Edit:  Please read to the bottom.  There's an important question there.  In tooling around the internet, I was rather suprised at how many Christians seem to think that they CAN they stop sinning, and that that God requires it of them.

1. The Approach

This article is LONG.  It’s probably going to be one of the longer ones I’ve written.  Sorry, but it’s going to be necessary.  This is an important topic, and a lot of things will turn on definitions and right understanding of some preliminary groundwork - you know, the kind of thing that some "friends of my friends" might call "scripture twisting" or "word games" - that sort of thing.    Maybe I’ll make it into a youtube video one day…  But I am primarily a writer, therefore, to get anything here, you will need to be a reader.

The whole of this article is written from a sort of Reformed Theology position, as best as I can understand it.  I say “sort of” because I make no claim to be an expert at it, nor even particularly “learned”.   However, what you will find is that Reformed Theology makes a LOT of those “hard sayings” of the Bible make perfect sense!  And I’ll sprinkle examples here and there with an introductory “See now what it means…?”)

Two things I do know: 1) This theology was the norm in protestant and evangelical (they are not the same) church history before about 150 to 200 years ago.  And 2) after languishing in the evangelical church penumbra for the past twenty-five years, it immediately awakened me.  Although it was not friendly to me, I recognized it as the truth if for no other reason than that it perfectly described me in my fallen state, as well as my subsequent state as a Christian. 

Finally, (and painfully at first) something described me as I actually knew myself to be, and yet had been taught by “church” to not ever admit:

I was, and am, evil – through and through, and nothing but evil, from the day I was born right up to this very day, twenty five years after putting my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and being – actually being - a Christian for all those years.  The same goes for you.

That stings a little bit, doesn’t it?  To be called “evil” after it seems you’ve done so much for Him, tried so hard.  But, do you see, now, how it is fitting, for Jesus to say something as awful as “If ye, being evil…” to his own disciples?  Because they were!  That is the truth that sets you free.  You are evil; just as I am.  Just as all of us are.  And yet He has come to look for us; to seek and save that which is lost.

Reformed Theology has, as it’s primary vehicle, a way of bringing you the absolute truth, whether you like it or not – and generally, you will not.  But it is necessary.   That’s what Jesus meant,  by “Except the seed die…”  Did you really think dying would be painless?

It’s a common working principle in Reformed Theology.  It tends to hit you directly between the eyes with clear, direct statements, usually delivered directly from scripture without any explanation needed.  That is, no explanation needed  if you have a proper understanding of your own, inner nature.  With that proper view of your own inner heart, Reformed Theology is a very welcome relief!  Again, by example of scripture: You will actually almost feel yourself put down that heavy load you are carrying.

Reformed Theology is really nothing more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ freed from, and restored from the Roman Catholic theological prison of rewards for good behaviour and earned merits, trust in false images/idols, and the whole gamut of  works based salvation.  That is the whole reason for the choice of the word “Reformed”.  It’s like saying “Recovered”.   It is the original doctrine as taught by Christ, not as taught by priests and bishops and cardinals and popes.   And certainly not as taught by the new papacy of Emergent, feel-good, pop-psychology oriented “Christianity” so popular in the “church” right now.

I know that it is claimed that Calvinism and Reformed Theology are synonymous, but they are not.  They are closely related and, you might say, intertwined with each other.  But they are not the same. I cannot claim to be a “Calvinist”, as “Calvinism” involves (probably) far more than the Five Points, commonly referred to as TULIP.  John Calvin was a prolific writer in much the same way that, say, Charles Finney, was.   Both Calvinism (ala, Calvin), and Armenianism (most famously propagated by the likes of Charles Finney) are very well developed systems of theology and go way beyond a simple creed that can be adopted with a simple, “yeah… whatever he just said…” approach, although that is exactly what a lot – perhaps most – so called “Christians” have actually done; within both Calvinism and Armenianism, and every other "false religion" with the distinct possible exception of Mormon's and Jehovah's Witnesses, who both seem to take their religious studies very seriously even if they are completely wrong.

But the tulip is the hub that the RT axel turns on, and upon those five points, I quite agree.  Usually, not because I feel like I’m in agreement, but because I cannot escape the scriptures which constrain me and demand, and require, that I believe a certain way. 

