-Removed-Of course we Christians are God's piece of work . . . created in Christ Jesus for good works. Ephesians says the church corporately is His POEMA (Greek) - workmanship, or poem, or masterpiece.
"For we are His workmanship [or masterpiece] , created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them." (Eph. 2:10)
I would hope that I would be compared to Christ Jesus more and more as He works His sanctification process upon the saints.
We are to be imitators of Christ as the apostles lived in Christ and were imitators of Him before us.
"Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ." ( 1 Cor. 11:1)
Why chide me for living to imitate Christ? That is what I am suppose to do.
Jesus said His servants would not be greater than He but would be like Himself.
" A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is sufficient for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and a slave like his master. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of His household!" (Matt. 10:23,24)
You mean to demean me by saying I compare myself with Jesus. Actually I am just in the normal process of being sanctified to be like Him. This should be the normal pattern of development common to all followers of Christ.
And praise the Lord for the effectual blood of Christ sprinkled, applied, or come as a fountain upon us. If you believe in the sprinkling of His blood you should enjoy that to the fullest.
@divegeester
I think your complaining about Christians being happy to sing about the fountain filled with blood is like the Pharisees angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
I'm not speaking for just me.
Thankfully the Lord is still with us healing and causing believers much rejoicing.
But if you believe you are only having your conscience sprinkled by the blood, I'm happy for you for that. That is if you really mean it.
@sonship saidWhy does your group feel the need to add things to the Bible?
I think your complaining about Christians being happy to sing about the fountain filled with blood is like the Pharisees angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
I'm not speaking for just me.
Thankfully the Lord is still with us healing and causing believers much rejoicing.
But if you believe you are only having your conscience sprinkled by the blood, I'm happy for you for that. That is if you really mean it.
The writer of the song about the fountain filled with blood was drawing from his experience of how abundant God's forgiveness was to him in Jesus Christ.
All of his past sins were buried beneath the pardon of Christ's redemption. And he knew it. And he knew that he knew it.
He didn't have to check with academics. It was practical to him that peace flooded his heart because of believing in Jesus Christ. Be cause God is EAGER to forgive. God is not interested in man's sins. God is interested in obliterating the memory of those sins forever and furnishing the believer with a new start. That is a new start with God's empowering grace to live in victory.
The word picture of a fountain filled with blood, I believe, the writer drew from two passages:
1.) Zechariah 13:1 about a fountain opened for God's people for sin and impurity.
2.) John 19:34 about John bearing witness that he was an eyewitness to seeing blood and water pouring out from the body of Jesus on the cross.
You see, there was a Gnostic philosophy that argued that Jesus was so good that He could not have been a material man. The Docetists were a brand of Gnostics who could not believe that Jesus was physical. They argued that someone so wonderfully good as Jesus had to have been a non-material phantasm.
John says he was eyewitness to seeing real physical blood and water pouring from the physical body of Jesus Christ.
Both the physical and spiritual impact of this is celebrated in that popular Christian hymn.
"Doubling down" on the redemption of Christ is good. A Christian never graduates from a need for the blood of Christ.
One may want to stay close to the text and only speak of sprinkling. No problem.
Another may be so very thankful for His forgiveness that they have a enlarged appreciation.
His blood is not only sprinkled but a "fountain for sin and impurity".
A very thankful person may see Christ's redemption as a tsunami powerfully sweeping relentlessly away all guilt and shame.
Notice the song speaks of sinners "plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain".
This reminds me of someone whose sins are so HEAVY that he or she can only PLUNGE down with such a weight thankfully under the eternal redemption of Christ.
Whether a sprinkler or plunger or dipper or whatever, man needs the redemption of Jesus for both his own conscience and his boldness before God. Remember, He is faithful and RIGHTEOUS to forgive us of our sins.
It is a matter of God's righteousness. He MUST forgive based on the work of Jesus.