Post by bcool on Mar 21, 2015 5:47:49 GMT -6
Even though sins were judged on the cross, and believers in Christ have eternal Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, our daily living on earth involves the natural repercussions of our sins. Sin has temporal consequences toward God, toward self, and toward other people. In relation to God, when we abandon faith by our negative volition, sin is the natural outcome along the same lines as “...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b KJV). Either we trust God and the veracity of His Word or we lean on our own understanding and human viewpoint. If we sin we are removed from temporal fellowship with God. Our sin sets us at odds with the plan of God. The solution is in God's restoration. Restoration from personal sin is one of the grace provisions of the experiential salvation (sanctification) of the believer who in his flesh lives under the mortal coil of an old sin nature. And in order to get back in the plan of God we first must be aware of a problem. This requires consciousness of course.
God the Holy Spirit illuminates sin in our life primarily through the divine norms and standards of the Word of God stored in our conscience. I prefer to say the Spirit “illuminates” sin in the case of the believer mostly because the born-again believer was already convicted of sin when he decided to turn to our Savior for eternal life Salvation. Whatever you call it, when we identify sin in our life, we decide whether to immediately return to God His way or we may choose some other way we think will assuage our guilty feelings. God's way is grace through simple faith. If we speak truth in our heart about sin in our life (Psalm 15:1-2; Hebrews 10:22) that is, do not deny we committed a sinful thought or deed (1 John 1:8-10), we know there is but one course of action from the heart:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.¹
We acknowledge that only God can restore us from sin based on the finished work of His precious Son, Jesus Christ.
Now before some of you out there start hyperventilating let me just say a word about repentance. Error seeps in concerning this topic of restoration where the Bible is not consistently and properly taught. Feeling sorry about our personal sins and the excursion out of fellowship that sin takes us is a normal even healthy emotional reaction to our mistakes. But some prefer the word “repent” simply for its emotional connotation instead of fully embracing God's principle of restoration which is “by grace through faith.” Repentance can certainly apply so long as we understand: neither you or I are expected to earn restoration from sin. God does NOT restore us from sin ON THE BASIS OF HOBBLING TOWARD AN ALTER TO PROVE YOU REALLY MEAN NOT TO DO IT AGAIN. NOT EVEN ON THE BASIS OF CROCODILE TEARS OF REPENTANCE DOES GOD FORGIVE YOU YOUR SIN! No! The believer in Christ is restored from sin the very same way he received the settlement of his sin debt: by grace through faith! If you repent, it is because you have decided on God's way to restoration.
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” the writer tells us in Hebrews 10:22. The believer who turns back to God by faith on the basis of Christ's shed blood on the cross for all sins is freely restored to fellowship. God restores the erring saint who comes to Him by simple faith, because He is propitiated solely on the basis of the finished work of His Son on Calvary's cross (1 John 2:1-2). The believer in Christ is never appointed to propitiate God. I repeat: THE BELIEVER IS NEVER APPOINTED TO PROPITIATE GOD! The grace principle of faith must be taught here and followed, for it is the only path of restoration from sin in the life of the believer. It is the fundamental principle that God has mandated for the Christian way of life, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7b KJV).
WARNING: Restoration from sin through faith is a marvelous problem-solving device supplied by the grace of God, but it gives us no excuse for irresponsibility toward others. God's grace policy of restoring the believer from sin through simple faith is a license for spiritual growth, never a license for sin. Neither does God's grace ever justify a believer's flip attitude toward the freedom, privacy, property, or feelings of others.
-Brad
¹ Hymn by Helen H. Lemmel, 1922; Copyright: Public Domain.
