Are we prisoners of sin

spiritual: Lacking material body or form or substance or unearthly. Miracles play a role to be sure, but faith plays an even bigger role for me, I walk by faith and not by sight as far as spirituality is concerned. (Heb 11:1) Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. I can only hope they are genuine experiences orchestrated by God himself. But the greatest cogent evidence for me for spirituality is that it continues to work for me and billions of other people worldwide, it gives life a purpose and a meaning, it causes me to want to wake up early in the morn every morning and do something stirring and exciting because I know that I have a purpose a transcendent purpose that nobody determined for me. The burden of proof is on the guy who wishes to dismiss these experiences as mere by-products of physical events.Let me tell you something on the side, on both sides of the argument people claim to have the backing of the evidence, but you know what, evidence is silent for the most part it is us who determine what the evidence is saying. Atheists claim that the evidence speaks against God, theists disagree, where does this leave us, it leaves us in the realm of faith, that is, whose report shall we put our faith in, the atheists report or the theist report? I have chosen to believe the theists report, I have chosen to believe the bible’s report, no one can hate me for what I believe because no one will like it if I hated them for what they believe. In fact most of what we accept we accept by faith.I am not denouncing science, I am basically saying that the final believe or final disbelieve in God is faith-based. Because at the end of the day when all the research ends, when all the debating comes to a close, and when all the scientists go to bed we still do not know every knowable thing and at this point you'll have to decide whose report made more sense to you, no one can decide this for you.This also touches on the issue of sin, you can either believe that you're a sinner and do something about it, Jesus came to save sinners and not those who deem they are sinless, or you can go the other way and assume the self-righteous position, that is the I have not sinned position. Hey it's your life your call no one is forcing you to believe in anything, indeed no one can force you to believe in anything.

