Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 78. The fruit of the Spirit and human good.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
The sixth part of the fruit of the Spirit - nominative singular feminine noun agathosune - a*gaqwsuvnh = to be generous and to produce divine good.
Divine good is an absolute concept related to God. Human good is a relative concept related to mankind.
We, as believers, can perform divine good = God has given us in grace the means or the power to do so.
The means of producing divine good is the filling of the Holy Spirit and the perception of Bible doctrine.
Divine good is permanent and absolute. Human good is temporary and relative.
Human good is corruptible, because mankind has a sin nature and commits acts of personal sin.
Human good produces blind arrogance and corrupts the one who produces it.
When the believer is filled with the Spirit and growing from doctrine, his human good is converted into divine good.
Human good is based upon the relative standards of mankind; divine good is based on the absolute and eternal standards of God.
If human good and human works are excluded from salvation, and they are, it follows that human good and human works are excluded from the plan of God for the believer.
Mankind in spiritual death has no system of good deeds by which he can impress God and have eternal life. The only good that impresses God is the saving work of Christ on the cross.
There is a system of good which can be performed by believers and which is acceptable to God.
He provides the filling of the Holy Spirit, our portfolio of invisible assets, the problem solving devices, promises from the Word of God, and the doctrine which motivates us to perform the good deed.
The perfect, absolute, and eternal standards of God, revealed in the Word of God, must be the norm for understanding the true nature of human good.
ROM 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
There is a good that is evil and a good that is divine.
Desirable - chamad = to covet or to lust after something.
She thought that understanding good and evil could make her wise rather than doctrine.
Wise - sakal = intelligent, prosperous, successful.
What was the first thing that the woman wanted that she thought that God had apparently not provided for her?
Intelligence, wisdom.
Qal imperfect - laqach = “she took.”
Laqach = to take.
Imperfect tense = she had it in her hands for a while.
She added to the Word of God and now her false doctrine will deceive her, for the Lord never said you cannot touch it.
Qal imperfect - akal = when she ate it, she entered in to the first sin of human history.
Holding it in her hand, it was still temptation. When she decided to eat it, that was the act of volition that became the original sin.
Looked at the fruit
Longed for the fruit
Laid hold of the fruit
Ate the fruit
Became spiritually dead.
Preachers try to correlate Adam identifying with the woman and eating the fruit with TLJC identifying with sin and dying for the human race on the cross.
It was outright rebellion and disobedience whereas the cross was the most noble act in all of human history!!!!
The issue: fellowship with God versus compatible relationship with the woman.
He decided to go with the woman rather than TLJC. He should have been leading and he was led.
Naked - erom = their physical body was no longer covered by light.
Satan’s first objective in this temptation was to take control of the world from Adam.
His second objective was to defeat God in the courtroom appeal trial of the angelic conflict which he did not succeed in doing.
Disobedience to God regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil meant not only spiritual death but coming under the rulership of that creature genius Satan.
When you understand that human good + sin = evil, you will understand the policy of Satan, and the genius of Satan as the ruler of this world.
Satan really spends more time trying to acquire human good from his followers rather than sin.
The goal of Satan is to have the Millennium on earth by man’s efforts under Satan’s sponsorship before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
When you understand that human good was not necessary for a relationship with God then you understand something that over 90% of Christians do not understand today.