I’m a Christian, Jesus is my Savior, and yet I’m scared to death of winding up in Hell. My life’s anything but virtuous & perfect, I ask G-d’s forgiveness many times daily yet I’m told that sins repeated are sins unforgiven.
Hell is real and it’s reserved for the afterlife. There are terrible truths and this is one of them.
I understand you completely.
Those are my fears, as well.
ALL of us have sinned.
Until we reach the point where we realize that He is the only one who can take our sins away, we are not truly following his path.
Give your trust and love to Him and He will help you overcome your problem.
Been there. Now, I am His servant. Not a preacher. Not a prophet. Just a son of God who loves Him.
Because I am human and trapped here with you in this temporal illusion, I fully understand the fears that haunt you both.
I also know that the Salvation of Christ on the cross can transcend those fears, if you will let it.
It requires a leap of intuitive intellect not recognized by science or logic, but more real in its truth that either of them. It is said that time is just a gift, given to Man by The Almighty to keep us from going mad trying to comprehend everything happening all at once.
The most compelling and convincing of NDA and afterlife tales all have a common thread, that being the realization that time does not exist. In eternity there is only the now. If your conscious perception of the now includes the realization of your own sinfulness and the acceptance of the Salvation offered, then that deed is done for eternity.
I know this is hard to accept from our human temporal perspective, but it is this truth in which I have found comfort and I believe the truth of my own Salvation.
I pray that the both of you can find the peace of mind, love and joy that it has brought to me - not through any merit of my own, but only through the sacrifice of Y’Shua Ha Mashiach, who is the One, The Logos, The Christ.
(As we continue in this life knowing this truth, we still can do nothing to merit this gift. But our actions can express, albeit feebly, our gratitude for it.)
Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."
Nobody's life is virtuous. Jesus addressed that in the Beatitudes. Everyone struggles with sin. And repeatedly at that. We all have areas where we just seem to fall into sin easily, and it's different for each of us.
When you accepted Jesus, your sins were forgiven and the righteousness of Jesus Himself was imputed to (credited to) your account. God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103)
Colossians 2:13-14 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Security of the believer
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 10:25-30 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:4-8 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.