2006-09-21

Salvation of Tripartite Man - The Details

Recognizing that Man is made up of spirit, soul and body helps explain many difficulties we encountered in reading the Bible. (see The Tripartite Man).
  
Here is a detailed view of the Salvation of the 3 parts of man.
Salvation
Spirit
Soul
Body
Time
Past *
Now
Future
Method
By Faith
Jn 3:36
By Works – Carrying My Cross Mt16:27
By Christ at Rapture
1 Co 15:52, 1Th 4:17
Result
Eternal Life
Eternal Kingdom
Eternal Body
1Co15:40,44,53
Completion
By Christ
(done, once for all)
By Spirit - We yielding
Gal 5:16,25
Sacrifice, Glorify God, Trained
Rom 12:1;1Co6:13,20; 1Co9:27
Term
Salvation
Sanctification
Redemption,Glorification
Rm8:23
*when we received Jesus as Savior and Lord.
 
The growth process of a person can be summarized as:
 
1. Before Salvation: self effort for self benefit
Religion is all about self. Getting it right, doing the right thing, and life will work and you will be saved.
But true Christianity is about relationship with Jesus-God. We will discuss this in greater depth in future.
  
2. Saved : Self effort for God's benefits
For God's benefits is what we like to think we are working for. But our fleshy effort may sometimes go against God. Our motivations are sometimes for self glorification and gratification while outwardly we are doing God things. When we succeeds (according to our standards) we felt proud and when we fail, we felt condemned. We swing between emotional high and depression. We get burnt out quite easily.
 
3. Grace Based: God's effort for Self benefits.
We go after God for blessings & good health. While God delights in the prosperity of his people, this is still self-centered.
    
4. Maturity : God's effort for God's benefits
God's glory is revealed through us being beneficial to others.
Blessing and good health comes automatically when follow after the Spirit and desires God's will to be done on earth.
 
note: What I learned in yesterday Ps John's message combined with my past learning is presented here. If there be anything wrong, it is due to my misunderstanding rather than the speaker's message..

2006-09-07

Spirit Soul Confusion and 2 Types of Defeats

We have shared that man is a tripartite being of spirit, soul and body. When a person is saved, his spirit is reborn by the Holy Spirit and has the indwelling of Holy Spirit. But his soul and body remain unchanged. This explains the need of Rom 12:2 when one mind has to be renewed with the Word of God. And also for 1 Cor 5:5 where the flesh is destroyed and the spirit is saved. Our rebirth spirit is of God, ZOE life and is perfect in righteousness and complete (Col 2:10, 2Pet 1:3 given all, Eph 3:20 power in us) and sin not (1 John 3:9). But our flesh does sin (Rom 7).

With Spirit and Soul against Righteousness and Sin, we have 4 combination. With the confusion of spirit and soul, we can add 2 more. See the picture below. The point of interest is in the confusion of Spirit (righteousness) and Soul (need to be sanctified).

Confusion Type 1 Acceptance by Work
  •  The person's Identity is defined by behavior of Soul instead of by the Bible
  • It is "Performance or Work Based Acceptance by God".
  • A person's identity should be defined by his spirit – Rebirth ZOE (God’s kind of ) Life, that is complete and righteous. Have the Indwelling Holy Spirit and Christ inside and not by his performance of the Soul and body.
  • This people will feel good when they have quiet time, prayers but will feel terrible when they sin. They felt condemned. However, instead of drawing from God, they promise to do better. But by their own strength, they will fail again, which results in condemnation.
  • Some will try to remove condemnation by doing good work to compensate. They actively serve in church to remove the condemnation inside. They ask God for forgiveness and strength not realizing that Grace have been given in their Spirit and did not draw from it.
  • Long term defeat and burnout resulting in them coming to the conclusion that God is not real or not helpful or not loving and hence they give up on God and go back to the world. 
  • Sin ->Defeat ->Depressed ->Give Up -> Back to the World-> Denounce Christ
Confusion #2 Soul claims Spirit’s Righteousness
  • These people claims Spiritual Righteous Standing before God for their Soul as well.
  • They believe that no matter what they do with their flesh (soul and body) they will always be righteous.
  • Salvation Grace becomes a License to Sin.
  • When they sin, they confessed their righteousness
  • Sinful acts are pardoned with God’s grace.
  • Their salvation is of doubt as they misuse God’s grace.

Note: the two types of errors are learned from Ps John's 7 Sep 2006 message.










2006-09-04

Grace - God's Loving Power for You to become Your Very Best

In an earlier post "Grace is Unmerited Favor - This Common Definition is Wrong", two definitions, by Ps John and James Ryle were given.
"Grace is not a license to sin but an empowerment of God to enable us to be what we should".
"Grace is the empowering Presence of God enabling you to be who He created you to be, and to do what He has called you to do."
We have stressed on the "empowerment" side of the definition. We simply use "God's Presence & Power" or just "God's Power" in a few of the verses where Grace appeared and find them more enlightening and more powerful.
Today, we want to examine the "You" side of the definition. God's power is directed at "you" and for "you". In fact, Grace Power is in you. Grace's purpose is for you to do what your should (Righteous, Holy Living) and to be what God created you to be and to do what Has called you to do. We can see the following important points.
  
1. Different people has different types of grace because of different calling.
Eph 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.  
1Pet 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 
Paul's own calling in Eph 3:7... I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
See Eph 4:11, Rom 12:6-13, 1 Cor 12:28.

2. Different people has different degree of grace due to differences in growth.
We had already cited that Jesus was full of grace John 1:12.
  
3. Grace is given only if you desire it.
Those who are proud does not want it. They do not think they need it and have no grace whereas the humble has it because of their desire. James 4:6. 

Those who want get right by following the Laws according to his own ability has fallen from grace. Gal 5:4. Heb 4:16 tells to approach the throne of God not just for mercy (forgiveness) but to find grace power for our need.

4. The key to grow in grace is to desire and yield to His Spirit.
We has seen Paul stressed many times that when we are weak then we are strong because only then do we seek and rely on the grace (God's power). God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. 2 Cor 12:9-10, Phil 4:13.
  
5. The desire for grace is increased as we realize how weak we are.
We must come to an end of oneself to start receiving the Grace of God. Salvation is a start ….but Sanctification is a continuous process. The road of self-brokenness seems inevitable in this walk of grace.
  
6. Grace is given when we move out at take action.
Grace is for our growth. As we move out and draw on it, it grows inside of us. Phi 2:12-13 ... work out your salvation with fear and trembling; (13) for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. When can you tell you have the gift of healing ? It is by reach out to the sick and seeing them healed in the Name of Jesus Christ. How can you know you are a prophet ? By prophesying and check its against the Bible and the actual happenings.
  
7. Grace is given for us to be God's best for us.
God's best for us is also our best. We are created by God to fulfill certain role in His body and we are most satisfied and most valuable when we fulfill our created role. We become what we are created for. "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." John Piper

After Posting Note: Some have expressed concern that this definition of Grace took away the 'unmerited favor' of God. The 'unmerited favor' of God is in Mercy. We don't loose anything with redefinition. We gain better understanding and effectiveness in our living relationship with God. God's love gives us Mercy, Peace and Grace.