:-) Very good SD, but at that Catholic "car wash," no one at the Vatican itself seems to know just how many wash n' waxes it takes before that vette is clean and shiny enough to actually leave said car wash. Is it a hundred? A thousand? A million??
I don't see the point. What is sure is that anyone who goes into the carwash comes out clean. And that is a good thing. It is the denial of our own dirt that is a bad thing. Nothing unclean can stand in the presence of God. Check Isaiah.
Christ Himself has already buffed that baby out -- and just that once was enough.
When exactly did this happen? To you? Are you now perfect, without sin? Is this the best you you will ever be? Or will you have to be changed before you are clean enough to enter heaven?
SD
Exactly the point....
At NO time is mortal man EVER free of sin. One sin is too many for entry into Heaven, but that's what Christ's mission here was all about. Payment of said sins OF and ON BEHALF of we sinners one and all. Aaah, but there is a catch -- we merely have to confess as such and believe in the power and validity of HIS word and promise and thus yes -- we are "saved."
THAT, my friend is THE "Good News."
Look at it this way
I go into a Deli and rob it. As I'm making my escape a cop shoots me dead.
Even though I'm guilty of the crime, I can't be tried in a court of law.
That is what "dead to sin" means.
Judgement day for a believers sin happened 2000 years ago on a cross. You're not going to be tried again.
" Heb 8:12 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (NIV) "