RE: [TruthTalk] Read it and weep!

[ShieldsFamily]

Izzy in blue below:   And one more thing  --  sin is no longer the deciding factor in our relationship with Christ.  Romans 3:23 is constantly ignored on this forum by several who want to make personal and individual righteousness the issue that determines our saving relationship (is there another kind) with the Lord.   You know what it says but I will remind you: All have sinned and fall short (present tense action --  "are falling short even as we speak") of the glory of God.  There are three venues in which sin works its ugly will, two of which are pertinent to this discussion:   historical sin and sins of character.  Smoking, drinking, cursing, doping, etc are sins commited in time  --  they are historical, having a beginning and an ending.   Sins of character are very different.  They are with us all the time and form the basis for those things we commit (the historical sin).  Pride, conceit, bigotry, anger, selfishness, and the life  and so we sin and continually fall short of the glory of God.   This is why John can say that we "have sin" at any time  (I Jo 1:8.)  We are no better than those whom we dispise.  It is Christ who makes us right.   It is His faith and victory that saves and this never changes.   We always need Him and are always lost without Him.  John John, You misconstrue Romans 3:23 if you think it reads, “For all have sinned and keep on sinning every day.” Yes, we all have sinned, requiring a Savior.  What does the Savior do? He saves us from sin. Does that mean we keep on sinning? No.  “God forbid,” as Paul said.  Jesus has set us free from sinful behavior/acts/addictions/desires, if we only exercise the faith God freely offers to walk it. The FAITH you speak of is the faith in the overcoming power of Christ in our lives against committed sins AND committing sins! If we keep committing sins that is a sign that we are not as “in Christ” as we assumed we were. You also say “we are no better than those whom we despise.”  What scripture is that??? The righteous (and the Lord) despise evil. We were, prior to Christ, all evil.  But in Him we are the righteousness of God.  Not just theoretically, or mentally, or out there in some ethereal netherland—but in actuality.  We DO righteousness because the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers us to desire and walk in what GOD considers righteousness. I believe the faulty kind of thinking you express is what makes some people seek out and cling to false doctrine such as Kruger teaches; that we are made right in Christ even if we continue in our sinful lifestyles, and that we should expect to continue sinning every day, and in fact God “understands” our sin, because we all are in just one big group hug love-in relationship. The truth is that God does not ever “understand” sin.  Sin is what He died on the cross to overcome.  He finds it that abhorrent. Scripture that is read in context and unfiltered tells us that sin separates us from God.  Christ is the cure for our sin (meaning sinful living), and the shield from its penalty in eternity. If God understands sin, if sin does not separate us from God, and if there is any way to “spiritualize” sin, then we never needed a Savior.   Psalm 11 5   The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24   Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25   Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Romans 6 1   What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3   Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4   Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5   For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6   Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7   For he that is dead is freed from sin. Izzy