I mention this Pont of View in this first section, really, only for one reason: in the interest of Full Disclosure.  If there is one thing I do not believe in, it is making unbiased representations.  I believe such things are impossible, and highly undesirable even if they were.  It is my intent to not be a double-minded man, and to that end, this shall be a very biased article, as is just about everything I write.

2. Biblical Authority

At the outset, there is the matter of one of those preliminary instances of groundwork that I mentioned earlier.  It is the matter of Biblical authority. 

I believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God that God intends to give to man.   The Bible contains the word of God, but I do not believe that it contains all of it.  God did not exist in heaven for untold eons, desperately trying to pantomime his thoughts to the angels.  And God has not been sitting in heaven with his hand over his mouth for the past 2000 years.  There is much business for my Father to attend to that does not concern us, here on earth.  The administration of heaven (and the heavens) is still an ongoing concern, but as far as His word to mankind on earth; it has been delivered, complete and unadulterated, in the pages of the Bible.  It is a complete record of all that God has to say to mankind.

Some people believe that there is some kind of proof to be found that the Bible is the Word of God.  There is not.  There is no more proof of that than there is any proof that God even exists at all.  And I dare say that it is that way because God has designed it to be that way.  Faith (that is, belief such that produces actual saving trust in Him) is a gift from God.  It is given without merit.  It is given at God’s own good pleasure, to those whom it pleases Him to give it.  And if you are wondering if you are one of these people?... The answer is “yes” – for no other reason than that you are wondering.  The lost never wonder whether they are lost.  The found have known it as far back as they can remember.

There is no proof that the Bible is God’s word.  The reason I believe it is simply because I cannot help it.  And that is the only reason. 

When some men speak of contradictions they think they have found in the Scripture, I listen to them and try to reason in the way that they are reasoning, in the hopes of understanding how they can think these things (and what it’s like to think those things).  But I cannot.  I often ask them, “What is it that you hope to gain from all this questioning and doubt?  The Truth?...” 

But if even the Bible, which has survived utterly intact for roughly 1700 years, and which if anything on earth could possibly qualify as being “from God” - which is the one thing that we have that should be least suspect – if even that is subject to doubt, then what can you put in it’s place that you will not doubt?  Human reasoning?  Rationalism?  Pragmatism?  Politics?  I might point out that we’ve had some 6000 years (as some reckon)  of that so far, and I’m afraid it’s not really working out.  Things are as bad, and worse, than they have ever been.  In exasperation, I’m left asking, What will you believe and trust, if not the Bible?  “They will not believe, even if someone should rise from the dead and tell them plainly.”  Again, I do not need someone to rise from the dead to tell me the Bible is God’s Word.  I do not need anything – not even a good reason... not even a flimsy, threadbare excuse.  I simply do.  And nothing in my power exists to change it, because nothing in my power was responsible for causing it in the first place.

When I have to consider one of the supposed paradoxes (for, in practice, and twenty-five years of considering them, I have yet to find an actual contradiction), I approach the matter with the attitude of “If there appears to be a contradiction, then it must be some fault in my own reasoning, or my own knowledge – not any actual fault in what God has said.”   If seriously pushed into the matter, no matter how much evidence is plied, all it would do (if it could have any effect at all) is drive me to insanity, not to “progressive liberation” or “intellectual freedom”, or a “free thinking utopia”, nor even to a happy “Christian Liberty.” 

Why?  Because, as I have said, I cannot help it.  I believe for reasons I cannot fathom – for no reason at all.  I will freely, and even proudly admit that my belief in God and His word is irrational!  “We are counted as fools for the sake of Christ…” and I’m OK with that.  It’s just not in me to not believe.  In the end, all I can do is say, “I cannot help it.  Make of that – and me -  what you will…” It’s just not my doing.

Just as my belief in God is irrational, so is my belief that the Bible is God’s word to mankind; complete and lacking nothing.  It is exactly, to every last word, what God intends to say to mankind.

And after thousands of years, and all the things God taught the people of Israel, God’s last words to mankind were simply this, and after this he has said not a single word to man.  Are you ready?  Do you want to hear what God’s last words to mankind are?  Here they are:

“This is my beloved Son; hear Him!”

