Paul did have an abundance of revelation. But didn't he go off somewhere for 3 years or 14 and study up (Galatians 1:18; 2:1)?
Do you speak against "Sinlessness"?
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Yes, but it was only the Holy Spirit. The only Scriptures he would have had he already knew as a Pharisee. The Spirit taught him the New Covenant which is dramatically different from the Old Covenant that he knew. The New Covenant was all Spirit, whereas the Old was all flesh.
My printer ran out of paper. Long posts I like to read a hard copy. I haven't forgotten it.
I believe myself to be an expert in the New Testament that started in Acts chapter two. Paul picks it up there and starting with Romans gives us most if not all the doctrine as to what we have in Christ. Peter mentions a few things and James too. So we agree. The problem with this is the Catholics teach the New Testament started with Matthew and they are probably the ones that put a paper in the Bible between Malachi and Matthew that says New Testament.
I'll go with Matthew, especially the sermon on the mount, that explains the actions of the heart, not just the physical act of the flesh like in the Old Covenant. John and Peter are my favorites and needed the most in the Christian walk as they have to do with the fruit of the Spirit. Read John 15:1-4, and 2 Peter 1:5-9 and 1 John 1:7
There are parts of the Gospels that I believe can be applied to Christians but only the part that Jesus is telling us we will have after he's gone from the earth. It's the Epistles that tell us who we are and what we can do. I do not know why we have so many Christians who believe the entire Bible is written directly to them, the Church of God. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate such thinking, and I would like to add nothing could be further from the truth. It's true the Word of God was written for everyone for all time, and it's for our learning because it contains what everyone should know. That does not mean every part of it is addressed to everyone in this time, because the subject matter was written either to the Jews, to the Gentiles, or to the Church of God (1 Corinthians 10:32).
What I see is that Jesus only debates the Old Covenant with the Pharisees, but to the disciples He teaches the New Covenant.
The present administration of God is in the time period of the New Testament known as Grace. It deals with the new covenant, and it belongs to the time that is called the administration of the mystery. It's a period in time that was not made known to any one prior to this administration because God kept it a secret since the world began. From this our Grace administration, we learn God’s secret purpose that He had placed in Himself, according to the administration of Grace, which was first revealed to the apostle Paul.
What do you believe and teach that is the meaning of Grace. How does God's grace affect us?
From the online book I wrote 25 years ago...
Grace: God’s grace and favor manifested towards mankind or to any individual, which as a free act is no more hindered by sin. It's the grace of God, because it denotes the relation assumed and maintained by God towards sinful man. It's joined with Christ, because it's manifested in and through Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:4
I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
2 Timothy 2:1
Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
We have access to the grace that is in Christ Jesus because God has made grace available through Christ, who is functioning within this time period. We need to understand that the Law given by Moses is very different from the Grace and truth that came into existence by the life of Jesus Christ. The works of the flesh, the works of the Old Testament Law, and good behavior does not make us acceptable with God. We have grace and are under the Grace administration because God has created it to be available only by the life of Jesus Christ. There is no other way under heaven we could have access, because grace is unearned favor, freely given through the limitless favor of God.
It's not that everyone sins from time to time and needs to pray for the grace of God in assistance to perform some good thing. Grace is what Jesus Christ accomplished and made available through the new birth, and it's this triumphant grace of God that is in Christ Jesus, that has made the believer a part of the body of Christ. In Romans 5:21, it is written “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” There is a distinction between the natural realm and the realm of the supernatural. Human reason and logic can know the natural realm, but the realm of the supernatural, what is spiritual, can only be understood through the revelation of the truth of God’s Word.
Grace supersedes our natural existence because grace belongs to the supernatural realm. Grace is permanent as recognized in the steadfast virtuous life of our Lord Christ Jesus. Grace deals with God, who has healed and brought us to the state of perfection, and made it possible for us to be free from the slavery of sin. This salvation and the spiritual capacities that grace entails are from the supernatural perfection that comes from God. Grace is the favor of God because He is freely choosing to create His free and unmerited favor that is the result from creating of Himself beyond the natural realm of existence. It's through the source of God’s favor that He has created something beyond, which are His gifts and supernatural order.
