Ok, so Randy Alcorn says that Heaven is going to be incarnate on Earth the same way that God became incarnate through His Son. Think about that. Right now, Heaven is a very real but spiritual place. But something separates Heaven from Earth.
Sin.
After the Re-Creation, Heaven and Earth will be compatible again, as they were originally intended. This is God’s plan from the beginning.
Fascinating…
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What I’m struggling with right now is the idea that we need to ask forgiveness for our sins. We all have a sinful nature. We were born that way. Why do I have to apologize for my very nature? It’s not my fault that I was born that way. All I can do is try to do what’s right in my heart. But I will fail because of my nature. Because of the way I was made. Why would I apologize to my maker for making me the way I am. You can say He didn’t make me that way but technically, yes, He did.
I struggle with this on a daily basis, to be quite honest with you. That is a very real question. I’m not sure if I can answer your question to your satisfaction, and if I don’t, please continue to talk to me about this. Maybe we can figure it out together.
In explaining why we have to ask for forgiveness, I would like to go to an explanation of who God is. He is love, justice, mercy, yes. But ultimately, He is Holy. This holiness means that He is pure through and through. In order for us to approach His throne, we have to be worthy to do so. He requires of us the same standard that he held our first parents to. He require us to be holy and righteous. The problem is, that my sin nature is passed from my parents to me. I am born in their image, with their traits and innate personality quirks. I also inherited their sin nature. It’s a spiritual thing, I think. Very real and yet invisible.
So, if I understand who God is, and I understand who I am, then I have an idea that there is a gap that exists between us.
Does that make sense?
Let me throw another aspect onto the table of this conversation. It is true that we inherit sin from our fathers and then from their fathers going back down the line, but seeking forgiveness has more to do with reestablishing a broken relationship than anything else.
Indeed, God has made us with the effects of sin in our persons, but we are still responsible for our sinful actions and thus that sin has broken the relationship. So, in our coming to God for forgiveness, we are accepting responsibility for our actions in a way that is humble.
To imply that God made you the way you are and thus should not need to sin is to really deny human responsibility for our actions.
To use a human analogy, imagine sin as a debt that is owed. Let’s say that Mom and Dad die and are upside down in their mortgage, owing more than their net worth. Whether you think it is fair or not, you will still inherit your parent’s debt because they are family.
Now, let us say that the debt was so large that it drove you bankrupt. Yet, when you go to court to declare bankruptcy, you still need to be given permission by the judge to have the debt forgiven. In our court system, that can happen pretty readily, but it will cost you most of your personal property.
Now imagine that the debt you inherited was not the only debt you had, but you had your own as well. When you went before the judge, one kind of debt would not be separated from the other–it would all be debt that needed to be forgiven.
Now, in an eternal sense, you have inherited a debt of sin from Adam and your parents that is so great that it has driven you to bankruptcy (spiritual). On our own, we are worthless. We go before the judge confessing our debt and he offers forgiveness, exchanging your debt for his Son’s wealth.
Now, you might choose to wait on this matter and not ask the judge to forgive, hoping to pay off the debt on your own–which is doable, it just takes eternity in the fires of hell–I prefer bankruptcy.
Bottom line, though, is that God did not make you an automaton, but he gave you a will to choose one thing over another, which makes you responsible for your actions even if you could do nothing else but exactly what you did. If there is will there is responsibility and if there is responsibility there is a need to ask for forgiveness.
Blessings,
Win