Daily Java: Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. - 2 Peter 1:4.
When you talk to people in church, it is easy to see th gospel as a negative power: a list of things we cannot do. Holiness is defined by the lack of stuff, rather than the presence of God.
But real grace is not that. The grace of God is an empowering ability. It gives us the ability to overcome things that would otherwise overwhelm us.
In other words, his power becomes our power.
We cannot overcome. It is impossible. As Paul said, All sin and fall short of the glory (Romans 3:23). That, of course, is spoken to everybody in the world. To Christians, John says, If we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).
Anybody who tells you that the gospel of Christ tells you that you cannot do stuff is full of beans. That grace is given us to empower us, to give us the divine nature.
It is only through having the divine nature, that we are able to ecape the corruption.
Nothing we can do or say, or for that matter, not do or say, will give us an power. Like Paul said in Romans 7, the more we try under our own power, the more we fail. Romans 8 follows that very depresing chapter by saying that the Law of the Spirit of lfe in Christ Jesus has set us free.
The promises make us strong.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.