Choices

All of us who have been sealed into the body of Christ wants God to be pleased with the decisions that we make, but God has given us the freedom to make our own choices. God wants us to apply scripture, where scripture can be applied, and where no scriptural principle can be applied, to make the choices that we desire and then take responsibility for choices we made.

If we cannot find doctrine in Paul’s epistles directly related to our situation and there are no scriptural principles we can find to apply, then God has given us the freedom to personal preference. When it comes to directing our lives, God need not say anything further, he has already dispensed all of his word to us, and in that word that he has completed for us, are all that we need to know to make the choices we have to make in this age of grace, and he has dispensed that information liberally!

If God has to give anyone a sign in connection with the direction, or course that someone should take, then God’s word to us is NOT complete, and we must pray and wait for God to speak further truth that he has not revealed in his written word.

The fact is that God does not speak through the avenue of feelings, nor does he give visual evidences through the use of signs as he did with the nation Israel in time past; God speaks through the avenue of his written word and the apostle Paul tells us that his word to us is complete.

Israel walked by sight, that was part of the contract, the contract God established with the nation Israel called The Law. In that contract, God said he would deal with Israel according to things they could look at, so God dealt with the nation according to signs.

For we walk by faith, not by sight, is a clear statement from Paul how we walk today. For those of us who understand what Paul wrote, this is sufficient, we stop looking for things. Paul also warned as this age of grace winds to a close, that those who allow emotion to trump doctrine, that this would be the character of the religiously minded.

When Pauline truth is rejected, we can be certain that a position is being governed by emotion, emotion trumps doctrine in most people’s minds, and religion is about working on the emotional minds of people.

In our discussion with people who insist upon maintaining a previously adopted position, rather than to allow Pauline truth to be the determining factor of the position that they take, be careful not to allow the manner in which we conduct our ambassadorship to slide to the level of strive.

Adam thought he could be righteous before God through the fig-leaf religion that he developed, and he was going to have his fingerprints on his righteousness, and God said, no, and God clothed Adam with the skins of God’s sacrifice.

Unless people believe Christ accomplished something where their sins are concerned when Christ died for those sins, Paul’s gospel is hidden to them. Satan’s ministers of righteousness are busy at work within the righteous structure called “religion” in order to keep the meaning of Paul’s gospel hidden, to keep people’s eyes blinded to the truth of what Christ really accomplished.

Understanding our completeness IN Christ should motivate us to make wise choices.