Therefore I make
known to you that no one
speaking by the
Spirit of God calls Jesus
accursed, and no one
can say that Jesus is
Lord except by the
Holy Spirit.
There are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are differences
of ministries, but the same Lord.
And there are
diversities of activities, but it is the
same God who works
all in all.
1Corinthians 12:3–6
Some cavil
at the theology that God is Triune. Some object by using that the Bible never
uses the word Trinity. Some have developed a theology making God to work in
Modes (Sabellians), and some make God to be only One and that Jesus Christ is a
creation, and, the Holy Spirit a power (Jehovah Witnesses). Some make their
theology a polytheistic form of theology, one with many gods, man is one, God
the Father is one, and Jesus is one, the Holy Spirit only godly in its work
according to the Father (Mormons). The Bible has no need to give to us the word
Trinity for even if God did there are those who would make a different theology
than what the Bible intends to reveal to us by God. Notice: the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, and God and mention with regard to an action: the giving of gifts,
not just different gifts by different gods, or powers, but each giving what God
works in all: gifts. A discussion of gifts is not for this blog, but I will
cover this subject in future blogs. So many Christians have been taught
Arminianism, a form of the heresy purported to be true by Pelagius: man can
save himself. All man has to do is believe and they will be saved. Is this not
what the Bible teaches? Yes, but not that man by himself can believe; man must
have faith. How can man have faith if he is total depraved and his soul is
corrupt by original sin making the soul to not desire anything of God? Oh, many
want what God can give: gifts, healings, etc., but they will not live according
to the commands of God unless there is something in it for them. Everyone want
to go to heaven but no one wants to die. Everyone wants good things from God,
but hardly is there anyone who will set aside their lives to live for God. How
then can a person come to God and be saved? Yes, you must believe: “Most
assuredly, I say to you, he believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 4:47). If
the soul is so depraved, corrupt and cannot on its own come to God then how can
a person believe and be saved? “No one can come to Me unless he Father who
seen Me draws him; and I will raise him up a th the last day” (John 6:44). Those
who believe in the rapture: get over it! You will not be raised up until the last
day. Most important: you cannot come to God unless God draws you: “And
He sad, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has
been granted to him by My Father” (John 6:65). If you have been called, and
granted, enabled to come, to the Father, then rejoice. You have been given to
Jesus Christ and will receive salvation and eternal life and you will never,
unlike those who believe that you can lose your salvation, be cast out from
God: “All that the Father has give Me will come to Me, and the one who comes
to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 4:37). You did not choose God: God
chose you before the foundation of the world: “For whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also
called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these
He also glorified” (Romans 8:28–29). By means of this predestination and
calling by God for you, the one enables, draws, give you eternal life and the
Holy Spirit. You are not your own; you were bought by the price of the death,
resurrection and ascension into heaven by Jesus Christ: God come in the flesh,
live as true man and true God, two natures in one body. Why? Because God loved
you before you were formed; before you came to Him in belief on His Son, and
this by the Holy Spirit: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of
sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:9–11). By the Spirit of God
living in us we set aside and remove from us our sinful, mortal flesh that
leads us to grieve the Holy Spirit for by the Holy Spirit we are free from the
bondage of sin: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if
by he Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, yo will live. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by
whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
Spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:13-16). Notice, the masculine
pronoun given to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person: God, Yes, but a
Person, and can be grieved, and also can sustains us in our relationship with
God, the Father, the Son, and performs offices which none but a person can
sustain and give, and perform.
God
has redeemed us, His children, predestined to by His before the foundation of the
world, before you were born or did anything to please Him; you were redeemed
and declared righteous before God. What is required of His children until we
are called home to be with Him is to live and become the image of His Son. We
are debtors: God paid the debt: we owe to God our lives: “What then shall we
say to these things? If god is for us, who can be against us? He who did not
spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things? How shall bring a chard against God’s elect? It
is God who justifies” (Romans 8:31–33.
No weapon formed against you
Shall prosper.
And every
Tongue which rises against you
In judgment
you shall
Condemn. This is the heritage
Of he
servants of the LORD,
And their righteousness is from Me.
Says the
LORD.
Isaiah 54:17
Are You Thirsty? Come to God
Richard L.Crumb
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