@pudicat11 Such beliefs pour contempt on Christ and what He has finished doing for us. The belief that we can save ourselves by our good works is, functionally, atheism, no matter how many nice things ppl say about Jesus, even if they show up for worship every Sunday.
@pudicat11 Of course, if atheists show up for worship every Sunday, whatever their reason, they may hear the Gospel Word about Jesus and may actually come to believe that Jesus has the only name by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
@pudicat11 That's what happened to me. I was a real, God-rejecting, Christ-rejecting atheist, who thought Jesus and the Gospel about Him had nothing to offer me. I thought I'd make my way through this depending on myself, then die and simply dissolve to powder in the ground.
@pudicat11 I didn't believe that God or the resurrection of Jesus were real. But, to placate my wife, angry that I was sleeping in until Sunday afternoons, I started going to worship. The Gospel Word got hold of me...
@pudicat11 ...I realized how intellectually implausible it was that this universe simply came into being by a chain of chemical and physical events, even more implausible that sentient beings would emerge without a Creator...
@pudicat11 ...And the more I heard about Jesus and the effect that he had on selfish, boisterous, self-absorbed, fearful, faithless human beings like Peter, Thomas, John and James, the woman at the well, and so on, the more drawn I was to Jesus, the more I trusted in Him...
@pudicat11 ...There was no single moment when I said, "I believe." The Word did its saving work, Law and Gospel pounding on my granite-hard life, until, over time, I realized I believed in Jesus. I still struggle to believe--as @SteveTaylorTPF...
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF ...memorably says, "It's harder to believe than not to." But what makes faith hard is not the challenge of convincing myself that Christ and His Gospel are true. What makes faith is hard is me, my self-will, my inborn desire to be my own god, to be in charge,...
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF ...to resist all notions that I need anyone or anything else, my resistance to bowing to One bigger than myself, my angst over admitting that without Christ, I can do no good thing, no lasting thing, and that I can't even confess faith without the Holy Spirit creating that..
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF ...faith within me.
When I see my sin and my need for forgiveness, that's God's work in Christ, not mine.
When I believe and can confess that Jesus has risen, though He was once dead, that's because of Christ's work, not mine...
When I see my sin and my need for forgiveness, that's God's work in Christ, not mine.
When I believe and can confess that Jesus has risen, though He was once dead, that's because of Christ's work, not mine...
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF ......When I have joy in the middle of my sorrow, hope in the middle of my despair, that's Christ's work in me and on me, not mine.
When I contemplate death and fear only the dying, not the being dead, the latter being a state that will end when the risen Jesus will call the...
When I contemplate death and fear only the dying, not the being dead, the latter being a state that will end when the risen Jesus will call the...
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF ...dead made righteous by His cross and empty tomb back to life, such assurance in the One Who made life in the first place is Christ's work, not mine.
I have no confidence in myself. By God's grace, despite the devil, world, & my sinful self still coming after me each day,...
I have no confidence in myself. By God's grace, despite the devil, world, & my sinful self still coming after me each day,...
@pudicat11 @SteveTaylorTPF I believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that by God's grace through the God-created faith in Jesus God has given to me, I will live with God forever.
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