[qs]Neither I nor those who agree with my position have claimed that people do not sin.[qs] But people are still receptive to temptation and they still do become the victims of occasional sinning and it is these occasional sins of people that God will hold them responsible for, but even if an individual is not so inclined to sinning, the individual has nonetheless sinned, put differently this individual has transgressed God's will and is therefore liable to any punishment set forth by God. According to human law an individual only needs to commit a murder once in order to be eligible for a life sentence, or steal once in order to be branded as a thieve, the same is true for the previous case one only needs to commit a murder once in order to be branded as a murderer. So when a person commits but one sin this individual is no less a sinner in God’s eyes’ than another who sins habitually and therefore is him/herself due for death.Take ancient Israel and their strict obeisance to the Mosaic Law as one more example, one only had to get caught once in the act of adultery in order to be stoned on the spot, it wasn’t a question of how regularly an individual broke a certain command, it was a matter of breaking a command.God is the same today yesterday and forever, his nature is absolute and fixed, he may change his methods of dealing with sinners but he hasn’t stopped altogether to deal with sinners, he deals with them still, because his holy nature requires it, and because of that fact death is still pretty much a fact of life and it is the very reason why smoke is still going up from the pits of hell.But now the real pressing issues that need to be tackled are: is blood an indispensable component of receiving salvation or can salvation be attained without the need for blood atonement. Below I meet these two questions head on.In the case of the bible the past is the key to the future, so we shall rightly begin our quest in the past.What does the bible teach about sin?The bible teaches that all man are have sinned, everyone has sinned even Job, Noah the various patriarchs all flesh has sinned.
1Ki 8:46 If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto the land of the enemy, far off or near;
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Psa 130:3 If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
Job 15:16 How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
Pro 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
What and who is a sinner?
Pro 13:6 Righteousness keeps safe him whose way is without error, but evil-doers are overturned by sin.
Pro 6:18 A heart full of evil designs, feet which are quick in running after sin;
Pro 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
Pro 20:9 Who is able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from my sin?
Pro 30:12 There is a generation who seem to themselves to be free from sin, but are not washed from their unclean ways.
Pro 1:32 Sin and self-satisfaction bring destruction and death to stupid fools.
Pro 11:5 If you are truly good, you will do right; if you are wicked, you will be destroyed by your own sin.
Pro 12:3 Sin cannot offer security! But if you live right, you will be as secure as a tree with deep roots.
Pro 13:6 Live right, and you are safe! But sin will destroy you.
Pro 13:21 You are in for trouble if you sin, but you will be rewarded if you live right.
Pro 16:6 If we truly love God, our sins will be forgiven; if we show him respect, we will keep away from sin.
Pro 21:4 Evil people are proud and arrogant, but sin is the only crop they produce.
Pro 30:12 others think they are perfect, but they are stained by sin.What does the bible teach about righteousness?Let us start off with Jesus description of a righteous man. [qs] (Mat 5:1) And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain: and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him:(Mat 5:2) and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,(Mat 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(Mat 5:4) Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.(Mat 5:5) Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.(Mat 5:6) Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.(Mat 5:7) Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.(Mat 5:8) Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.(Mat 5:9) Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.(Mat 5:10) Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(Mat 5:11) Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.(Mat 5:12) Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.Pro 8:8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
Pro 10:2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing; But righteousness delivereth from death.
Pro 11:19 He that is stedfast in righteousness shall attain unto life; And he that pursueth evil doeth it to his own death.
Pro 12:17 He that uttereth truth showeth forth righteousness; But a false witness, deceit.
Pro 12:28 In the way of righteousness is life; And in the pathway thereof there is no death.
Pro 21:3 To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to Jehovah than sacrifice.
(Rom 1:18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness;(Rom 1:19) because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.According to these passages a righteous man must be a very very rare occurrence that is why God could only locate a single man that pleased him enough to deserve his mercy before overwhelming the world with water. Righteous man and woman are in fact rarities according the bibles standards of righteousness. But are righteous men really blameless or rather sinless as shown above that isn’t the case. Ancient people including these few righteous men were judged according to their good deeds and their willingness to carry on doing this good deeds and refraining equally from those deeds they knew to be wicked or evil - (Eze 24:14) I, Jehovah, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah. Now as I have shown above with passages dealing with righteousness in order to stay righteous one has to completely turn away from his/her unrighteousness, and be prepared to remain righteous. If after you have become righteousness you return to your sin, you are once again in danger of God’s wrath.Another important thing I want to draw attention to is the issue of knowledge of good and evil, For example the kings of Israel and many other ancient Hebrew men usually practiced polygamy. They had multiples wives and concubines to soothe their sexual appetite. Did God consider this practice as a clean practice or did he accept it? No necessarily these practices are forbidden elsewhere in the bible but because it was the social norm of the day God was merciful enough to overlook them and not judge these men for what they thought was an acceptable practice.Therefore when God called a certain man or woman righteous he was right in the sense that these people really strived to avoid what they knew was wrong and they also desired to obey God at all costs. And when they disobeyed God on what they knew was right God did not spare them from his wrath; Moses, Solomon, David, Jonah, all these people did receive punishment for their disobedience regarding things they knew was morally wrong.Now where these people completely sinless? Absolutely not, they had the sin that all men inherited from Adam’s original sin and they also had their personnel sins those committed willfully and also those committed in ignorance. However because of their righteousness — adherence to God’s commands, they found favor with the Lord and God overlooked all their past sins. Here is the relevant scripture.[qs](Act 17:30) The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: Thus God is very strict about sin, even those once considered righteous can quickly lose their righteousness by sinning. But what is the challenge for striving to be righteous devoid of Jesus , here it is:[qs] James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all.
James 2:11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law.[qs] I can’t put it any better than James did. But just let me put in a couple more words in view of Act 17:30 as well that I cite above, god expects man to be utterly holy, Lev 11:45 ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.Pro 8:8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.These are the high standards of striving to be righteous devoid of Christ, God wants absolute righteousness that is why the Pharisees and seduces went to extreme lengths to be holy. Does God only expect the Jews to be holy people? No he expects even the gentiles to be holy and in right standing with his laws, Job certainly was not a Jew but he pleased God with his righteousness alternatively God punished amoral gentiles or heathens.Gentiles will only please God if they obey his laws as the above shows otherwise they will incite god’s disgust and disfavor. If anyone of you want to enter heaven by being righteous then be my guests just bear all of I have said in mind, in order to be righteous you need to keep all of God’s decrees and laws, to the latter.Furthermore you need to be like a newborn baby pure and righteous Jesus himself said the righteousness is not enough to enter heaven you need to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, and transforming you within. Jesus being God knows that no man can be really righteous, as I have also shown above with the ancient Hebrew’s, it is by God’s mercy that we are made whole in our righteousness as well.

