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Automatic Confession
Showing posts with label confession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confession. Show all posts
Monday, February 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
No Apology.
God won't accept our apology for sins; doesn't matter whether we apologize 1 time or 100 times for the same sin; doesn't matter whether we apologize for all sins or only the sins we can remember.
Leaving one sin out will still make us unforgiven. And an unforgiven person can never be reconciled to God. Okay, I will make sure I will ask forgiveness for ALL my sins, but the question is how do you know what a 'sin' is in the first place? Bible says, whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Hmm... 'whatever is not of faith'?
That means, when I cook with out faith, it's a sin. When I drive without faith, it's a sin. If I breath without faith, that's a sin.
How about confessing and asking forgiveness in a general, include-all statement such as 'Oh God, forgive me for ALL my sins'? That covers all!
No, that won't work either...
Why?
Because, God requires BLOOD for sins. Thats is His standard. I didn't make that up, He said it : 'Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness'. Sorry!
Isn't that enough to atleast rethink the heresy that God's forgiveness is based on our confession?
Tragically, from the 'tradition of men', we somehow learned to apologize with our mouth and expect God to forgive our sins. Sin isn't such a simple thing. After all, it is the cause of (spiritual) death. Remember, the story of Adam?
There was someone who shed the blood. There was someone who stood in place for us. There was someone who took away the entire sins of the world, once for all. There was someone who said 'It's FINISHED'. There was someone who was introduced to us by John the baptist saying, 'behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'.
He can't extend a bit of forgiveness anymore when we ask Him, because He has already forgiven the world through the one time sacrifice of His own Son. He has provided forgiveness for the entire world at the cross, now it is up to us whether to receive it or reject it. Keep on asking for forgiveness is a sure sign of the rejection of the total forgiveness provided at the cross. That is not faith. Thats is 'trampling the Son of God under foot'. That is 'insulting the Spirit of grace'. That is 'treating the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing'. (Heb 10:26-31)
[Related post: Dismantle the confession booths]
Leaving one sin out will still make us unforgiven. And an unforgiven person can never be reconciled to God. Okay, I will make sure I will ask forgiveness for ALL my sins, but the question is how do you know what a 'sin' is in the first place? Bible says, whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Hmm... 'whatever is not of faith'?
That means, when I cook with out faith, it's a sin. When I drive without faith, it's a sin. If I breath without faith, that's a sin.
How about confessing and asking forgiveness in a general, include-all statement such as 'Oh God, forgive me for ALL my sins'? That covers all!
No, that won't work either...
Why?
Because, God requires BLOOD for sins. Thats is His standard. I didn't make that up, He said it : 'Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness'. Sorry!
Isn't that enough to atleast rethink the heresy that God's forgiveness is based on our confession?
Tragically, from the 'tradition of men', we somehow learned to apologize with our mouth and expect God to forgive our sins. Sin isn't such a simple thing. After all, it is the cause of (spiritual) death. Remember, the story of Adam?
There was someone who shed the blood. There was someone who stood in place for us. There was someone who took away the entire sins of the world, once for all. There was someone who said 'It's FINISHED'. There was someone who was introduced to us by John the baptist saying, 'behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'.
He can't extend a bit of forgiveness anymore when we ask Him, because He has already forgiven the world through the one time sacrifice of His own Son. He has provided forgiveness for the entire world at the cross, now it is up to us whether to receive it or reject it. Keep on asking for forgiveness is a sure sign of the rejection of the total forgiveness provided at the cross. That is not faith. Thats is 'trampling the Son of God under foot'. That is 'insulting the Spirit of grace'. That is 'treating the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing'. (Heb 10:26-31)
[Related post: Dismantle the confession booths]
Friday, March 14, 2008
ivescrewedup
I am so moved by the multitudes that are forced to wear a mask due to the fear of religious judgment. What good the religion is doing in their life other than forcing them into depression?
