GraceBro
Posts: 365
Joined: 12/17/2005
Status: offline
|
"First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." Hebrews 10: 8-14
When you don't understand the finished work of Christ you make up reasons to put down those that do. To that end I give you the following statement delivered by someone who believes that Christians need to continue to ask God to forgive them.
"[A] growing doctrine that I will tag as Hyper-Forgiveness seems to be getting more and more p[o]pular. The short short of it is that if a person is a Christian then they are automatically forgiven for any sins they may commit; no repentance needed, no confession ne[e]ded, no asking God for forgiveness needed. "
This is a clear example of someone promoting Galatianism. What do I mean by Galatianism? As the Apostle Paul put it, Galatianism describes Christians who are trying to achieve what they already have, in Christ, through self-effort. And nowhere is that more evident than in the area of forgiveness. Most Christians, fixated on sins, are forced to find more and more ways to deal with them. Thus, they create modern day sacrificial systems which make a mockery of the cross. You have your 1 John 1:9, altar calls, confession booths, short accounts, rosary beads and many other rituals no longer required, or accepted, by God. And when somebody comes against this error they are tagged as promoting "Hyper-Forgiveness."Those who don't accept the finished work have their patented verses they believe support their theory and demand you address them, but won't answer questions posed to them. Instead, they choose to say that you are being disobedient to God for not believing as they do. Let's be clear about what it is I believe.
"After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1: 14-15
I believe in repentence. True repentance is turning from unbelief in Christ to belief in Christ. i.e. accepting the Gospel. The only real change of heart takes place when somebody realizes their condition of spiritual death and accepts God's provision of spiritual life in Christ. As for sinning, if we stop comitting a particular sin, there is no guarantee we won't fall back into it. Does that mean we didn't truly repent the first time? No, it just means we need to approach God and discover what it is about that sin that we believe will give us something more than what we already have in Christ. And we can't approach God if our sins were still a barrier between us and Him.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." 1 John 1: 8-2:2
Do I believe in confessing sins? Yes, if by confession we mean agreeing with God that we did sin. But, also agreeing with God as to what He did with our sins. He "remembers them no more" because Christ's sacrifice has satisfied Him for eternity. A Christian only has two choices when it comes to dealing with sin. One, they can try and deal with them on their own by asking forgiveness or they can believe they have in Advocate, Jesus Christ, who deals with our sins before God. We can't have it both ways. Furthermore, a Christian doesn't say they have no sin. A Christian can say all they want that we need to keep asking God to forgive us, but they can't use the above passage as evidence of their belief. If the truth isn't in you, you don't belong to God. i.e. you're not saved.
"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.'" Hebrews 10: 1-7
"Oh God, will you please forgive me?" If the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sins, how does asking him to do so take them away? It doesn't! First of all, we didn't ask Him to forgive us the first time around. Nobody asked God to send Jesus to die on the Cross. He did that out of His love for us. Secondly, the wages of sin is death, not an apology. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Where is the shed blood in asking forgiveness? Finally, Christ died once for all. Is it an act of faith to ask Jesus to do what He has already done and to request from Him what we already have? I don't believe it is. These "same sacrifices" that we repeat on a daily and weekly basis do not draw us closer to God. In fact, we are nullifying the cross by doing so no matter how hard we try.
It is not our confession, repentance and asking forgiveness that teaches us to say no to ungodliness. It is our resting in the fact that, in Christ, we are forgiven and then trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide us from within. And if the Holy Spirit is guiding a believer He is not going to lead us into a life of sin. That doesn't mean we will become sinless, but we should see a significant diminishing of our sins. After all, if we have been given everything we need for life and godliness, and been blessed with every spiritual blessing ,what the world can only offer through sin will become less attractive. We have to see ourselves as God sees us; sinless, holy, blameless and forgiven. This labeling of the finished work of Christ as "hyper forgiveness" comes across as a straw man propped up so everybody can read their own definition into it and then tear it down. However, all it proves is that those tearing it down have alienated themselves from Christ in their minds.
"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—" Colossians 1: 21-22
For those that understand the finished work our sins remind us of how terrible sin is. Sin deserves death, not an apology. And none of us have a life worthy enough to offer to God as a sacrifice. That is why when we sin, we understand how thankful we should be to Christ because He paid a debt He didn't owe for a people who owed a debt they couldn't pay. The sin issue between man and God is over. It has to be for us to have a relationship with God. Otherwise we spend our lives focused on our flesh and not on Jesus and the Spirit. It's time to be reconciled to God and stop deceiving ourselves into believing there is more work to be done.
Grace and Peace
_____________________________
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GraceRest/
www.livinggodministries.net
http://360.yahoo.com/idog96
|
Forum Tools
Printable Version
Don't Believe The Hype - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread