If someone were to stop there, what would the point be?
Are we to just blunder from one sin to another, hoping that our next one isn't the "Deal-breaker"?
Of course not! Romans 6 gives a detailed explanation of this.
We are forgiven! Yes! We have propitiation for our sin.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Propitiation
Pro*pi`ti*a"tion\, n. [L. propitiatio: cf. F. propitiation.]
1. The act of appeasing the wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of making propitious.
2. (Theol.) That which propitiates; atonement or atoning sacrifice; specifically, the influence or effects of the death of Christ in appeasing the divine justice, and conciliating the divine favor.
He [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins. --1 John ii. 2.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
But is that where it ends?
No, that's where it begins. First, Christ has satisfied -- in his own Death at the Cross -- Real, Divine Wrath upon real, personal sins. The kind you and I have both personally committed, and dreamed of committing without consequence. This is what removes the enmity between us and God, and permits Him to address us as children in need of restoration.
We began with inexhaustible pride. It caused us to deny our need of correction, of our failings, of our need of Him. We had what is called in His Word, "a heart of stone", or "ears that don't hear, and eyes that don't see." We were "stiff-necked" and "rebellious," and "slow of heart" to believe.
What we required was a change of our nature, of who we ARE. In earlier posts, I have described the new birth. If you are unfamiliar with this, please check it out, as one cannot truly understand what Christianity is all about without some understanding of what the New Birth entails.
Human beings are not sick people needing to be made well (morally) we are dead people needing the breath of life.
And, thus, the New Birth changes us.
This brings us to the 'beyond forgiven part', and introduces two terms.
1) Justification
2) Sanctification
Justification is the moral completeness of Christ attributed to the believer at the moment of salvation. We are equipped to be citizens of the Kingdom of heaven because we have been cleansed of our sin, and have been given the gift of Christ's moral perfection on the Divine ledger, so to speak.
Sanctification is the daily process of conforming to the life into which we were saved.
Grace is not merely a warm sentiment from God to you. Grace is God's gift to us, providing the very strength by which we overcome temptation, and otherwise live the Christian life.
God granted us new appetites. We actually enjoy (!) things that were once distasteful to us. Righteousness, and the things of God have become appealing to us, when once they were laughable. It takes us beyond being the "I'll get mine" crowd, the "me-first" generation. Compassion for people that hate us begins to make sense.
The Sermon on the Mount, the Camel through the eye of the Needle, and the other things Jesus said were so lofty in their expectations of us that we could not possibly fulfill them. Could not, that is, unless we were to become 'new wine skins'. The people to whom these challenges were being given must become thoroughly changed.
So, why do so few Christians live a life that gives evidence of that sort of a transformation?
Two reasons:
1) Not everyone who calls themselves Christian really is one. (see: Matt 7)
2) Some Christians are "nearsighted" (I Peter 1:8,9) They have allowed themselves to get 'caught up' in the mundane distractions of living, and have forgotten where Life truly originates.
Let's examine 1 Peter 1 a little further. verses 3 & 4 describe the Promises from Christ Jesus. Everything we need (truly need, not think we need) has already been given to us. Everything that follows is necessarily rooted and ground in Jesus. It's not a how-to, or a self-help. It is Christ-centered in its entirety. Remove Jesus from the equation, and there is no equation.
It mentions how our desires can be changed. Not that we will "never sin," but that sinning will become the exception, rather than the rule. (John Piper explained it well and in more detail, here.) Our union with God is how we escape the corruption of the world which is caused by evil desires.
If you are a Christian, allow these thoughts to encourage you to press toward the life to which we were called, one worthy of the Name we carry.
If you are not, the gospel is evident throughout this blog. By gospel, I mean good news. Good news that doesn't soft-shoe the problem, but rather, addressing the problem, presents a solution big enough to fix it.
The problem: our sins are real, and they have deeply offended a real God, who is morally pure...
The solution: that same God, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life we ought to have lived, and die the death for sin we ought to suffered. Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again, and ascended into heaven. He has satisfied the wrath against Sin, and He gives His Spirit to transform whosoever will believe in Him. That means to not only "assent" to this, but to so thoroughly believe it that it resets your values, priorities, and secondary beliefs. Everything.
In a sense, we die to life as we had known it, and start afresh, with a new perspective.
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