Q RE: Salvation & Confession of Sin

[Kansasdad]

I very much appreciate your post.. Sorry It took this long to respond. I was a the lake for 3 days. Here is the question I still have then. At some point in my life I take Jesus as my saviour, repent of my sins and I am on fire with the love of God. My Faith and my works show this to be true. I go many years solid in my faith to God. But then I slip, and I slip some more. and then I find I am committing some terrible things. Can you loose your salvation. If this is true then there is "Mortal Sin" (salvation jeapordizing sin). If it isn't true then once I have Gods grace, all sins don't matter, because they are already forgiven, and I think you have very eleloquentlyhown that Gods does not say this. I think when we are committing (salvation jeapordizing sin) we close the door to God. God didn't close it, we did! We bind ourselves in the guilt of sin and we walk away from God and his grace. We as humans have a very very difficult time forgiving ourselves. God knows how to forgive, we don't do it well especially to ourselves. It is at these time, when we are in salvation jeapordizing sin that we must confess our sins WITH another human being. Only then will we open the door and except Gods grace. Otherwise we keep the door shut.

God Bless

Kansas Dad

ps. Sue you had an excellent response in the other thread. Thanks

[Christ's Free Servant]

Kansasdad,

Let's put it this way. We are saved by grace through faith, correct? Faith is action. We show our faith by what we do (Hebrews 11). If we believe (faith) that Jesus died for our sins and that by receiving him into our lives we are agreeing to leave our life of sin and are agreeing to follow Christ, then if we continue living in sin, wilfully, knowingly, then true faith did not exist. As I John points out, we are a liar.

So, if God's grace through our faith is what saves us, then what can unsave us, if such a thing can possibly happen? I believe it is lack of faith, which is shown by our actions. Not one sin or two sins or three or four sins can separate us from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The only thing I see that can "unsave" us would be lack of faith.

Let me share these verses with you and see what you think they are saying:

IF

[Pax]

catsmeow:

Scripture makes it clears that Christ after he died on the cross and before he was assummed into heaven appeared to the apostles and said John 20:21-23 "Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

This clearly shows how Jesus was telling the apostles to go out and either forgive sins, or retain sins of others. How do you do that, through confession.

Also look at James 5:13-16 I won't type it all but basically it states, Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that they may be healed. The effective, frevent prayer of a righteous man avials much.

Oral confession to a Priest was practiced up until the Reformation, and even Martin Luther still proposed this, but eventually this was taken away. The only Christian Church that still requires confession is the Catholic Church. Protestant denominations really don't have any answer to this and how one church says your sins are forgiven might vary from another. As this thread and the Repentance thread point out, there is much confusion about repentance. I left a longer post in the repentance thread that details how oral confession to a priest is done and why. I also attribute this to really helping me tackle my habitual sins. God Bless

[Kansasdad]

Kansasdad,

So, if God's grace through our faith is what saves us, then what can unsave us, if such a thing can possibly happen? I believe it is lack of faith, which is shown by our actions. Not one sin or two sins or three or four sins can separate us from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The only thing I see that can "unsave" us would be lack of faith.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. That is precisely what I have been trying to say. You are correct that is not our sins that condemn us it is our lack of faith. Faith with out works is dead. As evident by our works our faith is either alive or dead. If our faith is dead we do not have the Grace of God. Furthermore we can be alive with faith but then chose to walk away from it. At that point our faith is dead, and dead faith is evident by our works. Therefore we can judge ourselves by our works to see if we have faith that is alive or are we living a lie. Folks if you profess to be of Christ and are living in adultery, molesting children, Homosexuality etc, you are living a lie, your faith is dead. You have rejected the free gift God is trying to give you.

God Bless

Kansas Dad

[Catsmeow]

Kansasdad: You mention the "big sins" of society (sexual immorality, etc).

I wonder if we have any idea just how sinful we (believers) really are...

For example, let's say you hear gossip at work. You nod or wink in agreement with the speaker. You become equally guilty of slander as the speaker is.

Sin is amazing....it's deceitfulness is frightening. We think that by saying nothing verbally we're free of guilt, yet we're not. We've tarnished the reputation of the person being gossiped about......without saying a single word.

A wink and a nod...that's all it takes to reveal the darkness of our own hearts.

Think of the times we abuse people who annoy us while we're driving.

