The Old Adam Lives!

And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 
  Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

 
  But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 
  even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 
  and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 
 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — 
  not because of works, lest any man should boast.

 
 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

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Is there a contradiction there?

Saved by grace, not by works…no boasting…but we were created for “good works”…”that we should walk in them”.

Which is it? 

Is it both, grace…and works?

Filed under: Doing, Grace and Mercy | 27 Comments »

In my travels in the Christian blogesphere, I have noticed two distinct spheres of thought.

One sphere is focused mainly on the self.  All the things that we should, or shouldn’t be doing . All the things that we should or shouldn’t be thinking, or feeling…lest we ‘do it wrong’.

A person on one blog was railing about how wine was from the devil and how we not drink anything fermented. Anything fermented was evil. I asked her about penicillin. If that was evil too?

People going back and forth worrying about what ‘we do’. What about this sin or that, what about saying this, or feeling that? All the focus on ‘the self’.

The other sphere was mainly focuse on God and what He has done, is doing, and will yet do… in answer to ‘what we have done’.

This sphere is quite a bit smaller than the other sphere.

People in this sphere seem to be a bit more at ease with themselves and the world around them. They seem to realize that so much of our doing is the problem and that the only real solution was the death on the cross of Christ Jesus and His forgiveness to us.

It was our ‘doing’ that got us into this messy situation that we now find ourselves…bound to sin.

It was ‘His doing’, and is ‘His doing’ that has, and will save us from ourselves, the world and the devil.

In it all, I find precious little grace and mercy given to sinners…real sinners, other than the grace and mercy given out by our Lord.

Can we not show some compassion here? Can we not give out a little bit of what we have received towards those who may not be doing it exactly how we think it ought be done? Would not our Lord want us to also be merciful, and compassionate?

Filed under: Doing, Grace and Mercy | 31 Comments »