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Originally Posted by Amazing Grace  Quote:
Originally Posted by timmopussycat
I would say that Paul's role for the moral law in the life of the believer is that of written statement of God's character teaching us what he likes and does not like, so that we may know what things please him so that we may do them and please him and continue to abide in his love.
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Timcat: you have touched on something here that I believe I am missing. The 3rd use of the Law is directly related to the understanding we need it for our sanctification. Why did it take me so long to realize what I am disagreeing with. Sheesh. For justification, I am pointed to Christ alone, the Cross, yet for some odd reason for sanctification I am pointed to Sinai. That once justified by Faith alone in Christ alone, the Spirit who now indwells the believer takes him back to sinai for sanctification. | I would say rather that the last clause should read "the Spirit who now indewlls the believer takes us back to God's character as expressed through pre-Mosaic teachings, Mosaic teachings and New Testament teachings in order that we may learn how to please God." It is God's character, and not Sinai itself as a system, that is the ultimate source material for the
"3rd use of the law". Quote:
Originally Posted by Amazing Grace Now I know the Law is Holy, but I also know it cannot make me holy. In fact the more law the more I know I am unholy. Doesn't Paul set forth the believer’s RULE OF LIFE in Galatians 6:14-16, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk ACCORDING TO THIS RULE, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." | No disagreement here, but how does the new creature know what to do? and why does he do it? are the key questions.
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In Christ's love and service
Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC
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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon
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