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Poohbear:
Okay, I think I understand what you are saying.
We are more or less in agreeance; maybe my words haven't been clear.
I'll use myself as an example. Last year, I walked away completely from the sexual sin. That whole time, I knew it was wrong, but yet I kept on doing it. It got to a point where I was like "What am I doing? How can I possibly love God yet do that which He does not like?" He was giving me a "way out of temptation" each time. He would say pray. He would say read the Bible. Etc. But each time, I just
"chose" to commit the sin. Then I would feel guilty afterwards. So yea, one day, I just switched. One day, I allowed the "power of sin" to be broken through Christ in me, and since then, I have not committed that sin. I didn't feel like a "true" Christian until that moment.
These days, my walk is more about God revealing things to me that are not so obvious sins (i.e., what I call "unconscious" sins). For example, the sin of worrying. I'll start worrying about this or that, then after a while, I get convicted about it and stop. Then I pray for forgiveness.
These days, my walk is also about God helping me shed ingrained sins that have become part of my subconscious. For example, I found out something last week and my automatic response was to say the curse word equivalent of "crap". I didn't say it out anger; it was just a reflex word like "ouch". So later, I was like "Did I really just say that? I'm supposed to be a child of God." So, in that moment, God brought a subconscious sin to my conscious and showed me that I need to shed that sin of using such words.
That's part of the renewal process. He shows me new sins almost daily. Now, there are times that I get tempted to do willful sins, but each time, His voice enters my mind and says "you have a choice, which master will you serve." Part of the path to perfection is to answer "I choose you, O' Lord".
So yes, I agree with you. There
is a problem that "there are people calling themselves true Christians and are indulging in known sin over and over and saying they can ask for forgiveness, do the sin again, and still be forgiven over and over." I agree; it is "not right." I agree; "it's not even striving for perfection."