David M writes > I have often observed that the issues people harp on
the loudest are issues with which they struggle. For example, ... People
who harp about "Eternal Security" are often those the least secure in their
own salvation. Those who harp on being saved by grace are often those least
able to see that it is by grace we are saved.
Some good insight here David. There is no doubt but that I will spend the
rest of my life having to rewind and re-remind myself that it is by grace
that I have been saved through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, that not
even my faith counts as that which saves me, because that too can only be
considered a work in the grand plan of salvation. I am God's workmanship
created IN Christ Jesus for good works, which I do because I know what it
means to be loved by God. Anyone who has come to his spiritual senses and
moved away from performance-based theologies, will always be prone to
digression, whether it be back to evidences of faith from a Calvinist
perspective or works for righteousness from the side of Arminians. I think
it is all too similar to battered wife's syndrome. A woman may know very
well that her husband is wrong and will not change, but in the irrationality
of her husband's evil she finds security. Any change for her is a movement
away from the stability she finds in that relationship, evil as it is. Once
freed from that sort of oppression, woman often migrate into similar-type
relationships -- not because they like to be battered, but because in the
perversion of their mind, it is "safe." This is Psychology 101 --
Skninner's behaviorism. Yet through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we
can be transformed and take captive these tendencies to Christ's obedience.
Through Christ Christians really can be liberated from such psychological
oppressions.
I am working my way through J. Wesley and will be back with questions for
you there.
Thanks. Good stuff,
Bill
By the way, how is your struggle with perfection/holiness/sanctification
going }:>)
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"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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