Moses was High
Out of context: Reply #258
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- gramme0
miko:
I have being trying to speak in the plainest English I know, but I will try harder since you seem to be genuinely unfamiliar with some certain terms in Christian theology/philosophy.
Taking full responsibility for my actions means that I fully understand the wrong I have committed. It means I understand how it affects me and others. When I truly come to terms with my mistakes, I realize that I cannot scrub out the stain, I cannot bury my mistakes under a pile of good deeds. When something is rotten, all the perfume in the world cannot cover it. When you go to the gym and your armpits stink, you don't just put on more deodorant, do you? You take a shower, you get clean. I know the metaphor sucks and breaks down at this point, because when it comes to the mistakes we make every day, we cannot make ourselves clean. This is because we get up and do it all over the next day. We keep fucking up. It's inevitable.
When I take responsibility for my actions, I realize how hurtful they are not just to other people, but to God. This is because God is perfect, he does no wrong, he loves unconditionally – and this is how we repay him. He demands perfection for us to be in communion with him. Since we cannot be perfect, we are screwed. We need someone to take our place. This is the only way we can have a relationship with God: he must provide someone else to carry our burdens. Only God can quench God's anger and restore us to his good graces. Thankfully, God is a three-in-one entity – three personalities. God sacrificed his only son, Jesus (who was and is equally God) so that we can be considered holy. This is the only way we can be made right with God.
Miko, redemption is as you say a free gift. But before the gift can have any meaning to me, I have to believe that I need the gift. Only the third member of the Trinity, God's Holy Spirit, can reveal this to a person. All my explanations only help so much in that they present the truth and make it available to those who are not inclined to consider Christianity on their own – but the truth must take root in you for it to be of any value.
This is why Christians like me talk about their faith: because we don't want anyone left behind. I tell you, miko, and you, dobs about my faith because I give a shit about you. The time I spend here bears that out. I am sorry if anything I say offends. I am truly interested in only befriending people and sharing the gift I have been given; otherwise, it rots within me if I keep it to myself, and I bear the blame at the end when Christ asks me how I spread the good news, and I have nothing to show for my time on earth because I was too scared or too callous to describe the gospel to those in need of it.