@
kiesha8185
we tangled with this question here
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=504567
But here are my answers (kinda long sorry):
1. Ephesians 2:8-9 explains that we have achieved salvation by Gods grace through our faith. Not by works so that no one can boast.
So if we can't do enough good works to earn our way into heaven, conversly we can't do anything bad enough to revoke Gods promise. His grace offered it and our faith led us to accept it. The end.
We should still strive to live a holy life but the Bible says even our righteousness is as filthy rags (compared to a perfect God). Our good works (including not sinning ) is for our relationship with God and so that others see our good works and praise God.
2. The Bible talks about many folks not inheriting the kingdom of heaven/God. There are two meanings to this phrase. One refers to heaven the place God dwells. The other refers to the kingdom of heaven inside each believer. Romans 14:17 explains that kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost. So it is possible for your sins to effect these areas. Your unrighteous acts affect your relationship with God, you won't have peace with others, and you will not have joy...the kingdom of God on the inside of us while on earth...not our eternal status.
3. If whenever we sin we had to get saved all over again then the blood of Christ would be ineffective. The priests used to have to constantly go before God offering burnt sacrifices for the people (under the law) because that sacrifice was only good for that one sin, they continually stood before God. But the reason Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice was because he, the high priest, the sacrificial lamb, only had to die once for all. Past present and future sins. And when he was done the bible said he sat down! Cuz the work was done and he now sits making intercession for us (asking Gods grace on our behalf). (This leads to pauls plea for us not to sin haphazardly just because grace is abounding)
God established the law in the OT. But NO ONE was good enough to be able to keep the law in deed and in their hearts.
Thats why we needed Jesus...a savior to bridge the gap that our sin caused between us and God. So if our good deeds couldnt bridge that gap before...why would we believe our bad deeds could destroy the power of that bridge (the blood of Jesus).
Okay, with saying this.... why should she do the WORK it takes to not repeat the sin if her past, present, and future sins are forgiven by the sacrificial lamb of God?[/QUOTE]
See salvation is the gift of eternal life with God. We could never be good enough to earn that "right" so we needed Jesus' "rightousness ticket" to get us in. This is gauranteed. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. AFTER we have accepted him we are to live lives as befitting a co-heir of Jesus CHrist. The eternal battle has already been won but we must now train our bodies to be subject to our spirit (the new-born spirit of incorruptable seed).
When you are a child of the King you want to represent him accurately. and those who are overtaken in a fault (practicing sin) have allowed their flesh to reign rather than the spirit. They are acting out, and will be chestized accordingly. But their salvation will not be taken away.
So what is the motivator for saved folk to do right if they already have eternal life? We are still subject to the laws that God has put in place-sowing/reaping, trials to test/strengthen your faith etc. GOd will not allow us to "rest" in our sin. God knows our hearts and deals with us accordingly.
For example:God made a covenant with the children of isreal. As a sign he had the males be circumcized. Now these doggone people...lol...before AND AFTER they obtained part of the promise (the land) they still rebelled against him. But He did not require that they be Re-Circumcized after every sin...because HIS promise to them never changed...their actions took them down paths that were not very plesant for them but they never became "un-chosen" due to their actions and eventually produced the long awaited massiah of the world (the rest of the promise).
As for those folks at judgement day that he says he never knew...it wasn't that they had salvation and then he took it back...it was that they had never truly accepted him in their hearts to begin with. And ONLY they and God know if their heart is truly his or if they just said some words on a sunday. For those in a sorority its like saying, "Well Lord I wore pink and green, and I threw up my pinkie in pictures, and I skee-wee'd" and He says, "But You know you were not an AKA"
The consequences to a jacked up relationship with God are real. He has a way of getting our attention. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I "shacked up" with my husband for two years before we got married (participating in some not-quite but really was fornicating activities). I prayed and cried and "repented" and said I would stop...then I kept doing it. Then repeated the same thing over and over but guess what...I never put him out! Felt HORIBBLE sometimes but not horrible enough to do what I needed to do to stop sinning (like we were gonna magically stop wanting each other while being that close all the time lol). And well, lets just say we have been paying for it for the last two years. And when I wanted to know why things were going so wrong in my life, I was directed to those times I chose my guy over my God. God is not mocked. To repent means to turn away from. So if you keep doing it like I did most times its really that you just feel guilt, shame, sorrowful...but you haven't repented.
But no matter how bad I am...nothing can seperate my from the love of God. How did he show his love? In while we were yet sinners Christ died and granted me eternal life
You are a TEACHER! You not only know the word, but you know how to break it down in ways for people to understand.
