About Heaven and accountability?

Question

I've seen it stated here quite often that the reason Atheists (and any other nonChristians, actually) refuse to 'accept Jesus' is because they want to be able to sin and they don't want to be held accountable for their actions.

I'm finding it hard to follow that logic. Christians here have also stated repeatedly that with Jesus all sins are forgivable. In the end, actions don't matter, good works won't get you saved. In fact, as long as you repent, all sin is forgiven and you can spend eternity in Heaven. If that's true, then why would the Christians have ANY reason not to sin? Why would they feel that THEY are in any way held accountable for their actions? If Jesus will forgive all who repent, why wouldn't they just live a life of sin, repent at the last moment, and still go to Heaven?

It's as though the only reason not to believe in their God is to be able to live a sinful life. Yet they are the ones with (supposed) Carte Blance. Does that make any sense?

Answer 1

The first thing that someone should be considering is whether the idea of sin is actually real.

If God is supposed to be perfect how could She have made anything or anyone that wasn't perfect.
Think about it. The idea of sin assumes certain things about God that seem highly unlikely.

First it assumes a God who is too incompetent to organize a simple educational field excursion and figure out a way to get all of the students home safely.

How likely is this that God would not be smart enough to come up with a plan for our salvation that is going to work 100 percent of the time?

It also assumes that God must have created us imperfect if we are sinners.

One might assume that God would be able to create someone perfect each and every time if he chose to. Assuming God is capable of this, then it follows logically that we must be perfect creations if we are actually creations of this perfect God.

Unless of course you are saying that God chose to create us imperfect.

If God created us imperfect then anything that may go wrong is Gods fault, not ours. This seems a bit illogical at best so I think that we need to assume that What God creates would have to be perfect.

If this is the case and Gods creations are perfect, then nothing that we can do could change what God created perfect and make it imperfect unless we think that we are more powerful than God is.

How likely is it that we the creation could be more powerful than the creator. I personally find this idea somewhat amusing, and a bit absurd.

Religion tells us that God is perfect. If this is true then it could hardly be logically for Gods creations to be considered to be anything less than perfect.

If this is the case and we are perfect creations of a perfect God then Nothing that we can ever do could possibly change this perfection that God willed, unless we were so powerful that our choices could override and change the will of God.

How likely is that????

Think about it.

Love and blessings
don

Source --- Course in miracles

Answer 2

Jesus not only died so that we can get into heaven- He died to clothe us in His Righteouness. We are unable to live a sinless life without Jesus- NO Jesus did not die to forgive us so that we can do anything we please and get into heaven. that would make this free gift of grace - cheap grace, and it cost Jesus the perfect Son of God His life. We will be held accountable as believers as well. By the way none of us know when we are going to die, and if you wait it could be too late- what if tomorrow you were in a deadly car accident and dont have time- TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION. If you are a believer, we must live each day in honor of God, and that is not to sin. Yes, we are forgiven but this no excuse to sin- actually as a believer we are held even more accountable, because we have the life of Christ in us,

Answer 3

May the peace, blessings and mercy of God be upon you

We as Muslims, believe that ALL PEOPLE will be judged, by God, and he will examine all of their deeds that they ever did. And if the believed in God alone and repented for the sins they did sincerely, then God will forgive them and let them into Paradise.

However, simply being a Muslim doesn't gurantee you Paradise, if you are a Muslim but have many bad deeds then you to hell for a while to be punished for your sins and then you get to go to heaven.

We also however believer, those who disbelieved, or denied the Oneness of God (by attributing partners to him and such) God will punish them in the fire for eternity.

The problem with what you say ,"repent at the last moment" you never know when the Angel of Death comes for your soul, that is why you should always be doing good deeds and have Taqwa (God-Consciousness/Fear of God)

Peace Be With You

Answer 4

You might be surprized how many people actually do try the very thing you suggest. Because they think the whole God thing is all about going to Heaven or Hell, and that God's whole issue is about sin. That, unfortunately has been put on them by the distorted means of evangelism used by a large number of highly religious legalistic fundamentalists.

What it is really about is God's love for us and our opportunity to be restored into relationship with Him. You see, just like it was not possible for me to somehow earn my way into God's grace by righteous living, doing good or managing to never sin, it is not possible for me to keep that salvation by any of those same means. It was His act of grace, freely given and received by faith; and that is exactly the way it is held on to.

So, while it is true that as his child I actually can neither sin enough to lose my salvation, nor be holy and pure enough to guarantee I keep it, the motivation for life as a Christian in striving not "to live a life of sin" as you suggest, is not rooted in some kind of fearful accountability that He will drop kick me out of His Kingdom if I sin (which I would surely deserve), but rather the awesome awareness and overwhelming gratefulness that He will not. He loves me and it is that simple.