That’s it.  That’s the “Big Finale”.  That’s God going out with a bang!  “I’m done.  You may deal with my Son now.” That’s God’s “Peace. Out!” shout-out to mankind.  And with that, God washed His hands of the matter, and has turned all judgment over to the son.  And, it just so happens that the only record of His words that we have is the bible.  People can fabricate all kinds of things and claim God said so.  But when God said, "Uh-Uh... Not my problem...  Talk to my Son...", that kind of ends all sorts of speculation about what "God is saying..."  It doesn't matter, to me, if Ezekiel supposedly botched a prophecy - God hasn't turned the matter over to Ezekiel.  He's turn the matter over to Jesus Christ.   Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what God is saying (so to speak) because God has relegated all matters to the Son: Jesus Christ.  And we have one, and exactly one source of what He has said, and, again, that is the Bible.

I also believe that the Bible we posses - the 66 books, canonized, admittedly by the Roman Catholic Church roughly 1700 years ago - is that word of God that God has promised He would preserve (Ps 12:6).

In the end, this book is just too important; and too central to God’s stated purpose in dealing with mankind to have been left to the whims and fancies of man.  The argument is put, “Well, MEN decided what books are in the Bible.”  And I reply, “No.  GOD decided which books are in the Bible and saw to it that it happened; just exactly the way He intended.”  If you are willing to believe that God inspired (in the sense that God determined) what the Prophets would say in His name, then how hard is it to believe that He also directed the writing down of those things; and the compilation of those things into what is now universally regarded, the entire world over, as The Bible?  To me, it is not difficult at all.  But again, it’s not me.  I didn’t do this, man.  It wasn’t me!  I cannot help it.

And finally, my audience in this article is only people who believe this same way about the Bible.  I am not an apologist.  I am not a “good debater.”  I’m not even particularly persuasive.  All I hope to arouse out of anyone who reads this is “He thinks that way too?  I thought I was the only one.”  And to say to that person, “Hey, I’m right there with ya, man!”  And I’m glad to have you alongside me, no matter who you are, or where.

The summary so far, of sections one and two are this:

I must approach this from the viewpoint of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the best systematic rendition of it I have found, so far, (if you must have such a thing) is called “Reformed Theology”.  And, my only source is the Bible, which I hold to be the true Word of God that God has spoken to man, caused to be written down, standardized into the 66 books we call “The Bible.”  It is my contention that Reformed Theology best expresses that Gospel, and it’s adherents, in my opinion, best demonstrate the Life of Christ by holding His life up, and not their own.  And that is far easier said than done.

 

3. STOP SINNING

So, now to the point.

This has been a work on my mind for quite a long time.  But I was really only convinced that it was time to write it in this past year when a young lady by the name of Monica Dennington put forth her call on people she labels as “Calvinists” to repent for, essentially, regarding men as teachers (in spite of God’s own stated intent of “…appointing some teachers… in the body of Christ…”), and how by doing so, we are taking God’s glory and giving it to men (in spite of the fact that the people she labels as “Calvinists” teach almost no other message than that “Salvation is a work of God for whom God and God alone is able – not just should – receive the glory.”)  And upon which I piddled a little bit in an article entitled “Monica Dennington Waxes Apologetic”.

But, then comes some guy named Kerrigan Skelly, not just teaching “the other side’s” point, but calling his opponents liars, simply because they disagree or hold a different view from his.

And both of these twits (and many others) were clearly squatting in the “Stop Sinning” camp.  And so I decided I needed to have my say on this matter.

A Room With A Right View

First, it’s time for another one of those prerequisite understandings that I mentioned at the beginning: a right view of oneself:  Man is spiritually dead.  Not just in a bad way and needing a swig of Robitussin.  Not just bent and needing some straightening.  Not just oppressed and needing some charitable assistance.  Not just wrong thinking and needing some right thinking.  DEAD.

Not just dead now, but has always been spiritually dead.  He was born that way.  My own precious sons and daughters, whom I love dearly were born that way.  I was born that way.  I think people who think otherwise must not have children yet, or if they do, they see only what they want to see in them.  They don't seem to realize that selfishness is a sin.  They do not see their child's natural inclination towards stealing, brutalizing, coveting, greed, etc, as sins.  But they are.  And God nowhere gives a wink simply because the offender is a child.

