- Dec 13, 2015
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Hammster is doing a fantastic job replying to this thread with Biblical statements but I wanted to make my own little snippet in here.
Like a oven can only be either hot or cold a person can only be dead or alive. Dead (flesh), alive (spirit). These are the only two states that a human can possibly be in and while in the flesh man cannot please God. Because those in the Flesh are against God. In fact, they want nothing to do with him. And before you say "wait Neo people try to live for God all the time. There are plenty of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists ...etc who all live Godly lives. Yes, you're right. But there are three main problems with this idea.
1. They don't want to follow the true God as he reveals himself in scripture.
2. Our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags compared to God's righteousness
3. Good works will never get us to heaven because we have our totally depraved sinful body and much of our good works come from selfishness rather than service to God.
When we discover who God is and what he has done, what I'm saying makes a lot of sense. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus "you have to be born again to see the kingdom of God" because those in the Spirit are the very regenerated children of God. The spirit is life and salvation. It is impossible for one in the flesh to be saved because of this reason. That's why we need the Holy Spirit to regenerate our completely dead nature and why everyone born of God wants to spend time with God, wants to do what pleases him, hates and destroys their sin, and everything else that comes from regeneration.
Paul's main goal in his letter to the Romans was to teach the Romans these things.
Like a oven can only be either hot or cold a person can only be dead or alive. Dead (flesh), alive (spirit). These are the only two states that a human can possibly be in and while in the flesh man cannot please God. Because those in the Flesh are against God. In fact, they want nothing to do with him. And before you say "wait Neo people try to live for God all the time. There are plenty of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists ...etc who all live Godly lives. Yes, you're right. But there are three main problems with this idea.
1. They don't want to follow the true God as he reveals himself in scripture.
2. Our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags compared to God's righteousness
3. Good works will never get us to heaven because we have our totally depraved sinful body and much of our good works come from selfishness rather than service to God.
When we discover who God is and what he has done, what I'm saying makes a lot of sense. This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus "you have to be born again to see the kingdom of God" because those in the Spirit are the very regenerated children of God. The spirit is life and salvation. It is impossible for one in the flesh to be saved because of this reason. That's why we need the Holy Spirit to regenerate our completely dead nature and why everyone born of God wants to spend time with God, wants to do what pleases him, hates and destroys their sin, and everything else that comes from regeneration.
Paul's main goal in his letter to the Romans was to teach the Romans these things.
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