The BIG Picture (Q&A)

Even after justification, the soul of the believer continues to indwell a body of sin and death. Sin and death continue to be a functional law within our mortal body. The issue moving forward now is not your justification; that is a done deal. Nothing can change our justification and peace with God through Jesus Christ. The issue moving forward is whether you're going to live under God or under sin. Paul draws attention to this choice by saying, Rom 6:11-13  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (12)  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  (13)  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Notice that Paul is not yet even talking about law. At this point in Rom.6, it's not ...

How do you change when you became a Christian? You become a Christian when you hear the grace gospel and then respond to it in faith. Responding to the grace gospel changes your spiritual standing with God*. The grace gospel justifies you and saves you from God's wrath and hell, and you will go to heaven when you die, but the grace gospel does not change your physical life. You still continue to sin, your mind remains carnal and at enmity with God (1Cor.3:1; Rom.8:7), you continue to be unprofitable for God in your current condition (Rom.3:12). Unfortunately, many Christians remain in this condition because of ignorance. They believe that they are saved, and rightfully so, but they fail to 'continue' in salvation, because the church teaches them that they've made it, so they don't seek to continue in 'the faith' (Rom.1:5;2Cor.13:5); the doctrine in Paul's epistles that informs them how to die to self, how to grow up in Christ, how to walk in the Spirit,...

STATEMENT: If we are saved by grace alone excluding works, I can sit here like a dummy for the rest of my life, and when I die, I'm in the hands of God our Creator. How absurd! What Bible are you reading? ANSWER: Your comment suggests childish thinking and ignorance of the knowledge of the written Word. God’s will for you after you get saved is to come to a knowledge of the truth, 1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. In addition, the scripture below tells us that it is our reasonable service to present ourselves to God for His purpose and through the written Word, to become increasingly transformed by the renewing of our mind, to know God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will. Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of y...

Let me answer the points in your question with some facts. Sin has separated us from God. The bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Rom 3:23). We cannot restore that relationship. We never could and we never will be able. You see, sin is in our nature. It’s not our works or efforts that is the issue, it is us ourselves. It is our very nature that is at enmity with God. The bible says,  Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. No good works or efforts that you do, to appease God or try to earn favour with Him, will count for anything! Again, the problem lies inside of us, inside our very nature as humans. So then, what is the answer to your question? If we cannot do anything to find peace with God, how can we be saved? Well, the bible gives us these answers too. God has provided us with grace through Jesus Christ. The answer is to believe in Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus wi...

The kingdom gospel to the Jews is to believe in and confess Jesus as their Messiah and then to do works to prove their faith in their confession. The works to do are to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sin, so that they can receive the Holy Spirit, Act.2:38-39. That is their gospel. In addition to this they were expected to continue faithfully in the Mosaic law, to sell all their possessions and live in common with each other in the church, and endure to the end until their salvation comes at the return of Christ. The grace gospel to all nations is to hear and believe in the cross work of Jesus Christ; that Jesus, as God’s Son, completely righteous and perfect, died in our place as a willing offering, so that God could impute His righteousness on us and justify us by the price of that sacrifice. There are no works to perform to qualify faith because Jesus did all the work necessary to justify us, and we are not saved by our own faith, but by the faith of Christ Himse...

QUESTION:  I am half and half with my salvation. Deep down I feel like I'm saved, but doubt shoots that down quite often. I do want to be saved. I do feel love for Jesus and have a longing for him and to obey and follow him. I've been told that this longing that I feel is proof that I'm saved and then I've also been told that that's not enough. I'm guessing where you stand on this, but I'd like to hear your thoughts. Is that longing to be with Jesus enough? Or “evidence"? Or something else? ANSWER:  The first thing to mention is that faith is not a feeling. I mention this because 3 times in your comment above you mention this. Can I speak plainly (and bluntly). Forget about feeling anything. Feelings are just going to mess with faith. So, get that off your chest!! The next thing to say is this: Have you heard the gospel of the cross, how that Jesus Christ died for your sins, (so you could be forgiven and redeemed), and how that Jesus was buried and ...

God does not forgive sins one at a time when we commit them. Neither does He choose which sins to forgive and which not to. God’s forgiveness is total and complete . The provision of the cross, the blood of His Son, justifies us instantaneously and completely when we believe in His Son. Paul explains this in Romans chapter 3, Rom 3:21-24  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;  22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Before you were saved, you were a sinner. After you respond in faith to the grace gospel and trust that God saves you and justifies you, you remain a sinner. In other words, NOTHING changes in the body! However, EVERYTHING chan...

