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 | 30460 | ||
Installment three: The Problem Discussed Does 1 John 5:4-5 define who the overcomers are in Revelation 2 and 3? In other words, do the overcomer promises apply to all believers regardless of the kind of lives they live? I have become convinced that 1 John 5:4-5 is not synonymous with the statements of Revelation 2 and 3. They occur in different books, with different contexts that contain a number of differences and the differences are such that they suggest that the references to overcoming in Revelation 2 and 3 are not defined by 1 John 5. In 1 John the apostle affirms that through believing in Jesus Christ there is a permanent victory over the world in one sense. When a believer exercises faith in Christ, he does overcome the world in the sense that the world system is intrinsically hostile to God’s commands, to faith in Christ, and is satanically blinded to the truth and under his dominion of control and death (2 Cor. 4:3, 4; Eph. 2:1-3; Heb. 2:14), but through faith in Christ, the believer has overcome that condition in that he is made a child of God, has been rescued from the domain of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col. 1:12-13). In Revelation, however, the overcomer concept is restrictive within the realm of the daily conflicts and battles of the Christian life according to the context of each of the seven letters. Here are illustrations of the battles that believers must overcome and for which rewards are promised for overcoming. “But this is a long way from saying that all Christians live ultimately victorious lives. In fact, that is something the New Testament does NOT say.”16 Regardless, as demonstrated above, many use 1 John 5:4-5 to interpret the overcomer promises of Revelation 2 and 3 because of the similarity of terms. Overcoming and the promises of these passages find their root in the Lord’s statement in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” The Christian life is full of conflict, tribulation, but victory awaits all believers through the victory accomplished by the Savior, but it is a victory that must be appropriated by an active faith that is fed though fellowship with the Lord. While all believers have overcome the world in the sense of 1 John 5, conflicts and trials come to the believer in a variety of different shapes and degrees. When we turn to Revelation 2 and 3, we find each church with its own particular conflict and problems with specific rewards that are in keeping with or somehow related to the problem faced. No two Christian’s lives are the same in terms of their struggles and triumphs. The basis of victory is the same, faith in the person and work of Christ and our blessings in Him, but the struggles are different and it seems that God tailors the rewards accordingly. These letters do not present victory as a certainty, but rather as an aspiration which each individual should pursue. The Savior’s words are never to them who overcome, but to him who overcomes. Victory is not a collective right, but an individual attainment. Clearly, the promises to the overcomers are rewards for obedience to the commands of the Lord of the Church.17 The problems that most have with this view come in the nature of the rewards mentioned in these promises and admittedly, these are difficult. The rewards in Revelation 2 and 3 are usually viewed as blessings all believers will automatically receive as, for instance, the right to the tree of life. This is associated with possessing eternal life, but as we will see, this is probably not the case. An investigation of the promises in Revelation 2 and 3 will seek to show that these are not promises all believers experience because every believer is an overcomer, but that these promises are special rewards to believers who overcome specific conflicts in the Christian life through faith and obedience in their daily walk. End of installment three: |
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