Jesus Christ died on the Cross, sacrificing his life to bear all the Sins of Mankind. But since then, for the past 2000 years, Mankind has never stopped sinning, so was HIS sacrifice in vain? Why hasn't anyone else done what Jesus did, so we could all be without Sin once more? There must be something I'm not seeing in this..... Hal
I have sometimes wonder that exact same thing. Hope someone here can give us some kind of answer. One thing for sure, sinning continues and seems to get worse every day of every year. Funny how people can sin, and KNOW they are sinning, ask the Lord for forgiveness, but yet keep right on sinning and asking the Lord for forgiveness. It's a continuous thing.
Some Christians will insist that they can't help themselves (and therefore cannot be held responsible for their actions), but I believe that when Christ told the woman at the well to "Go, and sin no more," he wasn't telling her to do the impossible. The real question is, once they become aware of what their responsibilities are, why does mankind keep sinning?
Then there should be no quarrel with the consequences. Although not everyone agrees, I believe that it wasn't a one-time pass and that we can be forgiven for sins that we commit throughout our lives, although the limits to that aren't clear.
According to what I have been told, once you give your heart to God you won't want to sin anymore. Which leads to the conclusion; if you continue to sin, you have not truly given your heart to God.
I wish it were that easy, and I don't want to step on any denominational toes here. Not everyone has the same understandings, I know because I have become familiar with most of them through my work in web directories. Semantics might also play into it, to some extent. As a Christian, I very much want not to sin, and I believe that it is entirely possible for a Christian to become mature enough in his (or her) faith that s/he will no longer sin. I believe that it requires a great deal of effort on the part of the Christian, but that the amount of effort that it takes decreases as one matures in their faith. Some Christians believe that once they have become a Christian, there is nothing they can do after that point that would deny them salvation, but that doesn't mean that they are without sin. Other Christians believe as you suggest, that if the conversion were genuine the Christian would no longer have any desire to sin. If he sins, that signifies that he was never truly a Christian to begin with. Still others believe that God decided, from the beginning of time, who was going to be saved and who was going to be damned and that neither of these groups has anything at all to say about it. A subset of this group would hold that those who are elected to salvation must still accept it. I don't believe these things, but I do not have the knowledge of God and am not certain of these details. I believe that once I became a Christian, the Holy Spirit gave me a heart that desired not to sin, but that the old self was not dead, and could still regain control if I allowed it to. Further, I believe that, although my belief and acceptance of Christ were genuine, salvation still requires something of me. The Apostle Paul says that I must work out my salvation with fear and trembling, and James tells me that salvation without works is dead. So I believe that, while my works cannot save me, the lack of them may have the potential of damning me. I don't know that this is true, and it's not something I'd argue with those who believe otherwise, but it seems to be the safest course to take. I think that every one of us will eventually learn that much of what we believed wasn't quite true - not that the Bible was wrong, but that our understanding of it was faulty. If I learn that all that I had to do was to accept the Gospel message and that all of the other stuff wasn't at all necessary, what harm will it have done me? Perhaps God will tell me that I didn't really have to do all that and that I could have simply gone on about my life without fear, but I don't think that will be the case because the Bible is full of things that I am expected to do. After telling the woman at the well that He does not condemn her, Christ doesn't tell her to simply go her way without fear. Instead, He tells her to "Go, and sin no more." Bringing it back to the opening post, no I don't believe that Christ's sacrifice was in vain. Through His death on the cross, He made salvation possible, but He didn't make it inevitable. I also believe, and surely hope, that this absolving of sins was not a one-time deal. I believe that I can be forgiven for sins that I have committed after becoming a Christian. However, I also believe that there are limits. By this, I don't mean that there is a set number of times that a Christian can be forgiven his sins, but that there is probably a point where God is going to consider that I'm not even trying. Unsure of precisely where this limit might be, I am left to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I think that's what Paul was talking about. But then, I'm a Mennonite, and some people think Mennonites are weird. In the early days of the colonization of North America, there was a group of people who came to the continent because they weren't well liked in England. I forget what they were called, but they believed that once they became Christians they were in. Regardless of what they did, they were on the road to salvation. Further, they believed that trying to live an honest life would be an insult to Christ, indicating that His sacrifice was too weak to cover their lives of sin. Therefore, they believed that they could steal whatever they wanted, they could do whoever they wanted to, even raping or murdering people, and that such a life would be honoring Christ. Of course, not everyone agreed with them and they weren't around very long. I don't agree with them either, but I do believe and pray that there is hope for the Christian who sins and repents of his sin.
@Hal Pollner "I'd rather laugh with the sinners, Than cry with the Saints...... The sinners have much more fun........... Only the good die young!" Billy Joel, Billboard #24, June, 1978.
Brilliantly said, @Ken Anderson! Understanding other denominations clears the air and avoids ignorant statements.
