Yet God is commending this love of His for us, that while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes
Paul to the Romans 5: 8, Concordant New Testament
I have a question for all of those die-hard Christians out there. If God hates sin, why then does He love us? If God seemingly hates the sinner, as those within the halls of the mainstream church continue to preach, why did He choose to dispatch His Son for our sakes? The answer to these questions is simple if you realize the truth of the Lord God. That through His love and grace we have been reconciled once again to Him {Paul to the Colossians 1:20}. Yet those in the church continue to harp on that one verse which seemingly condemns all of us. The passage which proclaims us all to be sinners {Paul to the Romans 3:23}. But often overlooked by the zealous condemn first and forgive later crowd are the words of Paul which we find in the following passage. That we have "Been justified gratuitously in His grace, which is in Christ Jesus" {Paul to the Romans 3:24}. A good friend posed the comment to me the other day, that God hates sin {First Epistle of John 1:8}. So, God hates sin, but while I was yet a sinner He loved me enough to send His Son in my place {Paul to the Romans 5:8}? How does that work? This got me thinking, how is it that God sees sin today? Does He see it the same as He always has? I would assume so, seeing that God never changes {To the Hebrews 13:8}. So, it's safe to assume, then, that God still hates sin. So where does that leave us? How does God see us, whom the church continues to brand as sinners? Well, I would assume that He views us now as blameless, seeing as Christ Jesus has been dispatched for our sakes {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}. So Jesus, the innocent sacrifice, has been sent to be the propitiation of our sins {Johns Account 3:16-17}. Is it a safe bet, then, that God no longer sees His children as sinners? Well, if you were to ask any pastor worth their Pharisee school education, the answer would be a resounding NO! This is obvious from the separation theology spoken from the pulpits of the church. That it is indeed our own sin, that sin which Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself for, which continues to separate us from Gods presence. Again, how does that work? I have been under the assumption that Jesus died for the forgiveness of sin, yet those in the church continue to speak otherwise.
In Whom we are having the deliverance through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses in accord with the riches of His grace
Paul to the Ephesians 1: 7, Concordant New Testament
The other day, my friend who continues to be steeped in the religious traditions of the Eastern Orthodox church lamented to me of how many times each day that he prays for his own forgiveness. Knowing what I now know about how God sees us, I tried to convince him that God no longer saw him as a condemned sinner. That Jesus has paid that price for him. Yet he continued to bring up scriptures which indeed profess the existence of sin in his life. It is my belief that my friend, as well as so many others, have been brainwashed into believing the false narrative about themselves. The narrative which speaks to the lie of the deceiver that we have been separated from God. The lie which speaks to our being our own individual, apart from God Who created us. This is the lie spoken by the deceiver in the garden {Genesis 3:4-5}. The mistaken belief is that once Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that they somehow became like God, knowing what is right and wrong. In essence, the belief that man became something he has never been designed to be. For their part, those in the church continue to proclaim this lie to the world today. So it is that far too many believers find it difficult to accept that God could see them as anything less than a condemned sinner. To this I would ask, what about Jesus? Is it not Jesus Who has given Himself for the forgiveness of sin? Not only past sin, mind you, but ALL sin past, present and future {Paul to the Romans 6:10}. What sin of yours did Jesus miss on the cross? I believe that were you to approach the throne of the Lord and ask Him to forgive that sin you agonize over, His response will very well be, what sin, My child?
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment