I love Jesus, then why do I sin?
8 03 2007Non-Christian, learn what is false:
1. Christians think they’re better than everyone because they believe in Jesus
2. Christians believe in the Bible cos it’s convenient to
3. God is the same in every religion, just expressed differently
4. Jesus didn’t tell his followers to be fundamentalists
5. Believing in Jesus doesnt make you a better person, good deeds/karma does
I assert the falsehood of all those points. Objections & arguments welcome, by comment or by email (RED.wpblog@gmail.com) abusive comments not welcome because I’m not speaking against anyone I’m just saying what Christianity does NOT believe (but people seem to believe it believes).
Non-Christian, learn what is true:
1. Christians believe every human being is a sinner, and if Christians were not sinners fully aware of their sin, they would not be Christian. Believing in Jesus means being so fully aware of our sins that we fully realise the need for a Saviour, and are “crucified with him” so that we can seek his righteousness. So Christians are not better than everyone else, but God alone is perfect. Jesus is the only perfect man to have lived on earth.
2. Christians believe in the Bible because it opens our eyes to the truth that God is more beautiful and desirable than ANYTHING the world can offer.
3. God is One and different religions contradict each other about God. You can’t have one God who is the same in every religion. ACCEPT THAT.
4. Jesus told his followers to love God with everything they have, and to hold fast to him like nothing else. That sounds fundamentalistic to me and its perfectly beautiful because God is the Most High, the point where all perfection and goodness meets at its highest, there is no goal higher than God and if Christians are true fundamentalists, that is GOOD for everybody.
5. Everybody is a sinner. Believing in Jesus doesnt make you instantly stop being a sinner. It makes you hate sin. When you KNOW that God is true, and that God hates your sin, you want it to go away. But our flesh likes worldly lusts more than it likes God because it doesn’t understand God. Temptations come and deceive. The HOLY SPIRIT makes us not sin. So believing in Jesus makes us want to desire him above our fleshly lusts. We receive the Holy Spirit so that our hearts are opened and we see for ourselves that Jesus is truly more beautiful than sin. So there are two steps to it. First, believe in Jesus- know that you don’t want to sin- then receive the Holy Spirit which testifies about Jesus, and shows our hearts that Jesus IS more desirable, and the Holy Spirit frees us from our desire to sin. So believing in Jesus LEADS TO receiving the Holy Spirit which LEADS TO freedom from sin. Without the Holy Spirit, we are the same as before, our eyes see the same and our hearts feel the same, and what we desired before, we will not miraculously stop desiring now. The SPIRIT gives wisdom and understanding, without the Spirit I am dead in my sins.
I hate myself when I sin. Loving Jesus means honouring his word. I can’t honour his word if I’m not led by the Spirit. I desire the Holy Spirit to fill me completely so I can be free from sin. Sin is horrible.
I know most religions apart from Christianity teach about salvation based on good works. I am curious to know how do these good works come? What’s the standard by which one calls him or herself good? What can cause a loathing for sin if not the Holy Spirit of God alone?
Very well put. I prayed that people will read the whole post and that they holy spirit works on their hearts as they do.
Paul
I liked this post! Here are my comments:
1. I’m a Christian and I certainly do not think I am better than everyone else. I am also a sinner.
2. I find believing the Bible to be a very *inconvenient* much of the time. Sometimes people think they know what the Bible says, but they don’t really.
3. God is the same in every religion… this one is difficult because I believe there is only one God and no one really understands Him very well. I don’t think it is about religion. It is about a relationship. And the only way to really have an intimate relationship with the one God is through Jesus Christ. This is because God loved us so much that He sent his Son so that whoever believed in Him would … get a chocolate!
4. Jesus told his disciples to drop everything and follow His teachings. Jesus had a high respect for the Word of God - God’s covenant with men and women.
5. The demons believed in Jesus, but that didn’t make them better demons - but I do like your answer!
Well put Mark!!!
I love this post.. Because you’ve said everything that people struggle with saying for most of their ‘Christian’ life. Its great that the Bible is so simple.. i think we make it impossible to understand.
Loads of love,
Enit
p.s- Are your exams over yet? i’ve Got one more to go.
[...] something better to think about. I found 2 great posts on my morning walk thru the blogs- Beni and Red both have something important to say. These posts have really given me something to think about [...]
