Not By Works

So We’re born again, sin and die, born again, sin and die, born again.....?

Totally agree.

Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

My mother threw me out when I was 14.
I was fostered by a Christian family whom I knew from the Boys Brigade.

Not long after the fostership the foster father started to sexually abuse me.

Won't go into the details but I say what my mum did was evil and what my foster did was evil and as you can imagine this led to my life being messed up big time which had consequences for me as result.

It took God 30 years+ to work good.

I was at my foster father's death bead and sorted out his estate.
My mum and I have been reconciled

So now what was an evil act towards me God has turned into good.

As a result he his now using me to walk with others that I walked in and suffered.

I came to realise that God started to work good when I was willing to forgive. When I was the process of starting to work good began. It was a long long process.

For me the key is forgiveness.
One of my favourite quotes I read.

"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, only to realise the prisoner was you"

Makes me very sad that that when people quote v28 leave it at that.
It comes across as saying God will make what happened to you good but infact you cannot make it good, God does not make evil good but uses the evil that happened to us good for us.

As we see in

Romans 8:29
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

As I said above forgiveness is the key, this leads to healing to release in order to

Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Those who did evil against me their sins were forgiven on the cross.
Who am I not forgive?

I believe in forgiveness as well and that it sets our hearts and minds free from the burden of the past. It does not mean those evil actions were blessed with our forgiveness. It means our souls are set free and we no longer are prisoners to such evilness. God will sort it all out. I've had some forgiveness to do myself from my teenage and young adult years. It is very difficult to come to the point of forgiveness and sometimes for me at least that forgiveness doesn't wipe away the ugly scars I have been left with. Sometimes just an incident out of nowhere will bring back memories I have done my best to rid myself from.

But when we think of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and what He has forgiven this sinful world for, our part in forgiveness is minute compared to His.

One point of disagreement. The cleansing of our heart/spirit is the only way our actions can truly change, and you can only walk right before God if your heart is clean

Sanctification of life begins in the heart. Therefore sanctification of life is primarily a matter of heart, not of body.

The heart is were the Human Spirit resides.

That Happens instantly, when we FIRST GENUINELY BELIEVE, which is SALVATION. Reference John 3:6.

John 3:6 (NIV)
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Sanctification is disciplining to body to work out what is already in the HEART. In other words:

Ephesians 5:1-2 (HCSB)
1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.
2 And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Colossians 2:6 (NKJV)
6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

1 Thessalonians 4:1 (HCSB)
1 Finally then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God—as you are doing—do so even more.

1 John 1:7 (HCSB)
7 But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 2:6 (HCSB)
6 The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.


Sanctification is OUR WALK, and it will take a LIFE TIME TO LEARN TO BE LIKE HIM.

Or a third way

You struggled with a few sins. Which we all do. If we say we have no sin we are deceived

Living in sin would be like before were were saved. We did nothing righteous not one thing

We all have our sin issue. Some is anger some pride some lack of faith some road rage etc etc.

The issue for me is not the multiple sins.

The issue is WHY.

There is a cause of the affect.

Get to the root of the cause then the affect should subside.

You can not resolve this passage with a person who knew God and is now sinning (habitually) as you claim they can

No. He left home because he did
Not think he needed dads help
Anymore

Again John said whoever wins has
Never seen God or known him whoever is born if God can’t sin because his spirit is in him

You can not resolve this passage with a person who knew God and is now sinning (habitually) as you claim they can

The prodical does not need to repent because he has not lost faith in Jesus.

The truth is for me is that works do not save.

So We’re born again, sin and die, born again, sin and die, born again.....?

I already did and yes they can. We do not need to resolve the Word. It resolves itself if we will just take it at face value instead of trying to run to the Greek or something when we don't like what it plainly and clearly tells us in English.

Luke
15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
15:12 And the younger of them said to [his] father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth [to me]. And he divided unto them [his] living.
15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

He does because he has.

I completely agree.

Living for Jesus is not work and salvation is not maintained by works. Remaining in Christ is not grievous. It is not grievous for a wife to remain faithful to a perfect Husband. This is the wonderful relationship that we are privileged to live within. The Prodigal Son went way out of His way to walk out on his loving family, and when He came back, he brought a penitent heart with Him. I am sorry if anybody thinks that this is not the correct thread to place this post in.

Once you die, your fate is sealed. We were discussing a man who left his home and lived a sinful lifestyle for 10 years without repentance. Would he have gone to hell had He died in his sin? Yes he would have. Fortunately, he saw the light before it was too late and realized that he needed to repent and go home. We do not have to run to the Greek to understand the story of the Prodigal Son.

Luke
15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
15:12 And the younger of them said to [his] father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth [to me]. And he divided unto them [his] living.
15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

ok, so John is a liar!

you do realise he he wrote much of the NT, and if lied in these passages..

1 John 3: 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

i mean if John lied here, we can not trust anything he wrote

Once you die, your fate is sealed. We were discussing a man who left his home and lived a sinful lifestyle for 10 years without repentance. Would he have gone to hell had He died in his sin? Yes he would have. Fortunately, he saw the light before it was too late and realized that he needed to repent and go home. We do not have to run to the Greek to understand the story of the Prodigal Son.

Luke
15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
15:12 And the younger of them said to [his] father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth [to me]. And he divided unto them [his] living.
15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.