Too many preachers and Bible teachers want to keep you in your sin but the bible says that God has taken sin off of the table of his justice; sin is no longer an issue as far as God is concerned and that’s not just for believers, it’s for the whole world past present and future otherwise, Christ death did not accomplish what God said it accomplished. Personally, I’m going to take God at his word.
When he said Christ became sin for us and that he reconciled the WORLD to himself not counting our sins against us… well, I’m just going to believe it. If you read carefully you will learn that in all of Paul’s letters he never once tells believers that they should ask God to forgive their sins and yet I’ll bet your preacher has taught you that whenever you sin you need to ask God to forgive you right? If all your sins were put on Christ then tell me, just what sins is it that God is supposed to forgive you for when you ask?
I’ll bet you’ve been taught that you still need to ask for forgiveness in order to maintain your fellowship with God right? This is what I call “made up doctrine”. You will not find such a doctrine taught in the bible but most bible teachers in evangelical circles teach it. But the bible is clear. Paul says, in fact, that he cannot sin but then he says that when he does sin it isn’t him but it is the principle of sin that is in his flesh.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (read Romans chapters 6 and 7)
It sounds like a contradiction but what he is saying is that because, as believers, our identity is in Christ, we cannot sin because Christ cannot sin; we are dead to sin. You see, when you first believed the Gospel of Christ, you were baptized or identified with Christ in his death burial and resurrection and what belongs to Christ now belongs to the believer, similar to a marriage relationship where what belongs to one now belongs to the other.
So even when we do sin it is not us but it is, as it were, the remnants of our flesh. In other words, this ‘ol body is corrupt and we can still yield its members to sin although, Paul exhorts us not to. He commends us to be who we are in Christ but again, he never says we must ask for forgiveness from God because doing so would be like saying that Christ’s death didn’t accomplish what God said it accomplished. Don’t you hate it when you’ve told someone that you’ve forgiven them and they just keep on apologizing for the same offense over and over? It makes you feel like they don’t believe you forgave them even though you did. Romans 6 and 7 will clear it up for you I believe but if you still have questions just sen me an email.
Now, even though, according to the verses below, God is not holding the sins of the world against the world of sinners (from God’s perspective the world is reconciled) there’s still a problem and that is that we lack Righteousness. Our good works are not acceptable as they are as “filthy rags” to God. What does it say about the righteousness of man: “There is none righteous, no not one.” So, how do we get it? You can’t earn it, you can’t buy it and you can’t steal it. However, it will be given to you freely when you simply take God at his word (faith) about what Christ’s death accomplished on the behalf of all mankind by having paid for sin, taking sin off the table of God’s justice forever. When you do that, as a friend of mine says, God put’s Christ’s test score on your paper.
This means that Christ’s Righteousness is applied to your account. And just what sort of righteousness is that? It’s the perfect righteousness of God and the only righteousness that is acceptable to him. Yes, Christ Jesus’ righteousness is applied to your account the moment you take God at his word, believing that Christ’s death paid for the sins of the world. This is the Gospel of Christ that the Apostle of the Gentiles taught and the only Gospel that is to be believed for salvation in the dispensation of the grace of God and the one that believers as ambassadors are commended to take to the rest of the world. “Be ye reconciled…” And by the way, there is no such thing as the sinner’s prayer or asking Jesus to come into your heart or any of those other “made up doctrines” that we’ve been taught. It just about faith; taking God at his word. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God”. Salvation is and always has been about faith and not anything we can do or about turning from our sins or about reciting some mystical incantation. It’s simply agreeing with God; taking him at his word concerning what Christ’s death burial and resurrection accomplished on the behalf of mankind having reconciled mankind, having taken sin off of the table of his justice and made Christ to be sin for us. And that’s not just for those who believe but as both Paul and John state, he died not for our sins only, those who believe, but for the sins of the world. So for God’s part, he has reconciled the whole world to himself and now, by us, we are to be his ambassadors of the message of reconciliation, not telling them that forgiveness is possible but that God has already forgiven them and is not counting their sins against them because Christ paid for their sins two thousand years ago, thanks be to the LORD!
2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.