Monday, November 17, 2008

The provision is already there

Finney was a firm believer in holiness. Not legalistic holiness, but heart holiness:

A precept requiring us to consider ourselves “dead indeed to sin, but alive to God” would be utterly impossible if no provision were made for us to have such relationships to sin on the one hand, and to God through Christ on the other...Who does not see that the very command implies that there is a foundation laid and adequate provision made for the state required?—Charles Finney, God's Call, page 208

Yes! We depend on God's provision; it can't be our works, in fact, Finney goes on to say:

We cannot begin to receive by grace until we renounce all expectation of attaining by natural works. It is only when we are empty of self that we begin to be filled with Christ.—Charles Finney, God's Call, page 209


<idle musing>
Yes! It has to be all God, or it is rotten to the core. Dead to self, but alive in Christ. That is the core of Christianity. Anything else is window dressing. All “good works” that we might do have to spring from Christ within us or they are simply dung/garbage/σκυβαλα.
</idle musing>

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