Bible as the Absolute Authority

[byHismercy]

Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!

Sorry if that bothered you. It is just my observation that the fact of the indwelling Christ is not well appreciated by many I listen to on radio and TV, and in person when I visit many (but not all) other gatherings. Gosh, I certainly didn't mean it in an "us vs. them" context - God forbid, and forgive me if it came across that way.

But I stand by the observation that - it seems to me - that many are stuck in a form of Bible worship, without appreciating that without Christ's life lived out through us, we can do nothing. I truly don't mean to impugn brothers and sisters who do this. Shoot, if I could, I'd live the daily Christian life without Christ! What I mean is my flesh tries to do exactly that every day . . . but alas, the past 45 years experience is teaching me that it's all impossible without Him living through me.

A brother at my local gathering spoke something like this last Sunday (actually quoting another brother), "Religion is just trying to live the Christian life without the indwelling Christ." I think this is accurate & true. (and as mentioned, is brought out in Galatians)

As I said in the prior post, we need both the written word and the indwelling Spirit to make it all come alive. Without the Spirit, it's a dead letter - lots of good knowledge and principles, but devoid of life supply to live it out. To be sure, to focus on one without the other is an error. And at the end of my post, I did say the LC tended to focus too much on the spiritual aspect (and therefore they left the interpretation of the written word to WL).

I hope that clarifies and makes sense. (and please let me know if you still think I'm in left field somewhere . . .)

What I could have said with more grace, is, that I believe our trust in scripture is the outward manifestation of our faith in Jesus the son of God. Just like baptism. It is a visible display of our invisible faith. It is our faith in Jesus that brings us to Gods word, and our faith in Jesus that issues in trust in His word. And praise Jesus, brother.....Rom 3

(22)even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

(23)for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

(24)being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Maybe it was me that made the huge assumption. But we have the righteousness of God upon us, in spite of the fact we have zero righteousness in us without our faith in Christ. I am just thankful for this today. And the Holy Spirit is operating in those who believe, and that, mysteriously, partly, through His word. I mean, what mystery....Jesus Himself is the Word of God. But thank you for clarifying, brother. I think I know what you mean now.