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rileykins -> RE: Be Holy? (5/8/2008 3:01:54 PM)
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ORIGINAL: URForgiven
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ORIGINAL: drmark
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The wages of sin is death. It is not being out of fellowship or a spanking. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Christ is not returning to deal with sin anymore. He has already done so Then why do so many Christians struggle with sinning, Dennis? I think you're posts indicate some confusion between sin (as the carnal nature) and sins (as the various acts of sinning). The end result of the unregenerate carnal nature is death. The Atonement does indeed "deal with sin" (the carnal nature) by providing a once-and-for-all solution. In my tradition and experience, we call this "entire sanctification". However, this spiritual state does not remove the possibility of ever sinning again. Thus, John writes in 1 John 2:1 that if we sin by specific disobedience, then Jesus speaks on our behalf, when we confess, repent, and allow the Holy Spirit to resume control. This is NOT losing our holiness, much less our salvation!
They struggle with sin because they refuse to truly believe that God has forgiven them, and because of that error, they are living in unbelief. They are unbelieving believers.
They are totally forgiven children of God who are living as though they are not. They have made Gods grace ineffectual, and it is grace that teaches us to say no to unrighteousness. The very thing that can help them, is the very thing they reject.
So they focus on their sins. When God is saying, "Focus on Me! Because when you focus on Me, you will not sin!"
The truly tragic result of this is shown in the individuals lack of ever truly experiencing the life of Christ in them.
Until a person rests in the finality of the cross, they will never rest in the reality of the resurrection.
Hi URForgiven
One big fat AMEN to that!!
Another reason why believers struggle with sin is because they have placed themselves under some form of law keeping system and so they end up in the Romans 7 experience of constantly trying to do good, but always failing, because they have yet to realize that the strength of sin is the law. And when your life revolves around you trying to keep up with some kind of law keeping righteousness performance system your focus will always be on yourself, you'll be operating in a sin-centered mentality in which you will always be falling short, it's a sure fire recipe for failure everytime. God's answer to the believer's sin problem is Calvary and our having died with Christ once and for all to sin, been buried with him and raised in newness of life. You are so right UNForgiven, until a believer comes to understand the absolute finality of the cross and his identity in Christ, he or she will never come to experience the real victory over sin that God in Christ has provided for us.
rileykins
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