Results 1 - 2 of 2
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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 |
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2 | God's Forgiveness of Sin | Mic 7:19 | Eagle One | 30457 | ||
Beginning of installment two: This view is held by some very outstanding expositors of the Word. For instance, J. Sidlow Baxter writes: But the promise is to “the overcomer.” Are all believers “overcomers”? Let him think twice who would answer a dogmatic “Yes” to this question. The letters to the seven churches, at least, suggested otherwise to an unprejudiced reader. Our standing in Christ is no artificial position of immunity. As there are degrees of punishment in hell so there are degrees of reward in heaven. One is made ruler over ten cities, another over five. “One star differeth from another star in glory.”14 Barnhouse has a similar view which sees the promises to the overcomer as promises of rewards for faithfulness and writes: Some have said that eating from the tree of life was the equivalent of receiving eternal life, but this is most evidently a false interpretation. Eternal life is the prerequisite for membership in the true Church. Eating of the tree of life is a reward that shall be given to the overcomer in addition to his salvation. His work, built upon the foundation that is Christ Jesus, abides the test of the Lord’s appearing, and he receives over and above his entrance into eternal life, a place in the Heavens in the midst of the paradise of God.15 These men, along with others, would heartily agree that all believers are overcomers in one sense, in the sense they have become children of God, have been translated out of darkness into the glorious light of Christ, have been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ. In this glorious position, they have become identified with Him as to His person and work, etc., and enjoy many other marvelous blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10). Every believer is an overcomer in that sense (1 John 5:4-5). But these expositors would also insist that all believers do not overcome absolutely. Christians can fail to live for the Lord and overcome the desires of the flesh (1 Cor. 11:28f; 1 John 5:16-17). Furthermore, while the failure to overcome may be an indication of false profession, the fact a believer does not overcome the struggles of life, does not automatically prove they are not true Christians. If they have truly believed in Christ, they cannot lose their salvation, but they will lose rewards as the Lord warns in Revelation 3:11 and the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. Those holding to the rewards view would say the overcomer passages are promises given to believers to encourage and kindle love and obedience in view of who they are in Christ and what they posses in Him. These are not warnings against the loss of salvation, nor necessarily warnings against false profession, though that could be one application of these promises. Furthermore, they are not statements affirming the preservation of the saints. Instead, they are guarantees of special blessings or rewards for faithful service and lives of faith. End of installment two. |
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