Kris, I asked whether the rather brutal summary I gave accurately reflected your understanding of God's attitude towards ppl in those kinds of situations. I'm happy to get such a defensive response, because it gives me hope that you're on the way to realizing the folly of the conventional view.
Hi Shrewdmanager,
From the very beginning, God chose to save sinners because of His great love for us. He has provided everything necessary for our salvation in every aspect, including the revelation of Himself through creation and conscience, the drawing of us by the Holy Spirit, the sending of Jesus to pay our sin’s penalty so we could be forgiven and saved, and the provision of faith necessary for us to believe, because God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9b). Therefore, God is always ready to impart His saving grace to all those who would come to Him in genuine, sincere faith. However, we, as sinful people, (including the rape victim and her perp) also have a part in the salvation equation, because we have been given free will; we can only receive God’s gift of grace by choosing to turn away from our life of sin (Matthew 16:24) and personally placing our faith in Jesus for forgiveness and redemption (John 3:16, 1 John 1:9-10). That final step on our part is is, in essence, what completes the transaction of salvation.
Unless we, as sinners, willfully make the choice to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation by faith, we will remain in our sinful condition, unaffected by Jesus' provision on the cross, with “a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” that awaits the unredeemed in eternity (Hebrews 10:27). To assert otherwise is to deny the clear teaching of the entirety of Scripture on this subject, as well as on the subject of hell and the vast numbers of people who will end up there (Matthew 7:13-14).
Unfortunately, for all its efforts to embrace the axiom that 'God loves the sinner but hates the sin', mainstream Christian theology ultimately rejects it and conflates the sin with the sinner. That poor girl in my example obviously was not sinless, but any path to sanctification in this world was cut short by reason of a burden she was unable to bear.
The only path to sanctification is through faith in Jesus Christ for what He did for us on the cross. The word “sanctify” means “to set apart” or “to declare holy.” It is only in the moment of our salvation that we are set apart as belonging to God (sanctified), and declared holy and righteous before Him(justified), because Jesus’ righteousness is credited to us by (His) grace through (our) faith in Him.
Don't you think God's good enough to destroy the sin and deliver the sinner cleansed, as a new creature in Christ? Do you doubt Yahushua His Salvation is His Omega plan or that He's able to do it? What would be the point in Jesus' mission of raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, freeing the slaves and so on? Why would he go through hell and die an excruciating death and be raised to life if not to show his enemies that God will always go further to save than sin, the world and the devil can go to destroy? That's the great achievement, the eternal victory of the cross.
Absolutely God is good enough to destroy sin and deliver the sinner cleansed. However, God clearly says in His Word that "that" does not happen in our lives outside of placing our faith in Jesus for our redemption and salvation. Outside of that, there is no salvation or deliverance from our sin.
We're not dealing with some business transaction here, this is about heart and soul. God's justice is about setting right, not getting even. So once sin, death and the devil are destroyed in the fire of His abundant grace, the sinner can overcome his slavery to the power of death, and is offered a hand to life and healing by the Great Physician. It's all in the Good Book, Kris.
You are incorrect about God's justice in the context of sinners and hell. God is gracious, loving, just, holy, and righteous. However, the most commonly
misunderstood aspect of the combined, unfathomable attributes of God is that they all operate concurrently and in perfect harmony together at all times. Many people attempt to separate God’s attributes, and embrace only the ones which suit their own desires or beliefs to the exclusion of the rest. This causes them to create their own god rather than trusting the only true God for who He has revealed Himself to be. For example, when confronted with the reality of sin and hell, people like yourself often cite God’s loving, gracious nature as their defense against such things, as if God's love would compel Him to overlook or accept sin. The problem with this skewed perception of God is that, because He is holy, just, and righteous, He cannot close his eyes to sin; otherwise, He would not remain holy, just and righteous. One attribute of God does not, nor can it, cancel out or supersede any other attribute; instead they must function together and in perfect harmony at all times.
Therefore, because of God’s great love for us, because His holiness demands perfection, because His justice demands that sin be punished, and because His righteousness requires justice and judgment to be rendered, God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to meet and satisfy all His righteous requirements on our behalf through His own sinless life and atoning death. This was the only way to reconcile a sinful human race to a holy, perfect God without violating any of His nature or attributes. This is what makes it possible for sinful man to be saved. Therefore, those who place their faith and trust in Jesus, believing that He satisfied the debt of their sin in full, will receive forgiveness and eternal life. Those who reject Jesus’ atoning sacrifice will, as a result, reap the full measure of God’s righteous judgment, and suffer eternal death apart from Him because they rejected the only means of forgiveness and salvation available to them.
That is not "Kris' Theology." That is God's theology and truth laid out for us in His Written Word.