Is it in the atheists’ nature to ridicule whatever his close-mind fails to understand or what? It sure is the feeling that I'm getting from many of the bible's critics who have posted an idea or two on this thread.Purpledawn and her attacks on biblical authority accepting only those words attributed to Jesus, as if those words were not penned by the same guy who wrote the rest of the book, how silly! Why should you only trust the words in red while even they were written by the author whose words you bring into question in other places of the same book? Purpledawn your rough treatment of the bible is unacceptable as it arise from a partial consideration of the bible, you are the one who babbles about one-liners , yet you cherry pick scripture picking only those passages that if read in isolation will maybe back your arguments. Firstly you have not presented a proper argument for your methods, that is how do you determine which part of scripture to ignore as uninspired and which part to regard as inspired, you have not shown how this can be determined; you simply decide that that is God’s word and that that isn’t. You also are fond of talking away with nonsensical statements any and every scripture that clearly goes against what you’re selling, it doesn’t work like that. If this is how you are going to make your case then I cannot take you seriously Purpledawn.But why don’t we go to scripture to see what it says about itself. In the next passages Paul is citing from the gospels and he is calling it scripture. And below the same Peter who walked the shores of Galilee with Jesus is placing Paul’s letters or epistles scripture in the category of Scripture, and all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God: Therefore I am compelled to believe what Paul taught in scripture and what the bible itself teaches that all men are born sinners, here again Paul is quoting from the old testament passage I gave in an earlier post of mine describing the unrighteous state of mankind. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. Interestingly purpledawn you started out denying sin altogether but in your much later posts it looks to me as if you have softened up to the idea of sin, (your conscience must have gotten to you). Well that is how God operates he comes as a thief in the night, and so by the time you become cognizant of his presence he has already stolen your heart.Okay Now let me tackle what Phage0070 is claiming. Show that God is inconsistent. He actions are in line with his nature, God is merciful but don’t overlook his justice, and yes God does love you and yes he may kill you, if you deserve death, such as when you lead a sinful life, the wages of sin is death, Judges, the jury, give the death sentence all the time if called for does that make them unloving? Surely you would not conclude that that judge is evil or the jurors have no love. If you love your wife and a man is seriously threatening to kill, wouldn’t you kill him if it meant saving your wife? You see you killed out of love not because you lacked love, God doesn’t punish anybody because he hates them, he does it for the same reason that a judge does, to preserve justice. And yes God can kill a sinner he is the author of life after all and he has full authority in heaven and on earth, and yes might in God’s case does makes right, because God as I have repeatedly pointed out in this thread will not do anything just for kicks or anything out of whack with his personality, he is Love but also is just and will carry out justice on lawbreakers or sinners. For crying out loud no one is innocent everyone has sinned and missed the mark of God’s glory. Get that into your head or shall I have to pound it in.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

I have dealt briefly with this very question in my second last post the really long one, why don't you read it. And yes Job was a sinner, since we all men are conceived into sin So yes if Job lived in the present he would need to be a Christian, remember God dealt differently with the ancients as I have said in the same post I mention above. Ancient people either gained or lost salvation based on their works and chiefly on God's mercy, and what is more they required a mediator, serving as a bridge between man and God man did not just approach God, since we are separated from him as a result of our sin nature, priests, and other special people called by God served as these mediators between man and God. Show were peg or I have done this. If you just read your bible you would not have made these charges, in my post before this one I show with scripture that both the Synoptic Gospels and Paul's letters were regarded as scripture, long before the bible was assembled into a single unit. Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

Again you have shown your lack of understanding of scripture, purpledawn has got some I'm not sure I think 20 years of scripture under her belt and you have four, but my God, why did you guys even bother it is apparent that you have thrown away what would otherwise have been fruitful years of your lives if spend on something else.Let me tackle your claim of Job 15:14, firstly Paul an authoritative figure of scripture quotes that same verse as if it retained truth, this is very important since not only was Paul very familiar with that portion of scripture seeing that he used to be a pharisee but he was also at home with the Hebrew language. Secondly Job does not debate the truthfulness of this verse in his reply, the only thing he says is that he has heard it mentioned already.Let us analyze Job reply shall we. Job said that this guy was a lousy comforter not that what he said was lousy. And Job is right, if you're bedfast by cancer as an example and I come along your supposed comforter and start saying, "you know what your suffering because you have sin and sickness is a consequence of sin". Even though I'm telling the truth it doesn't comfort you in anyway in fact I'm condemning you, I should be encouraging to get better and to dwell on the positives not break you down with unneeded information.I'm not surprised you didn't see the obviousness you wouldn't because you examine scripture critically and with a particular worldview.