I came across this website which allows people to confess their sins anonymously. It’s no a wonder that they open up under the title of ‘anonymous’. The world and the religion wouldn’t allow them to open up authentically. It’s not that we have to make all our secret sins public, but what if we have a group of people where we could confess to each other without the fear of judgment?
I think millions are dying in guilt, shame and fear due to many sins in their life. If we can stop acting that everything is hunky-dory in our life just because we are Christians, wouldn’t that be a lot better?
We, Christians are well known for the fact that we preach the salvation by grace through faith alone. We attract people telling them, no matter how sinful they are, they are still worthy for the salvation offered by Christ. They come with a lot of excitement and joy. Once we know that now they are ‘converted’, then we start giving the list of things they should be doing and the list of things they shouldn’t be doing. We preach the ‘finality of the cross’ with one side of our mouth and then preach the ‘biblical principles’ through the other side and we find pleasure in controlling people using law.
If we act as if we have got all our acts clean, how can we expect the real people to come and share their struggles with us? It is sad that we don’t realize the law causes us to lose our authenticity. But grace causes us to be real and blunt. In grace, there is humility, understanding, compassion and true love. In law, there is only pride, guilt, fear and punishment. What good is that? Still we like to be called as ‘law keepers’, people with ‘principles’ etc.
Jesus said ‘It’s finished’. But standing at the foot of His cross, we are telling people, “No, it’s not finished, you have to work on your sins”. Does Jesus lead us to holiness or does holiness lead us to Jesus?
When Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing’, how much holy were those people whom He was addressing? How many sins the thief on the cross cleaned up for him to hear something like this from Jesus: “Today you will be with me in paradise”?
Jesus’ Gospel is supposed to be a ‘good’ news but didn’t the religion make it into ‘bad’ news?
I came across this website which allows people to confess their sins anonymously. It’s no a wonder that they open up under the title of ‘anonymous’. The world and the religion wouldn’t allow them to open up authentically. It’s not that we have to make all our secret sins public, but what if we have a group of people where we could confess to each other without the fear of judgment?
I think millions are dying in guilt, shame and fear due to many sins in their life. If we can stop acting that everything is hunky-dory in our life just because we are Christians, wouldn’t that be a lot better?
We, Christians are well known for the fact that we preach the salvation by grace through faith alone. We attract people telling them, no matter how sinful they are, they are still worthy for the salvation offered by Christ. They come with a lot of excitement and joy. Once we know that now they are ‘converted’, then we start giving the list of things they should be doing and the list of things they shouldn’t be doing. We preach the ‘finality of the cross’ with one side of our mouth and then preach the ‘biblical principles’ through the other side and we find pleasure in controlling people using law.
If we act as if we have got all our acts clean, how can we expect the real people to come and share their struggles with us? It is sad that we don’t realize the law causes us to lose our authenticity. But grace causes us to be real and blunt. In grace, there is humility, understanding, compassion and true love. In law, there is only pride, guilt, fear and punishment. What good is that? Still we like to be called as ‘law keepers’, people with ‘principles’ etc.
Jesus said ‘It’s finished’. But standing at the foot of His cross, we are telling people, “No, it’s not finished, you have to work on your sins”. Does Jesus lead us to holiness or does holiness lead us to Jesus?
When Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing’, how much holy were those people whom He was addressing? How many sins the thief on the cross cleaned up for him to hear something like this from Jesus: “Today you will be with me in paradise”?
Jesus’ Gospel is supposed to be a ‘good’ news but didn’t the religion make it into ‘bad’ news?
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Life's toughest questions
People to people ministries recently conducted a survey among its broadcast listeners about the life's toughest questions. They have received hundreds of questions (I have included the top 10 here) and now answering the top ten on the radio everyday.
