1 edit
But first things first. The unsaved person is accumulating wrath against himself every day. You are just storing up and accumulating God's wrath against your sinning. You think you are getting away with things. But this is a lie. You are storing up and accumulating God's wrath against yourself.
"But, according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works." (Rom. 2:5,6)
It is better to realize that even your "Honest Self-Criticism" needs to be washed in the blood of Christ's redemption.
Even if from this moment for the rest of your life you were to live a perfectly upright life before God, you STILL have the record of your past sins. It is best to realize what you are dealing with and open your heart the dire need for Justification in Christ's redemption first.
The need for this is extremely serious and urgent. Sin is an abomination to God.
And He knows that we sinners need to be saved from its consequences.
He made provision for that salvation even before either one of us was born.
@sonship saidWhy would you consciously follow "Satan"? Don't your religious beliefs equip with a moral compass? What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
The influence of God's enemy is in the fallen human body.
This fallen humanity is called "the flesh" as the totality of the devil infested corrupted man from the fall.
The battle is to get regenerated and learn to set the mind on the Spirit that is joined to the human spirit.
[b]"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the s ...[text shortened]... your inner man. And you learn to set the mind on the mingled spirit to walk by the Spirit of Christ.
1 edit
@fmf saidThese questions are not too worthwhile.
Why would you consciously follow "Satan"? Don't your religious beliefs equip with a moral compass? What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
Rather than contemplate "How BAD can you get?" it is more profitable for me to muse on how much can I be conformed to the image of Christ according to His plan of salvation.
I am not interested overly in how much like Satan can I get. I am occupied more with cooperating with Christ's sanctification. I know that His plan is that I with all other believers will be presented faultless before Him after He completes His work on us.
"Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, a according to the good pleasure of His will." (Eph. 1:4,5)
I am not engrossed in the question of "How much like Satan can you be if you willfully follow Satan?"
That is a sick preoccupation for a Christian like me to be spending time with.
I have my past to know enough of what it is to walk according to the flesh,
according to the fallen humanity, following the desires sin nature.
Instead of contemplating this I turn my being towards His promises to be fully able to present me before God in His own image.
"Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers." (Rom. 8:29)
My real focus is on being conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son of God and to be one of His brothers.
"But to Him who is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before His glory without blemish in exultation,
To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord . . . " (Jude 24,25a)
@sonship saidDodge much?
These questions are not too worthwhile.
They are head-on related to what you claimed about yourself.
Why would you consciously follow "Satan"?
Don't your religious beliefs equip with a moral compass?
What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
Run away from the things you say if you must.
2 edits
Why would you consciously follow "Satan"? Don't your religious beliefs equip with a moral compass? What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
The saved man learns to put no trust in himself. He learns to look to the Perfect One whose Spirit has been dispensed into his spirit.
In fact like Paul said he realizes that truly he has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer he that lives but Christ that lives within him. The life lived henceforth is in faith in Christ in himself.
What Christ can do.
What Christ can be for him.
What Christ supplies.
How Christ delivers.
How Christ saves from himself and his sinful nature.
The "moral compass" is a now a living Person.
He is active and powerful and trustworthy.
He is tested from every side and found approved.
So we learn to live in union with the Victor by faith.
Paul called this being strengthened into the inner man by the power of His Spirit through faith.
"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man. That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith." (Eph. 3:16,17)
2 edits
Dodge much?
It is not so much of a dodge but stopping the flaming dart with the shield of faith.
They are head-on related to what you claimed about yourself.
It is not worthwhile - 'Hey, JUST how evil can you get following Satan?"
My focus, if not yours, is in Christ's salvation rather than Satan's corruption.
Why would you consciously follow "Satan"?
We are born into this world following the sin nature.
We need to be reborn and be partakers of the divine nature.
Once we have been regenerated and made partakers of the divine nature it is more profitable to explore the realm of living by Christ.
Don't your religious beliefs equip with a moral compass?
I constantly look to Jesus Christ the reality to save me from religion.
What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
Who cares?
I am looking for sanctification and conformation to the Son of God.
Run away from the things you say if you must.
What silly macho gratitude am I suppose to garner from sticking around to contemplate "HOW BAD" I could get not following Christ ?
I think the bravery is in moving forward with my new life in Jesus.
@sonship saidI am not talking about the moral inspiration you derive from the supposed identity and significance of Jesus. I am talking about your own moral compass: the personal, unique capacity you have to govern your own interactions with your fellow human beings.
The "moral compass" is a now a living Person.
@sonship saidYour victims, perhaps?
What are you capable of when you are being "a willing follower of Satan"?
Who cares?
They'd surely be blindsided by your claims that you are willing follower of Jesus only to find that you are also sometimes willing follower of "Satan".
They might care.
Why wouldn't YOU care?
3 edits
@fmf saidYou don't get it. You need to be unveiled. You need revelation.
I am not talking about the moral inspiration you derive from the supposed identity and significance of Jesus. I am talking about your own moral compass: the personal, unique capacity you have to govern your own interactions with your fellow human beings.
It is not more intelligence which you need.
Another life has been supernaturally dispensed into my being.
The cross means - "I can use none of it. Your tears, your turning over a new leaf, your self improvement, your willing to do better, your moaning over your past sins, NONE of it is useful to Me."
The resurrection means "Now learn to live by Me. I can be everything you need."
What the reborn person has to learn is to live BY Christ.
This sounds "sanctimonious" to you. But it is just going to have to sound "sanctimonious".
It is true truth. Christ rose from the dead. Christ is ALIVE. Christ being God become a man has a way to dispense His life and nature into me. I can be trained to live unto Him, BY Him, in a mingled union with Christ.
"the last Adam [Christ] became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)
A living Person, mysterious yet real, is HIMSELF the moral compass and the "power steering" to enable me to walk in the Spirit.
"But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Gal. 5:16)
Your job is to convince yourself and everyone you can that there is no such thing.
Your job is argue that Jesus is dead and can be of no possible effect on a man today.
But you be wrong.
You be incorrect.