a notch.
If you respond to all replies with hostility,
the Powers That Be will probably revoke your
"post lots of advertisements" privileges.
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teachmevp
Sorry about that Twinky, thanks for showing me that last Adam, cool stuff.
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teachmevp
Romans 1:11 - Dealing with Satan and his forces is not a power encounter; it is a truth encounter. You can not expect God to protect you from Satan and his forces influences if you do not take an active part in his prepared strategy. The armor that we must take up to protect ourselves from Satan and his forces attack, the first three are established because of our identity in Christ, the last three help us continue to win the battle. It is critical that when we put on the armor of God, we start with the belt of truth. If Satan and his forces can deceive us into believing a lie, they can control our life in that area.
It is absolutely vital that we put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that we can resist the persistent accusations of Satan and his forces, they never give up trying to get us down and keep us down by hurling one false accusation after another. We put on the shoes of peace, because we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, and we must base our relationships with others on the same criteria. If we fail to speak the truth in love and manage our emotions, anger which turns to bitterness and unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan and his forces.
The important process of renewing our mind includes managing our emotions by managing our thoughts and perceptions. Satan and his forces are always hurling their fiery darts of fear, doubt and worry in our direction, but the only time they can hit us is when we let our shield of faith down. The fact that the helmet is related to salvation indicates that their blows are directed at the believer’s security and assurance of being placed into Christ. This helmet covers our mind, intellect or reasoning. The two dangerous edges of Satan and his forces broadsword are discouragement and doubt.
In addition to believing it and thinking it, the Word of God is the only offensive weapon mentioned in the list of armor. If you are going to resist Satan and his forces, you must do so outwardly so they can understand you and be put to flight. That is why Paul insists that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Satan and his forces have no power over us except what we give them by failing to take every thought captive and thus being deceived into believing their lies.
I had to rewrite this post, forgot two pieces of Armor.
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teachmevp
In post Romans 1:16, I change the second Adam to "the last Adam" on my blog. Thanks Twinky
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Tom Geiger
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DontWorryBeHappy
TMVP.......
I commend the greasespotters who actually spent their time reading and attempting to make sense of your overwhelmingly lengthy, verbose, posts throughout this thread which you started. I also commend them for taking the time to respond.
I have not read much of anything you post. Why? Because I find everything you post to be offensive to genuine Christianity. It appears to me that EVERYTHING you meander on about is some form of the same irresponsible garbage theology Wierwille preached. Only difference is, you think that somehow, your take on that same old plagiarized mish-mash from 60 years ago is revelatory in some cryptic way. For me, your posts have no point and make no point. Like the OP of this thread for example. I was completely gone from everything after the first 2 paragraphs, and never read one more word of any of your posts on this thread, because I don't really crave headaches and nausea.
I just want anted to let you know that I'll never read or comment any anything you post ever again. Thank you much.
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WordWolf
There may have been a more...diplomatic manner in which to phrase that.
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DontWorryBeHappy
Maybe. I choose my phrasing on my own, as I'm sure you do. I just don't spend much time on style. I prefer discussing content. TY.
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waysider
Yes, content.
So many times (I'm not singling out any one poster or topic.) we see people come on to these boards and essentially regurgitate PFAL, using new phrasing and previously not seen grammatical devices. You take off the disguise and whatta ya got? PLAF (The Wonder Class) all over again.
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T-Bone
Surely Jesus Christ had fingerprints...i guess God didn't stick to the plan.
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waysider
I think what Teach is saying here is that mankind can't (or shouldn't) take credit for his own salvation. It seems to make more sense if I interpret it that way.
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T-Bone
Understood and it makes sense that way....my comment focused on the humanity of Jesus Christ - - as Philippians 2 mentions he emptied himself - intending to take on the limitations of man - he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death for our salvation.
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