On Mar 16, 7:19=A0pm, AJA <ahnem...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Dave" <dave_and_da...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message news:LL%
> > Of course Christians sin. "If we say that we have no sin, we are
> > deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). If
> > Christians understand the truth that God's Word teaches about the
> > depravity of the human heart, they know that just because they are not
> > conscious of failure does not mean that they are free from it. If the
> > truth is "in" them as a controlling, motivating influence, this kind
> > of self-deception will not take place. Whether someone claims to be
> > "without sin" for a brief period of time or claims it as a permanent
> > attainment, the claim is false.
>
> As a friend of mine, a Methodist pastor, says,
> What we currently have in popular evangelical Christianity is an unhappy
m=
ix
> of Calvinism and Arminianism. On the one hand, folks feel they are saved
b=
y
> faith & can never be lost, on the other they think they =A0sin every day
i=
n
> thought, word, and deed. =A0So, =A0salvation =A0is understood as status
wi=
th God
> and special privileges: =A0Christians aren t perfect [they say], they re
j=
ust
> forgiven. =A0But, the message of "holiness of heart and life" is rarely
he=
ard.
> Or, if it is, it is in the form of an unhealthy legalism.
But salvation, or more specifically justification, _is_ a status
Christians have with God, in which he declares them justified before
Him. We are justified by faith, not by sinlessness. If we could be
justified by sinlessness, then Christ would not have had to die.
Dave
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