8997	Forums / Main Forum / Make Every Effort?	on: June 02, 2006, 03:40:16 PM
Quote There are within some christian circles an understanding that there is nothing for believers to do. Its all done. I agree with that with regard to our salvation. Yet it seems there is an expectation of effort to be applied as we go along our way. I think we are expected to study the word, do good works, pray, etc. Below are some examples of the use of the word "effort". Would those verses indicate that while we are empowered to do things by the Holy Spirit, that there seems to be an indication we must make a willful choice to do at least some things? Such as the examples below? 1.   Romans 14:19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 2.    Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 3.   Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 4.   2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; Jeffery here is where i think when we get down to the details of the scripture i have a different take as the what our responsibility is and what Gods work in us is or what extent the Holy Spirits function in us is. The bible does not say that we are to try to achieve a level of addition of goodness on our own. The working principle in scripture on sanctification is this. We are made new and are being made new by the Holy Spirit. I kinda think that your theory is that the Holy Spirit does something in us and then we are to do something too and so we cooperate  with the Holy Spirit. There really is no human cooperation in spiritual growth. Our goal is not to be more moral. Instead of cooperation it is dependence. What your side fails to see is that we are made completely righteous by a righteousness that is imputed to our account, and our sinfulness is imputed on Christ. Here it is never our personal decisions that gets us into spiritual growth. It is realizing that Christ met all the requirements of the law in that he was actively obedient and passively obedient and He did what we could never achieve in our decisions. When ever you get to the commands there is this working principle in all of it. We are righteous so that what command we set out to do we never do it according to the standard of Christ. We do the command because we have been given grace to do it. So when we fail to do it properly both in our active obedience and our passive obedience it is not a surprise or is it a complete failure on our part. It is expected that we will fail by our inability to meet the requirements of the command. Thats because we really do not lean on ourselves to achieve a level of spiritual maturity. We only lean on Christ. So in Christ we meet all the requirements of the commands. We are given grace and power to meet them. Tho we fall short , we are not performing to be accepted by God we are already accepted by God even if we fail. Yet because God has graciously given us all of these spiritual qualities that will be the reason we add to our faith. Really you are creating an illusion if you think he is saying now that you have been saved you must get to work. You must cooperate! No No no , you who have been given the Spirit are you now trying to obey the law in the flesh? No no no. Heres the problem with the wrong focus. Here you have a church, and all the people who think they are doing good deeds by performing, making a decision , following the script are given precedence over the brother who is struggling with sin, falling , battling with temptation. In Gods church, the one who is poor in spirit is more righteous than the one who thinks he is cooperating with God. The one who is struggling should be the one who has precedence, and the one who thinks he is cooperating should be warned of self righteousness. Thats Gods paradigm.