8095	Forums / Main Forum / Why Faith Is A Must	on: December 06, 2006, 12:46:08 PM
Quote "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:13-15) MBG: I think what would help me understand you is if you will explain your understanding on this passage of Scripture.  I think it is one of the clearest passages on the causes of temptation.  If you explain how your ideas on God's sovereignty and our freedom relate to this passage, i would greatly appreciate it. He will provide a way to escape. If you are saying that God provides a way to escape and it is our responsibility as the cause of escaping i would not agree. First i think this James verse is talking more about apostasy rather than slipping or being a sinner. We obviously cannot escape every sin. If we can take the escape route then we would still be sinners by nature. And non of us do what we want to do as saints. Is it possible for us to escape every sin? Not really. But we do escape apostasy. We can never fall into continuous apostasy because \"He is able\" and we are not able. \"Without me you can do nothing.\" But lets apply the rest of scripture to this text. If we are the cause of escaping then we would conclude that we are part of escaping. And if we are part of escaping then we would have something to boast about. But really the fact is that we are able to repent or escape because He causes us to work out these things. And this all is a supernatural work so that in order for us to truly understand mortification of sin we must understand who we are in all of this. Now not being able is not indifference to sin. Because we do sin by giving into temptation. No doubt we are responsible but i am giving you the other side since that is where we disagree. The point is if we could cause ourselves to obey and escape then we could cause ourselves to be independent as a separate cause. But really we are absolutely dependent on someone else. Being dependent is what Calvinism is all about since any independence in man destroys the logic of cause and effect. We really sin because we are sinners.The scripture tells us that grace helps us to sin less and grace is a pure favor from God. And we are encourage to ask for God not to lead us into temptation, trials. We are encouraged by the scripture to pray that we will be led in the rite direction. So if the grace abilities were not causal to avoiding sin as the effect of sinning  then we are only responsible for it all. Our conclusion is that we are unable in ourselves because we are desperately in need of a cause outside ourselves to make us able in the effect. And then there will be a proper response once we find our mouths being shut. That is there is no boasting , because the effect was caused by grace and was effected in grace. This is the spring board for super-naturalism to become more and more of an effect in our mouths being shut. Because the negative effect of concluding that we are unable by not being the cause of good or bad in one sense will become a supernatural experience of renewal in the in Christ resting. We will cast all of ourselves on Christ and experience His life of grace and love flowing through us by concluding we are unable. It is the spring board for super-naturalism because God causes and effects and we rest in that.