Now…just what will your little, moralistic, religious, good works, “keeping the Commandments as best I can” project do about that?
Absolutely nothing. That’s what.
In fact, your little project of ‘doing’ is exactly what’s going to take you to the place where they put that tag on your toe. And I’m going there right along with you, for my doings.
Christ Jesus is the only one who can give you life, when you need it again. And He won’t be looking at anything you’ve done for help. In fact, He has promised to give forgiveness and eternal life to all that belong to Him…in spite of all that we have done (“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”) And this He does for us…everyday! (we need it everyday…do we not?)
Sorry (not really) to throw a monkeywrench into your pietistic escalator of self-justification. It’s time you jumped off that thing, anyway.
Trust in the One who has done it all for you. Who is doing it all for you. Who will yet do it all for you. Trust in Him…ALONE. What…. He’s not good enough for you?
And the chorus from the Roman Catholic/Baptist/ Calvinist/ Pentecostal/ Evangelical-non-denominational peanut gallery is… “YEAH, BUT ! ! !…”
You can take that “YEAH, BUT” and ….(Lord forgive me for what I am thinking)
.
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The Old Adam Lives! 
Great post. Thinking we can keep the ten commandments is the first flaw. A pastor once showed that Luke 18:18-23 (the rich young ruler) was an example of Jesus’ sense of humor. Here the young man was bragging to Christ that he kept all the commandments and Jesus challenged him to sell all his belongings and follow him. He could not. The irony is that the man disobeyed the first commandment right there on the spot! On top of that, Jesus forced him to expose who his god really was; his stuff. Thinking we can “keep the commandments” only guarantees our failure.
Jim J.,
Spot on, my friend!
No one, I repeat, NO ONE can get past the 1st one.
Anyone who thinks they are doing alright with their ability to keep the law, has just joined the neo-Pharisee club, and could be headed for very large trouble.
Thanks, Jim!
Let men, with the newly sharpened axes of rationalism, do their utmost to hew down that cross; it will stand in spite of them.
Let them apply their ecclesiastical paint-brush, and duab it all over with the most approved of mediaeval pigments to cover its nakedness, its glory will shine through all. Let them scoff at the legal transference of the sinner’s guilt to a divine substitute, and of that Surety’s righteousness to the sinner, as a Lutheran delusion, or a Puritan fiction, that mutual transference, that wondrous exchange, will be found to be wrapped up with Christianity itself. Let those who, like Cain of old, shrink from the touch of sacrificial blood, and mock the “religion of the shambles (an old term meaning meat market or slaughterhouse),” purge their consciences with the idea of God’s universal Fatherhood, and try to wash their robes and make them white in something else than the blood of the Lamb;
to us, as to the saints of other days, there is but one purging of the conscience, one security for pardon, one way of access, one bond of reconciliation, one healing of our wounds, the death of Him on whom the chastisement of our peace was laid, and one everlasting song, “unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
~Horatius Bonar
“YEAH, BUT” and ….aren’t you kinda sorta almost… Calvinistic?
*; ) *; )
Surely as we all must die,
Surely as we will stand before the judgement seat,
No man will escape,
No man will be justified,
Only by the precious blood shed,
Only by the One able to redeem mankind.
Thanks, Ike!
Thanks, callieg!
Yes, we’re all in the same estate.
Yes, there’s not a thing we can do about it.
Yes, God’s saving work in Christ is the only answer.
Yes, we need to be saved by His love, His rescue alone.
And Yes, most religion, even (perhaps especially) Christian religion,
seeks to negate and deny these realities by re-establishing the law,
propping up the corpse and the old Adam,
and defining that as life – it stinks!
This sounds suspiciously like the “pietistic escalator” to me (particularly that stuff about “increasing measure”), at least as I have seen it defined by my friends around here. What do you think? Are these words just hopeless “self-improvement” type of stuff? I mean, this guy is talking about escaping the corruption of the world caused by evil desires and so forth. Isn’t that doomed to failure?
jeofurry
It would be failure if we relied on our own strength. His divine power give us what we need to do what we need. It will always look like a losing battle to us due to our inner brat, the devil and false and erring brethren. It is only God’s viewpoint which counts. His view of his children is Jesus. May God grant you strength in the coming days of battle.
pax domini. †
That’s why we were given the Holy Spirit to live inside us…He smacks that “inner brat” to get his attention when it’s necessary…*: 0