Wednesday, June 17, 2015

ACCEPTED BY GOD - By J. C. O'HAIR



        There are many seeming contradictions in the Bible, which disappear when the Word of God is rightly divided and the Greek text is understood.

In this lesson we are to study several Scriptures. First II Corinthians 5:9: “Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be ACCEPTED of Him.” Now Acts 10:35: “But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is ACCEPTED of Him.” Now Ephesians 1:6 and 7: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved, In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

In the light of Paul’s clear statements of grace how are we to understand II Corinthians 5:9, “labor to be ACCEPTED of God?” How are we to reconcile Peter’s message to Cornelius in Acts 10:35, that men who work righteousness are ACCEPTED of God with Paul’s message of grace in Romans 4:5, that the man who does not work, but believes on Christ, is declared righteous?

Then compare II Corinthians 5:9 and Ephesians 1:6 and 7 (quoted above).
The first verse tells us, that we labor to be accepted of God. The other verses say that believers have been made accepted in Christ, redeemed and forgiven.

Now, first of all, the word, “accepted” in II Corinthians 5:9 is from the Greek words “love” and “honor” - “to love honor.” - In Philippians 4:18 it is translated “well-pleasing.”

Then again, the word “accepted” in II Corinthians 5:9 is altogether different from the word “accepted” in Acts 10:35.

In order that we might understand this difference we quote these words from Philippians 4:18 “a sacrifice acceptable, WELL PLEASING to God.” Here the word “acceptable” is the same Greek word as “accepted” in Acts 10:35 whereas the word “well-pleasing” is the same Greek ward as “accepted” in II Corinthians 5:9.

But the word “accepted” in Ephesians 1:6 and 7, where we read that the believer has been made accepted, according to the riches of God’s “grace,” is still a different word. This “accepted” is the verb form of the word “grace.” Believers have been “graced” in Christ according to the riches of God’s grace. What an inexcusable blunder by the Holy Spirit, if He wrote in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, that sinners are saved by grace through faith, not of the sinner, and not of works, and then wrote in II Corinthians 5:9, that sinners have to labor to be accepted by God, that is, saved by God.

By grace are ye saved, not of works. Read this truth in II Timothy 1:9 - Romans 4:4 and 5 - Romans 11:6 - Ephesians 2:8 and 9.

The seeming contradictions are in our misunderstanding, or lack of understanding, of what the Holy Spirit dictated to holy men of God.

        We do not labor to be accepted for salvation or righteousness and eternal life. These are all God’s free gifts or grace.

But we should labor to be well pleasing to God; we should endeavor to please Him with our good works done in the name of Christ. Thereby our labors are accepted by Him.

In Titus 3:5 to 7 God’s “grace” way of salvation, without any of man’s doings, religious or otherwise, is made very plain. But in Titus 3:8 the redeemed sinner is exhorted to excel in good works (maintain good works). This is in harmony with Ephesians 2:10, “God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works” that God expects the saint to do. Philippians 2:12 should be studied in the light of all the above Scriptures; “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”


 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


Posted By Cecil  and Connie Spivey 

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WHY STRUGGLE? - By Miles Stanford



"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord" (ll Corinthians 3:18).

 Our Father allows the believer to struggle with self, not for victory, but for defeat. Then the "wretched man" learns to rest in the Victor.

 "Once you have begun the Christian walk, and know the blessedness of it, you are not trying to correct yourself, for you know that all has been removed from the eye of God; and you insist on the fact that self has been to the Cross, and that Christ is your life. The old man was crucified, and you cannot reform him; all attempts of amiable people to reform him are only denying the fact that he has been dealt with in judgment. The responsible (law) man is not before God now. It is now the day of grace. Everyone who receives His grace is set free from the domination of the old man. The appeal to the believer now is not to do, but to look." - J. B.S.

 "The believer is never told to 'overcome sin,' but to reckon, on the ground of his death with Christ, that he has died to it. On the basis of death, he is told not to 'let' sin reign in his life. It is to be dealt with by an attitude of death not by 'overcoming.' The believer therefore is not to be spending his whole life in getting victory over sin, but understanding his position as having died unto sin."

 " [We] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).



How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com


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Saturday, June 13, 2015

ADMINISTRATION OF THE CROSS - By Miles Stanford




ADMINISTRATION OF THE CROSS -
By Miles Stanford

   
 "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV).

 It is futile for us to attempt to curb our sins while we ignore their source, the indwelling principle of sin. In trimming the branches (sins), we strengthen the root (self). Rather, as we count upon the finished work of Calvary, the Holy Spirit will apply the Cross to the old life. And as that death cuts deeper and deeper into the root, the branches will wither and fall away.

 "The Lord Jesus has been waiting for us to come to the end of our own efforts. He sends the call, 'Come back to the Cross.' At last we can see we have been standing and working on the wrong ground, and we hear Him say, 'It is you who are in My way. I can do My work myself. I simply need empty vessels. You parted with your sins, but you kept yourself. Come now, part with yourself, take your place where I put you.

When I died you were in Me on that Cross.'  'Now I see! What next, Lord?' 'Now you pass to another sphere where you become aware that you are joined to Me as your life.' 

  "Our identification with Christ in His death was a death unto Sin--- the principle of Sin as a master and a tyrant --- Sin, not sins. The Holy Spirit is ready to apply that finished work of death to the depth of our self-life, until Sin loses its mastery at point after point. It goes deeper than the cutting off of visible and external things. Cause, not   symptoms."

 "Christ, who is our life" (Colossians 3:4).





The simplicity of the Gospel - Les Feldick

 

    How God Saves Men

Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
ead Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)­­­


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey



E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends