| Author | Message | ||
| Heyjeff Registered user Username: Heyjeff Post Number: 1 Registered: 8-2018 |
For years this has been a "guilt text", employed both against me by others, and also BY me...EGW's quote - "There is no excuse for sin", was/is often heard in SDA circles, adding to the guilt. I wonder how we Forum-formers interpret this text. God is faithful, but I certainly am not. Is the "Way of Escape" the realization, by faith and grace, that we are already forgiven, and there is no need for despair over our repeated weaknesses? | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15568 Registered: 12-2003  |
Hi, Jeff! Welcome to the forum! Ellen White's note is not a biblical quote. To be sure, 1 John does speak about those who are believers, born again, will not continue in sin. Nevertheless, Paul explains how sin figures in our lives. Romans walks through the nature of man and salvation, and it explains what salvation is for us who are born depraved. When we are born again, our naturally dead-in-sin spirits are made alive in Christ, and we are transferred out of the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son (Col. 1:13). Romans 7 then explains that although we love the word of God when we are alive in Christ and out from under the law, we still have a law of sin in the flesh. Then he asks who will deliver him from this body of sin, and the answer is Romans 8:1: there is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! IN other words, as we grow in the Lord and learn to submit to His word, more and more the Lord brings our behavior into our awareness. More than that, He convicts us of our inner struggles and attitudes, and He teaches us to submit our temptations and reactions to Him and His word BEFORE we indulge our desires and flesh. This ability to submit ourselves to the Lord instead of to give in to sins is not possible until we are born again. John can say we are no longer slaves to sin because when we pass from death to life when we believe (Jn. 5:24), that is reality, not a metaphor. We start in spiritual death...literally, our spirits are dead and separated from the life of God. When we believe, we are made alive and we are no longer members of the domain of darkness. Our bodies are still mortal and must be glorified; that is how we still have a "law of sin in our members". But those sins are not the definition of us or of our salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. Behavior and changes in attitude are the fruit of salvation. Obedience to the Lord and His word are the fruit of Salvation. We learn to trust Him and to know that His word cannot fail. Submitting to God's word is the "secret" to learning to trust Him instead of being obsessed with evaluating sin. We believe God; He convicts us, and we trust Him to teach us to obey instead of to rationalize. Here is an article that explain (with pictures! Ha!) the reality of our spiritual death inherited from Adam and our new birth through faith in the blood and finished work of Jesus: http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2012/1/hewasraisedsoyou.html Colleen | ||
| Heyjeff Registered user Username: Heyjeff Post Number: 3 Registered: 8-2018 |
Thank you Colleen, for your Welcome and thoughtful response. Somehow, I mangled the thrust of my post a bit. I Cor. 10:13 is a passage often employed against those who have sinned and fallen short, especially our children. "There is no excuse for sin because God has provided you with a Way of Escape", is a re-phrase of a common SDA admonition. Guilt is used to manipulate behavior, not love. After years of begging for forgiveness for my many deliberate sins,(for which there was No Excuse), and of asking to please be shown the Way of Escape , I was Born Again! The love of scripture began to put perspective on the 'Behavior by Bullying' to which I-we had been subjected. We are indeed free, seated in heaven, justified and glorified! Rom 8. Let us hold fast. Thank you again., Colleen and all the saints in Light...hf | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15569 Registered: 12-2003 |
HeyJeff, that is wonderful! I still marvel at the reality that the Lord calls us out of darkness and brings us to life. It is a miracle that we cannot do for ourselves or for each other. He is Life! Colleen |