-Or the times we ignore a needy neighbor, preferring our own daily concerns.

-Or have a harsh, critical spirit of others while failing to see our own fault?

I'm deeply concerned with those silent sins of the heart that only God sees.

The purpose of my post wasn't to highlight the sins of society but to acknowledge my sinful nature and desperate need for the Savior. I suppose I've answered my own question: yes, I do need to confess my sin and be cleansed daily from all unrighteousness. It keeps me accountable.

Pax: I don't need an priest to confess to. I need a Savior who is my "high priest" for all time. He alone will make intercession for me.

[Kabowd]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned...several people have said that salvation hinges on our faith, but I'm not sure it's been said that faith itself comes from God.

Read Romans 12:3 and Ephesians 2:8,9. Faith itself comes from God. Even repentance is something that God grants us (according to 2 Tim. 2:25).

Therefore, while I agree that faith without works is dead.....good works can ONLY come about by the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us. Romans 8:8 and Hebrews 11:6 teach us that without faith, without being controlled by God..we CANNOT please Him.

Some say that we can "lose faith" and therefore forfeit our eternal place with God. This goes against the very nature of who God is. He adopts us as His own when we are saved (Gal. 4:4-7), and Hebrews 12 teaches us that He disciplines His own. If sin causes us to lose our salvation..how could He chasten His own? Not only that, our spiritual DNA (identity) is made brand new when we become His (see John 3:3-8 and Ez. 36:26). How does a Father ever stop being a Father? Even if His child disobeys, runs away, squanders his inheritance and changes his name....he is STILL his Father's child, the Father's blood forever runs through his veins.

[Catsmeow]

If sin causes us to lose our salvation..how could He chasten His own? Not only that, our spiritual DNA (identity) is made brand new when we become His (see John 3:3-8 and Ez. 36:26). How does a Father ever stop being a Father? Even if His child disobeys, runs away, squanders his inheritance and changes his name....he is STILL his Father's child, the Father's blood forever runs through his veins.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmm...I've been chastised and I can say one thing: it smarts!

[Kansasdad]

Kansasdad:  You  mention the "big sins" of society (sexual immorality, etc).

I wonder if we have any idea just how sinful we (believers) really are...

For example, let's say you hear  gossip at  work. You nod or wink in agreement with the speaker. You become equally guilty of slander as the speaker is. 

Sin is amazing....it's deceitfulness is frightening. We think that by saying nothing verbally we're free of guilt, yet we're not. We've tarnished the reputation of the person being gossiped about......without saying a single word.

A wink and a nod...that's all it takes to reveal the darkness of our own hearts.

Think of the times we abuse people who annoy us while we're driving.

-Or the times we ignore a needy neighbor, preferring  our own daily concerns.

-Or have a harsh, critical spirit of others while failing to see our own fault?

I'm deeply concerned with those silent sins of the heart that only God sees.

The purpose of my  post wasn't to highlight the  sins of society but  to acknowledge my sinful nature and desperate need for the Savior. I suppose I've answered my own question: yes, I do need to confess my sin and be cleansed daily from all unrighteousness. It keeps me accountable.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How very true Cats

satan uses our sin to bind us to them, to convince us that God does not love us, that God does not want us with him for eternity. Never listen to that lie. I know repentance helps us to fight that lie, and when we are really struggling with that lie repentance with another human has great healing.

God Has Bless you Cats

Kansas Dad

[Guest quadding101]

We have all sinned and we all need to repent and accept Jesus and then if u never sin again u do not have to ask forgivness for something that u do not do. When God's Spirit comes into our hearts, God casts out the inborn nature and our hearts r purifyed. Sin like greed, lust, envy, jealousy etc. r also cast out because God will not dwell where sin dwells. When sin (bad emotions) like greed, envy etc. r cast out of our hearts it is no longer in control of us, it is how God makes it possible to say no to sin. As long as the inborn nature is in our hearts it will compel us to sin, but when God's Spirit is in our hearts, sin becomes a choice. God does make it possible to say no to sin and if we do sin we can ask forgivness. If u have God's Spirit in ur heart and u give into an emotion like lust and u act upon it, (think of things u should not, do an act because of, or even say something u should not) then we can ask forgivness and we must ask God to purify our hearts again, the emotion will be in our hearts and control us til we do. There is so much to this that I will not try to explain it all now but u should get the picture.