I have to say that what you are saying here is a fairly good approach for a Christian to have and faithful to the overall Gospel message, to the depth that I have been allowed to understand it so far. And if God is outside of time, Jesus can indeed wash away all the sins of those God knows are being saved.
So glad you agree.
If I deemphasize the importance of confessing sins, I could lead someone away from belief and grace and thus away from eternal life. This is something that I used to believe, and I see now that I fell briefly into error, and I remembering how much the Gospels and Epistles speak about confessing sins and warning others.
Exactly; there are many denominations that do not preach right about repenting of sins, and I believe those people never really give up any sins, and never really have a profound relationship with God. Or, they are ensnared to preach falseness as to hinder those who want to be saved.
I am grateful to everyone on this forum, though. At least recently, nobody has aggressively pushed me to ask myself what it means to be saved by Jesus' Blood, by grace, by faith, by believing. Subconciously I have always believed that that is what saves people....I felt saddened by non-Christians proclaiming that humans can save themselves. But now I am reminded that I must myself consciously and forever reject the idea that I am ever saving myself by things I do...and that in a real sense it is not me doing those things. It is grace. And I am only an unprofitable servant (Luke 17: 10).
Here is where some error seems to seep into your beliefs. Jesus tells us plainly to obey to remain in his love. So then, why say what you did since you know that?
John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey my commandments.
John 15:10
If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
"If you love me, you will obey my commandments.Actually, in principal, I know of no existing major Christian tradition that believes that people save themselves by works. But I understand the need to suppress that perversion of the Gospel that can creep in and deny eternal life to many. I must, however, choose the Word of God over all else. Over strategies to fight false teachings, over the approval of people, even those who God counts among the saved.
It is a strange thing that I have noticed with the 'faith alone' believers...they seem to be in turmoil about saying Jesus wants us to obey him and that we have to obey for salvation. It is never ever wrong to obey God, and our obedience definitely has to do with our salvation.
The Holy Spirit does not obey for us. It is us that has to do whatever we can to obey, and Jesus helps us when we call on him to help, when we call on him with a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use,
and prepared unto every good work.
22Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
God works in us by loving us. We want to please Him because of His love that is in us.
If some people are saved immediately upon professing an initial belief as they understand it, that is beautiful. And if the workings of faith and belief take place over a much longer time for other people, a time of confession and an outpouring of grace, that too is beautiful.
Jesus says we have to repent of our sins to get saved. Some people might get saved immediately because they repented of their sins immediately.
As for me, it took a long time for me to get saved because I was taught so many false doctrines and never was taught that repenting of sins means to stop doing them.
If some can point to a specific moment when they are saved, that is beautiful. If others don't see a single moment but could point to many moments of conversion, that is beautiful.
I don't understand about many moments of conversion. We are supposed to live through Jesus, not just sometimes.
If some don't know if they are forever saved but follow Jesus humbly...that could be seen as God's plan for many. I'm not in charge...it's as God wills it.
God tells us in the Bible what His will is, and nowhere does He say people shouldn't know if they are saved.
I have had a number of moments in my life where I read the Bible or heard some testimony and felt myself burning with a desire for God. Recently, when I lost a dearly beloved one, I also turned to God, in a different way. Were any of these the moment of salvation? I know that God knows that answer.
Well, I believe that salvation is a knowing you are saved. What kind of salvation is it if you don't know? That would be torture for me. If someone goes through times of wondering if they are no longer saved, then they just have to repent and keep looking forward and forgetting what is behind.