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Question Summary:

How do I reconcile my beliefs in the last two posts? I appear, to the person asking the question, to be promoting both dependence on Jesus for change and the need for obedience to bring about overcoming change. It appears contradictory to the reader who is seeking clarity.

Reply:

Yes, I am promoting both dependence on Jesus for change and the need for obedience in order to bring about the manifestation of change in a person’s life. Let me explain.

As I shared with someone recently, each day I must go to Christ and once again turn to Him in dependence upon Him to live through me, thus applying the work of His Cross and the power of His resurrection to my life daily. This is daily repentance and rededication to Him, trust in Him, and dependence upon Him. Through this surrendered and submissive attitude toward Christ, He is given license to work in my life to accomplish His Will.

We must find the balance between attempting to do things in our own strength, the flesh, and making sure we are being obedient to Christ’s directives for us. We often struggle because we have allowed sin and disobedience to God to be options for us. God can empower us by His grace to do anything He shows us, or tells us, to do but He will not make the choice to obey said directive[s] for us. He ask us to obey and once we agree, comply, and move forward in obedience His grace and strength is there to fulfill the task. That progression, that order of actions, is vital to victory however – 1] agree 2] comply 3] move forward.

We cannot continue to ask Jesus to do such and such for us when we have not obeyed Him in what He has already instructed us to do. Our answer to our problem can often be found in obedience and our lack of an answer can often be found in our disobedience.

We are given a new nature at conversion [2 Corn. 5:17] and in the spiritual realm everything we will ever need to have done in us is completed by Christ and His finished work on the cross. We, by means of His resurrection power, allow Him to live through us, which then manifest in the physical realm all the changes that were completed in us at conversion.

Jesus has done in us what needs to be done and He is waiting for us to allow Him to manifest His work in us, through us, as we obey His Truths, Principles, and Directives. This is when both our struggle with sin[s] ends and our overcoming victory is walked out in our daily lives.

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.