Its not that we must despair in order to change our desires to be in
line with glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. But when we are faced
with the command to do good, we may be unable to meet the command
because our desire to do the other thing is stronger than our desire to
do the command. And even tho the command has a certain weight that is
added to give us a strong enough desire, yet we may have a stronger
desire because of our attraction to the disobedience and we are unable
to obey.If as the Arminians say that obedience is a necessity to the
command, then there would be a faulty disobedience. So that this is what
growing in Christ by transforming the mind is all about. We go from
being unable to meet the command to able by growing in our desires do be
able. But if we just came to it through giving into our stronger desire
to sin, we would never be attracted to obey the command. We would at
some point give up. Thats why we grow by grace. And grace is always the
positive over the negative soil. Grace brings on the pleasure in spite
of disobeying because Christ has already obeyed, an we simply go to Him
and we have no condemnation. And it is from this view that we look at
our disobedience. We do not sin in the environment of despair. But we
are always to have an eye on Christ as the object of our being able to
obey. Which is evangelical obedience.
As we rest in Christ from
our dead works, we learn that it is not by the works of righteousness
that we have done but its according to His grace that He saved us. So we
have this new view in our being able to die daily to sin that is from
the paradigm of no condemnation. Which means that we are no longer to be
in the constant relationship to others in an accusing environment.
Because we now represent His name. We are judged according to imputed
righteousness. Now we are unable to obey the command but we are still
looked on by God as being completely righteous by that imputation of
Christ righteousness, so that we glory in His name or His authority on
our behalf. He really is our advocate. And at some point we are going to
need to trust that He is the only one that can make things rite in our
world. Because imputed righteousness is Him dealing justice in
protecting us even tho we sin. And in this way we grow in our desires to
obey and we loose our desire to disobey. Like Steve B says, you got to
be loved first. If your in despair, go get loved by the rite people
first. God looks on how your treated more than He looks on your sin, and
He will balance that scale.
I came across this , very interesting insight. I apologize for leaving the author out, i just cant find it, any way.
Although
the concept of righteousness in our culture has come to refer almost
strictly to ethical and moral conduct, this is not the primary referent
in the OT. Righteousness does produce ethical and moral conduct, and can
be found in such, but the OT concept of righteousness is essentially
the "fulfillment of the demands and obligations of a relationship
between two persons."3 Under the Mosaic covenant, Israel related to God
on the basis of Moses' Law. One's righteousness was judged upon their
conformity to this Law, through which they related to YHWH. If they kept
the Law, which consisted of many non-moral commands, they were
considered righteous (in right relationship) before YHWH. When one broke
God's Law, they were in essence betraying the relationship between them
and YHWH. This is the essence of sin.4
To demonstrate that the
OT concept of righteousness has more to do with relationship than with
morality, two examples will be cited. In Genesis 38 we find the story of
Judah and Tamar. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law. She was married to
Judah's eldest son, Er, but he was killed by the Lord (Genesis 38:7).
Tamar was then given to the second eldest brother, Onan, to wed. He too
was killed by the Lord (38:10). The only son left was Shelah, but he was
too young to be given to Tamar in marriage. Judah told Tamar to go to
her father's house until Shelah was of age, and promised that at that
time Shelah would be given to her in marriage (38:11). When Shelah
became of age Judah did not keep his promise to give him to Tamar in
marriage, so Tamar devised a scheme to get back at Judah. She dressed
herself as a harlot in a nearby city and her ex-father-in-law, not
knowing who she was, had sexual relations with her. Since he did not
have any payment with him for her services, he gave her his signet ring,
staff, and bracelets until he could come back with payment. After Judah
left Tamar took off her harlot clothes and left the city. Judah did
send back payment, but Tamar (unbeknownst to Judah) had fled. Three
months later it was told Judah that Tamar was with child. Judah's fury
was full and demanded that she be burnt for playing the harlot. When she
arrived she claimed that she knew the father of the child, publicly
displaying Judah's ring, bracelets, and staff. Judah, realizing his
error, said, "She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give
her to Shelah my son" (38:26).
If we were judging righteousness
purely on moral grounds, neither Judah nor Tamar could be said to be
righteous. When it is understood that righteousness refers to
relationship, however, this story makes sense. Tamar's righteousness was
not in her act of harlotry, but in the fact that she met the demands
and obligations of the relationship between Judah and herself, whereas
Judah went back on his word.
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