Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Paul J. Davey
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		07-11-18-A.CC02-826/

Progressive Upbringing Hinders Doctrinal Orientation; Life’s Challenges Are Decreed & Provided As Grace Gifts; True Virtue Is Based on Doctrine

8.	One capacity that is emphasized here is grace orientation: the appreciation of God’s grace without assuming license to sin, and grace modus operandi toward people without compromise of divine policies.
9.	In association with this there is also emphasized doctrinal orientation in which the believer does not think too highly of himself but rather orients to life and circumstances with genuine humility.
10.	Whatever circumstances life presents, the believer with both grace and doctrinal orientation considers it God’s will that he deal with it through doctrine.
11.	Nothing happens outside the plan of God and without purpose.  Thus, life’s challenges are provided as grace gifts from God to accelerate spiritual growth, elicit more dependence upon Him for provisions and guidance, and inculcate the reality that doctrine is more real than the reality one faces.
12.	This is how capacity righteousness results in experiential righteousness: the ability of the believer to function efficiently as a servant of God from the resources of spiritual maturity.
13.	This is the development of true virtue. From human viewpoint, virtue is subjective; its standards vary with one’s culture, worldview, or ideology.
14.	True virtue is based on orientation and submission to divine standards revealed in the Bible.  It is without prejudice to one’s race, mentality, education, or status.  It is available to any person that chooses to willingly submit as a bondslave to the instruction of the Holy Spirit.
15.	There are two Latin phrases that capture these concepts:
1)	The first is credited to Juvenal, a Roman writer: nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus: virtue is the true and only nobility.
2)	Nobilitatis vitrus non stemma character: virtue, not pedigree, is the distinguishing mark of true nobility.

© 2007 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org