What's forgiveness got to do with it?

As I've been pondering about the previous post. It got me thinking about some things on forgiveness of sin.

We usually think of it this way "If your forgiven you got to heaven," what follows is that you have to ask for forgiveness to be forgiven. This just hasn't been sitting well with me lately. I mean what happens in my head that makes me forgiven and this other guy not. Are the Catholics right? To we have to repent of every sin we commit to be forgiven and receive eternal life? I'm a little lost in this. If Jesus died for the sins of the world why do we have to believe it for it to be true for us. If He did in fact die and raise again for "the world" doesn't that mean the words sin are forgiven regardless of som intellectual of spitiual conclusion about life and death. A conclusion that requires you to pray a "sinners prayer" to get into heaven. Usually it goes something like this. "Lord I am a sinner. I know that only you can forgive sins. I am sorry for all I've done. Come into my heart." Am I right? We are praying this because our sins aren't forgiven yet. What if they are? What if sin was taken care of a long time ago on a cross and you, we, us have been forgiven already.

A New Pemise
Maybe the cross was a means to an end.
We are all forgiven for our sins and without being forgiven heaven can't happen but that's not what decides it for you. What if you can go to Hell and be totally forgiven at the same time. What if Eternity is simply the culmination of what you pursued in life. I don't want this to sound like a works based faith... I'm really not parting from orthodox Christianity as much as you may think. I still think that word I used "pursue" has something to do with an attitude or condition in your heart. But what if Hell is not a punishment but a consequence, a hole you dug for yourself.

Maybe the bumper sticker is right and "Christians aren't perfect just forgiven," but neither is anybody else and so is everybody else. We are all forgiven, it's not just a Christian trait but a trait of all mankind because of Jesus Christ.
see the sinners prayer is not what saves you it is something else something deep something mystical.

I'm inclined to pray right now "God thank you for dying on the cross for us. Please show us what is mystical. May we not be those who set down a criteria for perfection but may we live lives in pursute. Seeking first Your Kingdom."

Comments

wellis68 said…
I realize this post does not answer the "serching for insight" post. they are separate thoughts.
wellis68 said…
Well I have to respond to one part. " I mean if we all are forgiven and we will all end up in paradise as a result of being forgiven, why so many different lifestyles?"
hold on there missy. One of the ideas of my post is that we don't end up aywhere as a "result of being forgiven" Forgiveness is a means to an end it introduces a new kind of lifestyle and a new kind of life. This sustains that there is indeed a hell! people will live in it. And in this our "lifestyles" matters more than ever.
wellis68 said…
I I like it but notice that Forgiveness of sin is not the end all here

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent be has eternal life"

here it's this word believe, in greek it is pisteuo, This wird is more than an intlecual decision to think it's true. It is to place confidence in. Placing confidence in God is rooted in deep profoud concepts. To really believe is to follow is to pursue. Because if you place you confidence in God, place your trust in God, You'll obey Him. Explain to me how you could possibly believe without pursueing. Forgiveness is not what saves Believing, pursuing, is.

"Condemned" See I still don't see this as a punishment. See if this fits. He's "condemning" people to the pit they dug for themselves, not some place God created to burn all the bad folks. apply this to Jhn 15:6 "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned." what do you think?