S
Sylvansealy
Guest
Hello friends. I was hoping you could once again lend your skills and ideas to a perennial problem. I’ve heard it said that Protestants tend to think from an “either/or” frame of mind, and experience is bearing that out for me.
I have a friend with whom I have been in discussion for many months now. The issues have ranged back and forth, but have settled on two foci. This man, based on a reading of Romans and Galatians, has concluded that the Law not only tells us what sin is, but if we try to adhere to it, it actually makes us sin more. Now the New Law of Grace does away with this Law, he says, resulting in the fact that we are not under the old Law and do not have to try and follow it. Grace empowers us to live the old Covenant. Christians shouldn’t feel guilty for sin and they should not feel separated from God because we are “in Christ.”
This is the second issue: being “in Christ”. In his own words, the sins you commit were all crucified in Christ 2,000 years ago. Furthermore, once you are “in Christ” you cannot get out of Christ (by sinning, as we believe, for example) and then somehow get back into him again (by going to confession, as we believe, for example).
HELP!
How can I convince him that it’s not an either/or proposition about Law and Grace? How can I show him the both/and side of things? Finally, how do Catholics understand being in Christ, and how can I better explain the concept of sin to him (biblically, of course), and the fact that you can lose your status of being in Christ? Thanks everyone.
I have a friend with whom I have been in discussion for many months now. The issues have ranged back and forth, but have settled on two foci. This man, based on a reading of Romans and Galatians, has concluded that the Law not only tells us what sin is, but if we try to adhere to it, it actually makes us sin more. Now the New Law of Grace does away with this Law, he says, resulting in the fact that we are not under the old Law and do not have to try and follow it. Grace empowers us to live the old Covenant. Christians shouldn’t feel guilty for sin and they should not feel separated from God because we are “in Christ.”
This is the second issue: being “in Christ”. In his own words, the sins you commit were all crucified in Christ 2,000 years ago. Furthermore, once you are “in Christ” you cannot get out of Christ (by sinning, as we believe, for example) and then somehow get back into him again (by going to confession, as we believe, for example).
HELP!
How can I convince him that it’s not an either/or proposition about Law and Grace? How can I show him the both/and side of things? Finally, how do Catholics understand being in Christ, and how can I better explain the concept of sin to him (biblically, of course), and the fact that you can lose your status of being in Christ? Thanks everyone.