Posted on 04/05/2014 8:09:38 AM PDT by varmintman
The problem these days is the Left want to curtail the "forum of ides" and make up your mind for you. That's tyranny.
“He has redeemed us from the law”
It was HIS law. You’re going to tell me that we no longer have to follow HIS law because HE’s redeemed us from it?
So you believe Christ paid the sin debt and satisfied the justice of God for Hitler and Stalin?
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That’s not true. God is on my side, because I am on his side.
I agree that God wants this country to turn back to Him. But as He did with ancient Israel, at a certain point He will give America up to her sins. I believe that’s already happened; Romans 1 says the consequence of that is rampant homosexuality, which is what we have here today.
I also agree that we are to judge sin, not to condemn to hell, but since that goes without saying, I didn’t specify.
But toward the end of your post you say it’s the grace of God to neither condemn NOR judge, so I’m not sure where you stand.
All I know is that the Bible instructs us to judge righteously (John 7:24), so I have no problem with it. Christians must be able to distinguish between sin and righteousness, and we shouldn’t harbor mistaken notions that is isn’t “nice” to call it out.
So now what? Enter Jesus the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. No one could keep the law, but He did. And He took all the wrath, judgment, and condemnation for the rest of us who broke the law. Therefore, we are no longer under the old covenant of the curse of the law, but under the grace of the new covenant becasue Jesus took our sins and lawbreaking upon Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God, to which the sacrifices of the Old Testament point. "But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:3-4).
God's law matters but Jesus has solved that impossible problem for us. We are no longer under the curse and condemnation of the law because Jesus kept all the law and as God's perfect sacrifice, absorbed all of God's wrath and judgment on his body. God would be unjust to judge us for the same sin he already judged on the body of Jesus. Therefore, we are free from the demand and condemnation of the law. The new covenant in His blood declares, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer 31:34).
His grace isn't cheap, it cost God His only Son. But it is free for us to take.
He paid the sin debt for EVERYONE - he took away "the sins of the world."
The issue since the cross is not what we do that is "right or wrong" but what we do with Christ. The only issue in time and eternity is whether one has believed in and received Christ. Christ, not the law, is the standard of the new covenant of the New Testament.
So the question is what did Stalin or Hitler do with Christ.
So life is in Christ not in keeping the law or condemnation of sin. Our job is to show people Christ - He, not the law, is their salvation
I recognize that’s what an awful lot of men believe, but that isn’t how I read my Bible at all. Isn’t unbelief a sin? Did Christ atone for all the sins or not? If He atoned for unbelief, why is anyone punished for it?
Where does Scripture teach He paid the price for all the sins of all the world except for the sin of unbelief? Are those in Hell merely being punished for unbelief or for all of their sins including the sin of unbelief?
And since Christ paid their sin debt, where does Scripture teach that God requires a double payment for all of those eternally damned? Did He pay the sin debt of the wicked who had already lived and died?
I read my Bible to say “For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” (Isaiah 53:8)
It also says, “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.” (Psalm 85:2)
John 10:14-15 says, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
In John 17 my Bible teaches that Christ does not pray for the world, but only for those given to Him by the Father.
Ephesians 5 teaches that “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”
Titus 2:14 “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
In Matthew 20:28 we read that He gave His life “a ransom for many.”
In short, I believe the Bible teaches He died and paid the sin debt for a specific group of people, His sheep, those chosen from the foundation of the world, and not each and every person who ever lived.
I also believe God’s sovereign eternal purpose includes all of the sinful acts of men, including the sinful acts of Hitler, Stalin, and a wicked sinner like me.
(Genesis 50:20) “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
(Psalms 76:10) “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”
(Isaiah 45:7) “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
(Amos 3:6) “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?”
(Matthew 21:42) “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?”
(Acts 3:18) “But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.”
(Romans 8:28) “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Jesus said, “if you don’t believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). So Jesus Christ is THE issue. However, if one refuses the free gift of Christs’ punishment for their sins, then, yes, they die in their sins.
We can certainly agree Christ Jesus is the issue!
You are saying that G-d gave us HIS law knowing we couldn’t keep it, and then, about 1200 years later, HE decided we no longer had to.
Bingo.
The Bible says the law was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. "The just shall live by faith" not the law.
The law is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Grace is the Tree of Life. Israel in its pride said, "We can do all that you tell us." Then God say, OK, here's the law. Next thing you know, they're worshiping the golden calf and stuff. Why? Because the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56).
We were created for fellowship with God. We were never created to try to perform apart from him or establish our own righteousness by our good works. The law brings out the sin that lies dormant in our flesh. That is why it is meant to teach us that we can't do it and we need Christ who has already done it.
The Christian life is not "DO", but "DONE": "It is finished."
It just doesn’t make sense. The Golden calf was before the Hebrews knew that there was a law. I realize that we mere mortals cannot discern G-d’s purpose, but you should also keep that in mind. Your claim is that G-d changed his mind in 1400 years, or was committing fraud on HIS people. I don’t believe that either is true.
God declaring 500 years ahead of time he was changing the game.
Read further in that verse, the part about “MY LAW.”
Doesn’t seem like HE’s changing the deal.
What do think he means when he means by making “a new covenant” that is “not according to the old covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand out of the land of Egypt”?
Do you think it means that HE absolved them from having to obey HIS law?
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