Since you reject literalism, what gives you the right to believe in the Father of Jesus?
It is obvious you reject libteralism, thats why you have no understanding of the good news of the cross and blood of Christ. And why you have no part of the blood and body of Christ.
If a person doesnāt believe what Jesus said, then they have no part in Him. Their sins are not forgiven.
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
It is a bloody religion.
We have scientifically based teachings that walk us through the pain and suffering Jesus must have gone through during the Crucifixion. We make movies that dramatize the flogging and beating He underwent on our behalf. At Easter we put together pageants and invite outsiders to come and watch Jesus get the tar beat out of Him for their sins.
You mean we tell others what happened to Christ?
We have come to believe that it is Godās heart to hold this moment over the heads of His children in an effort to get them to obey the rules. If we are graphically reminded of the pain and suffering He underwent on our behalf, perhaps we will do our best to repay Him by living a right life.
If you are shown what Christ endured for you, you may begin to grasp what Christ accomplished so that He may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth 19of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.ā¦
The God I grew up with was like the mother who constantly reminded her kids of the pain she went through during childbirth in an effort to guilt them into doing what she wants. ā¦ Sadly, the gospel message has been affected by this way of thinking. āGod loves you; come to Him,ā has been turned into, āJesus got a major beating that was meant for you, so come to Him.ā
Letās see. What can we take away from the NT? Did Christ get the snot crushed out of Him? Why? For his love for you and me? You decide what to do with that information. You are not under any obligation to think about Him ever again, correct?
ā¦ Imagine if a man broke into my home and was planning on killing my wife and children, but I convinced him to take my life instead of theirs. If he let them escape and then proceeded to take me into a back room and film himself torturing me for hours until finally taking my life, do you think I would ever want my family to see that videotape? Absolutely not! I would want them to remember my life and my love for them. There is nothing inside me that would ever want them to view the pain I underwent to save their lives. That would break their hearts.
When the son picks up a knife to kill his drug dealer, and the image of his father dying for him flashes before his mindās eye, he might put the blade down in rembrance of someone who truly showed love for him and his mom and siblings. You never know, but I am betting he would be glad that his sacrifice could lead to kindness.
This is how God feels when we reenact the stations of the cross in an effort to riddle people with guilt and condemnation. It doesnāt motivate; it exasperates. This is not what love desires (pp. 63, 67). Darin Hufford via Jeremy Myers
I am not convinced you know what God desires as we think of Jesus being tortured and murderedāfor what crime? what had He done to deserve what they did to him? for loving everyone. I am reminded of what real love looks like and how real love behaves.
Yes. The true one is. Without any doubt.
Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says:
āYou shall indeed hear but never understand,
and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
15 For this peopleās heart has grown dull,
and their ears are heavy of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should perceive with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and turn for me to heal them.ā
Since you reject the meaning of the metaphors in order to keep eyes, ears, and mind closed, what gives you the right to imagine you can speak for God.
Matthew 23:13 āBut woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
When you demand that people believe in a legalistic Gnostic Satanic blood magic cult of necromancy worshiping an evil liar god, you shut out the decent people who would not sell their soul in a trade of their integrity for a promise of indulgence for sin. And if they do, then how is it that you havenāt made them a child of hell just as Jesus has suggested?
Luke6:37 āJudge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.ā
I recommend that people do not make their beliefs the measure of other people, for no matter how much I think I am right in what I believe, I really cannot expect to compete with God regarding the correct understanding of things. This sounds like a very foolish bet.
I reject some aspects of liberalism, such as the idea that education is the solution to all problems. And as Jesus recommends I reject the use of literalism to avoid the meaning of scripture and that is why I have a better understanding of the good news of the crucifixion of Jesus with no need to believe in legalism, Gnosticism, blood magic, necromancy, or an evil liar god.
Where in anything that I have ever said or any scriptures that I quoted ever pointed to an indulgence of sin?
In Christ we have died to sins lordship, we have no obligation to obey it because those who believe have power over it through Christ in us.
Hebrews says if we continue in sin we trample under our feet the blood of Christ and there is no other sacrfice for sin we can go to.
Just now I was tempted to lust after a woman. The power of the blood, death and resurrection of Jesus freed me from its power and I walked in the freedom of the Spirit and did not sin.
Not by my own power or righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ in me and by being one with Him in spirit through my union in His cross.
Would someone explain to me how this new fangled bloodless covenant works. And please donāt say Godās Son willing let people kill Him just to show how much He loves us. And because of that we want to work really hard to obey Him. If that is your explanation, then for certain you are preaching salvation by your own works.
Thatās cool.
Are you claiming to be without sin now? By this power of Jesus blood you commit no sin any more?
We havenāt seen any people, Christian or otherwise, who are without sin. So as I understand it, God is continuing to work on people, particularly those welcoming His interference to remove these bad habits and bring them more and more in alignment with the image of His son. This is called sanctification.