I'm also a writer. What I've been shown is that grace is the supernatural power of God given to us when we recognize ourselves as helpless sinners, therefore turn to Christ to save us from the sin nature inside that keeps us sinning. It is Jesus that raises us up completely cleansed in our nature from the sins unto death to everlasting life and a slave of righteousness. As we now abide with Him and He in us we keep God's laws naturally and cannot sin, thus being conformed into the likeness of Christ. Then for the rest of our lives abiding in Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus tends to and prunes the fruit of the Spirit planted in us to grow to full stature towards perfection and holiness.
quietthinker
Well-Known Member
Do you speak against "Sinlessness"?
Asking questions is mostly a good thing yet what is asked and the intentions behind the question also require insight.For example, the Serpent asked Eve, 'did God really say you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' Genesis 3:1 It was a set up.
Anyone who knows Jesus also has the desire to be free from the shackles of sin (disfunction/ rebellion).....so why would they even consider speaking against sinlessness?
I see it this way...
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
It's not the body, but the spirit that has become a new creature. In other words, it's in the spirit that we have become a brand-new species because our spirit is totally new and therefore there is not an old sin nature left in us. We undergo a miraculous exchange at the center of our being once we have the spirit of Christ. Who we were in Adam is no longer there. We become a new person because we are now a child of God who is in Christ. The key event causing this exchange is a death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. This miraculous exchange is not figurative or symbolic, but literal and actual.
The spiritual part of every Christian has literally and actually been crucified, buried, and raised with Christ. The fact that this occurs spiritually and not physically doesn’t make it any less real. So what happens to the old self that was in Adam? The old self is entirely obliterated once the spirit of Christ enters the Christian. I know this comes as a complete shock to many of you who have been indoctrinated in the-old-nature-versus-the-new-nature theology. Most Christians have been taught to believe that after salvation, they are still the same at their core, and they live the rest of their lives trying to restrain this old nature. They believe they have two natures.
Romans 6:2
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The Christians of today believe they are alive to sin and it's with much effort, frustration, and failure that they battle this sin nature the rest of their lives.
You and I believe very much alike. But I would adjust that it is the soul and spirit that are what is born again. The soul and spirit (the heart and mind) is made new and the laws of God are written on our entire nature so all we have to do is obey our conscience so that if our heart does not condemn us we are pleasing to God and have our assurance. 1 John 3:21-24.
I agree that there are many who believe they will always sin, we will just sin less. But because of Jesus defeating the works of the devil, we have the joy of our salvation and live freely in harmony with God. 1 John 3:8-9 "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."
Of course, 1 John 3 has to do with sins unto death called lawlessness. Jesus made us clean. And we stay clean by abiding in Jesus. That makes maturing in the fruit of the Spirit easy. John 15:1-4 shows that even though we may have fruit that needs maturing, we are still clean of lawlessness. Immature fruit trespasses are called sins not unto death.
I think we almost click, but just fall short a tad. I don't see the flesh being anything other than dead. I also have never been taught anything about the soul other than it's just breath life. It gives the body life until it's gone on the last breath.
Lawlessness means breaking a commandment of God. (vs. 4) Read Numbers 15:30-36 about sins unto death. And if you go back a litter further to verse 22 -29, there was a sacrifice for sins NOT unto death.
Maybe you are using a different Bible than me and that's why I can't see it.
You are a million miles away from me with this Old Testament Law. I don't go any further than I'm as righteous as God because I'm in Christ.
The Old Testament is still our schoolmaster and there are laws in it that we still cannot break. What we are not under is the covenant, the Ten Commandments, nor all the ceremonial laws and feasts that Jesus fulfilled, but we still cannot marry our sister or brother, etc. And remarriage is another one that Jesus also. preached on. I obey them. My ex husband from 22 years ago is still the last man I kissed. He divorced me without cause, so I'm still married to him. I refuse to sin.
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