Sorry if that seems harsh.  But the picture expresses better what I mean.  When God looks at the unsaved, the unbelieving, that is what He sees.  If you think I was harsh, the Bible paints an even more gruesome picture in one place - makes my example look pale by comparison. 

But this is what YOU are, if you are unsaved, and not trusting in Christ to make you alive. When God first looked at me, I looked that way.  My own children look that way to him.  Our beloved, precious children, as precious as they are to us, they are all born stillborn - spiritually dead.  Just like we were ourselves.  The reason I do not despair is that I know His power to save and to make alive.  And I trust Him.

But man's condition is one of spiritual death from not only the time that he was born, but even from the time that he was conceived.  God describes death as a sentence passed upon all men who are decended from Adam.  And that means, everyone.  It matters not which way you want to argue it; whether Adam's sin caused Adam's death, and man's sins cause every man's death, the fact remains that "ALL SIN and fall short of the glory of God", and the result thereof is DEATH. 

Now, here is a very important thing to recognize.  This "Sin=Death" thing is the main dividing point between Conservative/Reformed thinking, and Liberal/Emergent thinking.  Emergent type people never seem to understand why we have such a problem with Emergent thinking, or liberal perspectives.  And here's why. 

When we read just about anything to do with their teachings, it is littered with buzzwords and phrases such as "your journey", or "dialogue", or "you can join our conversation", or "having a relationship." 

But think about each of these words;  journey... conversation... relationship...  dead people can do none of these things!  You cannot invite them into a relationship while they are DEAD.  They cannot engage your conversation while they are DEAD.  And they certainly are not going on a journey.  Dead people are quite still. 

Liberals, for all their "spirituality", seem to bear this self-contradiction; they claim spirituality, but they deny the actual, unavoidable consequences of that spirituality.  If they were truly spiritual, they would understand not just what it means to be spiritually alive, but also what it means to be spiritually dead.  They have the first part down pat... but they seem to not understand the second part at all.  For all their "spirituality", you would think that they, more than any, would understand the need to make a dead thing alive before inviting it to engage in spritually living matters. 

More conservative Reformed thinkers realize the futility of inviting dead things to do things dead things cannot do.  First make them alive, and THEN you can talk to them about "journies" and "conversations" and "relationships," because until you do, they can do none of these things.

To liberals, dead people are like that guy in the "Princess Bride".  "No, no, no... he's only mostly dead, and as you know, mostly dead is not the same thing as completely dead."  Dead people can still wiggle their little fingers, or something.  They can move enough to "nod your head in agreement with me while I pray this prayer for you".

To me, dead means dead, ... completely dead.  And all that that implies.  There is no power in them to move anything. 

And this is exactly what the Bible says of them: THEY ARE DEAD.  To which I add, "Lord, by now they stinketh..."  And to which the Lord says, "stand aside and watch me work!   Lazarus, come out of there..."

DEAD.

Each after it's Own Kind

One of the operative principles of Creation is that "everything reproduces after it's own kind".  After the fall of man into sin, Adam and Eve became, by nature, sinful. 

The result is everything, and everybody they subsequently produced were reproduced after their kind.  That is, DEAD.  Just as dead as they were when they made us after their own kind.

Every man born to Adam and Eve, and every offspring of theirs from that day to this day, all resulted in the same thing:  mankind created after the kind that produced them; namely, spiritually dead people. 

So the end result is the same.  Feel free to wriggle through any tunnel you want on your way to that conclusion.

Additionally, and following the same principle, every work that man produces is also "created after it's own kind:" spiritually dead. 

God describes every work that a man does as nothing but sin.  And that includes even (or especially) his "good works".  Man is described as being violent and rebellious from even his youth.  His heart is described as "deceitful and wicked".  Man - all men - are described by God as:

"...not one of them seeks righteousness.  Not a single one.  Every last one of them has gone astray, and not even one exists who knows the way of truth... NOT ONE!  Their thoughts are only evil, continually, from the day they are born, and their attempts at 'goodness' are worthless and it stinks in my nose...."

