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How do you please God?

Discussion in '2004 Archive' started by npetreley, Jun 8, 2004.

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  1. npetreley

    npetreley New Member

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    First, let's look at one description of the process of salvation...

    Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

    ------------------ Pleasing God ----------------

    When is it impossible to please God?

    Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God

    Romans 8:8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

    It follows that anyone controlled by the sinful nature cannot possibly have faith, otherwise he would be able to please God (see Hebrews 11:6).

    Who is controlled by the sinful nature? Paul explains that by looking at it from the opposite viewpoint -- those who are NOT controlled by the sinful nature.

    9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit,

    How is it that they are controlled by the Spirit?

    if the Spirit of God lives in you.

    So if the Spirit of God lives in you, you are not controlled by the sinful nature. If the Spirit of God does NOT live in you, you are controlled by the sinful nature.

    And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

    So if you cannot please God without the Spirit living in you, then you cannot have faith without the Spirit living in you, for without faith it is impossible to please God.

    Note carefully that this cannot in any way be interpreted to mean the Spirit is outside you, wooing you to believe and come to Christ. This is about whether or not the Spirit LIVES WITHIN YOU. If you could believe without the Spirit living within you, then you could please God while you are still controlled by the sinful nature, and that concept clearly contradicts scripture.

    Furthermore...

    1 Cor 12:3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

    No one can (truthfully and sincerely) say Jesus is Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet...

    Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"

    That is, if by the Spirit living in you, you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord"...

    and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

    That is, having been regenerated by the Spirit you believe...

    you will be saved.
     
    #1 npetreley, Jun 8, 2004
  2. Skandelon

    Skandelon <b>Moderator</b>

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    Your doctrine looks like you've patched a bunch proof texts together to say what you want them to.

    Romans 8 could simply mean that as long as one continues in the flesh he won't be pleasing to God. It says nothing about man's ability to leave the flesh and believe when confronted by the powerful Holy Spirit wrought message of the cross. In fact, Romans 8 could be talking about the state of men before they hear the gospel.

    And by your logic you could take the words of verse 9 which says we are controlled by the spirit and say that it is now impossible for us to be unpleasing to God. We know that is not true. We can allow ourselves to once again return to walking in the flesh and then we would be unpleasing to God. That is the point Paul is making. That anyone, saved or unsaved, is unpleasing to God while in the flesh. NOTHING here is said about the ability of man to leave the flesh by faith when confronted by the powerful gospel message, which IS a work of the HOLY SPIRIT in itself.

    1 Cor 12:3 is about descerning the spirit that is speaking in tongues and has nothing to do with your application.

    You know the bible also says, "Judas went out and hung himself," and elsewhere it says, "Go and do likewise," and it says somewhere else, "What thou doeth, doeth quickly." If we put those all together we could teach a doctine that says God commands us to commit suicide. ;) This is extreme obviously, but my point is that we could make the scripture say whatever we want it to say and we have to be careful taking a statements from one text and drawing hard and fast conclusions by how it relates to the words of another text that is addressing a totally different issue all together.

    I believe that is what you have done in your post. Just my opinion.
     
    #2 Skandelon, Jun 8, 2004
  3. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

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    I don't endeavor to please God. I endeavor to honor God. God being pleased should be a result, but it should but be the purpose.
     
    #3 Johnv, Jun 8, 2004
  4. John Gilmore

    John Gilmore New Member

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    Salvation is not a process or a reward for pleasing God. Confession and faith occur simultaneously when God is pleased to save us. Romans 10:10
     
    #4 John Gilmore, Jun 9, 2004
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