The kicker about your "Carte Blance" thinking, is that the real evidence that one has, in fact, by faith (in the gift of His Son Jesus who paid sin's price) received God's grace, will show itself in the life they live in response to His love. And that my friend becomes a heart issue which cannot be measured by external evaluations of the sin or no sin activity of that person's life.

While I do agree that wanting to live a sinful life is a strong motivation for most who refuse to embrace God, after all, sin is a whole lot of fun usually; I don't believe it is the only reason, and, in fact, I am persuaded that the greater reason is because they have not yet become aware of just how passionately and deeply in love with them God is.

Answer 5

You cannot sin with no consequences. You cannot make a death bed conversion and expect to get into heaven. God will judge us righteously, and if you are not good, are not truly repentant, do not do the good things in life, correct your mistakes, then you are going to be very disappointed in judgment. If you live a sinful life, you can be sure that you will go to hell.

Answer 6

First off, no one "chooses" to be saved or "chooses" God, God chooses us. God elects some from humanity for salvation, not because of anything we have done or who we are, but out of grace, mercy and love.
Second, Jesus died for the sins of His people, the Church, not for everyone. I know this is counter to what is taught, but it is biblical and makes sense.
Consider the following argument:

1. Standard Christian theology says that Jesus died for someone else's sins. He was personally innocent, so He died a substitutionary (or, "vicarious") death. The question raised by that event is: For whom did He die?
The 17th Century Puritan, John Owen, wrestled with this very question. According to Owen's reasoning, the answer to that question is that Christ either died for:
(1) all the sins of all men;
(2) all the sins of some men; or
(3) some of the sins of all men.
Again, historic Christianity states that God poured out wrath, due to sinful men and women, on His son. So, Owen concluded that if number 1 were true (Christ died for all the sins of all men), then we have to explain how it is that all men are not free from the punishment due their sin. It's a form of "double jeopardy." Christ died for every man's sin, yet some of those men have to pay yet another, eternal debt for that same sin.
If number 2 is true (Christ died for all the sins of some men), then Christ is the sufficient substitute for all the sins of the elect and there is no injustice involved in judging those who have not been so redeemed.
If number 3 is true (Christ died for some of the sins of all men) then all men have some sins to answer for. Consequently, no one is truly "saved" by Christ's work at Calvary. If anyone were to end up in Heaven, it would be the result of their meritorious effort, essentially finishing what Christ only partially did. Meanwhile, those who are judged are condemned on the basis of those sins for which Christ did not pay.
Now, most modern evangelical churches will say that number one is true: Christ died for all the sins of all men. That being the case, the dividing line between the saved and the unsaved becomes "belief." If one believes on Christ and accepts the gift of salvation offered to them, they will be saved. But, if they choose to reject the offer, they will perish due to their unbelief.
But, that answer is internally inconsistent and creates a terrible theological conundrum. To wit: If Christ paid the sin price for all the sins of all men, then His sacrifice would have to equally cover the sin of unbelief. After all, even the person who eventually believes and is saved had a period of time in his life when he did not believe, which unbelief would be remitted in Christ's atonement. So then, how does this work? Did Jesus die for every sin except unbelief? Well then we're back to the choices above and we must conclude that number 3 is correct: Jesus died for SOME of the sins of all men, but unbelief is the exception.
When I started thinking logically about these matters and considering the consequences of the positions I once held, it became inescapable that the only statement number 2 could be true: Christ died for all the sins of some men. Even if you argue that only those who believe are saved (which I completely agree with), then only the believer has all his sins remitted; while the unbeliever is still responsible for his sin of unbelief. Hence, only some men had ALL their sin expunged, including their unbelief.

The believer chooses not to sin, not to be saved, but because he is saved and has a new nature. If a believer sins, he knows that his sins, past, present and future have been forgiven completely by the work of Christ. If someone calls themselves a believer and lives a sinful lifestyle, it is questionable whether they are in fact, saved.

Answer 7

If we continue to sin on purpose, God will wonder if we took him seriously about becoming Christians in the first place.

Answer 8

the key word is repent.... to repent is to turn from that sin, permanently.. not just once then you are ok. and God knows our heart... he knows if we are 'truly repentant' ... you cannot just 'say the words' and magically be forgiven... it all comes down to the matter of the heart and sincerity.

Answer 9

Repentance is a process, and what's vital for people to realize it's that it's often a very hard and painful process. It's not just that easy as saying "I'm sorry."

Answer 10

Why is it that you believe that you are accountable to Christians? You shouldn't be, but if you're not, why are you here trying to persuade Christians that they are wrong about you? Christians, if they believe properly, believe that we are EACH accountable to God. Whether we make a good impression on people or not is irrelevant when it comes to pleasing God.