Mankind may have been originally created in God's image, but that image was lost in sin and rebellious evil at the fall of man into sin.  The result of that fall... the result of that sin was disobedience (among a great many other evil things).  Disobedience was not the sin that doomed mankind.  Disobedience was the result of that sin.  That Original Sin was not disobedience, it was disbelief; and disobedience was the inevitable result.  This matter is more fully treated in Disobedience Is Not Sin.

The root cause that the Gospel of Jesus Christ addresses is the matter of belief (called "faith", in the Bible).  And that Faith, according to the Bible is a gift that is given by God to mankind.  And mankind is unable of his own initiative to produce it.

Very important also is the fact that simply attempting (and even succeeding) at "obedience" will avail a man nothing, because the Divine Purpose of God is not obedience, but Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ.   God has made it abundantly clear that no amount of "obedience" will satisfy Him, and atone for the evil that possesses man's heart.  The evidence of this is the fact that a great majority of the world for whom the Glorification of Jesus Christ is the least of their concerns, are actively engaged in works of "obedience" - feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, taking care of the poor, the widow and the fatherless. See Faith Alone is Dead.

So, the summary so far for this section is this:

Man's natural state is one of spiritual death.  It is caused by disbelief, not by disobedience.  Disobedience is the result of being disbelieving.  Man's natural state, now, is one of spiritual death, disbelief and disobedience; and everything (and everybody) he creates is of the same evil nature as himself.  Since disobedience is the result of the sin of disbelief, and not simply the sin itself, then the work to be done is not one of changing disobedience into obedience, but of changing disbelief into belief.  Obedience then follows as a natural course; but it will not produce belief.  God has said plainly that belief comes only as a gift from Him.  Any other "Gospel" is a false Gospel of "Works" (ie, works of obedience, works of righteousness, etc).

4. Uhm... you said Stop Sinning?

Yes.  I did, didn't I?

So, knowing all that, how do you tell someone to stop being what they are, by their very nature, and to the very innermost core of their being?  How do you demand, or even encourage them to do something that they have no power to do, and which God Himself has said that any attempt is only "filthy rags, and evil works that stink in his nose"? 

The fact is, you cannot.  And any attempt to do so will only make their condition much, much worse because you will only add despair on top of their already confused state of mind, once they realize that they cannot do the things required of them no matter how hard they try.  Here's Hell:  The an ever increasing understanding of what sin is, combined with demands that a man stop doing it.  The more he understands sin and his own condition, the more he realizes that he has no hope whatsoever of not doing it.  And this is exactly what the church" is doing these days.  But the solution offered is not to encourge men to trust in the substitutionary death of someone else who lived that sinless life required of them, and died for them in their place, thus freeing them of the requirements of the law they cannot possibly keep.  No, the solution being offered is to simply pretend sin doesn't exist, or that it doesn't really matter.

The flip side is this "stop sinning" crowd.  They are going in quite the opposite direction and claiming that man does have the power to stop sinning, in spite of all that God has said about their nature, and in spite of their own self-knowledge which defies them at every step. 

These are people who are not denying sin, but instead have a very narrow view of what sin is.  They have whittled down the sin stick to a toothpick and said, "Watch me snap this bad boy in half!" They don't realize that sin is more like the a redwood pine tree - three hundred feet tall and 20 feet thick.  Strong, unbreakable walls of a prison that you could no more knock down with an atomic bomb. 

This narrow view of sin encourages them to think that because they have knocked out a few "biggies", like drugs, or occult practices, that they have somehow "broken the power of sin in their lives" - not realizing that the roots of sin go FAR deeper than they imagine, and the sins that condemn them to hell are much more subtle - things that perhaps have not even crossed their mind.  In fact, it is these people who, at the end, are utterly astonished to find the Lord saying to them, "depart from me, you workers of iniquity..." because they sincerely thought they had stopped sinning.  They didn't murder anyone.  Thiey didn't rob any banks, or kick old ladies, or anything like that...  They didn't even so much as smoke cigarettes or drink cafienated beverages.  They didn't even so much as dig in their butt with a bad attitude... So wither this "depart from me" stuff?

It's because they never new what sin really is, how how deep it's roots go.  They thought they could beat it, or at the very least that the attempt was good enough to prove "how much they love Jesus".

