James Kraft Supporter 74 year old retired pipeline worker

When we believe the gospel, First Corinthians 15:3-4 God forgives us all trespasses. Romans 4:6-8 He imputes His righteousness to us, and will no more impute sin to our account. He gives us eternal life.

But, the wrath of God comes on the Sons of disobedience. God does chasten His children. John 1:12. He will not condemn us, but He may take our life early, and the rewards we could have had are burned up, but we shall be saved so as by fire.

First Corinthians 5:5 Turn such a one over to Satan to kill the flesh so that his Spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord. This born again believer was sleeping with his father's wife. 

He was about to lose his life, and the rewards he could have had in heaven for eternity, but he was still saved. So as by fire. Only his rewards were burned up, but not the believer. Talk about the grace of God. 

Gods grace is greater than all our sin. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into judgement, but is passed from death unto life. 

But we still reap what we sow. We will go to the judgment seat of Christ for what we have done in the body as a believer for rewards or lack of rewards in heaven.

We will not go to the great white thrown judgment of unbelievers. They are cast into the lake of fire forever. Because they did not believe on the name of the Son of God as the only way of salvation by grace.

John 3:18 All believers can never be condemned again, but unbelievers are condemned already because they have not believed on the name of the Son of God.

So, we are given eternal life as a free gift, but how we live after that determines our rewards in heaven, and the chastening of the Lord.

March 12 2019 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say, first, that God's righteousness, or holiness, is utterly complete and total, to the point where anything with even the slightest corruption or imperfection cannot abide in His presence.

The converse of that therefore must be that God by nature is also completely and unalterably opposed to evil, to a degree where that opposition takes the form of an irresistible and consuming wrath or anger against it, especially with respect to the attempts of evil to thwart or destroy His plans and purposes (Romans 1:18). 

It is only and purely by His grace (undeserved love or favor) and mercy that He made possible a means for beings who had assumed a sin nature to once again abide in His presence through Christ's incarnation, sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection.

For me, a full appreciation of the above makes me both marvel at, and shrink in horror from, what Jesus must have been experiencing on the cross when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" as God poured out on Him the wrath and punishment that all humanity justly deserved for its cumulative sins from eternity past to eternity future.

March 12 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Philip Davies Supporter

The righteousness of God is an ideal that sets the standard of what is right and holy and good. This is expressed most completely in his son Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example of righteous man and as such is the ideal that we look to follow and emulate.

But all ideals are also judges, because we are judged against their standards and whether we meet the ideal. When we don't meet the ideal then we judge ourselves and are in turn judged by God. That is why Jesus is both saviour and judge and why the gospels and the Book of Revelation go together.
Regards
Phil

March 13 2019 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report