As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“The sixth fruit that the Spirit grows in the developing character of a Christian is ‘goodness.’ … One of my friends posted recently, ‘Joe Biden wasn’t elected. He was installed. Like a toilet.’ Nope. Wrong fruit.” - Olinger
“The first thing to do is: Turn to the Scriptures. Yes, turn to John Owen (never a bad idea!), or to some other counselor dead or alive. But remember that we have not been left only to good human resources in this area. We need to be taught from ‘the mouth of God’ so that the principles we are learning to apply carry with them both the authority of God and the promise of God to make them work.” - Ligonier
“…the New Testament authors apparently don’t think the once-for-all forgiveness (justification) conflicts with the need for ongoing forgiveness (sanctification). This can be seen not only in the Lord’s Prayer, but also in 1 John 1:9: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’” - TGC
“The word legalism is overused. Sometimes I tell my students at the seminary where I teach that they may use this word once a year and no more. All too often legalism is employed whenever we consider obedience inconvenient.” - Derek Thomas
“The saint is justified the moment they trust in Christ; God works immediately and fully. The saint progresses in sanctification through a lifetime of walking as the Lord continues to work. But all of it from start to finish is a work of God grounded in Christ and carried out through the Holy Spirit.” - Tim Bertolet
“While love as the fulfillment of the law does inform us that law-keeping alone is an inadequate measure of sanctification, that does not mean that law-keeping is optional to sanctification. We still must obey the laws (else why would the NT writers have been so painstaking in giving so many hundreds of them to us?)!” - Mark Snoeberger
“There is more to our union than just receiving our justification. But there would also be no justification upon the believer in Christ is there was not this deep and close intimate union between Jesus and the believer that is established by God. I am in Christ and Christ is in me.” - Ref21
By William W. Combs. Reproduced with permission from DBSJ 11 (2006). Read the series.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
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