psycheives
Puritan Board Freshman
QUESTION 1: Is John Piper's APTAT the same teaching as "put off, put on" from Biblical Counseling like Jay Adams and therefore biblical?
Dana, Doug and an APTAT Recap | Desiring God
QUESTION 2: Is John Piper saying "mind/will powered good works" are "the Galatian hersey" and opposed to "sanctification by faith" is this true?
Dana, Doug and an APTAT Recap | Desiring God
Can You Begin by the Spirit and Be Completed by the Flesh? | Desiring God
QUESTION 3: Is "sanctification by works" the SAME thing as Christians saying "I stopped overeating by will power. I just stopped. Made myself stop." "But where was the Holy Spirit in that?" "Oh, he's in me. Everything I do that is according to God's will is caused by him. But everything I do against God's will is caused by me." Is this what Dr. Michael Horton is teaching against when he says we should always respond to God's commands with "Oh no! I can't do it! Thank God that Christ did it for me!" rather than "Oh, I CAN do that! Let me put my mind/will to accomplishing that." Is THIS mind-will power sanctification by works a false sanctification method as John Piper says and perhaps also Michael Horton (unless I misunderstand them)? Is this how we are to live out the third use of the law? (As far as I can tell, APTAT is in line with Biblical Counseling's "put off/put on by prayer and ?trust?" but THIS is purely will-power with no prayer or trust in God to do the work in us.)
Dana, Doug and an APTAT Recap | Desiring God
A – I acknowledge that without Christ I can do nothing (John 15:5; Romans 7:18).
P – I pray that God would make me love as Jesus loves, and work in me all that is pleasing to him (1 Thessalonians 2:12; Romans 5:21; Hebrews 13:21).
T – I trust the promise of God’s help and strength and guidance (Isaiah 41:10; James 1:5, 6).
A – I act in obedience to God’s word.
T – I thank God for whatever good comes. I give him the glory (1 Peter 4:11).
QUESTION 2: Is John Piper saying "mind/will powered good works" are "the Galatian hersey" and opposed to "sanctification by faith" is this true?
Dana, Doug and an APTAT Recap | Desiring God
Can You Begin by the Spirit and Be Completed by the Flesh? | Desiring God
"So the big question is, how? Practically speaking, how do I obey God so that it is “not I but Christ in me” (Galatians 2:20)? How do I work in such a way that my effort is not a “work of the flesh” but a “fruit of the Spirit”?" "They had been bewitched into thinking that they could begin by relying on the Spirit but then could be completed only by tapping the resources of their own will and effort. But Paul said it can’t be done." ""[Gal] 3:1–5... [they were] caught up in legalism." "Are Christians concerned about whether they try to obey God by the flesh instead of by the Spirit?”
"Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" Answer: by hearing with faith. ... verse 3, you have to keep going the same way you began. ... Consider verse 3 very carefully. It is not directed to those who are yet to start the Christian life. It is written for us who began some time ago and are now in grave danger of trying to live the Christian life in a way that nullifies grace and leads to destruction. The point of the verse is that you must go on in the Christian life the same way you started it. Since we began by the work of the Spirit, we must go on relying on the Spirit. The essence of the Galatian heresy is the teaching that you begin the Christian life by faith, and then you grow in the Christian life by works, that is, by drawing on powers in yourself to make your contribution to salvation. One modern form of the heresy is: "God helps those who help themselves. If you buy into that as a way of advancing in the Christian life, you have put works where faith belongs. Faith is the only response to God's Word which makes room for the Spirit to work in us and through us. Flesh, on the other hand, is the insubordinate, self-determining ego which in religious people responds to God's Word not with reliance on the Spirit but with reliance on self. It can produce a very rigorous morality, but it nullifies grace and removes the stumbling block of the cross."
"I hope you can see that the essential mark of a Christian is not how far you have progressed in sanctification, but on what you are relying to get there. Are you striving for sanctification by works? Or are you striving for sanctification by faith? (Note well the issue in verse 3 is how to be completed, i.e., sanctification.) Are you advancing in the life of love by the power of the Spirit? Or are you trying to love in the power of the flesh, that is, by your own works?"
[To avoid sanctification by works, use APTAT]
QUESTION 3: Is "sanctification by works" the SAME thing as Christians saying "I stopped overeating by will power. I just stopped. Made myself stop." "But where was the Holy Spirit in that?" "Oh, he's in me. Everything I do that is according to God's will is caused by him. But everything I do against God's will is caused by me." Is this what Dr. Michael Horton is teaching against when he says we should always respond to God's commands with "Oh no! I can't do it! Thank God that Christ did it for me!" rather than "Oh, I CAN do that! Let me put my mind/will to accomplishing that." Is THIS mind-will power sanctification by works a false sanctification method as John Piper says and perhaps also Michael Horton (unless I misunderstand them)? Is this how we are to live out the third use of the law? (As far as I can tell, APTAT is in line with Biblical Counseling's "put off/put on by prayer and ?trust?" but THIS is purely will-power with no prayer or trust in God to do the work in us.)
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