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Thu 11 Apr, 2013 03:12 pm
Reconciliation simply means a change in status, and it is a major issue recognizing reconciliation. Reconciliation from God’s advantage point is an accomplished fact, and God is reconciled where the totality of the sin debt of all men is concerned. None of us measure up to the perfection of God, and the only reason God could say through Paul, “Grace and Peace be unto you” is because his son fully paid the price. How many of us have grown up with the idea that God has to make a decision at some point in our life whether or not to forgive us for our sins? God forgiving us is not something he must decided to do.
The truth Paul has proclaimed in all of his epistles is we could not get right with God in a million life times of trial and error. We could never make ourselves right with God, and he had to do what we could not do for ourselves. God had to make us right with him, and he did so through the finished work of his perfectly righteous son. How many of our sins were future when Christ died for our sins? All of them were future, and God placed them all on his perfectly righteous son. Christ’s test score is written on our paper, it is an amazing transfer.
The issue of sin was settled as a result of Christ’s death upon the tree of crucifixion, it is a son issue today, not a sin issue. Will we accept what Jesus Christ accomplished as a result of his death upon the tree of crucifixion or will we reject it, the son is the issue with God today. God’s attitude of love forces no one to take him at his word. God gives all the choice to accept what Christ accomplished on their behalf today, or to reject it. God purchased men out of sins dominion, never to be returned to the market place of sin again. By removing the sin issue from the table of God’s justice, God effectively canceled Satan’s ownership of all mankind.
Reconciliation has to do with God’s justice being satisfied for sins, reconciliation is a sin issue. Many teachers will tell us that we can be reconciled, but that is not true, reconciliation was accomplished as a result of Christ’s death upon the tree of crucifixion, where Christ became sin for the entire human race. Our sins were not stored on Christ to be brought back later; our sins were paid for by him, and he satisfied totally the justice of God for those sins.
Justification, on the other hand, is something entirely different; it has to do with a judicial decree of the very righteousness of God himself freely attributed to our account. To be justified (the gift declaration of the very righteousness of God) means to receive that gift that came to all men. No one can receive that unless that person is placed into Christ. Being placed into Christ, joined to Christ is the method whereby God justifies us; or righteousifies us. We must believe that Christ put our sins (past, present and future) away forever as a result of his death, in order to be placed into Christ to have righteousness freely attributed to our account.
@newnature,
You must realize that what you are saying is just a pile of hogswallop.
I imagine that you are a seminarian or a young minister who is trying to sound erudite and compelling. BZZZZZT , sorry , its just the aforementioned hogswallop.
@newnature,
Saul of Tarsus (aka St. Paul) proclaimed no new "truth" in his epistles. He merely repackaged an existing set of Orphic rites and sold them (quite successfully) to a population of mainly Greeks and, later, Romans who were getting tired of the childish mythology of the Greco/Roman pantheon as well as the esoteric animalism of the Egyptian deities. The only reason the Jewish teacher, Jeshua of Nazareth, even got incorporated into the rigamarole was because Saul, a Roman citizen of Jewish ethnicity, had first packaged the product for sale to other Jews. They, largely, wouldn't buy it. So he tinkered with it here and there and came up with a package that was acceptable to the European heathens. Paul was a great salesman.
@newnature,
Quote:How many of us have grown up with the idea that God has to make a decision at some point in our life whether or not to forgive us for our sins?
Most serious Christians at least consider God absolute; She doesn't have to make a decision ; it's all laid out in advance, "not something he must decided to do"
The skeptic maintains Christ was invented by the Hoi Poloi as a convenient means to shed their sin
Quote:How many of our sins were future when Christ died for our sins?
Somehow in your apparent absolutism New, you've introduced also the idea of determinism
I'm afraid New I have to agree with Farm. You've been drawn into a massive collection of questionable assumptions
@dalehileman,
However New you're to be congratulated for your determination
You might achieve better response by critically examining your underlying assumptions while dividing your theme into parts, submitting each as separate OP
Many of us are overwhelmed by the huge mouthful
Incidentally one assumption needing work is that She is like you, that is She possesses many if not all the human qualities: feeling (such as anger, love, regret), that She dispenses favor arbitrarily, and that Her main concern revolves around a discretionary morality
However given freewill we can perhaps assume She does experience surprise
Meanwhile New you might attempt a short summary in brief sentences of common words with a few basic questions easily addressed by your Average Clod (me)
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