Matthew 6-22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
What about this one? What does it mean?
That seems highly metaphorical. Why the reference to the eye?
That seems very much like Eastern philosophy to me; see using the Third Eye during transcendental meditation.
Matthew 6-22: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
What about this one? What does it mean?
Rom 5:17
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ )
What is the Gift of Righteousness ? This Gift of Righteousness is Righteousness imputed or charged to ones account, freely and undeservedly as a Gift. Remembers Pauls words in Rom 4:6
6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Tghats Righteousness imputed without works,not for anything we did, not even our act of believing, for believing is our act and work ! But its that Gift of Righteousness stated in Rom 5:17, its charged or imputed due to that abundance of Grace.
This Gift of Righteousness imputed is not a offer made to one and then its up to the one to accept it or not, want it or not, No thats an error started by the devil, but its an Gift in this wise:
Say you have incurred a burden of debt to a creditor, and this weighs upon you heavily, then one day you receive a letter in the mail from the Creditor stating that, congratulations, your debt has been paid in full, you are free from the debt you owed ! Then thats not all, the Creditor goes on to inform you in the Letter received, that you have been given a benefaction charged to your account of 5 Million to the good ! Now was the 5 Million to the good a offer ? No it was given as a Gift, as well as the release from the former debt.
Now the 5 Million dollars charged to this former debtors account Illustrates that Gift of Righteousness Imputed in both Rom 4:6 and Rom 5:17, it was out of the abundance of Grace that this debtor had his debt discharged and 5 Million credited to his good. Now was either the discharge of debt or the money bestowed an offer ? No they were given as a Gift !
The thing about is this, the debtor never knew that these gracious transactions had occurred on his behalf, until he has been informed of it, which made it to him Good News. Even if the debtor finds the good news hard to believe at first, the transactions has nevertheless been completed, and he just needs to be more and more persuaded of it by the Gracious Creditor, And that is why the Gospel is sent to them that have been made debt free and made rich towards God, and the Gospel to them is the persuading power of God, which persuades them into believing Rom 1:16-17 !
True. No conditions to meet, or acts performed, can qualify anyone to receive this Gift of Righteousness.
But it is solely based on the Work of Christ: His Death for the ones given Him by the Father John 6:37; 10:28-29
to be a Surety for before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1:9.
That's a perfect illustration showing how those Christ died for are debt free Rom. 5:10 !
In the New Birth they are given Faith which is the fruit of Christ's imputed Righteousness;
which is the fruit of His Death for them.
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Praise God that we can fellowship together in this blessed Truth of the Gospel !
Rom 6:17
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
This is Gospel Obedience, and it was obeyed from the Heart, and such, God is to be Thanked for that Obedience, because He first released us from the service of sin, without that, we cannot render obedience to the Gospel !
That word obeyed is the greek word hypakouō and means:
I.to listen, to harken
A.of one who on the knock at the door comes to listen who it is, (the duty of a porter)
II.to harken to a command
A.to obey, be obedient to, submit to
Now if we obeyed the Gospel command from the heart, then we had a circumcised heart, simply because by nature man, we are not obedient or subject to the commands of God Rom 8:7-8
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
For there is no difference in being subject to the Law of God and the Gospel of God, The Gospel Command is the Law of the Kingdom ! In fact the Gospel is referred to as the Law of God Isa 2:3
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Acts 8:25
And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
Isa 42:4
4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Its a Law because it commands obedience as in obedience to the Faith Rom 15:18
18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,
Rom 16:26
26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
And when that is the case, its a Law requiring Obedience So we read Rom 6:17
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
God be thanked! For those Chosen in Christ and Predestinated to be His Adopted Children
Eph. 1:4-5 they are made accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1:6.
Phil. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
He delivers His People from the bondage of being a servant to sin: It's the Miracle of New Birth,
and the result is a new circumcised heart Ezek. 36:26. After that, they will obey from the heart
the True Gospel of Grace 2 Tim. 1:9, when God's Love is made manifest in one Christ gave His Life for.
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You have understood well, God has blessed you !
Amen. He indeed has; and by His sending of you, His servant, to help me.
Thanking God always for you! ☺
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We help one another, that's how The Body of Christ is designed to work 1 Cor 12 !
Regeneration precedes faith because it is God who:
- draws people to Himself (John 6:44,65).
Jesus draws ALL to Himself. We can answer the call or resist.
Just ask for the scripture references if you do not recognize the scripture I am speaking.
- creates a clean heart (Psalm 51:10).
That is about having our sins washed away, after repentance.
- appoints people to believe (Acts 13:48).
That is about the Gentiles being able to be saved too.
- works faith in the believer (John 6:28-29).
That scripture does not say that. That scripture says God's work is that we have faith.
- chooses who is to be holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4).
That is about the plan. The plan of salvation is so that we can be made holy and walk blameless before God.
- chooses us for salvation (2 Thess. 2:13-14).
God chooses anyone who fears Him and does what is right.
- grants the act of believing (Phil. 1:29).
That is about the Gentiles being able to be saved now too.
- grants repentance (2 Tim. 2:24-26).
That is about a saved person speaking gently to someone in error, so that the one in error does not get angry and harden his heart. If a believer explains things to someone gently, they are more likely to listen, and then repent. Then God would hear their repentance and save them.
- calls according to His purpose (2 Tim. 1:9).
That scripture is telling us that God made the plan of salvation before the world was created, and we did not talk Him into it by anything we did, for we were not born yet.
- causes us to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3).
Born again is when you have all your sins washed away, you are a new person without any sins...just like being born again.
- predestines us to salvation (Rom. 8:29-30).
God foreknew the JEWS. Paul was explaining that the Jews are also included in salvation that they were not cut off forever.
- predestines us to adoption (Eph. 1:5).
That is about the plan being planned before the world was made.
God knows who will accept Him and who will not.
Read this scripture:
Ephesians 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
They were NOT INCLUDED UNTIL THEY BELIEVED. YOU say they were chosen before they were born. The Bible does not say that. Not only that, there is NO scripture ANYWHERE that says we cannot believe in God before being saved, and that God makes us believe.
- predestines us according to His purpose (Eph. 1:11).
Read what I wrote above.
- makes us born again not by our will but by His will (John 1:12-13).
The Jews USED to be able to be called a CHILD OF GOD just because they were BLOOD RELATED to Abraham. In addition, a person could choose to become a child of God, just by getting circumcised, and doing the other ceremonial works. However, now, through Jesus, God chooses us according to our heart.
Remember, I can give you scripture references for everything that I say.
It is man who:
- is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9).
- is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23).
- loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19).
- is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12).
- is helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6).
- is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).
- is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
- cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14).
- is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:16-20).
That is not about ALL people.
Not everyone is only accustomed to being evil Not everyone only lives for the flesh. We are flesh, AND spirit.
Hebrews 12:9, Zechariah 12:1, and Malachi 2:15.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
I tell you, you have been misled by false teachers.