“So, are you saying that, after salvation, one ceases to sin, and so remains “saved?” Or that one does NOT cease to sin, but is “saved” anyway?
Regards,”
Obviously it is impossible to stop sinning, though the fact remains that the Christian is entirely changed from what he once was before:
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
(Rom 7:14-24)
This is indeed my struggle. I love God but hate my sin.
Someone posted here the other day about what holiness means. How becoming more holy every day means becoming more strange and otherworldly to this culture.
I pray that I remember to strive for this.
It is one thing to be saved but quite another to become more and more Christlike.
“Obviously it is impossible to stop sinning, though the fact remains that the Christian is entirely changed from what he once was before”
This is a popular formulation, but, after you get out for a bit, you realize it requires defining “Christian” (who is one) so narrowly that there are almost none living.