I guess I am confused by the notion that once you are “saved” through belief in Jesus as your Savior that it then doesn’t matter how many more sins you go on to commit, you’re still “saved.”
Once you know Jesus, know His desire for the way you should live, shouldn’t you live that way from then on? If you don’t, did you really believe? Was it a sincere recognition that Christ is our Savior? How could one tell?
Once you know Jesus, know His desire for the way you should be living, and still choose to backslide or sin, wouldn’t you be held accountable for doing what you know is wrong in Jesus’ eyes?
In fact, when Peter, a believer, slipped into error, Jesus called him a viper and told him to get away from Him. That’s a pretty strong reaction toward a believer. Peter, the believer, believed Jesus was his Savior. Still Christ demanded more of Peter. He demanded faith lived out correctly.
Jesus makes it very clear in that passage that He cannot be united with anything other than real faith- faith lived correctly.
This is, as I see it, the terrible flaw, in the “saved” interpretation. Lots of people backslide. Lots of people sin. All of us are imperfect. If we, as Jesus admonished us, “go and sin no more” once we are forgiven, I would agree with this notion of being saved. Clearly, here in the story of the adulteress, Christ was attaching a requirement to belief and forgiveness: sin no more. Act in a holy way from that moment onward. Actions.
But most of us cannot do that. We still sin. We believe but the flesh is weak. How can we reconcile Christ’s demand that, once forgiven, we sin no more/walk the way of the Cross/go through the narrow gate; with the notion that few of us can hope to that level of perfection?
Well, Christ gave us a way: the sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation/Penance practiced from the earliest times of the Church.
No one with an unrepented sin on his soul will enter Heaven. It is a place of spiritual perfection. God can only unite Himself to purity. What if one is a believer who is “saved” but sins and does not repent of the sin before he dies? Does he still get to go straight to Heaven to sit with all the saints when he wasn’t sorry for a serious sin? I think not.
Didn’t St. Paul himself say he was working out his salvation with fear and trembling? Why was Paul himself still voicing concerns over his salvation? He was definitely “saved.” Because Paul himself understood that accepting Christ as his personal Savior required more than just belief. Paul believed. But Paul did not assume that belief guaranteed him Heaven. Belief is the first step; the crucial step. But actions must follow. They are a sign of true conversion and faith.
In God’s covenant, He demanded signs of belief from His people: blood on a doorway, circumcision, keeping the commandments, etc. That was the Old Law. In the New Law, Christ too demands a sign of our new covenant with Him: our lives must be an example of Christ’s teachings. Our actions must mirror the New Covenant. We must take up our cross and follow Him. We must walk the road to Calvary just as He walked it. Actions.
“then doesn’t matter how many more sins you go on to commit,”
Where did you get the idea that “it doesn’t matter how many more sins you go on to commit” ??
I said: When you accept Jesus as your Savior the Holy Spirit comes into your “heart”. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance you will not want to sin. You may, in your human nature slip and commit a sin but are immediately aware and ask forgiveness. Conversely, if you don’t have the Holy Spirit as your guide you don’t worry or maybe even care that it’s a sin.
“Jesus called him a viper and told him to get away from Him”
Jesus wasn’t talking to Peter directly but the Spirit that was controlling Peters thoughts.
“No one with an unrepented sin on his soul will enter Heaven. It is a place of spiritual perfection.”
So, you are positive that you have repented of absolutely all your sins? Not forgotten even one? Maybe in grade school or something that God sees as a sin and you didn’t realize it? What if, for example, you did something without even knowing it and forgot? There is no way for you to know everything. If you accept Jesus as your Savior and admit that the only way you could possibly be worthy of Salvation is to accept the fact that His Sacrifice IN YOUR PLACE is the only way then you will be saved. You then ask for forgiveness for ALL of your sins both of commission and omission whether you remember them or not. God knows all. That is what admitting that Jesus paid the price and His Sacrifice is sufficient for your salvation. He was the perfect sacrifice. You, or whatever you do, will never be.
When you say “actions must follow” I agree. But I believe that a saved person WANTS his actions to please God so will search for the right way to do things. The person who thinks that actions are a demanded or required will have a tendency to think they are better then another person or will feel like they “have been good enough” to go to heaven.
Remember that Paul also said that even my best works are but as rags.
Hope I have explained things a little better.