Thank you, Andy, for these Bible lessons. Thank you, Paul and Susan for this website. I’m actually learning how to think for myself. Correct me if I am wrong, but here’s another example of denying the new birth.
This is from the Reformed Expository Commentary on Acts ( Derek W. H. Thomas…Reformed Theological Seminary and minister at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi)
“It is not a question whether Christians are meant to be holy…they are! There is a sense in which every Christian is already “relationally holy.” We are set apart from the world and identified as being in union and communion with Jesus Christ by virtue of what the Holy Spirit has already accomplished in our lives, regenerating us by a momentary monergistic ( sovereign) act in which we have come to life from a condition of being spiritually dead. Thus, Paul can write to the Corinthian church and say, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” ( 1 Cor. 1:2). Paul is not thinking of the Corinthian Christians as “saints” in the popular sense of someone considered to be exceptionally virtuous, still less of one who the church has canonized. The term is consistently used of a group rather than an individual, as the Bible’s way of emphasizing the singular transformation that has taken place RELATIONALLY or POSITIONALLY with respect to the status of everyone in the church. Believers are no longer “in Adam” but “in Christ.” Their ambitions have been changed. They no longer see themselves as living for themselves, but for the glory of Jesus Christ. Thus, Christians will “strive for…the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
paulspassingthoughts said, on May 20, 2014 at 7:11 AM
Carmen,
Right, the “striving” is to stay in the vital union by faith alone. The vital union keeps us saved by perpetually applying the perfect obedience of Christ to the law. It is a denial of the new birth. In fact, one of the forefathers of the Neo-Calvinist movement wrote an article entitled,
“The False Gospel of the New Birth.”
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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Thank you, Andy, for these Bible lessons. Thank you, Paul and Susan for this website. I’m actually learning how to think for myself. Correct me if I am wrong, but here’s another example of denying the new birth.
This is from the Reformed Expository Commentary on Acts ( Derek W. H. Thomas…Reformed Theological Seminary and minister at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi)
“It is not a question whether Christians are meant to be holy…they are! There is a sense in which every Christian is already “relationally holy.” We are set apart from the world and identified as being in union and communion with Jesus Christ by virtue of what the Holy Spirit has already accomplished in our lives, regenerating us by a momentary monergistic ( sovereign) act in which we have come to life from a condition of being spiritually dead. Thus, Paul can write to the Corinthian church and say, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” ( 1 Cor. 1:2). Paul is not thinking of the Corinthian Christians as “saints” in the popular sense of someone considered to be exceptionally virtuous, still less of one who the church has canonized. The term is consistently used of a group rather than an individual, as the Bible’s way of emphasizing the singular transformation that has taken place RELATIONALLY or POSITIONALLY with respect to the status of everyone in the church. Believers are no longer “in Adam” but “in Christ.” Their ambitions have been changed. They no longer see themselves as living for themselves, but for the glory of Jesus Christ. Thus, Christians will “strive for…the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
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Carmen,
Right, the “striving” is to stay in the vital union by faith alone. The vital union keeps us saved by perpetually applying the perfect obedience of Christ to the law. It is a denial of the new birth. In fact, one of the forefathers of the Neo-Calvinist movement wrote an article entitled,
“The False Gospel of the New Birth.”
LikeLike