Chapter 19 - The Great Divide
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Bonhoeffer - 'The separation which the call of Jesus creates goes deeper still. After the division between Church and world, between nominal Christians and real ones, the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body. St. Paul says:
1Co 12:3 ' ...no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.'
Bonhoeffer continued- 'It is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus or call Him Lord of our own free will. St. Paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is, without having received the call. It was harder to understand this in days when it brought no earthly gain to be a Christian and when Christianity was a dangerous profession.
Mat_7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Bonhoeffer continued- 'Lord, Lord" is the Church's confession of faith. But not everyone who makes this confession will enter the kingdom of heaven. The dividing line will run right through the confessing Church. Even if we make the confession of faith, it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus. We can never appeal to our confession or be saved simply on the ground that we have made it. Neither is the fact that we are members of a Church which has a right confession a claim to God's favor. To think thus is to fall into the sin of Israel, which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in his sight. That would be a sin against God's gracious call. God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else. The Church is marked off from the world not by a special privilege, but by the gracious election and calling of God. "say" and "do"-- this does not mean the ordinary contrast between word and deed, but two different relations between man and God. - the man who says "Lord, Lord"-- means the man who puts forward a claim on the ground that he has said-- the doer-- is the man of humble obedience. The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God. Here a man's speaking denotes self-righteousness, his doing is a token of grace, to which there can be no other response save that of humble and obedient service. The man who says, "Lord, Lord" has either called himself to Jesus without the Holy Spirit, or else he has made out of the call of Jesus a personal privilege. But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows. He understand his call not as his right, but as an act of God's judgment and grace, as the will of God, which alone he must obey. The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'
My thoughts-
TRUTH- 'God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else.'
Do we do His will?
You ask, "What is God's will?" So you may do it, but the truth is, we know God's will, He tells us His will over and over in His word. We want some task, something we can complete, but the truth of the matter is, it is our entire life that is used to do God's will. It's not something we do once and then we relax into some sort of selfish reverie of peace. God's will IS our life under His love! God's will is our LIFE in HIM, us living our lives devoted to HIS love, which is all for our benefit.
Because Satan has devoted so much time and effort to confuse love into some selfish attainment, so few can truly understand what love really is. That love is - - NEVER getting, but ALWAYS giving-- isn't something we are taught. We twist love into believing that if someone loves us they give us certain things. They... GIVE... Us; when the truth is, LOVE will want to GIVE more than RECEIVE. Our being able to GIVE, is love. Yet Satan has truly twisted things so that we really believe that others don't love us when they don't give us the things we want and I'm not talking simply material things, but things in all forms- attention, affection, etc. We place a price on love. Give me enough of this, enough of that, and I'll believe you love me. But when you stop giving I'll start believing your love for me isn't what it used to be. Satan's deceptions run very, very, very deep.
God's will.
Do we truly do God's will? Do we love?
' The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God.'
' But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows.'
'The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'
By the grace of our LORD always!
More tomorrow...
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Bonhoeffer - 'The separation which the call of Jesus creates goes deeper still. After the division between Church and world, between nominal Christians and real ones, the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body. St. Paul says:
1Co 12:3 ' ...no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.'
Bonhoeffer continued- 'It is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus or call Him Lord of our own free will. St. Paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is, without having received the call. It was harder to understand this in days when it brought no earthly gain to be a Christian and when Christianity was a dangerous profession.
Mat_7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Bonhoeffer continued- 'Lord, Lord" is the Church's confession of faith. But not everyone who makes this confession will enter the kingdom of heaven. The dividing line will run right through the confessing Church. Even if we make the confession of faith, it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus. We can never appeal to our confession or be saved simply on the ground that we have made it. Neither is the fact that we are members of a Church which has a right confession a claim to God's favor. To think thus is to fall into the sin of Israel, which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in his sight. That would be a sin against God's gracious call. God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else. The Church is marked off from the world not by a special privilege, but by the gracious election and calling of God. "say" and "do"-- this does not mean the ordinary contrast between word and deed, but two different relations between man and God. - the man who says "Lord, Lord"-- means the man who puts forward a claim on the ground that he has said-- the doer-- is the man of humble obedience. The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God. Here a man's speaking denotes self-righteousness, his doing is a token of grace, to which there can be no other response save that of humble and obedient service. The man who says, "Lord, Lord" has either called himself to Jesus without the Holy Spirit, or else he has made out of the call of Jesus a personal privilege. But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows. He understand his call not as his right, but as an act of God's judgment and grace, as the will of God, which alone he must obey. The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'
My thoughts-
TRUTH- 'God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else.'
Do we do His will?
You ask, "What is God's will?" So you may do it, but the truth is, we know God's will, He tells us His will over and over in His word. We want some task, something we can complete, but the truth of the matter is, it is our entire life that is used to do God's will. It's not something we do once and then we relax into some sort of selfish reverie of peace. God's will IS our life under His love! God's will is our LIFE in HIM, us living our lives devoted to HIS love, which is all for our benefit.
Because Satan has devoted so much time and effort to confuse love into some selfish attainment, so few can truly understand what love really is. That love is - - NEVER getting, but ALWAYS giving-- isn't something we are taught. We twist love into believing that if someone loves us they give us certain things. They... GIVE... Us; when the truth is, LOVE will want to GIVE more than RECEIVE. Our being able to GIVE, is love. Yet Satan has truly twisted things so that we really believe that others don't love us when they don't give us the things we want and I'm not talking simply material things, but things in all forms- attention, affection, etc. We place a price on love. Give me enough of this, enough of that, and I'll believe you love me. But when you stop giving I'll start believing your love for me isn't what it used to be. Satan's deceptions run very, very, very deep.
God's will.
Do we truly do God's will? Do we love?
' The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God.'
' But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows.'
'The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'
By the grace of our LORD always!
More tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment