I read your book on the last post. I'm sure you can explain it in a couple normal paragraphs.
I'll take that as a compliment and not a cut. Some subjects are not going to be explained with two attack lines. It's a comment worth reading and explains clearly from scripture HOW the Holy Spirit dwells in a Christian and how He operates.(through the instrument of His Word)
Your ...Sin...repent...sin...repent...in...out...in...out...until the day they die, comment... One better repent of sin that he knows of and ask God to forgive him. If this is not God's condition for the Christian to receive forgiveness, there is a lot of wasted scripture.
In..out...in..out.. Sin separates one from God. Unrepented sin can lead one to death. Grace isn't "out", but you are "out" of the relationship you had with God before sinning. Grace is there when conditions are met to receive it. If it wasn't , one could not be forgiven of sin he commits.
God's grace is conditional. You cannot impenitently persist in sin and receive God's forgiveness, whether the sin involves immorality or corruption in worship, etc. There are divinely appointed conditions both in becoming a Christian and being forgiven when one sins as a Christian. You do not believe this.
We cannot thank God enough or praise Him enough because He will forgive us (grace)upon meeting of these conditions. We who are undeserving can stand justified and pure in His sight despite all our iniquities.
Paul said in Gal. 5:4, "ye are fallen from grace." Peter shows, however, in 2 Peter 1:10 that it is possible to fall from something else. If you consider verse 8 ("barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge) and verse 12 ("be established in the present truth"), it will be seen that he is saying we may fall from the gospel. We may fall from the grace of God and we may fall from the gospel of Christ. You say this impossible, God's word says otherwise.
I want to clearly say that the scripture teaches there is no way we can have salvation from sins now and eternal salvation in heaven except by God's amazing grace.
But, we are not saved by "grace alone" or "grace only." There is a big difference between "only by grace" and "by grace only."
David said, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults" (Psa. 19; 12). David did not mean that God should cleanse him from faults he was trying to hide from others, but that he wanted forgiveness of sins that were hidden from him (David). In other words, David recognized that he was guilty of sins which he could not identify - sins which he committed in ignorance - and that he needed forgiveness even though he could not specifically confess them. Any sincere Christian will surely feel just as David did. He knows that he lacks perfect discernment of the Word as well as perfect ability to apply that which he discerns. In humility, he will acknowledge that he is a sinner, even beyond the specific sins which he recognizes. Think about it. It is impossible to remember what transgressions you thought about (the last stop, she looked good, I'd like to nail that) and repent of each specific one.
So, do such unknown and unrecalled sins constitute a barrier between the Christian and the Heavenly Father? Does the Christian live a life of despair, because he fails to know all the faults of which he must repent? If so, wherein is the hope?
Continuous (constant) grace, includes constant forgiveness. But, it's not automatic as you hold to. It is conditional. The Christian must confess his sinfulness and repent of sins of which he is aware. And he must have a humble, contrite, penitent attitude regarding his own inability to identify every sin. That's all anyone can do. (provided he does not deliberately reject or neglect knowledge - Hos. 4:6)?
Perfection is impossible (1 Jn. 1:8) but forgiveness is available, by grace, even for unknown imperfections (1 Jn. 1:7). With a deep sense of unworthiness and with a full acknowledgement of imperfection, let us cry out, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Then, with full assurance of God's grace, and with genuine hope in Christ Jesus, let us look forward to the crown that is laid up for all the faithful (2 Tim. 4:8).
We can have that "lively hope . . . . of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled . . . reserved in heaven" for us (1 Pet. 1:3, 4), for Christ is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him (Heb. 5:9). This is salvation by grace - amazing grace. And that is the only salvation there is - salvation by grace, through an obedient faith.
Keep the law perfectly? Regarding the Law of Moses, Paul said that "doers of the law" would be justified (Rom. 2:13; 10:5); but no one "did" the law - not perfectly. All who did not continue in "all the things written in the book of the law" were cursed for their violations of the law, but no one continued in all the things of the law - not perfectly, so all were cursed by the law; none were justified by it (Gal. 3:10-12). Whenever anyone is described as keeping God's law, the meaning is that his life was generally in accordance with the law; no one kept it perfectly except our Lord.
Paul's point was that no one had kept God's law perfectly so as to be justified by it. Men needed another method of justification - a method other than perfect law-keeping. The experience of the Jew under the Law of Moses proved for all men for all time that man will not achieve justification by perfect law keeping. We need more than mere law; we need grace so that we can be forgiven when we violate God's law.
Man had not kept God's law perfectly so as to be justified by it so we needed another method of justification. Paul spoke of "the righteousness of God without the law" (3:21), he meant "the righteousness which we obtain by a means other than law. " We do not become righteous simply by having a law and keeping it. We are amenable to law, but we do not depend simply on law for justification. This would require keeping God's law perfectly, and this is the thing Paul had been laboring to show that men had failed to achieve.
Similarly, in verse 28, when Paul said "that a man is justified by faith Without the deeds of the law," He did not mean that we are not amenable to God's law. Paul had been showing that we are justified by a method other than perfect law-keeping. So, "without the deeds of the law" means "without performing the deeds of the law perfectly."
We stand righteous and justified before God not because we have lived in perfect obedience to divine law, but because we were forgiven of our sins through the blood of Christ when we submit in faith to the Lord's conditions.
But, you believe we stand righteous and justified before God if we persist in violations/sin of divine law. That there are no conditions we must meet in order to be forgiven which include repentance.
The Bible teaches that there are different kinds of sins. We have allowed the Catholic doctrine of mortal and venial sins to drive us from recognition and declaration of truth in this Some say, "Every sin is alike". But consider: (1) If we sin willfully . . ." (Heb. 10:26, 27); (2) "There is a sin unto death. . ." (1 Jn. 5:16). This is a sin that you refuse to repent of. This is a huge danger to your position, Calvin. If it's all automatic, (unconditional) one ceases to walk in the light because he has sinn that he is aware of ,yet does not repent. This gives false assurance that the conditions God requires for forgiveness doesn't matter. I'm saved anyway. I wonder why all the warnings exist in scripture.. "be not deceived," "take heed," "watch," "prove," etc., "lest one fall,"..Yeah, these all go for naught.
The next verse says "there is a sin not unto death." One of which you repent of and stop participating in. You can see a difference in the sin of deceit in Ananias and Sapphira and the sin of dissimulation by Peter (Acts 5:1-11; Gal. 2:11-14). There are sins of ignorance, sins of weakness and sins of wilfulness. Ananias and his wife sinned deliberately. Peter (your doctrine says Peter wasn't saved doesn't it?)stumbled in human weakness (for though he was a great man in the faith, he was also a very human man in weakness of the flesh). His forgiveness was not automatic or Paul would not of had to confront him. Why did he? he needed to repent.
The Bible teaches that God's people need hope as "an anchor of the soul" (Heb. 6:19). "Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is" (Jer. 17:7). "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy" (Psa. 33:18).
If there is no forgiveness of incidental faults and sin which we are not aware of and which we cannot,specifically confess, then there is no hope. We are all hopeless and helpless. Did God make us incapable of perfection and then determined to destroy us without mercy? John wrote, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life . . ." (1 Jn. 5:13). I'm not "in and out" I'm confident in what God has instructed us to do to obtain his grace. We can never have such confidence by human merit, but only as we "walk in the light" and trust in the grace of God. That walk includes meeting the conditions for God's grace.