1. What is salvation and how can I know with full assurance that I'm saved?
2. After I've come to Jesus, why do I still sin?
3. In light of all the end-times verses in the Bible, how can I not be afraid of the future?
4. How do I love my husband / wife / kids more? How do I raise my children?
5. How do I find a good church?
6. Why do I feel the way I do, and how do I deal with my emotions?
7. How can I really know that I'm forgiven, and how do I forgive someone who has hurt me so badly?
8. What is God's will for my life?
9. What is the purpose of the 10 Commandments?
10. Can I really believe the Bible is true?
As you can see the No. 1 in the list is about the assurance of salvation. I am not quite surprised to see this because of the vast teachings going on in Christendom about the performance based holiness. This is one thing that I have struggled a lot in my Christian life. While I have been under the teaching of 'confessing yours sins keeps you saved', 'God is happy with you as long as you keep yourself holy', 'when you sin you go out of fellowship with God' etc, I was under tremendous pressure to 'keep up'. It was a miserable life as I was trying to live the life only Christ can live. God, by His grace revealed to me why the life he gives us is eternal not temporary. It is because of the eternal consequence of His cross. He took away ALL the sins on the cross and cried out it is finished. And when He said 'it is finished', he meant it. He finished the purpose of His incarnation. What was His purpose? John the Baptist told us what Messiah's purpose was when he introduced Him to us by saying, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'
The wages of sin is death; it is not going out of fellowship or being afflicted with sickness etc. While I was dead in my transgressions (enemy of God) he died for me and took all my sins away. He didn't 'cover' it, He took it away from the eyes of God, never to see them again. I can either believe Him or reject Him by trying to obtain forgiveness by my good works, confessions etc. Why my salvation is eternal? The only thing which can cause spiritual death (losing salvation) is sin and it is an impossibility that sin can cause my spiritual death because He eternally dealt with it on the cross once and for all. There is not even a single sin which he didn't take away at the cross. He left absolutely nothing for me to confess in order to obtain forgiveness. Who am I to think that my confession can obtain forgiveness when Bible says, 'without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness'?
There is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. What is salvation and how can I know with full assurance that I'm saved?
2. After I've come to Jesus, why do I still sin?
3. In light of all the end-times verses in the Bible, how can I not be afraid of the future?
4. How do I love my husband / wife / kids more? How do I raise my children?
5. How do I find a good church?
6. Why do I feel the way I do, and how do I deal with my emotions?
7. How can I really know that I'm forgiven, and how do I forgive someone who has hurt me so badly?
8. What is God's will for my life?
9. What is the purpose of the 10 Commandments?
10. Can I really believe the Bible is true?
As you can see the No. 1 in the list is about the assurance of salvation. I am not quite surprised to see this because of the vast teachings going on in Christendom about the performance based holiness. This is one thing that I have struggled a lot in my Christian life. While I have been under the teaching of 'confessing yours sins keeps you saved', 'God is happy with you as long as you keep yourself holy', 'when you sin you go out of fellowship with God' etc, I was under tremendous pressure to 'keep up'. It was a miserable life as I was trying to live the life only Christ can live. God, by His grace revealed to me why the life he gives us is eternal not temporary. It is because of the eternal consequence of His cross. He took away ALL the sins on the cross and cried out it is finished. And when He said 'it is finished', he meant it. He finished the purpose of His incarnation. What was His purpose? John the Baptist told us what Messiah's purpose was when he introduced Him to us by saying, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'
The wages of sin is death; it is not going out of fellowship or being afflicted with sickness etc. While I was dead in my transgressions (enemy of God) he died for me and took all my sins away. He didn't 'cover' it, He took it away from the eyes of God, never to see them again. I can either believe Him or reject Him by trying to obtain forgiveness by my good works, confessions etc. Why my salvation is eternal? The only thing which can cause spiritual death (losing salvation) is sin and it is an impossibility that sin can cause my spiritual death because He eternally dealt with it on the cross once and for all. There is not even a single sin which he didn't take away at the cross. He left absolutely nothing for me to confess in order to obtain forgiveness. Who am I to think that my confession can obtain forgiveness when Bible says, 'without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness'?
There is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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