  Statement All these negative statements promoting the flesh is not good for Christians who wants to be overcomers on Christ Jesus. It's not that I am saying anyone can be sin free, but we should tend to be like Christ. Instead of yielding to sin simply because grace is available. Your pattern of thinking is why some pastors drink, fornicate, cheat, hate, embittered, murder, smoke, exhibit pride and greed because they feel, after all, they cannot beat sin. It's not the number of years as a Christian but your authority in Christ as His soldier. Do you believe in prayers and warfare? Do you believe in binding and casting? You cannot be able to pray battle prayers when you believe carnality is part of a Christian. Answer God’s grace is there for you because of the exceeding love and power of the cross. However, it shows that you still have a way to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God’s foundational truths in the letter of Romans. If you read Romans 6 you will see that...

Question: So, I can continue in sin because Christ had imputed righteousness in me? Or I can commit adultery, watch porn, hate people, keep malice, cheat, and still have right standing with God? Answer: Christ’s righteousness imputed to you freely when you believe in Him is unaffected by the sins you commit. The reason is because it is HIS righteousness upon you, not your own righteousness or unrighteousness, Rom.3:21-22. By the way: Your list of sins above can also include sins like stealing a pen from work, thinking a bad thought, hurting someone's feelings, causing your brother to stumble in faith, violating your conscience. These sins are as heinous and vile to God as the ones you listed above. Sin is sin whether it is intentional or unintentional. Your sins do not affect Christ’s righteousness that God has placed upon you by grace. Without this grace gift you, me, and the whole world would be doomed to hell. Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justif...

QUESTION: Let's say a person hears and responds to the gospel of grace and believes in Jesus. Justification takes place the moment the get saved. However, the remain a babe in Christ as they never renew their mind to the will and ways of God. They remain weak in spirit and their flesh continues to control their thoughts and actions. What will happen to people like this when they die or when the rapture happens? ANSWER: You need to understand that justification is not something that occurs in the flesh. It is a positional status that God declares over you when you believe in Christ, Rom.7. Your flesh is not justified. That is why your flesh will be dissolved (in death or the rapture). Your flesh is unsalvageable. It is corrupt and vile, and it must be done away with. Your spirit is justified at salvation, and this verdict cannot be changed irrespective of your choices on earth, Rom.8:1. What should happen on earth is the following: If you chose to follow God’s word, you will mortify...

QUESTION: If you willfully sin, you were either not born again in the first place or you have thrown out your faith to serve the devil, and the promise that we can know that we will be saved if we endure to the end. You can lose your salvation as we have already done by disobeying God's Commands. Like Adam, we have partaken of the Tree of Knowledge and broken God's law. Thus, now spiritually dead, and the reason we need the second spiritual awaking, ie: to be born again.  Any sin in a believer will bring about spiritual death if allowed to come to fruition where our names are blotted out of the lamb's book of life. The reason they are blotted out is because of disobedience to God's will in the first place. At the time of accepting God's offer of salvation, we are grafted into the tree again, because God is able to graft in the branches that are broken off if they repent. To be eventually saved we must remain in the true vine of Jesus Christ, and if in Christ we will...

QUESTION: I believe that repentance means a sincere change in heart, I believe that if you continue on sin after receiving the knowledge of truth there is no sacrifice left, and that’s passed present and future. You can pray every day for forgiveness and whilst you lessen it daily, if you die, you’ll go to heaven because your soul is pure because you repent daily, and you know you will so your forgiven. But I believe that, daily sins, greed, sloth, idolatry, envy, wrath, and willful deliberate sin, undeniably inserts a massive amount of guilt upon your spirit, in which cannot be released without repentance to Christ, and continuously doing it again after repentance without a change in your ways, is not sincere, and you are taking Christs forgiveness for your own earthly pleasure. That’s what I believe, and that’s what I will continue to believe, there is no justification for willful deliberate sin. it must be stopped, for the purification of your soul, and for your soul to remain s...

Question:   “ The truth is that Christians are not to reject the law of God, the ten commandments, but by the Almighty’s Spirit should know how to apply keeping His commands without a religious organization telling them what they must or not must not do! G od has said it over and over again. We are to keep His commandments. Why don’t we? Is it because some man or some church organization tells them so? Why is man’s teaching so different that what God commandment???” Answer:  It is true that no Christians is to reject the 10 commandments. In essence, these are the moral standards that all men should abide by. The world would be a WONDERFUL place if men kept just these 10 commandments. However, the truth is that humans CANNOT keep the law, even if they wanted to. Humans are corrupted by the curse of sin. The book of Romans says that “ There are none that are righteous, no not one! ” (Rom.3:10) . It does not matter if God, the pope, a church, or a government, tells men to keep ju...