AS SHOCKING AS IT MAY SOUND, NOT ONE IN ONE HUNDRED
CHRISTIANS UNDERSTAND WHAT BEING SAVED BY GRACE
REALLY MEANS. IN THIS ARTICLE THE TRUTH WILL
BE MADE PLAIN
Part Three
by
Keith Hunt
IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR A CHRISTIAN TO SIN ?
God's grace towards a repentant sinner does not END with
that persons initial justification, as we shall now proceed to
prove.
A person has REPENTED - he has confessed to God he is a
sinner - he's cried out to God for mercy. He sees that God has
made a way possible for him/her to be forgiven and have the
penalty of death removed. They see that Jesus Christ came and
paid that penalty for them - they accept Jesus as their PERSONAL
savior and are baptized. Their sins are now completely washed
away - they stand RECONCILED to God - sinless - absolutely
RIGHTEOUS in God's sight. Now from that day on, is it IMPOSSIBLE
for him/her to ever commit a sin ? They do not WANT to sin -
their whole attitude is to NOT sin - they want to serve and obey
God's commandments, but is it POSSIBLE under temptation and human
weakness of the flesh, to slip up and sin?
Turn to 1 Jn.1:8. This verse plainly says, "If WE(converted
Christians) say that we HAVE NO SIN, we DECEIVE ourselves, and
the truth is not in us."
Spirit led, humble children of God, ones who desire to live
the way of God's love, which is His commandments - DO AT TIMES
SIN! If any say they do not, God's word says they are deceived.
Read the 7th chapter of Romans, and see how Paul explained
the battle that went on between his old sin lusting nature and
his now Spirit filled mind. He did not want to sin - he loved and
wanted to keep God law, but he found himself at times falling
short of that perfectness of God. He had to CRY OUT to God for
HELP and MERCY!
HOW A CHRISTIAN IS FORGIVEN
So a baptized - converted - Spirit filled Christian, can and
DOES SIN at times. The law has not been abolish as we have
previously proved - the wages of sin is still death. How then can
a Christian be FORGIVEN(be shown grace) of his sins this time?
Can he be forgiven by DOING some good work or deed? Can he go
about to EARN forgiveness? Does God add up all his good works and
law keeping and use them to cancel out his evil deeds? If that is
case, then he would indeed be EARNING his way to eternal life and
salvation, and Eph. 2:8 would not be true.
God does not leave us in any doubt as to HOW we as
Christians walking along the salvation road, can obtain
FORGIVENESS of sins that we may through weakness commit.
Turn again to 1 Jn.1. We have read verse 8 which says we do
sin, now read verse 9, "If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful
and just to FORGIVE us our sins, and to CLEANSE US from all
unrighteousness." We again turn to God in a REPENTANT attitude
- we confess to Him we have sinned. He sees our heart. He knows
we do not want to sin, that we desire to obey Him, to serve and
keep His law - He WILL FORGIVE US! God will again show us grace,
because are still wanting to live within His law and the
conditions He set down for us to qualify for His constant grace
over us.
Look at chapter 2 of 1 John and verses 1-2, "My little
children, these things I write unto you, that YOU SIN NOT." Yes,
our aim - our direction of mind is not to sin, "And(but) if any
man (does) sin, we have an ADVOCATE(an intercessor) with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Jesus is in heaven pleading
on our behalf before the Father.
Continue, "And He is the PROPITIATION(the atoning sacrifice)
for OUR SINS" Yes - Jesus was RAISED AGAIN from the dead - raised
for our CONTINUAL justification (Rom.4:25). We are not only
justified (forgiven of our past sins by the blood of Jesus, by
His death - Rom.4:23-26) to RECONCILIATION with the Father by
Christ, but He was raised again for our present day to day
justification or forgiveness. He was raised to life so He could
intercede for us.
Upon our present repentance and confession of sin, God the
Father will accept the work Jesus is doing for us while in heaven
above seated at the right hand of the Almighty. The Father will
again and again(constantly) apply the BLOOD and SACRIFICE of His
Son to us and cleanse us from our iniquities.