Its official guy you have chucked out four years of your lif in seminary. Job isn't again shedding any light on the authenticity of that passage all he is saying is, it would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you. You need to get some new reading glasses sir cos your current pair is expired.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

Obviously you have demonstrated not do not understand the dynamics of society. According to you it would be more loving for the judge to let the criminals loose without punishment each time they committed a crime, because to punish them would turn him into an evil lunatic. Does this make sense? A judge may not necessarily show mercy at the time of his laying out the sentence but it doesn't mean the judge doesn't love the person.Look at these following examples, say you were a judge and your mother killed a man in cold blood, you would have to sentence her rightly with a punishment that befits her crime. At the time you're sentencing her you have withhold your mercy, but does it mean you don't love your mother anymore? Of course you still love her. Mercy and love are not synonymous, don't confuse the two.Another example would be spanking a child, spanking hurts the child and you know that it hurts, it would be easier to let the child get off Scott free for his misdemeanor, but as a parent you have to show the child who’s in charge and why certain actions need to be punished for. Does the parent hate his child during the spanking and suddenly re-loves the child, as it were, after the spanking has ceased? Of course not the parent still loves the child but has to punish for wrong action.The same applies to God, he doesn't stop loving you because he punishes you, no his love is transcendent but so his justice. If God had never punished any wrongs then he would be a liar because in his word the bible he is also described as a judge, the judges in righteousness and in truth. You are fond of making statements ad lib. I asked you. How does God’s punishing a sinner for breaking the law contradict his other aspect of love? As I argued above these two things don’t needful contradict each other, God loves us that is why we are still around if he hated us he would have send us all to hell to burn many years ago, he would have used his power to torment us.
Phage do you know what hate is? Hate=Dislike intensely; in short it is the absence of love. Hitler hated the Jews what was the end result of his hate for them. The Middle East wants Israel wiped off the world map, and if they had the resources they would have done it a long time ago, that is hate. Hate results in death, Jesus said, if you hate your brother in your heart you have surely killed him already. How true this words are, seeing that hate leads to murder.So you see your very existence is prove that God loves you, listen if you were to die today you would go to hell as said by the bible, the fact that you are still alive is that God is sparing your life until some point you accept his free gift of salvation so that you can escape death and hell. Your existence testifies to God’s love for humanity. Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

I don’t take Mr. Goodspeed seriously, he is a disgrace to biblical scholasticism so how can I take your claims seriously if you based them on Mr. Goodspeed’s work (enlightened scholars have happily disagreed with Mr. Goodspeed’s work on many points and his translation of the bible is regarded by many to be heresy.)
Therefore I will advise you to expand your Google search, and check out other scholars as well even the conservative scholars, compare and weigh what they all have said regarding a particular issue, does scripture support what they say do they undermine scriptures authority and so on.Nevertheless I give you scripture and at best you give me a man’s interpretation of scripture a liberal scholar to be more precise these guys (liberalists) are fond of undermining the bible’s authenticity and are not taken too seriously in scholastic circles and by most theologians, pastors and the like man who commit their lives to the understanding of scripture. Let’s turn to the bible shall we, Here but just one scripture in which Paul is saying that what he is writing is actually commandments of the Lord, capital L, he is speaking for God; there are many more verses similar to this one, here is one more: I could have given you more had I more time on my hands You have no idea what I do and do not do. This is just another of your unfounded high claims. This man’s work is questionable; I wonder why you esteem his viewpoints so much. There are other scholars out there far more adept than this guy, try to look into their work for a change. And also look at Goodspeed’s work a bit more critically don’t with a mind wide open just receiving anything he has written. I see you’re a dreamer as well. Nonsense words can have absolute meanings, and the above verse is very clear even a child will understand it. You mean reality as determined Goodspeed; this guy is not for real. Is he supposed to be a biblical scholar or a bible critic? Exactly according to Mr. Goodspeed, not necessarily according to the evidence. History is not like empirical science; you don’t go back to the past to examine you work from the present. How did you get to this conclusion, did you get into Paul’s mind to determine this? So I guess Peter the apostle of Jesus must also be a Marcionite, because here he says: High-flown claims all of it. If you read Paul’s epistle you will notice that he quotes repeatedly from the gospels. Go ahead and read them, you might learn something. Paul is quoting from Job; this verse appears in nearly the same form there it also appears in Psa 14:1. Paul is indeed saying what he is saying and this is proof that we are all born sinful. If certain folks were not born sinful, than why don’t we have the case where someone had lived forever, death is a direct consequence of sin, the fact that everyone dies means that we are all sinful even babies die meaning that we sin because we are sinners and not sinners because we sin. And Paul wrote under God’s inspiration and he cannot be wrong ever, because God cannot be wrong ever. So this passage is saying exactly what it is saying and what it’s suppose to say, that no man is righteous. Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

