Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
We Don't Just Do Sins, We Are Sinners
"The ordinary man may feel ashamed of doing wrongs: but the saint, endowed with a superior refinement of moral sensibility, and keener powers of introspection, is ashamed of being the kind of man who is liable to do wrong." N.P. Williams, The Ideas of the Fall and of Original Sin (1926)
Sin is not just something we do; it is a power deeply rooted in our nature.
This is why we all need a new nature...something outside of ourselves that applies to us...someone who takes away all condemnation...someone who gives new life.
Sin is not just something we do; it is a power deeply rooted in our nature.
This is why we all need a new nature...something outside of ourselves that applies to us...someone who takes away all condemnation...someone who gives new life.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Our sufficiency is from God!
"Objection. But if salvation from first to last is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, then we can do nothing effectively to bring about our salvation. Of what use then are all the commandments, threats, promises, and exhortations in Scripture?
Answer. We must never let go of this truth, that is it indeed the Holy Spirit who works all spiritual good in us. In the Bible we are taught that 'in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing' (Rom. 7:18). We are taught that we are not 'sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God' (2 Cor. 3:5. See also 2 Cor. 9:8; John 15:5; Phil. 2:13). To say that there is some good in us which is not the work the Holy Spirit destroys the gospel and denies both that God is the only good and that he alone can make us good.
To use this argument as an excuse for doing nothing is to resist God's will. God promises to work in us what he requires from us. There are many examples in Scripture of people being commanded to do what was impossible for them to do. Yet when they attempted to obey, they found the healing power of God enabling them to do what previously they had found to be impossible: for example, the man with the withered hand, Lazarus being raised from the dead and the widow's son at Nain.
Our duty is to attempt to obey God's command, and his work is to enable us to obey them. So those who sit back and do nothing - because they say they can do nothing until God works grace in them - show that they have no interest or concern for the things of God. Where a person does nothing, the Holy Spirit does nothing also.
Although there is no grace in a believer except by the Holy Spirit, yet to grow in grace, to thrive in holiness and righteousness, depends on the believer using the grace he has received. We have been given arms and legs. If they are to grow strong and healthy, they must be used. Not to use them will be the most effective way of losing them. Therefore to be lazy and negligent in those things on which our spiritual growth depends, and which concern the eternal welfare of the soul, on the pretext that without the Spirit we can do nothing, is both unreasonable and stupid, as well as dangerous."
John Owen, The Holy Spirit, pages 40-41
Answer. We must never let go of this truth, that is it indeed the Holy Spirit who works all spiritual good in us. In the Bible we are taught that 'in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing' (Rom. 7:18). We are taught that we are not 'sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God' (2 Cor. 3:5. See also 2 Cor. 9:8; John 15:5; Phil. 2:13). To say that there is some good in us which is not the work the Holy Spirit destroys the gospel and denies both that God is the only good and that he alone can make us good.
To use this argument as an excuse for doing nothing is to resist God's will. God promises to work in us what he requires from us. There are many examples in Scripture of people being commanded to do what was impossible for them to do. Yet when they attempted to obey, they found the healing power of God enabling them to do what previously they had found to be impossible: for example, the man with the withered hand, Lazarus being raised from the dead and the widow's son at Nain.
Our duty is to attempt to obey God's command, and his work is to enable us to obey them. So those who sit back and do nothing - because they say they can do nothing until God works grace in them - show that they have no interest or concern for the things of God. Where a person does nothing, the Holy Spirit does nothing also.
Although there is no grace in a believer except by the Holy Spirit, yet to grow in grace, to thrive in holiness and righteousness, depends on the believer using the grace he has received. We have been given arms and legs. If they are to grow strong and healthy, they must be used. Not to use them will be the most effective way of losing them. Therefore to be lazy and negligent in those things on which our spiritual growth depends, and which concern the eternal welfare of the soul, on the pretext that without the Spirit we can do nothing, is both unreasonable and stupid, as well as dangerous."
John Owen, The Holy Spirit, pages 40-41
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