A: A person's faith is "increased or strengthened" in direct proportion to their understanding of all they already have been given through faith in Christ. By recognizing that you have love, acceptance, meaning and purpose to life, in Christ, you can then begin to trust the Lord with every aspect of your life. After all, the Christian life is not defined by what we believe we are doing for God (performance of sacraments, traditions, rituals, etc). The Christian life is about what God has already done for you. Your faith is defined by how much you are trusting God to live the life, only He can live, in and through you, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. May God continue to reveal to you the blessings you already have been given in Him.
Q: So what I want to know is will god judge me and send me to hell?
A: God has already judged the world. The verdict was guilty. The penalty was death. Jesus took that penalty on your behalf. What you are to do is live a life of thankfulness for all God has done for you in Christ. The moment you accepted Christ as your savior you received eternal forgiveness for all your sins, past, present and future. More importantly, you received the very life of God as a deposit, guaranteeing your salvation. Since the sin issue has been resolved you are now free to approach God in your time of need to receive His mercy. You are not going to hell. Your salvation is not dependent on your ability to forgive others. To help you forgive others you need to realize all that God has forgiven you for. Love keeps no records of wrongs. God doesn't keep record of your wrongs. Therefore, in turn, we don't keep records of others wrongs against us. This doesn't mean that you forget what others have done to you or that you are okay with what they did to you. But, in order for you to be free from the bondage of them paying a debt they owe to you they cannot pay, you must release them of their debt. We owed God a debt we could not pay and, in turn, we extend that to those who have sinned against us. It is the only way we can have a relationship with others. We have a relationship with God because He no longer holds our sins against us.
Q: How do I forgive?
A: You forgive others by not expecting them to pay the debt they owe to you. By doing so both of you are freed from the bondage of the sin committed against you. It is no different than what Jesus did for us on the cross. He paid a debt He didn't owe for a people who owed a debt we couldn't pay. Now, we in turn share with others that which God has done for us. "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Ephesians 4:32)." By the way, nobody goes to hell by not forgiving someone else. Nor does God not forgive you if you don't forgive others. As a believer, you already have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. That does not change by how well you forgive those who sin against you.
Q: I love God and believe in Jesus Christ as my savior, however, I am very far away in my relationship at the moment. I have hidden sin in my life and it haunts me everyday and I don't know how to get out of this sin without hurting allot of people by revealing it. So I feel that I am so far that I can't get back. Even if I ask forgiveness I can't change the circumstances and so sin still exists. Can God forgive me and help me to get through the errors of my ways?
A: You are feeling the way you do about your salvation because you believe that your sin(s) are separating you from God. That is not true. Because of the death of Christ on the cross there is no sin that will ever separate you from God. Your behavior didn't get you saved and it doesn't cost you your salvation. Salvation is the restoration of the life of God made available through the resurrected life of Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to you a seal "guaranteeing" your salvation. Because of your faith in Christ you have been...
- Totally forgiven (Colossians 2:13)
- Totally Cleansed (1 Corinthians 6:11)
- Made holy and blameless (Colossians 1:22)
- Reconciled to God (Romans 5:10)
- Justified (Romans 3:23-24)
- Saved from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9)
- Made at peace with God (Romans 5:1)
- Freed from condemnation (Romans 8:1)
- Sanctified (Hebrews 10:10)
- Made perfect forever (Hebrews 10:14)
- Totally accepted (Romans 15:7)
Q: What is the Gospel message?
A: The prime focus of the Gospel is the restoration of the life of God to mankind. When God created Adam, He breathed His life into Him and Adam became a living being (Genesis 2:7). However, when Adam sinned, He lost the life of God and died spiritually (Genesis 2:17). Therefore, all mankind has been born into this world in the image of Adam, spiritually dead to God, without His life indwelling them (Genesis 5:3). God, in His love, desired to once again indwell mankind. However, before He could do that, He had to deal with the sin that caused that life to leave Adam. Jesus, being born spiritually alive, is the only man ever born who had a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins. Now, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God can now offer His life to mankind as a free gift to all who accept Christ by faith (Romans 6:23). And because of the eternal consequences of the cross, there is now no sin that will cause that life to leave (Hebrews 9:12). That is why it is called an eternal life. A life that will carry a believer through this life and carry them on into eternity. The Gospel is sin, death, forgiveness, life (Romans 5:8-10).
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