Commentary on "The Fruit of the Spirit: The Essence of Christian Character"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 6: Thursday, March 25, 2010

 

Overview

“The fruit of the Spirit aren’t going to happen on their own. Your own choices will determine your destiny. What changes do you need to make in your lifestyle, in your associations, in anything and everything you do that can better allow for your spiritual growth?” (Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Page 158)

 

Observations

Finally, we get to the main point this lesson has been dancing around since Saturday afternoon.

“The fruit of the Spirit aren’t going to happen on their own.” Is the Spirit incapable of producing them in us? Does God need our help? Is He not up to the task?

This is the real result of the heresy I wrote about in the preface. Because Jesus isn’t really God, we are called upon to provide for ourselves what He cannot accomplish for us. In fact, because Jesus isn’t God, we can ignore Him completely. In fact, God, because He must respond to us, is not really God. We are!

And now, we’ve come full circle back to that original temptation in Eden, “You shall be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

Please, patient reader, flee from Adventist thinking! Write off the losses you’ve incurred in this bankrupt system and come to the real Jesus. Stop trying to create for yourself everything He already has given you (2 Peter 1:3-4). His grace is sufficient. His sacrifice was sufficient. His life is sufficient. As His child, you have available to you everything that He is.

 

Summary

1. The statement quoted in the Overview above (from page 158 of the SDA Teachers Quarterly) is contrary to every clear teaching regarding the Christian life in the Bible.
2. Following that statement to its natural conclusion will culminate in Hell. “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:23).

 

GO TO DAY 7

 

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