A blogger left this comment on Ray Comfort's "Atheist Central."
His is a common response among non believers (and even many professing Christians) who have heard that salvation is by grace rather than works (Ephesians 2:8-9), however have not grasped the truth that God really effects a spiritual rebirth in those He saves. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
I replied to this commenter later in the thread with some scripture from John's first epistle, and a quote from the Heidelberg Catechism showing what the church confesses about the new life that the Christian posesses. We do not get a "get out of hell free card" so we can sin as we please with impunity. The saying, "I love to sin, God loves to forgive; what a great arrangement," is not true in the Christian life.
Even more important is this: Jesus said of the woman who washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much...." A Christian who has been forgiven and saved from his sins by Christ's suffering and dying in his place, will love Jesus. And when he sins, he will be sorrowful from the heart for having done so. The new life in Christ is one of gratitude and loving obedience to him who bought you with his life's blood.
Audio: Leaving, Leading, And Looking | Philippians 3
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A sermon by R. Scott Clark on Philippians 3. Editor’s note: This audio was
originally published in 2012 by Escondido United Reformed Church.
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7 hours ago
1 comment:
That's how I've always viewed it. You can still sin, but you don't want to because of love. I think that if you do things with love chances are you will sin less. I find that a lot of sinning is done when you take the love out of your decission making process. I don't mean the shallow forms of love but more of a greater kind of love for everything. Sometimes you will have to hurt someone because you love them and that's the kind of love that I mean.
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