120 how is this victory over the world achieved? the great agent is the Holy Spirit. without Him, no good result is ever achieved in the Christian's heart of life. you will notice that the text says, 'this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. I john 5.4 NIV ...by truly believing in God and having real impressions of His truth and character made upon our minds by the Holy Spirit, we gain victory over the world.
122 he who does not habitually overcome the world is not born of God. in saying this, i do not mean that a true christian may not sometimes be overcome by sin. but i do mean that overcoming the world is the general rule, and falling into sin is only the exception. ..take, for instance, I john 3.9; 'whoever has been born of ?God does not sin ...and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God'. nothing less can be meant than this, that he cannot sin constantly, cannot make sinning his business, and can sin, if at all, only occasionally and aside from the general current of his life. in the same way, we would say of a man who is generally truthful that he is not a liar.
123 i will not contend for more than this regarding either our text or I john 3.9, but for this much i must contend. the newly born souls spoken of in these verses do in general overcome the world. the general fact regarding them is that they do not sin and are not in bondage to Satan. at the very least, their general character must coincide with the Scripture's assertions about them.
what fgood is a religion that does not overcome the world? what is the benfit of being born into such a religion if it leaves the world still ruling over our hearts? what help is a new birth that, after all, fails to bring us into a likeness to God, fails to bring us into harmony with His family and His kingdom, fails to break our bondage to the world and to Satan? what more can there be to such a religion than a mere name? how can any man suppose that such a religion prepares his heart for heaven when it leaves him earthly-minded, fleshly and selfish?
thus we see why infidels have proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to be a failure. they maintain that it claims to bring men out of the world but fails to do so and hence is evidently a failure...
...the infidel's premises are faulty. he assumes that the current christianity of the age is a specimen of real religion and he builds his estimate on this. he thinks that he proves and perhaps he truly does prove, that the current christianity does not overcome the world.
we must object to his assuming that this current type of christianity is real religion, for this religion of nominal christians does not fit the descriptions of true piety in God's Word. moreover,
124 ..if this current type of religion were all that the Gospel and the Divine Spirit could do for lost man, we might as well yield this point to the infidel; for such a religion could not give us much evidence of having come from God and would be of very little value to man - so little that it would scarcely be worth contending for. truly, if we must take the professedly christian world as Bible christians, who would not be ashamed and perplexed in attempting to confront the infidel? we know all too well that the great majority of professing christians do not over come the world and we would be defeated quickly if we were to maintain that they do. those professing christians themselves know that they do not overcome the world. they could not testify that the power of the Gospel is displayed in their own cases.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment