Do you have to keep confessing sin through out your life to be saved? (See 1 John 1:9)

[paul becke]

Not sure exactly what you are saying. As to judging one another we are called to do judge one another's words and deeds with named Christians/church as 1 Corinth 5 says, I am not sure what is meant by judging one another? As to the finished work that is at the end of all things after the final judgement though. Glad you like the post.

I suspect it is significant that immediately after Jesus's warning us about judging others, he warned us against condemning them, since he would have been perfectly well aware, of course that, when we judge, our lower nature would often have us 'condemn' another person, rather than consider our own faults and see theirs, in a positive light, giving them the benefit of any doubt, whether well grounded or entirely notional.

 

[RDKirk]

Note: In this case, the second appearance of the variation on the word "repentance" (i.e. repent) is to mean "regret" in this particular case. The Bible does have homonyms in it. But when we are told to "repent" by God, it is to seek forgiveness with Him. It is not a military briefing how we need to improve. There is no Godly sorrow in that. I hardly doubt David was having a military briefing in Psalms 51. He was pouring his heart out. He was broken. He was desperate for forgiveness. Just read Psalms 51 for yourself. Doesn't sound like a military briefing to me on how he could have done better. It sounds like He needed to get his heart right with God or things were not going to go well for him.

When someone is told, "You disobeyed orders and got your comrade killed," there is no lack of regret and there is no lack of desire to be put back in right standing before the next patrol. We're talking about actions leading to life and death, and there is no lack of intensity. In the debrief, we covered every minute, from first leaving the base to the moment of returning from the base, every action, every movement.

But my point is that there is a daily examination of what each soldier has done in each situation, an evaluation, a judgment, of whether that soldier's actions actively contributed to the mission, and instruction on not making the same mistake again.

What most Christians do is create a list of specific "sins" and as long as they got through a day without committing any of those specific actions, they are "righteous in His sight." Most Christians are like the one-talent servant--just trying not to do something wrong.

That's not how the military looks at it. You can't just avoid doing wrong; you must also have performed your particular role in moving the commander's mission further ahead. "Righteous" are those soldiers who can say at the end of the day, "we covered more ground today, and I did my part." Even if he was the guy who only dug the latrines in the newly gained territory, even if he was the cook and his role was to move the kitchen forward to keep up with the combat troops, he did his job that day.

And that's not how the Lord looks at it either.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So at the end of my day, I "debrief" with the Holy Spirit. What was on His to-do list for me that I didn't do? What opportunities to gain more ground did I miss? Was my day what was in the Father's mind? How far did I fall short?

 

[paul becke]

We do not get the cart before the horse in the area of election and predestination. What we do is to study and believe all the promises of God that tell us that if we come to Jesus and believe in Him, and be converted, we will be saved. We can tell God, "Whatever are the mysteries of Your decrees in Heaven, I believe your promises that if I come to Jesus and believe in Him, I will be truly converted and saved, then I will truly believe that I am one of your elected children."

But Oscarr believing in Jesus is surely not as straightforward as mere credence. As James tells us in an Epistle, 'The devils believe, and they tremble.' Belief as a committed, ongoing faith, yes.

 

[RDKirk]

But Oscarr believing in Jesus is surely not as straightforward as mere credence. As James tells us in an Epistle, 'The devils believe, and they tremble.' Belief as a committed, ongoing faith, yes.

True belief--which Oscarr referred to--will result in action.

If you're at work or school and hear the fire alarm, if you think it's just another drill, your body will react one way, and your actions will reveal the belief that there is not truly a fire. You're just going through the motions of the drill.

If you actually smell and see smoke as the alarms go off, your body will react very differently and your consequential actions will be very different.

 

[paul becke]

The only way you can know you are saved is when you get the witness in your spirit that you are genuinely converted to Christ. The Scripture says that our spirit witnesses with the Holy Spirit that we are the children of God. I believe that this comes when we have been transformed by the Holy Spirit. I don't believe it comes just when a person decides to accept Christ. It comes when Christ accepts him - and the evidence of that is a total transformation from sin to holiness, from Satan to Christ, and from the world to the kingdom of God, along with the inner witness of the Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are now born again and are children of God.

I don't want to know I'm saved ; I want to trust right until the end of my life that I'll be saved. I actually find it rather beautiful to be less than perfect on this side of eternity, over against God's infinite love and goodness. Time enough to rejoice in being one of Jesus' own nuclear family, in heaven.

 

[paul becke]

True belief--which Oscarr referred to--will result in action.

If you're at work or school and hear the fire alarm, if you think it's just another drill, your body will react one way, and your actions will reveal the belief that there is not truly a fire. You're just going through the motions of the drill.

If you actually smell and see smoke as the alarms go off, your body will react very differently and your consequential actions will be very different.

Absolutely. I quibble about 'mere credence', because of those who do think that the mere belief itself is sufficient, i.e. many, if not all, the OSAS, since it is a most unhelpfully ambiguous mantra for a person with that ingenuous mindset.

 

[Tolworth John]

So you believe that their are a bunch of people out there repeating to God that they sinned against His holiness, but don’t mean it and they think God doesn’t realize they are full of beans and knows it?

Spend some tome in christian reddit and you quickly see that yes there are people who call themselves christian, but don't understand what christianity is, so yes I think there are some people who will do this.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Do you have to keep confessing sin through out your life to be saved?

I believe based on the Bible that the answer to this question would be a resounding.... "Yes."
This is based primarily upon 1 John 1:9
(But we can see it expressed in other verses in the Bible).

What do you say?
And can you support your belief on this with the Bible?
If so, then please provide the verses.

Thank you.

Oh, and also please vote in the poll, too.

Thank you.

And may God bless you all this fine day.

Side Note:

The poll options only allow me to say so much.
I wish I could add more words to the poll options but I cannot.
Anyways, it is implied that if you confess sin, it is also required that you have:

(a) A belief in Jesus and
(b) To confess those sins to Jesus.
(b) A Godly sorrow as a part of confessing sins.​

If you disagree, then vote in the option that says, "Yes (Other, - please explain)"
If you voted wrong or if you feel you have changed your mind on this topic at some point, you are free to change your vote in the poll. Thank you; And may God bless you.

I voted no because it is not the act of confessing, it is the act of repentance that shows we "walk in the Spirit". There is an important difference here that is being missed. If you continually sin without the mind set (heart) that you want to turn the other way, then you are walking in darkness. If you sin and truly want to turn away, God WILL show you the path of sanctification through the work of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, the sin will fall away on its own through His power not ours.

 

[ToBeLoved]

When someone is told, "You disobeyed orders and got your comrade killed," there is no lack of regret and there is no lack of desire to be put back in right standing before the next patrol. We're talking about actions leading to life and death, and there is no lack of intensity. In the debrief, we covered every minute, from first leaving the base to the moment of returning from the base, every action, every movement.

But my point is that there is a daily examination of what each soldier has done in each situation, an evaluation, a judgment, of whether that soldier's actions actively contributed to the mission, and instruction on not making the same mistake again.

What most Christians do is create a list of specific "sins" and as long as they got through a day without committing any of those specific actions, they are "righteous in His sight." Most Christians are like the one-talent servant--just trying not to do something wrong.

That's not how the military looks at it. You can't just avoid doing wrong; you must also have performed your particular role in moving the commander's mission further ahead. "Righteous" are those soldiers who can say at the end of the day, "we covered more ground today, and I did my part." Even if he was the guy who only dug the latrines in the newly gained territory, even if he was the cook and his role was to move the kitchen forward to keep up with the combat troops, he did his job that day.

And that's not how the Lord looks at it either.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So at the end of my day, I "debrief" with the Holy Spirit. What was on His to-do list for me that I didn't do? What opportunities to gain more ground did I miss? Was my day what was in the Father's mind? How far did I fall short?

Really great post. I like how you can translate experiences you be had into a context of your relationship to God.

 

[ToBeLoved]

Spend some tome in christian reddit and you quickly see that yes there are people who call themselves christian, but don't understand what christianity is, so yes I think there are some people who will do this.

What I find interesting is that people may meet 500 - 1000 Christians say over a ten year period.

But people on CF love to take the 5 or 10 out of the 1000 and use those very odd and non Biblical experiences and post some shock value type of situation.

Even though they are some rare experiences, people seek the attention to post the exception, rather than the rule.

Instead of edifying and posting something valuable to people, Human nature is to do what is most pleasing for self.

I think this further divides Christians into thinking the rare experiences are the rule
And that anyone following the Holy Spirit is the exception.

How Christ’s own contribute to more division when Christ commanded us to try not to be divided.

A lot of Christians contributing to the problem, rather than helping be a solution

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

But Oscarr believing in Jesus is surely not as straightforward as mere credence. As James tells us in an Epistle, 'The devils believe, and they tremble.' Belief as a committed, ongoing faith, yes.

You are correct. There is a difference between a mental assent that the Bible is true, Jesus did die on the cross for our sins, and rose again to give believers eternal life - and - a full commitment to Christ and a complete trust in His Lordship. The demons believe the former and they do tremble, but they are never given saving faith, and so they know what is going to happen to them at the judgment.

