Christ the End of the Law

[John317]

Quote:

John 3:17: Christ never used His own divine power to do anything, but everything He did, He did through the same power available to us in our struggle against sin.

Musicman1228: ...Was Satan lying when he said to Jesus during the temptation in the wilderness "If you speak you can turn these rocks into bread"? No Satan knew good and well that Jesus had the power to do that. What Satan didn't realize was that Jesus would not use that power for purely personal purposes; this was something Satan could not grasp....

Yes, I agree. Jesus could have chosen to use his own divine power but he didn't. As our example, He used the same power to resist sin and overcome the Devil that's available to all of us through God's Spirit. He showed that it wasn't necessary for Adam to fall, and He also shows us that there's no need for us to sin, either. He empowers us to obey His commandments and live righteously for God. Believers are slaves of God, not slaves of Satan.

See Romans 6 and 8. Romans 7 shows the man who is trying to obey God without His Spirit. Romans 8 shows the experience of the true believer who is indwelt by God's Spirit and is living in the Spirit. Romans 6 shows the result of living in the Spirit-- our bodies that once were used to serve Satan and do evil deeds are now used to serve God and do righteous deeds.

[Dr. Rich]

I must object here John. Tell you why: In law school the issue on intent is very important and talked about in just about everything a person has a choice to make. In fact, intent is suppose to be a very hard thing to prove because how do you get into the mind of the person who did what he is charged for doing?

We discussed the way you see things, that if one is suppose to be following the orders of God (Holy Spirit) and is told by God to do something, then did THEY actually intend to do this on their own?

The (one of) defense for the guy who killed the abortion doctor was that God told him to do this. His argument therefore was that God made him do it and if it was his choice, that he would not have done it, so he did not have the intent to kill the doctor.

I have heard the opposite in that the blame game was now that the devil made me do it. This also has to do with removing the intent of the person by saying that he had no choice in the matter.

What this proves is that it is total nonsense to believe that we can't make up our own mind (choice) to obey God or not. Having made that choice, now one can ask for help and can receive this help as long as this person has also not made a choice to sin.

Haven't you heard a time or three where people have just thrown up their hands (so to speak) on an issue and declared to "just give it up to God"? Well, first that person has made a choice to do this. Jonah made a choice to obey God, hence God used him to warn Nineveh.

Saul made a choice to go round up member of THE WAY. He made this choice on his own. But something changed his choice (mind). He was knocked off his horse and was blinded. What choice did Saul have to get his vision back other than to do what the voice told him? Here, Paul was not given any chance--he was clearly forced to do something he, on his own, probably would have never done. To me (my opinion) God NEVER works this way and never did.