But real love for Jesus would have driven them to obey what He had taught them, which was to trust not in their own understanding of what sin is, and to trust instead in His work in defeating it.

You cannot tell them that. But that does not stop some people.  And here's why.

It is due to the difference, not just in how they view man's inner nature, but also, more importantly, due to a difference in how they see the work of regeneration (or, to them, plain old salvation, because most of them do not admit regeneration, or if they do, they seriously misunderstand it.)

Salvation is God's Work Alone!

To a lot of the modern protestant and evangelical church, "regeneration" is an alien term.  There's unsaved, and there's saved (and even that distinction is now being lost).  There's believers and unbelievers.  To most of the modern church, salvation is a "turning point", where you stop doing one thing, and start doing another thing.  The truth of the matter is much more a matter of "stop being one thing, and start being another" and changing your behaviour will not cause, or even promote that.  If it did, every Mormon and Jehovah's Witness, and Habitat for Humanity builder, and every "faith based" political/community worker handing out food and water to the homeless, and every homosexual church-goer would be children of God, for they ALL are busy doing.  And a good measure of them are doing better than the so called Christians.

For a great many in the church today, it's a matter of "stop" and "start", when the Gospel is much more a call to be.  John 20:27, for example.  In almost every case where you find Jesus telling you to start doing something, that thing is nearly always "believe".

But modern churchdom and the religion of the day is more concerned with YOU doing, than in God doing.  This is most easily evidenced by the very first act a Christian hopeful is asked to perform: Give his heart to Jesus.  But Jesus nowhere asks you to give Him your heart.  He asks you to receive a gift from God: namely, faith.

And here is the important lesson in receiving.  And it has to do with God's work in salvation.  Like every other work, God insists on working alone.  God nowhere asks men to assist, or even to cooperate with Him in his work of salvation.  In fact, God is very specific that man is not to touch this work, but is to stand aside and simply watch Him work. 

Moses was instructed only to carry God's message to Pharoh, and then stand back and watch God work. 

God was very specific about what and who could work in His temple; under threat of instant death.  And He killed two young boys who thought to bring a little bit of their own creativity into his service; without even a commandment not to do what they did; and without warning, and without second chances.  Man's participation in building an altar upon which sacrifices would be performed was limited only to finding stones and piling them up, for (as God says),  "If you will make me an altar, you will not build it with any stones cut or tooled, for if you lift up YOUR tool upon MY work, you have polluted it..."

In fact, you will search the word of God in vain for any instance where God would accept any offering that man had worked to produce.  Here's the lesson: GOD provides the offering.  Man is only responsible for taking that offering and offering it, and trusting in God that HIS offering is acceptable and sufficient, and having done that, to stand back and add nothing to it.

Adding to God's Work is Adultery

People have been taught by modern religion that adultery is a man or woman having sexual relations outside of their marriage.  It is not.  An unfaithful wife or husband, in having such an affair is making an example or demonstration of adultery.  But adultery itself is something uniquely its own. 

Specifically, adultery is the act of taking one thing that is pure, and mixing into it another thing - usually something that looks like the original so it will not be obvious on the surface that it has been changed. 

That's not my "interpretation" of the word.  That's it's actual definition.

In the marriage example, the marriage is created by God, holy and pure.  And it is holy and pure because God has created it and consummated it by the act of sexual relations and intimacy with the wife or husband.  Going outside that, and introducing some third party into the mix immediately adulters the work of God, and that is why we call it adultery.  We call it adultery because it adulters.  Not because the act IS adultery, but because it CAUSES adultery.

Every work of God works in exactly the same way.  God works.  Man receives.  But as soon as man attempts to add to that work, "he has polluted it" and is guilty of adultery - the mixing of God's work and Man's work.

So central to God's nature and purpose is this command to not adulterate His work, that you will find it is the core principle behind almost ALL of the commandments - both the Original Ten, and all the others. 

Do you see now how obvious the scripture is?  Do you see, now, how the principle of Adultery makes much more sense of a seemingly bizarre command like "thou shalt not wear a garment made of two different kinds of thread?"  Do you see, now, how man is not to participate even in the creation of the altar upon which the sacrifice will be made, and a sacrifice that is itself also not to be produced by man's work?  Do you see now how vitally important it is that man not provide the sacrifice, but rather simply accept the sacrifice that God provides for the altar?  Anything that man contributes to, in his fallen sinful condition, will only pollute and aldulterate the work of God that HE, and He alone is capable of doing!

That is why God's own method of working is to command man to believe in Him, and then stand back and watch HIM do the work!  It's all over the old testament, and Jesus did nothing but what He saw the Father do: The exact same thing.

So, what did all those Old Testament prophets do?  They were certainly there at the forefront, it seems.  What they did was very simply this:  They faithfully carried the message that God had for the subject - whether Pharoh, or David, or Balak, or Nebuchanezzar, or the prophects of Baal, etc - and they faithfully delivered it, and then they stood back and kept themselves out of the way of God's work!

All I have attempted to show so far is that God is the sole operator in accomplishing His work.  He expects man to believe and trust Him and in the work that HE has performed, and as far as man's participation, He expects only that man will faithfully carry his message to those whom He intends to reveal Himself. 

But His work is His work.

5.  What Is God's Work?

When Jesus was asked about the "Stop Sinning" message, He Himself answered this one: 

"This is the work of God, that you believe him whom He has sent."

Bsaically, the work of God is the business of producing faith and trust in Christ, whom He has sent to save mankind through man's trust in His ability to save.  It's just that simple.

More later...

The Important Question:

There are a lot of people out there touting the "Jesus said 'go and sin no more' " line.  And He did.  The question I have is aimed at those thinking that he indeed expected any of them to actually do that.  ANd those who think they have.

None of the people he told to "go and sin no more" actually went out and sinned no more.  Do you think He got back to heaven, and was like "What the...???  I told them to not sin anymore!"  I can hear The Father saying, "See!  I told you! - Been there, done that!  Spent 5000 years trying that line..." 

Now think of all the sin in the world; and death, disease, and poverty of TRILLIONS of people.  Remember, there's LOTS more people that have lived than merely those who are alive now.  Not one of them; not even any of them that Jesus specifically spoke to and told them not to sin anymore; not a single one of them actually did.  ANd you think that was somehow unexpected?  Unintended?

Think again of all that sin, misery, destruction, war, murder, rape, disease, hatred, malice..... What was the cause of all that?  The heinous sin of murder?  Of rape?  Of greed and theivery?  No.  All of it was and is the result of a sin no more heinous than one woman thinking to herself, "Gee, maybe God wouldn't mind one little taste...  It will help us grow and be more like Him!"

All the sin in the world is the result of one person trying to do something they thought was good.  They thought God would approve.

And for so trite and trivial a thing; TRILLIONS OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN have died!  And all the world is plunged into misery, disease, poverty and death.

So, here is my question for those who think that God actually expects that they can stop sinning:

My question for you is, what do you - Mr. I Can Stop Sinning - what do you do with the sin that you committed TODAY?  And make no mistake, you did.  And what about yesterday?  And the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and...

Will you simply deny it?  Pretend you didn't do it?  Claim that because you didn't murder someone, or commit adultery, that you somehow did not sin?  How sure are you of your definition and understanding of sin?

I think you have a very distorted and confused view of exactly what sin is, my friend.  You are a sinner!  Not a former sinner.  A deliberate, knowing, intentional sinner, now.  And you were today, and yesterday, and the day before that...  And if you are not sure about that, then email me and I will be happy to help you see yourself more clearly.

So, what are you going to do with your criticism of those of us who point out your sin, when you yourself confirm it.

My approach? 

"This man has done nothing wrong, but we are getting what we deserve for the sin we have committed.  Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me."

I highly recommend it.

Now, go read Commanding the Impossible: http://www.uniuslibri.com/UniusLibriIndex.asp?action=uniuslibri&articleid=91

6. How is God's Work Accomplished?

God's work is a work of revelationm followed by a separation (called "sanctification", as God Himself puts it).  He chose Israel.  He chose US.  And He did it all even before the world was created.

Through the Holy Spirit working on the Holy Scriptures.  And NOTHING else.

The “New heart” Promise has no defined date.  It does not say when you get it.  It’s my belief that you do not get it in this life, but in the next.  See now the understanding of “This corruptible must put on the incorruptible?” 

