Posts

Now..

Where Does Our Righteousness Come From?

short notice Who are the Judaizers? The Apostle Paul warns his readers about the Judaizers who oppose the gospel (Phil 3:2–3). Paul’s conflicts with the Judaizers can be seen in greater detail in Acts and Galatians (e.g., Acts 15:1–19; Gal. 2:15–21; 3:6–4:31), as well as in the rest of his letters. Paul rejected their teaching that Gentiles must first become Jews and obey all the OT laws in order to be saved. In contrast, Paul has given up his spiritual and ethnic privileges for the sake of knowing Christ (Phil. 3:4–11). His righteousness comes through Christ, not the law (Phil 3:12–16). The justified /righteous person in the New Testament “Justified” means “counted righteous” or “declared righteous” by God (acc. to ESV footnote). If people obeyed all of God’s perfect moral standards, they could be justified by their own merits. But Paul says that this is impossible for anyone to do (see Romans 1–2). "Works of the law" means any human effort to be justified by ...

The Spirit will do His work - 1

Image
The Holy Spirit and the words of the Lord Jesus The Holy Spirit is closely identified with the words of the Lord Jesus. “It is the Spirit who gives life; (quickens); the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” John 6:63 The Gospel proclamation can not be divorced from the Holy Spirit. Unless He attend the word in power, vain will be the attempt in preaching it. Human eloquence or persua­siveness of speech are the mere trappings of the dead, if the living Spirit be absent; the prophet may preach to the bones in the valley, (Ezekiel 37:1-6) but it must be the Breath from Heaven which will cause the slain to live. In the third chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, it reads, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive (quickened) in/by the spirit.” 1Peter 3:18 Here we see that Christ was raised up from the grave by ...

The Spirit will do His work - 2

Image
Secret of Efficiency I can not help but believe there are many Christians who want to be more efficient in the Lord’s service, and the object of this book is to take up this subject of the Holy Spirit, that they may see from whom to expect this power. In the teaching of Christ, we find the last words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the 28th chapter and 19th verse, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19 Here we find that the Holy Spirit and the Son are equal with the Father—are one with Him, “teaching them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Christ was now handing His commission over to His Apostles. He was going to leave them. His work on earth was finished, and He was now just about ready to take His seat at the right hand of God, and He spoke unto them and said: “All authority/power in heaven and on earth has been given to me” Mat...

God is enthusiastic about His works

Image
G od is enthusiastic about His works. God is not an absentee engineer running His world by remote control. The Scripture says that He is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). The presence of the invisible Word in the universe makes things run. God is the perfect creator and He runs everything by being present in His works. That’s all through the prophets, the Psalms and the book of Job –all through the Old Testament. When we hit the age of science, we forgot that. We have “laws” now. The Bible knew nothing about “the laws of nature.” The Bible knew only that God was there. If it rained, it was God watering His hills from His chambers. If there was lightning, it was God, and if there was thunder, it was the “voice of the LORD” that “maketh the hinds to calve” (Psalm 29:9). The Holy Spirit's Presence" – A. W. Tozer

One thing is absolutely needful for the Church

Image
"I believe that at this present moment, God's people ought to cry to him day and night that there may be a fresh baptism into the Holy Ghost. There are many things that are desirable for the Church of Christ, but one thing is absolutely needful, and this is the one thing, the power of the Holy Ghost in the midst of his people. " Charles Spurgeon