by Edward O. Bragwell<\/p>\n
In our Grace \u2013 Obedience \u2013 Fellowship discussions, we are often told that without those in Christ being continuously cleansed of sin (even as they sin) we can have no real sense of security in Him. It goes something like this: It must be that God forgives us as we sin (and we all sin often), or else we would be constantly shifting from being in Christ (saved, in fellowship) and out of Christ (lost, out of fellowship) and vice versa. While it is true that sins (even one) will separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2), it does not follow that the separation is instant.<\/p>\n
There is another factor in this matter \u2013 God\u2019s long-suffering. There is no scriptural basis for affirming that God does not take into account the sins of one in Christ \u2013 for any reason, whether it be that God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to those in Christ so that, rather than seeing their sins, He sees the righteousness life of Christ who had no sin; or He simply chooses to ignore the Christian\u2019s sins while choosing not to ignore the sins of non-Christians, making Him a respecter of persons. The fact of the business is that the Bible does not teach that God cuts off His children at the instant they sin, but rather after having given them time and opportunity to repent. Peter lays down the general principle that God is not willing that any should perish, but is longsuffering (II Peter 3:9). In the letters to Christians in the book of Revelation, it is clear that their separation from God for their sins was not immediate.<\/p>\n
To those at Ephesus, the Lord said that they had \u201cfallen\u201d but He had yet to \u201cremove [their] lampstand.\u201d In Thyatira, there was Jezebel, who by seduction and teaching caused others among them to commit sexual immorality. We cannot determine the details of how she accomplished this but do know that God had been longsuffering by giving her, and those affected by her, time to repent before executing punishment. We are not told how long God\u2019s longsuffering would be, but long enough.<\/p>\n
Hence, our peaceful assurance in Christ does not rest in God\u2019s overlooking or immediately dismissing our sins, but in His patiently giving us time and opportunity to repent of them. We don\u2019t have to worry that we might slip up and be immediately cut off from God and be lost before we can repent. We can trust the longsuffering nature of God\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
At the same time, we must not consider God\u2019s longsuffering a license to sin. Hebrews 10:26-29 warns those who had been sanctified by the blood of Christ not to \u201cgo on sinning willfully\u201d or else face worse punishment than those who sinned under Moses\u2019 law. It also says that willfully practicing sin is an insult to the Spirit of grace.<\/p>\n
So, wherein lies our peace of mind and sense of security as Christians? Certainly not in perfect obedience \u2013 none are in this position. But in seeking to do our best to avoid sin and, when we do sin, realizing that without repentance we cannot be forgiven. At the same time realizing that God is longsuffering, giving ample time to correct matters by repentance. To try to determine the exact amount of time we might have between our sins and our separation from God, would be, as brother Robert Turner used to say, \u201cwhittling at God\u2019s end of the stick.\u201d We must not test the Lord by trying to see how long we can wait to correct our sins before His longsuffering expires. At the moment we become aware of our sin, we had best turn to God, in repentance and prayer, for forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Truly, it would be depressing for a Christian to go through life, believing that at the moment of any sin that he is out of fellowship with the Godhead, and maybe in a few moments repents his way back in fellowship then in a few more minutes sins his way back out of fellowship \u2013 in and out, out and in, constantly. But, as we have seen, this is not the case.<\/p>\n
Yes, we can joyfully go about our business of serving the Lord daily, trying to obey all things commanded us (cf. Matthew 28:20), knowing that when we fall short, God gives us an opportunity to repent before cutting us off \u2013 knowing it is up to us to take that opportunity. We truly serve an awesome God, who is not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Edward O. Bragwell In our Grace \u2013 Obedience \u2013 Fellowship discussions, we are often told that without those in Christ being continuously cleansed of sin (even as they sin) we can have no real sense of security in Him. It goes something like this: It must be that God forgives us as we sin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[757,758,581,756],"class_list":["post-4897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-assurance","tag-longsuffering","tag-patience","tag-security"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-christian-who-teaches-error-still-a-brother-in-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":0},"title":"Is a Christian who teaches error still a brother in Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A big fire started after our morning services this morning! One of our members here adamantly disagreed with me when I mentioned that when a brother sins by teaching doctrinal error, he must repent, and if he refuses to repent he is \"a brother in error.\" Until he does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46498,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-true-that-once-youve-accepted-christ-you-are-not-a-sinner-even-when-you-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":1},"title":"Is it true that once you’ve accepted Christ you are not a sinner, even when you sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First, I am a Christain. After accepting Christ, I tried running away from anything that could bring me down spiritually. I was told I was practicing self-righteousness. I lived my life and I fell into sin, but when I fall there are these feelings of guilt in me, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55232,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-occasional-sins-lead-to-spiritual-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":2},"title":"Do occasional sins lead to spiritual death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, I heard a preacher recently state that in Romans 6:12-18, Paul makes a distinction between presenting your members as instruments for unrighteousness (Romans 6:13) and slaves of unrighteousness (Romans 6:16) which leads to spiritual death. The point being made here was that when a Christian, on occasion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-want-me-to-be-unhappy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":3},"title":"Does God Want Me to Be Unhappy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It is quite natural to want to be happy, and often, people think that is the whole reason God put us here. They have imagined that God just wants us to be happy no matter what. Is that true? Let's consider this for a moment. God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-fellowship-be-denied\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":4},"title":"Can fellowship be denied?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is the Bible passage that authorizes you to deny me fellowship as a member of the church when I acknowledge Christ and have been baptized? is there an ugly little secret that only those whose baptismal outlook is baptismal regenerationist are recognized? Apparently, my belief that my sins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23640,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-no-condemnation-if-christians-can-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":4897,"position":5},"title":"How can there be no condemnation if Christians can sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been trying to fit Romans 8:1 and I John 1:7-10. We know that if we walk in the light then we can ask for the forgiveness of our sins and they are cleansed. How does Romans 8:1 come into play?\u00a0 If we sin, we are separated from God.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}