Me ~ Why is recognizing sin so important for the Christian?
John ~ Because without sin we cannot ever get to the love of God. It doe snot mean that sin is good, it means that sin as recognized as such in our selves leads us the the incredible mercy and love of our Creator; He gave His own life to relieve us of it.
Me ~ So often today we don't hear the discussion about sin. Do you think that is because of culture? I mean American culture of course.
John ~ Absolutely, it is all part of the culture in we which we are not to judge anyone in their bad behavior - their life choice are their own and we today have to respect their choices even if they are destructive.
Me ~ This week, we heard the President speak at the prayer breakfast. He said like he has many times before "we should be tolerant of others". As you pointed above, our culture is one that does not want to 'judge which in fact keeps us from calling out sinful behavior. Is, it important to call out sinful behavior?
John ~ It is important to call out sinful behavior not preaching tolerance of sinful behavior. Today, for me the word 'tolerance' as it used by popular culture asks us to affirm sinful behavior. The disciplines of Christ were to call out the sinful behavior of other Christians. Everybody judges... this is a sinful world, we judge because we too are caught up in it. Nonetheless, we are to be salt and light which includes judging and being an example.
Me ~ What if sin is allowed, is that so bad? What if it is part of God's plan and thus our sinning is just part of that plan.
John ~ Sin is like a virus. If it continues to be accepted as normal behavior it will take over like a 'bad' computer virus does. It will destroy mankind because that is what sin intends to do. Praise the Lord that God sent His son to deliver us from the sin of death by dieing on the cross. So, we too must die to this sinful world.
Me ~ Some 'modern' Christians do not acknowledge sin and that Jesus Christ was the upgrade/the patched in compatibility program necessary for us so that we can be saved and not permanently deleted... put into the lake of fire. How can we take this good news to other religions who not realize the problem of sin?
John ~ In that case, you need the Holy Spirit to move in their hearts as this is the only way that they will see it in their mind, feel it in their hearts. It is an enemy stronghold that can only be destroyed by the Holy Spirit. This requires a great deal of prayer ahead of time.
Me ~ In a previous post, we talked about heaven. Given our discussion here about sin, I want to ask you if people in heaven would remember their own and other people's sin?
John ~ No. Because if they did they would, in my opinion, not be in heaven. No matter what sins we commit or other people commit here on earth in this corrupt world, if we find ourselves in heaven that means that we have declared Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and that means that we declared being sorry for our sin and forgiven... why remember then would it be important for anyone to remember their sin, there is no need of it. In fact, it would be burden likely causing sin to rise up again just by being aware of sin would cause an unnecessary hierarchy to form in heaven leading to the sin of righteousness and pride leading to corruption.
If we think of reality as a computer programmer who created a program and then had it get hacked ... get a virus and become corrupted, we could imagine his first reaction would be to try and save the program. If the programmer is able to SAVE the program and the program accepts being Saved through new commands, then it will be Saved and the virus sent to the vault. Thus, the corrupt information 'virus' could not longer be able to pass on its corrupt information as it would not exist in the Saved program.What is fascinating in this illustration about sin/corruption of a program is that in a computer program, all viruses go into the virus vault; they are saved too but in a different way... that being no longer to corrupt the original order of operation. I think that God has revealed to us through computer operations, who He is and His love for His creation.
Me ~ Why didn't God just eliminate sin from the beginning?
John ~ By giving us free will, God knew that we would eventually choose 'sin'. To eliminate sin would eliminate our ability to choose.
Me ~ Does that mean God had already the plan which was to send His Son to deliver us from sin which He knew would happen due to our God given free will... or, to use your computer analogy, He already had a plan to save the program, He already had the patch?
John ~ Yes. But, remember that we have to choose to accept that patch (Jesus Christ); as by doing so, removes the corruption from us. Essentially, forcing the virus into the vault.
Me ~ I suppose that the Creator's foreknowledge of sin had/has meaning for eternity...
John ~ Yes, because He wants programs/ beings like Himself that would know good and evil and always choose good, always be perfect, like Him.
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