Enjoying Life Under the Sun

What is the coming to life of the new nature?  It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ,  and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works. For the Bible Tells Me So... Psalm 51:8  Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.  Psalm 51:12  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  Isaiah 57:15  For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  Romans 5:1  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  Romans 14:17  for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 6:10-11  For the death that He died, He died to ...

Q. What is the dying of the old nature?  It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin,  and more and more to hate it and flee from it. For the Bible Tells Me So... Psalm 51:3-4  For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight; That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.  Psalm 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart; These, O God, You will not despise.  Joel 2:12-13  “Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”  So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.  Romans 8:12-13  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to t...

What is the true repentance or conversion of man?  It is the dying of the old nature  and the coming to life of the new. For the Bible Tells Me So... Romans 6:1-11  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe th...

Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent walk of life?  By no means.  Scripture says that no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer,  thief, greedy person, drunkard, slanderer, robber,  or the like shall inherit the kingdom of God. For the Bible Tells Me So... 1 Corinthians 6:9-10  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  Galatians 5:19-21  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you i...

Further,  that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and that by our godly walk of life we may win our neighbors for Christ. For the Bible Tells Me So... Matthew 7:17-18  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Galatians 5:22-24  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  2 Peter 1:10-11  Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;  for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:14-16  You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill ...

Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace alone through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works?  Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood,  also renews us by His Holy Spirit to be His image,  so that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for His benefits,  and He may be praised by us. For the Bible Tells Me So... Romans 6:13  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  1 Peter 2:5-10...