Does Jesus' dying on the cross absolve everyone from taking personal responsibility for their actions? If one listens to the TV ministers, and born again Christians the answer is yes. Of course the TV ministers expect you to send them money to become "born again", and the churches expect you to donate money to them to be accepted; but is this really the case? Does accepting Jesus as your savior absolve you from all of your sins and give you the green light to go to heaven after death no matter what you did before?
I grew up a Catholic and the nuns always taught us that no matter what we had done we would be forgiven of these sins simply by going to confession, and doing what ever penance the priest gave us. Well I never killed anyone, or robbed a bank, so I have no idea what the penance would be if I had; but I can't imagine that saying 10,000 "Our Fathers" (The Lord's Prayer), 5,000 "Hail Mary's", and 2,000 "Act of Contrition's" would truly be enough to go to Heaven. We were also taught that it was very important that a priest be summoned to give "The Last Rites" to someone on their death bed so that the dying person could skirt the fires of hell upon death. (I never did figure out how the dying person could say all of the necessary prayers.)
Wouldn't it be idyllic if all of this was true? It would be nice to think that someone's sacrifice would give me Carte Blanche to do what ever I wanted without repercussions. Think of all the things I could do! All of the lies, the debauchery, stealing, conniving, killing of my enemies I could do. All I would have to do to go to Heaven is to send a check of some of my ill gotten gains to some Church, or minister, or make sure I have a priest handy when I am ready to kick the bucket. Sounds ludicrous, does it not? We all can believe what ever we want; and the truth is that most of us will believe what ever is most convenient for us.
The spiritual truth is we are all free to do as we want, and that sooner or later we all will go to Heaven. The catch is that there is a karmic price for every action that we do that cannot be absolved, or avoided. This price will be paid either in this lifetime, or in a future one. As we move up the spiritual ladder of awareness we begin to realize this and we learn to temper our behavior. We begin to ask our self "Is this action worth the karmic price I will have to pay?" This is when we start to take control of our lives, and to grow spiritually.
Do as you will, but know that in the end you will be held accountable. Learn to take responsibility for your actions and grow from them.
2 comments:
See I do believe that Jesus death paid the price for all of our sins.. However I do not believe it gives us Carte Blanche to just run rampant. The bible also tells us that we are to TURN from our old ways and become like Christ who was sinless. Though we can never be totally sinless the ideal is to develop a personal relationship with Jesus and God and to walk in a path that they have laid before us. If we continually keep doing the things we know are wrong, then we have failed to learn what true Christianity is. IT is to become like the Christ we claim to love and serve.
The bible also tells us that a reprobate mind will be abandoned by God. Meaning that if we keep doing the same thing over and over and over and then coming back going Oh I screwed up but ya got to forgive me is not reality. Lessons are to be learned from. A person who chooses to be the same as they were before finding Christ and continually do the same thing over and over are looking at him and his death as a get out of jail free card when it isn't.
Hi Angel! You are free to believe as you will.
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