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Decision Theology = Ex Opere Operato
- May 29, 2009
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Have you now or could you ever specifically repent for every sin of commission and omission that you have committed or ever will commit? By your definition of repentance, even the most forgettable, unconscious sin if left unrepented for would be enough to damn someone for all eternity.Certainly.
Our sins have been atoned for by the blood of Christ. That atonement however, will not extend to the unrepentant sinner. Sin if you will sticks to you like a bad sore, or a tumor even. If the sinner is not destroyed than that means that sin still exists because it will still exist in the sinner.
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You are using an unbiblical definition of repentance. Repentance is a response to God's justifying work in us, not a work that we do to either earn or keep our justification. Only Christ's work on the cross is sufficient to atone for our sins.
Christ atoned for the sins of the whole world, past present and future (1 John 2:2). Because of the atonement, justification is an objective reality. We individually receive subjective justification through the means of grace - through God's living and active Word and through the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
God's justification produces in us love for God, the faith that receives our free gift of salvation, repentance as we live each day as a baptized child of the Living God, the desire to put to death the old man so that the new man may daily arise in us in all righteousness, humility and truth, and the desire to pray, praise, and thank God for the many gifts he has bestowed upon us.
Those who have not been subjectively justified, or who have rejected their justification through the persistent apostasy of unbelief cannot participate in Christ's forgiveness of sins and are fully accountable before God for every sin they have ever committed, and eternally condemned as a result.
Here's a question: Is it possible for those who are lost to continue sinning after physical death?
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