Monday, February 22, 2016

I Am Not a Sinner Saved By Grace

I Am Not a Sinner Saved By Grace

sinner-saved-by-grace
I Am Not a Sinner Saved By Grace
by Terry Hayes
This blog is inspired by comment on a thread made in a facebook group that I am involved in. I want to make a few facts known at the beginning here. Some people I talk with in some groups I am in do not believe that I understand Christianity; they make comments in this direction because they do not know my past. I want to establish up front a few points so to let those who would question me know a little about my past.
I live in the very religious Christian southeast USA. In our county alone there are well over 1000 churches, we have several denomination headquarters here, one is a large Pentecostal denomination in which I was a minister and assoc. pastor for some time. I live out in the county on 7 wooded acres and in a 5 mile radius of where I live are at least 20 churches; Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, Church of God, Church of God of Prophecy, and non-denominational.
Now to the blog
Within Christianity there is a saying that I have heard hundreds of times and have used and preached it in my past; “I am a sinner saved by grace”. This is a very dangerous saying; it is a brainwashing poison of the religion. Even the 12 step program of AA – Alcoholics Anonymous reflects this saying and Christian teaching. It is known that in the meetings John or Jane Doe gets up and states, “Hello, I am John or Jane Doe, I am an Alcoholic”.
When a Christian or anyone that attends these 12 step programs make this kind of statement they publicly acknowledge that they are the sin they commit. They give their sin embodiment.
Here is where the observant Bnei Noach (Noahides) and observant Jews differ. The observant Bnei Noach and Observant Jews according to the Tanach (Hebrew Scriptures) are declared righteous whereas the Christian is a self-proclaimed sinner.
From this point on I am only addressing the non-Jewish people of the nations.
G-d’s creation is based and supported on law, without law the creation would crumble. For the non-Jewish nations there are six categorical laws in which men are to live by. I will not get into the details of these laws. One can learn more about them at, asknoah.org. So I will simply post what they are.
1. Belief in One G-d
2. Do not curse G-d
3. Do not commit theft
4. Do not commit murder
5. Do not commit immoral sexual acts
6. Do not eat meat torn from a living animal.
These are the foundational laws given to all of mankind. These are eternal and rock solid and cannot be moved or changed. They are like concrete and steel. Just like a person going up to a hundred story skyscraper and tries to push against it, it will not move so are these laws; no matter how hard man tries to push against them they will not move.
The nature of raw law is judgment, you break it and it breaks you. But G-d balanced His law with mercy.
The Christian states he is a sinner saved by grace. The Christian makes the declaration that he/she is a sinner and as in the 12 step programs they created, they even go as far as to declare that they are the sin they commit by declaring, “I John/Jane Doe am an Alcoholic” or what other sin they are trapped in.
The observant Bnei Noach is called by the Tanach, righteous; they are not called a sinner. Here is the difference and it comes from knowing what sin, mercy and being righteous means from the Hebrew Scriptures.
The English word sin comes from an archery term in the Hebrew which means to miss the target. The archer fired his arrow and missed. That is the true biblical picture of sin. The Christian lays down his bow and arrow and walks away with and announces, well I am a sinner saved by grace, claiming their guy came along and fired the arrow for them when they could not and hit the target for them – here is the problem, I can hit the target all day but it will not benefit you at all. It was my bow and arrow and not yours. You get no benefit in my ability to hit the target. You have to hit it yourself to get the benefit – but instead you walk away and say, “I john/Jane Doe am a sinner, I am an alcoholic, I am an adulterer, I am a murder, I am an idolater.
The observant Bnei Noach lives by the saying of the Tanach not by the brainwashed poison of a man made religion.
Proverbs 24:16 “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”
The key to being righteous is not in the fall but the rising. The righteous does not relate themselves with their fall – they relate and declare who they are by their rise from the fall.
As G-d gave the Law He gave mercy as well,
Lamentations 3:22-23 “G-d’s kindness surely has not ended, nor His mercies exhausted. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
So now through the word picture of the archer I will show you the difference of how the righteous observant Bnei Noach lives by.
The archer approaches the law of G-d, he/she at times have no problem hitting the target but then there are times when the arrow is fired and it misses the target, sometimes it is an over shoot and misses horribly. Here is where the mercy of G-d is a twofold event for the righteous. The righteous rises after the fall by taking another arrow from their quiver to make another attempt at hitting the target; the first step in G-d’s mercy is allowing the archer to have another chance to correct his/her aim and take another shot when the law demanded judgment. The second step in G-d’s mercy for the righteous is that not only does He allow another chance to shoot again (this is the process of teshuva/repentance), He does not let the archer’s quiver become empty of arrows. When the archer admits his/her failure to shoot straight and request another opportunity to correct their aim, G-d’s mercy grants the request and also makes sure the archer does not run out of arrows.
This is the word picture of a person being the righteous that fall seven times but rises again to make a correction in their aim. This is the difference between the observant Bnei Noach and the Christian.
We the Bnei Noach are not sinners saved by grace, we are not defined by our fall but we are righteous and are defined by G-d by our rise from the fall. He makes sure we have plenty of opportunity to correct our aim and also makes sure we have plenty of arrows in our quiver to achieve our goal.
If you want to become one of the righteous that continues to rise after the fall then you must stop defining yourself as a sinner and also labeling yourself by the sin you committed. Declaring that you are a sinner saved by grace is a copout from the work it takes to correct your aim.
Stop being a self-proclaimed sinner (a sinner is one who lives a lifestyle of sin) and join the righteous who use their fall to push themselves up to a higher level than where they were at before their fall. The righteous is not defined by their fall but by their rising up.
Terry Hayes

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