| Author | Message | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
Heard something from an old Bob George program this morning that caused the light bulb to go on. I thought it might be useful to others as well. He said that when we were born into this world our sins were already forgiven. My initial thought was that he is preaching universalism. However, he used Romans 5:8-10 to support his premise:
There it is. Paul said that we were reconciled while we were still enemies. We were forgiven corpes. Bob went on to explain that it is not forgiveness from sin that we need when we come to Christ, but the salvation from the consequence of sin, which is spiritual death. This is why we no longer have to come to Christ asking for forgiveness of sin. When Jesus died on the cross, He said, "it is finished." There was no more forgiveness of sin to be had. It was an accomplished feat!
Isn't that amazing? The gift of God is not "forgiveness" from sin, it is life. This is such a departure from the garbage I was taught in Adventism. I think I will probably go to my grave still wading through all of the garbage that kept me from seeing the real Gospel. I praise God for an awesome saviour. Doug | ||
| Colleentinker (Colleentinker) |
Doug, I remember reading that same idea in George's book Classic Christianity. It's powerful, and I believe it's true. I've come to believe that God's call to us is not primarily to "forgiveness" or to a good life or obedience. His call to us is to repentance. He forgave our sins on the cross. He calls us to accept spiritual life and to turn away from our sins. He does all the work in us! Praise God! Colleen | ||
| Doug222 (Doug222) |
If you want to really have an eye opening experience, look up the defnition of repentance in a Strong's Concordance. It is not the definition that we typically hear, which is "be walking one way and then to turn around." Strong's defines it as "to think again." Repentance is recognizing the hopelessness of our condition and trusting in God for salvation, not our own inherent goodness or our good works. So God's call to us is not about forgiveness at all, but totally about repentance, and the fruit of that repentance is life like we have never experienced it before. Doug |
