Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
How can it get clearer that than? We are under grace, not under the law.
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
That I John 3:4 quote was taken totally out of context and I’m surprised that you used it at all. It is about Christ taking away our sin and the continued struggle of the flesh to obey the will of God.
Yes, if you murder you have sinned and displeased God. But are you in obedience to God just because you haven’t murdered? No. Or are you righteous because you haven’t murdered? No.
Are you righteous because you obey ordinances, traditions, and laws? No. Absolutely not.
Waling by the spirit means that you can ‘sin’ by disobeying God in areas where there is no specific written law! You could be saved, born again of God’s holy spirit and still lead a disobedient life by rejecting the instructions of God’s spirit.
Did Moses break a written commandment? No. But he disobeyed and suffered for it anyway.
We can disobey by not ministering when the spirit leads us to do so, or by simply failing to love our neighbor as ourselves!
When one is weak in faith one will rely on the law and the ordniances of what to eat, drink, etc.
When one is strong in faith then all becomes permissible when led by the spirit.
If you are asking forgiveness for eating a porkchop, having a beer, smoking a cigarette, dancing, etc, then you’re still not firm in faith.
And before anyone feels the need to say it, overindulgence in anything is lust, and therefore sin. We aren’t to use our liberty to satisfy lustful carnal cravings.
Gal 5:3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
I'm trying to figure out if you truly can't or don't see the position I'm defending or if you see it and won't acknowledge it.
Let me explain it in a way that might be easier to understand.
Let's say we are driving a car. There is nobody in the car except for us. Throughout our lives we've picked up quite a few bad driving habits. We speed, we run red lights, we park illegally, etc. etc. etc. We violate a lot of laws, every day and rack up a lot of tickets. But the funny thing is that when we see a cop, we PRETEND that we're keeping the law. We slow down. We don't run red lights. Or we pretend we're a good driver to impress our friends or our family, but when we're alone, we still violate the laws all we can because we think they're stupid and don't apply to us.
This represents a non-Christian, one without Christ in their lives.
So let's say our driver becomes a Christian. We'll say he invites Jesus into his car. But he makes Jesus ride in the passenger seat. He now TRIES to obey the law, but still slips up, violate the laws, because he's human and still messes up. But now somethings different. Jesus has an in with the cops. He can take care of our tickets with just a word.Jesus steps forward and says "Hey, this guys with me. I'm taking care of everything." Consequently, we receive NO tickets because Jesus is our advocate.
This is an immature Christian. One who trusts in Jesus enough to maybe take his advice about driving once in a while, but still kind of thinks he knows best.
But one day our driver gets sick and tired of driving. He's weary. Worn down. So he decides to let Jesus drive. Jesus of course is the PERFECT driver. He NEVER violates the law. He can't violate the law. He NEVER gets tickets. As a result, our driver never breaks the law...while he let's Jesus drive. He can't! He's not driving!
But our driver though loses faith once in a while. He doesn't trust maybe where Jesus is taking him. So he grabs the wheel from Jesus, or maybe asks Jesus to let him drive for a while. Jesus let's us do it, to learn from our mistakes. So we drive and eventually end up doing something stupid.
A mature Christian let's Jesus take the wheel more often than not. The more mature a Christian is, the more he let's Jesus drive.
Get it? As long as Jesus is driving, he WILL not break the law. And as long as we are the passenger, the law CANNOT judge us. It is not germane to us. It doesn't apply to us. We NEVER violate it. It doesn't apply to US. The law is not obsolete, it's still there, in full force. But it doesn't apply to us AS LONG AS Jesus IS driving.
Now here's how I see the relationship or the debate you and I seem to be having. An observer OUTSIDE of the car (you) only sees one thing: the car. You know (for example) that it's MY car. You maybe don't always see who's driving, but you recognize that it's my car.
When Jesus is driving, you notice that the car is ALWAYS obeying the law. But you always make the assumption that it's "me" driving. When you see me in person, you keep telling me that "I" don't have to drive so perfectly and accuse me of wanting to "earn" brownie points. You tell me that Jesus has an "in" with the cops so we don't have to worry about breaking the law.
You, in fact, believe I 'm the first sort of driver. The one without Christ. You think I'm keeping the law to impress others, or just keeping it when there's a cop around. You can't or won't see that it's Christ at the wheel.
Understand?