by Jesse James » Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:24 pm
Regarding the woman caught in adultery, I think it's a perfect illustration of humanity. In God's anthropology, humans are sinful (after the fall) by nature. It's who we are. Only an encounter with the one true God can change our nature; when we have that regenerative encounter, we are figuratively cleansed, baptized; Christ's blood cleanses us, that is, removes our sin nature. Only after an encounter like this can we even have the possibility of not sinning. But I don't hold to the idea, as some do, that once we experience that encounter and God changes our nature, we have the ability to be utterly free from sin. We still have that nature in us. I'll admit that there is an antinomy there; on the one hand, we have 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says that there is no temptation that we cannot bear, on the other hand, we have the Romans 7 passage I referenced above.
But maybe there is also a possibility of encountering God, in a non-regenerative way, which results in a person rejecting God, embracing their sin nature and living that way; refusing, basically, to submit their will to His.
For those of us who know Him, we are always struggling to submit to Him and deny ourselves. "I must decrease so that he may increase."
I think that the takeaway is that, with God, all things are possible. The counterpart is that without Him, nothing of value is possible. Temptations, or trials, are things that God can use to purify us, to sanctify us. With His help, we get through them. It is our submitting our will to His that allows this.
It looks like both of the statements you guys made:
-William's: "[...] the only thing stopping me from living a sinless life is that I do not really have the will to do it."
-Jim's: "[...] the only thing stopping me from living a sinless life is my sin nature. No matter how strong my will is, I will not be completely free from the pull and attack of sin until I see Jesus. "
are two sides of the same coin. Our sin nature is such that we can't do right. It takes God to change us.
For God to sin would be like a square hole to exhibit roundness. It's just not his nature, by definition. Semantics, maybe. But it's certainly not that sin is "greater than" God because he can't do it. If anything, sin is "less than" God because he is perfection and sin is imperfect.
Regarding the woman caught in adultery, I think it's a perfect illustration of humanity. In God's anthropology, humans are sinful (after the fall) by nature. It's who we are. Only an encounter with the one true God can change our nature; when we have that regenerative encounter, we are figuratively cleansed, baptized; Christ's blood cleanses us, that is, removes our sin nature. Only after an encounter like this can we even have the possibility of not sinning. But I don't hold to the idea, as some do, that once we experience that encounter and God changes our nature, we have the ability to be utterly free from sin. We still have that nature in us. I'll admit that there is an antinomy there; on the one hand, we have 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says that there is no temptation that we cannot bear, on the other hand, we have the Romans 7 passage I referenced above.
But maybe there is also a possibility of encountering God, in a non-regenerative way, which results in a person rejecting God, embracing their sin nature and living that way; refusing, basically, to submit their will to His.
For those of us who know Him, we are always struggling to submit to Him and deny ourselves. "I must decrease so that he may increase."
I think that the takeaway is that, with God, all things are possible. The counterpart is that without Him, nothing of value is possible. Temptations, or trials, are things that God can use to purify us, to sanctify us. With His help, we get through them. It is our submitting our will to His that allows this.
It looks like both of the statements you guys made:
-William's: "[...] the only thing stopping me from living a sinless life is that I do not really have the will to do it."
-Jim's: "[...] the only thing stopping me from living a sinless life is my sin nature. No matter how strong my will is, I will not be completely free from the pull and attack of sin until I see Jesus. "
are two sides of the same coin. Our sin nature is such that we can't do right. It takes God to change us.
For God to sin would be like a square hole to exhibit roundness. It's just not his nature, by definition. Semantics, maybe. But it's certainly not that sin is "greater than" God because he can't do it. If anything, sin is "less than" God because he is perfection and sin is imperfect.