Ralphie, I couldnāt find this original post so I copied it from yours.
In this story you forgot one itsy bitsy thing, THE FATHER ROSE UP FROM THE DEAD!!! Not only that, he now had the power to give his family, everlasting life. Now how do you think they would react.
Not only that, he found the man who murdered him and told him he forgave him and he was willing to give him everlasting life and supply all his needs in this life. How do you think that guy would react.
As I said before, you donāt understand what Jesus did in His cross and through His shed blood.
Did Raphie claim to understand it? I donāt understand it. I donāt think you understand it either, however much you pretend to. It does not mean we donāt understand various different things about it. And only God knows whether what we understand is correct. But for those who think their salvation depends on their understanding, I can only sayā¦ God help them!
Why are you so afraid of knowing and understanding the work of the cross of Jesus? The Spirit of God labored through the apostles so that people would understand. We preach the good news about Jesus cross and resurrection so people will know, understand, believe and be saved.
1 Cor 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. (You have to understand what is being preached to believe it, understanding what was preached saves them) 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling (Christ crucified is what was preached and what His crucifixion encompassed. Paul was very clear about what it meant because he wanted them to know and understand) block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than manās wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than manās strength.
Phil 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, (Look at what Paul wants us to know, he labored for people to understand the cross and resurrection).
Look at what Paul wants them to know. Col 2:2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (He wants them to know and have complete understanding of the mystery of God, Christ. Was Paul a evil Gnostic?)
I know I was redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.1 Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
I KNOW that he appeared to take away my sins. 1 John 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
Why would you think that? I am not afraid of knowing and understanding or of speaking of what I know and understand. What I find foolish beyond compare is betting my salvation on such knowledge, which is what you do when you make this the measure of other people. Luke 6:13-15
I KNOW that God does not require blood magic in order to forgive people. Luke 7:48, Matthew 9: 5ā¦
What you did or did not say hardly mattersā¦ the question is whether you believe it. Can I assume that you do not believe in indulgences and thus you are to be judged for (will face the consequences of) your sins like everyone else?
Our salvation is knowable now. Oh wait ā weāve already talked about this. 
Cody, I was quoting someone and responded underneath what you quoted. 
Yep I know.
Jesus became sin and freed us from sin by His blood. When He rose from death it was not like Lazerus rising from the dead. Lazerusās spirit returned to his body but he was the same, not born of God. Jesus is the First Born from the dead. Jesus became sin and a curse. He took on the death that our spirits had. The Son of Manās spirit died. When He was raised up, it was from the state of true death. God exerted power to raise Him, the same power that is in true believers. He conquered true spiritual death as our representative, as a man, as me. When He rose He was not what He was before, he was a New Creation so He would be the first of many brethren. Jesus striped off death and powers and principalities. He freed us from our slavery and bondage to sin by His blood.
Rev 1:5 Jesus the Messiah, the witness, the faithful one, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and has made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
Thank God for the shed blood of Jesus, for His death on the cross and for His resurrection. By my union with Him in all that, I am free from my slavery to sin and I now have eternal life in me.
Things can be ānot-so-comfortableā for different reasons. It could be that somebody is dodging some reality that they really ought to face and learn to deal with. But something can also be ānot comfortableā if it violates a well-settled and accurate view that you have already formed. E.g. if somebody has a well-developed conscience for how they ought to behave in some situation, and then peers (say at a party) attempt to persuade that person to do things they know they ought not to do, we would never say they should set aside their discomfort and just do whatever the crowd urges. In that case, their discomfort may be a protection for them, that they ought to heed.
Those of us who have steeped ourselves in scriptures in the light of Christās teaching have developed a ādiscomfortā (to put it mildly) with portrayals of God as a tempermental and violent tyrant who is either impotent to actually love or forgive, or canāt be trusted to love or forgive anyone apart from very works-oriented ritual formulas (transactional sacrifice). When such discomfort is scripturally-informed as I think this is, we do well to heed it.
Jesus is the Word through which everything was created, including mankind. He came amongst us as a human to experience all that we do, and to live without sin. He not only took on Himself the role of a servant of God for mankind, but He also took on Himself our injustice and violence, reaching the ultimate, death.
Now the power of sin is death (and all of us have sinned), and that is because the Law ensures this.
So - Christ took the sins of the world because He created the world. Christ was without sin, yet He was put to death. A sinless man experiencing death is contrary to the Law. Thus He placed power of sin outside, and this means that all who have faith in Him are acceptable to God through Grace.
God resurrected Jesus and placed all subject to Him.
To be succinct - Christ completed His creation on the cross and was resurrected to give life to those who repent and turn to God.
Why is it so hard to accept that humanities head, Christ, the Son of Man, carried us through the judgement we deserved into His resurrection of new life?
What we could not do for ourselves, God did for us in Jesus.
āLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.ā -Colossians 4:6
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