1. Simple human psychology… the stupids are usually the people who do not share ur point of view.
2.
3. no, none of the religions answer who created god in the first place.
4. Except Buddhism I see fundamentalism everywhere. Hindu christians muslims… why?
5. exactly that is what I am trying to crusade for decades now…
PS: salvation from good work came as a philosophy only in the later religions… in the older religion even god commits mistake and has a cruel side.
Paul, thanks very much for your prayers on behalf of everyone reading this post!
Mark, thanks for the valuable addition with your thoughts. I agree, the demons believe in Jesus and did not desire the Holy Spirit- therefore did not receive or become “better demons” (LOL! does that mean more demonic or less demonic?) but I guess it is different with people made in the image of God. For people there is always hope
Christine, thanks
for the comment and the trackback. I have one exam left too. I’m finished with exams on Saturday 
yay!
Pegasus, is your response to the first 5 points (which is my list of FALSE points) or the actual 5 which come later? I’d like to know so I can answer accordingly. Because I explained why fundamentalism in Christianity is a very good thing, and if you agree with 5 I’d love to know what works for you! Because 5 says karma can’t do anything.
-RED
its is ur first 5 points…
I am a Hindu not a christian and I am not a religious person… but I am caught in a serious communal war which is tearing my country apart.
Yep Pegasus I could guess from your thoughts that you are probably not Christian. Welcome to my blog and I hope you will feel at home here even though the thoughts I express are probably not matching to yours in many ways.
And, I’d like to know more about the communal war in your country - if you want to tell me about it. Where is it, who’s fighting it, and what role do the masses play? What is your role? I am very eager to hear a Hindu’s perspective.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting,
-RED
I liked your post and here is my thought:
With so little commitment on earth to the truth of God, it is hardly surprising there is so much misunderstanding and disagreement over the basic message that our Savior brought from the Father—the gospel.
“Just believe on the name of Jesus, and you’ll be saved” is a common message of professing Christian ministers and Sunday morning “gospel programs”. It is certainly true that belief in Jesus Christ is the major requirement of salvation—although more is required than just intellectual agreement. It is also true that God did indeed send His Son to pay the penalty of our sins, and, yes, God certainly does love us. But not one of these common sentiments is the true “good news” message that Jesus Christ brought! At best, these statements are each only a portion of the gospel message.
Nowhere does the Bible say that the gospel is entirely about Jesus Christ coming to die for our sins! The true gospel, as we will see, answers why He did so. More than that, it reveals the momentous purpose that God is accomplishing, and declares the reason reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb is necessary. We need to know what the true gospel really is!
Fundamentalism, as such, in its historic context, is not a bad thing. Historic fundamentalism, as distinguished from modern fundamentalism in the vein of Peter Ruckman and Jack Chick, was concerned with protecting sound biblical doctrine from creeping liberalism that was growing at the time.
Fundamentalism is an okay thing. After all, I have to agree with R.A. Torrey, a phenomenal historic fundamentalist, and say that there are somethings that you can’t deny and call yourself a Christian.
well there is different definitions for fundamentalism.
originally as hutch mentions it was the belief that a certain scripture for whatever religion was the literal word of god and perfecet etc. Other definitions include wanting/trying to take over the government to force everyone to obey the laws of a particular religion.
Some people might call fundamentism intolerance or violently fighting to defend/expand a religion
Buddhist fundamentalism? What about in Sri Lanka and Thailand for the last 2 definitions?
If Karma is the way to be a good person then who is keeping track of each good or bad deed? A god? and does that god have to itself do good works and if so who is keeping track of it? Or is it only good or bad deeds done in public where everyone can see?
Noone created god, everything else was created by him.
Paul
Believing in God definitely makes you a better person but my problem is, my God and your God thinking. God is one and he loves everybody, people have different ways of praying and all those ways are right as long as you dont hurt anybody.
Believing in any scripture with your eyes closed and logic locked up in a box is what I don’t agree with. Scriptures were written by humans and they cannot be perfect. The spirit of the writing is important and not the words.
Jesus was so loving and he served people, how can he teach fundamentalism? As far as I know he didn’t fight any war and didn’t convert anybody by force or allurement of worldly things.
