- May 28, 2018
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This is brought to mind upon reading Humble_Disciple's submission:
God chose YOU to bear fruit...
What the Holy Spirit does in us is something we could never do:
We do not know what we do when we 'give him our hearts'; we are weak, silly, ignorant of the horror that sin is, ignorant of the holiness of God, emotion driven, and selfish. Our faith is not based on our choice, but on God's choice. By contrast, the Spirit of God is not swayed, is reliable and consistent, able to keep us, KNOWS what is going on, and knows (and loves) all the players intimately —it is the power of God within us. Its motivation is God's eternal will. It does not depend on us to accomplish what God has set out to do.
We hear that the decision is not real if WE aren't the ones making it! But quite to the contrary it is ONLY IF GOD makes this decision that it can be real! Are we to suppose that God esteems our fortitude of thought and will worthy of his favor? That is not Grace. Our decision can only be a result—not an increase of his power and love.
No matter how small our faith, if it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is TRUE faith. It is the real thing, and cannot be undone.
So it is that when God has begun his work in us, even before we are aware of the difference, we may not know that our first desires for holiness are his work, as are many other changes coming upon us. Though some of us have had watershed moments of change, of the heart's submission, we have no way to mark 'the moment' of regeneration, so tenderly and carefully does he work. Yet we are told that our theology shows a God that FORCES salvation, as though God is a tyrant!
The enormous little lie of synergism, as though our work increases the value and ability of what God alone can do, is not mere 'cooperation' as they like to call it, but a negation of the power of God, not to mention a diminishing of his love for us. It makes a ruin of the Gospel.
God chose YOU to bear fruit...
What the Holy Spirit does in us is something we could never do:
We do not know what we do when we 'give him our hearts'; we are weak, silly, ignorant of the horror that sin is, ignorant of the holiness of God, emotion driven, and selfish. Our faith is not based on our choice, but on God's choice. By contrast, the Spirit of God is not swayed, is reliable and consistent, able to keep us, KNOWS what is going on, and knows (and loves) all the players intimately —it is the power of God within us. Its motivation is God's eternal will. It does not depend on us to accomplish what God has set out to do.
We hear that the decision is not real if WE aren't the ones making it! But quite to the contrary it is ONLY IF GOD makes this decision that it can be real! Are we to suppose that God esteems our fortitude of thought and will worthy of his favor? That is not Grace. Our decision can only be a result—not an increase of his power and love.
No matter how small our faith, if it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is TRUE faith. It is the real thing, and cannot be undone.
So it is that when God has begun his work in us, even before we are aware of the difference, we may not know that our first desires for holiness are his work, as are many other changes coming upon us. Though some of us have had watershed moments of change, of the heart's submission, we have no way to mark 'the moment' of regeneration, so tenderly and carefully does he work. Yet we are told that our theology shows a God that FORCES salvation, as though God is a tyrant!
The enormous little lie of synergism, as though our work increases the value and ability of what God alone can do, is not mere 'cooperation' as they like to call it, but a negation of the power of God, not to mention a diminishing of his love for us. It makes a ruin of the Gospel.
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