8028	Forums / Theology Forum / Which One Is The Gift?	on: January 15, 2007, 03:06:28 PM
Quote Quote ...Faith is not a faculty but it is an agency. I have stated that every one has human faith, which is not saving faith, but it is still our faith. My point is we and our faculties do not get annihilated in order to become Christians. To not be able to apprehend divine knowledge and want to obey that command is to be in a state of darkness and rebellion. That is the reason we are not able to use faith for divine things. If we have no desire for divine knowledge we will  not view in our minds the glory of Christ then we will not trust in Him alone. Unless we understand that He is worthy of our trust by a divine knowledge then we will have no desire for Him and we will not have saving faith. ... MBG: For the dimmer among us (me included) are you saying that saving faith (or putting one's own trust in Christ alone to save her from hell) is not an ability but is an action?  In other words, are you saying that we are unable to trust Christ until God enables us to do so? Yes, we must be enabled first , because the faith is a gift. It is a gift in this way.  We must be given a new will, \"I will cause you to walk in my ways\". There is nothing in us that we can do to have the initial grace. In fact every thing in us is anti grace, is against saving faith , and is at odds with all that is in salvation. First we must have a divine knowledge so that we can see ,feel, touch ,and see anew and we are given a new will so that we can embrace Christ. \"Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy has He saved us.\" Would you say it is more accurate to say that within the Christian the old sinful human nature is not eradicated but is always present with a new nature the God has created within him. That is, would you agree the Christian has two natures (one good and one bad)? We are made holy, and we are called Saints. We are made holy definitively. That is we are seen as completely holy. Because we are seen as being in Christ. We are Saints and that is our new identity. We died to sin so that sin no longer has reign over us. We reckon ourselves dead to sin because we are in reality dead to sin. We died with Christ in His death and we are raised with Him in new life. We are seen as in Christ. We are identified with Him. There is not an equal power of sin and righteousness in our identity with Christ. But we still have the remnants of sin. Paul says in me dwells no good thing. That is we in ourselves apart from Christ or in our carnality we are ungodly. We still struggle with sin but we are getting better. The only victory in reckoning ourselves dead to sin is the death and resurrection of Christ. We are dealing with sin, not by a legal way any more. We are dealing with sin by grace. We no longer have the pangs of death, that is the law as a school master relationship. We no longer are burdened with guilt as an unbeliever with no hope. We are always getting grace for sinning, and so we always come out victors over sin that we have committed. Our relationship to the law has changed and our confidence is not in our keeping the law, but is in Christ obedience put to our account.