Turn to Hebrews the 4th chapter, verses 14-16. Read those
wonderful words of truth. Jesus Christ is our HIGH PRIEST in
heaven above. He is speaking on our behalf to the Father. He
knows what it is like to be human . As a human He was tempted to
sin, but He did not sin, not once. Jesus really knows and
understands the battle we face in overcoming sin. We can come to
the throne of GRACE when we do sin and ask for mercy. We shall
obtain it.
Now do you see the WONDER of all the great LOVE of the
Father? We do not have to try to amass more good works than bad,
more good thoughts than evil ones, so the good can cancel out the
bad. No amount of good works can blot out our sins. Our sins
during our Christian walk are washed away by the present work of
Jesus in heaven, by His atoning sacrifice, by His shed blood
being applied to them. Grace being again shown to us by the
Father. WE CANNOT EARN THAT MERCY BY ANY OF OUR GOOD WORKS! It
is God's to GIVE as His GIFT. But there are conditions laid down
for us to receive His free grace. Those conditions we have
previously shown you.
As long as we maintain that attitude of REPENTANCE and
willingness to OBEY God, then He will through Christ Jesus ,
FORGIVE us our sins.
SAVED BY THE LIFE OF JESUS
You have probably thought or been taught that Jesus' DEATH
on the cross COMPLETED salvation, that it WAS FINISHED at
Calvary. After all, didn't Jesus say, "it is finished" (Jn.
19:30). But WHAT was finished on the cross? Let Paul answer, "For
all have sinned(broken God's law - 1 Jn.3:4) and come short of
the glory of God. Being JUSTIFIED declared righteous) freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom
God had set forth to be a propitiation (an atoning- sacrifice)
through faith in His blood (death on the cross) to declare His
righteousness for the remission (forgiveness) of sins that are
PAST....." (Rom.3:23-25 KJV, amplification mine).
The sinner upon REPENTANCE, accepting Jesus as his personal
savior, can have ALL PAST SINS - sins up to that very moment -
FORGlVEN, washed away by the blood of Jesus on the cross.
Christ's DEATH secured our justification from the sins we
HAVE ALREADY committed. His DEATH took away the penalty we had
incurred by our sins (Rom.6:23). What Jesus finished on the cross
was the sacrifice for our PAST sins to justification and
reconciliation with the Father.
Listen friends, this may shocks some of you, but the truth
of the matter is that it takes BOTH the DEATH and LIFE of Christ
to SAVE you. If Jesus had only died and had never been raised to
life, you could never be saved, you would never inherit eternal
life - you would be dead in your sins!
Read these verses in your own Bible - mark them, and never
forget them: "And if Christ be not RISEN, then is our preaching
vain, and your FAITH IS VAIN ALSO.....if Christ be not RAISED,
your FAITH IS VAIN - you are yet IN YOUR SINS!! Then they
also which are fallen asleep in Christ ARE PERISHED" (1
Cor.15:14,17,18. KJV). If Jesus is not alive - if He was not
RESURRECTED, we are yet in our sins! We are yet sinners
- doomed to perish. The death of Jesus is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
for salvation, but so is His LIFE!
It takes not only His death but His LIFE also to save you.
Now how much of that part of the gospel have you heard? You
hear a lot about the death of Jesus - His blood shed to cleanse
your guilty past - but how much do you hear about His LIFE to
cleanse your present and future sins? Christ is NOW upon the
Father's right hand in heaven INTERCEDING for us, so the Father
will daily forgive us our sins. That is why Paul wrote, "For if,
when we were enemies, we were RECONCILED to God by the DEATH of
His Son, much more, being reconciled, we SHALL BE SAVED by His
LIFE" (Rom 5:10).
Then we also read in chapter 8:9-11, "Now if any man has
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His....But if the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also QUICKEN(make alive)
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you."
When Jesus shall RETURN - when God the Father sends Him back
to this earth, WE the children of God shall be LIKE HIM (1
Jn.3:1-2). You can read what Jesus looks like TODAY in Revelation
1:13-16. WHAT GLORY AND SPLENDOR THAT WILL BE!!
If you meet the CONDITIONS given by God, you can be in the
Kingdom of God. And all who are there, will be there not because
of their WORKS that they've done, but because of God's mercy -
GRACE. Because they have been forgiven their sins through the
blood of His Son - Christ Jesus.
You are truly saved by GRACE !
.............................
Written in 1984
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