| Vertigo-X said:
Maybe I am misunderstanding the logic with that, but is it right that a leader of a powerful nation can start committing genocide and still get into heaven so long as he feels bad about it? That he can start the genocide feeling bad and end it feeling bad, yet still gets to go to heaven? |
This is a great great question... When the criminal on the cross realized who Christ was and the sin he was guilty of, its his FAITH that got him to paradise. He realized that the person he had in front of him was God, and that he was the savior. In essence, to realize his depravity and the endless power of Christ, as well as his desire to change his attitude (unlike the other criminal), and of course the actual sacrifice of Christ (above and beyond the penitent man's choice) are the recipes for that person's deliverance form the bonds of sin and entry into the kingdom of heaven.
The greater the sin, the greater the need for redemption, the harder to forgive yourself and let Christ bear your sin.
It's probably as difficult for a self-righteous man to enter the kingdom of heaven, as he is not aware of his depravity.
Now that that's cleared up, ultimately salvation is a creative process. In essence it's meant to make a new creation in the believer, something that DID NOT EXIST before. As such, that new creation is meant to be the new life the believer nourishes from that point forward. Therefore, no matter the sin of the old man, the new creation is able to live according to the will of God since it is birthed from the blood and the spirit of God.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sina for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In the end, someone paid for the sins of the old man. In every case, it's Christ that pays. Christ paid for ALL sins already, no matter the choices of men. The only difference is that those who believe will be in paradise, and those who don't will go to the grave. As such, Jesus absorbed the punishment and the shame for ALL sins committed by all men for all time, and as such no sin is to be judged against a person, since Jesus was already punished for all sins past, present and future.
