By Yu’en, South Korea
I trust every devout Christian is confused about the following: We pray to the Lord, and confess sins and repent every day, but why are we never able to escape the bondage of sin? As we all know, the Lord is holy, so are we, who often sin and resist Him, qualified to enter God’s kingdom? How can we shake off the shackles of sin? I always used to be perplexed by this too, but through seeking, I finally found the way to escape sin.
The Painful Life of Sinning and Confessing
“Lord, You are holy, yet I frequently involuntarily deceive and sin and offend You. Lord, I’m unwilling to live like this. Please lead me to rid myself of impurity and practice Your words. …” I often prayed to the Lord this way, but I always failed to do what I prayed, and continued to live in sin and was unable to follow the Lord’s teachings. For example, I knew perfectly well that the Lord requires us to be honest people, but to protect my self-respect and avoid being looked down upon by others, I often used the knowledge of the scriptures that I had written in the past to bluff my way through in the weekly Bible training class. Not only that, I always had a bad temper. At home, when my children didn’t do as I wanted them to, I would become furious at them; at work, when the younger generation spoke to me in an impatient tone, I couldn’t help but get angry and give them looks. … I knew that in my interactions with others, I should be tolerant and patient, and love them as myself, but I couldn’t do it at all and no matter how I prayed, repented and confessed to the Lord, I was still powerless to escape the bonds of sin. For this, I felt much pain. God says: “Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). And the Bible says: “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26). I was so filthy and corrupt, and often committed sins, unable to implement the Lord’s words — would I be able to enter the heavenly kingdom in the future?
I sought answers to my confusion with the pastor, but he often comforted me by saying: “The Bible says: ‘That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Romans 10:9–10). So we need not be pessimistic and disappointed because of our habitual sin. The Lord won’t forsake us, and we have to have faith in Him. The Lord no longer sees us as sinful because our sins were long forgiven, and we are justified by faith. When He comes, we are qualified to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven.” Also, I often privately discussed this issue with my brothers and sisters, and they too believed that though we often sinned, we were deemed righteous thanks to the Lord’s redemption and that when the Lord returned He would surely bring us into the heavenly kingdom. Seeing how everybody thought this way, I was able to gradually let go of the concerns I’d had. However, I felt really uneasy in my heart, trapped in a state of sinning and confessing, but since I couldn’t find a solution, all I could do was constantly pray to the Lord, longing for Him to come quickly and lead me out of this predicament.
Happy to Hear the Good News of the Lord’s Return
One day, I visited a friend’s house, and there met Missionary Zhang. As we chatted, I unexpectedly heard from her the news of the Lord’s return. She said: “We’re now in the last stage of the last days. Disasters are frequently occurring around the world, and the prophecies of the Lord’s second coming in the last days have basically been fulfilled. We are all desperately yearning for the Lord Jesus’ return. In fact, the Lord Jesus has already returned in the flesh; He is Christ of the last days, Almighty God. He has expressed millions of words, started the Age of Kingdom and performed His work of judging, chastising and cleansing man. Only by accepting God’s work of judgment in the last days can our corrupt dispositions be purified; only then will we be qualified to be raised into the kingdom of heaven. …” Hearing that the Lord had returned, I felt pleased and surprised that now, in my lifetime, the Lord’s return had come. But I felt conflicted when I thought of how she had said that accepting God’s work of judgment in the last days was the only way for us to enter the heavenly kingdom. The pastors and elders always said that we had been absolved of our sins and been justified by faith, and that the Lord would directly bring us into the kingdom of heaven when He came. How could she say that?
Can Those Who Are Justified by Faith Get Into Heaven?
I therefore said to Sister Zhang: “The Lord was crucified to redeem mankind and has already taken on all of our sins. And the Bible says: ‘For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Romans 10:10). Our sins have been absolved and we have been made righteous through our faith. When the Lord returns, He will lift us up directly into the kingdom of heaven. How can you say that only if we accept God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days can we enter the heavenly kingdom? Isn’t this denying the Lord’s redemptive work?” After I finished, I turned sideways to drink tea, not feeling like talking.
Seeing that I was unhappy, Sister Zhang said amiably to me: “Sister, it’s true that the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion has forgiven man’s sins. But you think that as long as we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths, we are called righteous and will be brought into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes — is this way of thinking correct and does it have any basis in the Lord’s words? The Lord said: ‘Be you holy; for I am holy’ (1 Peter 1:16). This verse states very clearly that God is holy, and those who are not holy cannot see Him. We, however, are constantly sinning and resisting God and haven’t achieved purification. How could we be qualified to see God’s face and enter God’s kingdom? Just as the Lord Jesus said: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the son stays ever’ (John 8:34–35). From this, we can see the belief that those who are justified by faith and absolved of their sins can enter the kingdom of heaven is just a product of the imaginings from our heads and not in line with the Lord’s words. In our belief in the Lord, all things should be in accordance with the Lord’s words. Sayings that go against His words are man’s notions and fallacies, and if we continue to cling to them, we will easily ruin our chance to get into heaven.”
Sister Zhang’s fellowship was well-founded and my heart felt greatly stirred. It turned out that the argument that having our sins forgiven and being called righteous by faith meant that we could enter into the heavenly kingdom was wrong, and this was all just our wishful thinking and did not tally with the Lord’s will at all. The Lord’s words made it so clear, but how come I hadn’t pondered them in this way? In the past, I had listened only to the pastors but ignored the Lord’s words — I was so foolish!
Then the sister turned on her computer and said, smiling: “Sister, with regard to why we can’t get into heaven simply by having our sins forgiven, let’s read several passages of Almighty God’s words and it will all become clearer.” I nodded.
To be continue…
Source from: Find the shepherd.
The Bible prophesies that the Lord will come as the Son of man and come with clouds. So how will these prophecies be fulfilled?Read How Will Jesus Return page find the way.
