RE: [TruthTalk] Re:John 16:13,14

[ShieldsFamily]

I assume that if we argued long enough we could come around to a mutual understanding.  I think I’m just too tired at the moment to proceed, as I have no idea what you mean by “our true ontological status in Christ” regarding the lost.   Your religious construct seems to be one of metaphor rather than reality. (No slam intended!) Izzy   We are not "separated" from God. All things have been re-gathered in Christ. He is before all things and in him all things consist. Whatever the sin problem, it has been addressed in him; it is finished. We have been called to love him and live in obedience to him. The problem is, we believe lies which contradict our true ontological status in Christ, and so we have this great guilt issue going on: we keep finding ways to find ourselves unworthy, or in other cases, ways to find others unworthy -- and Satan capitalizes on this and uses it to exploit us and raise doubts in our minds about that true status.   There is only one "sin" which can "separate" us from Christ, and it is a sin the consequence for which is realized in resurrection; it is the sin of rejection. There on the other side of death, there will be a great walled city which will keep out those who refused him in this present lifetime. There they will have opportunity to experience the "second death," the consequence of committing the unpardonable sin, and this death will be experienced without a Savior.   Bill