The Power of the Cross

[Jake]

But you say obedience is in a rule of good works (laws) and you preach that if you do not have (in the eyes of others) good works you are not a child of God and,

How do we know if we love God? We OBEY His commandments. In Christ, we obey His commandments perfectly, it is not us, it is Him, in us, obeying perfectly, doing perfect works for Him.

Simply internalizing faith, is not faith at all, it's real faith when we externalize it for building up His Body, working together to participate with Him in building His Kingdom. We can not keep something internally when the Lord has given it to us. It's selfish on our part because all that has been given to us, is not for us, it's for the Body.

The same with grace, God gives us grace, but what do we do with it? Do we internalize this, too? Or do we take the grace given to us, and use it to build up His Body, too?

It is ALL about Christ and this is what we have been saying all along, it is Christ who strenghtens us, and He strenghtens us for what? To endure, to do the works He has prepared for us, to persevere and to attain the prize.

This is what the gospel is about! Jesus came to set up His Kingdom and we are to be helping in building up the Kingdom, if we sit back and do nothing, then we are internalizing all that He has given to us, holding onto it for ourselves, it was never intended to be held onto, the intention was to work together as the Body of Christ, if we have part of the Body doing nothing, then it is not working to the full capacity, we are not being the "city on the hill".

We are to use our spiritual gifts for the Body, if we hang onto these gifts and not use them, it IS a sin, we are not being obedient in what God has freely given to us. If we are given grace, we use that, too. We use what the Lord has given to us - not hang on to it and do nothing.

 

[Prentis]

Good post, Jake!

It just dawned on me that what you are taking about is exactly what the Lord is talking about when he gives the parable of the talents. We receive grace, a talent, but it is for a purpose, that we earn more, and use it.

Burrying it is a very dangerous thing, and not pleasing to the Lord. We are to walk by our faith and the grace given us.

 

[Vengle]

There is a thing that I have noticed which clinches to me that we need those good works.

It seems that the only time Satan ever tries so hard to interfere with me is when I am paying attention to work what is good.

Satan hates it when he sees us truly paying attention to God's instruction of us through our faith as evidenced by our getting into the groove of good works. It is only then, at least in my experience, that he really begins to attack. And these are things that I can definitely say did not happen before.

That proves to me even beyond what the scriptures tell us that we are supposed to be alive with good works. But I also see another factor involved. It places us into a position where we have to clearly choose between God and sin.

 

[Prentis]

When the Lord calls us to overcome, he means it!

The devil is not threatened by us holding certain beliefs, he is threatened by our shining the light, and bringing forth the kingdom.

 

[Vengle]

Yes, if he cannot dim that light through appealing to our pride to combine our own sullied version of light into into it then he attacks us through sex and appeals to our flesh view of love. We humans become too quickly willing to shoulder the weaknesses of another who we think we are in love with in a carnal way. We tell ouselves that if we love them it is up to us to love them enough to help them grow. There is a certain amount of truth to that but it does not usually work out that way in the end.

That is why the counsel of scripture is to not become unevenly yolked with unbelievers. And when we do not listen to that counsel it opens up a world of pain in our lives that we would have done better to avoid.