~
DISCLOSURE: I do not pretend to be a Bible scholar. What you see here are my private and unpublished notes compiled from daily study of the Bible. However, I disclaim originality in these notes since frequently I turn to other conservative Christian authors for expanded commentary based on the original text. And though I don't always cite source material, I owe a great debt of gratitude to these faithful men of God who have dedicated their scholarly works to bring to light the veracity of the biblical record. Indeed, we share a bias concerning the Holy Scriptures. We believe the Bible of Old and New Testaments to be the revelation of God to mankind in a single canon of Scripture consisting of 66 books in all; and that the completed canon is the inspired Word of God, authoritative, inerrant, and God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12, 13). Hence, you should know that I always depend on the Word of God as the final arbiter of sound doctrine. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), © 1995, The Lockman Foundation. -BAC
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God the Holy Spirit illuminates sin in our life primarily through the divine norms and standards of the Word of God stored in our conscience. I prefer to say the Spirit “illuminates” sin in the case of the believer mostly because the born-again believer was already convicted of sin when he decided to turn to our Savior for eternal life Salvation. Whatever you call it, when we identify sin in our life, we decide whether to immediately return to God His way or we may choose some other way we think will assuage our guilty feelings. God's way is grace through simple faith. If we speak truth in our heart about sin in our life (Psalm 15:1-2; Hebrews 10:22) that is, do not deny we committed a sinful thought or deed (1 John 1:8-10), we know there is but one course of action from the heart:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.¹
We acknowledge that only God can restore us from sin based on the finished work of His precious Son, Jesus Christ.
Now before some of you out there start hyperventilating let me just say a word about repentance. Error seeps in concerning this topic of restoration where the Bible is not consistently and properly taught. Feeling sorry about our personal sins and the excursion out of fellowship that sin takes us is a normal even healthy emotional reaction to our mistakes. But some prefer the word “repent” simply for its emotional connotation instead of fully embracing God's principle of restoration which is “by grace through faith.” Repentance can certainly apply so long as we understand: neither you or I are expected to earn restoration from sin. God does NOT restore us from sin ON THE BASIS OF HOBBLING TOWARD AN ALTER TO PROVE YOU REALLY MEAN NOT TO DO IT AGAIN. NOT EVEN ON THE BASIS OF CROCODILE TEARS OF REPENTANCE DOES GOD FORGIVE YOU YOUR SIN! No! The believer in Christ is restored from sin the very same way he received the settlement of his sin debt: by grace through faith! If you repent, it is because you have decided on God's way to restoration.
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” the writer tells us in Hebrews 10:22. The believer who turns back to God by faith on the basis of Christ's shed blood on the cross for all sins is freely restored to fellowship. God restores the erring saint who comes to Him by simple faith, because He is propitiated solely on the basis of the finished work of His Son on Calvary's cross (1 John 2:1-2). The believer in Christ is never appointed to propitiate God. I repeat: THE BELIEVER IS NEVER APPOINTED TO PROPITIATE GOD! The grace principle of faith must be taught here and followed, for it is the only path of restoration from sin in the life of the believer. It is the fundamental principle that God has mandated for the Christian way of life, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7b KJV).
WARNING: Restoration from sin through faith is a marvelous problem-solving device supplied by the grace of God, but it gives us no excuse for irresponsibility toward others. God's grace policy of restoring the believer from sin through simple faith is a license for spiritual growth, never a license for sin. Neither does God's grace ever justify a believer's flip attitude toward the freedom, privacy, property, or feelings of others.
-Brad
¹ Hymn by Helen H. Lemmel, 1922; Copyright: Public Domain.
~
DISCLOSURE: I do not pretend to be a Bible scholar. What you see here are my private and unpublished notes compiled from daily study of the Bible. However, I disclaim originality in these notes since frequently I turn to other conservative Christian authors for expanded commentary based on the original text. And though I don't always cite source material, I owe a great debt of gratitude to these faithful men of God who have dedicated their scholarly works to bring to light the veracity of the biblical record. Indeed, we share a bias concerning the Holy Scriptures. We believe the Bible of Old and New Testaments to be the revelation of God to mankind in a single canon of Scripture consisting of 66 books in all; and that the completed canon is the inspired Word of God, authoritative, inerrant, and God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12, 13). Hence, you should know that I always depend on the Word of God as the final arbiter of sound doctrine. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), © 1995, The Lockman Foundation. -BAC
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