tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6507235926229522907.post8322819503671220126..comments2023-09-28T06:26:33.123-06:00Comments on Sacred Space--God With Us!: Sermon on the Mount interludeGreat Googly Moogly!http://www.blogger.com/profile/13348645248449285718noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6507235926229522907.post-20695728415445990042009-03-05T16:12:00.000-07:002009-03-05T16:12:00.000-07:00Yes, ten years of MPhil/PhD research has paid off,...Yes, ten years of MPhil/PhD research has paid off, thank you Lord....I replied on thekingpin68 to you. <BR/><BR/>Russ;)Dr. Russell Norman Murrayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06703130625190233670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6507235926229522907.post-78028908819216617612009-03-05T08:46:00.000-07:002009-03-05T08:46:00.000-07:00Thanks Russ,I like your term "persuaded"...I think...Thanks Russ,<BR/><BR/>I like your term "persuaded"...I think that fits well with the understanding that our salvation is all a "work" of God, yet we really do come to Him (He doesn't force us to come).<BR/><BR/>Since we are "dead" in our sins, our "will" is in bondage and we must be delivered. Salvation is a complete work of God on our behalf, but He doesn't "believe" for us. We would never come to Christ on our own while still in our "deadness", but by the work of God for us in drawing us to Christ (John 6), He has delivered us from our bondage to the <B>"old creation will"</B> and has freed us so that we truly do act on our own (now) <B>"liberated will"</B> (if you will :-). By the work of the Spirit in delivering us from <B>bondage</B>, we now freely and according to our "new creation will" come to Christ by faith on our own.<BR/><BR/>God doesn't drag us to Christ "kicking and screaming" <B>against our will</B> as they say (<B>they</B> being those who don't really understand TULIP and show their ignorance by shamelessly characterizing it like this); no...as you say, by the grace of God we are now <B>persuaded</B> into coming to Christ. And we do so <B>freely</B> because He has delivered us from our "Bondage of the will"!<BR/><BR/><B>Persuaded</B>...I like it!<BR/><BR/>Thanks Russ,<BR/><BR/>GGMGreat Googly Moogly!https://www.blogger.com/profile/13348645248449285718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6507235926229522907.post-41796833130713591142009-02-28T19:58:00.000-07:002009-02-28T19:58:00.000-07:00'As Jesus has stressed throughout the SOTM, it's "...'As Jesus has stressed throughout the SOTM, it's "Authentic, intimate relationship with Him, not behavior (that) defines doing the will of God and determines who enters the Kingdom of Heaven" (Culver pg. 135). And this "relationship" is born through faith; by coming to Christ and believing in Him we are "born again", estrangement is gone and we now have intimacy with God as His Children. And it's this idea of "relationship" that's been the focus of the SOTM from the beginning, even from the beginning of Matthew's Gospel as he introduced us to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scripture.'<BR/><BR/>Yes, through the grace of God through faith elect persons by a choice of God are regenerated and changed and persuaded into persons that will have relationship with the true God. The behaviors of individuals will be changed as persons are in Christ and works should result (Ephesians 2), but just as some infomercials state, 'results will vary' and therefore Paul describes the apparent Christian in 1 Corinthians 3: 10-15 who shall be saved but has work that is burned up. Hebrews 6 quite possibly from 4-8 may be describing a like person.Dr. Russell Norman Murrayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11505655776770812228noreply@blogger.com