20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
This is a great chapter about those that are saved and those that are not. Also it's about why Christ even came to the world at all. Being one who believes in Christ and what he did for me on the cross giving me salvation, I stand as one who is not condemned before God. As I seek to live by the truth, I will be examined thoroughly by both God and men to see if what I did was done for God and his glory alone. As John said “That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”(John 3:29-30) As I mature, things I do will be done more for God and because of the ability he gives me, not for any credit that I may receive.
3 comments:
Since my internet has been down for a while, this is a comment on the last week of blogging.
-Keep it up in Mr. Pulliam's class Brian. One of the biggest things I learned there was to be more creative in my writing and make regular sentances into interesting paragraphs so I could hit my word minimum. Of course now I can't go back, so everything I write is really long.
-Bob, you are right and Nathaniel is right. People do have the choice before tham to be saved. That is why Christians are commanded to preach the gospel to everyone. But since the fall, man has become totally depraved. That means even if we wanted to, we would not be able to do the right thing. We are like hard ground where the seed cannot enter. As Paul said: That which I would do, I do not, and that which I would not do, that I do. (paraphrase) Our sin is dominant in our lives. We are slaves. All hpoe is not lost, however. God in His infinite mercy chose some to enter paradise, so He sent Christ our Savior to drag, pull, wrench (greek word picture of someone pulling water out of a well) us out of our sin, and to give us the capacity to choose the right. Not only that, but He caused us to choose the right, because even though we have the capacity, we still would rather choose evil over good. So we (all men) do have a choice before us. But until the Spirit of God works in our lives, we will always reject Him. And as I was thinking as I read Brian's post, Christ not only demonstrated His love towards us (the elect) in dying on the cross. He also showed what a great evil sin is: that God Himself would have to come to earth and be abused and crusified to make a remedy for it. This completes the damnation of the unsaved: They heard of Christ, but would not accept Him, they saw His love and rejected it. Therefore, even though we are quite incapable of choosing good (aside from grace in our lives), it is to our own condemnation that we do not, and it is fully just and right of the Lord to pour out His wrath on us in the fires of hell. So do not let anyone tell you that they cannot be saved because they are not elect. Do not let simple words stop one from being rescued from eternal torment. We cannot know the mind of God. Who are we to say that one is elect and another is not? Saul certaintly didn't look like he was going to be saved while he persecuted the church, and many probably thought that there was no hope for him. But his life shows the gracious wonders of our Lord.
Sorry I didn't have time to look up and write out back-up Scripture for my statements. If you want them I will try to post them next time I have some time. Otherwise check your Bible as the Borians (Acts 17:11) to make sure that I am not confused.
I didn't know "to wrench" was Greek; I thought it was Old English. Learn something every day...
Sorry about the confusion Nathaniel. You are correct. Wrenched does originate in the old english. However I was using synonms to empahsize the point made in John 6:44 that Christ must draw us up to make us willing to choose him. Which helps me paraphrase of everything that I said yesterday: We do have a choice, but we will not make the right one until our Lord causes us to do so.
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