I tried first to separate various aspects of my life, to make things easier and streamline each blog. One blog for spiritual updates, one blog for family updates, and one blog just to complain a bit about how odd Sweden is.
But in reality, all those aspects are better off in my book to be thrown together and enjoyed as one big grouping of thoughts!
Today I am more than halfway through a personal study of Wayne Grudem's book, "Systematic Theology."
This is a heck of a book, almost 1,300 pages long, and let me tell you, this is word by word important stuff, not just a cheap novel that you can skim over and read through one evening.
But it is exciting to get a stable foothold of how to look at all aspects of the Bible in a better way!
I am also complementarian, so just to repeat, I am not out to teach, but rather to summarize and quote Grudem and the gems in his book.
Chapter 35, Conversion, Faith and Repentance.
What is conversion? What is needed?
1. respond to God's calling
2. Repent of sins
3. Trust in Christ for salvation.
The head knowledge of all these things is not enough.
"You can know the facts but rebel against them or dislike them."
We must decide to depend on Jesus along to save us.
...this includes trusting in Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Those are the first two things that most new Christians see, yet the blessings of being a believer in Christ are so many more than that.
How about:
being declared righteous
adoption into God's family
sanctification
glorification
etc... (to be discussed more in further chapters)
As our knowledge of God increases, so should our faith increase.
Just like you come to trust a person the more experience and time you have with them, so do Christians also trust and believe more the more we get to know God and about him.
Repentance must be hand in hand with faith.
Therefore you cannot speak of someone having faith with not repentance of sin.
OR having Christ as Savoir but NOT as Lord. These don't match up.
There should be an initial faith and repentance, and those two aspects should continue throughout our lives, a daily repentance of our sins, and a daily faith in Christ to provide and help us walk with him.
But in reality, all those aspects are better off in my book to be thrown together and enjoyed as one big grouping of thoughts!
Today I am more than halfway through a personal study of Wayne Grudem's book, "Systematic Theology." This is a heck of a book, almost 1,300 pages long, and let me tell you, this is word by word important stuff, not just a cheap novel that you can skim over and read through one evening.
But it is exciting to get a stable foothold of how to look at all aspects of the Bible in a better way!
I am also complementarian, so just to repeat, I am not out to teach, but rather to summarize and quote Grudem and the gems in his book.
Chapter 35, Conversion, Faith and Repentance.
What is conversion? What is needed?
1. respond to God's calling
2. Repent of sins
3. Trust in Christ for salvation.
The head knowledge of all these things is not enough.
"You can know the facts but rebel against them or dislike them."
We must decide to depend on Jesus along to save us.
...this includes trusting in Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Those are the first two things that most new Christians see, yet the blessings of being a believer in Christ are so many more than that.
How about:
being declared righteous
adoption into God's family
sanctification
glorification
etc... (to be discussed more in further chapters)
As our knowledge of God increases, so should our faith increase.
Just like you come to trust a person the more experience and time you have with them, so do Christians also trust and believe more the more we get to know God and about him.
Repentance must be hand in hand with faith.
Therefore you cannot speak of someone having faith with not repentance of sin.
OR having Christ as Savoir but NOT as Lord. These don't match up.
There should be an initial faith and repentance, and those two aspects should continue throughout our lives, a daily repentance of our sins, and a daily faith in Christ to provide and help us walk with him.
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