How has your understanding of the bible made you more holy

I'll take a stab at this.......

The more I have studied the Word of God, the closer I have come to Him; the more I have come to realize just how wretched I really am; the more I realize that any good in me is because of Jesus Christ..........

 

The more I study scripture the more I see Jesus and His compassion and grace. I see how poor I am and how rich He is. I see how to trust God more and why I have nothing to fear nor hide. I see Jesus more clearly.

 

the more i realize just how wretched i really am, the more i appreciate what Jesus did, on my behalf.


sometimes when i'm contemplating doing something, i say to myself 'What am i doing? Jesus paid for this already...' i am redeemed, bought with a (very high) price, the precious blood of our Lord and Savior...

 

The more I realize that I am going to be appearing before the judgment seat of Christ, and have sin burned out of me with fire that proceeds forth from before Him, the more I want to get rid of the sin in this life.

Psalms 50:3-6
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

1 Corinthians 3:13-17
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

I don't want to be destroyed.

 

The deeper I get into the rightly-divided Scriptures the more aware I am of the Holiness of God. And the closer I get to His Holiness, the more I fear Him, and the more I realize what a wretched piece of flesh I am, full of evil, infection, sores, and corruption.

 

Hi DeaconLew
How has your understanding of the bible made you more holy ?
The means has always been His Word by,Conviction, Correction and compliance. in that order.
May Christ Shine His Light On Us All;
Mike

 

I have come to realize how helpless and dependant on God I am. There is nothing good in this flesh. I see Him as the source of strength and stability in my life as I know I can do nothing without Him.

 

Amen! The more I understand the bible, the more unholy I realize I am, the more I realize any holiness in me is from Christ.

 

I say i'm NOTHING without Christ (Acts 4:12). i agree that there is a direct relationship in what we believe and how we live, it's all about the living part ("how we actually live")... putting on the character of Christ. our character should be Christ-like (if it's not then there is a problem).

Ec 12:13 ¶ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.

 

For me, I measure all "truth" by what I find in the Bible. That is to say, I use the Bible as the measuring rod by which I compare everything else.

I make a conscious effort to live according to the precepts laid down in the word of God, and attempt to apply those precepts in every facet of my life (although admittedly, I fall far short many times).

The biggest thing for me personally though,are the changes that have been wrought in my life as a direct result of the working of God's power...changes in attitude, thought, the way I interact with others, etc.

This has been a direct result of studying and applying the word of God to my life. I have found His word to be an anchor in the storm, and a great source of encouragement.

The changes in my life can be summed up in the words of Paul: "For me, to live is Christ......"

 

Ummm... i got this problem with idle chatter.. i am clown.. and need to remember that every word will be considered when judgment comes. eeeeeek

 

During the second year that I was a Christian, I began to study the book of Romans. I had read through the New Testament more than a dozen times, but I had not very carefully and prayerfully read Romans. As I began very carefully and prayerfully studying Romans 6, I realized that it is not only possible for a Christian to live a life of victory over sin, but that it is the obligation for a Christian to do so, and that every Christian can do so through a personal faith in Christ. I further realized that what my pastor taught about Romans 7:14-25 was true of his life, but it was not true of Paul’s life, and it should not and need not be true of my life.

 

When I was first saved, I thought I had to obey the law to be considered righteous in God's site, and later through study in God's Word I came to understand the awsome and wonderful gift of God's imputed righteousness as found in these passages:

The scriptures gave me a whole different reason to live right, not because of fear, but because of love for my savior. I find that your motive for living right, is just as important as the act of living right itself.

IFBReformer

 

Just out curiosity, who is the 'I' in this passage? And it all present tense. I am looking forward to who your study showed you 'I' was.

And just in case you think it was Paul before he was converted, please explain the present tense of the Greek here, as well as verse 22 and 23 where he says in his inner being he delights in God's law and wants to follow it - an unbeliever does not delight in God's law - Paul told us that many time earlier in Romans.

I look forward to your explanations.

IFBReformer

 

No time to study but I'll take a shot off the top.

14. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. Here, the 'I' is the fallen soul of Paul - his mind, will, and emotions.

15. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. The first 'I' is the regnerate spirit of Paul, the second 'I' is the fallen soul or 'flesh'.

16. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. Same as above. The second two "I's" are his regenerate spirit.

17. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. It is not 'I', or his regenerate spirit that does it, but it is the sin in his fallen soul.

18. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Here, all three "I's" are his spirit, or inner man.

19. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. More of the same. The "I" of his spirit vs. the "I" of his fallen soul, or flesh. Paul is saying that it is not the real Paul, not the real "me" who is sinning, but the sin that resides in his fallen flesh.

21. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Evil and sin reside in our soul, or flesh. Our regenerate 'spirits' always want to do good. But we cannot separate ourselves from the evil in our flesh - it will be with us until we see Jesus face to face.

22. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; It is the regenerate spirit of man that loves the Word of God, and to whom the Holy Spirit communicates.

23. but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Paul sees the futility and depravity of his fallen flesh, that is his mind, will, and emotions.

24. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Paul realizes he will be prisoner to his flesh until delivered by Christ Jesus, temporally by faith and then permanently in the future.

25. Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." Paul's mind is highly renewed by God's Truth, and he meditates on that Truth day and night, but he realizes the sinful nature of his flesh will always be a slave to sin.

This passage, among other things, reminds me of Heb 4:12 - "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

 

Please allow me to preface my answer with a few introductory remarks. I have very carefully studied literally hundreds of writings on Rom. 7:14-25, and I have in my personal library 233 commentaries on Romans, another 50 volumes on Paul and his theology, and 127 additional volumes of commentaries on the other epistles of Paul. Therefore I am quite familiar with the various hermeneutical schemes applied to Romans and the consequences of each of them to the interpretation of Rom. 7:14-25. And, of course, I am also quite familiar with the impact that one’s theology of the atonement of Christ has on one’s interpretation of this same passage of scripture. And thirdly, I am quite familiar with the correlation that exists between one’s personal experience with sin and one’s interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of hamartiology.

Therefore, since most of the Christians who are active in this Baptist theology and Bible study debate forum have some sort of an established biblical hermeneutic, and a fairly well developed theology of the atonement of Christ, and a well established experience with sin, it is very unlikely that anything that I might post in this forum, however learned, regarding Rom. 7:14-25 will seriously alter their interpretation of that said passage of scripture. However, there is perhaps the slight possibility that some dear and hungry soul may come along and be helped from the bonds of sin through a better understanding of the word of God, and therefore I shall give an answer to your question and offer proof from the scriptures that my answer is the correct answer.

The “I” in Rom. 7:14-25 is none other than the man who has been “sold into bondage to sin.”

Romans 7:
14. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23. but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Most unfortunately, Rom. 7:14-25 is very often studied out of the context to which it belongs. In fact, it immediately follows vv 5-13:

5. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
7. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."
8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
10. and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11. for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

Notice especially verse 8, “But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.” And notice verse 12, “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” How is it that the very Law that is “holy and righteous and good” could have a part in producing “coveting of every kind?” The answer is that mankind, apart from the atonement of Christ and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, is “of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

14. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

The point of verse 14 is not that Paul and every blood-bought Christian is sold into bondage to sin—the point of verse 14 is that the Law is spiritual, but the natural man is NOT spiritual, but “of flesh.” As “holy and righteous and good” the Law is, when applied to the natural man, the man “of flesh,” sin rather than righteousness is the result.

In Rom. 6:1 – 7:4 Paul illustrates the fact that the true believer in Christ has identified with His death and resurection in baptism and is therefore dead to both the Law and to sin. This true believer does not struggle to keep the Law, for he had died to the Law; he does not struggle against sin because he has, by faith, died to sin.

Rom. 6:22. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

Rom. 8:1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4. so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

(All scriptures are from the NASB, 1995)

 

Wow! This what I love about Baptist Board, the chance to meet people like you. You keep us sharp and on our toes. So lets get to it.

Question 1.
Are you saying you do not struggle with sin? Are you now sinless?


I would agree with you that Paul throughout Romans 6 and 7 and 8 says we are no longer slaves to sin but have been set free:

So in verses 6-7 Paul states here something he continues throughout these three chapters, that we are longer slaves to sin and we are freed from sin if we are in Christ.

But then consider what he says in verses
Romans 6:6-7

Question 2.
Why would Paul here in Romans six, tell the believers they were dead to sin, and freed from sin, only to them in the next verses to "not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness"? If they were freed from sin and dead to sin why would he tell them this?

I and most other believers believe there is no contradiction here when we understand he is going back and forth between positional sanctification and practical sanctification, but I have a feeling you reject these Biblical distinctions.

When you answer these two questions we can proceed.

IFBReformer

 

Craig,

I also would be interested in seeing the answers to these questions......I say this not to challenge, but after reading your stance.....perhaps I misunderstand your intent...