@Ken Anderson brought up some interesting and well thought out points to which I am total agreement and if I may, I would like to add my own thoughts. As a first note, any Biblical referencing that anyone needs which form my statements can be easily given just by asking. The Bible says: There are none righteous, no not one. If we examine that singular statement we find that no one, even those who recognize the sacrifice of Jesus and are fully saved, are without sin. Our very nature of gravitating toward sin or “the flesh” as Paul so very adeptly called it, is primal but here’s the thing: We, who are saved and with the entrance of the Holy Spirit, are no longer SLAVES to it. Jesus paid the price, the ultimate price which bought us out of slavery .......never to be sold back into it ever again. But, sin doesn’t just disappear, it’s still here and we hear it but we do not have to listen to it and we also have some help with it. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, And God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear and will, with that temptation provide a way that you may endure it.” In each of our daily lives we will probably “miss the mark” or sin in thought or deed in some way and possibly several times a day. Stuff happens and we simply slip and somehow fall short of who we know we can be. We love God, we trust and fear Him and we didn’t meant to mess up but we did. But, the very act of admitting we did something wrong and seeking forgiveness and having that contrite spirit is all that God asks for. But, what of those who PLAN, like David did in the Bathsheba scenario, to sin? Those who go to bed at night planning to do some agregious act the next day? Those who put their love of God, their fear of God on the back burner just to answer the call of whatever the flesh wishes to do, denying what the Spirit compels them to do. Can they, if they are saved, be forgiven? In short, Yes! The same rules apply. Go before the very throne of God and ask for forgiveness BUT, here is where we find the warning, “Go and sin no more”. DON’T do it again! We are to Repent or turn totally away from those pre planned, iniquitous transgressions that we willingly give up our fear of God to do and go forth grieving the Holy Spirit to do remembering that although we are in the world, we are no longer of the world. The point here is that when we have no fear of God or His judgement and intentionally go out into the world and do wrong whilst still proclaiming to be a child of God, THAT is when our salvation is in question. If we love the things God hates, if we can display hatred for another human we can and should ask ourselves if we are or rather, were, we truly saved? Probably not for in all actuality, we’re living a lie. Now the question is continually asked: “Can we lose our salvation?” I personally do not believe so, but there are good arguments for both sides of that aisle. Paul wrote about “sin unto death” which is when someone who truly loves God but just can’t seem to get things right so they are taken home before they do any more damage to themselves, others or more importantly misrepresent what a child of God is supposed to be. Let’s face it, in every large family, there is invariably one or two square pegs that just do not fit in but they are still part of the family. As I wrote from the beginning, these are my thoughts however well studied but nonetheless my thoughts for which I will not argue about nor try to force them upon anyone. It’s my understanding and the way I am directed to believe which might be disagreed upon by some other believers in Christ. And to that, the same as Ken wrote, seek your own salvation with fear and trembling.
I have always looked at this from the idea that God is like our father in heaven, and he wants us to love him and keep his commandments. When I was growing up, I dearly loved both of my parents, and I always did my very best to do the right thing and to do things that I know would please them. I did this, not because I was afraid of being punished; but simply because I loved my parents so much and wanted them to be proud of me. When I did make a mistake or a poor decision, I felt bad; but I knew that my parents loved me and would forgive me. After I grew up and had my own children, I looked at this from the same perspective, just from the parental side of the equation. I love my children, no matter what they did. They will always be loved by me, no matter what they do, and I think of it the same way with God. I am his child, and even though I am not perfect, I strive to do what I think is important to him, and to treat other people the way I think that we should treat someone who is a child of God also, because we are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is why I agree with what @Shirley Martin said. Even though I do make mistakes, when I realize that I have done that, I am truly sorry, and do my best not to do that kind of thing again, and I do try to think about things before I say or do them so that I don’t make so many mistakes. Never-the-less, I believe that if God looks at me as part of his family, then I believe that I will always be part of that family and not condemned by him for my errors in life. Another thought is this. The Bible talks about separating the wheat from the tares (weeds), which sort of implies that there could be two very different types of humans on this earth of ours. I think that it is possible that some of the people here really do not care about other people, and can hurt, steal, and even kill other humans, and feel no regrets. If this is so, then these “weed people” would not be children of God, and are not the ones whom Jesus sacrificed his life to save.
@Yvonne Smith , did you notice in that parable that the weeds are harvested and thrown into the fire BEFORE the wheat is harvested. I have thought that those who believe in the Rapture must hold they are the weeds who will be harvested first and the rest will be left for the REAL trial--the Tribulation.
24He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” The parable states that the owner of the field sowed the good seeds (and only the good seeds) in his field. That would imply that it is only the good seeds that will become the wheat that is harvested and kept by the owner of the field. It also says that the weeds were planted by the “enemy”, which implies that they would be from Satan, and that makes them an altogether different-minded type of human than the good seeds planted by God. Whether the rapture is what some Christians believe, or is not what we think, it definitely does not happen to the weeds, because they are gathered up and bundled to be burned, not harvested like the good wheat seeds are. My mom always said that we should hope for a rapture (gathering up in the clouds); but that we needed to live a strong enough spiritual life to be ready to go through the tribulation should that be required.