Here is what we are to add. The first
being moral excellence which springs out of faith. Faith is a gift of
God given to us at salvation. We are made alive by the Spirit, He is
like the wind who comes and regenerates those whom the Father has
chosen. We are made alive and just like the wind is not seen so we will
not see the second death. Our faith is in Chirst. He is the object of
our faith. The more we mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit and
the word the more we will focus on the person of Christ. THe more we
understand who Christ is and what He has done the greater our faith in
Him will be. That will be the reason we live a moral life, knowing that
we cannot keep the ten commandments in ourselves we go to Christ when we
fall short and realize that He kept them perfectly. We understand that
we could never be righteous in ourselves , because when we see the law
we are convinced that we fall short of the standard, when we rest in
Christ work we get better.
The knowledge we have when we get better
is from a spiritual knowledge. It is a divine light. It is from our
source who is Christ, who reveals to us His will by making us rejoice in
Him and the truth. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
that is the glory of Christ, and in rejoicing in Him we begin to taste
that His truth is more than just an intellectual stimulus but it is a
pleasurable desire to glorify Him and it comes from the knowledge we receive from the word and the Spirit.
The more divine light that we
get in our understanding as a result of resting in Christ the more self
control we will have. Because we will be controlled more and more by the
Spirit. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit. The s5.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith
supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
6. and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
7. and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you
neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
9. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
10.
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about
His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things,
you will never stumble; Spirit will cause us to walk in His light by
convicting us of sin and by all of the graces we receive from Him in the knowledge we get as a result of resting in Christ work alone. THe more
grace we receive the more we are going to be self controlled. The less we
will be guilty, the more our inward parts will come in line with our
outward actions. There will be less hypocrisy as a result of us living
in grace and not guilt. This will produce in us a profound sense of the
greatness of God. We will live in the reverence for God because we will
be more and more inclined to seek Him and understand His attributes. The
more we focus on the greatness of God the more godliness will be
evident. Then we will love others. This is the end, that is being others
centered. Giving to the pour, helping the little ones, being available
to help our brothers. It will be a natural flow out of our election. Our
election will become so real to us that we will begin to rejoice in one
sheep being added. Our sight will not be carnal but spiritual and we
will know who God is and we will see God, we will have a greater
spiritual sense of sight and touch and taste and feel.
The
Holy Spirit knows us better than we know ourselves. That is he prays on
our behalf with words that cannot be expressed. It is not the Spirit
who is not know to us by His working in us but it is us who do not
understand the Holy Spirits work in us. We are so blind to His speaking
to us and what that grace we have as a result of His working in us.
Because we do not think spiritually, we tend to think of Him as a force
because of our sin and our lack of trust in His work in us by grace ,
and we do not enjoy the fellowship wit h Him as our comforter that we
could if we understood His work in us more and if we were more in tune
with our inability and His ability to perform. Our faith in ourselves
hinders us from experiencing fellowship with Him because we fail to
place our trust in Christ work. The Holy Spirit lust for control in us.
He desires to inflame our desires for Christ. He puts in us a joy that
is beyond the circumstances. He communicates to us by gracing us with
these pleasures. We are as it were inculcated in the God head, having
the work of the Trinity securing us a peace that is supernatural, and
the Holy Spirit works to bring us into this glory through the work of
Christ on our behalf. We are caught between the pain of being in this
world and the experience of fellowship with the Father , Son and
Spirit, in a very human paradigm. There is a sense in which what we
experience on the inside from our deli-ma in the world affecting us and
the work of the Spirit renewing us in each of the deli-mas and in each of
the inward experiences that grows our faith in a personal enlightened
way. We look at the ugliness we possess and we are overcome with the
Spirits lusting in granting us grace that drives us into the heavenlies.
This process is such a singular path that we have no human goodness to
elevate our intellectual goodness, but we are cast on Christ in a very
humbling way, and yet in such a fellowship with the Father through the
Spirit that out of that tension we long for heaven when all the tension
will be eradicated. AR