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''salvation does not free us or excuse us from all the foolish and sinful decisions we made before coming to faith in Christ.''

 

I read this on gotquestions.org. The subject was divorce but the statement appears to be meant to be applicable to anything. I always thought when we gave our hearts and lives to Jesus our sins were washed away.

What do others think about this statement? Is it scripturally based?

 

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Hello Sis Lucy,

 

The context of the statement would be helpful to determine its meaning, but being that you got it from a very reliable site, I am almost certain that the statement is gear towards the consequences of our sins and not the sins themselves.

 

God is so gracious and good to us that at times even the consequences of our sins are taken from us, but that is not always the case. If I smoked so much before receiving Christ as my Lord and savior to the point of damaging my lungs , God forgives the sin against my body at the time of salvation, but He may not take the cancer that that sin brought upon my body or He may also cure me of it.

 

I think they are referring to the consequences and not the sin itself.

 

Blessings

Hi , thanks for your thoughts, no it wasn't in that context, it was to do with being divorced , and thinking of remarrying:

''When the Bible talks about marriage, it does not speak only to Christians/believers getting married. The biblical principles on marriage are universal. If an unsaved man and woman get married, they are just as married in God's eyes as a Christian man and woman who get married. They are still one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God still hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). God has still joined them together, and He does not want them to be separated (Matthew 19). So salvation does not wipe away all the consequences of the sins we committed before we came to faith in Christ. If the divorce was for unbiblical reasons, there are no grounds for remarriage.

It is our contention that whether the divorce occurred before or after salvation is not the ultimate deciding factor. Whatever viewpoint a person takes on this particular issue, it is important to understand that salvation does not free us or excuse us from all the foolish and sinful decisions we made before coming to faith in Christ.''

 

Yes it appears they refer to the consequences. But it seems they mean the consequence is that we still will face judgement for the sin of divorce.  I also see what you are saying, with regards consequences on our human bodies of particular sins, eg not treating our bodies as temples.

Blessings back :)

Lucy,

 

Igotquestions is a very sound site. I often quote from there or use their articles. This will be the first time I disagree with a portion of an article from there.

 

I agree with the following:

 

''When the Bible talks about marriage, it does not speak only to Christians/believers getting married. The biblical principles on marriage are universal. If an unsaved man and woman get married, they are just as married in God's eyes as a Christian man and woman who get married. They are still one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God still hates divorce (Malachi 2:16).

 

I do not agree with the contributor in this particular quote:

 

"If the divorce was for unbiblical reasons, there are no grounds for remarriage.

It is our contention that whether the divorce occurred before or after salvation is not the ultimate deciding factor."

 

All our sins are forgiven at the time of being born again. All is inclusive of just that "ALL," so I do not agree that a person who has divorce previous to salvation, who was in a lost and blind state, has no grounds for remarriage when they come to Christ. If they divorce because of adultery or not, they have been forgiven of that. If the reason they divorce was sexual immorality inclusive of adultery, then they had grounds. But if they divorce for any other reason which did not give them grounds  for divorce, previous to being born again then they are forgiven of that sin. The consequences of it in this case (divorce without biblical grounds) I do not believe follow the person, who is now a new creation. The fiery darts and the flesh will want to make the fully forgiven child of God fall into condemnation etc... but the child of God is fully forgiven and must believe it.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The verse speaks of a new beginning. The writer of the article is definitely speaking of the consequences of our sins and not that our sins are not forgiven beloved.  According to the writer the consequences of divorcing for the wrong reasons before becoming a Christian still carry repercussions for us, once we are born again. I agree that there may remain issues one needs to deal with because of the divorce, but not that the person is not free to remarry. Whenever possible reconciliation would be a glorious thing, but not always possible. The other person may already be in a relationship or remarried

 

Love and blessings to you.

yes, I mean my ex husband now has a wife and new baby, I cannot think right now how we could get back together, (but only God knows)  when I look back I see God did lead me to a good, hardworking  man, with strong family values, (although an unbeliever) albeit imperfect(what is?? other than God).

foolish and sinful decisions are what we all make in life or otherwise we wouldn't need saving. Also we may/will even make them now on occasion, we are sinners, but Jesus died for our sins. The consequences of that still with us in our life: hurt caused, family break up. I believe God can give us peace from this.

I agree it is sound site but there's always going to be issues we feel uneasy about. Written by men not God.

Thanks for contributing bro,

God Bless

Food for thought:

 

Rather than focusing on divorce as a sin, unless one meets biblical standards for divorce, and then applying the blood of Jesus to say that the divorce is covered because it got washed away with all of our sins, might we focus on the marriage contract and what it means before God.

 

Is a marriage able to be broken under the rule of God by man for any reason other than the biblical teachings on the subject? Does God view marriage for life unless the biblical reason for divorce is met?

 

We also see that the question is primarily over remarriage. If man at any stage of life has no right, other than the biblical teaching on the subject, to divorce, does the divorced person have the right to remarry if their divorce did not meet biblical standards?

 

Thus, if God did not agree with the divorce to begin with we would see more than one sin in a unbiblical divorce and remarrige. 1) Man attempts to break a contract that God has not allowed to be broken. 2) Man sins by entering into a new marriage while still married in the eyes of God to the first spouse.

 

This is not a popular view, but we simply must ask what does the Bible say?

 

This then leds us to a ton of questions, but rather than run that enormous thread, let me just ask these 2 questions:

1) Is a marriage contract broken, believer of unbeliever, if it does not meet God's standard for divorce? 2) How does God view the marriage contract?

 

Lord Bless,

LT

 

I hope and pray in Jesus' name that the scriptures the Holy Spirit put on my heart will help any one who reads them.  As long as we do all things as unto the Lord to edify His Kingdom, I believe the Holy Spirit will reveal to us that which is good and is the will of the Father.  I love all of you!

 

Romans 6:1-2  "What shall we say then?  Shall we continue to sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

 

 6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 

21For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Randal, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin...9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

-very clear, and absolutely the base of our Christian faith.

Amen brother.

Yes, that's what I always believed, I actually just re-read the line ''salvation does not free us or excuse us from all the foolish and sinful decisions we made before coming to faith in Christ.'' and think that I percieved it wrongly. I immediately took it to mean our sins our still there, which of course is wrong, this is what puzzled me that a trusted site as that would say such a thing...but of course if you add on the end of that line....'but the sins are forgiven'. then it makes sense. 

p.s I didn't mean this post to come across as to discuss how, biblically, people should or shouldn't remarry etc (although this has worried me in my own situation)...every situation is different and is between the person and God....rather just the phrase puzzled me.which as I mentioned in post seemed to apply to anything.

 



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