Kaligraphic wrote:You don't have to accept Jesus to be saved. The Bible only says that you have to believe. (check it out - the condition is faith, not agreement.) The thing is, once you believe, God will start working on you so that you inevitably become more like He's called you to be. Of course, given that He's called us to some really amazing things, you'll find that you want to spend more and more time with God, and you'll want and actively pursue more and more of what He's called you to, simply because it's so wonderful.
As faith is the condition, the only way that the devil can get you out of grace is by convincing you that you are already out of grace - that you're guilty. The fact is, any sin on your part has to die when you die. The thing is, the Bible doesn't say "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves..." - it says "if we say we have not sinned (past tense verb), we deceive ourselves...". All your sin, past, present, and future, dies when you die - but that death is two thousand years ago. Jesus died your death, and you get a new life with his resurrection. Because your sin died two thousand years ago, you don't have sin any more.
If you know that your sin is gone, then you cannot avoid salvation - and the only way that the devil can get you out of heaven is by accusation. This is where he gets into things like showing people various bits of the Law of Moses (obsolete, and only ever in force over the tribes of Israel) to condemn various actions, or, like EireWolf said, planting ideas in your head and then telling you that you should be ashamed for them. But the thing is, you have nothing of which you need be ashamed. You were not made righteous by an act of man, and you were not made righteous by an act of Congress, but you were made righteous by an act of God, and nothing that anyone says or does can take that away.
Of course, to balance that, there are natural consequences to things. The fact that God sees you as innocent is great - just don't get too carried away, because certain actions will produce certain results - as in, if you sleep around, you'll be saved, but you'll have three kids and four venereal diseases. If you rob a bank, God will see you as innocent, but the court may disagree. As the line goes, if you commit adultery, God won't leave you - but your wife will. Some of these things that we may see as moral matters are actually just very practical ways of avoiding unpleasantness in the future. Rejoice that God has forgotten your sin, but remember that the police (and your friends with cameras) still keep records. (good reason to avoid getting drunk - if you're not drunk, you're a lot harder to get into really embarassing photos. On a more health-related note, you're also less likely to think you can outfight an entire motorcycle gang, but that would fit better earlier in this paragraph.)
Remember that nothing - not death, not life, not angels or principalities or powers, not things present or things to come, not height, not depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. NOTHING. So you can tell the devil to go back to hell, because your righteousness cannot be taken, and you are pure and holy by the declaration of God Himself!
an enourmous weight just lifted off my heart and mind. thank you friend.