This corruptible, stony flesh must put on the new incorruptible flesh that God gives as a gift which we cannot get “except it die, and be raised to new life”, when we are “raised in the last day”,   Until then, the promise that we have is that we are sealed for a future redemption; we are marked for separation; we are designated to be gathered in during the coming harvest.

I am NOT “born Again”, but I will be one day.  The Bible says, just nowhere, that you will be born again in this life.  All of the old testament is symbolic of wat was coming in the future age of Christ on earth.  And all of Christ’s teachings are telling us of what is coming in the future Kingdom of Heaven.  And all of the present life is described as a staging area.  A Marshalling point.  A place of decision.  A place of marking and sealing, of sanctification (being set apart for a future work).  A place of sowing in preparation for a future reaping.  Nowhere does Jesus speak of “Kingdom Now!”.  In fact, he addressed this very issue already, specifically: My Kingdom is not in this world.  A future burning of one earth and the building of a new one, sent down from God.

 
The Approach – My Theological POV
The Source – Biblical Authority
Evil nature, Spiritual blindness and death
There is no power to self-reveal.  God must do it.
Thus, Revelation Absolutely Required
Nothing Changed in your earthly stature, yet,
Nothing to Offer, then or now

Now you have the ability, the opportunity, to be genuinely broken and contrite.  But if your conversion is missing any of these elements, there is a high degree of danger that lurking somewhere in you is an idol; something exalting itself against God (which means exalting itself instead of God).  There’s some place where you still can say, “Aha!  THIS is my doing…”  or “Ho!  I have accomplished that.”    But there is “thou shalt not lift up thy tool upon my altar, for in the instant that you do, thou has polluted it”. 

repentance is repentance from GOOD WORKS - Not just sin.

Adultery is mixing GODS work with MANS work.  God commands us to do nothing but stand aside and watch (and marvel at) HIS work.  We are NOT invited to participate in it in ANY WAY. 

We are told, in fact to stay OUT OF THE WAY.  Decrease so that increase.  None of your tools.  Moses watched God work.

And, all over again, comes the crushing blow, “If you haveofended in even the slightest little hidden place, you have broken ALL of the law, and judgement, death and condempation await you…”

Know why that thief only said “Lord, remember me?”  Cause that’s all he had.  He had NOTHING to offer!  I must decrease that he may increase.  Die daily.  Put to death the flesh and it’s lusts.

He cannot GAIN.  He gains nothing by saving you.  You do not add to, or complete him in any way.  You are not a jewel that accentuates the glory of his crown.  You bring nothing to the table, and you bring nothing in the door with you when yoyu come.  You are a bride that does not even have a dowry.  You are completely, and utterly empty handed and worthless.  (Now do you see how God is glorified by saving you?)

That’s the big plan; laid before the earth was even created?  “Here… try again?” 
God’s boundless generosity demonstrated by “Here, I’ll give you one more chance.  But… just one, mind you.  For, need I remind you, ‘it is impossible for them who are once…’ ” But it’s been tried 938 billion times, and no one, ever, has succeeded.  And you say “Try Again?”

“To you, it is given to understand the mysteries of the Gospel.  But to them it is not given to understand…”  But that doesn’t stop them from basing their teachings and their sermons and the church growth models on it.  We somehow think that “those who it is not given to understand” will be obvious to the naked eye.  But again, we rarely remember that things may not be so obvious as we might think.  It does not – but it should – occur to us that simply because they cannot understand the Gospel that that does not mean they are going to be pagans, and satanaists.  They also have a pretty convincing counterfeit of Christ’s Church, and they are opening the doors wide to the world and invoting them to “church”.  Remember Jesus talking to the Pharisees about their converts?  There always seem to be a parallel to everythhng he says, doesn’t there?  He’s saying the same thing to religious people today:  your converts are twice the children of hell that you are.  I’m not talking just about the obvious abberants such as cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.  But also about “independents” like Charles Finney, Todd Bentley, Benny Hinn, right on down the totem pole until you get to the bottom with other moderns like Kerrigan Skelly and Monica Dennington.

 going back to the picurte, what good would it do to yell at that poor child and accuse her of laziness?  What good would your demand to "do something" do her?  She's DEAD.

twenty years and upward...