Salvation By Faith Alone
It is very vital to understand salvation before going out and preaching the gospel (1 Timothy 5:17). Without the proper foundation, your works of righteousness will be in vain (Isaiah 64:6). In the end, you may be saved, but your works will be burned up as wood, hay, and stubble (1 Corinthians 3:11-14). For those of you that believe you will go to hell if you sin at all, then think upon this; those who have works that are as wood, hay, or stubble, have sinful works. Why? Because their fruits are not meet for repentance; they are not works that are brought forth of God. The original sin was not eating of the fruit, it was desiring to be as God, and make our own decisions, and to run our own lives. Satan was right, we did become as God. We began to run our own lives, but to our own detriment.
I do not, nor in any way can condone sin. God hates sin very much, because He is a HOLY God (Psalm 99:5, Isaiah 6:3). And because I have a heart for God, I too HATE sin. It should not be acceptable to us, any more than it is to God. I don't care if it's a swear out of your mouth when you smash your thumb with a hammer, it is still an abomination to God, and therefore should be to us. No sin in my life, nor anyone else's, will ever be acceptable to me. Anyone that has any other mind than this (Philippians 3:12-16), should take a serious look at their salvation(2 Corinthians 13:5). They should begin to fear Him who can kill both body and soul in hell.(Matthew 10:28)
What I do believe, is that most sins do not implicitly mean we are not saved. We all sin, and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). There is NONE righteous, no not ONE (Romans 3:10). We are all gone out of the way, we have all become unprofitable, our mouths are an open sepulchre, etc, etc. (Romans 3:12-13)
I say this in meekness. We have to get a handle on justification, and sanctification. Justification is salvation by faith alone(Romans 5:1,16-19), which produces works of righteousness (James 2:17-18), and sanctification is extra to salvation. If one is saved, they will continually be seeking more and more sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:1-5), unless of course they believe they have no need of it (because they think they have no sin), in which case they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them (1 John 1:8).
Also, I do not argue against walking without wilful sin. In fact, I believe that I walk without wilful sin (1 John 3:9). I PRIMARILY argue against those who would condemn others, in saying that they are not saved, and are going to hell, if they commit such and such a sin (James 4:11-12,Ezekiel 13:22). I do not have a problem with admonishing them, and even being very harsh with them, but we are not God, and only God knows the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). If what some people say is true, that we can be unsaved because of committing certain sins, then David certainly was not a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). In addition, that would also imply that there is partiality with Christ, and that various sins have different eternal judgments(Romans 6:23). But we know that this is not true (Galatians 3:21-22).
The bottom line of those who condemn others, is that they do not understand salvation like they should. That doesn't imply they aren't saved. That simply implies that they are in ignorance of the knowledge and articulation of salvation. And what is typical of people condemning others is that they condemn them because the sin that the other person has is something they personally have never had a problem with, OUTWARDLY.
For instance, a fat person may condemn a smoker. Or a smoker may condemn a fat person (Proverbs 23:21). Neither one of them have had the other's problem. But they are unable to see that their own problem is just as bad (Romans 2:1). And because of this, they can believe that the other person is not saved, because it's something they have not done(Proverbs 17:15). For no one in their right mind would believe that a sin that they commit is either wilfull, or breaks their salvation, unless of course God enlightened their hearts to understand. Now if you're a fat smoker, then you wouldn't think either being fat or smoking could mean you are not saved.
Of course I do not believe that either being fat or smoking are necessarily sins, these were only used for illustration purposes. As it is written, he who thinks something is a sin, to him/her it IS sin (James 4:17). Smoking in and of itself is not sin. Being in bondage to it is what is sin. It then becomes a lust of the flesh (Romans 6:12,13:14, Galatians 5:16-17,24). But the Word does not say thou shalt not smoke, for example. But if something is written in the Word of God as sin, then it most certainly is.
People like this are fanatics. Why? Because they have a zeal, but not according to the knowledge of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their own righteousness (Romans 10:1-4). It becomes a self-righteous zeal. And as I said before, they blind their own eyes, by saying "I see", and therefore their sin remains, as Yashua said (John 9:41). Many holiness preachers go WAY over board in their doctrine because they have not spent enough time in the Word and in prayer. This is also partly the case because they have allowed others before them to teach them, before being grounded in the Word for themselves , thereby receiving our doctrine from Christ (Galatians 1:15-17). Many of them may be right in heart, but not in the letter, on this issue. They have begun in the Spirit on this issue, so to speak, but have decided that they need to be made perfect by the flesh (Galatians 3v3). None the less, I am open to GROW in my knowledge and understanding of the topic as well, even though the Lord has told me that I am correct on the matter.
I hope this clarifies some things for you. Perhaps I will write on this topic again.
