If you ask a Christian how they know they are saved, they will most likely tell you that the know they are saved because Jesus changed them from the person they once were to a better person and that Jesus took away their vices.
They will tell you how they used to smoke, curse, drink alcohol, had pre-marital sex, had a porn addiction, or did drugs. They will tell you how they don’t do those things anymore because Jesus made them a new person. They believe that God gave them a free will to change their evil ways. They believe that vices are sins.
In the picture above the Christians see the woman on the left as a sinner because of the way she looks and the woman on the right as righteous because her appearance is more modest and conservative by the way she dresses. The depiction says, ‘When she picks up the Bible and starts to read it…” It shows a woman that gradually changes from the appearance of a streetwalker to a college girl. But did her heart change at all? Is she still angry and resentful towards her fellow man? Is she still subject to words? Does she still have an ego? Does she still have “fear, doubt, worry, insecurities, etc.”?
But the Christians will also admit that they are still a sinner and that they sin every day. They will admit that their heart is still wicked because they have pride, they speed or break the law in some minor infraction, and some will even admit to having road rage, and they usually admit to having lustful thoughts. They believe that sins of the heart are ok because God is always willing to forgive us if we ask because we are human, and no one is perfect except Jesus. Because they say that Jesus is God, so he was the only one who could possibly be sinless or perfect.
If as 1 Samuel 16:7 says that God looks on the heart while man looks on the outward appearance, then why wouldn’t salvation be of the heart and not of the vices or the things that we DO?
On the outward some may seem better than another based on their outward appearance but only God knows our heart. Many people have a dark heart, and they don’t even realize it. They’ve deceived themselves into believing into their own intellect that they are righteous because they do things on the outward for people that they see as less fortunate as them or less than them. the truth in that we may as humans look on the outward appearance of our fellow man, but we cannot see their heart unless we ourselves have a heart of love, God’s perfect love. Otherwise, if we are in a fallen state, then our heart is dark, and we cannot see the light in others unless God allows us to see that light.
One thing I know for sure from experience, when you go and forgive by realizing you are wrong to judge yourself and others, then God will forgive you and you will immediately have peace, patience, and all of the other fruits of God’s spirit and the fruits of Satan’s spirit will be removed from you forever. Then God will fight the fight of the vices and they will fall away as you grow in the spirit by doubting every thought and stand quiet before God in silent prayer. Be Still and know God and as you do then God will fight the battle for you and destroy the ego that made a home in you when you were turned away from your father and you retreated into the darkness of your imagination.
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