@Corlove13
I’ve been following your conversation with @Johann and I wanted to confirm with you what I hear you are saying, specifically statements like the one above.
Your statement could be misunderstood to infer that a “willing (submissive) spirit” happens through, and because of your particular experiences, what you also call “circumstances” later in the conversation. “Circumstances” being understood as “that which stands around” you; the associated conditions, facts, and coincidental events that affect, or are connected to a particular situation. As I carefully read your thread of statements, I think you are suggesting that God may bring about particular “circumstances” in our life to guide us into growth, but it is ultimately our responses to those circumstances that eventually “train us” to act in habitual ways (Pavlovian response). God provides circumstances, and we provide a positive response, which eventually manifests as a “willing spirit”. So, you seem to suggest that God does what He can, but our growth largely depends on our response; our choices are ultimately responsible for our own growth. If one takes this idea to its conclusion, it seems you are saying our Christian growth is dependent on our effort; if we fail to grow it is our culpability, and if we succeed to grow it is our merit. God hopes we choose to obey and thereby grow, but if we are unwilling, He is unable to proceed against our own powerful will. (am I still on track?) If this is not what you are saying, then I have missed your point entirely.
I do fully understand how growth feels to us; how we emotionally connect with the process, how when I obey I feel like I deserve a pat on the back, and when I disobey I feel guilty, and deserving of chastisement. We are supposed to feel these things; God feels, and we are made in His image, so we feel things too. We are His design. But what @Johann is pointing out, and rightly so, is that if God does not do His divine work, all the most perfect circumstances in the world would not affect even the slightest change in a person’s righteousness. Also, if God does do His work in a person, all the worst and most negative of circumstances in life can not hinder, or slow His intended process of sanctification. What @Johann is pointing out, and rightly so, is even your willing responses to the circumstances in your life are God’s authorship. When you say “yes” to God, you may feel meritorious, but really it is because God created the willingness in you to do so. Without God creating in you a willing heart to obey, you would remain a disobedient spiritual corpse. Yes, of course God does His work in and through the circumstances of our lives. But, we only honor Him when we realize, like Isaiah did, that everyone of our best works, even our most altruistic responses to God are still tainted and stained by sin; unworthy of merit. “We are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6
When we find ourselves having grown to be more like Jesus, or notice we now have a more willing spirit day-by-day, any merit associated with these realizations is not owed to our circumstances, our good habits, our imperfect will, or just being in the right place at the right time. All merit for our sanctification is God’s. We provide the same amount of merit to our present circumstances as Lazarus provided to his own resurrection from the dead. Lazarus never thought “I’m alive because I stood up and walked”, but “I stood up an walked because Jesus made me alive”.
This is my understanding of this conversation.
KP
I shouldn’t have thrown that in there lol.