Resolved in Our Minds, Not in God's Mind

There are pastors who understand God’s grace who are reluctant to preach grace, because grace will lead to a license to sin. Many of these same pastors in an effort to reduce sinning, they revert to preaching law, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. 


They want to scare the sin out of people, put their salvation on the line, dangle that up in front of them and scare them with a conditional salvation and that will straighten them up. So they stop preaching grace, as if not preaching grace is going stop people from sinning. 


The problem with law as the answer to people’s dilemma is that law is totally incapable of changing the human heart and that’s where the problem lies. What we do, or what we do not do, is not a test of anyone’s salvation today. What we believe is the only test for salvation today! 


Most people think salvation is the end result, salvation is the starting point. The issue of salvation is understanding the reconciliation where our sin is concerned, do we understand that God is reconciled where all sin is concerned for all time. 


The price was paid for all and through that payment, Jesus Christ redeemed the entire human race from the sin barrier that separated the world from God. The sin issue needs to be resolved in our minds, not in Gods.

a reply to: newnature1

That is saying it is a given that God has offered Grace. I believe he/she has.

I've been making a conscious effort to "find god" again.... but usually give up because there's just so much weight, misinterpretations and bad impressions left by so many 'believers', that my reluctance has turned into a kind of a fear of association. Mostly with the righteous holyroller types, who make it a point to judge everyone elses faith while ignoring their own... Long story short I want to believe in god again, but religion in general has made me sick.

But your post made some good sense, so thanks.

originally posted by: newnature1
There are pastors who understand God’s grace who are reluctant to preach grace, because grace will lead to a license to sin. Many of these same pastors in an effort to reduce sinning, they revert to preaching law, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. 


The solution to the dilemma is that grace and law are both needed, but grace comes first in order of time.
Obedience to the basic principles of God's laws follows on from that.

People can set themselves apart to live any kind of lifestyle they so choose, as long as they choose to do it. How many in fundamental Christianity set themselves apart because in their minds eye, they believe they are more holy by doing so in the eyes of God? Many of them think they are more holy in the eyes of God, because they have achieved that set-apartness?


What Paul would have us understand, is that sanctification, or setting apart depends upon the one who is doing the setting apart and the purpose for that. Not being conformed to this world has to do with both believers and non-believers deciding to set themselves apart and setting the parameters for doing so. The flesh is capable of behavioral change, but the flesh is never capable of performance to the standard of the perfection belonging to God himself no matter how set apart we try to become. 


It is a judicial transaction that takes place in God’s mind the moment we believe. God is the Sanctifier, NOT the person. Sanctification is an already accomplished fact for each and every believer. God’s act of sanctification is a part of that gift transaction connected with justification. Justification is accomplished through sanctification. 


The reality given the sin-nature we have inherited from Adam, the only way we can ever be made totally and perfectly as righteous as God himself is for that believer to be joined to God’s son. The two become one when it comes to the sanctification Paul is talking about. Understand there is more than one type of sanctification in the Word of God.

originally posted by: rexsblues
I've been making a conscious effort to "find god" again.... but usually give up because there's just so much weight, misinterpretations and bad impressions left by so many 'believers', that my reluctance has turned into a kind of a fear of association. Mostly with the righteous holyroller types, who make it a point to judge everyone elses faith while ignoring their own... Long story short I want to believe in god again, but religion in general has made me sick.

But your post made some good sense, so thanks.

You do not need others to find God or the Goddess. If you want a community, I recommend the Unitarian Church.

a reply to: newnature1
The Christian use of the word grace carries with it connotations that too many pastors, as well as Christians don't understand. It's hard to teach something you lack comprehension of. For the Christian, grace is a supernatural gift of unmerited favor, revelation, and faith. The whole purpose of grace as a doctrine, is to bring one into relationship with Christ. Something the law was powerless to do.