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To: boatbums

Plus I am quite sure many a horrid sinner (is one sinner a worse sinner than any other sinner in God’s estimation?) has found Christ/been found by Christ (maybe kind of a guy like Saul/Paul?) and while they acted like hell before meeting grace and Jesus on the road to Damascus, but thereafter lived by the grace and the faith of Christ....

So yes, some “horrid sinners” will be present in the hereafter along with the victims ( if they were saved too).

The whole difference is both parties will be gloried and forgiven and forgiving, so no vomiting would appropriate....

And when does being a victim of a crime make the victim an automatic saint? Just wondering.

There are not degrees of being lost in sin....

Disregarding the Blood of Christ is the line in the sand so to speak.


25 posted on 06/08/2017 8:18:19 PM PDT by Manly Warrior (US ARMY (Ret), "No Free Lunches for the Dogs of War")
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To: Manly Warrior; ealgeone; metmom
Amen! We would ALL be condemned if our salvation depended on how good we were.

Along the lines of the redeemed by grace through faith having an assurance of their salvation, I was thinking how Scripture talks about those who through their way of life demonstrate they have a genuine faith. John the Baptist talked to those religionists who bragged about their "pedigree" and how they were superior to the everyday man. He castigated them saying:

But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit worthy of repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (Matt. 3:7-9)

That phrase, "produce fruit worthy of repentance", or produce fruit that proves your repentance, tells us that a genuine faith WILL be shown by the fruit it bears in ones life. It's what Paul was talking about to the Ephesians:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) (Eph. 5:8,9)

We know that it is NOT our good works or manner of life we lead that merits our salvation - because it is faith in Christ that brings salvation - but a changed heart cannot help but desire to live in the light. Whereas in our lost state we enjoyed the darkness, we will no longer want it - it feels wrong and brings us shame. It is why we are told to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Finally, we are encouraged by:

    As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

28 posted on 06/08/2017 9:41:13 PM PDT by boatbums (Authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris.)
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