My point is that just saying that one believes the Gospel with his head and puts on the Christian "badge" does not save him. Demons can do that quite well, and you can be sure that Satan has plenty of his religious "agents" in all our churches, and just looking at them, we won't be able to tell the difference between them and the true believers. But you can see their effects in the divisions, factions, arguments, false prophecies, crazy manifestations, etc. that go on in many services and church leaderships and members.

A true believer not only believes with his head, but it goes the 18 inches down to his heart, and there is a complete transformation - the new birth. That is the difference between the true and the false - the new birth. And it is only the Holy Spirit who can do that. One can believe all he likes, but until the new birth happens, he is still lost.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I don't want to know I'm saved ; I want to trust right until the end of my life that I'll be saved. I actually find it rather beautiful to be less than perfect on this side of eternity, over against God's infinite love and goodness. Time enough to rejoice in being one of Jesus' own nuclear family, in heaven.

There is no such thing as sinless perfection in the flesh (that is, our natural selves). The new birth happens in the heart and we are transformed to love Jesus, put Him first in our lives, change our allegiance from the world to Christ, hate sin, especially in ourselves (agree with God concerning sin), and do what we can to represent Jesus to the community around us.

There is a difference between willful sin and the weakness of our flesh. A genuine believer will not, if at all possible, willfully sin against God. His love for God prevents him from doing anything that would dishonour His Name. But our flesh trips us up now and again with its impulses and desires, and we find that unpleasant, like a stone in our shoe, or dust in our eyes. We don't want it to be there and we would rather be rid of it. It keeps us humble before God. 1 John 1:9 is the antidote to the weakness of our flesh.

There are people who think they are more holy than me, and they tend to be taller as well. I look up to them and it gives me a pain in the neck!

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

True belief--which Oscarr referred to--will result in action.

If you're at work or school and hear the fire alarm, if you think it's just another drill, your body will react one way, and your actions will reveal the belief that there is not truly a fire. You're just going through the motions of the drill.

If you actually smell and see smoke as the alarms go off, your body will react very differently and your consequential actions will be very different.

Correct. If a person has true faith in Christ, he or she will do the type of works that will show love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness and self control to those around him or her.

The good works that Paul disapproves of is the "churchy" stuff, the religious works folks do to try to please God. James says that true religion is to keep oneself unspotted from the world and to help widows and orphans. In other words the true good works result from a true conversion to Christ and the believer keeps from being influenced by th world's values, and does things to help others less fortunate than themselves.

A person can attend church every day of the week, pray wonderful prayers, keep the law of God blamelessly, know the Bible from cover to cover, work himself to exhaustion keeping the church organisation going, but all would be in vain if there was no love and grace in the heart to be a good person at work or with his neighbours.

Isn't there a saying, "the bigger the Bible, the bigger the hypocrite?"

 

[ToBeLoved]

But Oscarr believing in Jesus is surely not as straightforward as mere credence. As James tells us in an Epistle, 'The devils believe, and they tremble.' Belief as a committed, ongoing faith, yes.

The devils have seen God so what they have is not faith or a belief in God that cannot be proven like we have.

Satan has to go and stand before God and ask permission to attack Job.

So the devils believing and our belief are not the same.

 

[RDKirk]

The good works that Paul disapproves of is the "churchy" stuff, the religious works folks do to try to please God.

More precisely, Paul defines "work" for the purpose of that particular argument as an effort to obligate God to salvation, as the work by an employee obligates the employer to pay a due wage.

These people want to say, "I did this thing for you God, and lived this way for you God, therefore you owe me salvation."

Paul explicitly defines "work" for the sake of that argument--he knows how formal debate works. We can't necessarily use Paul's definition in Romans as the authoritative definition for the word "work" everywhere it appears in scripture. We can, however, use Paul's definition of "work" in Romans for every instance in which people do "churchy" things with the idea the due wage for those things is salvation.

 

[thomasanderson]

Do you have to keep confessing sin through out your life to be saved?

Christ taught us how to pray Matthew 6:9-13

“Forgive us our trespasses”.

 

[DeeR.]

I suspect it is significant that immediately after Jesus's warning us about judging others, he warned us against condemning them, since he would have been perfectly well aware, of course that, when we judge, our lower nature would often have us 'condemn' another person, rather than consider our own faults and see theirs, in a positive light, giving them the benefit of any doubt, whether well grounded or entirely notional.

I agree with this. I would only add that we are not to be involved as to giving the benefit of a doubt in matters but to be led by the Spirit and make right Judgements as we are admonished. We should love everyone and not allow our hearts and minds to be against anyone for any reason. An ambassador simply administers the duties and powers of his/her office and is completely impartial. Whether we are administering judgement or sentence it is for us to love them.

 

[DeeR.]

