quote: Originally posted by s0lotu
yes, and that is the point. the whole point is that God forgives us REGARDLESS of our sins... whether judged by the world to be great or small. that's what the whole concept of grace is about. we are ALL undeserving, none of us are "wearable to the interview," and that's why Jesus died for our sins. that means he took our punishment in place of us. if we are willing to accept Jesus, that's ALL it takes for us to be considered "clean." our sins from the past, present, and future have all been erased. how we act is in REACTION to what Jesus has done for us. we should try our best not to sin out of utter thankfulness for what has already been done, out of love for Jesus who took our punishment for us. we don't earn salvation by our good deeds or our lack of bad deeds. but our good deeds and our lack of bad deeds reflects what's in our hearts--whether we have truly received Jesus.
very good point. Our deeds do reflect what is in our heart. There are verses in the bible that explain this in the context of "faith and actions". I believe that if one truly believed, it would reflect in one's actions. Here's my analogy: say that during the next world war, the news stated that if you walked outside at anytime, you would be engulfed by bio-chemical agents. If you truly believed this, would your actions reflect this? Would you go outside? No. Just like this, I believe that if you truly believed in something, your actions would most definitely reflect it.
James 2:17
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:22
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
__________________
"Truth transcends fact."
"Truth is not determined by how many people believe it."
"All the darkness in the world can not extinguish the light of a single candle."
Last edited by merc on 03-13-2003 at 11:05 PM
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