- grace and peace to you also. grace and peace was spoken in all or nearly all chapters/books so we know it is by grace we are enabled and never go under the law of performance/perfectionism which I suffered under for many, many years. I AM crucified with Christ. I suffered under the law: guilt, condemnation, shame for nearly all my Christian walk until about a year ago where I have been enlightened to His grace and love IN my imperfection. It is so easy to go back under the law to perfect ourselves or to feel guilt about our imperfections. It is never the Lord who is doing this. We can't crucify the flesh. It is a walk of grace and grace alone and His work in us that does this. It is all by faith for sure. Holiness without understanding the correct balance leads to legalism which I can see so much more clearly now. Sorry to ramble, but I am sure you understand this.
William Trudeau — Edited
Giving voice to the truth of God's amazing grace and your deeper discovery of its necessity in the pursuit of holiness is certainly not rambling! 🤗 Here is a quote from my notes I think you will find tuned to your own heart. Paul has just declared that the whole world has sinned and stands guilty before God (Romans 3:19). The fact of guilt raises the problem of justification. How can sinners be justified, or brought back into a right relationship with God and his law? Can a person work himself back into a proper relation with this law? Perhaps with a little extra effort, we can go “above and beyond the call of duty” and do enough good works to make up for our sins. Is this possible? No! In the parable of the unprofitable servant (Luke 17:7–10) Jesus teaches that every good work we can possibly do is already owed to God (required by his law) and therefore cannot be used to pay the debt incurred by our sin. There is no such thing as extra merit; this is why works of law cannot justify sinners. What, then, can we do? How can we be justified, be counted righteous, be accepted by God, escape the wrath and condemnation we deserve? Does any provision of the law allow a sinner to go unpunished? Can we remain under law and still be justified? No! If we are to be justified, we must leave the framework of law and enter the sphere of grace. This subsection of Romans shows us what this means by explaining that sinners can be justified by the blood of Jesus Christ through their faith in him. We can be justified only by faith apart from works of law (Romans 3:28). In establishing this point the Apostle Paul produces what Morris declares to be “possibly the most important single paragraph ever written” (173). He is referring to Romans 3:21–26. This is, indeed, the “center and heart” of the letter, as Cranfield says (I:199). In one compact manifesto Paul brings together the heavy theological concepts of the righteousness of God, faith, sin, justification, grace, redemption, propitiation, and the blood of Christ. By emphasizing the righteousness of God and faith, he elaborates on Romans 1:17, the key verse in the epistle’s introduction. [1] Cottrell, J. (1996). Romans (Vol. 1, Ro 3:21–31). College Press Pub. Co.- Thank you, Brother William, for this response. I like what you shared. Romans 6 and its passage of "Should we continue in sin that grace may abound; God forbid" is similar to your statement about leaving the "framework of law and enter the sphere of grace." My identity is now in Christ's righteousness and I am bound to that and I have left the bounds of the law (dead to sin and the law). People do misuse the scripture in Romans 6 to mean "you better stop sinning" and that is not what it is saying. Anyways, if one lives in condemnation and sin-consciousness one is looking to fulfill the law by his own works because he feels separated from God's love and that was me so much of the time. I seriously lived this way for years. I think so many do in fact due to a wrong understanding of holiness, love and grace, justification and sanctification. It can move one to condemnation or self-righteousness. God's grace moves us to the fruit of the Spirit by faith. I love this. I feel so much more free. Thanks for listening.
Drawing Nigh Unto Perfection
The Call
Fundamentally, the local Ekklesia is a gathering of Born Again Brethren who now have ears to hear the Father's call to Communion with Himself - the one Triune God. (John 17:3; Matthew 16:18; John 10:27; Revelation 22:17)
They who can hear, assemble with one heart and one mind in one place in the interest of responding to God's call toward perfection. (Acts 4:32; Philippians 2:2; 1 Peter 3:8)
Their drawing nigh to God is preceded by His call to come, much as their love for God is preceded by His love for them. (1 John 4:19) If the Shepherd did not call first, none would come. There would be no flock, no true Church.
This call and response forms the basis of the communal relationship which Christ gave His life to establish between Himself and His Bride, the Church.