Hindu mislim communal violence…
60 years ago it tore my country apart into 2 warring nations India and Pakistan.
a decade ago it led to demolishing of mosque
and each year hundreds of people die of these violence..
hence i have lost all faith in all religion…. i belive doing good karma is what it takes to be a good man
Thanks Lisa, Hutch, Paul, Mum and Pegasus-
To all who advocate “spirit” over “literal words” - I think to understand the “spirit” of the words, you need to know the words first. And with Christianity at least, fundamentalism means “sticking to the fundamentals” which is actually much safer and much more beautiful than twisting scripture to suit your convenience, which is called “non-fundie” and “progressive” but creates more strive and quarelling than fundamentalism. Btw, the most important thing Jesus did in his exposition of the law WAS to show the spirit of the law, and not the letter. So full marks to those who really want to understand the law according to its intention.
Pegasus- communal violence is not the fault of religion, it is the fault of sinful people. If you blame religious violence on the existence of religions, do you blame sexual violence on the existence of two sexes? When a woman gets raped will you say “I have lost all faith in the sexes” or try to sort out the issue reasonably? Sexual violence happens because people turn God’s blessing into a curse, likewise with religious violence.
Doing good karma is relative. For me, it may be good to eat meat but for you that may be a sin. For me it may be good to help a person in cheating in an exam, because they will fail if I dont help them, and their parents will abuse them if they fail. But for you, cheating may be bad karma.
Morality is fully relative unless you have a standard that applies to everybody. For Christians, that standard is Jesus Christ. And those who are not in Christ will not appreciate Him as the standard, so there is no “mutual goodness” which is absolute, between two religions, or between a religious man or an atheist, or even between two atheists.
-RED
u have some really nice ideas….
i would love to hear more from u.
the problem with hindusim is that the gatekeepers or priests are rotten to the core.
eg: http://shocking.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/puri-temple-in-cleansing-act/
their actions pisses me off so much that i am unable to make myslef go and visit a temple.
converting is also not an option primarily because i know i am not very religious…. and i hardly spend any time practicing it.
I like that concept of the spirit. It’s refreshing to know we have a chance at becoming a better person. To be given a chance is comforting.
I hope I’m not off track with this post.
Thanks Pegasus, I read your post about the when you had just posted it. I wanted to comment but wondered whether I’d be out of place commenting. But I’ll go over now and comment. Thanks
I don’t think conversion is a social issue, contrary to what most people believe. I think it’s a very personal issue which comes after you seek after God and find him, and no conversion is conversion unless something changes. If it’s a religious conversion, your religion must change- and religion in my view is not “the set of traditions your fathers gave you”. Also, conversions take place inside the heart of a person, not in a baptism pool or in the other ways prescribed by various religions.
Raiderboy, thanks for sharing your thoughts it’s a comforting idea for me also, to know I have a chance at getting closer to God and coming back to the way he wants me to be. You’re not off track with the post at all
-RED
I stumbled upon this blog and really enjoyed the discourse. If I could I would like to make a point. I believe that RED is spot on by suggesting that the spirit of THE WORD is in the choice of words used throughout the Bible. That one book can be filled with so many different meanings, appearently contradictory, to so many people inspires awe, perplexity and downright confusion. But, I believe this is because The Word is to be meditated upon and clarity comes through the active pursuit of a relationship with the Lord.
Fundamentalism in and of itself is nothing but lipservice to ones own claim to piety. Many who claim to be fundamentalists cherry-pick through the verse to conclude for themselves that they are indeed rightous in being judgemental, cruel, cold and off-putting to anyone who does not believe as they do.
Christianity and Islam are fractionalized within thier own respective communities by this very human desire to be “Right”. Am I the one to say who is and who is not? Of coarse not. However, I do think that the REAL message of the Bible is one of love and tolerance and compassion for the human condition and is getting pushed out by the arguments of whos God can kick whoms gods butt and fire and brimstone and terror etc…
Maybe our Hindu friend is correct in decrying that all religions are man-made for the explicit purpose of prestige, subjecation and control.
As a Christian I believe the Church to be the bride that Jesus will return for. I believe because it is written. However, what that means requires discernment.
Thank you RED for your most awesomeness, even if you dont post this