Re: What is Grace?
Submitted by Ben on June 20 1999 at 08:06:12
In reply to What is Grace? Submitted by John Guard on June 19 1999 at 10:51:43
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John - Grace, as I understand it, is receiving something that is not earned or deserved. All of us have sinned and continue to sin and therefore, by God's strictest guidelines, should not be saved. However we are offered the gift of salvation, simply for believing in Jesus. We can never earn our salvation....it is just given to us, unearned. We say that we are saved by God's Grace...and yet, we immediately demonize and "hellinize" people who do not fit our standards of what a Christian should be. To make things worse, our standards are often not even Biblical. I believe that a Christian has a responsibility to share his faith, not his damnation. If we are to 'walk with Jesus, to 'take up our crosses daily' then we are to shame ourselves if necessary to spread the gospel to those who don't yet understand it. Jesus never condemned non-believers. Instead, he ate with them and preached to them, and rebuked them for not having faith when they claimed to. I am frustrated by the fact that people call themselves Christians and then lead their lives in an un-Christ-like manner IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. If only every BL on boychat could understand that Christianity should embrace them, that God really does love them and that ANYTHING is possible (with God), they would not hate religion the way that most do (I'm including myself....subtract about 8 months :-). Finally, pedophilia is NOT a sin. Obviously, many acts which come out of pedophilia are sins however God does not put one sin as more gross than another. Lusting after a woman is as sinful as lusting after a 10 year old boy. Certainly, different sins carry different WORLDY consequences. My understanding is that the only moral sin, according to the bible, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. You are not alone. 
Ben |