Harder than I thought..

[Kurieuo]

Why do lost people miss this?

Wake up man. While you are now in your sin, Jesus Christ died for you.
The bible doesn't say, stop sinning, clean up your life, and then maybe if you are lucky, Jesus will die for your sins.
He already did it. It's done. Finished.

I cannot become a Christian and then *knowingly* defy God's will by doing these things.

You won't become one thinking you have anything to bring to the table. YOu think your perversions can undo the work of the Savior? You need to repent. Repent of the idea that you are somehow beyond help. Repent of the idea that you have anything to contribute to your salvation. Jesus paid it all. Not you.

You know you are a sinner. You know your porn and lust are wrong. By knowing that you are closer than most out there. But you need to know that you are truly helpless. You can't make yourself fit for God's Kingdom. Trusting Jesus will make you fit for his Kingdom/.

You want to do something really radical? Trust Christ. Trust that He is bigger than your sin. That His life, death and resurrection, have reconciled vile sinners like you and me to Himself. Stop trying. Start trusting.

The way I have always understood it, is that you have to repent for your sins and *mean* it in order for Christ's sacrafice to matter. That you can't just say "oh I believe and that gives me a free pass to do whatever I want" To me your repentance wouldn't have much meaning if you continue to sin over and over and over again and not try your hardest in your heart to not do so. Or am I misunderstanding?

If you want to wait until you no longer sin, then I guarantee you'll die first. Christianity is different from all other world religions in this respect.

Something nearly all religions have in common is one must purify themselves by performing rituals or resisting fleshly temptations. The Gospel starts with one truth. We all stand condemned before God because of our sin. To think that a sinner can purify themselves is like saying a filthy rag can eventually clean itself. The next part of the Gospel is that because of Christ, God's righteousness has been fulfilled in Christ, so we who belong to Christ no longer stand condemned. We have someone in our favour who wraps us in His protective righteousness - Christ. Finally, because we are no longer captives to sin, but rather captives to Christ, why should we continue in our sin? A natural change seems inevitable to anyone who loves Christ. And through Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, we have hope that changes will follow.

[Canuckster1127]

The sin problem that Christ solves for us is not based upon the individual sins of commission or omission that we have committed in the past or will commit in the future. Sin is first and foremost a condition. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. When we accept Christ as savior we are accorded a position of forgiveness before God because God now sees us through the lens of what Christ has accomplished for us in his incarnation, life, death resurraction and ascension to the right hand of the Father where he is now our advocate and intercedes with God on our behalf.

There is nothing we can do to earn that salvation. It is grace.

Paul, it's great that you are concerned about being sincere and willing to change and realizing that salvation is more than just saying words. However, the change that will come in your life is not something that has to happen to show God you are serious. When you come to God, he receives you on the basis of what Jesus has already done for you and then he comes into your life and fills you with his Holy Spirit. God doesn't demand that you walk perfectly and never sin again in the future, certainly not as a condition of his maintained love or acceptance of you. Repentance is our part. We desire to change and are willing to walk away from know sin. God's part is that He fills us, changes our hearts and renews our mind to where we begin to walk with God not because we're afraid of punishment or rejection, but because we love Him and want to please Him.

This change isn't something you can do. All you can provide is the willingness and the invitation for Christ to come into your life and make you a new person. God does the rest and then we move forward with God after that.

If you haven't read through Romans 1-8 already, go ahead and do that and you'll see a lot of this spelled out there. It's a wonderful view of the problem we have, and how God solves it through Jesus Christ. It really doesn't take long to read. Don't worry about focusing on the minute detail. Look at it in large sections and see how it moves forward from sin to law to Grace through Christ. It's a beautiful thing to see and even more beautiful thing to experience and then to walk in freedom in right relationship with God knowing that His love for you is not conditional on your behavior, but your behavior will change because He fills you, loves you and you want to please Him in gratitude for all he's done for you.

blessings,

bart

[Gman]

I remember way back when being traumatized about how this was setup in the Old Testament and how it was reflected in the New Testament. As an example passover where the spirit of God would passover the Jewish homes with blood on their doorposts. Or the sacrificial lamb.. Christ's blood washes our sins away.. A life for a life, etc..

Very very interesting how God set this up and very logical I must say.. Once you understand these principles, you will never want to go back..

[Silvertusk]

No - You are talking about the unfogiveable sin against the Holy Spirit. This means a constant persistent denial of the Power of Christ. The trick here is that if you are at all worried about commiting the unforgivable sin then you have not. People who have commited the unforgivable sin don't care about it anyway. These people are harden athiests.

[jlay]

Can this type of sin be forgiven?

Paul, let me make this clear. It already has been.

I thought I heard in the bible that consciously sinning, being aware of it and still doing it while you are thinking of God is the worst kind of sin.

I'm not aware that the bible says that. Jesus compared anger to murder, and lust to adultery, so it pretty much leaves us all wretched sinners. I do know Jesus died to forgive ALL sin, not some. Regarding conscious willful sin. Yes, it is terrible. It is vile. That is why you need Jesus my friend.

There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom 8:1)

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)

[PaulB007]

Thanks for clarifying this, I understand now.