Let God be true but every kangaroo court judges be liarsBrother Marrow put up this quote:
"God does not ask anything of us that He is not willing and prepared to do through us. He is the dynamic of His own demands, the content of His own commands,the expedient of His own expectations, and the means of His own mandates. This is the grace in which we stand." James Fowler
Sing F Lau
Brother Marrow, that's a very interesting observation.
And the implication is momentous...
God NEVER asks those dead in trespasses and sins to do anything. He is no schizophrenic like many preachers - who think they can command those those dead in trespasses and sins to do something - to repent and believe - in order to have eternal life!
All those commands to do something are commands addressed to God's own children... whom God has REGENERATED and enabled by the indwelling Spirit to do those things commanded.
All glory to Him!
Marrow
Sing, I am more and more understanding some things ..but help me here. Does He command all men everywhere to repent
If He does command all men every where to repent, is he not commanding dead sinners to do what they cannot do? This is an honest question.
Sing F Lau
Brother, when man begins to ask question, he begins to learn. That's my own experience any way.
I have met too many who pontificate to teach. They seldom ask questions, nor do they answer questions that are posed to them. And that for a simple reason - answering the questions will expose the fallacy and the falsity and the error of their view!
Of the the people I have come across in the cyber space since Evangelical list many years, you stand out differently.
God's truth is one complete HARMONIOUS whole - you will agree with this basic and fundamental premise. That is why we say that the Scriptures is, and must be its own interpreter.
And if our interpretation DOES NOT conform to that basic premise, then we are PLAINLY in error, or are plainly deceived.
If our interpretation of "God commands all man everywhere to repent" is such that it does not conform to the plain truth reveal elsewhere in the Scriptures, then it is just man's imagination and fancy, it is not the teaching of Scriptures.
The Scriptures declares in no uncertain term that God elected a particular and specific people, and sent Jesus Christ to live and died for them ONLY, to secure their eternal salvation. His Spirit applied this salvation, whether prospectively or retrospectively, to each one such ONLY and NO ONE ELSE, in His appointed time. God DID NOT give His Son to save the rest. They have been by-passed.
How would you understand the statement, "God commands all man everywhere to repent" in like of those glaring truth?
Do you want 'all men' to include even the non-elect for whom God did not give His Son to be their Savior?
Do you believe in a schizophrenic God who command the non-elect to believe a lie, that Jesus Christ died to save them, to require those for whom He specifically revealed that He has bypassed and for whom He did not give His Son to be their Savior, yet to command them to believe that Jesus is their Saviour?
That is the basic reason that I believe God DOES NOT command the non-elect to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. To do otherwise have blasphemous implications. Just to state one: the God of truth commands man to believe a LIE!
Let God be true but every man a LIAR!
We have to choose the interpretation that is harmonious and consistent with the rest of Scriptures.
'All men everywhere' - is just that... because God's children (regenerated elect) are not just among the Jews, they are found in every nation (ethnic groups, not political nations) scattered through the world.
Marrow
Sing, I thank you for you answer on my last question..Here are a couple of more...again, I am being honest and wondering how someone who holds your theological position thinks on these things. When Paul was on trial and said to Agrippa (Acts 26: 29) that he desired that he (Agrippa) and all that heard Paul speak that... day, were like him (Paul) that is Christians, was Paul expressing a fleshly desire? Also in Romans 9, when Paul expressed a desire for his brethren (in the flesh), fleshly Israel might be saved...even (were it possible...) the sacrifice of his own soul...for their salvation..was that fleshly and wrong? Just wondering how you deal with these passages because they seem at first glance to express a desire in Paul's heart for the salvation of people who obviously were not elect people. Thanks, Your learning brother,
Sing, I thank you for you answer on my last question..Here are a couple of more...again, I am being honest and wondering how someone who holds your theological position thinks on these things. When Paul was on trial and said to Agrippa (Acts 26: 29) that he desired that he (Agrippa) and all that heard Paul speak that... day, were like him (Paul) that is Christians, was Paul expressing a fleshly desire? Also in Romans 9, when Paul expressed a desire for his brethren (in the flesh), fleshly Israel might be saved...even (were it possible...) the sacrifice of his own soul...for their salvation..was that fleshly and wrong? Just wondering how you deal with these passages because they seem at first glance to express a desire in Paul's heart for the salvation of people who obviously were not elect people. Thanks, Your learning brother,
Sing F Lau
Brother Marrow, I will come back to your soon.
You ask real good questions. I am always being taught by good questions - drive me to study the Scriptures.
Sing F Lau
Brother Marrow, let me make sure I get your question correct.
" 27 King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
29 And Paul said, I would ...to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
Was Paul expressing a fleshly desire?
No, not at all, but a true and sincere HUMAN desire, a genuine expression of the great commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." A child of God desires good for his fellow men generally... He desired for them the transformation that he had... once a blasphemous enemy of the gospel, but now a follower of Jesus Christ.
The desire of God is compatible with His will and decree. He WILL NOT desire nor command those for whom He did not give Christ to be their Savior to believe Christ Jesus to be their Saviour.
The desire of a child of God is compatible with God's will for him... "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" and that includes desiring the good that one has for the neighbors.
Sing F Lau
Also in Romans 9, when Paul expressed a desire for his brethren (in the flesh), fleshly Israel might be saved...even (were it possible...) the sacrifice of his own soul...for their salvation..was that fleshly and wrong? Just wondering how...... you deal with these passages because they seem at first glance to express a desire in Paul's heart for the salvation of people who obviously were not elect people.
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The narrative does express Paul's desire for the salvation of the people under consideration... the great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart are sincere and genuine.
There are several consideration here:
- what is the salvation that apostle desire for the people under consideration? Was it eternal salvation by God's free grace, or a salvation that is dependent upon Paul's life and ministry? Would apostle Paul be speaking of the salvation that is wholly and entirely by the free grace of God that he has so copiously asserted and demonstrated throughout the whole epistle?
I believe apostle Paul desired the temporal salvation that comes to the children of God among the Jews ONLY through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Who exactly are the people under consideration? Brethren in the flesh. Did he mean 'all the Jews indiscriminately' or God's children who are among the Jews. I believe the context demands the latter.
Apostle Paul was dealing with a very unique problem among the children of God among the Jews - even though they WERE children of God, but BECAUSE of their old covenant background, they found letting go of the old covenant very hard, and enter the kingdom of heaven by believing in Jesus Christ a great stumbling block.
When Apostle Paul stated, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel" - it is obvious that his concern WAS NOT with the PHYSICAL Israel, but the spiritual Israel among the Jews. They needed to be brought to the faith. The natural Jews WILL NEVER be able to be brought to the Jews.
Sing F Lau
8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us."
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What do the words "imparted... also our own souls...?"
Gill has this to say:
- but also our own souls, or "lives"; which is the highest expression and strongest proof of love that can be given; and respect is still had to the similitude of the nursing mother, who may be said to impart her blood, for such it her milk diversified, for the nourishment of her children: and such was the great concern of the apostles for the interest of Christ, the spread of the Gospel, and the good of souls, that their lives were not dear unto them, so that these ends might he answered: because ye were dear unto us; both because they were loved by God, redeemed by Christ, regenerated by the Spirit of Christ, and had the image of Christ stamped upon them; and also because that they were their spiritual children; and as children are dear to their parents, so were these to them, even to such a degree, as that, were there a necessity for it, they could freely have laid down their lives for them.
