“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)
I think many Believers forget this scripture and its truth. Worldly thinking rejects this truth entirely and most strenuously. We live and carryout our duties as best we can, but we still fail and sin. God provides for everyone giving us food and provision whether saved or not. As to our temporal physical life we can work and produce a harvest from what He gives, but there is more to life.
There is a Spiritual aspect in human existence calling us to eternal realities, seeking God and life after death. This is why man invented religions to earn the life hereafter, but that is futile. All religions have various laws to do and refrain from doing. They recognize distinctions between good and evil, which was a consequence of the Fall of man. We all know instinctively and experientially that we chose and do bad things. There can be no sane denial that this world is full of evil, crime, murder, lying, war, greed, pride, lust, theft, sickness and death, otherwise known as sin.
God is good and He has not abandoned mankind, His mercies are new every morning. He chose Abraham and blessed him, choosing a people for himself – Israelis. He gave them instruction and judges, then through Moses His law in ten commandments. They rejected Him asking for a king and later were subjected to Roman occupation. At that time God sent His promised Messiah, Yeshua, as a Deliverer Savior, God’s only Son who could reveal Himself in human form. The Jewish leaders rejected Yeshua and had the Roman’s crucify Him. Three days later He rose from the grave and ascended back to Father God. Most importantly, He left disciples who were eye witnesses of all He did and said and He imparted the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit to all Believed upon Him.
This was God’s promised redemption and enabling solution to the fall of mankind. It is God within man leading, directing, empowering Believers to chose and do that which pleases God, to be involved in His work and obey His will. Some forget the Spirit’s essential critical role and assume God has appointed them to use their good intentions and reasoned judgment to do good deeds, just as secular humanist do.
Scripture teaches that fallen human nature of ego, human reasoning and good intentions are worthless and must be ended for the Spirit to lead. “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh…”(Philippians 3:3) God has not fixed our human nature; He has given us His Spirit as a substitute – our work is to surrender and submit to His will, then by the Spirit and faith we walk.
Direction in Truth 