I'm surprised to see that you subserve the Spirit of God to Calvin.
Free will is not the same thing as "the flesh". Free will is merely a statement of how God made us. Free will is merely a necessity for relationship. Free will is a component of worship.
The flesh is sinful. Of itself, there's no hope. All flesh is destined to die. But Jesus Christ redeemed the flesh, and will make it incorruptible. He came back to life in a fleshly body. He rose into heaven in a fleshly body. Job expected to see His savior with his own eyes (fleshly body parts).
It won't stay the same, but we will one day put on an incorruptible body, similar to Jesus's after His resurrection. And none of the gospel writers expressed any observation of how His body composition was different than ours.
"Of His own will"? Yes, absolutely God, of His own will, sent Jesus to die in our place so that we will live in His place. And thus He begat us in the word of truth. Not by some special secret something that happens to those God decides He wants to rescue out of the mass of humans destined for destruction.
We are a firstfruits--the part your ellipsis left out. What are we a firstfruits of?? It seems we are a firstfruits of the redemption of "creatures". What other creatures is James referring to?
I'm surprised to see that you subserve the Spirit of God to Calvin.
Free will is not the same thing as "the flesh". Free will is merely a statement of how God made us. Free will is merely a necessity for relationship. Free will is a component of worship.
The flesh is sinful. Of itself, there's no hope. All flesh is destined to die. But Jesus Christ redeemed the flesh, and will make it incorruptible. He came back to life in a fleshly body. He rose into heaven in a fleshly body. Job expected to see His savior with his own eyes (fleshly body parts).
It won't stay the same, but we will one day put on an incorruptible body, similar to Jesus's after His resurrection. And none of the gospel writers expressed any observation of how His body composition was different than ours.
"Of His own will"? Yes, absolutely God, of His own will, sent Jesus to die in our place so that we will live in His place. And thus He begat us in the word of truth. Not by some special secret something that happens to those God decides He wants to rescue out of the mass of humans destined for destruction.
We are a firstfruits--the part your ellipsis left out. What are we a firstfruits of?? It seems we are a firstfruits of the redemption of "creatures". What other creatures is James referring to?
I am not a 'Calvinist'.
Calvin oversaw my people burned at the stake.
They preceded Calvin by one thousand six-hundred plus years.
Just as Jesus Did, Who Divinely Originated He 'Kind' of church assembly, with The Authority of God to baptise.
Calvin murdered them for that.
I am a child of those who perished in the flames.
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63
There is a reason you can not crucify your flesh enough to know that people do not put their socks over on top of their shoes.
Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Free will has the free will to fall short of The Glory of God.
So be it.
That which is born of flesh is flesh.
Free to be flesh.
Nothing more.
