Bible Studies

Divine Conviction vs Diabolical Condemnation Part Two

by Doug Laird 
09/29/23
Free to Share

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

As far as salvation is concerned, all of the born-again believer’s past, present, and future sins have already been forgiven (1). This is what theologians refer to as positional sanctification.

But never-the-less, there will be consequences for the negative choices we make during the course of our post (after) salvation spiritual life, here on Earth. These choices call for divine discipline here on earth, and forfeiture of reward (not salvation) in Heaven (2).

The immediate consequence for committing a post salvation sin is the loss of (3) fellowship with God.

Two partners engaged in a marital conflict can remain married, but lose their desire for intimate fellowship with each other until whatever caused the conflict is resolved.

In our walk with the Lord, we grieve (4) God the Holy Spirit whenever we commit ANY (5) type of sin. Like the fore-mentioned married partners, we remain in our relationship with God (6), but the intimate fellowship of our relationship with God is lost until the sin is confessed.

The restored fellowship, that follows confession, is retained by forsaking the same sin in the future (7). Confession, that is not followed up by forsaking the same sin in the future, will result in one spending much of one’s post salvation spiritual life out of fellowship with God. When out of fellowship with God, our focus of attention will be prioritized on life here on Earth, and our Mark 4: 19 productivity (for which we could receive heavenly reward) is diminished.

Attempting to bypass the need to confess and or to forsake our known sin, by doing additional good deeds in another area of service, will not restore fellowship with God.

In baseball (and with some people), three called strikes and the batter is out, losing his opportunity to advance to first base and or beyond. The batter may or may not agree with the call, but he is still out. With God, a born-again believer has eternal security (8), and therefore is never “out.” But he or she can not advance in the plan of God with an unconfessed or unforsaken sin. The divine Umpire does not make mistakes. What He calls a strike (sin) is a sin, rather or not we agree or disagree with what the rule book (Bible) labels as sin.

Unlike the religious confessionals that are the products of Man-made religion, the confessional of God is open 24/7 and is only a prayer away. The length of time we spend out of fellowship with God (due to an unconfessed known sin) can (should) be as brief as the few seconds it takes to confess the sin. An unconfessed, known sin, will keep a born-again believer out of fellowship until it is confessed, even if means the rest of one’s post salvation spiritual life here on Earth.

The longer a born-again believer is out of fellowship with God, the harder it becomes to hear God’s call to repentance. Anyone who can commit what the Bible labels as sin and not sense the convicting pressure imposed by God the Holy Spirit has a hardened heart and a seared conscience.

When an advancing disciple is out of fellowship with God,he or she will feel like a fish out of water.  For an advancing disciple, the loss of fellowship, in of itself, will be enough to drive him or her to repentance and confession. 

In addition to receiving forgiveness, fellowship with God is restored by participating in the 1John 1: 9 procedure. For nominal Christians, it may take different levels and forms of divine discipline to wake them up, and get their spiritual life in order. Divine discipline (9) can range in anything from living with a guilty conscience, up to and including, physical death (10).

Our sin debt can not be worked off by doing penance or future good deeds. We may or may not feel sorry for some of the sins (e.g. vengeance) we commit. Hebrews 11: 25 concedes that some sins offer a temporary season of pleasure. Human beings generally do not feel sorry about what brings them pleasure.

As long as we limit ourselves to our human resources, we will find ourselves in an uphill climb to overcome future temptation to re-embrace past sin. We may or may not make futile promises not to do it again.

However, none of the above represents the basis on which divine forgiveness was/is made available.

The forgiveness we receive, by participating in the 1John 1:9 process, is based on the fact that the penalty for the sin has already been paid in full, by the atoning blood shed on the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ.

For God to deny us the 1John 1: 9 forgiveness, would be to deny the effectiveness of the atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was the finished (11), atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ that causes the forgiveness of God to be in an inexhaustible supply.

End of Part Two

(1) Romans 8: 1 (2) Heb.12: 6/1Cor. 3: 15 (3) 1Cor. 1: 9/2Cor. 13: 14 (4) Ephesians 4: 30 (5) James 2:10 (6) Romans 8: 1 (7) John 8: 11 (8) Romans 8: 1 (9) Hebrews 12: 6 (10) Acts 5 (11) John 19: 30