Scandalous Email Exposed: True Christians Don’t Sin; The Gospel is Not a Cover-up
People who truly love truth are rare. Truth-loving is the basis for all unity. The day I met Susan I perceived that she is a sincere truth-lover and therefore knew she was the one. Love of truth is the unity guarantee. A marriage between two truth-lovers will endure all things.
And, truth-lovers can be persuaded with facts.
Scandalous emails are trending, especially in politics. The following is a scandalous email between Andy Young and I about six years ago. It’s scandalous because it is an actual documentation of someone being persuaded. Among professing Christians, that’s rare because facts don’t matter—only celebrity spiritual authorities matter. To say that Protestants don’t have their own Ex cathedra is to live in utter denial.
This email is a lynchpin for discussing justification. It should be studied and discussed at length. About two years ago, Andy and I spent several hours trying to find this stream but couldn’t. Earlier today, in an answer to prayer several weeks ago, I stumbled onto it.
The conversation starts a little off target, but then plunges into the depths of the law’s relationship to justifcation.
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Paul's Passing Thoughts 
I remember this conversation like it was yesterday! That was such a eureka moment!!!
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Paul, I’m a recent newcomer to your blog from a TULIP Reformed, etc. church where I willingly gave up responsibility for my own beliefs because as a new Christian I thought it was where I needed to go to learn and grow. Sigh. I’ve made the first pass thru The Church Lie and your New Calvinism spiritual tyranny book and a bazillion of your blog posts. The above conversation is blowing my mind. A bit like standing in the door of a C130 and not being sure if I’m terrified of the jump or thrilled and amazed at the view. I will find a way to print it out so I can go through it as many times as needed. I’ve been living under the law and wondering why I was still such a sinner. Maybe God didn’t really irresistibly grace me and I’m just a false convert who’d actually prefer to be a true convert but can’t figure how to get in the elect line. And somebody stole my fruit of the spirit. All this to say I’ve got a lot of bible study and prayer ahead. Thanks for your ministry and tireless pursuit of the truth.
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Sarah, thanks for the encouragement. Key to all of this is a literal view of the new birth. In the Bible, words like “sin” and “salvation” must be considered in context. There is a sin that condemns, and a sin that fails to love. In a single perspective on sin, condemnation must always be present. That is church; sin is sin, and the so-called “believer” is still under condemnation. Hence, salvation is only a covering and we must do certain things to maintain the covering. In essence, we are white-washed tombs but it’s ok because Jesus is doing the white-washing. So, that makes Jesus guilty of covering sin with a righteous garment, which was ridiculed by Peter. Righteousness is not a cloak for unrighteousness. The new birth is not a legal loophole; it comes with a changed heart. The law and its condemnation must be ended because that’s what empowers sin. If we sin a sin that’s condemning, we are still enslaved to sin. But if we are not under condemnation, we are enslaved to righteousness. The born-again fail to love because of weakness, not because they are under condemnation and therefore enslaved to sin. Enslavement regards two different masters who only pay one wage; death or life. Sure, unbelievers can do good works, but unfortunately, that only decreases death wages. The born again sin, but that decreases their life wages; the born again do not receive any eternal death wages because they are not under condemnation. You can only receive life wages. However, through ignorance (functioning like justification is progressive and not according to your true identity), you can receive consequences of death. Failure to love leads to guilt which feels like condemnation and leads us to doubt our salvation. We make our calling and election sure by faith working through love. If we suffer from spiritual sloth, our heart may condemn us, but God is stronger than our heart and knows all things. That’s Paul, John, and Peter speaking. Remember, God calls both Jew and Gentile and the elect are those who answer the call. IF you accept the wedding invitation, you become elect. The elect are a group designation. God elected the means of salvation, not individuals. He elected individuals to partake in the salvation plan, but they we already saved first through faith. God chose the means, not individuals. I think it is Matthew 22 that makes this pretty clear, and the proper translation is “many called but few elect,” NOT “many called but few chosen.” Elect is a noun in that verse, not a verb. You are of the elect because you accepted the wedding invitation. The new birth changes our relationship to the law totally. When we were unsaved, we were indifferent to the law, now we love God’s law. It is no longer our condemner, but our guide for adding to the foundation of our faith and loving God and others. The problem with church orthodoxy follows: the law (Bible) is a tool for self-condemnation that drives us back to the cross. If we believe we are unable to do a good work, and in fact, thinking we can do a good work is offensive to God, obviously, we will become indifferent to the law and the logical conclusion is that we can really love no one because love cannot be separated from the “good works” category. Sin is a good thing because it magnifies the cross. This is the essence of antinomianism. Unfortunately, many who are born again, but in church, will be emotionally tortured by church orthodoxy. The goal is not to be more like your Father, but to glorify Christ by seeing how far away you are from your Father. Church orthodoxy is based on the so-called believer remaining under the condemnation of the law or what they call the “righteous demands of the law.” According to Romans 7, the old you that was under that law literally died with Christ. A dead person cannot be indicted. Christ died on the cross to establish the new birth. It is rather obvious that you are conflicted by church orthodoxy and what you know intuitively through the Spirit. And you are right; the ONLY hope for change and the glory of God being manifested will be a collective seeking by the laity. What we learn from your anointing along with other members of Christ’s body will lead us into truth and nothing else. This is the crux of 1John.
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Paul, Thank you for such a thoughtful and meaty reply. 1 John reads much differently with a different perspective on what “sin” means for a believer. I’m adding your reply to my notes for further study. The whole idea of a will with Christ as the testator(?), the law as guardian until Christ came……other things begin to make sense but I have a lot to learn. But with my anointing I have no need for anyone to teach me.
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Right, all sins of those saved in the OT were imputed to the law; OT believers were the “captives” to the law. The law was their “guardian” till Christ came. When the testator of the will died, he led the “captives” to heaven. Christ died to end the law to which all sin is imputed. In the OT believers were born again by the word of God just like the New Covenant, but the baptism of the Spirit baptizes Jew and Gentile into one body and makes the indwelling of the Spirit permanent. Hearing God’s word and believing it results in being born with an “incorruptible seed.” Of course, under the NC, new birth and the baptism of the Spirit are the same thing for all practical purposes.
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