Sincere Question

[Crown]

@Alicialynn86, did you consider Verse 8? That's why I'd posted the entire chapter.... you've picked only the last two verses to make your point. Because our very emotions and feelings can blind us from truth, the deception comes by denying the existence of any sin in our hearts.

Well if my emotions and feelings are leading me to not want to do and justify sin, well Glory!

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

I agree with the scripture! But did you read my entire post? I said God will show us our error and what we need to need work on, and be delievered from, but what I am saying is that we do not have to STAY in sin..We are to be conformed to the image of Christ.

@Laela, correct me if I am wrong, but I understand Verse 8 like this :
If we say that we are sinless as humans (Christ, The man, was/is sinless), we deceive ourselves.
Because if we say that we are sinless, we are saying that we don't need to come to Christ to be cleansed, we don't need salvation.

If not, there would be contradiction with 1 Jn. 3 :

1Jn. 3 : 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

ETA : Sorry Laela, I did not read your post saying that's all you are saying before posting. No need to answer to my post.

 

[Galadriel]

But when you look at scripture after scripture that shows the believer that you can live a life with out sin, and then I keep hearing we all have to sin..I just find it....well.....perplexing.

I am enjoying your posts (as well as Nicola's and Laela's)

I agree with you. I think depending on a person's theological/Biblical understanding, they may believe that sinlessness is a strictly divine quality and not a human one.

However they forget that the first humans (before the Fall) were sinless, the holy angels who never fell from grace are sinless, and all the saints in Heaven are sinless.

Humans on earth sin not because it's intrinsic to being human, but because we are born into this world broken, less than what we *should* actually be (we weren't meant to sin or fall from grace, but did so through free will).

This is why Christ instructs His Church to preach the Gospel and baptize (thus restoring the grace we were deprived of through sin). With this new life of grace in Christ, in being the temple of the Holy Spirit, we *can* overcome sin before we die, but this is only possible through Christ's power and His sanctifying grace.

Our holiness is not only legal (i.e., God declaring or viewing us as holy), but also actual (i.e., sanctification, interior holiness).

 

[Iwanthealthyhair67]

I can't accept that the great and mighty God is in capable of breaking strongholds off our lives, the word does not lie ...It is not his desire that we be held captive to any kind of addiction ...

 

[Rainbow Dash]

I can't accept that the great and mighty God is in capable of breaking strongholds off our lives, the word does not lie ...It is not his desire that we be held captive to any kind of addiction ...

Agree, Christ came to set the captives free.

"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." Luke 4:18-19

 

[Shimmie]

I can't accept that the great and mighty God is in capable of breaking strongholds off our lives, the word does not lie ...It is not his desire that we be held captive to any kind of addiction ...

This is true. I've witnessed those who were also 'unwilling', yet God DID override their foolish mindset, and they were delivered.

Yet there are still some folks that have lost their way and never found their way back and it's not because God could not nor did not want to save them. Whitney is one of those examples.

I can only see God grieving over this and warning those who remain, to take heed and flee from such.

So sad...