Way hey, I'm wading into the big boys conversation now! Oops this will be a long un.
Can I give you my thoughts from a different approach. I am going to avoid quoting
scripture as it has mostly been quoted by others and I would only end up repeating it.
I think law and grace compliment each other wonderfully. The law dictated a price
had to be paid for the sin of mankind (just as there is a price to pay when a crime is committed).
Jesus paid the price for that sin (that crime if you like) on our behalf and grace now abounds
towards all those who will accept his free gift. In other words the sentence of death has been
taken up by Jesus on our behalf and the law of sin and death has been paid in full.
The law of sin and death was not nullified, but rather Jesus paid the price for us.
No one goes to hell any more because of their sin, but rather because they refuse and reject the free
gift of Jesus! I know, you are now scratching heads and thinking that's wrong - but hear me out.
It's like (and this is a very loose analogy), I buy you a ticket to get into a concert, but you refuse
to accept the ticket and so don't take it off me. What then, well either you don't get to go to the
concert, or you will have to buy your own ticket, but the price is far too high for you. The ticket which
would get you in free still exists but you have rejected it.
You can pretend to accept the ticket by telling everyone you have one if you like, but that does not
mean you have actually accepted the ticket from me, it just means you are deceiving yourself.
There are many who genuinely accept that free ticket, that grace freely paid for and given to us as
a gift.
There are many more who refuse it outright.
Then there are those in the middle ground who appear to have accepted that ticket but haven't
really and continue to live life as if they have no grace, no free gift of salvation.
Another analogy, instead they talk about the ticket, what colour it is, what type of paper it is
printed on etc, but they have never accepted the real thing for themselves.
They can deceive themselves, they can even deceive others, but they cannot deceive God who
looks on the heart.
Such people are playing a very dangerous game and if they fully understood
what was at stake, they would seek God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength etc.
Jesus says I know my sheep and they know me!
I honestly think there will be a lot of surprises in eternity. Some people who were believed to
be devoted Christians will not be there, while others, who people thought "no way" will be
living with Jesus for eternity.
Only Jesus can fully know the heart of a person. Just because a person does things wrong
does not mean they are not forgiven. Look at the life of David for example, he was God's
worship leader of the bible, look at the adultery and murder he conspired to, then look at him
crying out for forgiveness.
On the other hand look at the Pharasees, Jesues said they were like white washed tombs
full of dead men's bones. They were squeaky clean on the outside (bet they had good
washing powder), but inside they knew and understood nothing of the grace of God.
A dream I want to share with you - I know some of you have now switched off but I feel
God showed me an important thing via this dream. I merely set it out for you to
draw your own conclusions.
Some time ago I had a dream in which I was with the worship team from church. We had
gone out for the day into the countryside. At one point we were all standing in a circle
on muddy ground praying together.
As we stood together like this an unknown man wearing white with a long stick or cane
of some description came and began to prod the mud inbetween us and around us. Blood
came bubbling out of the holes and started to get higher. It did not feel unclean or
disgusting, rather it flowed like water. I then realised in the dream that we had
been standing on a river and the mud was the river bed. The blood started off
ankle deep but began to get higher. Fish were swimming in this river of blood
I then started to have a secondary dream within the dream, in which I was back at
church and I was explaining the meaning of this dream to the group. I was telling
them that we carry this blood with us wherever we go. God sees this blood
covering us like an umbrella almost. He sees we are covered by the blood of the
lamb. Then I woke up!
I have spent much time pondering over this dream and it makes perfect sense to me
on so many levels. During the passover, the Israelites were covered by the blood
of a lamb, the angel passed over them on seeing the blood. As Christians we do not
need to hide ourselves away in houses for we carry the blood of Jesus with us wherever we go
for we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and Jesus knows us. He knows his sheep.
See also Ezekial 47 after I had this dream I started to look in the bible. It had been
some time since I had read Ezekial 47, but it is all there , the river the man, the fish.
I suppose the questions is, how deep are we willing to go.
Hope this makes sense.