If you are comfortable thinking you can keep your sin and still be considered righteous I feel sorry for you.
Actually, I am comfortable thinking that YOU can keep your sin and still be considered righteous, Terry. That's the issue, here. And this has nothing to do with the latest in theological renewal on my part. I have believed and understood Paul in Romans on this matter for many a year. It is Paul who says you are saved by faith apart from obedience to any law. That is Paul talking, not me. It is Paul who says we all continue to fall short of the glory of God. What in the world do you think that means? It is Paul who describes the continuing sin problem (Ro 7:25) and then tells his readers that God has solved that problem by taking away condemnation (8:1). It was Peter, in Acts 15 who admitted that the keeping of the law was a burden that should not be passed on (Acts 15:10). It is God -speak in the Galatian letter that tells of love, joy, peace, kindness and then establishes these things by saying, "against which there is no law." It was God's plan to move from law to Spirit (Jere 31:31-340, not mine. It was Christ who asked us to "seek first [and foremost] the sovereign rule and authority of God [Matt 6:33] ........" Sovereign rule and authority is an inward thing, Terry. it is Paul who reveals that our righteousness is a consideration in the mind of God and in the place of faith. .......... . "fatih reckoned as righteousness." Do you have any real idea what that means? Your righteousness is as menstral rags before the Lord. That is the state of affairs in your life (and mine, if truth be told). So God has no choice but to look elsewhere as He considers our plight. And He finds the answer in Christ who reconciled all in His flesh and at His death FOR THE PURPOSE OF holiness, blamelessness and being above reproach IN HIS SIGHT (Col 1:22,23). It was Paul who taught us in this passage that the fact of reconciliation was accomplished in Christ, in his flesh, at His death and this reconciliation was for all on earth and in the heavens above ------------------ all were reconciled during the Incarnation Event. All !!! Book, chapter and verse on that, Terry, my friend. You don't want to move on and and admit to the process of intellectual repositioning in the Lord (read " growth), that is up to you, but all that I have said is right there in the Book, in plain sight.
JD
