So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you d put to death the deeds of the body, you will live…
The necessity of a working faith- "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?" (James 2:18-20)
The necessity of the Spirit in a working faith- "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)
…For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
“What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father…But cannot this be said of every person, Christian or not? Emphatically no! …Sonship to God is not…a universal status into which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through receiving Jesus.” –J. I. Packer (Knowing God, 200-201)
"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)
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