Can you continue to knowingly sin and remain a Christian?

[07/07/07]

Sometimes we don't realize we've sinned until after we have.

It wouldn't be willful sin then.

 

[Hopeful]

We are also dead to (not under, delivered from) the ten commandments and every other law, as concerning condemnation.

Nine of the ten should come to you naturally, if you have the divine nature spoken of in 2 Peter 1:4.

We are under the law to Christ as concerning obedience.

Agreed.

 

[Hopeful]

We are justified by faith, if we do not waver in believing God's promises (especially the one in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)...see Romans 4:20-25. If I have not yet obtained the practical outworking of that promise (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) within my life, I am still justified because I am looking forward to its fulfillment in my life.

Just like a gold miner can say he is rich before finding the gold?
What you refer to as "practical outworking I interpret as "sin".
Faith is false without obedience to God.

 

[Hopeful]

Can we? it seems that you have been making excuses about the fact that you don't keep it perfectly by saying that you are dead to the law.

Why should I keep 400 some useless unpurifying Laws?
I don't need to get circumcised or stay home on the sabbath day in order to be saved.
Do you?

The fact that you don't wear tzitzit and tallit or blow the chofar on the new moon means that you don't keep the law perfectly.

I am not an OT Jew.
Are you?

That's why we need the blood of Jesus.

The blood of Jesus washed away my past sins.
It sanctified me.
It justified me.
Keeping the Law of Moses can't do that.

 

[Hopeful]

It wouldn't be willful sin then.

It wouldn't be sin at all, as it met none of the requirements to be a sin in James 1:14-15.

 

[Hopeful]

Hopeful was saying how thankful he was that he could keep the law perfectly. Every moral tenet in the OT and NT applies (Galatians 3:10, Matthew 5:17-20).

You are kinda misquoting me there.
Unless the law you cite is nine of the original 10 commandments.
Sabbath keeping has been done away with, as every day is the Lord's now.

 

[Hopeful]

Just end your quotation after "when we receive the Spirit." Your obedience plays no role whatsoever in being made a child of God. Receiving the forgiveness of God and the imputation of the Holy Spirit through faith does that all by itself.

Are the disobedient "children of God"?
No.

 

[Hopeful]

Only if they can deceive me into thinking they are more powerful.

It would be unscriptural if we said, or thought that.

As I grow up in the faith and learn to distinguish good from evil, like all children of God will, I become more aware of and on guard against the deceits of the devil and the flesh. And so the traits of the Spirit increase in my life thus confirming my calling and election (IOW, confirming that I am a saved, born again, child of God.)

Don't you think Adam has already given you the ability to tell good from evil?

Progression confirms that one is called and elected, not perfection.

If you called your "progression" growth in grace and knowledge, I would agree with you.

 

[justbyfaith]

Just like a gold miner can say he is rich before finding the gold?
What you refer to as "practical outworking I interpret as "sin".
Faith is false without obedience to God.

If he knows that the gold is in the vein, then yes, he is rich before mining out the gold, if he owns the mine.

The practical outworking of the promise of 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 is entire sanctification; not sin.

 

[justbyfaith]

Why should I keep 400 some useless unpurifying Laws?
I don't need to get circumcised or stay home on the sabbath day in order to be saved.
Do you?

Don't you realize that if you don't keep every moral tenet in the Old Testaments, you are not keeping the law perfectly?

Galatians 3:10, James 2:10, Matthew 5:48.

 

[justbyfaith]

Unless the law you cite is nine of the original 10 commandments.
Sabbath keeping has been done away with, as every day is the Lord's now.

Sabbath keeping has not been done away with. Jesus merely clarified the precept by teaching that 1) the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath; and 2) it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

Therefore if you violate any law, you are sinning.

 

[justbyfaith]

You are kinda misquoting me there.

Ok, and isn't it nice that since the gifts of repentance from sin and rebirth from God's seed we can fulfil that law perfectly?

 

[Hopeful]

Are you suggesting that one cannot walk with God for a season and then turn back to willful sin?

If they believed Jesus or His Father, they would not "repent of their repentance". (2 Cor 7:10)..."For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death."

 

[Hopeful]

Sabbath keeping has not been done away with. Jesus merely clarified the precept by teaching that 1) the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath; and 2) it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

Therefore if you violate any law, you are sinning.

Was Paul a sinner for writing against circumcision, dietary rules, sabbath keeping, or tithing?
It is written..."Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col 2:20-22)

 

[justbyfaith]

Was Paul a sinner for writing against circumcision, dietary rules, sabbath keeping, or tithing?
It is written..."Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col 2:20-22)

All I know is that you cannot say that you are keeping the law perfectly if you are violating certain portions of the law (and I believe that you are; because you are making excuses about some of the commandments).

 

[justbyfaith]

You will be called the least in the kingdom if you break the least of the commandments and teach men so (Matthew 5:17-20).

 

[justbyfaith]

Gal 3:10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

 

[Hopeful]

When I don't capitalize the "L" in "Law", it does NOT indicate the Mosaic Law's 400 something commands.
It means the law of Christ, which is..."Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and might", and, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself". (Mark 12:33)

 

[Hopeful]

You will be called the least in the kingdom if you break the least of the commandments and teach men so (Matthew 5:17-20).

So true, when spoken to OT Jews.

 

[justbyfaith]

So true, when spoken to OT Jews.

Jesus spoke to NT believers in all of His teachings.

Heb 1:1, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

2Jo 1:9, Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.