Purpledawn you have shown not to understand scripture properly, its no surprise you are a student of Goodspeed. You have presented nothing but fallacious ideas by a man who has very little respect for God's word. Like I said read the other scholars as well especially conservative scholars they are less likely to compromise with God's word.

what am I suppose to refute you have not made a case to refute. The Epistles of Paul and the rest of the bible clearly states that we are prisoners of sin. The fact that we can't refrain from sin entirely demonstrates this fact. Just look around you, its bad its really bad, its turned into an epidemic. You may counter this by saying well, I am no prisoner because I don't kill or steal or lie or what have you but as James has stated in his letter, if we err on one point we have erred on all other points so seeing that we all erred including Mother Teresa or Gandhi including Paul, a man that has had direct confrontations with God who can say I am not a prisoner of sin.For example if you are addicted to a particular drug you are its prisoner whether you takes just a little of it at a time or loads of it all at once, you still are its prisoner, because regardless of the portions you take you can't stop taking it. The same is true with sin, whether all you do is be dishonest from time to time, you still are a prisoner of dishonesty. If you want to show that you're not a prisoner of sin then don't ever screw up again. Ever. If you succeed at doing this then I will confess that there is no such thing as a prisoner of sin.However if you screw up you tell a lie, or you lust or you hate somebody or whatever the case then we must conclude that since you couldn't stay without sinning that you are in fact a prisoner.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

Purpledawn by your own admission you are addicted to sin. The fact that you can't completely lay it off makes you an addict. You wanted external proof that human's are prisoners of sin there's your external proof. You just can't put the sin bottle down forever, eventually you will take a sip from it, who knows maybe even a gulp.

With this post I have attempted to present the consistency of the bible’s message as it relates to sin as well as the very important issue of justification and righteousness which some of the posters of this thread have vehemently contended is garnered via the good works that one performs. I have set out to show that this is wrong in sight of what the bible says and that due to our sinful nature inherited from Adam whatever we do is like filthy rags to God

For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
(Isa 64:6 ASV)