More precisely, Paul defines "work" for the purpose of that particular argument as an effort to obligate God to salvation, as the work by an employee obligates the employer to pay a due wage.

These people want to say, "I did this thing for you God, and lived this way for you God, therefore you owe me salvation."

Paul explicitly defines "work" for the sake of that argument--he knows how formal debate works. We can't necessarily use Paul's definition in Romans as the authoritative definition for the word "work" everywhere it appears in scripture. We can, however, use Paul's definition of "work" in Romans for every instance in which people do "churchy" things with the idea the due wage for those things is salvation.

I agree and like your point my friend. If at all possible use simple words and points as they reach more people and create less barriers to understand your wonderful points. Seek the simplest explanation so it is not only reaches the scholarly but the layman as well.

 

[CodyFaith]

I almost rated that funny but caught myself. Your candor is refreshing. Of course you are going to encounter things in life, make mistakes, want to set something right you didn't previously realize was wrong. Paul called Peter a hypocrite, that's not a nice thing to say to a senior Apostle. But Peter was treating Gentile Christians differently when his pious Jewish friends were around. Peter could have been resentful and shouted how dare you! He didn't, he checked his behaviour and later referees to Paul as his dear brother. Rebuke a fool and he will hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will become wiser. Peter took his medicine and got over it, I expect appreciating Paul's candor.

Glad I can amuse someone other than myself for once.

I find it quite amazing that people think there's even a debate in the matter. The entire NT is focused on salvation, and this is the gospel itself - that whoever believes in Jesus and trusts his sacrifice as atonement for all their sin, past present and future, and eats the bread of life which is Christ's body and blood, recieves salvation/eternal life and has their name written in Heaven never to be removed.

It's the gospel itself people strive against... and yet people treat it as if it's just a doctrinal difference, a non-issue, and get offended greatly when I refuse to even debate the matter.
Why should I entertain someone clearly hardened against Christ's gospel? No words will change them, they know the verses which show the gospel clearly but out of their own pride they reject the clear meanings of these verses.

I would be lieing if I said I thought half of these people were genuinely saved Christians. So I won't try to appease man and sing Kumbiya and lock hands with people who actively strive against the gospel and pervert the grace and freedom in it.

It's one of two things: you either accept the gift of salvation, or you try to earn your own salvation by a mixture of good works and "keeping the faith".

One is the gospel, the other is falsehood. God's grace can overlook people's errors... so some who try to earn their salvation after having already recieved it may indeed be genuine... but proper doctrine is often evidence for salvation, as the Holy Spirit guides into truth. The more I see someone strive against God's gospel, the less likely I am to believe they are genuinely converted, and thus the less I am willing to associate with them or "debate" them. If I see someone who is in error I will try to help them... but some people aren't stuck in anything if you catch my drift.

 

[mark kennedy]

Glad I can amuse someone other than myself for once.

I find it quite amazing that people think there's even a debate in the matter. The entire NT is focused on salvation, and this is the gospel itself - that whoever believes in Jesus and trusts his sacrifice as atonement for all their sin, past present and future, and eats the bread of life which is Christ's body and blood, recieves salvation/eternal life and has their name written in Heaven never to be removed.

It's the gospel itself people strive against... and yet people treat it as if it's just a doctrinal difference, a non-issue, and get offended greatly when I refuse to even debate the matter.
Why should I entertain someone clearly hardened against Christ's gospel? No words will change them, they know the verses which show the gospel clearly but out of their own pride they reject the clear meanings of these verses.

I would be lieing if I said I thought half of these people were genuinely saved Christians. So I won't try to appease man and sing Kumbiya and lock hands with people who actively strive against the gospel and pervert the grace and freedom in it.

It's one of two things: you either accept the gift of salvation, or you try to earn your own salvation by a mixture of good works and "keeping the faith".

One is the gospel, the other is falsehood. God's grace can overlook people's errors... so some who try to earn their salvation after having already recieved it may indeed be genuine... but proper doctrine is often evidence for salvation, as the Holy Spirit guides into truth. The more I see someone strive against God's gospel, the less likely I am to believe they are genuinely converted, and thus the less I am willing to associate with them or "debate" them. If I see someone who is in error I will try to help them... but some people aren't stuck in anything if you catch my drift.

Can't hear that enough, it's in short supply these days. It's always by grace through faith, arguments to the contrary are simply untenable. Making it about works or personal merit is contrary to the gospel. I want to do good works to honor the one who saved me and gave himself for me. Can you lose salvation because of sin? Well maybe but only once and I don't believe believers can do that. You have the words of life Peter told Jesus, where should we go. Some things don't change, may God give you strength for your journey.

Grace and peace,
Mark