Bible Studies

Part 14

God demonstrated His love for us when we were still sinners when He sent Jesus to make made atonement for all of us (Rom. 5: 8, 1John 2: 2).

God hasn’t said to Man, “Get your act together and then we can talk about salvation.” He has said, believe in the Person and the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (John 3: 16).

It is only AFTER being saved, that one can choose to, “…grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and through its application (James 1: 22), can one, with the John 15: 5 power that He supplies, be conformed to the likeness of Jesus (Rom.8: 29).

Religion puts the cart ahead of the horse, going as far as promoting good deeds, good behavior, and religious rituals as the means to obtain, retain, or to *regain salvation.

There is no means to regain salvation that cannot be lost (Rom. 8: 1).

It is ONLY by the unearned, undeserved, grace of God that one is saved (Eph. 2: 8,9). It is ONLY by the enabling power of God that a born-again sinner can serve God in any meaningful way.

As far as salvation (going to Heaven) is concerned, all of a born-again believer’s past, present, and future GUILT has already been addressed (1John 2: 2, John 3: 16, Rom. 8: 1).

The accumulating (1John 1:8) guilt associated with post salvation sin is an ongoing issue that will have to be dealt with throughout the course of a born-again believer’s post salvation spiritual life.*

Dealing with post salvation sin and guilt is NOT for the purpose of retaining or regaining the irrevocable (Rom. 11: 29) gift of eternal life.

Confession of post salvation sin restores the fellowship with God, necessary to move forward in the post salvation life of discipleship and to avoid the inevitable consequences of Hebrew 12: 6 divine discipline, here on Earth.

Guilt, real or imagined, will be used by the devil to take a born-again believer out of the post salvation plan that God has in mind for him or her. Guilt, real or imagined, will erode the intimacy of the relationship that a born-again believer should have with God.

Post salvation sin should be immediately addressed via the 1John 1: 9 process, followed up by the John 8:11 forsaking of the same sin in the future.

Until post salvation is so addressed, the born-again believer will not lose the irrevocable gift of eternal life, but will suffer the consequences of that choice, beginning with the loss of intimate fellowship in his or her walk with God, and then whatever divine discipline ( Heb.12:6 );that God sees fit to send his or her way, in order to motivate the wandering sheep back into the fold.

For an advancing disciple, just the loss of intimate fellowship is enough to motivate him or her to rectify the situation.

But one must also deal with the lingering guilt feelings, if such feelings are not to become a powerful tool in the hands of the devil.

When confessed, God has forgiven you, but have you forgiven you? If confessed, God has forgiven others, but have you forgiven others?

One can stir the displeasure of God when one will not forgive those who have offended them, in light of the enormous and ongoing sin debt that God has forgiven the one they face in the mirror (Matt. 18: 23-34).

I believe that the sin of not forgiving oneself and others is one of the major reasons that so many born-again, heaven bound believers are among the most miserable and bitter persons on the face of this Earth.

Knowing and applying the Biblical principles about forgiveness can set one free from the heavy burden and consequences of having an unforgiving spirit.

Just as potentially destructive as the sin of not forgiving oneself and others is the sin of pride.

The sin of pride, and its accompanying fear of potential blackmail or embarrassment of having one’s past sin exposed, has dissuaded many born-again believers from taking a public stand for God.

The sin of pride has persuaded many otherwise good individuals to commit such things as murder, rather than have his or her past sin become publicly known.

King David, a man described as being a man after the heart of God, arranged for the murder of a soldier whose wife David had impregnated when her husband was away in service (2Sam. 11: 1 -2Sam. 12-9).

David was forgiven this sin, but it cost him the life of his infant son, and brought a lifetime (2Sam. 12: 10) of violence and rebellion into his family life.

Be it is time or in eternity, no one gets away with anything (Gal. 6: 7). When we choose to dance to the devil’s tune, there will come a time to pay the fiddler.

We cannot change our past, making the good any better or making our sin any worse. It was what it was.

But what we can do, is to learn from the past and to move forward in the plan of God.

We can begin by acknowledging that from God’s viewpoint, expressed in James 2: 10, not one of us is any more or any less guilty or in need of forgiveness than the next guy, and that we can still finish well.

End of Part 14

End of Series