Sunday, January 17, 2010

Reply to comments

Reading the comments on my post, I feel like I want to address a few things. First, my posts do not contain any "Oh woe is me! I'm a terrible person!"-type self-deprecation. The post most of that comes from is about the thoughts and feelings associated with what I'm dealing with. It's a logical thought, and it's a darned good spiritual attack. But see, I don't need to be legitimately saying that I feel like that. Sure, I messed up, and I'm as messed up as anybody else, but I'm made righteous by grace through faith in Christ. So those posts aren't so much how I legitimately feel, they're venting the stuff I'm dealing with. Second, I'd like to clarify my beliefs as far as heaven: being good does NOT get you into heaven. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23. We've all screwed up, which means that we're not perfect, and the only way that our actions could get us into heaven is if we were perfect, because God hate sin and is perfectly just, so if we sin, we'd get the just punishment for sin. "The wages of sin is death" - Romans 6:23a. And note, that's not just "oh we die". I mean, we do, but it's also eternal separation from God in Hell. So then, how do we get to heaven? "...But the gift of God is eternal life, through Christ Jesus, our Lord." - Romans 6:23b; "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but through me." - John 14:6 (Jesus speaking). It's acknowledging that we're screwed up and beyond hope, believing that Christ died for all of our sins (that means me, the recovering porn addict and hypocrite down to the worst serial killer) and so the punishment has already been given out. But because he rose from the dead, we can accept the gift that he offers us of righteousness - not based on what we deserve, but based on grace. That's how we get to heaven.

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