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But how may I be sure that my works have been “wrought in me” by God? Mainly by their effects. If you have been born again, you have a new nature within. This new nature is spiritual and contrary to the flesh—contrary in its desires and aspirations. Because the old and new natures are contrary to each other, there is a continual war between them. Are you conscious of this inward conflict?

If your repentance be a God-wrought one, then you abhor yourself. If your repentance be a genuine and spiritual one, then you marvel that God did not long ago cast you into hell. If your repentance be the gift of Christ, then you daily mourn the wretched return which you make to God's wondrous grace; you hate sin, you sorrow in secret before God for your manifold transgressions. Not simply do you do so at conversion, but daily do so now.

If your faith be a God-communicated one, it is evidenced by your turning away from all creature confidences, by a renunciation of your own self-righteousness, by a repudiation of all your own works. If your faith be “the faith of God's elect” (Titus 1:1), then you are resting alone on Christ as the ground of your acceptance before God. If your faith be the result of “the operation of God,” then you implicitly believe His Word, you receive it with meekness, you crucify reason, and accept all He has said with childlike simplicity.

If your love for Christ be the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), then it evidences itself by constantly seeking to please Him, and by abstaining from what you know is displeasing to Him: in a word, by an obedient walk. If your love for Christ be the love of “the new man,” then you pant after Him, you yearn for communion with Him above everything else. If your love for Christ be the same in kind (though not in degree) as His love for you, then you are eagerly looking forward to His glorious appearing, when He shall come again to receive His people unto Himself, that they may be forever with the Lord. May the grace of spiritual discernment be given the reader to see whether his Christian profession be real or a sham, whether his hope is built upon the Rock of Ages or the quicksands of human resolutions, efforts, decisions, or feelings; whether, in short, his salvation is “of the Lord” or the vain imagination of his own deceitful heart. - From "Experimental Salvation" by A.W. Pink

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So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-24

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. - Colossians 3:12-14

This article by A.W. Pink is pretty darn good. Pink was obviously very intelligent as anyone would admit by reading any of his works.

Everything that he stated in the above quote is really really good. It's that battle that I have with Modern Evangelicals every week. The word "sin" has almost become Taboo in our Christian Culture.

But there's one thing that troubles me about this article and that's the way it closes. This is often the one thing that kind of troubles me about the Reformed Faith.

Pink leaves us with a focus that if we do indeed have the fear of God in us, if we are truly regenerated, if we are truly believers, then we should be able to put our sinful nature behind us.

This seems to be a prevalent attitude with many Reformed people.

But I have to argue that, the two Scripture versus that I provided show that even the true body will continue to fall short and do things that their new nature does not want to do.

In other words, there is a fine line here. Yes, we should be concerned about our salvation and whether we truly have a heart of repentance. But we should also realize that no matter how hard we try, we're still going to have that internal conflict until we die. Now I'm not saying that Jesus doesn't strengthen us and makes certain sinful battles that we struggle with easier over time. I will fully affirm that He does do this because that's exactly what has happened with me over the past 10 years. Certain things I used to really struggle with, I hardly have to think about anymore. But I still have the propensity to sin and I still fall short.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that one of the main problems with the Roman Catholic Church is their focus on their own righteousness. I've spent allot of time getting to know the Roman Catholic Church better and the one thing that is prevalent with their over all faith is their constant worry about being "good enough." to get in.

Sometimes I have to wonder if Reformed Protestants don't do the same thing only in a different way. Many of the Reformed preachers and teachers tend to leave us with the attitude of Perfectionism. The idea that we must always be looking at our works or our own righteousness to be sure that we are saved. But that's simply not the gospel. Once we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are perfect in God's eyes through the lens of the shed blood of His Son. Jesus forgives our sins past present and future. Does this give us license to sin? Absolutely not, if we truly are children of God we should have a heart to avoid temptation and repent for our wrong doing.... does that mean we can be perfect? Absolutely not... because as Paul says, I do the things I don't want to do and don't do the things that I want to do.... who will save me from this body of death.... Jesus will.

Dave


Last edited by savedbygrace97; Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:38 AM.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. - Galatians 2:16