If salvation is truly NOT by works in any sense, why does any AMOUNT of sin matter?
As if "little" sins were somehow "okay" to God because we just can't help it... by this definition I'm pretty sure everyone practices sin and as soon as one has a besetting sin they can't overcome, it is making them feel like they can't be saved. What legalism.
The inconsistency of some theologies is truly baffling and can only be a blindness.
Many determinists want to have their "Lordship Salvation" cake but eat their "Salvation is of the Lord" cake as well. How to do? Well, just slap the label "reprobate" on anyone that just seems a little bit "too" sinful, and by gosh, they were never saved. So all the unconditionally saved can manifest certain conditions without being able to say they are truly necessary. Clever!
People don't fall away from God because their sin is too much, or too big for the Cross. It is because they allow the state of their heart to no longer receive freely offered grace into their lives, they are cut off from the vine. Truly no amount of sin is "too much" if grace is at work in them. We judge the tree the best we can externally, but no one can judge internally unless it's revealed.
Blindness ?
Jesus is Lord and one either submits to His Lordship or He is not their Lord. You will know them by their fruits ! A believer does not have a lifestyle marked by sin but righteousness.That is an oxymoron. Your system is the opposite. You can continue in sin that grace might abound which is the opposite of what scripture teaches.
Matthew 7:15-23
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Luke 14:27
And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
Matthew 10:38
and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.
1 John 3:6-10
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
I can add dozens of more passages that agree with the above and expose your erroneous view on sin and a lifestyle of sinning believer( an oxymoron)
hope this helps !!!
