Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
I'm not aware of your source on that.
Does this mean that He must be present in all locations, or simply that He is present in all locations or at least capable of being in all locations if He chooses to be? Surely if He chooses to withdraw His presence He is free to do so.Jeremiah 23:23-24
Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.
Colossians 1:17
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
If you are in a situation that you need blood and I come to you with a pack of blood and tell you: Here you can use this, but be advised that there is one, and only one, virus of Ebola on it. Would you use it?Can't God grade on a curve?
Can't God grade on a curve? Must He be so stringent, when it comes to sin?
The wages of sin is obesity?God doesn’t punish people for their wrongdoings. We punish ourselves when we sin. For example, say someone commits the sin of gluttony by eating too much every day. God doesn’t point his finger, do magic, and say, “glutton, get fat!” The overeater gets fat as a consequence of his own sin.
Does this mean that He must be present in all locations, or simply that He is present in all locations or at least capable of being in all locations if He chooses to be? Surely if He chooses to withdraw His presence He is free to do so.
If you are in a situation that you need blood and I come to you with a pack of blood and tell you: Here you can use this, but be advised that there is one, and only one, virus of Ebola on it. Would you use it?
1 - Holiness - It must be absolute:
God planned and created all creation to be absolutely perfect, because He is absolutely perfect.
So it's not a case of how much you sin but IF you sin. Adan and Eve sinned only once and were expelled from Gods presence... Think about that!
In the case of us, Humans, we were created to reflect his perfect character, and that for the eternity. Eternity means every single second. A single sin was enough to ban Adam and Eve from the garden... That what means Holiness: Be perfect always.
2 - Eternity - It's for real
So when we sin, we ruin God's eternal plan. Doesn't matter how long you have lived in sin or how many sins you do, God plan IS (God didn't gave up on His desire for us) an eternity of Holiness and we ruined it when we sinned. Now, BECAUSE of His grace and love for us, God is bearing the loss of these years of Holiness that He planned for us and appealing to us to repent and return to Him. He went to the lenght to offer His very own son so we could can back.But Hid grace have a purpose: Makes us repent. If we refuse to repent, the punishment of the Law (which is Holy) is applied.
3 - Hell - It's eternal
That explains why Hell is eternal: Because if you refuse to repent and return to God, you are destroying God's eternal plan for YOUR LIFE, which leads to eternal damnation ..... You destroyed something eternal, you will be punished for eternity.
God rules, not a single leaf falls from the trees without Him notice it, not a single fact of history happens without His authorization, not a single act you commit , good or bad, goes unregistered....
" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31
He doesn't. He demands humility and repentance.The question is, why does God demand OUR perfection. . . or else?
Its only through the blood of Christ that God that God will see our perfection.This is something that we "work" on in daily basis allowing the " 9 fruits of the Spirit"(Gal 5:22)He doesn't. He demands humility and repentance.
Paul's position in Rom 3:25 is that God is so righteous that he can't look at sin without wanting to justify the sinner. I'm not convinced that this is the same thing. As we see elsewhere in Romans, justification means that by faith we are united with Christ, die with him to sin and rise to new life. I.e. God wants to regenerate the sinner more than he wants to punish sin.To the His holiness demands it point. God is perfect in every way and without iniquity or sin therefore He is so perfect that He can't look at sin without condemning it because to leave sin unpunished would be going against who He is. However when Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sins God was able to fully punish Him in our place.
Well yikes I'm a big fan of Martin Luther so I definitely wouldn't want to come across as the viewpoint he opposed, I was merely trying to convey the fact that God can't accept sin because he is perfect and without sin. Thanks for your response it definitely helped me to see the flaws in my statement!Paul's position in Rom 3:25 is that God is so righteous that he can't look at sin without wanting to justify the sinner. I'm not convinced that this is the same thing. As we see elsewhere in Romans, justification means that by faith we are united with Christ, die with him to sin and rise to new life. I.e. God wants to regenerate the sinner more than he wants to punish sin.
The position that God's righteousness demands punishment is the one Luther rebelled against. Correctly, in my view. God's righteousness is expressed through his commitment to save sinners. Punishment occurs for sinners who won't accept regeneration.
This is good and I would also say: Christ as God here on earth hung around sinners, so was Christ not God in the flesh?Paul's position in Rom 3:25 is that God is so righteous that he can't look at sin without wanting to justify the sinner. I'm not convinced that this is the same thing. As we see elsewhere in Romans, justification means that by faith we are united with Christ, die with him to sin and rise to new life. I.e. God wants to regenerate the sinner more than he wants to punish sin.
The position that God's righteousness demands punishment is the one Luther rebelled against. Correctly, in my view. God's righteousness is expressed through his commitment to save sinners. Punishment occurs for sinners who won't accept regeneration.
Martin Luther on the ‘Righteousness of God’
It's worth noting, however, that in the context of the atonement, Luther accepted that Christ bore the penalty that is due to us. There is some disagreement here: one well-known expert on the Atonement (Aulen) has tried to minimize this. But it does appear that Luther accepted the concept that Christ bore God's wrath in our place. And that assumes that in some sense we merit punishment.
I think we have to say that for many Christians God is both committed to punishing sin and to justifying sinners. My personal view is that this is wrong, and furthermore, that it misreads Scripture. God certainly is unwilling to accept that sin will go on forever. But I think he prefers to deal with it by justification, and that this does not require punishing an innocent victim. I think Luther's view of the atonement failed to take account of his insight on the nature of God's righteousness.
Your thread question challenges God's design. In our nature, how we were made, this rule will answer why there must be punishment for sin.
If there is no consequence of living, there is
Would you want to live in a world where sin wasn't punished?
I am still waiting for the offender against my girlfriend to be punished.....so yea, no punishment there
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?