Quote:
Originally Posted by Winman
Well, Rev 3:19 is written to believers, and it says to repent.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
This shows clearly that a saved person can be out of fellowship with Christ, and that Christ will rebuke them and chasten them. And the believers here are told to repent. I do not know how you repent of a sin without acknowledging and confessing that sin.
I see it no different than our earthly family. When I was a child I did some wrong things which grieved my father. He did not kick me out of the family, but he did rebuke and chasten me a few times.
And the Bible teaches this very thing.
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
So, while we may be saved, but we still have a big problem with sin. And the Lord will chasten us for it.
Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
So, Christians can surely sin, and it does not go unnoticed by the Lord. He will chasten us and correct us. If you see a person who sins continually without being chastened, then that person is not truly saved, for God chastens his children whom he loves.
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No doubt. Christians can and do sin. Repent, no doubt. Stop sinning, no doubt. Obey, follow, love, and submit to Christ, no doubt. But where does the Bible specifically tell the believer, who is now IN Christ, our "
fellowship" is broken with God or His Son as a result of sin and must be restored through confession or repentance of that sin?
As you say, where does the Bible clearly say that?
1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1:8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Brother Winman, this letter was written to bunch of carnal, fleshly, sinful, believers. God is faithful even when we aren't. If you are called to the
fellowship of His dear Son, nothing you do or do not do ever breaks that fellowship. Again, there is a huge difference between the fellowship we have with God in CHRIST JESUS and the fellowship we have with one another.
Suppose God appeared to you in person right now. Would your fellowship with Him be based on confession of all known sins or on the bases of being in Christ? Which is it?