When discussing the Gospel, it is sometimes hard to describe sin. Ray Comfort makes the point that we are sinners by taking the person he is talking with through the ten commandments. However this ultimately results in the conclusion that a person is damned for having stolen a pencil in third grade, and some other frivolous transgressions that ought to never result in a penalty as severe as eternal hell.
Your good works are not going to get you to heaven. When you are in line to meet St. Peter at the pearly gates, you should stand in the line designated for sinners. You will not achieve perfection on earth.
At the same time, repentance has to mean something. As a believer, you should be following on the path that Jesus laid out, even if you stumble from time to time.
Eight questions to see if you are following Jesus:
1) Are most people are on a path to God?
wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
--Matt 7:13
2) Are there many ways to God?
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
--John 14:6
Many people feel secure by because they are doing what everyone else is doing. But Jesus says that many are on the wrong path.
3) Are you saved because you said the "sinners' prayer"?
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
--Matt 7:21
4) Do you like being with other believers and like helping them when they are in need?
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
--1 John 3:14
[A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another
--John 13:24]
5) Are you quick to forgive others?
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
--Matt 6:15
6) Are you are zealous about Jesus?
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
--Revelation 3:16,19
7) Does your belief result in action?
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
--Matt 7:19-20
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
--John 15:5-6
8) Do you have the attitude that everything you have belongs to God, and you just manage what you have been given?
Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
--Luke 14:33
What sparked the Protestant reformation? People from the province where Martin Luther lived would travel to where Johann Tetzel, who was selling indulgences, pay their money, and return with a piece of paper saying their sins were absolved. Yet Luther knew these people to be unrepentant scoundrels before and after their purchase of salvation. So he wrote his 95 theses to start an academic discussion with his peers. A half millennium later, we have back to the same spot we were back then, except now we have the "sinners' prayer", and it is free.
Salvation needs to come with repentance and submission to God's rule in his kingdom.
The first words of Jesus in Mark's gospel are about the kingdom of God:
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
--Mark 1:14
Most of what Jesus taught is about the kingdom of God, but it may not always be labeled as such.
I think that sin is best explained as living for yourself and rejecting kingdom of God. They see God as an intrusion on their lives. Today we see so many people doing this that we think it is normal.
In the kingdom of God, people see themselves as stewards of what they have been given by God, rather than people who live for themselves. Adam and Eve rejected God's rule over them. It was not through any necessity or coercion. It was simply a declaration of rebellion.
In the kingdom of God, people see themselves as stewards of what they have been given by God, rather than people who live for themselves. Adam and Eve rejected God's rule over them. It was not through any necessity or coercion. It was simply a declaration of rebellion.
This is alluded to in a seemingly unrelated sentence in Luke's version of the parable of the talents:
But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
--Luke 19:14
They come to a bad ending:
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
--Luke 19:27
It is not wise to be an enemy of God.
We see so many people around us living for themselves and not for the Kingdom that we can think it is normal if we are not careful. But it is not normal, but a temporary anomaly in the broader scheme of things.
God ruled for ages before man's fall into sin, and after God judges sin, there will be an eternity of God's rule again. Where will you be then?
This sort of rebellion reaches its peak with the "the man of lawlessness" (2 Thes 2:3, NASB)
Outside the Kingdom of God, you think of everything as belonging to humanity.
You say things like "my body", "my life", "my retirement", "I can do what I want". You see God as an intrusion on your life.
If you are part of the Kingdom of God, you see everything as belonging to God, and you are a steward of whatever has been assigned to you.
Jesus' teaching was all about the kingdom of God.
God is the king.
He created and owns everything.
We are just stewards of whatever we have.
Misuse of what has been entrusted to us is sin.
But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
--Luke 19:14
They come to a bad ending:
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
--Luke 19:27
It is not wise to be an enemy of God.
We see so many people around us living for themselves and not for the Kingdom that we can think it is normal if we are not careful. But it is not normal, but a temporary anomaly in the broader scheme of things.
God ruled for ages before man's fall into sin, and after God judges sin, there will be an eternity of God's rule again. Where will you be then?
This sort of rebellion reaches its peak with the "the man of lawlessness" (2 Thes 2:3, NASB)
Outside the Kingdom of God, you think of everything as belonging to humanity.
You say things like "my body", "my life", "my retirement", "I can do what I want". You see God as an intrusion on your life.
If you are part of the Kingdom of God, you see everything as belonging to God, and you are a steward of whatever has been assigned to you.
Jesus' teaching was all about the kingdom of God.
God is the king.
He created and owns everything.
We are just stewards of whatever we have.
Misuse of what has been entrusted to us is sin.
There are many parables about stewardship:
Prodigal son, squanders what was given to him.
Farmer who has big crop and builds bigger barn, and retires
Unjust steward
Parable of the vineyard worker
Parable of the talents
----starting over:
It was the first thing that Jesus talks about in Mark's gospel, starting in verse 14:
Sin is like what the Prodigal son did: he took the father's stuff and wasted it. To be in the kingdom, you need to repent and not live for yourself, but rather view yourself as a steward of whatever God has given you.
One point of view is that everything in the whole universe belongs to us, and as long as everything is "consensual", you can do whatever you want because you are not harming anyone.
This is the wrong view and it is typical of the human condition.
As mentioned, the view in the Kingdom is that everything you have, including yourself, belongs to God and you are a steward over it.
I am thinking of the parable of the bigger barns (Luke 12:16-21). Here the farmer did not do anything bad, but failed to do good and just lived for himself.
Also the parable of the "talents" (Matthew 25:14-30). The person with the few talents did nothing with them, not even the bare minimum.
Also the parable of the vineyard owner's son (12:1–12). The workers kept the harvest and killed the people sent by the owner.
There is also a parable of an unjust steward in Luke 16. God regards us as stewards.
The wrong view is a form of lawlessness, where we reject God's rule over us. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they were saying to God that they would not follow his laws.
In the parable in Luke 19:11, the people sent a delegation after the ruler with a message, saying: sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
----
----starting over:
It was the first thing that Jesus talks about in Mark's gospel, starting in verse 14:
Sin is like what the Prodigal son did: he took the father's stuff and wasted it. To be in the kingdom, you need to repent and not live for yourself, but rather view yourself as a steward of whatever God has given you.
One point of view is that everything in the whole universe belongs to us, and as long as everything is "consensual", you can do whatever you want because you are not harming anyone.
This is the wrong view and it is typical of the human condition.
As mentioned, the view in the Kingdom is that everything you have, including yourself, belongs to God and you are a steward over it.
I am thinking of the parable of the bigger barns (Luke 12:16-21). Here the farmer did not do anything bad, but failed to do good and just lived for himself.
Also the parable of the "talents" (Matthew 25:14-30). The person with the few talents did nothing with them, not even the bare minimum.
Also the parable of the vineyard owner's son (12:1–12). The workers kept the harvest and killed the people sent by the owner.
There is also a parable of an unjust steward in Luke 16. God regards us as stewards.
The wrong view is a form of lawlessness, where we reject God's rule over us. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they were saying to God that they would not follow his laws.
In the parable in Luke 19:11, the people sent a delegation after the ruler with a message, saying: sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
----
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