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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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email
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| Law and not Grace. |
In Romans seven Paul wrote: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate... ...For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I keep on doing the very evil that I do not want to do!"
The debate rages - who Paul is writing about? Is this the common born again experience, or is this a firstperson flashback describing what it used to be like for him before he came to Christ.
Personally, I think both sides are missing the point - Paul isn't doing either. In the greater context Paul is contrasting law and grace. Romans seven characterizes what faith looks like when it is under the law - that is, it highlights what it is exactly that the law cannot do. The law teaches us what pleasing God looks like - but provides absolutely no power to do so.
Christians who have not appropriated grace are hardly different than unregenerate Jews in this regard. Both want to be pleasing to God, but find they cannot please God, because they cannot long resist the temptation to sin. That is what the law could not do - stop a man from wanting to sin.
The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
The gospel is called the "gospel of grace" - not grace meaning "unmerited favor" - but grace meaning the power to obey. Jesus freely gives men the "grace" to obey all of His commands - that is the gospel of grace - something that Moses didn't give.
If a believer thinks that the way to live a Christian life is to supress sin, and train oneself to sin less - to avoid sin at all costs - well, congratulations - you are becoming a model picture of a Pharisee. The outside of your cup is getting shiny - but you know full well that inside your cup wickedness still exists - it hasn't been cleansed out.
What can you do? More later... |
posted by Daniel @
11:03 AM
 
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