Salvation and Sin

Comment

Comment by Joseph S Parker on February 21, 2016 at 1:50pm

Amanda, I appreciate your comments.  I've had to edit my posts so many times I have lost count.  The loving Father aspect I understand very well.  And sometimes instead of disciplining us; He allows us to fail, as part of our growth in Him.  Your comparison to a parent / child relationship is quite reassuring. 

Let me explain myself a bit here and then you will understand how I came to my conclusion.  Don't worry, your comments and explanation has fully answered my position and I am fully on board now.

God is perfect.  Sin cannot exist in the presence of God.  God's old law required a blood sacrifice of a perfect lamb to "cover" the sin of the Jews.  It was an extension of the blood that was to be smeared on the lintel and posts of the Hebrew's doorways in Egypt creating the Passover, to shield the firstborn Jews from the Angel of Death.  Christ's was the Lamb slain in our stead for our Passover.  This brings me to a new understanding of the Passover celebration.  Christ's crucifixion was God's way of paying our penalty of (the second) death.  And when He suffered and died, He took ALL sin upon Himself, a burden which grieved Him so much that He sweated drops of blood.  But that was just the start of what He was to suffer for us. 

Over the years, I had developed the misconception that when we sin after salvation, we are giving up on Christ's sacrifice, literally turning our backs on Him.  When He knew that we wouldn't be able to NOT sin.  Thus we have this promise that even though we may repeat sin, we will be chastised for the errors we make.  But that chastening is designed to bring us BACK to Him, not as punishment, per se'.  (We need to find a way to better explain how salvation works.)  The other way, backsliding is the same as just giving up on our salvation, had lead me to almost walk away from Christianity as a whole.  That I was misunderstanding how salvation works and how we maintain it, had lead me to consider; "Why bother with the Church, reading the Bible, Praying and all of that if the first time I commit another sin, I have to start all over?  I may as well just do whatever I want, because if my end is just worm food and there is nothing afterwards, I'm wasting my time."  And for a very long time I did pretty much whatever I wanted to do, unless it was illegal in the eyes of civil law. 

I'm going to work on how to explain this on a simpler level and when I get it done, I'll post it here.

Thanks again Amanda.

(BTW: You are certainly not a dork. ;-) )

 

(Note: I have an extensive background in security work.  In that work I've written more reports and taken more testimony than I care to remember.  But whenever I had to write a lengthy report, I always wrote it down elsewhere and then read and reread and then rewrote the report until I had said everything that was needed and required.  I've actually been complemented on my report writing due to this practice.  Next time you have the issue of editing and deleting, open a word document page and write the post there, and when it's just like you want it, copy and paste.  In this way you can also save a record of what you've written, to whom and when... Just a suggestion.)

Comment by Joseph S Parker on February 21, 2016 at 11:09am

Thank you Amanda, for the information and Scripture references.  Here is my understanding of what you are saying.  Our acceptance of God's grace through Christ Jesus sacrifice, shedding His blood which washes us white as snow, we begin walking covered by His (Christ's) righteousness.  And that when we commit further sin, backslide, we are no longer covered by His righteousness but are still saved from Hell.

The promise of Hell is what I am ultimately getting at.  Our salvation, which is by Grace through Christ, saves us from the second death, when the dead and the living are judged by God and the names are or are not in the Books of Life and Death.  The second death is reserved for those that die in their sin and those that are saved through Christ's redeeming sacrifice will live to see the new earth created and will populate that new earth.

Is this a correct understanding or have I missed the picture all together?

Comment by Joseph S Parker on February 20, 2016 at 8:09pm

A few years ago, the church I was attending talked about "walking away from under the covering" of Christ's blood.  The problem with that is that when Christ shed His blood for us, our sin was washed away.  He took all of our sin upon himself and became the sacrificial Lamb that was called for in the Mosaic Law.  In this way, he fulfilled THAT LAW.. not the Ten Commandments.  But I digress; when we fall to the temptations of the past sinful self, are we already forgive, that sin didn't happen, or must we ask for forgiveness and again strive NOT to repeat the sin. 

It is my opinion that God and Jesus know that we are creatures with short memories and little self control.  The know that living a sinless life with out Christ is absolutely impossible and exceedingly difficult with Him.  We fall back into old habits and sometimes we even know we are committing that same old sin, again.  How do we handle this issue?

Paul gave us an answer.  Forgive me, but as I've said before, I cannot recall chapter and verse like some can but I am sure that I read that he said that he prayed for forgiveness daily.  This makes sense to me.  To confess our sin to God and Christ, even if we know it is a repetition of old sin would be recognized.  Someone once asked Christ how many times we are to forgive someone that wrongs us.  His answer was, I think, 70 time 7; thus if He said that we should forgive as this, the wouldn't He and the Father follow the same 'rule'?

All I know, is that for myself, I am forgiven and I try to muddle through.  When I realize I've stumbled I ask for His blessing and grace to see me through another day and that maybe with His help I won't go there again.

Lord, Give me strength to make it one more day without grieving You.  Amen.