Consider the Following Passages
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. (James 4:8)
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; And he shall come unto us as the rain, As the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:3)
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. (John 15:4)
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)
I sleep, but my heart waketh: It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: For my head is filled with dew, And my locks with the drops of the night. (Song of Solomon 5:2)
Draw me, we will run after thee: (Song of Solomon 1:4)
Thou that dwellest in the gardens, The companions hearken to thy voice: Cause me to hear it. 14 Make haste, my beloved, And be thou like to a roe or to a young hart Upon the mountains of spices. (Song of Solomon 8:13–14)
Gathering Unto Perfection Himself
The call to gather is a call toward perfection for He who calls is absolutely Perfect and He calls us unto Himself. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
But drawing nigh to Perfection is necessarily a life-long journey for perfection cannot be reached in three easy steps.
It is not compromise or weak heartedness to point out that an all-too-ready zeal which easily claims, as did Israel at the foot of Sinai, "All the words which the Lord has said will we do" is more in the direction of self-confidence than it is an evidence of true piety.
Gathering with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28) involves gathering with a realistic sense of how high the calling is and how continuously we must press forward through difficulty if we would apprehend that for which God is apprehending us.
Taking up the cross involves a realistic counting of the cost. (Luke 14:28)
It is not taking on too much at once, but a patient continuance in well doing that reaches glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life. (Romans 2:7)
It is not force feeding meat, but a steady growth from babe to glory that brings us to genuine Christ likeness. (1 Corinthians 3:2; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18;
Ephesians 4:11-13)
Indeed, it does not help our long-term growth when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think: boasting of our attainments and certain that we will conquer the last incline to perfection in a week (Romans 12:3; Luke 18:9-14). For it is not of him that wills and runs and talks, but it is of God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:16; James 1:26)
Recall that Paul himself said, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect…Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended". (Philippians 3:12-14)
It is good for us to be humble in the sight of God's absolute perfection rather than attempt a sprint to the peak only to fall back in exhaustion before we reach the first level of real and lasting change. (Hebrews 12:1; Ecclesiastes 7:16)
It is good for us to steadily add line to line, here a little and there a little, rather than bite off paragraphs at a time that go down sweet with vain confidence, but become bitter in our belly when we find it hard to digest a meal too quickly devoured. (Revelation 10:10)
By all means, pursue holiness, but pursue peace too, for without the one or the other no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14; Romans 5:1)
And as you do, consider the following sound advice from godly Robert Leighton lest your zeal for the top lands you flat on your face.
Robert Leighton's Counsel
Robert Leighton (1611-1684)
Put all your trust in the special and singular mercy of God, that He for His mercy's sake, and of His only goodness, will help to bring you to perfection. Not that absolute perfection is attainable here; but the meaning is, to high degrees of that spiritual and divine life which is always growing and tending towards the absolute perfection above; but in some persons comes nearer to that and rises higher, even here, than in the most. If you with hearty and fervent desires do continually wish and long for it, and with most humble devotion daily pray unto God, and call for it, and with all diligence do busily labour and travail to come to it, UNDOUBTEDLY IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU. ... [emphasis added]
Though at first you feel no sweetness in such exercises, yet be not discouraged, nor induced to leave them [i.e., don't quit], but continue in them faithfully, whatsoever pain or spiritual trouble you feel; for, doing them for God and His honour, and finding none other present fruit [i.e., not detecting amazing results thus far], yet you shall have an excellent reward for your diligent labour and your pure intentions. And let not your falling short of these models and rules, nor your daily manifold imperfections and faults, dishearten you; but continue steadfast in your desires, purposes, and endeavors; and ever ask the best, aim at the best, and hope the best, being sorry that you can do no better; and they shall be a most acceptable sacrifice in the sight of God, and in due time you shall reap if you faint not. And of all such instructions let your rule be, to follow them as much as you can; but not too scrupulously thinking your labor lost if you do not exactly and strictly answer them in everything. Purpose still better, and by God's grace all shall be well.
The Whole Works of Robert Leighton, D.D., Archbishop of Glasgow, to Which is Prefixed A Life of the Author by John Norman Pearson, M.A. [1846] (pp. 732-733)