Quote:
Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
Show me a place Paul then says that we are to call ourselves sinners --> Dare I say, you won't find it! (unless I've missed it, which of course may be possible, but I doubt it)
In God's eyes it's a done deal folks!
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Either you are fundamentally misreading humanity's position in the Bible, or I am. When Peter met Jesus, he fell down and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." I see nothing in his subsequent speaking, writing, or acts that nullified this.
Jesus refused the title of "good teacher", saying none is good but God. This was Jesus, who knew no sin, yet as a fellow human became sin on our behalf (yes, a sinner) that we might be freed.
We're called to be holy, as God is, but who can say that they have laid hold? If Paul said no, who can? (Phil 3:12) I say for the umpteenth time, we must wait for the Judgment Seat.
The psalmist asked God to save him from presumptuous sin (Psa 19:13). If Jesus took the place of "not good", per Luke 18:18,19, then how can we? If you insist on seeing the term "sinner" as different from "not good" then you're probably chasing down the same kind of rabbit trails of logic and reasoning that produced Nee, Lee, and so many others. Ground of oneness, anyone? Nee and Lee were masters of presumption, or I should say, they were mastered by it.
STG, you may be a better person than I, since I resonate with Paul's acknowledgment as "chief among sinners". But we've seen so many take a special interpretive stance, a personal revelation or insight, which then leads them and their followers off somewhere else. So please forgive us if your interpretation gets a doubting eye on this forum.
On the cross Jesus experienced the torment of the sinner, cut off from the Father. I fix my eyes upon him, suffering there, knowing that it is by this one righteous act that I'm made free. I dare not look at myself.