Brothers and sisters in Christ,
Luke 6:43 "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes."
Make no mistake the word is true and it applies to you. (It rhymes!). It applies to me to and everyone. You can know people by their fruit, if the fruit is good the person is good, if the fruit is bad the person is bad.
In Christ,
Silas
Wouldn't we say that Christ is working through them; thus, they are good? And when we fail to return to Christ and humble ourselves, we fall into our earthly ways and stumble? Now, this is related to your F.F.'s, as you put them. I believe that most Christians say that even Christians sin, but as Christians, God is merciful to show us our error so that we repent. For instance, God was calling David a man after His own heart before David commited adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband. And is it possible to lose your salvation, or is it that we weren't saved in the first place? When you say "man does not have a sinful nature," do you mean that as an embryo or something very young, we can't sin because we have no ability to determine what's wrong or right, or do you mean that man is naturally good but is quite capable of sinning? The latter view is held no other Christians I know of, but it also puts an interesting thought on the sin-sinner thing. Sin shows that we are sinners, and makes us sinners, but if we aren't already naturally sinful, why would we sin in the first place? And regarding your last F.F.: if I sin as a Christian, can I never be saved again? Wouldn't I just be an un-saved sinner once again? That seems to fit with what you have up there.
ReplyDeletePS: I remember talking about this stuff during the summer, but I don't really know if we ever concluded anything =P
"Wouldn't we say that Christ is working through them"
ReplyDeleteWe might say that, but whatever we say, they are still good.
"...fail to return to Christ"
This must surely mean that we were already fallen to earthly ways.
"...that most Christians say that even Christians sin"
Let not truth fall to the opinion of the majority.
And I'm not sure that a christian can be shown a sin that they are committing, (if they were committing sin "and knew it" they wouldn't be christians)You might be able to show a christian something that they do that is sin, but that they don't know is sin. But if they don't know it's sin, it doesn't count.
"...is it possible to lose your salvation, or is it that we weren't saved in the first place?"
Yes, it is possible to lose your salvation. And no, it isn't that we/they weren't saved in the first place.
"When you say "man does not have a sinful nature," do you mean that as an embryo or something very young, we can't sin because we have no ability to determine what's wrong or right, or do you mean that man is naturally good but is quite capable of sinning?"
I would say I mean closer to the latter view, except perhaps instead of "man is naturally good" I might say "man is born neither good nor evil"
"...but if we aren't already naturally sinful, why would we sin in the first place?"
Well...why did Adam sin. (I'm sure he wasn't naturally sinful(I'm also pretty sure there are some who disagree with me on this))
"...if I sin as a Christian, can I never be saved again?"
Yes you can be saved again.
"Wouldn't I just be an un-saved sinner once again?"
If you were saved and then sinned you would be "an un-saved sinner once again". UNTIL you repented of the sin you had committed.
Um...we can always have more conversations about these things when you start coming to the college.