In order to determine which one of the two above assertions is correct (the one held by my opponents and the one I hold) we need to ask some very relevant questions. The first and perhaps the most important question that could help us establish determine this is the following; does the bible ever record an instance where someone gained the favor and justification of God without adhering to the law? To this question I will quickly reply with a solid yes, this fact is not solely borne out in the bible but in reality as well, as I shall demonstrate in the next few paragraphs. What will be the significance of demonstrating this? Well I regard the significance to be so obvious that it should be understood by even an individual with half a brain, the significance is, if we can find even one example of somebody getting justified aside from the law, it will confirm that adhering to the law is not how to garner God’s approval and forgiveness. And this makes a lot of sense if you come to think of it.Let us start shall we let us start at the very beginning with Abraham. Abraham the father of the modern state of Israel lived at a time when there was no law to break; the law was introduced only later during the time of Moses with the sole purpose to show that we sin. (Gal 3:19).Abraham did not abide by the law before God called him and accepted him, however being the founder of the Jewish nation he too was a Jew and ought to have abided by it, yet he didn’t even live by the ceremonial that Jews were commanded to live by. However there was no law Abraham could live by, but as all flesh is sinful he had to die, the wages of sin is death. However God rescued him just on time was it because Abraham did what the law instructed him to do? What law? There was no law to break Purpledawn the law was given to the budding Israel nation during Moses’ time therefore Abraham did not have it, was Israel chosen and accepted on account of them abiding by the law? No, because Abraham the father of Israel lived in a heathen nation and was not adhering to the law when God accepted him, his sins was forgiven not because he repented remember he wasn’t committed to the law, so on what account was Abraham vindicated and branded as righteous by God? Paul gives the answer right here Here is the ancient passage that Paul is citing Does it make any mention of Abraham being accepted on account of his adherence to the law? The bible is a consistent document when it is read it as it should be as I’m showing here. No one is chosen due to his/her works, but according to his/her faith in God .When Israel was asked to repent repeatedly they were asked to turn back to God, re-put their faith in God, to trust him and as a result of that trust refrain from sin, because sin angers God, therefore you must refrain from sin, because the wages of sin is death, and the law must be fulfilled.More proof that our works have nothing to do with our salvationNow like I have said we are not saved by our adherence to the law salvation is not something that we cultivate by our good works, God’s mercy is the source of salvation, not what we as humans perform. Now please do not misread the bible here, I’m not saying that works become completely irrelevant, by no means. Works are a direct consequence of believing in God. Paul addresses this issue in Romans: First comes faith for without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him (Heb 11:6). It is the faith that makes us acceptable to God in the first place, why because our works are like filthy rags before God, why because it is impossible for a man to keep the whole law simultaneously? Why because man’s heart is extremely desperate for evil, and out of the heart come evil thoughts, the taking of life, broken faith between the married, unclean desires of the flesh, taking of property, false witness, bitter wordsMat 15:19). And finally because for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all (Jas 2:10). To make the situation sadder for men is the fact that there exist sins they commit unwittingly, how does one turn from sins he doesn’t know exist, that is why it is impossible to keep the whole law.
Repentance it comes second it is the natural outcome of Acknowledging God as your God and redeemer. This is the formula that has forever been in use by God.This as aside, I repeat we do not gain salvation, by doing good works, Abraham came to God as a sinner and upon his faith was pronounced righteous, he started living by the law only afterwards because God was with Him and gave him the ability to be transformed. But Abraham did sin didn’t he? He did in fact. But I will discuss this point later.For now I want to give more proof that it is not by doing the law that we are saved. The proof is in the scripture let it talk for itself. If we determined our salvation God would not have done all these things. To get a better picture read the entire Romans, I mean it the whole book.Now in conclusion I would like to point out the importance of Jesus’ coming and dying on the cross, if we can be justified based on our works which I already have shown is not possible, but for argument sake if we could be justified or vindicated on account of our adherence to the law or good works Jesus’ death becomes superfluous, vain.But Jesus did die for a purpose, and in the next paragraph I shall reveal the reason for his dying on the cross. This verse is a critical one for the reason that it explains what Jesus had accomplished for us when he died. When God extended his mercy to Abraham, to David, to Moses and you can go on naming endlessly, he put his justice on hold (For the wages of sin is death.
(Rom 6:23)); God preferred mercy over justice for the whole world in fact for it was through the grace Abraham received that the whole world if they too shall believe will be saved.Now what happened when God overlooked justice and opted mercy, what happened was a sin debt built up, a sin debt so huge that no one safe God could pay for in its entirety, only a sinless being like God is capable of paying up for such a huge debt, all the sin that had mounted since its birth all those years ago in the garden with one bite of a forbidden fruit. But you know God didn’t have to die on our behalf, we are the ones in any case who owe the law, God never sinned he doesn’t owe the law a dime, nevertheless he had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.
(Joh 3:16)This is what happened God justified Abraham and Job and Noah on account of their faiths and I’m sure there were more, in other words God extended his underserved kindness and mercy to these people while they were still sinners, in the meantime their sin debt had not been paid off, therefore Jesus had to die, if Jesus had not died, none of these man would have been saved.
This is the truth God said to them trust me, I will take care of you, this trust paid off, and indeed when Jesus came to die and his blood streamed off his dead body their sins were completely washed away and they were made as white as snow, they didn’t deserve this kind of grace no one does, and surely as proven above you can’t earn it either by doing good works. Know you know why Jesus Had to die, and no you know why you have to put your faith in him in order to be saved, without faith it is not possible to please God and Jesus is that object of faith. In conclusion let me ask. Why fight so furiously to deny Christ and his free Gift, why try to earn your way into heaven while the bible says Humanity cannot save itself at least no through works Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

My latest thread is very relevant it answers your arguments and it demonstrates that the bible is a unity, I have taken all the bible into consideration not just certain verses as you are in the habit of doing. I have shown that everyone has sinned and everyone needs to be saved not through works but by the Grace of God through faith.Plus I have shown that people are slaves to sin accept true followers of Christ those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
(Rom 8:4), because they have died to sin and the law and are no longer captives of sin, and moreover I have used the bible to demonstrate this point. You charged that the bible did not teach this well as you have seen from my latest post it does. Please carefully consider and chew over the points I have raised in this very long post of mine before replying I have spent quite some time in its compilation.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.Edited by Cedre, : No reason given.

What guilt I have no guilt I'm not a prisoner of sin, I have been set free from the law of sin and death. I feel liberated, my sins known or unknown are covered, the feeling is indescribable, I have been justified through Christ, I'm righteous God is vindicated me. How I hope you would let yourself experience the same joy that I experience every single day, not like what many people believe Christianity is not a set of laws, Christianity is a freedom from the two greatest chains SIN and DEATH.