- On this subject, I think one of the biggest hurdles we have in understanding each other is our understanding faith here.
- You believe that faith is some how required to be generated from us. I believe faith is much more a mystery and given to us by God as a gift. He gives to each of us our own measure of faith as a gift. We are told by him to nurture and grow this faith from actively hearing his word from others and by us reading it ourselves but, the process is initiated by him alone. I think the better way of saying it is that we are saved by his "Grace" alone and that includes our own measure of faith he gives us.
- Only believers have this gift of faith, so after salvation, this faith without works is dead. In other words, you are still a unbeliever and have not received the Holy Spirit in you!
I believe everything is related to Christ. Faith is the substantiation of invisible things (Heb 11:1). It is the substantiating ability that God has given us. Substantiate means To give material form to; embody, to make real or actual, firm or solid, to establish by proof or evidence.
Faith or grace is not a thing (like apples or oranges) that can stand alone by itself. Well, theologically they can, but practically they cannot.
I believe that practically, the gift God gives us is Christ, who dwells in us by the Holy Spirit.
From this gift, we obtain all the gifts, including grace and faith.
From the Spirit we obtain grace - Ephesians 4:7
The faith by which we believe in Christ is actually the faith of Christ in us. The indwelling person of Christ in us is giving us the faith for salvation (Rom 3:22).
But this is not to say that there is Christ's faith and our faith. This faith of Christ becomes our faith, by virtue of the union between God's Spirit and our spirit ( 1 Cor 6:17).
Using vine/plant/tree analogy here: when we become saved, the Holy Spirit is grafted to our spirit and we receive His life flowing through us.
All the things of Christ become ours by virtue of this spiritual grafting.
It is correct to say it is the faith of Christ, it is also correct to say it is our faith. It is both the faith of Christ and our faith.
I believe the Christian receives Christ into their innermost being and everything else is from Christ in us.
This is why I do not believe in imparted or imputed righteousness, as if righteousness is a thing that can be given or taken from another person.
Righteousness is Christ's righteousness in us.
Faith is Christ's faith in us.
Grace is Christ's presence and strength in us.
etc.
This is what they mean practically and subjectively to a Christian.Otherwise they are merely theological and objective concepts.
This is why we can not lose faith, because even if we lose everything else, our regenerated spirit remains.
Even if we doubt in our mind, there is something deep inside of us which cannot doubt and which cannot lose faith. This is the faith of Christ who dwells in our spirit.
Today the Spirit is mostly treated as the power to do stuff, like healing or conversions. The Spirit in us is actually Christ Himself, the Eternal Life, in our spirit, who is our own personal dynamo and from which everything else related to God and humanity flows. So everything that Christ is, including everything He suffered on the cross, and everything He went through as a human being, is presently dwelling in us right now. This includes His faith, grace, love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, endurance, perseverance, patience, obedience, etc.
- These things are written in our hearts - many of us obey and follow them spontaneously without even realizing it. I keep repeating this over and over again, the sticking point here is that you seem to insinuate that , in order to obey God in the right way is to follow and obey his law completely ; with out fail. For people like me, that means perfectly, which is impossible.
Yes but I believe it doesn't happen automatically or overnight. Obedience and following them spontaneously is not without effort on our part. We must cooperate with God, in dealing with our flesh, and in living in obedience to His commands. It requires our dedication, diligence, and effort to undertake spiritual exercise.
To be sinless to me means to have no unconfessed sin in our life. I do not mean that it is impossible to sin.
When I speak of obeying God, it is from the point of view of a believer who has been crucified with Christ and received the power of the Spirit.
If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And when we don't walk in the Spirit we confess our sins and then walk in the Spirit again. Then it will be possible to obey God. But no matter how much we fail, His grace is always there because He never leaves nor forsakes us.