Results 1 - 2 of 2
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | God's Forgiveness of Sin | Mic 7:19 | Robert Nicholson | 29923 | ||
Eagle One: Thank you for your kind response. I have read your post to brother Nolan and I have a few comments to make. I agree that "eternal life" is exactly that and that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. I believe that we should never lose sight of the holiness of God. Sin cannot come into his presence. He must judge sin. I say this reverently, "Not even the love of God can overlook sin". His love is pure and holy as he is. In view of this, God by his grace in his eternal counsels divised a plan whereby he can pardon the guilty sinner by accepting the sustitutionary work of his Son upon the cross who bore the awful load of our sins. For those of us who live in this age of grace we look backward to Calvary by faith, all our sins were future when Christ died. In contrast those saints of the old testament acted by faith and in doing so looked forward to the coming redeemer. We read "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) In other words the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for the whole world. Will the whole world be saved? No! Why? because of unbelief. Forgiveness of sins is freely offered to the "whosoever" will. Forgiveness of sins cannot be realized until a sinner is willing to acknowledge his sinful need and by faith accept the provision which God has offered through his Son. Brother, I am sorry if I am rambling. I agree that God is going to judge all people by their works. For the unsaved there will be righteous judgement based on the light which they have had during their life time. A good example of this is the words of Jesus to the Pharisees "it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gommorah than you in the day of judgement". Christians will also be accountable for their stewardship since they were saved. We must remember that we have been given the indwelling Holy Spirit to give us power over sin. In addition, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26) and even more wonderful "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:34). Sin in the life of the Christian should be an accident and if we sin and confess it we are forgiven by his precious blood. "For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing]".(1 Cor. 5:10 NASB amplified) Paul in this passage is referring to the "Bema" or the award seat connected with the olympic games. The lives of all Christians will be reviewed through the refining fire of God. Because we are overcomers in him, we will all finish the race, howbeit, some may crawl across the line, whereas, others may have wasted time by being occuppied with the wrong motives in service. Others may lose reward due to a sinful life or worldliness. Yet even though some will be saved as by fire, everyone will have praise of God. Brother, our sins and the punishment for our sins were laid on Christ. Thus, I have difficulty seeing punishment at the judgement seat of Christ. However, we will suffer loss if we fail to commit ourselves to Christ in our lives and allow him to work through us. The awards of that day will be laid at his feet and to his glory forever. The examples which you have given pretain to the Kingdom of Heaven which is the rule of the heavens over the earth in contrast to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven is a sphere of profession and we find that within professing believers there will be those who are false. When dealing with the Kingdom of Heaven we have the wheat and the tares which sybolize true Christians and false professors. We enter the Kingdom of God by birth from above John 3. We find that there are no tares in the kingdom of God. I will give more thought to this part of the discussion. Your brother by his grace alone Robert |
||||||
2 | God's Forgiveness of Sin | Mic 7:19 | Eagle One | 30456 | ||
Greetings to you Robert, To continue our examination of Christian status at the Judgement Seat of Christ, I'd like to focus on usage of the word overcomer. What follows will be very lengthy and will probably have to consist of at least three installments. Ref. at the end of the post. We've discussed the position that there is an overcomer discussed in I John 5. So the question is: Does overcomer in I John 5 mean the same as the overcomer discussed in the book The Revelation. Who are the Overcomers? Daniel B. Wallace Senior New Testament Editor, the NET Bible Bob Wilkin writes The Bible does not promise that all true believers will live victorious, holy lives. Believers may have more than temporary setbacks and bouts with sin. It is sadly possible for believers to backslide terribly and to remain in that backslidden state until death. Certainly the church at Corinth was hardly a picture of believers experiencing ultimate victory over sin in their lives (cf. 1 Cor 3:1-3; 11:30; see also Gal 6:1-5; Jas 5:19-20; and 1 John 5:16)! It should be noted that some of the Christians at Corinth had died in a state of carnality as a direct result of God’s judgment which Paul carefully defined as God’s disciplinary action. This shows God was dealing with them as His children (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29-32 with Heb. 13:5-11). I’m not saying that eternal security is not true… What I am saying is that there is no guarantee in Scripture that eternally secure people will live overcoming, victorious lives here and now. Believers can fail.9 Does John’s use of the overcomer expression in 1 John 5:4-5 dictate its meaning in Revelation 2 and 3? It is true that 1 John 5:5 teaches that our faith overcomes the world. It is a mistake, however, to conclude that because John so used that expression in one place, he must have used it the same way in all other places. The contexts in which the expression is found in Revelation 2-3 are greatly different than the context of 1 John 5:5.13 The messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 present very different contexts than that of 1 John 5. 1 John 5:4 teaches us that the means of victory over the world is “our faith.” Then verse 5 declares that the only ones who can overcome the world by faith are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Why? Because only these have experienced the new birth of God in spiritual regeneration and it is that regeneration that gives the power for victory (vs. 4a). But the context of the seven letters suggests that John is there admonishing believers to overcome specific trials and temptations by faithful obedience through faith in their new life in Christ. Consider the following examples from each of these messages: Revelation 2:7b reads, “To him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” But the context for this is the admonition in 2:5 which reads, “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” The admonitions “Do not fear” and “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (2:10) form the immediate context for the promise, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death” (2:11). The call to repent in 2:16 precedes the promise to the overcomer in 2:17. “Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations” (2:25-26). Again, the promise is in a context of two admonitions for faithfulness. While some versions leave out the “and” that begins verse 26, the Greek text contains this connecting particle and shows a relationship exists between the promise and the admonition. The promise of 3:5 is directly connected to the concept of faithfulness described in 3:4. “But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments;” Again, an admonition, “Hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown” (3:11) forms the context for the promise of 3:12, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God,” Finally, the last promise to the one who overcomes (3:21) is set against the context of the Savior’s invitation for fellowship (3:20). Believers cannot overcome without dining intimately with the Savior in daily fellowship. According to this view, the overcomer passages are promises of rewards given to believers to encourage them to overcome the trials of life through faithfulness. End of installment one. |
||||||