Free from the Law, oh blessed condition! I can sin as I please and still have remission.

[MoreCoffee]

Aside from Gordon Clarke's rhyme (and he meant it as a criticism of some Presbyterians who he said believed "nothing, just nothing at all") I have never heard a pastor in any church I have visited teach that we may sin as we please and still have remission.

 

[Odë:hgöd]

~

So what you're implying is that Jesus only forgave some sins on the cross?

Not all sins go on the books as offenses.

For example: Melchizedek was a high priest back in the days of Abraham, which
was something like +/- 400 years prior to the covenant that Moses' people agreed
upon with God per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That covenant
penalizes offenders with a number of curses for non compliance: seen listed at Lev
26:14-39, Deut 27:15-26, and Deut 28:15-68.

The thing is: Mel was immune to all those curses because the covenant isn't
retroactive. (Deut 5:2-4 & Gal 3:17) So then none of the covenant's curses for non
compliance applied to him. (Rom 4:15 & Rom 5:12-13) And seeing as how
Abraham was within Mel's sphere of spiritual authority (Gen 14:20 & Heb 7:4-10)
then Abraham was immune to the covenant's curses too.

For example: the covenant prohibits dishonesty (Lev 19:11) and it prohibits
sleeping with one's half-sister. (Lev 18:9) But God couldn't indict Abraham for
those behaviors because in his day, they were not yet codified; not even the Ten
Commandments. Mel and Abraham had quite an advantage.

BTW: Jesus' priesthood is patterned after Melchizedek's (Ps 110:4 & Heb 5:1-10)
which of course implies that those within Jesus' sphere of spiritual authority
have just as much immunity from the covenant's curses as Mel and Abraham, i.e.
basically a license to steal, so to speak.
_

 

[Lamb]

~


Not all sins go on the books as offenses.

For example: Melchizedek was a high priest back in the days of Abraham, which
was something like +/- 400 years prior to the covenant that Moses' people agreed
upon with God per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That covenant
penalizes offenders with a number of curses for non compliance: seen listed at Lev
26:14-39, Deut 27:15-26, and Deut 28:15-68.

The thing is: Mel was immune to all those curses because the covenant isn't
retroactive. (Deut 5:2-4 & Gal 3:17) So then none of the covenant's curses for non
compliance applied to him. (Rom 4:15 & Rom 5:12-13) And seeing as how
Abraham was within Mel's sphere of spiritual authority (Gen 14:20 & Heb 7:4-10)
then Abraham was immune to the covenant's curses too.

For example: the covenant prohibits dishonesty (Lev 19:11) and it prohibits
sleeping with one's half-sister. (Lev 18:9) But God couldn't indict Abraham for
those behaviors because in his day, they were not yet codified; not even the Ten
Commandments. Mel and Abraham had quite an advantage.

BTW: Jesus' priesthood is patterned after Melchizedek's (Ps 110:4 & Heb 5:1-10)
which of course implies that those within Jesus' sphere of spiritual authority
have just as much immunity from the covenant's curses as Mel and Abraham, i.e.
basically a license to steal, so to speak.
_

You're comparing covenant punishment and not really speaking against true sin's offense which goes against God Himself. All sin is against God.

 

[BruceLeiter]

The topic comes from a little rhyme that Gordon Clarke wrote in his book What Do Presbyterians Believe I think he thought that some Presbyterians believed nothing at the time he was writing in the 1960s.

So, are we, as Christians, free from the law and is that a blessed condition and does it mean that we can sin as we please and still have remission? Is this part of the LAW-GOSPEL divide that some say is so important?

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

We are free from our divine Judge's verdict of guilty that Jesus took upon himself on the cross. when we become Christians, not from sins, and through his resurrection, God changes us to WANT to follow Jesus and do his will.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

[BruceLeiter]

There is false teaching, that they turn God's grace into lewdness, but normally they don't preach that. In our church they always said: Stay in the middle of the road. Not legalistic and not lawless. Too much law and legalism is: do this do that or else God hates you and you go to hell, which at times can be good to say if someone really lives in sin, cheats with the neighbour or something, but I got that kind of preaching in the 2nd church I was in, which was cultish and I just left. I was just saved a few years, 18 years old. One time a Sunday to church was enough for me, but they had 2 services each Sunday. I rather went in the morning and then biked for fun instead of going again. That was not appreciated. Next Sunday, oh and he said he was God's personal mouth piece, he said that if we kept on sinning by not going to church there was no forgiveness possible anymore. That text from Paul pulled out of context to make you come twice a sunday. I played guitar there, so with me there (super tiny group) he prayed: Lord give us a faithful guitar player! (not like this lousy unfaithful one who only shows up once a sunday) So then I had enough and I really thought God said that through His mouth piece, so I quit going. My mom took me to her church and then all of a sudden God was full of love and so happy with you. In another church I got OSAS preaching, which was great cause I always felt condemned. But they can go too far with that and then you have lawlessness.
It's both dangerous. Either you let satan accuse you and try to work hard to be good enough to be loved by God or what I saw some say you get total false teaching, like refuse to forgive and you still go to heaven, also if you don't repent of that ever. A guy on another forum said that. And all those examples, even the sower and the unfruitful ones, no that was fine. They were saved. That is dangerous. It goes totally against what Jesus said and if someone is not bad it may not matter if they hear that, but what if someone really refuses to forgive and now thinks: oh no problem. The preacher said it was fine. Or lgtbq stuff. They preach that now in churches that it's fine.

My suggestions to you: 1) Keep looking for churches that call you to an ever-deeper relationship with Jesus instead of to regulations of God. 2) Find one with small, Bible-discussion, support groups, one of which you can join for real fellowship with real Christians who support one another through prayer around God's Word.

 

[BruceLeiter]

Good day,

I was once told to love God with all my heart and soul.... then sin when ever I wanted.

Talk about a contradiction.

In Him,

Bill

That advice was far-from-biblical. Dependence on the Holy Spirit, who gives you his gift of the new birth, through Jesus' victory gives us great incentive and power to WANT to conform our lives to God's will as it is revealed in the Bible instead of leading our own selfish lives.