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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam Ferguson who wrote (20738)	9/14/1998 4:20:00 PM
From: rwh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Sam--May I please share my view of a christian's conduct. You correctly point out in your post #20739 that the "sanction for right-doing is a conviction that our actions should accord with God's will". I agree. We should seek and do God's will. However, I respectfully disagree with your next statement: "and that we should abstain from the performance of wrong acts through fear of punishment in some future existence." The reason I disagree is because the christian knows, or should know, that future "punishment" is a certainty because we are all sinners (I am not discussing the exact nature of the punishment here; suffice it to say that it will be something "undesirable"). Let me be even more specific: there is no physical "act" that we can do that will reconcile the sinful man with God. Thus, doing or not doing any act has nothing to do with avoidance of punishment; sinful man cannot physically "work" his way out of punishment or, for that matter, cannot physically work his way into God's grace. Salvation is by grace through faith and not of works. So, for the christian, the avoidance of doing something wrong is because it is an affront to God--no other reason. For the christian, choosing to do something or refraining from doing something is for the same purpose--honoring God. For the christian, the issue of future punishment was resolved at the time Christ was accepted as personal savior; from that time on, the GOAL of every christian is to live to the glory of God. Do we always succeed? Of course not. Sam, what is your viewpoint on the consequences of sin? Respectfully, Bob