robertprice

Jesus has finished the work allocated to Him as a human being, by His Father, and was therefore ready to be re-united with God in Spirit. The comfort for us is that the Holy Spirit, promised as the Advocate earlier by Jesus, who would help us at all times, would henceforth be available to true believers after the Day of Pentecost. So Jesus' absence from this realm meant joy and blessing for ALL.

We learn that there was no doubt at all that Jesus was a human being in addition to His divine status. He chose to cast the latter aside in His crucifixation to experience the full force of a horrible death in order to satisfy the just requirements of God's Law, in that 'there can be no remission for sins except by the shedding of blood'. So Jesus was love and kindness to the human race right up to His end. His experience on the cross was in compliance with the Father's will, as a result of which we now all enjoy fellowship with Him. In short, it was the love of Christ that dignified His death.

The fourth Word teaches us of how utterly committed God and His only Son were in seeking the salvation of the World through this extreme torment and suffering. And done for the prime reason of Love for we wretched beings ! And so our faith should be all the more committed when we realise this fact. The effect of our understanding of these facts should lead us to our total committment also in honour, gratitude and love for the Saviour and th sacrifice we cannot fully understand.

Ultimately, it was the Human Race whose sin called for the only way of the Perfect Sin Offering in Jesus. The players in the historic events, being Pilate, the Chief Priests etc., were just the figureheads of Man's apparent destruction of God's only Son. They were blinded to the truth, as Paul later says. So mankind's sin was finally disclosed in all its horror and appalling selfishness in the closing chapter of Jesus' physical life (pre-resurrection). We present generation and all who preceded us must also bear the blame for Christ's death, as God in His mercy and wisdom, ordained this sacrifice to cover our sins in order that we might have the fellowship He so wanted. Jesus was praying for all of mankind and its ignorance of God that causes sin to flourish.

God's promise is the assurance that all things in a Christian's life are working together for the ultimate good. The recipients of this promise are those wo have responded to the gospel message and have clearly understood the sacrifice of Christ of love for our sakes, It means I think that however viewed by ourselves as anything less than ideal, in God's own time we will see the utter perfection of His workings in and around us. The promise is given only to those who have accepted Jesus as Lord along with the need for His sacrificial death uniting us with the Father. The hope for me is that every apparent adverse circumstance in my life is known by the Father, who "will not allow me to be tested above that whuch I am able to bear"

To set one's mind on the Spirit is surely effectively to surrender our thoughts willingly to His purposes, all those that will produce those wonderful fruits of His ! It is by remembering our Saviour's perfectly-surrendered life to His Father, bringing, as in no other way, that release from guilt that setting our minds on things of the flesh had produced for us. If minds are set on things of a sinful nature, we Christians will hear the Spirit talking to us about this state of affairs through our consciences and those fruits of His will be beyond our grasp, much as we may want them.

Obedience to the law cannot save anyone, as 'we have all sinned (and come short of the glory of God)' no matter how little or how much, and we are told that to be guilty of even one sin only is tantamount to being guilty of the lot ! So it could never be that any man or woman could have avided sin completely due to the inherent sinful nature within themselves, being that lunfortunate legacy from Adam. That is the weak link here, I think. To save us from this terrible fate, we need to ask the forgiveness for our sins of God by the believing that His Son, by deliberate divine plan, became the only sin offering that could appease God's wrath. In the Old Testament, sin offerings of animals were the way to atone temporarily for the nation's sin, until their next violation ! It will be remembered that 'without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission for sin.' Now complete faith in Jesus as the perfect sin offering, has led us to this new and wonderful relationship with God !

It appears to me that Paul is talking about how he himself was as an honest law-abiding Jew but not yet a Christian.

It was expressed by Jesus when he said that out of the human heart proceeds all sorts or vice and corruption, from which absolutely no-one can be exempt. So in our flesh alone, we are corrupted and depraved. I think that there is a remnant of God's original goodness within us, which may differ from person to person; for example one may be kind always to children yet hate others, and again, one may love the marriage state yet **** after looseness. Modern man, especially these days, with his vast amount of technological skill, seems to think that basic holiness, if in fact he considers it at all, is apparent in all, as to accept otherwise seem to be alien to his modern thinking, as he has doubtless not searched the scriptures, considering them to be 'old hat'. he scrtipturtes of curse clearly differ in pronoucing ALL men to be lost and corrupt in their natural state.

The law is God's statement of how to live a life that is all-pleasing to Him. In that respect, of course, it is good indeed. What it doesn't do for individuals is to equip them in any way for the obedience to it. Knowing the law, even for the most strong-minded and devout, cannot in itself save, as it is an impossibility for man with his sinful nature to be obedient in every aspect. And that appears to be the problem inasmuch as the law, good though it is, is impossible to be kept in its entirety.

We would not be bettter off by being ignorant of part of God's full range of commandments - it would be like mixing and matching to our own selfish ends. No, if we are seriously to consider God's Law, its implications and its effects upon us, we surely have to regard the whole lot. The flesh, that human beast within us, may try to ignore covetousness, but sooner or later, it has to explore that avenue, often with devastating results. That is the nature of our 'Flesh'.

Paul refers to 'flesh' I think to mean the carnal nature within us that is unregenerate. Thankfully, ity can be controlled by the Spirit within all Christians.

Good doctrine, as taught us from God's Word, will ensure that we walk correctly before the Lord. And this doctrine should be revered and cherished above all other forms of dictates as itmhas been received diredctly from the Lord himself and just for us ! We therefore should be avoiding doctrine that smacks of man-made origins. For example, the Bloodless variety, so beloved of apostasy-like denominations. " Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission for sins"

No, no place for 'independent freedom' for a Christian. He has placed himself at the service of Jesus, or as Paul puts it, as a slave. It is 'The Old Man' within us, another of Paul's favourite constuctions, that often desires to go it alone. We must therefore resist all attempts for Satan to lure us back to selfish and carnal ways and thoughts. We hesitate to 'nail our colours to the mast', so to speak, for various reasons all unsound of course. Satan's lies about the Truth, if entertained, can bring doubt and deception into our hearts, which is certainly not conducive to vibrant Christian testimony. It also would depend to some degree on the type of person you are upon conversion. Thus a timid and self-deprecating person would be most hesitant to testify to the Lord's grace until that person is more firmly under the control of God's Spirit when he can cheerfully and honestly give voice to his gratitude for God's grace in Jesus.

Gideon's obedience to God's calling and the subsequent action of deliverance from the Midianites and the nation's wholehearted return to worshipping God was Gideon's influence for good upon the Israelite nation. The continuing effect of his influence was the forty years of peace that ensued unil his death. Thereafter, sadly it became a different story with further backsliding by the nation.....