| Author |
Message |
Praise999
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 12:50 am: |     |
Susan and Jude: what excellent comments.
Jude, contrasting the notion of God demanding that humans copy Christ's sinless life as "the central nervous system of legalism" with the transforming reality of "being in Christ" because "GOD HIMSELF (is) acting in Christ...reconciling the world unto himself" highlights the radical difference between living by works and living by faith. |
Timo K.
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 3:13 am: | |
Agree with Susan and Jude. One point I will add to this. Even the "Law written into our heart", or the Holy Spirit can be "kept" legalistically. Letting the Holy Spirit rule our lives is not salvanic, only the Blood of Christ is. The Blood is more for God to see than for us. The Blood is "outside of us" reality. When God sees the Blood, He is satisfied.
Every christian should be led by the Holy Spirit, since the baptism of the Spirit is the Fruit of the Blood. But Spirit filled life is never the basis of salvation. Legalism hardest to detect is "spirit filled legalism". With this I mean replacing the Root(the Blood) with the fruits (Holy Spirits work inside)
timo |
Onesimus
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 7:10 am: | |
Andy, back to your question about the Trinity, YES I believe that the Trinity is a biblical doctrine.
In Ephesians 1:17 Paul states, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." There you can see all three present in Paul's writings.
Blessings to you. Onesimus |
Jude the Obscure
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 5:26 pm: | |
Colleen, Yes, and it's always wonderful to hear your testimony of the Holy Spirit vivifying your own life and the lives you touch. Thanks for your Christ-like spirit. --Jude |
Jude the Obscure
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 5:51 pm: | |
Timo, I think you are absolutely correct in tenaciously keeping the focus on the blood as singular. It is all too tempting to pluralize or add to the one and only provision for salvation: the bloody sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. Period. Nothing added. If this were your only contribution -- which it most emphatically is not -- to www.formeradventist.com, it would be more than sufficient.
It is so dangerous, as was done not so very long ago on this very website, to try to add to that SINGULAR JUSTIFICATION, such as Christ's sinless life, wonderful as that is, or the Holy Spirit's witness, wonderful as that is. Because those things only open the door for legalism to creep creep creep in.
Legalism, I am learning, is more than just "doing something up front" to earn salvation. It is in fact a way of life for sooo many, perhaps 99% of all SDAs (I don't want to be judgmental here). But having emerged from that stultifying culture, I believe that sufficient perspective cannot be maintained without contact with other "formers."
We do need each other. All the time.
There are too many "legalistic ways of life" or "ruts" to fall back into:
1. Salvation by sanctification.
2. Salvation by the Holy Spirit.
3. Salvation by the law.
4. Salvation Bible study.
5. Salvation by prayer.
6. Salvation by "helping others."
The list is endless.
But the singular fact remains: "Without the shedding of blood there IS no forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22, NIV.
Thanks again for making sure we do not stray from that singular spiritual reality.
--Jude |
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