More Good News
As to baptism -- our understanding of "Original sin" does not sync.
So, man is good, but God gives us hell because we're good? I don't understand this line of reasoning one bit. Please help.
Ok, man is ontologically good and God has declared this. If God says that man is no longer ontologically good (i.e. worthy to have his existence removed) this means that God is calling that which he has defined as good "not-good." As God's word endures forever, we know that he will not call something "good" and then "not-good" because this would be a contradiction. This means that God will not undo man (halt his existence) because man is ontologically good. This is why people are left in Hell, because God will not remove the good that he has given them.
Ok, so, if I'm reading this correctly...man is ontologically good, but some men spend their lives attempting to destroy this goodness. God will not accept the little bit of goodness left b/c the man has spent his life attempting to destroy it. T/f, the man will spend eternity tortured b/c he is attempting to destroy that last inner fiber of goodness but cannot.
More or less. Those who love that which is not-God strive against themselves. They force themselves to dwell in darkness (even though this is a quite unnatural state for man). When confronted with the pure light of God upon their death, the light is painful and blinding. They hate it and would rather nothingness to the light (for who would not rather experience nothing than experience pain? Why are there heroine addicts? Not because they like the pain, but because they love to numb it into nothingness!).
Meanwhile, those who love God "dwell in the light as He is in the light." They love the light and it's origin. When confronted with the true image of God (instead of the dim reflection) they delight in it, for their eyes are already set upon it.
If that interpretation is correct...wow, I'm just not getting it. If we are ontologically good, and even our will is good, then why would a person spend his life trying to destroy this goodness? If our will is good & we are ontologically good, then why do we need Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross to become our Saviour from OURSELVES? I read the red statement above, and your "our will is good" statement & have to say this sounds like the ultimate "the devil made me do it" defense!
NO! Anything but. This is ultimate responsibility! For, if I am good by nature, then it is through my disorder (how I am teleological) that I desire that which is bad for me.
The will is, "good but disordered." This is to say that it is a man who has a cataract -- the eye is good, and so long as it functions healthfully it will guide the man correctly. However, we have "planks in our eyes," and we lust after things which are not meant for us. We look not towards heaven but towards earth and desire worldly things. Even the righteous are said to, "see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face." (1 Cor. 13:12)
Through this disorder I am attempting to force myself to drink the foulest of poisons. No one else is doing this for me, I do it of my own volition. My only hope is a redeemer who might give graces that my disordered will might be ordered and my wounds, from the many times I, in my fallenness, have thought it wise to cut gaping wounds into my soul, might be healed.
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed." (Isa. 53:5) We are taken from the corrupt vine and grafted to the True Vine (yet, if we do not bear fruit, we will be cast off) (Note on John 15, those "who had been made pure" still may be "cast off").
God heals us and works to cure us (though we will never see a full cure until heaven). Those who have dwelt long at the Masters feet, and those who have drunk deeply from the well-spring of salvation have less illness in them. Their sins are not "unto death," (cf. 1 John 5:17) but rather, though they may fall even daily, they continue to walk in the light. They are called "spiritually mature" and they eat "solid food" (1 Cor. 3:2). Those who have not walked long, may grow with the thorns or die upon trial. They are more susceptible to the world and are more prone to injury as their hearts desire to wonder from the way. They, are called, "of the flesh," and only yet drink "milk".
As a Reformed individual, rather than attempting to wrap my mind around something that, to me, cannot be made to make sense (perhaps your answers to my questions will help, I don't know), I would rather look to the Bible for evidence that something more sensible is going on.
But this is the most sensible thing in the world! Show me one place where what I have said does not agree with the Bible. Rather, this is born from the Bible, prayer, and study.
the fact that I know I continue to sin at times though I am now in Christ all tell me that sin is a problem; that sin has tainted me completely.
But Jeff, where does it say that we are "completely tainted" in the Bible? Yes, it says that works can be tainted, but it never says that we are no longer in the image of God. Yes, we are all like sheep who have gone astray, but that does not mean we are not loved by a good shepherd who will leave his ninety-nine to retrieve the one.
How could God love us if we are "completely tainted"? The Psalmist says, "[He is] not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not sojourn with [Him]. " (Ps. 5:4). If we are tainted completely, this means that we are now "wicked," God will not love us, and we may not abide with Him.
If our will is good, then why is creation in such a state as it is?
Because we, through the temporal realities (teleological nature), are fallen. Disease has infected our wills and our souls. We are not evil, we are infected. We must, then, either be cured or burn.